I'm stuck in the game - am I alone in this??

I wanna preface this by saying I really enjoy the game, specially the combat feel and bosses.

My overall excitement started to drop off as I hit maps and progressed the tiers.

I am now on t14-15 having invested as much as I could into defence and offence, and I'm having difficulty getting any useful drops or getting currency to upgrade my gear. My next upgrades are between 4 and 50 divines depending on slot and I'm getting nowhere. Whenever I try to juice the content a bit I end up dieing. Today after seeing Zizarans video I figured out my drops are abysmal since I don't have a single rarity roll on my gear.

I'm at a point now where I further gimped my damage and defenses so I can get some rarity on and I'll see if anything changes.

I don't like that I'm forced to do this but other than that what is there to do?? Reroll into something else that is not melee and not stat hungry?? Probably Storm weaver??

I don't have hours each day to grind... I'm a dad gamer and I wish some sort of balancing would help specifically this point in the progression curve... Dunno maybe I don't understand the game enough and thus I'm wrong .

Am I alone in this??
Would love to hear your experiences taught s and hopefully some advice.

Thanks kindly,
Sithkae

I

Investing in rarity on gear while your character struggles to clear and your maps are empty doesn't do anything.

You've reached the point at which you have to learn mechanics. You have to figure out which modifiers on tablets, waystones and your atlas passives go together well. Some of them scale with rarity on gear but others don't.
Pick one and optimize.

Selling things is really the best way to make currency at this point in the game. Good rares, delirium drops, good omens etc. I would recommend installing Exiled Exchange 2 (it's an offshoot from Awakened Trade from POE1 if you're familiar with it). It helps you quickly see how much something is worth. Even in regular mapping you once in a while might find something that is worth at least a div or two. Also having +rarity on gear is very good in POE2 because it affects currency drops as well. I also recommend equipping a golden charm and picking Deadly Evolution on the atlas tree.

You've reached the "ugly" part of the game. I say ugly, because it's all based on trade (thing I absolutely loath and will never engage in).

You basically start farming, no life style, all the content you can do, even if it's lower level; and then sell as much "crap" as you can until you have the funds to buy better gear. Welcome to the Path of Exile circle of grind.

I really wish the absolute need for trade set in much later into the endgame. It sounds like later in the endgame it gets even worse as it's very hard to collect the currency you need. Add in the increased rarity stat that you may need and thus also forcing you to gimp your build a bit, and now instead of fun you're just creating frustration.

The problem I see is not the time invested in playing, but the lack of feeling of meaningful progression without resorting to trade. I'd be ok if endgame is grindy but if it also respects my time and gives me the resources I need to advance instead of crafting being pure RNG and a huge opportunity cost over just collecting currency and "buying" my way to progress.

I have a feeling many of the responders have never played SSF or played older games like diablo 2. This game has a much slower pace than POE 1 and intentionally so. Pushing to high tier maps is not the only measure of success and as you have described you are struggling to get the things that you need to be able to push your character to that next level.

My suggestion (which many may not agree with, but mirrors other great games in this genre) slot in some increased rarity and drop your difficult of maps down you should see a significant boost to your drops. That will seed your account with the currency needed to build further.

This reminds me of D2 and the way I used to play that game is the first character is a MF that just does chaos runs for loot helping to build up my stash for the next character to push content.

Lacking the 10 years of poe1 league content, the endgame is currently not so good in this, so no, that seems normal.

I have this feeling at t4 maps if you believe it or not. But the "stuck" feeling comes also from the multiple restrictions that I find now my character into. I have gear that has +attributes or "reduce attribute req." that basically prevent me to change anything from gear to stat points on passive tree... When I change equipment is a domino effect that I basically cannot use skills and half of my gear. Also newly dropped weapons/gear have always higher attribute requirements that makes the hole process so tight (stat wise)... especially when you need maxed out resistances on gear, your defence stats, life/mana, spirit.

I know this downside is the other side of the coin of itemization: the possibility of craft/drop incredibly OP items.

But still, for me takes too much time to manage this restrictions that is almost a job, LT;DR: finding myself reading stats instead of grinding.

He doesn't even understand how ridiculously crazy his complaint sounds:

"I have no time to grind.... game is 2 weeks old and im in the endgame..and hit a wall..to get this point i have used every broken build and mechanics possible and have used marketplace to buy my way up without grinding for the gear...pls give me more tricks how to cheese to the absolute endgame so i can quit the game and proclaim that this game has no endgame content...."


Is my summary ok?

Developers: "let's us make a game with long endgame grind so people have content for years to play"

CNN viewer: "I'm a dad without time to grind... this game looks like is for me... clearly....any tips to finish it in 30 hours ingame time pls?"


I think he was 1 year ago posting in SimRacing forum:
"I don't like to fine-tune cars, any tips how to become champion, pls?"

What it you?