Had a ton of fun, but late endgame is extremely disheartening, crafting sucks, probably done.

First off, I've had a ton of fun. I enjoyed both the initial release and 0.2. In general I like the direction of the game. I didn't have much to complain about until after level 90 and being firmly in fully juiced tier 15+ maps (I'm level 94 now).

This point in the game is just depressing to play. There is no reasonable way to progress without doing a miserable level of grinding and hyper-efficient-meta-play. Because to progress any further from where I'm at costs hundreds of divs and/or a time investment that isn't even remotely reasonable.

If I don't map with a rarity/aurabot and a full party of leechers, the game just puts out garbage, something like 1 div per 6-12 hours, and 99% worthless items. This sucks. I don't want to do this meta-grind, but it feels like I have to. I don't want to play lightning spear, but it feels like I have to (I have a home-brew build from experimenting, and it works, but I still resorted to LS as my main skill eventually). Worst of all, even doing this un-fun and stressful grind, it would still take so much time to be able to do anything.

*To be clear, I don't want divs to be less rare, I want crafting omens to be less rare, or to have other means of crafting. The inaccessibility of the crafting omens is why I'm complaining about obtaining divs.*

This whole season I had this idea that I would have a great time working to craft myself an amazing endgame weapon. Maybe not perfect mirror quality, but something close enough to feel really powerful, and worthy of being my ultimate goal for the season. Then what I come to find out is that this process is actually a truly miserable experience...

The process boils down to using top-tier omens over and over again until you hit the "jackpot" then repeat until you have all the mods you want, that's it... But, the omens are still inaccessible even after buffed appearance rates. You need SO much currency to do this, so so so much. Or you have to mind-numbingly grind ritual for an obscene amount of time.

I knew this was what I wanted do, so I went 100% into ritual. I got all 8 atlas points, I found overlapping towers and crammed in valuable increased omen tablets. I've been luckier than most, found 2 whittlings, and 1 of the rarer ones that I couldn't even afford to deffer. Yet, this isn't even close to enough, I need 100 to 1000 times this amount.

Just thought I'd share my thoughts after reaching a point where the game is pushing me away. I'm simply not going to do what the game is asking me to do to progress from here.

TLDR:

I don't want to do the raritybot thing, I don't want to do the xp leecher thing, I don't want to do the meta grind, I don't want to be stuck with a meta build. It's not fun.

I want to experiment with builds, I want to play with a couple friends, I want to work a reasonable amount to craft great items or farm good items. Those things are fun, I want to play in fun ways and have it still be rewarding, but it's simply not, and I'm not going to put up with it.

theres a big gap between early-mid endgame and high level endgame. It feels unfun to bridge that gap especially with goldfarmers, duped items, and not a lot of meaningful stuff to do from point A to point B. Not many chase items, not many bosses to kill. You're also better off selling your admission to bosses instead of using it. Unless you really obsess over having the best endgame gear, i really felt like there was no point in playing after lvl 90, especially during Early Access. Maybe give it a proper go again on full release or 0.3 if they make massive changes.

and to be clear, i think this game is awesome, and it will become a masterpiece when all is said and done.

Absolutely, thanks for adding those points.

I'm positive about the game overall, it's one of my most played/obsessed-over games of all time. I'm sharing how discouraging this part of the game is to me, in hopes that my feedback can contribute to positive changes.

Same, same. It is also this way in PoE1 though to.

The late endgame is very grindy. Every aspect of it. Want that level? don't die ever, without an exp omen, and 100+ juiced maps. Need a gear upgrade? Either hundreds of divs, or way more grinding than you can imagine. 100 maps? Nah, think thousands.

However, here is a good angle... How many players should be able to get from 70-100 in a league? If the answer is everyone, remove the exp penalty, in the least. Maybe have ways to get more than t16 waystones/maps. Or adjust the diminishing returns against exp from levels 85+.

Loot hard to acquire? Combine crafting systems to boost chances of good results. Like something where you can boost or combine essences to get specific mod pools to roll on items. Then again, poe2's crafting is nowhere near complete for minimum viable product. So plenty more room to go.

What I think would help a lot: crafting skillgems. Why not have a way to combine them and make new gameplay?