Loot issues and build diversity are killing this league – thoughts?

Hey everyone, I’m really frustrated with this league start and wanted to share my experience—maybe some of you can relate or have tips. Let’s talk about the biggest issue: the loot—or lack thereof. Solo players like me are getting absolutely nothing, while 5-6 man parties are swimming in loot because of how quantity scales with party size. They can easily get +250-300 quantity, and with 400 rarity from supports, their drops are insane. Meanwhile, solo play feels like a slog with no rewards. I get that GGG wanted to balance things, but it feels like parties are thriving while solo players are left in the dust. Anyone else struggling with this?
Then there’s build diversity—or rather, the lack of it. They nerfed almost every build, leaving maybe 2-3 viable classes, with one being the clear meta pick (you know the one—half the server’s on it). I went anti-meta and rolled a Hexblast build, and oh boy, was that a mistake. I hit level 92, but the build barely functions. Hexblast relies on chaos damage, but the changes force you to skip chaos damage nodes because they also increase skill duration—except you need to minimize curse duration for Hexblast to work, so you’re stuck taking reduced duration nodes instead. It’s a mess. The build is super slow and can’t handle content like Breaches. All I can do is farm Rituals since Delirium and Expedition are still terrible.
The Atlas is another headache. They’re pushing towers and the smearing mechanic, but finding three towers that overlap is a nightmare—you can spend an entire day grinding the Atlas and still come up empty-handed. Plus, the Atlas is mostly surrounded by water, which cuts off a ton of content and maps. And don’t get me started on the maps themselves—70% of them are so narrow that Rituals are a pain to run. Mobs swarm you, and for some reason, you can’t even roll out of the pack with a movement skill. I thought they fixed that ages ago, but apparently not.
Skills are buggy too. When a mob pack surrounds you, sometimes your AoE curse just doesn’t cast—no stun, no freeze, no ailments, it just doesn’t work. On top of that, the new mechanics feel underwhelming. Rogue Exiles drop nothing, and Wisps barely make a 1% difference. Oh, and the patch notes dropped on the last day, so we all went in blind, with no clue what builds, gems, or uniques to aim for. It feels like the game’s gonna stay rough and unplayable until at least 1.0.
My personal grind has been brutal. I’ve been farming Rituals because it’s the only half-decent way to earn currency—Breaches got nerfed into the ground. Somehow, I managed to fully gear my character, but it was a slog. Hexblast needs at least level 85 and a 5-link to even function, and before that, I was clearing maps with Essence Drain + Contagion for 20–30 minutes each, crying the whole time. Some map suffixes are pure hell too—Temp Chains makes you feel like a snail, and mobs with increased attack/move/cast speed, extra HP, and damage can one-tap you, while dropping nothing. Then there are mobs shooting beams across the screen or hedgehogs shredding 10k ES in a second, while the boss does zero damage. It’s a clown fiesta.