What GGG should take from LE
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I preface by saying that I quit PoE2 very soon this season because of a very rapid burnout and jumped on LE for a while. I've now returned to PoE2 after 0.2.0g to test the loot changes and finally give SSF a try, inspired by the positive experience I had with CoF in LE. I reached roughly 200 corruption in LE but started to feel a bit bored, specifically with the gameplay and the general combat feel of my build (I played HS). I've never liked the animations or the combat in LE. Mobs always felt inconsequential, as did boss encounters.
Now I have rerolled into an Amazon with the intention of playing an Ice Shot build, and I am just in awe of PoE2 again. I am even starting to appreciate "the vision" or at least for now I enjoy my rotation of skills and slower pace. Most of all, I love the animations and how things interact. The slower pace also gives me the time to appreciate them. Last hitting a frozen enemy that crumbles into bits and releases a speck of dust (as an example) is something I cannot get tired of and I'm extremely grateful for. I love the boss fights, the mob diversity, the integration of shooting while moving compared to orbwalking, and so many other visual details. In essence, I love the base of the game, and I think LE will never reach the level of PoE2. The game and the combat in PoE2 are visually stunning. However, I really beg GGG to take huge inspiration from LE’s game systems. The agency and determinism that LE provides to the player single carried me all the way to the endgame despite mediocre graphics and combat mechanics. These kinds of systems are far more implementable in a game that already has solid combat mechanics and visuals than trying to go the other way around and improve graphics and combat feel around some very well polished systems. I would love to see a merge of these two games, with the graphics and combat of PoE2 and the systems of LE but I think it's much more obtainable for GGG than EHG. What I love in particular about LE: 1)Crafting. Nothing new here, I think LE has the perfect crafting system. 10 out of 10 in my opinion, I could not ask for more. It has a deterministic floor and a RNG ceiling. You never run out of low level resources to create basic crafts in a reliable way, but high-level crafting is gated by resource scarcity and randomness. That is exactly how it should be. You can always craft functional items with targeted stats to fix your current issues or match your skills, but you will need luck to get your BIS items. Also, the item progression with legendary potential is really sweet and allow for long term item chase in end game. Sadly the same does not apply in PoE2. Honestly, it feels like the complete opposite. There are plenty of cheap RNG systems early in the game, while any sort of determinism (and there is not much of it) is locked behind hours of grinding. Recombination is a good step toward LE’s style. You have high chances for creating a good item with low-tier affixes and low chances to create god-tier items, but it is the only system we have and it is gated by the endgame. All systems related to crafting should follow this pattern but be more accessible throughout. It could be argued that runes are supposed to provide early-game determinism. I cannot quite pinpoint why it does not feel like it. Maybe because we do not have enough runes to match all the affixes we need. For example, there is no magic find rune or movement speed rune. Or maybe it is because runes are additive to the item so they cannot reach high values. Honestly, I am not sure. After the changes in 0.2, I am more deliberate with rune usage in early game, but during the campaign it's usually unnecessary and it just comes down to convenience crafting rather than a need for power. Even in the pre-patched 0.2 campaign, I never got stuck to the point where I felt the need to interact with the crafting systems. I was playing with what I was dropping saving currency for later on. Contrary, in early endgame, runes can fix some problems you definitely encounter, but their values feel too small, especially for attributes and resistances. Also, early crafting options are too random and not worth the cost of investing. There is too much resource scarcity early on to justify gambling with the currency available. I never used Augments or Transmutes in the early game and never felt the need to. And god forbid I use an Exalt just to get plus light radius. I don't want to provide too many recommendations because my job as a player is to provide feedback about the systems but I think essences could be the foundation of crafting, and I honestly think we should be drowning in them from early on. I would love to see essence shards and greater essence shards that you could get by disenchanting items instead of the current Regal or Transmute shards. This would also make me pick up blue items which I usually ignore if they are not the right base, and it would feel like I am actively solving problems for my build compared to relying on RNG. Essences are still far too rare to be used consistently. 