Make ground loot viable for best-in-slot rares. Add a juicing method(s) for dropped rares

I absolutely cannot stand high end crafting. It makes me want to quit playing. The problem is it can't be ignored (SSFBTW), it's the only way to improve your gear eventually. Ground loot needs to be viable, always. It's absurd that you cannot fully complete an RPG using items that drop on the ground.

I hate the complexity of crafting, the number of steps, how every slot requires a different optimal sequence, recombinating, bench-crafting, meta-crafting, blocking, Veiled this, Elevated that, and on and on it goes.

I just want to kill shit, find cool shit, compare it to what I'm wearing, and kill more shit. Not be forced to take PoE Crafting 501, 510, 601 and 701 to progress past a certain point.

Gambling is better than crafting, but it's still not great, because you have to stop playing the game to do it. It's boring tedium. (Trade is similar, shopping for items = not playing the game.)


Figure out a way to give us agency to make rare item drops viable, for those who desire it. Necropolis had some tier-culling ideas in there, maybe start with that.

Add giga opportunity costs, idgaf.

Atlas Keystone: Equipment droplevels are always the highest available. 20% less Item Quantity.

Atlas Keystone: Rare equipment drops well-rolled. Unique equipment cannot drop.

Atlas Keystone: Rare equipment always has 6 mods. (Maybe no downside needed, as 6-mod rares are worse than 5-mod, due to the crafting bench.)

Atlas Keystone: Rare equipment drops are corrupted twice. (Again probably doesn't need a downside.)

Maybe far more common Memory Strand currency items in the core drop pool that just make rares better, rather than adding another complicated crafting step?

Scarabs? Something else?

Oh hi, another kindred soul that realizes that this ARPG has no endgame loot hunt OFF THE GROUND. Nice to meet you. I thought I was screaming into the void here :)

Yes, the endgame of both POE1 and POE2 quickly becomes pointless when you realize that all those dropped WEARABLE items really don't mean anything. Why are they even dropping? Why is a rare item in T16 dropping with +4 dexterity of +5 life? Why is it way more common to find cold damage on an axe drop than physical damage?

Perhaps this issue would be less painful if most endgame uniques had real player power viability, but it seems most of them were forgotten in power creep updates about 5 years ago, including nearly every endgame unique weapon with a level requirement above 60.