Floored by the power spike of TRADING. This will ruin the game.

Updated Kripp's sentiments:
https://youtu.be/xBmcuIoVEJM?t=452

https://youtu.be/ZYzwTOTe1H0?t=17

Johnathan goes into great detail and shows an understanding of these issues here!
https://youtu.be/RskRFwgoQ5g?t=6691

Original post below
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You can trade here:

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade2/search/poe2/Standard

1 fairly common orb per gear slot and you can max all resists, with crazy dps that will get you to level 8+ maps no sweat, you'll smash through the campaign like it was easy mode to the very end, but once you see this power spike, you will no longer enjoy the thrill of drops in the game.

I was expecting a big power spike from trade, but GOOD LORD, the game just breaks into easy mode and progression becomes COMMPLETELY predictable and stale. You can get a full kit in about 40 minutes that will outperform anything you can get in game from drops by a huge margin by tweaking and tuning the search settings.

Just search 2 resists at a time, a few stat settings, and energy shield, melee skills, whatever fuels your build and you don't even have to play the game again. Just mindlessly pick up orbs and waltz through end game till you hit a wall.

I feel like i'm using debug tools to test the game (hoping this is the point, so more people can test end game and late game builds and this is removed by launch). It's that huge of a spike, it removes that much of the purpose of trying to find your own loot.

This game is FANTASTIC isolated from the outside trade aspects, but I want to find phat loot, darn it, and not slave away on bosses that others are face tanking mindlessly because they spent a few orbs on the trade boards.

Players want to experience all the content in the way that is most enjoyable.

That's the # 1 thing that I want to pair with the amazing combat and progression systems of POE 2, the magic of finding amazing random loot that spurs our imagination for new characters and builds, and this is SORELY lacking right now.

I made this thread the other day because I thought Trade would be bad, but I had no idea just how cheap these overpowered cookie cutter items would be now that I've tried it:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3626602

Let's take a deep breath, it's still early access, there is SO MUCH to add to the game and we do not know the guys at GGG's plans, and they clearly know what they're doing.

As it stands it's as I feared. I was hoping the Trade system wasn't going to be supplant playing the game so absolutely. But you can spent a few orbs, upgrade every piece of gear in a MASSIVE way, and you're left wondering...

Why play the game? Unless you're in the top 5% of players you're way better off just buying table scraps from the players in the tier above you for chump change.

The magic of finding our own loot that is meaningful and powerful and takes time and creates the wonderful gameplay loop of killing monsters for weeks on end to get something truly unique right now is very weak.

Probably being over dramatic. If I take a step back, I can see that what IS here is great and it's simply the absolute foundations.

But where I get worried is seeing how unrestricted, and detrimental to fun this trade system is.

You will trade 1 day, you will have a blast smashing through all the content. And then within a day or two you will burn through all the content and you will be left wondering...

"Why am I playing this again?"

And then you will log out until there is more content to burn through with overpowered trade items in another day.

Edit: Adding an idea I had here, could rectify most all the issues while keeping trade in the game and making it HEALTHY!

=============!!BIG IDEA TIME GUYS, PLEASE READ THIS POST FULLY!!=============
=============!!BIG IDEA TIME GUYS, PLEASE READ THIS POST FULLY!!=============
=============!!BIG IDEA TIME GUYS, PLEASE READ THIS POST FULLY!!=============

What if trading required "trade tickets?" So in order to initiate a trade you would need an actual item to start that trade and it would be consumed.

These "trade tickets" would be rare, no drop, but on even rarer occasions... they would be TRADEABLE! Only the absolute most elite players would purchase these at INSANE high prices, and players fortunate enough to find tradeable trade tickets would be able to trade them for really nice items, but only 1 item at a time.

There would be a trade limit, one item for one item, this will fuel a return to the barter system, item for an item.

So this way we could gate lower level players from just going on trade, and make trade tickets a bit more common at high end, and it would GREATLY restrict the economy from becoming INUNDATED with massive amounts of loot that make growing in power trivial.

Worst case scenario with a drop per week average, at worst a player would only be able to trivialize their experience fully after a couple months.

Ideally these trade tickets would be restricted more on a timer than drop chance, maybe restrict trade tickets to one per week.

This would make trade something players could still engage in, but by greatly throttling the occurrence of trade, it could HOPEFULLY make it much more of a barter like system where players would seek to maximize their power gain with their one chance they have that week.

If a system such as this were implemented, I would actually be STOKED for trade, and I would put a lot of effort into maximizing that 1 item trade.

This would also solve the problem of higher level players absolutely DUMPING their entire inventory on lower level characters that diminishes the experience.

Dare I say it, this idea could solve most all the problems of the economy, and power players would be able to buy the rare tradeable vouchers from other players to engage in trade much more often. These would become the new "stone of jordans" that would allow some players to trade much more often, but even they would be limited to a degree.

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As for consumables and improving our own items...

What if the rarest most powerful items you found that you can't use could be recycled into crafting materials and those crafting materials were more deterministic in upgrading good items? Would this be a good compromise for you?

What if the game had internal logic to quantify how many resources you put into it before disenchanting it, and could reward with proper crafting materials that extend our goals of creating the perfect items?

This would lessen the pain of investing heavily into an item but having to recycle it. We could be much more excited about nuking an item that we pumped lots of currency into, knowing that without trying to make items, we could never disenchant them for the best items items to socket into future gear.

I understand that the current crafting systems needs work, let's take one step at a time.

You know SSF exists ?

Don't use Trade. Or Solo Self Found (SSF) if you think it unbalances the game.

It makes the experience less fun, for the vast majority of players.

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crazyfingers619#3901 wrote:

It makes the experience less fun, for the vast majority of players.

This is genuinely the first complaint about it I've seen, largely because SSF exists. Trade benefits those who dislike fighting the RNG monster or have better luck obtaining currency than gear affixes.

If you don't have that issue with RNG, SSF already exists. This is a solved problem.

The best hardcore guy is playing on SSF right now..

There is a whole game mode to solve this problem. You're welcome

The problem that GGG is trying to address with POE 2 is a vocal player base accustomed to easy mode mechanics that wants an easy mode button.

No one is arguing against my point that trade isn't a horrible power spike that destroys the game loop.

You all just want your easy mode button that ruins the experience.

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crazyfingers619#3901 wrote:

It makes the experience less fun, for the vast majority of players.

Genuinely curious, how does other players trading to become stronger in their single player campaigns affect you in any way, let alone make the game less fun? If you don't like trading, and think it cheapens the experience for you, then you don't have to do it. But it's not like other players using the trade function make your game harder or easier.

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AintCare#6513 wrote:

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crazyfingers619#3901 wrote:

The problem that GGG is trying to address with POE 2 is a vocal player base accustomed to easy mode mechanics that wants an easy mode button.

No one is arguing against my point that trade isn't a horrible power spike that destroys the game loop.

You all just want your easy mode button that ruins the experience.

i don't mind when others get an ez button. to me they could drop a HH belt from that first zombie instead of a white weapon. I would simply ignore it and play without it, i don't like how instead they place 100's of smaller 'ez buttons' with loot buffs or keeping broken mechanics, and then proceed to balance the game around those buttons. meaning i get affected even if i ignore the ever present ez buttons

...I suddenly have an idea for a unique named Journalist Mode.