Unpopular opinion : I like the crafting system of PoE2

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Thronar#4773 wrote:

I couldn't agree more the Poe2 crafting system has been great for me as a SSF player and I used it all the way from act 3 to endgame and still constantly use it to progress my gear and it's made the game experience way smoother and more fun than any of the poe1 SSF leagues I've played.

I think the problem with contrasting opinions on this is that SSF players are looking at all the currency drops to progress there gear as you see any half decent Rare and can exalt or chaos it to try remove the 1 troll stat for something good or collect the Magic bases of items your build use's and regal it and see if it's worth continuing investment and trade players just ignore what currency does and collect it to spend on trade sites.

I see a lot of complaints about crafting from SSF players. Has nothing to do with trade. In fact I see it more from SSF players. Just people being used to overly generous games which don't have any kind of longevity (that includes PoE1 for people with the knowledge, for everyone else PoE1 crafting is arcane knowledge and at most they would follow some guide with specific crafting steps).

I don't play SSF, but I do a lot of crafting in PoE1 both for my characters and for profit. In my opinion Path of Exile 1 has the best crafting system out there because it actually feels like I'm doing something. Knowledge of item tags, interaction of different mechanics, and even just what mods are possible can all help create amazing items. However the crafting in PoE 2 failed on a fundamental level, resulting in not just a restricted crafting ability (everyone with a brain was expecting that) but removing all agency in favor of a glorified slot machine. This isn't as simple as "it'll be good once they add some mechanics" and this is why:

1. They removed the crafting bench
The crafting bench is a fundamental part of not only high level crafting, but also a way to help get through the campaign. GGG knows this which is why they have the mission introducing the crafting bench to you once you meet Helena. Before launch of EA we had been shown footage of the crafting bench in PoE 2, with a slightly different function. For anyone who doesn't remember, you could essentially build up mod tiers by breaking down items with that mod. For one reason or the other the idea was scrapped, and the crafting bench was entirely removed from PoE2. Now if you have a pretty good item that just needs some resists, you better get lucky or have the right rune.

2. They decided to focus on bases in the worst way possible
A good base is everything for a crafting project. In PoE 1 for almost all crafts you get the base you want and you're done with that step. Even if you get unlucky or screw up, you can scour and start over. In PoE 2 the focus in clearly on a "one craft per base" type of system. Sure you can mix some mechanics with essences and omens, but even if we include those mechanics they don't make up for the removal of alterations and scours. In the hypothetical craft lets say I'm playing Spark and want plus levels on my amulet. In PoE 2 the odds aren't terrible if I'm willing to settle. Any level of proj or spell levels should occur within 76 transmutes. In PoE 1 I would only be satisfied with +1 level of all skill gems on the first step (because I can guarantee +1 lightning in a future step) which will take on average over 1500 alterations. A surface level assessment of this tells you that clearly it's better to craft in PoE 2, but that's only because this obfuscates the steps necessary to start the craft. In PoE 1 I pick up a base of the ground and scour it, or perhaps buy a fractured base to make future steps easier. Once I have the base I can put on some music, hop on a discord call, or whatever as I roll the item. In PoE 2 I have to pick up every single base that I might want for the craft and toss them in a quad tab. When I have enough I go through them all, hope I hit two serviceable mods, and when I don't I have to go through the infuriating process known as the reforging bench. If GGG wants to prevent players from turning magic and rare items white I could learn to live with it, but why bottleneck people by making us trade them in three at a time?

3. The reduction of the ability to craft is directly tied to the market.
Not so much a point about GGG (unless they didn't realize this, which I really hope they did) but removing all meaningful crafting is the cause of the inflation in the market. Let's go back a few years when the Exalt/Divine flip happened. It wasn't GGG saying "Divines are now more expensive, and Exalts are just for slamming" that caused them to change in price, it was how they're consumed by the players. GGG changed all metacrafting bench mods to require divs instead of exalts and removed the divine recipe. That alone makes divs more valuable as the bench removes them from the economy. In PoE 2 at the moment it is so much more efficient to just trade for an item, than to craft it yourself. Even picking up and IDing bases is more efficient which is not where crafting should ever be. This results in a big chunk of the player base generating a bunch of currency while mapping, but not feeling like they have anything to do with it except trade to other players. This could be fixed by having a simple currency sink like the map device is to chaos in PoE 1

TL;DR removing scours and alts was a terrible decision and they removed the most new player friendly crafting mechanic from PoE 1. I wouldn't even call what they have in EA a crafting system, because after probably over a hundred hours and watching a few videos of top crafters, I don't feel like I actually know anything more than I did on day 1.

