Bad loot makes a challenging game go from fun to frustrating

I'll start by saying I've now got 9k+ hours into POE1, so I've seen the good bad and the ugly over time, and genuinely appreciate the intent here. POE2 has so many great aspects, but there are several things that combine to create a particularly poor experience.

1. Bad/sparse loot - if we are going to craft, give us the tools to do so before it becomes a limitation to progress in the game. Heck, give us ANYTHING. Rares (monsters/chests) that drop literally nothing? Bosses that primarily garbage items in the little they drop? Talk about discouraging and frustrating.

2. The incredibly slow movement across vast maps - great that there is so much content, but feels bad to spend an hour to grind through it all at a snails pace. Slow movement and minimal player power means you have to kill everything, yet are rewarded with little to nothing for it. The checkpoints are nice, but say you need to go to a side area because you forgot something - it's so slow that by the time you are done with it you have to redo that first area all over again. Hardcore players like me will put up with it, but the slog will wear on new players fast.

3. Bosses are ridiculous. It takes a few tries for some of them to learn the mechanic, but they are way too powerful for how weak we are due to #1. Can you kill them? Yes. But it is an enormously frustrating, repetitive, and unrewarding slog to do so.


I think the game looks and sounds fantastic, is enjoyable to play (barring the above), and has lots of cool features both in terms of gameplay and environment. The challenge is welcome, but it shouldn't be so punishing that you are practically fighting bosses naked 10 hours in. I crafted ONE good weapon at the beginning of act 1, which is STILL the only item I have that's worth anything, and that shouldn't be the way this works.

Some balancing changes around loot and monster power at minimum will likely solve a lot of the core issues myself and others have experienced without ruining the challenging feel of the game.