Path of Exile 2 has built a reputation for challenging combat, deep character customization, and complex endgame systems. However, as the game moves toward its full 1.0 release, several existing issues deserve attention alongside new classes, bosses, and campaign content. Improving crafting, balancing character progression, streamlining the Atlas, and making essential information easier to access could significantly improve the experience for both veterans and newcomers.
New content can attract players, but long-term success depends on how enjoyable the core systems remain after hundreds of hours. Here are 10 important problems that deserve attention as Path of Exile 2 continues to evolve.
1. City Maps Have Too Much Influence on Endgame Farming
City maps offer a significant advantage when players can use a fourth tablet through the relevant Atlas passive. Since tablets are essential for increasing map rewards and improving farming efficiency, this additional slot makes city maps particularly attractive.
The problem is that players may feel pressured to prioritize specific maps instead of choosing content based on personal preference. Other maps can become stepping stones that players rush through while searching for city maps with the right setup.
The situation becomes more complicated when players want to combine city maps with mechanics such as Delirium. Limited coverage can force them to spend additional time searching the Atlas for suitable overlaps rather than enjoying the content they intended to farm.
A better solution would be to unlock the fourth tablet slot through a major Atlas milestone or pinnacle boss achievement, allowing it to work across all maps. Alternatively, the developers could remove the extra slot and rebalance tablet power so that three tablets remain competitive.
Either approach would give players more freedom to choose their preferred farming locations without feeling forced into a particular map type.
2. Tablet Management Makes Farming More Complicated
Tablets are a central part of Path of Exile 2’s endgame progression. They allow players to customize mapping strategies, but their large modifier pools and variable rolls can make inventory management unnecessarily time-consuming.
Two tablets designed for the same mechanic may have completely different levels of usefulness because of their modifiers, numerical values, and combinations. Players must continually evaluate which tablets are worth keeping, selling, rerolling, or using.
This process can become especially frustrating when switching between farming strategies. Instead of spending time mapping, players may spend much of their preparation comparing modifiers and searching for the right combination.
There are two potential improvements.
First, the game could reduce overlapping modifiers and make individual rolls more meaningful. A smaller pool of stronger modifiers would make tablets easier to understand and evaluate.
Second, each mechanic could receive several distinct tablet types with clearly defined effects. Players could select the option that best supports their strategy instead of relying heavily on random rolls.
Crafting and trading would still have room to thrive under either approach. The goal is not to remove depth but to make preparing for endgame activities less tedious.
3. Crafting Needs to Be More Accessible and Predictable
Crafting is one of the most important systems in Path of Exile 2, yet it presents different challenges during the campaign and the endgame.
During the campaign, players may not find enough useful crafting resources to upgrade their equipment consistently. Ground loot remains important, but crafting should also provide a reliable way to improve weapons and armor as enemies become stronger.
When crafting opportunities are limited, saving resources and purchasing an upgrade can seem more practical than experimenting with available items.
Endgame crafting presents the opposite problem. Players gain access to more options, including orbs, essences, omens, and other specialized resources, but combining them effectively can require extensive knowledge.
A single crafting project may involve numerous steps, careful sequencing, and a detailed understanding of modifier interactions. Even experienced players can make expensive mistakes when a result differs from expectations.
The solution is not to eliminate randomness or make powerful items effortless to obtain. Risk and uncertainty are important parts of the crafting experience. Instead, the game could reduce unnecessary steps, clarify how crafting resources interact, and introduce more ways to influence outcomes.
For example, players could have options that trade maximum modifier strength for more predictable results. Failed crafting attempts could also offer more reasonable recovery paths instead of potentially ruining an item after substantial investment.
A more approachable crafting system would encourage players to experiment throughout the campaign and continue developing their equipment in the endgame.
4. The Passive Skill Tree Needs More Meaningful Choices
The passive skill tree provides extensive customization, but not every node feels equally valuable. In some builds, reaching a jewel socket can offer a better return than investing several points in a nearby passive cluster.
This creates an imbalance between the tree’s intended progression paths and the rewards available from jewels. Players may spend multiple points traveling across the tree simply to access a powerful socket, while ordinary passive nodes provide comparatively modest benefits.
The result is a system with many visible choices but fewer genuinely competitive options.
To improve the passive skill tree, developers could make individual clusters more impactful, introduce more distinctive keystone effects, and reduce excessive travel between useful areas.
