poe needs much better ground loot

Ground loot in 3.27 sucks. There is no other way to describe it.
Loot and strat changes in the patch will make or break 3.28.

Just follow the new vision, brought to us from the brilliant minds behind POE2 (which is why it's pretty much all themed on elements developed for POE2).

If you want loot, you need to forget about killing mobs like in an actual ARPG and instead start focusing on using menus because, in the new vision, you only kill mobs when absolutely necessary to get what you need to use loot menus.

Get gold to use Kingsmarch menus.
Get artifacts to use Expedition menus.
Get graftblood to use the Genesis Tree menu.
Get tribute to use the Ritual menu.

Killing mobs for gold is optional.
Killing mobs for artifacts is not strictly required.
Killing mobs for graftblood seems to be required, but maybe not, we'll see.
Killing mobs for tribute also seems to be required, but conveniently only a specific set of mobs, and it traps you in a small area with them until you do so, giving you a nice little break from actually mapping (what fun!)

While not strictly menu based, Heist is similar enough in that it also does not require killing mobs to get the loot.

Half of Ultimatums also do not require killing mobs to get the loot, and as per the new vision, it comes with its own set of menus which present themselves automatically as you progress through each part of the Ultimatum encounter.

And next up will be Mirage, where you will maybe kill mobs, maybe not, but either way you will definitely be farming sand in order to use its loot menu(s). Hooray!

there is a lot of hyperbole and absolutely stupid expectations (like 'affliction was it')

but the sad truth is - there is no solution that will please everyone.

1) the loot in POE scales multiplicatively. ignoring 'the risk' for now, the 'rewards' grow VERY rapidly as you stack them.

2) this results in the same content (lets say T16 map) giving you 1 or 100 times more loot depending on 'juice' (and random factors like lucky constellation of loot conversion etc - but lets ignore that)

3) GGG knows it, and tunes the '100' by changing the base value - the '1'. they are a) too afraid to touch the multipliers (outcry, tangled mess of variables nobody truly understands) b) it is just easier, they are not known for long planning, rather fast execution and if it breaks, fix it next league

4) given how powerful multiplicative scaling is, there is very little chance of narrowing the spectrum. omegajuicers will cry even after 2% nerf but things like envo shrine, inviheart blight are just IDIOTIC. there is loot explosion and there is diarrhoea - people got addicted to stuff like Lock every 2 maps and stuff. it is unreasonable and should have never been possible


and then there is the risk. common (imho used in bad faith) argument is - "there is no content for my broken build". first - the broken build needs a nerf, because it most likely relies on something that is an oversight or straight bs. second - if you want challenge - pick an un-broken build (followed by 'i am not playing some weaksauce sh..')

once the top end is pruned (with some collateral) the game will become MUCH healthier. some things that are unreasonably rare - can be made more common, because there arent players who can pull the leaver 200 times more than regular players do

right now the multipliers are reason there is no loot in T16 (unless it is a 'tile loot') and if you want to drop something - T17 are absolutely mandatory


note: tree and kingsmarch are here to make people that are closer to '1' on the scale actually GET something from time to time. it is a 'grace drop'. because if you a) are not lucky with boss drops b) you are not unbelievably lucky with ground drops - you are not droping shit in maps, period. GGG surely knows it. and knows how 'well' it affects player retention in that part of the juicing spectrum.

the key to this problem is build power disparity making some of the farms even possible to do. sadly like 5 builds can do that. so you either play these or get scraps. problem starts here.