On Campaign Fatigue and Reward Disparity

Hi GGG and fellow exiles,

I’d like to share some thoughts on a topic that’s been coming up repeatedly in community discussions: the fatigue around replaying the Acts when leveling alts.

Background

1. Many players have expressed frustration over having to push through the Acts again and again just to level additional classes. The repetition, they argue, gets dull quickly.

2. In a recent interview, Jonathan responded by saying that all content—whether campaign or endgame—can become boring when repeated. He challenged the notion that the Acts are especially boring.

My Take

I think the issue isn’t primarily about repetition itself. After all, we repeat maps endlessly too. The real issue is rewards. People rush to skip Acts and get to the endgame not just because they want variety—but because that’s where the meaningful rewards begin. The difference in loot quality and currency gain between Acts and Endgame is immense. So when players are stuck repeating Acts for each new class, they feel they're missing out compared to others who are farming profitably in the endgame. It’s not just boredom—it’s perceived loss.

If PoE 2 is not going to implement a campaign skip, then it needs to introduce compelling rewards to keep players motivated through multiple playthroughs.

One suggestion: consider adding extremely rare but highly valuable loot—such as Act-exclusive uniques, currencies, or cosmetics—that only drop during the campaign. Even if the drop rates are low, this gives players a reason to re-engage with Acts beyond just “getting through them.” It gives the grind a sense of purpose and reduces the feeling of economic disparity between alt-levelers and endgame farmers. There would still be a gap, but that gap would feel less punishing and more like a strategic choice.

Thanks for reading—and I’d love to hear other people’s ideas on how to make Act progression feel more rewarding in PoE 2.

i havent found much rewarding in the endgame if it makes anyone in the campaign feel better. the campaign is the best part of the game

I think there's something to be said for campaign-specific cosmetic drops, but ultimately I think the simplest way to make the campaign more rewarding is to...make it more rewarding.

Increase currency drops in the acts, increase unique drops, and maybe make it so that each act boss beyond the first grants 1 ascendancy point.

I feel quite similar to you. I’ve enjoyed the Acts more than the endgame.

However, the main point I was trying to raise above wasn’t really about whether the campaign was fun or boring. I think the real issue—one that sits beneath both Jonathan’s comments and the concerns of players asking for an Act skip—is not just about enjoyment or repetition, but about rewards. (I do agree that an enjoyable gameplay experience can be a great reward in itself, of course.) More specifically, it’s about the gap in currency gain per time invested. That’s where I believe the core tension lies.

Of course, endgame rewards should be better than what we get in the campaign—that's a given. But if the goal is to encourage players who’ve already reached the endgame and accumulated significant wealth to meaningfully revisit and replay the Acts (which take a non-trivial amount of time), then there needs to be some kind of special incentive. It doesn’t have to match endgame rewards, but it should still feel worthwhile—especially when players are going through the campaign multiple times in a single league.
For example, what if each campaign completion within a league slightly increased the drop rate of certain rewards, or if players were given special loot for beating their personal best time through the Acts? That kind of system could help offset the repetition fatigue and make the process feel more rewarding.

I’m not in favor of turning the campaign into something that gets skipped Blizzard-style, or reduced to a quick leveling “bus” run. I appreciate Jonathan’s design philosophy in that regard. But I think what many players are expressing is that simply making the campaign more exciting or engaging won’t be enough to resolve their frustration. Because PoE is, in large part, also an economy game. When players invest a similar amount of effort but earn significantly less currency than others, it’s not just a gameplay issue—it becomes a major economic one. And that’s what I believe is driving much of the discontent.

What if starting from your second playthrough of the Acts, there was an ultra-rare chance—something on the level of a Mirror of Kalandra drop—for legacy (pre-nerf) items from previous leagues to drop in the campaign zones? Wouldn't that add an extra layer of challenge and excitement for those replaying the Acts?

I don't mind replaying the campaign but I'm not going to replay the campaign, which is not my favorite part of PoE 2 just so that I can play another character in the endgame BECAUSE the first character I made wasn't earning any rewards for progressing and I needed to switch to a more efficient build to POTENTIALLY start feeling a reward. And I'm not sure how much more efficient I can get than clearing T15s of their rates inside of 4 minutes with a warrior.

It's like GGG is trying to prevent the players from taking their personal drops that they collected and are hoarding. They don't care how long you've played and how much you've put into your build, the drop rates will remain low.