Weak nodes and poorly rewarded drawbacks also deserve another look. Investing in a specialized cluster should feel like a meaningful decision rather than an inefficient alternative to reaching a jewel socket.
Jewels can remain powerful, but their strength should be balanced against other passive investments. One possibility is to introduce attractive passives that reward players for leaving certain jewel sockets unused, creating a genuine choice between different approaches to character development.
Ultimately, the passive tree should influence how a build functions instead of serving primarily as a route toward a handful of highly efficient bonuses.
5. Character Power Is Too Concentrated in Gear and Jewels
Character progression works best when several systems contribute to a build’s overall strength. In Path of Exile 2, however, some builds rely heavily on additional skill levels and powerful jewels.
For skills that scale strongly with gem levels, increasing a skill’s level through equipment can provide such a substantial damage boost that other modifiers become less attractive. Jewels can create a similar imbalance by combining offensive power, defensive bonuses, and utility in a single investment.
When a small number of upgrades provide most of a character’s strength, other systems can feel less relevant. Ascendancies, support gems, charms, runes, passive clusters, and skill interactions may become secondary considerations rather than equally important parts of a build.
A healthier balance would distribute power more evenly across these systems.
Developers could reconsider how much additional skill levels contribute when placed on equipment and shift some of that power toward other progression options. They could also create more competitive passive choices so that players must weigh the benefits of jewel investment against alternative ways to develop their characters.
The ideal build should feel like a puzzle in which different pieces complement one another. Equipment, skills, support gems, and passive choices should work together to create powerful combinations rather than simply reinforcing the same dominant strategy.
6. The Atlas Passive Tree Needs Better Specialization
The Atlas passive tree gives players control over their endgame mapping experience, but its progression can feel more like completing a checklist than making meaningful strategic decisions.
Many nodes provide small bonuses that repeat similar effects across the tree. Accumulating hundreds of points can make progression lengthy without introducing enough interesting decisions along the way.
One improvement would be to condense the existing tree. Instead of spreading modest bonuses across numerous nodes, the game could offer fewer, stronger upgrades. Refund options would also make it easier to adjust a farming strategy without feeling locked into earlier decisions.
A more substantial redesign could divide Atlas investment into two main areas: general mapping bonuses and specialization in chosen mechanics.
General upgrades could improve monster density, item quantity, and rarity, while specialized nodes would allow players to invest more deeply in activities they actually enjoy.
The ability to block unwanted mechanics would provide another useful layer of customization. Players could focus on preferred content while reducing encounters that do not suit their goals.
Saved Atlas layouts would make this system even more convenient. Rather than rebuilding the tree whenever they change farming strategies, players could switch between prepared configurations.
These changes would make Atlas progression more flexible and give individual farming strategies a stronger sense of identity.
7. Group Play Needs Better Performance and Reward Balance
Playing with friends should be an enjoyable part of Path of Exile 2, but heavily customized endgame encounters can create technical problems.
When several players activate abilities simultaneously in densely populated maps, performance may suffer from stuttering, frame-rate drops, and lag spikes. Overlapping visual effects can also make combat difficult to follow, reducing the visibility needed to react to dangerous enemies.
Improving performance under realistic group-play conditions should therefore be a priority. Players should be able to use their builds effectively without turning difficult encounters into a struggle against technical limitations.
Reward balance is another concern.
Coordinated groups can generate substantial rewards from difficult content, which is reasonable given the additional coordination involved. Problems arise when a single powerful character can carry several less-active party members while everyone benefits from the rewards.
Such setups can weaken the relationship between individual contribution and group rewards. They may also create opportunities for abuse through automated or multi-account farming.
The answer is not necessarily to increase monster health until group encounters become tedious. Instead, the game should consider how party size, combat difficulty, individual participation, and rewards interact.
Group play should remain profitable and enjoyable, but its rewards should reflect meaningful teamwork and participation.
8. Sprinting Needs More Responsive Movement and Fairer Interruptions
Sprinting makes exploration faster and reduces the frustration of backtracking through familiar areas. The risk of being interrupted when taking damage also helps prevent players from simply running past every enemy.
However, the current balance between movement speed and interruption can feel unnecessarily punishing. A minor ranged attack from an off-screen enemy may stop a sprint and leave a character staggered for an extended period.
