POE - The only ARPG with no loot: this needs to change

TL;DR: having only currency based farming as the only real option for end game is not fun for a lot of players who like ARPG's for the feeling of progression of their gear rather then just trading. It also forces player to repeat the same map over and over, cutting out a huge amount of potential content and making the game become boring much faster.

My reasoning
For a while I thought that this was maybe only me so I kept my mouth shut, but through talking with people on the reddit forum/watching youtubers it seems that I am not the only one that feels this way.

First of all if you like farming the same burial grounds map 24/7 looking for divination cards that's fine, that option should still be there - but there needs to be a viable different way to play. I tried to shape my map and do this strategy, and after 2 hours of no div card drops I rage quit and went looking for other ARPG's. Even if I did get drops, its really not that fun and kills the fun of end game so quickly (for me personally and others like me)

ARPG's at their core is all about progression, however in POE the rares are 99.99% trash so worthless to pick up, most unique's are also trash and have become more annoying then exciting when I see them as I know I now have to stop and waste time identifying the 1 alch item - which only leaves currency farming as the way to go.

There needs to be some sort of change/s that makes farming loot, well, worth it again

Potential Ideas

There is already a huge amount of randomness in the actual affix/suffix types to support this:
- Make higher tier maps cut of the chance that rares will roll with low tier stats
- and/or Allow loot filters to detect if a rare has dropped with mostly t1/t2 rolls

Others:
- Make crafting more accessible (perhaps a new "mid tier" crafting currency with exalts used for perfect items?)
- Make unique's rarer, but more powerful
- "Tier" unique's so that low level/power do not drop in high tier maps

(will add more if anyone else has others)

EDIT:
Shabob sums up some more ideas I think are great (that a lot of other people have also said in different manners - not many people stated his original third point so I left it out, democracy and all that)

1. More ways for loot to drop identified and/or a way to mass identify loot quickly
2. Cut the affix tiers in half and double the ranges.
3. Map bosses actually dropping significant loot.

If you dont run low level maps for div cards, map drops are important. Maps are also okay to trade, compared to rares and unique trash.

Here's some things I'd like to see regarding loot.

1. More ways for loot to drop identified.
2. Cut the affix tiers in half and double the ranges. Do you guys understand what I'm saying here?
3. Reduce item quant even more, but again more ways for loot to drop identified.
4. Map bosses actually dropping significant loot.

I'd also like to see a new buyout stash tab where items that are listed as a fixed price can be bought without trade and the currency and item would appear in that tab.

"

If you dont run low level maps for div cards, map drops are important. Maps are also okay to trade, compared to rares and unique trash.

This. This is exactly the problem. The lack of items is excused by having an alternative for of currency. During leveling you can have solo self found gear and be fine but come late game? There is no picking up rares. I dont even pick up shaper/elder rares on non jewellry bases anymore because crafting high level bases is so prevalent and buying solid mid tier items is way cheaper.

I do realize character progression should not be too fast, but i think having higher tier maps drop better rares would actually change a lot. Because right now a very profitable thing is to just farm a tier 3 map over and over and that feels wrong. Not that i dont want this to be okay but i dont feel rewarded for getting to high tier maps until i can farm guardians/ uber elder.

How about having each rare drops with an affix wich can only be obtained by the item being of that specific item level? Meaning if its ilvl 83 make it have an affix that can only be rolled with item level 83 or above.

You pretty much got all points covered. I'm one of the few players that ID a lot of items since i only run red maps and can't agree more with you.

A couple things you missed are bulk ID (Book of Cain in Diablo) and inventory space. Even being selective with just 50% quant and 70% rarity i have to leave the action 2 times at least per map because of full inventory.

The low tier stat chance reduction could be applied depending on the boss tier. For example t15 lava lake kitava drops rare items with at least t6 rolls or higher, t16 minotaur drops rares with at least t6 items with 10% additional chance for t1 rolls, 50% chance for an additional mod and better chances at high level requirement bases. T17 shaper or uber elder drops rares with at least t5 mods and 100% chance for all rares to have at least 5 mods.

Or simply make item level more powerful when dropping and leave it as it is when crafting alongside one of the buffs boss loot. Shaper/Elder bases will be left unchanged pretty much due to them being crafting bases for the most part.

I got bored again of poe exactly because of loot being garbage, and just tried again playing diablo 3 after having left it about 4 years.

That feeling of dropping uniques/legendary or good drops on bosses. Its awesome

The progression u make on gear is well balanced when leveling.

But poe has the "potential" of really good drops, and way more mechanics for diferent builds. At first this made me theorycraft a lot with so many mechanics, but i was never able to fully realize a build, and looking fow how much time u have to spent to get the currency to buy or craft the gear i want, its ridiculous, its not like a game, its like working.

I still want a game that has drops items like diablo3, and the mechanics of poe for gear, remove trade, fuck bots, and put autopick for currency.

Trading. Turns any game like this into a job... and then you realize how unrewarding it is.

My advice: Quit trading. I'm two months into a league on my second character and I'm still looking for and finding stuff. Notice that you only get complaints like this after a month or two? That's because the people who trade have gotten bored of the game. It speeds the game up too much. You get stuff that's better than you can hope to find and then start complaining that you can't find stuff. That's crazy.

I agree. When not picking loot is the most efficient way to farm, there is a problem. I am still trying to avoid that, I made a filter that only shows best bases of the slots I am interested in, but still 99% of items are vendored without a due process. Sad...

You know those job where humans inspect a lot of tiny metal pieces to spot defects, something that only occurs once in a while. Well, Poe looting feels like that.

Tried to play SSF a lot, its just like cutting your legs off, u have the same game with drops balanced for trade.

At the end this make u spent more time to get what u want, and reaching end game is almost ridiculous with maps drops.

And u feel very very limited on builds u can go, because finding the unique u need may take u few weeks or even forever, because range is fucked.

Drops aren't "balanced for trade". Your expectations of them are set by trade. Making do with what you get is what SFF is about... it's not about making characters that reduce the game to a boring click-fest.

The fact that you think it's "the same game" shows you don't even begin to understand why we play it that way.