Exalted and Divine orb drop rates

Hi team,

I'd like to preface my post with my background.

I played 53 hours of PoE 1, ultimately deciding that the gameplay was clunky and the endgame was just speedrun mapblasting until you hit the content wall.

Before the release of PoE2 0.1.0 I had heard that you were changing the direction of the game to be more my speed.

So I'm effectively a new player to PoE, though not new to ARPGs as I played D2 for over 15 years as well as many others.

My approach to PoE 2 has always been go in blind, play what's fun, and take my time.

Turns out, I love this game more than any other ARPG to date and if I could, I would play it all day. I even took a paid vacation to play 0.2.0 and came out of my vacation feeling empty and drained.

Here is the core issue: you have a decent crafting system which relies on Exalted orbs, but the drop rate for Exalted orbs is not balanced for casual gaming. Currently only mapblasters and trade no-lifers have even a hope of rolling gear. I don't want to have to have a PhD in mathematics and statistics to be able to trade a profit or calculate min/maxed builds. I want to experiment with all the cool and fun stuff you put into the game.

If I rolled every one of my 40 exalteds tonight, it would take me more than a week just to replenish it. And I probalby still wouldn't have decent gear. That feeling has completely turned me off to wanting to play, even though I'm enjoying the gameplay.

Stop balancing rarity around mapblasters and fix it so that casual players can play the game again.

Edit: Shower thoughts - if balancing rarity for currency is too hard, just remove it and set a fixed rate. why is this so difficult?

Everyone having this problem needs to remember this is a TRADING game. I don’t personally like that, but it’s a fact. The drop rates are balanced around the trade economy. You MUST trade to have currency.

If you’re playing Standard, for example, almost ANY character can farm the Bone Pits. One drop - level 8 uncut spirit gem - and your currency problem is solved forever. It’s entirely possible you have one of those gems in your stash while you’re struggling with no currency.

Salvage for armor and blacksmith shards, trade them on the exchange for exalts and buy gear. Farm runes and trade them for the currency you need.

No one likes farming but it’s required in this game.

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Nemmerle#4704 wrote:

...
If you’re playing Standard, for example, almost ANY character can farm the Bone Pits. One drop - level 8 uncut spirit gem - and your currency problem is solved forever. It’s entirely possible you have one of those gems in your stash while you’re struggling with no currency.
...

huh? why is a level 8 uncut spirit gem worth anything?
my currency problem is solved forever, so like 100 divines?

regular players not getting any currency drops is not good for the game.
this system only benefits those who sell currency via RMT

"

Brocano#3217 wrote:

My approach to PoE 2 has always been go in blind, play what's fun, and take my time.

This is the problem. If you refuse to play META, well then its a "you" problem when you can't make enough currency. The game is just like that.

"

Brocano#3217 wrote:

Here is the core issue: you have a decent crafting system which relies on Exalted orbs, but the drop rate for Exalted orbs is not balanced for casual gaming

NO, the crafting system is not decent at all and not a "crafting system" in the first place. Its a casino-slot style jesus take the wheel in pursuit of making ground loots matter.

"

Brocano#3217 wrote:

Currently only mapblasters and trade no-lifers have even a hope of rolling gear. I don't want to have to have a PhD in mathematics and statistics to be able to trade a profit or calculate min/maxed builds. I want to experiment with all the cool and fun stuff you put into the game.

If I rolled every one of my 40 exalteds tonight, it would take me more than a week just to replenish it. And I probalby still wouldn't have decent gear. That feeling has completely turned me off to wanting to play, even though I'm enjoying the gameplay.

Stop balancing rarity around mapblasters and fix it so that casual players can play the game again.

Welcome to the game, and no, making exalts and divine raining will not solve the problem and will just inflate prices. Giving too much loot is not the answer, the loot buff in 0.1 was a mistake. Make a better itemization and better quality of rare items drop.

"

Nemmerle#4704 wrote:

this is a TRADING game

The game is doomed if this is the direction they are heading. SSF should be the standard experience and trade league should be for map blasters & 'get OP quick' players

traders will say this:

"just trade. most of my gear cost 1 exalt. any other exalts I find now are used for waystones"

they will also say

"welp this game is dead. 2 weeks in and i'm bored, there's nothing left to do, I can't get any stronger, you nerfed all the chase items, when will ggg make the endgame fun?"

so for people who choose SSF, which is infinitely more fun (even in spite of meaningful loot or currency!!!), we are sort of left in the dust.

yes you choose SSF because it gives meaning to all parts of the game, you want to climb the mountain, not take a lift to the top. you play for the journey and the feeling of progression. but right now it is not balanced, because I can spend 50-100+ exalts trying to roll myself that piece of equipment the trader spent 1 exalt to buy.

can this gap be closed at all? in some way. exalts roll up to 3 modifiers? exalts have 50% chance to not be consumed? let us create rares with reforge bench? let us target-farm currency like how D2 farms runes from The Countess? maybe adjust the damage balance in the game so people don't feel gear-locked in campaign, save that feeling for the very endgame maps? many possibilities...


my current idea for improvement.. but open to anything (link)

divine drops are on the verge of getting their own unicef commercial

wouldnt be surprised if Sarah McLachlan did the music for 0.3.

If ggg won't move about loot and don't improve crafting mechanics SSF should have its own improved loot rate imo

As someone said, the current state of the game in trade league only profit rmt botters and map blasters and its really odd that ggg don't adress this and make no statement about it.

"

Odjo#1114 wrote:

If ggg won't move about loot and don't improve crafting mechanics SSF should have its own improved loot rate imo

don't think so.

first off if you don't know, next patch addresses loot, check announcements forum..

second, they are not going to do that, nor would anyone who plays SSF want that.

the game can be balanced to provide SSF with reasonable upgrade timeframes and not even affect the trading community.. they are only worried about tier 15 map anyway, if you give SSF access to a few exalts per hour in campaign, tradies not going to give a damn or notice