Crafting Is Gated, Time Feels Wasted, Endgame Is Stale, and Builds Keep Getting Deleted

I’m enjoying the core gameplay, but a few issues are pushing me (and others) to quit early each league.

1) Crafting is effectively “not in the game” for most players
- The crafting tools that matter are gated behind extreme scarcity and trade-only prices. In practice, most players sell the rare crafting pieces instead of using them, because using them is irrational.
- Even if you do find an Omen, the outcome is still heavily RNG. You can spend a fortune and still not get what you need.

2) Time respect: campaign pacing + huge maps
- Early campaign zones/maps are too large relative to player speed and reward. When you’re trying to accomplish something (quests, layouts, progression), the time cost ramps up fast and starts feeling like wasted time.

3) Endgame needs a rework (not just small tweaks)
- Endgame progression feels sluggish and overly dependent on RNG. It doesn’t feel like a fresh “PoE 2 endgame identity” yet, and it needs more satisfying goals, pacing, and rewards.

4) Build churn: fun builds get deleted league-to-league
- Nerfs are fine, but repeatedly nerfing popular builds into the ground kills motivation to experiment.
- Examples from my experience: early stat stacker was fun, then gone; in 0.3 the crossbow leech build got nerfed to the point it felt unplayable.

5) Uniques: too many are dead on arrival
- Many uniques have such low base defenses/stats that they’re not “build-enabling,” they’re just stash filler unless they’re part of a temporary combo that later gets nerfed.

What I’d love to see (concrete asks)
- Crafting access: make core crafting tools meaningfully attainable for non-1% players (drops, deterministic options, or systems that reduce bricking).
- Campaign time respect: reduce map sizes / backtracking, add more movement-speed tools earlier, and make effort feel rewarded.
- Endgame: rework progression to be more goal-driven.
- Balance approach: keep nerfs targeted, but avoid deleting builds; buff underused options more aggressively.
- Uniques: improve baseline defenses/stat scaling so more uniques are actually viable to build around.

I want to keep playing each league longer. Right now these issues make it feel like the game is pushing regular players out early.
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Constructive:
I think PoE 2 has a great foundation, but crafting access, campaign pacing (big zones vs low speed), and endgame progression are making leagues burn out fast. Crafting in particular feels gated behind rarity + trade prices, and even when you engage with it, the outcomes are too RNG-heavy. I’d love to see a focus on (1) making core crafting tools attainable for regular players, (2) reducing campaign map size/backtracking or improving early movement options, (3) an endgame progression rework that’s more goal-driven than RNG-driven, and (4) a balance philosophy that avoids deleting builds while lifting weak ones.

- System that reduce bricking: Exactly what i personaly feel we need.

I play SSF because i like grindy games. I always choose the non trade option in online games when there is one because of that.
(That being said, i believe the grind as a trade player is probably the same in this case since you need to grind for divines and that must also not be easy seeing price of crafting currencies.)

Bricking an item is the worst. I hate that feeling after spending multiple omens/currencies that took me forever to obtain, i get something decent and the last 2 rolls are just useless and you cant get rid of them because they have a higher level than the mods you want to keep for exemple.

Make me grind 100h or more to get a good omen or whatever, make me need 6 of them too if you want, but dont turn it into a waste after all is what i would like. I'm not creative, i dont know how, but that need to happen in a way or another.

- Endgame more goal driven would be amazing. I think they said it was them goal so i'm holding on until 0.5.

- Buff underused options more aggressively is also needed imo. Balance is way better this patch but still feel weird how carefully they buff some stuffs that need massive buffs to be worth it. Now they prob know better than me on how dangerous that could be.

- Unique base damage/defense are really bad, like really. Feel like the new ones are better tough and they did made an effort in that. Would be nice to rework some existing one.

well main issue that causes those issues (except too big and rng story map gen which is ggg being wierd) is caused by catering to traders heavily by creating artificial scarcity and nerfing fun build to cause ripple effect that will shift trading meta.

late game by itself is just copypaste from poe 1 with all its glaring issues that are amplified by different direction of game design that poe 2 is going for

foundation isnt great because it built from "trade over everything"

What do you think, guys, about nerfing old builds? For example, in the first league, we had stat stacker. Imagine we are adding builds and not nerfing them to the ground. And after a couple of leagues, we will end up with many viable, funny builds. What do you think about this?

They addressed most of these issues, but the wrong way.

1) Crafting was fun in 0.3 and many players loved the ability to craft. Maybe top-end crafting was too easy but...so what? Their response was to remove a good orb and nerf drop rates of everything else.

2) Day 1 complaint but phrased as "too slow" or "need movepseed". Their fix was to add checkpoints, which didn't work. Then they added more checkpoints, which didn't work. Then they added sprint but tacked on a big negative and tied it to a required key with no ability to separate it. This also did not work. Proper solution would be to tone down map size massively. Everywhere. And then add implicit movespeed on boots up to 20% on endgame boots(65+).

3) They caused this themselves by delaying EA to "quickly add an endgame" according to their words. Not sure why they thought this half-assed idea would be sufficient for a full year, but it has been a gripe since week 2 of 0.1. Their solution has been a million bandaid fixes that have only added to the frustration of their players.

4) This is a "fix" they implement to stay in line with "the vision". Along with the fact that expensive respec'ing means less experimentation. This gates things to be discovered by those who can tolerate a painful experience or by those who no-life the game and have enough resources to experiment.

5) This one drives me nuts. Their fix was to add more uniques and keep in line with the "friction" nonsense that plagues every aspect of this game. Then a patch note to "bring up" uniques that did nothing of the sort. The proper fix is probably to make the stats of these uniques be dynamic and rise based on the level of the area they drop in.


All of these areas take a lot of work and a willingness to break some rules they wrote down before releasing EA(the vision). Which means they will either not happen or they will take years to fix all of them.

0.1 stat stacking was nerfed for good reason. Being able to just hold down lightning flurry and clear a map under a minute looked fun at first but was incredibly stupid. That shit and others like it belongs quarantined in poe1, never to see the light of day in 2.

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FruitLord#0833 wrote:

They addressed most of these issues, but the wrong way.

4) This is a "fix" they implement to stay in line with "the vision". Along with the fact that expensive respec'ing means less experimentation. This gates things to be discovered by those who can tolerate a painful experience or by those who no-life the game and have enough resources to experiment.

THIS! "The vision".... wtf is this....

add builds not nerf (literally delete) them!

Has GGG ever responded to any of these threads? all i see is reddit mods