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aman266#6944 wrote:

1. They removed the crafting bench
The crafting bench is a fundamental part of not only high level crafting, but also a way to help get through the campaign. GGG knows this which is why they have the mission introducing the crafting bench to you once you meet Helena. Before launch of EA we had been shown footage of the crafting bench in PoE 2, with a slightly different function. For anyone who doesn't remember, you could essentially build up mod tiers by breaking down items with that mod. For one reason or the other the idea was scrapped, and the crafting bench was entirely removed from PoE2. Now if you have a pretty good item that just needs some resists, you better get lucky or have the right rune.

Its interesting, I didnt notice that.
Do you think it would be implement later, for 1.0 for ex ???
Because if I remember correctly, the crafting bench was implemented in PoE2 after few years...

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aman266#6944 wrote:

2. They decided to focus on bases in the worst way possible
In PoE 2 the odds aren't terrible if I'm willing to settle. Any level of proj or spell levels should occur within 76 transmutes. In PoE 1 I would only be satisfied with +1 level of all skill gems on the first step (because I can guarantee +1 lightning in a future step) which will take on average over 1500 alterations.

That.
Just that is enough to me to say how awful crafting is in PoE1 and how easier it is in PoE2.
Again, if only players with thousands of hours on PoE1 are saying crafting is good in PoE1 and obviously, the crafting system of PoE2 is bad, its for a reason. Realize that you are a minority who can play enough of PoE1 to have 1500 alt to have a (very small) chance to have a good magic base of your item to craft around it a rare one. Again, and as a SSF player myself, we cant figurate that because if its okay for me, it should be okay for everybody. But a vast majority of players dont want to have to put thousands of hours in a game to have a very small chance to enjoy ONCE to craft a good item. And again in my last 10h in PoE2, as SSF player doing T15 maps, I upgraded 2 of my items. Thats pretty rewarding.

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aman266#6944 wrote:

3. The reduction of the ability to craft is directly tied to the market.
Not so much a point about GGG (unless they didn't realize this, which I really hope they did) but removing all meaningful crafting is the cause of the inflation in the market. Let's go back a few years when the Exalt/Divine flip happened. It wasn't GGG saying "Divines are now more expensive, and Exalts are just for slamming" that caused them to change in price, it was how they're consumed by the players.

Something I really dont understand, its that people who are complaining about crafting system of PoE2 are not even trying to use it.
Exalted is fundamental to craft in PoE2, but I cant figure why players are still using it to trade ???
I mean, just think about it : transfo and regal cant be use as currency to trade cause its not just lootable. Augment are too commom, annulment not enough. But alchemy orb ? Why player dont use alchemy to trade ? We drops like 10 times more alch than divine. And Alch is not really useful for crafting, only for maps.

But no, players trade with exalted, and with an exchange of 1 divine for 300 exalted, imagine the number of good items you should craft with 300 exalted. And you could have a chance to have a really good one aswell, that would be sold for more than 1 divine. But no, everybody prefer to keep their exalt and then, are complaining that crafting system sucks... And in a same occasion, the marketplace sucks aswell..

And again, GGG didnt force players to use exalted as the common currency, thats a players choice...

Slamming 300 exalts in the hope of a useful item isn't really crafting imo. That's throwing RNG at a wall and praying that your time wasn't completely wasted. I understand the sentiment of PoE1 players wanting a simplified and less deterministic system but this ain't it chief. The joy of crafting is completely absent from the campaign because of how few materials drop. Between the constant inflation and poor interface I try not to trade. The SSF experience loot wise is beyond horrible, a game about loot where nothing useful ever drops? Nice. We need some kind of crafting to help that hopelessness. I don't believe this game cares about SSF or players that don't want to trade using methods that predate 2004 technology. Doesn't seem like there's any room in the game for a more casual player friendly approach to these kind of things. Hopefully things are better on full release but I won't hold my breath.

Exalt slamming is not crafting. poe 2 crafting is omens, something all of you never experienced.
You all think your exalt slam is good because in poe2 it only takes some random rare gear to do all the content.

