Solutions to problems, suggestions for end game and other areas of the game [Updated w/TLDR]

TLDR is at the bottom.

I know people have a lot of complaints, and I've studied game design theory on my own b/c for a very long time, including now, I have a pipe dream of making my own game and I keep getting about 1% of it done a year.

I'm hoping my suggestions fulfill the business needs/requirements behind PoE2, Intent of the content, and solve for some of the complaints. I've thrown some personal stuff in for sure but I think more people in my discord agree with me than in the forums.

I'm not sure how I should list them out but here it goes.

1. Evasion isn't the problem. Enemies in end game have too much accuracy. You have enough monster density that you don't need all of them to hit as easy as they already do. Also, you have to be able to take 1 hit and you need life mods on gear but you have to sacrifice evasion to get life but then you're getting hit more because you sacrificed evasion for life? Does that make sense? We need less accuracy on end game monsters and greater of effect blind might help as well because I don't think blind even helps at all. OORRRRR we need some life nodes on the passive tree for the evasion side which would make recoup more valuable. I believe these are two solutions that can help separately or together.

2. White mobs hit too hard? I think they hit fine, they just hit too frequently with too many of them. I just don't agree they hit too hard. I think they need accuracy nerf or we need more life available somehow without sacrificing too much defence. I think that's where we need to see it get balanced and I think it would resolve the complaint.

3. On death effects and post death effects. I think they are too abundant and require too much attention, however they have grown on me in PoE2 in the campaign. They kind of grew on me like ring worm but still...grew on me so I like them in PoE2. I'd like to suggest that instead of ALL of them being guaranteed to have the on death effect, maybe only about 30% do? I'd also like to suggest that it be an implicit on waystones. On death effects occur between 5% and 50% of the time? Make it more rewarding the higher the rolls? It's just a suggestion. Spit balling here. Help me.

4. Ground DoTs do too much damage too quickly. I'd like to see that all ground DoT effects have stacks to them so you slowly stack some sort of charges of the DoT or something so that I have some time to get off the patch and not already be near dead. Unfortunately, even walking over a ground dot, on waystone 15, is pretty much a guarantee that I have to use a life flask. I think they should be inconvenient but monsters should be what really kills me. I rather nearly die to monster bs then getting path locked on a dot on the ground. Not sure about others opinions.

5. Consolidate utility currency. I'm sorry, PoE1 had so much stuff. Just too much. I think there should be one catalyst, one emotion, one rune, etc. They can stack like currency and bring back the crafting bench. We can spend those currencies at the crafting bench for anointments and such along with gold. I just think it's too much stuff. I get it, gotta make money off of stash tabs. Trust me, you already have enough stuff. Please remember you're going to put even more.

6. Consolidate precursors. I think we have too many types. Just give them up to 6 rare mods and make the mods determine the content. "%chance area has ritual" would be just fine. If I have 40 maps in the tower radius and you do 18, that's also about 50% right? I think it should just be mods because it feels so bloated.

7. Regal shards purchasable in campaign and a little more common. The idea would be that I would regal gear then find something better and get a shard from the old gear but it just doesn't smoothly happen that way. I think regal shards that get more and more expensive as you buy them through the campaign can bridge some of the power gap. Maybe double the price every time you buy one?

8. Make an official announcement that the game was meant to be hard so people can stop complaining that's it hard.

9. I think the campaign is your bread and butter here. I believe that end games have ALWAYS been optional and it's not an end game if it's a significant part of the game. It just becomes....the game itself. Please consider making the end of the campaign level 80 and progress through the campaign with bigger gaps in levels between areas. Make the end game that optional. All bases would drop in the final area. The campaign is deliberate and it deserves to shine like it is supposed to and I think by creating slightly bigger gaps in enemy levels forces people to farm areas multiple times and/or bosses for specific uniques or currency. It will bring back that old school feeling again while not detracting from the end game and that's if my next suggestion is taken into consideration. 99% of all the best gear should be able to have dropped by the end of the campaign. You can always allow us the option to empower zones so we can get content as well. For example, maybe there is a timer and a rotation of content in various areas of the campaign? For example, in A6, maybe deli will be on 2 areas for 2 hours giving you limited time to hard farm it. I don't have the solution down yet exactly but Please consider focusing on the campaign more. If this suggestion was ever taken seriously, I'd like to see leaderboards and times at killing bosses. I'd like to hover over someone's name and see what build was the first in the league to beat the entire campaign with a level 83 final boss. I believe exploring speed running community in the difficult game genres can really benefit the eco. Speed runners don't care about prices. They will trade anything to be on that leaderboard in first place.

10. Waystones should only have, maybe 7 tiers. Let the monster level be determined by a mod on the waystone. For example, the waystones have harder and higher level areas based on the tier. If my suggestion for the campaign is taken into consideration then only about 1% of the coolest, most exclusive loot should be in the end game. It should be barren of any usable loot imo.

11. Curse mods on waystones could be ground effects like burning ground. I just think that something like temp chains is just not as thoughtful and deliberate as a ground effect in its place. I can't dodge it. I have to find some way to mitigate it but at the same time, not every map has it. Redoing part of my passive tree or changing out a piece of equipment or jewel or what have you is kind of a must to adapt to excessive curse mods. It feels cheap compared to many of the other challenges you have to overcome in the game. If it was on the ground and I can walk around it or maybe they are floating entities like that curse mod on rares in PoE1? Maybe it slowly moves towards you if you stand still too long?

12. On death XP loss. Idc tbh. However, a solution I could suggest is that the xp loss goes somewhere. IDC where. But maybe it goes into a piece of content. Maybe there could be a boss that is sort of a joke and you kill easy and drops some random xp tomes based on your net xp loss? So bosses at the end game have 1% chance to be replaced with a gift by Izaro? I'm not sure how you want to do it but maybe make content that we can do to partially mitigate this?

13. Bring back Izaro. The voice acting and the concept of Lab is so cool. He is a wrongful prisoner and we are wrongful exiles. We are basically the same. He understands us. he is also my favorite npc in poe1.

14. Roll back the nerf of the 4th boss in sanctum. Everyone should know by now the "hack" of blink + second wind + Crest of Ardura. I've screamed it in the forums enough. Weapon swap and beat the mechanic and swap back. You can take it back to the original difficulty so my 8 year old neice can't beat it too easy. You guys deserve that boss to be played the way it was meant to. It was supposed to be nearly impossible without blink and Crest. You did a lot of work and you gave everyone a 1ex solution. Don't make it easier than it already is.

TLDR
Endgame enemies have too much accuracy, making evasion less effective and forcing players into awkward trade-offs. Reducing monster accuracy, buffing blind, or adding life nodes on the evasion side would help. White mobs hit too often, not too hard, and ground DoTs kill too quickly — both need softer tuning. On-death effects are overwhelming; making them chance-based would keep them impactful without being tedious. Consolidate currencies, precursors, and waystone tiers to reduce bloat, and make regal shards more available early on to smooth gearing.

The campaign should be extended to level 80, with most powerful gear obtainable there, making endgame truly optional. Waystones could scale monster level via mods, and curses should be more interactive, like ground effects. XP loss could tie into bonus content, and returning features like Izaro and restoring Sanctum’s 4th boss difficulty would strengthen the game’s identity. Finally, openly embracing the game’s difficulty would help set proper expectations.