After 1000 Hours "Learning" the Loot is not enjoyable.

They need to rethink itemization completely.

In PoE1 it made sense, where you're just blowing up the entire screen instantly and zooming around, so items are just stat-sticks, but if you're trying to create an environment with slow & methodical gameplay, it just doesn't work.

Attack/cast/movement speed are always going to be the best stat for every single character, and you're going to end up with the same blaster zoomy gameplay as PoE1, where there's basically no class identity or archetypes because everything just ends up playing the same.

They need to tune down raw numerical increases and add diminishing returns to things like attack/casting speed or just scale them back to a fraction of what they can currently roll as.

You shouldn't be punished for wanting to play a slow, tanky archetype who swings slowly but has high damage, your classic warrior/fighter archetypes. You shouldn't be punished for choosing slow, devastating spells over spamming them as quickly as possible. There needs to be room for different archetypes and playstyles, and the current itemization pigeonholes everyone into playing exactly the same. Attack and quickly as possible and blow up the entire screen instantly while using energy shield and lightning damage. That's like 90% of all builds right now. And will continue to be so. You're never going to see anyone using blind, maim, slow, debuffs, pinning, stunning, etc. outside of the campaign, because there's no reason to when blowing everything up instantly is the only viable option to play.

Why not give items some interesting modifiers?


Melee Weapons:
• X% chance to cast Firebolt/Icebolt/Lightningbolt at a nearby target on melee hit
• X% chance to increase spell damage by _ on melee hit
• X% increased critical strike chance against maimed targets

Ranged Weapons:
• X% chance to pin enemies with projectiles
• X% increased damage to pinned targets

Shields
• X% increased damage against enemies in close range
• X% chance to reflect projectiles
• X% chance to slow enemies when struck
• Damages nearby enemies per second for _ + X% of your light radius

Boots:
• X% increased dodge roll distance
• Damage increased by X% for 2 seconds after dodge rolling
• X% chance to evade projectiles
• After moving 10 yards, the damage of your next attack is increased by X%
• X% reduced damage taken while stationary

Staves:
• X% reduced casting speed & X% increased spell damage and spell critical hit chance

Daggers:
• X% chance to throw a dagger at a nearby target on melee hit
• Increases the damage of your next bow attack by X% on melee hit (stacks 5 times)
• X% chance to increase spell damage by _ on melee hit

Wands:
• X% chance on casting a spell to increase the damage of your next melee attack by X%
• X% increased ailment duration & X% increased damage to targets with ailments

Crossbows:
• X% chance for your projectiles to ricochet

Bows:
• X% increased damage to slowed enemies

1H Maces:
• Spell damage increased by X% of your strength
• Increases your block chance by X% upon melee hit
• X% chance on casting a spell to increase the damage of your next melee attack by X%

2H Maces:
• Melee damage increased by X% of your intellect
• Causes _ physical damage to enemies you knock back
• X% increased critical strike damage & X% reduced chance to critical strike

Focus:
• X% reduced damage taken while channeling
• X% chance to reduce elemental damage taken by _

Just some examples

Agreed, I haven't played POE 2 for over 3 weeks, if this major patch don't improve anything, them I'm just going to uninstall and maybe come back in a years time. This patch is going to be make or break for me