800 Divines for Gear? This Economy Is Completely Out of Control

At some point, we need to stop pretending this is normal.

When “decent” gear costs hundreds of divines—sometimes 800 divines or more—the Path of Exile 2 economy has crossed from “hardcore” into absurdity. This isn’t about min-maxing, mirror-tier perfection, or luxury items. This is about functional gear that allows players to participate in endgame content without constantly getting deleted.

And the worst part?
The game itself forces you into this economy.

This Isn’t a Luxury Market — It’s Mandatory

In a healthy ARPG, ultra-expensive items exist as aspirational goals. You don’t need them to progress; they’re there to push the ceiling higher for dedicated players.

That is not what’s happening in PoE2.

Right now:

Self-found gear becomes obsolete extremely early

Crafting is too RNG-heavy or currency-gated to reliably fix gear

Mapping demands capped resistances and strong defenses and real DPS

When the game requires all three just to survive, and the only place those stats realistically exist together is on traded gear, that gear stops being optional.

So when players open trade and see:

200 divines

400 divines

800 divines

For items that are not perfect, not mirrored, not even best-in-slot—just usable—that’s not an economy problem. That’s a design failure.

Divines Are Rare — Prices Pretend They Aren’t

The biggest disconnect is this: the economy is priced as if divines are common, while the game drops them as if they’re legendary artifacts.

Most players:

See few, if any, divines during regular mapping

Cannot generate them at a pace that matches market expectations

Are locked out of upgrades simply because the currency doesn’t exist

Meanwhile, the market behaves as if everyone is farming dozens or hundreds of divines effortlessly. That gap creates a system where:

A small percentage of players dominate the market

Everyone else is permanently behind

Progression becomes a question of luck or economic exploitation, not gameplay

An economy that assumes players have currency they cannot realistically earn is fundamentally broken.

Who Is This Economy Actually For?

Let’s be honest: the current pricing structure only works for:

Full-time players

Streamers and content creators

Hyper-efficient meta farmers

Trade-flippers and market specialists

For everyone else, it’s demoralizing.

When a regular player finally scrapes together a few divines after hours of play, opens trade, and sees that their “budget” wouldn’t even buy a single mod on a listed item, the message is clear:

You are not the intended audience.

That’s a terrible feeling in a game that prides itself on depth, creativity, and build diversity.

Exorbitant Prices Kill Build Diversity

High gear prices don’t just slow progression—they actively kill experimentation.

Players:

Stick to meta builds because off-meta gear is even more expensive

Avoid respeccing because re-gearing is financially impossible

Refuse to experiment because one mistake can brick their character

When one item costs 800 divines, no one is taking risks. They’re copying guides, following spreadsheets, and praying they don’t need to replace anything.

That’s not creativity. That’s survival.

This Feeds Into Every Other Problem

The outrageous prices don’t exist in isolation. They make every other frustrating system worse:

XP loss on death becomes unbearable when you can’t afford defensive upgrades

Map sustain issues spiral when you can’t clear consistently

Progression stalls because leveling is gated behind gear you can’t buy

Burnout skyrockets because effort doesn’t translate into improvement

The economy amplifies punishment instead of rewarding persistence.

“Just Don’t Buy It” Is Not a Solution

Some people will say:

“You don’t need that gear.”

Except—you do.

The game’s tuning makes that clear. If you don’t have:

Capped resistances

Real defenses

Enough DPS to clear quickly

You die. You lose XP. You lose maps. You lose progress.

Telling players to ignore the market while designing the game around market-level gear is disingenuous at best.

How This Should Be Fixed

This situation is not inevitable. It’s the result of design choices—and those choices can be changed.

1) Bring Prices Back to Reality

Increase divine drop rates at mapping tiers

Add alternative currency paths to acquire gear

Introduce more meaningful currency sinks to stabilize inflation

Prices should reflect what most players can earn, not what a tiny minority hoards.

2) Make Self-Found and Crafting Viable

More deterministic crafting options

Easier access to resistance and defense modifiers

Systems that let players fix bad gear instead of replacing it

If players could improve what they find, they wouldn’t need to buy 800-divine items.

3) Reduce Gear Pressure Across the Board

Ease resistance requirements slightly

Improve baseline survivability

Reduce extreme stat stacking requirements

When the game demands less perfection, the market won’t charge perfection prices.

Final Thoughts

An item costing 800 divines is not impressive.
It’s not aspirational.
It’s a symptom.

It signals an economy completely disconnected from normal gameplay, where progress is dictated by market dominance rather than effort or skill. If Path of Exile 2 wants to be challenging and fair, this has to change.

Because right now, the message players are getting is simple:

Play perfectly, trade obsessively, or don’t bother progressing at all.

And that’s not hardcore—that’s just exhausting.

was this written by chatgpt? "Final thoughts" oh yeah it was. What was the prompt?

This should go in the feedback section and not where people are trading and trying to get feedback on prices.