2) Loot Filter Options The loot filter in LE is fantastic. It is kind of required since the game is a loot pinata, but it is amazing to have that level of granularity. I honestly do not enjoy picking up random items, identifying them, and hoping for the best. I want to blast through content and only pick up what is necessary or has potential to become a good item. Just let items drop identified and give me the option to be extremely picky with my loot. I don't think everyone should play like that, it is fine to be more open, attempt crafting for other builds to store or to seel, but please give the option to those who do want a more strict approach. I usually play one build or two at most per season, almost always bow or ranged characters. I do not care about the market, and I do not craft to sell or to store for alts. I just want to improve my build. The more time I spend picking up and sorting items, the less time I spend enjoying the amazing combat animations. I understand that dropping identified items has serious implications, especially in trade leagues, but item power is relative to monster power and can be balanced accordingly. If the concern is that BIS items would become too easy to find, then just add more layers of RNG or adjust high tier chances, so truly BIS items become even a greater chase. Also, the fact that the loot filter is built into the game and in such an intuitive manner is incredible. The only things missing are more customizable tags and the lack of sound cues. Still, it is a 9 out of 10. 3) Target Farming This one is self-explanatory. The CoF system in LE is a fantastic addition to SSF style play, and target farming in SSF should be supported in PoE2 somehow. I do not understand the argument that it cannot be implemented because characters are portable to trade league. You can always balance the impact of something like CoF in a way that SSF does not surpass trade. I honestly believe SSF should be the primary mode of playing and trade the secondary one. Also I believe SSF should not be a harder mode. It should just be a different play style. I do not like trade because I do not care about the market or what other builds need but prior to 0.2.0g it did feel necessary as SSF felt too much of a drag. At the same time trading feels like a chore to me, and when I have done it, it made the game feel like a job where I farm currency just to buy items. But at the same time, I do not want to be punished with a much harder version of the game just because I don't want to engage with the economy. 4) Affinities and Stash Tab Management This is an absolutely amazing QoL feature in LE. What is even more amazing is that it comes for free. I am totally fine with GGG monetizing stash tabs, but the affinity system needs radical improvement. I love how it works in LE, and it is especially necessary in SSF in PoE2 where you need a lot of storage to aggressively use the crafting bench and recombinators. Having automatic affinities for item with incredible customization depth is just a god send to dump all your stash without too much sorting. Also, auto-sorting the inventory should be a mandatory feature in every modern RPG. There is no excuse not to have it. It is a simple but vital feature that reduces tedious micro management and helps players stay focused on actual gameplay. LE nails this aspect. PoE2 needs to follow suit. In conclusion, while PoE2 continues to impress me with its visual fidelity, moment to moment gameplay, and the sheer satisfaction of combat, it is clear that LE offers a set of foundational systems that significantly enhance the ARPG experience, especially for players like me who prefer SSF. I am not asking for PoE2 to become LE, but rather for GGG to recognize what LE does well and thoughtfully adapt some of those strengths into their own design. Crafting, loot filtering, target farming, and stash management are not just quality of life features. They fundamentally shape how enjoyable and rewarding a game can be over time. I will continue to support both games, but my hope is that PoE2 can evolve into an experience that can provide to the one who seek it not only a game that looks stunning and plays beautifully, but also one that respects that player’s time and inclinations in the way LE so often does. Last bumped on May 6, 2025, 2:08:47 PM
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Here let me help you with the best advice. Just go play LE and leave this game. Cheers
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arena style for endgame, to have something to keep the game on
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" they already left this game, including myself...don't worry mate, keep the good advices |
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Pretty intersting post but I have few questions after reading it :
