Gripe list//Lost the will to play at this point.....endgame is not fun

So, at this point I am just hanging up my hat as I don't really have a good reason to continue playing endgame at this point in time. Back I go into the forums to complain about the litany of things that are really killing my enjoyment of the game in its current state.

I am just quite plainly bored of bashing my head into the wall trying to "progress". Call it a "skill issue", sure. But the main point is that, across 4 separate characters, I have not been having fun playing this game since I hit level 65 and started playing maps.

1.) I thought loot was supposed to be "more impactful".

I have essentially had the same gear set since level 65 when I was able to find some high roll rares with high % affixes. I have picked up HUNDREDS of uniques at this point and there is maybe one unique I've come across that I have integrated into my build because it has mechanics on it that "pass" as useful. Would I be better off just using a regular rare to max out my resistances, defenses and damage output a bit more, since this game already relies so much on RNG to buff character stats? Probably. Considering uniques do not seem to really apply buffs that increase my damage or defenses all that much, I just don't see the point in spending another 100 hours farming gear to MAYBE replace my boots.

Gear has the largest impact at low levels when player is deep in campaign and you can really measurably feel the impact on gameplay. This effect is essentially gone during end game. 95% of what I pick up gets scrapped because it is mostly just trash. And the VAST majority of uniques I pick up have literally ZERO utility to any of my builds and don't provide any kind of useful benefit. It's almost like you got rid of the "flask charges" on the passive tree and put them in uniques instead. Uniques are not interesting or useful.

2.) Endgame needs an immense amount of work to feel like a solid experience that isn't just artificially making the game more difficult.

The early game felt so well polished, but during endgame, you are completely at the mercy of rare mob affixes that will one shot you and completely kill hours of progress in 5 seconds. There is no "gearing up" that can fix this problem. It is not enjoyable to speed through a map just to get one-shot annihilated by a rare that has a cheesed affix. Strategy just goes out the window.....better just roll-dodge and pray.

Having shitty RNG modifiers on rare mobs that off-screen one shot your character does not make your game more challenging. It's a shitty answer to an endgame that lacks structure and is trying to provide the player with an artificial sense of difficulty by relying heavily on RNG, rather than actually cultivating interesting or unique content that requires strategy which was so prevalent and well done during the campaign.

3.) Ascendancy process is god awful. It takes way too long to clear the content, and relies on 10% drop rate for a currency that actually grants you ascendency points.

Why are Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos gated behind a currency that is common enough, but the ones I actually need seem to have a 10% drop rate? 1 out of every 10 drops might have the "grants ascendency points" affix on it.

If I haven't maxed out my ascendancy yet, why am I getting currency drops that do not grant ascendancy points? I'm not even going to bother with that content and risk losing another 10% XP loss on something that I already consider to be a soul-sucking chore because I know it is going to take the next 45 minutes of my life away.

Why do I have 50 Djinn Baryas and Inscribed Ultimatums in my stash, with only 3 that will actually grant Ascendancy points? Imagine if you had lab keys in POE1 that dropped which wouldn't grant ascendancy points. It would completely nuke that content and make it feel like a chore.

4.) I also don't get having one single attempt on a map, whereas in POE1 we had 6 attempts to clear it? Why was this thought of as a necessary change? Are you trying to make the game as un-fun as possible?

5.) There is literally no worse feeling than progressing in maps, getting one shot by a rare mob, and losing not only the entire map, but also 10% of your accumulated XP.

Why is there no XP loss during campaign? Who is the brainiac designer who decided to just hit the player with a 10% XP loss during endgame to make the game arbitrarily more difficult? Could this have something to do with the lack of player retention, where players have a great experience during campaign and then the feeling of fun just falls off a cliff during endgame?

This is my main motivator for leaving at this point. I have no desire to bash my head into the wall for hours just to gain another level. I'll just start a new character at that point and go back to the content that's actually well thought out and enjoyable....

WHO F*CKING CARES ABOUT PUTTING LEVEL 100 ON A PEDESTAL?

DON'T PERSECUTE THE PLAYER FOR JUST PLAYING THE GAME.

MAKE THE GAME ENJOYABLE AND CONSISTENT ALL THE WAY TO 100. DON'T JUST CAP PROGRESS AT LEVEL 80 AND BLAME EVERYTHING ON "SKILL ISSUE" WHEN THE REAL ISSUE IS AN OVER-RELIANCE ON RNG AFFIXES.

BECOME LESS RELIANT ON RNG AND DEVELOP MECHANICS THAT ACTUALLY MAKE THE GAME MORE INTERESTING AND FUN.

STOP CATERING THE GAME TO PLAYERS WHO NO-LIFE THE GAME. RESPECT PLAYER TIME INVESTMENT

MAKE ENDGAME FUN.

GONNA GO BOOT UP D4 NOW. BYEEEEEEEEEEEE.

More or less agree across the board. The current state of balance is atrocious and makes end game just so not fun to deal with. Thousands of rare drops and gambles with hardly a single upgrade to account for the like 200+ hours I've had my warrior in end game and plenty of bullshit deaths because armor/life is in an especially atrocious spot right now for balance. And to your comment about rares, I've had a rare in a map do barely 200 a swing to me, only for another rare of the same mob type in the same map do 2700 FUCKING DAMAGE A SWING. The game is just pure stress. I can't believe anyone enjoys this shit. If 0.2.0 doesn't result in some massive changes I'm just waiting for release and hoping for the best, but given how little they've tried fixing the innumerable pain points of PoE1 (and gave us fucking Ruthless mode instead of a proper god damn SSF!?!?!?!?) and brought so many over to poE2 I am not holding out much hope.

I took a break from poe2, been making a magic find barb in d2r
Funz

Pretty much nailed it.