PoE 2’s Biggest Problem Isn’t Difficulty—It’s Incentive Design

GGG has consistently stated that their design philosophy centers on content-first, skill-driven progression. That’s the heart of PoE’s identity, and it’s what separates it from other loot-centric ARPGs. So why continue supporting mechanics like Increased Item Rarity (IIR), Waystone drop chance, or Item Quantity on tablets, which are fundamentally at odds with that philosophy?

There’s no meaningful skill expression in stacking gear that makes your grind better. Grinding for items that make the grind more rewarding is just recursive and dull. You don’t become a better player by finding a +40% IIR ring. You just gain access to better loot through passive stat padding. Bosses aren’t made easier or harder by IIR—it simply alters your rewards, which means the gameplay experience is fractured depending on how optimized your loot stats are.

Waystone drop chance suffers from the same issue. If content progression—especially access to new, challenging endgame encounters—is supposed to be based on player performance, then gating that access behind random drops completely undermines the experience. If you beat the content, you should progress. Period. It should be a test of ability, not of patience or luck.

And with Item Quantity appearing on tablets, we’re seeing this contradiction again. Players aren’t picking the content they want to run—they’re picking whichever tablet tiles offer the most loot. That’s not real player agency. That’s reward-driven coercion. You’re pushed to skip the content you enjoy if it doesn’t come with inflated numbers attached.

Instead, players should be able to tailor content to their liking. Want more loot? Up the difficulty. Add more mechanics. Choose your risk. That should be the tradeoff: challenge for reward, not spreadsheet min-maxing. Right now, we’re often sacrificing content we want just to keep up with the content the game tells us is optimal. That’s backwards.

All of this—IIR, RNG-gated progression, quantity-chasing on tablets—creates a loop where the path to power doesn’t feel earned, it feels gamed. These systems encourage a playstyle where players are optimizing loot instead of engaging meaningfully with content.

Removing these mechanics would reinforce everything PoE 2 is supposed to be. A game where loot is a byproduct of mastery, not a reward for gaming the system. Where players chase challenge, not drop rate modifiers. Where progress comes from how well you perform, not how well you roll.

GGG already showed they’re ready to evolve by separating Quantity from Rarity. Now’s the time to go further. Cut the outdated, loot-first modifiers, and empower players to define their experience through action and decision-making—not externalized stat chasing.

"

GorboMcDuggins#5744 wrote:

There’s no meaningful skill expression in stacking gear that makes your grind better. Grinding for items that make the grind more rewarding is just recursive and dull.

Its litteraly their name : Grinding Gear Games

And I dont get your point. You said we have to choose the difficulty we want to play : yeah, there is the atlas passive to do it. If you want more this or more that you can. Or you can just use the tablets you want. After 10 maps, I already have 10 tablets (and I dont know what to do with cause I just got 1 tower xD). And I died in maps, but now with more teleports, you can come back to finish the map and so, to have access all the content of the map.

Again, all tools are in the game. Just open your game, play the game and you would see it !!!

"

Waystone drop chance suffers from the same issue. If content progression—especially access to new, challenging endgame encounters—is supposed to be based on player performance, then gating that access behind random drops completely undermines the experience. If you beat the content, you should progress. Period. It should be a test of ability, not of patience or luck.

That's how it works right now though. You finish a map, you get a (almost) guaranteed waystone of the same level you used. You beat a boss, you get +1 level from the waystone you used.

"

That's how it works right now though. You finish a map, you get a (almost) guaranteed waystone of the same level you used. You beat a boss, you get +1 level from the waystone you used.

You're absolutely right—and that’s kind of the point. It’s mostly fixed now, but it wasn’t before, and that earlier design—where you could full-clear maps or bosses and still not get a waystone—exposed the flaw in tying progression to RNG in the first place.

GGG clearly recognized that the system wasn’t working and moved toward a performance-based model, which is exactly what I’m advocating for: make progression earned through success, not reliant on a drop chance.

So if that’s how it works now (almost guaranteed drops based on completion), then why keep the illusion of RNG at all? Why not just formalize it completely—you clear the map, you get the waystone, no roll needed. That removes confusion, aligns with GGG’s content-first philosophy, and gives players clear, skill-driven progression.

"

Legoury#0138 wrote:

"

GorboMcDuggins#5744 wrote:

There’s no meaningful skill expression in stacking gear that makes your grind better. Grinding for items that make the grind more rewarding is just recursive and dull.

Its litteraly their name : Grinding Gear Games

And I dont get your point. You said we have to choose the difficulty we want to play : yeah, there is the atlas passive to do it. If you want more this or more that you can. Or you can just use the tablets you want. After 10 maps, I already have 10 tablets (and I dont know what to do with cause I just got 1 tower xD). And I died in maps, but now with more teleports, you can come back to finish the map and so, to have access all the content of the map.

Again, all tools are in the game. Just open your game, play the game and you would see it !!!

I get where you’re coming from—yeah, the name is Grinding Gear Games, and there’s always going to be grinding in an ARPG. That’s expected and honestly part of the fun. But there’s a big difference between grinding as gameplay and grinding as stat optimization.

My point is that systems like IIR and IIQ don’t test or reward player skill—they reward how well you’ve gamed the loot system. That kind of recursive progression (grinding for better grind stats) creates a situation where the best way to play the game isn't always the most enjoyable way to play it. You're optimizing loot, not necessarily engaging with content you enjoy. That’s the issue.

Yes, we have atlas passives, tablets, and other tools. And yes, you can pick what you want on paper. But when content is tied to reward modifiers like IIQ/IIR, players are pressured to choose what pays the best, not what they find fun or interesting. That’s not real agency—it’s economic coercion.

I'm not saying there aren’t systems in place that offer choice—I'm saying some of the underlying reward mechanics warp those choices. If we removed those loot-centric modifiers, GGG could put even more focus on letting players shape their gameplay by challenge and mechanics, not just raw reward numbers.

At the end of the day, it’s not about removing grind—it’s about making the grind worth doing for the gameplay, not just for a better loot spreadsheet.