1) About crafting : As you said, crafting system of LE is by far, different from crafting system of PoE1 and 2. I dont think it could be a good idea to totally transform it, specially because since day one, GGG decided to have orbs as loot that can be used to upgrade your stuff. So how to transform it ? Maybe we can use multiple similar orbs to have a better chance to craft a higher tier of affix ? Like using 10 augments/regal/exalted to have at least T3 affix (and higher chance to have "rare" T1 affix like +1 all skills dmg). Orb of annulement needs a rework aswell, because of its rarity, it could be useful to use it to choose an affix to remove. But in general, you cant just totally change the crafting system of PoE2 imo. You can add some tools to help players to craft better stuff, but thats it. 2) About loot filter : I agree with you, but there is a big difference of LE loots and pOE2 : the quantity of loots. In LE, you can loot hundreds of items on a single boss, and 10 in PoE2. The choice of PoE2 is to have less loot, but to make it more impactful. The objective is to avoid players having a filter to avoid hundreds of useless items on the ground. On POE2, as a SSF player myself, I just have a filter to avoid blue and white items in end game, that are too low lvl. And thats it. I could easily play without a loot filter. And for me, thats the objective of devs. 3) About target farming : Im not really familiar with the system of LE, but I can just tell for me, the diversity of contents in end game is a kind of target farming. If I want to craft with recombinator, I just put expeditions on turret to do a lot of it and so, can recombinate a lot of stuff. If I want to craft with omens, same for rituals... 4) Affinities and stash tab management : For me, you cant compare LE, a 40 dollars game and PoE2, that would be free. Ofc GGG need a way to make money with PoE2 and stash tabs is a good one. For me who doesnt care about skins, I just bought for 40-50 dollars of stashs since 2013. If I had a good stash tab management (and a lot of stash tabs) I wouldnt have pay anything. So yeah, you have some stash tab management in pOE1 and 2 but you have to pay for it. And for me, its totally fine !!! |
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Sorting.
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Literally all the quality of life aspects in LE are setting the mark I think. Lootfilters, stash managemant, visible ranges for affix/suffix-Tiers on items aso. They do everything to lay the puzzle out for you in a very organized way, without giving you the solution. It's amazing.
don't know if I agree with anything else. But that's also due to you being deeper into the systems than I am. So my two cents wouldn't contribute a lot I guess. |
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" Maybe you should find a girl friend to get better mood. This was critism with suggestion in a correct way. |
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I played 4 chars in poe2 in SSF and would agree with you about the critic.
I played non Meta builds. The last was poison gas arrow with chayula and pathfinder. You are depended from your bow very much and thats why the slot machine crafting sucks. I think some fallback vendor recipes could help with this. For example with 60% damage or something like this. I was really frustrated about not beeing able to progress. I think they should also insert alteration orbs to have at least one or two base mods. |
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Thank you for your reply, and for reading it all!
" I don't think we need to transform it all, but for instance as I said we could make essences the base for crafting instead of Aug and Trans. This way you have a chance to imprint the affix you need to a base in a deterministic way. We can obtain essences shards from disenchanting gear (a random number of them per item disenchanted matching the affixes of the items) so you can build a pool and add determinism to your disenchanting/enchanting. To me this is absolutely compatible with the system we have now, we are using systems already in the game to introduce more determinism. Already increasing a lot the use of essences would provide a very good sense of agency. Greater essences shard can start dropping from disenchanting higher lvl gear replacing normal essences. " Less loot means less chances that RNG works in our favor so to me this is a call for higher level of determinism and higher weight of crafting in the final product. If you have less loot you need to manipulate it more. You can't have high RNG and less loot, it becomes an unstainable grind. " I agree, for me target farming in PoE2 could be related to uniques only that are not boss drops. In LE the target farming is very deep, you can even push certain item types to drop, but I mostly used it to have high chances of dropping the uniques I needed. " As I said i'm absolutely fine with paying for stash tab, I just want the affinities to be better. If you don't know what I'm talking about search how LE have implemented affinities and you will request as well that a 12$ stash tab comes with those options ;) |
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