I'm playing this game 4 years.. And i find changes in last leagues really strange.
Early, each league have a lot of difference solid builds with different mechanics - and players can always find something good for own playstyle. And it was great - we have huge skill-tree with a lot of different gems, and players always can try something interesting. In party always was different people with different skills.
But in last leagues you buffs left us only 1-2 playable builds and "kill" all other. This league was Zombie-league, Legion was Cyclone-league, Betrayal was WinterOrb-league, and so on. Do you understand what happen if only one build work and all other are broken?
=> nobody want play game with no chances to "win"
=> all want to get 36/40 challenges and kill Shaper/Elder/etc
=> all try to play this one-meta-op-build
=> items for this op-build are overpriced
=> to get them players should farm maps hard or try to trade all time (and yes, it's no more as fun from play, it looks like work to get money)
=> but you, GGG, still can't create normal trade-place INSIDE you game and we use alt-tab (ye, as 15 years ago in browser-games) to buy items
=> or we try to sell loot and get a lot of pm's, but we can't answer... and you know why we can't answer? because you, GGG, create more and more situations in game, when we can't just set portal and go in ho to trade (labyrinth, delve, zana-missions with "no die"-mode, monolit-zones or synthes-locations with timer, etc)
=> and players need more and more time to trade.. and such trade, you know, it looks like work too, not like fun from play...
=> and so on, and so on, and so on...
=> and finally, many days later, when i got good items, i'm ready for blight-maps... and we got 6 summoners (oh, so strange, all playing summoners) in one party and... yes, lags..lags..freezes..game-crash! perfectly!
==>> i'm sure, that 80% of POE-players can't play this game 24/7. we should go school, studying, working, take time for family. i think, people play games to get fun and relax after long work day. but if i need first invest 100-200 hours only to get good end-game items and only than can play for fun, i can do it or.. i find other game to play. GGG, understand please, that you shouldnt focus on 5% of players who live in game - they always run trough acts to fast, they always go in delve to deep, kill main-boss after several days, etc. GGG, focus please on main part of players, that play 2-4 hours daily and want just get fun from this game. Dont write, that "Multi-mod crafting an item was proving too powerful for too low a cost..." - for multimode you need first 10-15 ex for base and craft, and for many casual players it's just impossible.
And please, GGG, make MORE builds playable and EQUALLY powerful.
And please, GGG, don't forget about performance/optimisation - it's still your main-problem.
And please, GGG, TEST your changes BEFORE league!
More balanced bulbs, optimisation, testing before release - please!!!
I like POE, really like. As i already told, i play this game 4 years. But i feel myself some tired from this "trading-work" during first ~2 weeks of each new league to get 20-30 ex for meta-build-items. Sure, i'll try Metamorph. But in March 2020 we get "Mount & Blade II" and i'm afraid, that my after-work-relax will be no more in POE.