Game balance and economic concerns

This thread isn’t just about “what’s wrong” with the game right now; it’s about why game balance matters in a system with a dynamic, player-driven market. Especially when one build is breaking everything.

Let’s talk balance, inflation, and why players feel poorer every day.




Here’s the key issue:

When only 1 or 2 builds can farm currency 10x faster than everything else, it doesn’t just create imbalance—it creates inflation.

And inflation in a live market?
It makes everyone else poorer.


Think about it:


If one build floods the economy with currency, prices rise.(even actually with a very very low lootdrop, one build is still generating 10 times faster, this is relative, not absolute)
But most players can’t match that pace.
So while the top tier build (ab)user get richer, everyone else gets priced out of the market—even for mid-tier items.



This is exactly what we’re seeing right now.
A single build can generate absurd amounts of currency/hour.
The result?
80-100 div for decent items on neglected builds.
That's not just imbalance—that's a broken economy.



In a healthy game economy:

Every ascendancy should have at least one viable build that can farm currency competitively.

Perfect parity isn’t realistic, but 0.95x efficiency is fine.
Not 0.1x. Not "sorry you picked wrong, enjoy poverty."


This kind of imbalance creates a perfect storm for RMT.
Why grind for hours when the prices are insane and the only way to catch up is to break TOS or quit?

It breeds frustration. Burnout. And yeah, real money trading.



Whether the fix is nerfing the outliers or buffing the underdogs, something has to give.
I genuinely don’t get how a build that’s this disruptive is allowed to dominate the market for more than a couple of days.



This isn’t just about fairness—it’s about the health of the game.
A live economy means balance isn’t optional. It’s critical.
Letting one build warp the entire market damages trust, fun, and long-term engagement.



So yeah. Balance isn’t just about boss DPS or clear speed.
It’s about making sure everyone can participate in the economy, not just a select few.

Let the market thrive. Let builds compete. Don’t let imbalance become policy.

A lot of people say the game is balanced around Trade League.
Cool. But what about SSF?

What about people who want to scale up without relying on trade?
There should be tools and paths for both—especially if currency generation affects everyone.

I agree with the OP about build imbalance: GGG has got itself into the foolish position of not being prepared to nerf broken interactions once a league starts. At the same time the quality of the patch (in terms of testing) has been poor, making unbalanced builds a near certainty.

But I am not convinced that the economy motivation given by the OP for why this matters is correct.

If certain builds can farm currency better than others they create demand for and inflate the prices for the items that build uses. But how does that mean there are "80-100div for decent items on neglected builds"? You are assuming a lot of substitutability of the items the meta build needs and those the neglected build would use. In practise the requirements for builds tend to be quite specific and you can avoid the items that the meta builds need to use.

You can even argue the presence of these meta builds can make non-meta builds cheaper, as they will be finding items they dont use and putting them on the market for others to buy.

If the meta builds are generating egregious currency amounts, then shouldnt the relative prices of things like simulacrums, breachstones, expedition logbooks, audience with the king, arbiter fargments be high? They are not particularly high this league.

One way to fix the economy is a "per map" reward.

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malcolmbarr#6856 wrote:

I agree with the OP about build imbalance: GGG has got itself into the foolish position of not being prepared to nerf broken interactions once a league starts. At the same time the quality of the patch (in terms of testing) has been poor, making unbalnced builds a near certainty.

But I am not convinced that the economy motivation given by the OP for why this matters is correct.

If certain builds can farm currency better than others they create demand for and inflate the prices for the items that build uses. But how does that mean there are "80-100div for decent items on neglected builds"? You are assuming a lot of substitutability of the items the meta build needs and those the neglected build would use. In practise the requirements for builds tend to be quite specific and you can avoid the items that the meta builds need to use.

You can even argue the presence of these meta builds can make non-meta builds cheaper, as they will be finding items they dont use and putting them on the market for others to buy.

If the meta builds are generating egregious currency amounts, then shouldnt the relative prices of things like simulacrums, breachstones, expedition logbooks, audience with the king, arbiter fargments be high? They are not particularly high this league.

it is extremly expensive for low tier build. If you play lets say a fireball elementalist (juste because you enjoy throw fireball) your going to achieve maybe 3 to 5 T15 maps with low rolls per hour.

if you play top meta build your going to achieve 30 maps t16 ultra hihg rolled per hour.

at the end of the day, the actual price of arbitrer fragments is insanly high for the poor elementalist

I agree that there is a big gap between the performance of builds. I dont agree that all builds that can perform at a moderately high level are inordinately expensive by the standards of POE1 or POE2 0.2

I am playing an all content possible build that was able to farm T15s on a much less then 5 divine budget.

Price of arbiter fragmnets is not much different to last patch if memory serves. And you can farm the citadels to get them.

The presence of the meta builds may make you feel bad, but I dont think they are responsible for some of the negatives in the game you are listing.

The negatives from trade greatly outweigh the positives. It is time to get rid of it and let the game flourish without a crutch or training wheels.

Already exists for you to play - Solo Self Found. Enjoy!

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malcolmbarr#6856 wrote:

Already exists for you to play - Solo Self Found. Enjoy!

Playing SSF on the side does not fix the problem that the whole game is balanced around trade. From loot drops to difficulty.

"This kind of imbalance creates a perfect storm for RMT."

So people are actually seeing GGG for what they are...? heh. Bout time. Sorry, but no other company worth a bean runs like this. It is exactly the perfect pot for RMT... mmk Class.