Feedback on the current endgame system.

I wanted to share some feedback I have regarding the current POE2 endgame system. I'm mostly going to focus on Tablets, Map modifiers and Towers.

Maps:

The amount of modifiers on a map and their difficulty (or danger level) should directly correlate to how rewarding the map will be.

Just like in POE 1 - each map modifier should be providing baseline quantity of items found to the map itself, alongside the mixture of rarity, more rare/magic monsters, and packsize we're currently getting.

Without baseline quant on maps it feels mandatory to have 7% quant on every tablet you use.

Tablets:

As I mentioned above the "% quantity of items found" roll should be moved from Tablets to Maps entirely.

Tablets should serve a similiar role to scarabs in POE 1 with a more niche focus on enhancing the specific league mechanics you're running.

A good solution would be to make league specific tablets only roll league specific modifiers, completely replacing the current generic prefix pool (quant, rarity, more rare monsters, etc.) These modifiers should also be a lot more impactful than they currently are. I don't even know why "1 Additional Clasping Hand" is an available mod in the breach tablet suffix pool...

Same goes for unique tablets. Currently 2 of them feel mandatory and the rest are really underwhelming. Because of how annoying the tower overlap system is, you feel forced as a player to run "The Grand Project" in order to find those overlaps and after that - "Visions of Paradise" to double your runs on the juiciest maps. The only somewhat viable league specific unique tablet is the ritual one, because it combos well with some of the ritual tablet suffixes you can get.

Towers:

I dont think I have anything new to add to the topic of towers. Everything seems to have been said by the community.

Looking for overlaps is not fun.

The whole process of running unrewarding maps in order to get to the towers is not fun.

Being forced to run horrible map layouts on your way to the towers is also not fun.

Generic rant on other endgame issues:

Rerolling tablets in bulk feels terrible. Adding deli emotions and vertebraes in bulk feels terrible. Having 2 different benches and 4 different NPCs for different tasks in your hideout feels terrible.

Once you reach the endgame you should be able to desecrate items in your hideout, without watching a 30 second animation.
Instead of navigating a really buggy menu, you should just be able to shift + right click deli emotions and add them to your maps.
Reforging should be done via a trade window on an NPC, instead of being limited to 3 items at a time via the bench.

All of these super annoying and tiring things add up quickly and make people quit early. GGG also seems completely aware of that, given the latest QOL betrayal changes in POE1. I don't know why they're forcing these down our throats in POE 2...

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Rare monsters are the only source of loot in maps. More options need to be added to make magic monsters and pack size stacking more viable. Same goes for map bosses. They're slightly more rewarding than a rare mob, but since you get a maximum of 1 per map this is nowhere near enough. Even with full tablet investment (azmeri spirits, modifiers, boss quant) they do not feel exciting to kill.

TL:DR

There's no diversity in poe2's endgame. All juicy maps will look the same, will contain the same league mechanics and will use the same tablets.

Solution:
- move quant to maps instead of tablets,
- add more niche and powerful tablet modifiers.
- add a lot more exciting and game changing unique tablets.

Atlas tree also suffers from this lack of diversity, but I'm sure a lot more options will be added there.

Map prep and tower management are incredibly unfun and QOL changes or complete reworks are needed to fix this issue.

Rare monsters are the only source of loot. Magic monsters and unique monsters should also be a viable source of loot if you've invested in them via tablets / map modifiers / atlas tree.

POST 3.1 PATCH

The removal of towers is great, however the way maps are juiced stays the exact same.

You still want to run every map with 3x 10% quant tablets. The average juice level of maps has been buffed, however the top end has been massively nerfed. (Unless you've set up 3-4x tower overlaps prior to the patch - resulting in the juiciest maps in POE2 up to date.)

The buffed modifiers on tablets seem like a small win for ritual and a pretty big win for rogue exiles. Nothing changes regarding other league mechanics.

Unique tablets having low uses is a horrible change. Was shocked to see "1 use remaining" on the only "Visions of Paradise" tablet I have in SSF. Unique tablets overall need a big rework to make them more impactful.

Everything I've said in the post still stands. I'm still convinced nothing will change unless quant moves to maps directly and tablets are reworked to instead provide impactful non-generic bonuses to your maps, such as changing the way league mechanics work and introducing massive boosts to a specific league mechanic.

TL:DR

Removal of tablets good.
Tablet modifiers still bad.
Map juice meta still the same.

Big changes and reworks are needed for tablets in order to provide some diversity in the way players juice maps.

+1