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Banneddd#5088 wrote:

Exalt slamming is not crafting. poe 2 crafting is omens, something all of you never experienced.
You all think your exalt slam is good because in poe2 it only takes some random rare gear to do all the content.

So using 1500 fusing to have a 6L is crafting ?
Using 1500 alt to have a good base for a rare item is crafting ?

And sorry maybe Im playing a bugged version of PoE2 cause I can use omen to craft in PoE2...

Guys, if you try to argument here, try to do it well. Stop saying some non sense...

You seem all say that crafting system is bad in PoE2. But what I can hear from what you say is that GGG took some of the best of the craft system of PoE1 (not all for now in EA, specially crafting bench its true).
But no, you prefer to slam thousands of currencies to have a small chance to have a good item in poE1, or since few years, to craft your own item with some deterministic way. That debate about how deterministic the crafting system should be on poE2 is a good debate, but dont say using 100 exalted to craft is not crafting, but 1500 fusing orbs is fine !!

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Legoury#0138 wrote:

You seem all say that crafting system is bad in PoE2. But what I

WE can pinpoint the issue in this thread.

I don't know if I'd call the current crafting great or perfect but I like it a lot better then PoE1 where crafting was non existant except to a minority who traded.

I'll personally never play SSF just because I like playing with friends but with that said I don't trade for the most part, maybe rarely if I really want to make a build with a unique I might trade for that.

EDIT: I don't trade because I want the experience of earning my stuff, not go to a supermarket...

what crafting system?

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Thronar#4773 wrote:

I couldn't agree more the Poe2 crafting system has been great for me as a SSF player and I used it all the way from act 3 to endgame and still constantly use it to progress my gear and it's made the game experience way smoother and more fun than any of the poe1 SSF leagues I've played.

I think the problem with contrasting opinions on this is that SSF players are looking at all the currency drops to progress there gear as you see any half decent Rare and can exalt or chaos it to try remove the 1 troll stat for something good or collect the Magic bases of items your build use's and regal it and see if it's worth continuing investment and trade players just ignore what currency does and collect it to spend on trade sites.

"Crafting" in PoE 2 is just RNG Gambling, it sucks and the gear that drops in game sucks as well, I don't play SSF but I've tried the ridiculous joke that is crafting to try to improve my gear and that was a waste of time, statistically its more efficient to just trade the exalted and divs for gear than waste my time trying to RNG slam it into existence.

PoE2 Crafting: A Hot Take That Misses the Mark 🔥🤨

Alright, let’s break this down. While it’s totally fine to enjoy PoE2’s crafting system, calling it good is a stretch when the overwhelming majority of players—SSF and trade alike—are saying it’s an unfun, RNG-heavy mess.

The Problems With PoE2 Crafting 🚨

1️⃣ No Deterministic Crafting – Unlike PoE1's endgame crafting, PoE2 locks you into pure RNG rolls with little control over outcomes. Exalts are literally just gambling, and Annuls have no real function.

2️⃣ No Crafting Bench or Harvest Equivalent – In PoE1, crafting involved deterministic upgrades, meta-mod crafting, and powerful multi-mod techniques. PoE2? You just roll the dice and hope.

3️⃣ Exalts as Primary Crafting Tools? – This is where SSF tunnel vision kicks in. Exalts being a main crafting currency might seem fine when you're self-sufficient, but for most players, this means no real crafting progression. Trade leagues exist for a reason.

4️⃣ Alchemy & Chaos Orbs Are Bad Now – Alchs are near worthless, and Chaos rolling gear feels like a waste of currency. Meanwhile, crafting has devolved into “spam augments and regals” because there’s no middle ground.

5️⃣ Loot-Driven Crafting Isn’t More Rewarding – You say it’s more meaningful, but it’s actually more restrictive. PoE1’s system allowed deep player agency, while PoE2’s makes you a slave to RNG drops.

TL;DR – PoE2 Crafting is a Step Back 🏚️

Yes, early PoE1 crafting was clunky, but it evolved into one of the deepest systems in ARPG history. PoE2? It’s a stripped-down version where you have less control, fewer options, and more RNG. SSF experience or not, this system feels unfinished rather than intentionally designed.

The consensus leans towards a desire for more control, reduced randomness, and the reintroduction of deterministic crafting methods to enhance the overall experience and Quality of Life.

Liking it is fine. Calling it better? That’s where the argument falls apart. 💀