How is the PoE endgame progression, does it have a "power ceiling"?

Hi,

I'm a longtime fan of action rpgs. I actually started with diablo 1, if anyone remembers that game. I also played quite a lot of diablo 4 since it released and I had a ton of fun. I really enjoy just sitting back, listening to my favourite music and kill monsters.

But the problem with diablo is, after 30 hours or so, your build "feels" complete. You get that one well rolled item that defines your build and from there on, you are more or less done with the game. You don't even bother looking at dropped items because investigating them takes time and the chances they are better then your current gear a nearing zero percent. This is usually when I stop playing, because I don't see a reason to slay monsters when my character doesn't get any stronger by doing so. That is the whole point for me: kill monsters -> get better gear -> kill monster more quickly.

I wonder how this is handled in PoE/PoE2? I specifically choose these games because word of mouth is, these games have excellent endgames that will keep you engaged for weeks.

How is PoE in that regards? I'm looking for a game that has virtually no power ceiling on your character (at least in a single season), where you can always get stronger and better. Is PoE that?

Sorry for my newbish questions, I'm pretty new to PoE.

Yes, there is a powerceiling but it's so high that only like 0,00001% of the playerbase ever reaches it.

If we put it on a 1-10 scale, with ten being the most power possible your build can have then I'd say only the top 10% even make it past 2. With a 5 you can already clear the entire game including all the aspirational content and from there you can keep pushing further and further if you want to. That said, you won't get further by picking up gear from the ground. You'll have to spend a large majority of your time in your hideout trading or crafting. Drops become mostly useless past the tutorial which is the campaign.

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You'll have to spend a large majority of your time in your hideout trading or crafting. Drops become mostly useless past the tutorial which is the campaign.

So, in the endgame, killing monsters is done to farm for currency to buy gear you want?

Power ceiling depends on which mode you play on but most players never get anywhere near it. I clear almost everything every league but I stop my character development at like 30-40 div you have players with 100x that in their build crafting one perfect item after another.

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sponksta#9425 wrote:

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You'll have to spend a large majority of your time in your hideout trading or crafting. Drops become mostly useless past the tutorial which is the campaign.

So, in the endgame, killing monsters is done to farm for currency to buy gear you want?

That's the default way of playing in the endgame, yes. You can get good enough gear to do all content in SSF as well with enough time investment and knowledge regarding crafting but that limits you build options quite severely and the amount of grinding required is inhuman.

The game generally doesn't allow for targetfarming gear aside from divination cards and playing with the expectation to have a certain tier 0 unique or even a tier 1 unique drop is delusional, might as well play in the lottery expecting to win it. Not like they never drop but it's not something you should plan around unless you made playing the game your job.

So yeah, the game is very much designed around trade, not using it is a choice you can make but it drastically limits your options.

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sponksta#9425 wrote:

So, in the endgame, killing monsters is done to farm for currency to buy gear you want?

Not really. You make currency by trading. Raw currency drops are negligibly low.

From currency you make by trading, you buy your gear from trading or get more currency for crafting.

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That's the default way of playing in the endgame, yes.

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Not really. You make currency by trading. Raw currency drops are negligibly low.

So nothing ever drops, not currency and certainly not good gear. Yet I'm supposed to trade gear and currency for better gear. I'm confused.

Not being able to target farm is actually a pro in my book. Target farming in D4 is a bit too easy and way to rewarding imo.

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sponksta#9425 wrote:

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You'll have to spend a large majority of your time in your hideout trading or crafting. Drops become mostly useless past the tutorial which is the campaign.

So, in the endgame, killing monsters is done to farm for currency to buy gear you want?

well it depends if you trade or not.


if you dont trade then yes the gear and crating materials you find will be everything for you, they will be worth your time. the amount of time it will take to reach certain milestones in gearing levels will be significantly increased vs trading, the sort of gear you could have after 10 hours playing endgame and trading might be equal to 50+ hours playing self found, and that number could vary wildly if you are very good at trading.



if you are trading then you will find items, be that gear, crafting materials, content keys/boosters etc that will be valuable to trade. if you go down that route then you will no doubt trade for items that are more tailored to what you want than ones u could realistically find yourself but you will find lots of stuff other people want which will be valuable to trade.



depends where you sit with a lot of this stuff. i trade a ton in poe1 and from that i have so much currency that i craft most of my own gear from bases that i find while playing. but i am a very well off player, i tend to trade items for crating materials then use them to craft. other people may tend to trade crafting materials for items that they then use.


its a complex situation where there are so many ways to take part in the economy and so many different types of content to farm for different rewards that you can then trade with or use yourself if you dont trade that you could speak to 10 different people and they will have 10 different opinions on how it works and what works for them.





regarding ceiling, im considerably richer than most players, ive played the game for 20,000 hours over 12 years, i dont have a single character who is max level or has maxed out gear. ive probably got 25 characters atm fully geared up all capable of doing a lot of deep endgame content, i dont think theres a single one of them where i couldnt log on play for a week and realistically get an upgrade for at least one of their bits of gear if i wanted to. i could afford to do it without even playing because i have wealth saved up but maybe ill use that to make more characters? who knows, i live adrift on a sea of whims.










in poe2 i dont trade. trade can be fun but finding everything yourself can be fun too. im power doesnt really matter, if i play 10 hours self found and im in tier 8 maps killing mobs or if i trade and im in tier 15 maps killing mobs whats the difference really? if you have that mindset where you dont care about comparing yourself to what other people are achieving, what gear other people have etc then it just doesnt matter. youre still playing the game and having fun.

What the other guy refered to is droprates of "trade currency" i.e. chaos orbs and divine orbs. You'll drop enough chaos orbs to buy small stuff you need but you'll never find enough divines on the ground to make any significant purchases.

The stuff you find and use to make money depends on your farming strat. There are lots of league mechanics that drop specific loot (typically consumables) which are used for one thing or the other.
For example, harvest drops life force which can be used for crafting and gambling. So you basically farm harvest for life force and sell the life force for divines which you then use to buy gear. Same with other league mechanics. Most league mechanics have at least one drop that's worth trading so it's up to you which you go for.

There is also stuff like scarabs which people use to juice their maps which you can sell and maps that you don't want to run yourself etc. Strictly speaking those aren't "currencies" but they are consumable items that are relatively easy to turn to currency.

There is a currency exchange that allows for easy and comfy trade for most currencies, sadly not for maps yet though the devs said they want to make maps tradeable as well at some point.

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sponksta#9425 wrote:

How is PoE in that regards? I'm looking for a game that has virtually no power ceiling on your character (at least in a single season), where you can always get stronger and better. Is PoE that?

PoE can be just that, however it doesnt have to be that.

You will be setting the goals you want to achieve yourself. You define what "beating" the game means to you.
You could achieve that in a few hours (like finishing the campaign) or spend hundreds of hours prepping your build and getting access to toptier endgame content. All of that is purely up to you.


Having said that: There is a reason why anyone with less than 1k hrs playtime is considered a noob and why players with 10k+ hrs playtime are still learning new stuff.

PoE is a rabbit hole and it goes deep, very deep if you want to.
PoE2 not so much, there isnt anywhere near as much content available just yet. It´ll take years to get there.


So, if you are looking for a new maingame looking to sink countless hours into then PoE can totally scratch that itch.