The transition between sprinting and stopping can also feel sluggish, making it harder for players to respond precisely when combat demands immediate movement.
These issues can make ordinary encounters frustrating rather than challenging.
A better system would preserve the risk of sprinting while making interruptions more proportional to the damage received. A brief stagger could still discourage reckless movement, while a powerful hit from a dangerous enemy could produce a more significant consequence.
Movement responsiveness also deserves attention. Players should feel that their characters react promptly when they change direction, stop sprinting, or prepare to attack.
The objective is to preserve meaningful combat decisions without allowing minor attacks to disrupt movement excessively.
9. Too Much Essential Information Exists Outside the Game
Path of Exile 2 offers extensive customization, but understanding its systems often requires players to consult external websites and third-party applications.
Crafting calculators, item databases, price-checking tools, trade searches, and community resources can all be useful. The problem is that players frequently need these tools to understand basic information or make routine decisions.
For example, crafting options may present several modifiers without clearly communicating their tiers or relative value. Players must then search elsewhere to determine which option is worth choosing.
Trading presents similar challenges. Dedicated tools and browser-based searches can make evaluating equipment and locating desirable items much more convenient than relying exclusively on the in-game interface.
The solution is not to replace community tools or eliminate advanced build planners. These resources will remain valuable for players who want to explore the game’s deepest systems.
Instead, essential information should be available directly within the game wherever possible.
Clearer modifier descriptions, accessible crafting information, and more convenient price checking would help players make informed decisions without constantly switching windows.
An improved in-game interface would also benefit console players, who may face additional inconvenience when consulting external resources.
By making core information easier to access, the game could allow players to spend more time fighting monsters, improving equipment, and exploring the endgame.
10. New Players Need Better Tutorials and In-Game Explanations
Path of Exile 2’s complexity is one of its defining characteristics, but it can also create a steep learning curve for newcomers.
Players who are unfamiliar with action RPGs may encounter numerous unfamiliar systems, including support gems, crafting currencies, passive trees, runes, and endgame mechanics. Without clear explanations, understanding these features can require extensive research outside the game.
The challenge is to improve accessibility without removing the freedom and experimentation that experienced players enjoy.
An optional in-game reference guide would be a useful starting point. Players could open it whenever they need an explanation of a particular mechanic, item type, or character progression system.
The campaign could also introduce important concepts gradually through practical tutorials.
For instance, an early crafting lesson could provide a suitable item and the necessary resources, then guide players through creating a useful upgrade. This would demonstrate how crafting works and encourage them to experiment with future drops.
Additional lessons could explain prefixes, suffixes, modifier tiers, passive clusters, jewel sockets, weapon-set passive points, and support gems as these concepts become relevant.
Teaching players how to evaluate dropped equipment would be equally valuable. A rare item or unique weapon should not simply be presented as an upgrade without context. Players benefit from understanding why its attributes suit their build and when a crafted item might remain the better choice.
These tutorials should be optional and easy to disable. Experienced players and those starting additional characters could skip familiar explanations, while newcomers would have a clearer path toward understanding the game’s systems.
A strong tutorial system would not make Path of Exile 2 less complex. It would make that complexity easier to learn, allowing more players to develop their own builds and enjoy the depth of the game.
Final Thoughts: Improving the Core Experience Before Path of Exile 2 Version 1.0
Path of Exile 2 has considerable potential, but its long-term success depends on more than adding new classes, bosses, and campaign content. The game’s core systems must remain rewarding, understandable, and enjoyable throughout both the campaign and the endgame.
The most important improvements include making tablet management less tedious, giving crafting more accessible progression paths, balancing the passive tree and character power, and allowing players to specialize their Atlas more effectively. Better group performance, more responsive sprinting, improved in-game information, and optional tutorials could also make a meaningful difference.
These changes would not require removing the game’s depth. Instead, they would help ensure that complexity leads to interesting decisions rather than unnecessary friction.
Players can also make their progression smoother by planning their builds carefully, comparing equipment upgrades, and understanding how their resources support their chosen strategy. Whether you are preparing for endgame mapping or improving a character’s equipment, choosing upgrades that fit your build is essential. If you want to explore additional equipment options, you can buy POE 2 Items to support your character progression, while Path of Exile 2 Currency remains an important consideration when evaluating crafting costs, trading opportunities, and the resources needed to develop stronger gear.
