Reaching my breaking point - Loot and rewards

Let me preface this by saying I am no stranger to grinding in games and have a a high tolerance for spending time in a game to get rewards.

That being said, I honestly just feel like PoE2 loot and gambling - I mean crafting - is by far the worst of any single game I personally have ever played.

I've levelled multiple characters passed level 90 up to level 96, sunk 100's of hours into end game, killed the pinnacle bosses and all I seem to be doing is farming currency so that I can ultimately buy upgrades.

I don't want to trade, I've never needed to rely on trade like this before but this game honestly leaves you no choice but to rely on other peoples luck (this leaves me wondering why I never see this kind of loot ever). In all my hours playing I have NOT ONCE picked up a weapon upgrade that would actually improve my build or managed to craft one that doesn't get bricked by utter trash rolls be that a dead affix or low tier.

I've maybe crafted a handful of items worth keeping or selling for decent currency but nothing actually amazing and thats not surprising as majority of players don't get access to the highly expensive elite crafting omens. (60% boost did nothing btw, 60% of never is still never)

Lets not even talk about getting jewels with stats you would like. I've farmed Sekhema til my brain was fried and came out with the middest of mid jewels suited for my character.

Stuff like even a level 0 difficulty simulacrum is so over tuned if the developers really expect people to get strong enough gear naturally, I honestly take my hat off to anyone suffering in SSF.

The level of work to get end game/pinnacle invites and then the next level of rng that they drop a good unique and then ANOTHER layer of getting that unique that doesn't have totally undesirable mods on top of the general lack of rewards is truly killing my enthusiasm for a game I otherwise love.

I love the gameplay, sound design and visuals and in many senses its the best of the best when it comes to ARPG's but this current loot/crafting situation is truly the worst of them all.

I really think an items level should not only determine the maximum tier roll but also the lowest possible roll. I don't even get excited for a tier 5 drop or IL82 item anymore because 99% of the time its going to roll some trash t1 affix that just bricks the item.

Crafting needs to give way more agency to players at a basic level, and then still have those high level options. but right now its 2 camps, either the ultra rich spending mirrors worth of currency on omens to roll an item or the general player slamming the slot machine and vending it.

I'm not going to even go into how exhausting it is to set up juiced maps and add more rng that you hit a t16 vaal.

For a game where everything goes away every few months, it is so god damned stingy about it. I can't imagine doing this all over again if this stays the same and I'm losing my will to keep trying at this point.

Edit: another thought is that I can't imagine how bad this will get once more weapons and items get added to the loot pool.

This game really pushes the boundary of keeping the player in constant state of starvation in the hope they develop an unhealthy relationship with it. I bet their data shows it's mostly working although I really wish it didn't. +1 to everything you said. I am still on my first character and reached a point where I can just about tackle everything and self-sustain (trade ofc), but don't plan and intend to play another character and it's likely as new league drops and economy resets, I will stop playing because I can't imagine going through this starvation again.

Well said. As a SSF player, I loathe the fact that, by design, I am at a steep disadvantage to those who are not. I also cannot picture myself spending 3 days going through a campaign every 3-6 months before even touching an end game with a system that is so RNG heavy with vast areas of pointless playing, where you are all but guaranteed to have no return for your time investment at all.

I never expect PoE to be anywhere near Diablo (lol at D3 where you can complete 100% of a season in a span of 3-4 days of modest playing) but it should not be an experience tailored to yield sheer frustration to those who don't enjoy gambling on if this next map will be the one that helps them move forward. At least in 1, I had defined goals to work towards, and an Atlas skill tree that helped all but ensure I could encounter the mechanic of my choice within a map. No map in 1 ever felt wasted, I never needed to go to trade, but in 2 it's the exact opposite.

+1 to everything

It's a game based around trade, they've said it a million times, everything else is just challenge mode.

You're allowed not to like that, of course, but if it hasn't changed in over a decade, I wouldn't hold your breath.

+1 to everything you said.

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Redthorne82#3177 wrote:

It's a game based around trade, they've said it a million times, everything else is just challenge mode.

You're allowed not to like that, of course, but if it hasn't changed in over a decade, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Fair enough and thanks for being polite with your response.

I'm not opposed to trading, I am opposed to it being pretty much the only way forward without wasting your time. I have a stubborn mate who did not want to trade at all and actually quit playing because he just could not find better items after weeks late into the end game and could no longer progress or win against the pinnacles.

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OG_Smez#4109 wrote:

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Redthorne82#3177 wrote:

It's a game based around trade, they've said it a million times, everything else is just challenge mode.

You're allowed not to like that, of course, but if it hasn't changed in over a decade, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Fair enough and thanks for being polite with your response.

I'm not opposed to trading, I am opposed to it being pretty much the only way forward without wasting your time. I have a stubborn mate who did not want to trade at all and actually quit playing because he just could not find better items after weeks late into the end game and could no longer progress or win against the pinnacles.

Yeah, I mean it's definitely rough if you don't want to trade. I like what Last Epoch did with choosing "factions", one being SSF with bonus loot, the other being trade with less loot. The problem is, the loot you get with one faction is basically bind-to-faction, so if you switch later (the equivalent of migrating SSF to trade), you can't use the loot you got from the other one. So if you wanted to take a character from SSF to trade, you'd have to delete ALL their gear and inventory basically.

Once again, it leads to a crossroads where some people would be fine with it and some wouldn't. Plenty of stuff about the game I've had to reframe my enjoyment around over the years (including PoE1), and some I wish had changed instead.

I think as more classes/mechanics/things-to-add-to-maps, etc get added, SSF won't feel quite so hopeless...but yeah, I couldn't play it at the moment either.

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Yeah, I mean it's definitely rough if you don't want to trade. I like what Last Epoch did with choosing "factions", one being SSF with bonus loot, the other being trade with less loot. The problem is, the loot you get with one faction is basically bind-to-faction, so if you switch later (the equivalent of migrating SSF to trade), you can't use the loot you got from the other one. So if you wanted to take a character from SSF to trade, you'd have to delete ALL their gear and inventory basically.

Once again, it leads to a crossroads where some people would be fine with it and some wouldn't. Plenty of stuff about the game I've had to reframe my enjoyment around over the years (including PoE1), and some I wish had changed instead.

I think as more classes/mechanics/things-to-add-to-maps, etc get added, SSF won't feel quite so hopeless...but yeah, I couldn't play it at the moment either.[/quote]

The thing is that its the quality of the loot right now, theres plenty to go around but its all mostly rubbish stuff

Sounds like you need to take a break and let the game cook for a little bit. Playing hundreds of hours into an EA that released less than 60 days ago is pretty unhealthy and will lead to burnout.