There is a serious balance issue

Why This Is a Real Problem (Not Player Whining)
In a healthy ARPG:
A skill might be suboptimal early
It should never be unusable
The fantasy should be playable from Act 1 → endgame
PoE today violates that constantly.
The reality now:
Many skills do not function without layers
Those layers are locked behind:
gem levels
supports
ascendancy points
specific uniques
cluster jewels
So the skill literally isn’t the skill until maps
That’s not RPG progression.
That’s delayed access to the thing you chose


The Core Issue
PoE balance is no longer skill-first.
It’s:
“How broken does this become at level 95 with 40 divines?”
So they balance around:
streamers
PoB numbers
pinnacle boss deletion
mageblood scenarios
And completely sacrifice:
leveling
identity
feel
onboarding
fun
That’s why:
Hexblast feels awful early
Fireball is a meme
Lightning Warp is a joke
Half the gems are “later skills” in a game that takes 40+ hours to get “later”

The Honest Fix (GGG Will Never Do This, But It’s the Truth)
Buff base damage of underperforming skills
Remove the idea of “leveling skills”
Let endgame scaling come from:
gear
mechanics
mastery —not from making the skill playable

Your premise is that every skill should perform equally, but that's not how the game is designed.

1) Fireball is not a meme, in fact it was a meta build not that long ago (with mines).
2) Lightning Warp is a movement skill that has some niche interactions that make it special and awesome.

Not every skill has to function as a standalone skill that can best ubers. Some skills only exist to support niches and ideas you don't dare to explore because you base your perception of how strong skills are by pick rate on poe.ninja

i find it funny when ppl claim "poe is no longer skillbased" because broken builds etc exsist

the thing is

creating a build requires skill

getting the items you need for a build to work requires skill (unless you use forbidden rmt)

running content and bosses "undergeared" requires skill


poe simply allows you to replace the need of the "mechanical" skill to dodge monsters/bosses/effects with a different skill that is knowledge based

its actually one of the best things about poe

*with mines lol


That's the answer to everything. Mines.. its a joke.

"

ciel289#7228 wrote:

i find it funny when ppl claim "poe is no longer skillbased" because broken builds etc exsist

the thing is

creating a build requires skill

getting the items you need for a build to work requires skill (unless you use forbidden rmt)

running content and bosses "undergeared" requires skill


poe simply allows you to replace the need of the "mechanical" skill to dodge monsters/bosses/effects with a different skill that is knowledge based

its actually one of the best things about poe

Nah man.. most people copy builds in this game. Experienced players know exactly which defenses work, and which skills deal flat damage for leagueh starts without investment..

The rest is simply trading strategy. Anything is good enough with enough divines.

I got all 4 voidstones with fire trap yet again... you can grab that skill at level 12 and kill every boss in the game. Good luck doing g that with 90% of the other gems.. that's why everyone has a "league starter" forcing themselves to do what works for currency. Its ridiculous

And yeah all skills wont be equal but some are utterly useless, others are gatekept by uber uniques.

Go play SSF so you can see how bad tjos is because in trade yeah.. anything can work this isnt skill. Its a bad design.

The game is dogshit balance wise and everyone knows it they won't admit it because its their "precious little game" truth is it could be alot better but GGG prioritizes their monetization and pleasing streamers and their fan boys. The game could be so much better with a complete overhaul. Its way way way too bloated.

New league launches → a few OP builds surface quickly, usually the same handful of tried-and-tested combos
Everyone scrambles to copy those builds because they want results fast and don’t have time or resources to experiment
After grinding for hundreds or thousands of hours, a few unique, creative builds trickle out... but only because of insane gear investment and time sunk.

Mageblood, cluster jewels, attribute stacking become the de facto gatekeepers of power, not player creativity or genuine build diversity
The game rewards deep, tedious grinding and min-maxing way more than it rewards innovative build design or playstyle variety. So new or casual players just get lost or pigeonholed into “meta” cookie-cutter builds — while veterans chase the exact same formula every league.



It’s like the meta doesn’t evolve naturally; it’s forced through currency sinks and gear gating.
PoE’s system often feels less like a celebration of player creativity and more like a relentless spreadsheet optimization simulator with little room for genuine fun or experimentation early in a league.

Power creep isnt good for the game. Powerful uniqes are good. Too powerful uniques are not good they break the game... because GGG is balancing skills based on unique items... its a recipe for disaster.



Cool unique builds do emerge... after hundreds of hours of grinding and trading.. RPG should be - picked a skill you like make it work.. without requiring 5 unique jewels, clusters, gatekept uniques etc etc etc.. bad balance period.