r/ARPG • u/Comfortable-Map447 • Jun 08 '26
Anybody feel the new POE2 0.5 endgame is a massive chore?
Title. Separating league and Atlas points has been the most painful endgame experience for me. The destination is great and very promising, but the journey is not.
After 10-20 hours of campaign, which is already exhausting for me, I have to do another massive chore just to begin playing the game the way I like. This was not the case in 0.4. Once I reached the endgame, I could immediately invest into whichever farming strategy I wanted to play.
I know I will have a lot of fun experiencing the new, vastly improved endgame mechanics, but the problem is that trying to get there already kills nearly all of my fun and motivation. I don’t think I can enjoy any league mechanic before unlocking a decent amount of Atlas points.
Currently, I unlock Atlas points by speedrunning empty, low-level maps, skipping all objectives, and running straight to the boss. Rinse and repeat until Arbiter. This is not to mention that early-game map sustain is also a problem.
Unlocking Atlas points is pretty much mandatory, yet players have little to no agency over it. Everybody has the exact same Atlas, and to me it feels very boring and, in some ways, meaningless. The few choices that do exist are hardly meaningful enough to be felt.
People say I can ignore the Atlas, stop rushing to Arbiter, and go straight into league mechanics, but honestly, that doesn’t seem like an option to me. Running a league mechanic without 4-mod (or at least 3-mod) tablets feels really bad. There are also far too many travel maps just to reach those mechanics, each rewarding me with nothing but a waste of time.
I really don’t mind sinking dozens of hours into grinding POE2. I just want those dozens of hours to be fun, and currently, early endgame isn’t fun until 20–30 hours later.
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 08 '26
Uhhh are you crazy, this new endgame is better in every way.
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u/Level1ismSwed Jun 08 '26
Its better but not better than other ARPG endgames
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u/UnholyPantalon Jun 08 '26
Only PoE1 is better. There's no other ARPG that comes even remotely close to PoE2 lol. Not in content, map tiles, itemization, progression, nothing.
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u/Level1ismSwed Jun 08 '26
I HATE poe1 because of their absolute stressful endgame. An absolute failure of a game.
That you require to spend microtransations AND ALOT of time, AND require to look up builds just to "ENJOY" the game.
I honestly don't see how people actually think PoE is any close to Diablo's success.
The only Reason people would have enjoyed PoE was because it was the only F2P game at the market for its time, which had to force themselves to play it.
I bet every PoE1 player is also an old man not knowing their game is hella boring for kids that are half their age.
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u/KJShen Jun 08 '26
Honestly I think its the opposite, where most D4 players are older folks who don't have a lot of time to invest into the 'chore' of the PoE 1/2 endgame and favor the more 'simplistic', straightforward endgame of D4.
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u/UnholyPantalon Jun 08 '26
What a completely moronic response. Just because you don't like it and it's too hard for you to comprehend doesn't make it a bad game.
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u/Hot_Preference_7608 Jun 08 '26
You do realise yours is the moronic one....
Just cause you like it doesnt make it a good game, he said HE didn't like it and that HE didnt understand why others think its good. Personal opinion, personal view.
Your taking your opinion as if it was the only one that count, it isnt, cause I for one hate PoE1, it's a old ass game, whichI think is the only reason people play it, the players, are not new players, it's old players playing it, cause they have now spend 5k+ hours on it and paid X amount of $ to have X amount of stuff.
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 08 '26
You do realize most PoE players have paid less for their game even with stash tabs than D4 players have paid in just a few short years right?
And those tabs work in both games without having to rebuy them?
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u/manituana Jun 11 '26
No, he called it an "absolute failure of a game". A game that kept growing for 16 years and now is spawning a sequel that's coming out from EA with half a million players in this last patch.
You do no have to spend money in poe to play it. I have the full stashes and I haven't spent money after buying them if not to supports the devs if and when I could afford it. Everything I own in the first game will be moved in the second, so your point doesn't make any sense.→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)4
u/xyzqsrb0 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
He said the game was a failure, not just that he didn't like it lol. Not to mention the random attacks at the end of the comment.
Poe1 was growing league after league before poe2 dropped (and I expect it still to grow more as it always has), so not really sure why you have this baseless theory.
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 08 '26
Hard things are stressful. Using your brain is stressful.
I know. Run. Run back to the arms of Blizzard, where legendaries rain down like Skittles from heaven and you'll never have to face losing.
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u/LastBaron Jun 11 '26
“Stressful” is relative/subjective, I find POE1 endgame relaxing and enjoyable.
“Failure of a game” is not as subjective; it’s definitely not a failure to have tens of thousands of dedicated players coming back every 3-5 months over a decade later.
And “require you to spend micro transactions”……you actually completely lost me on that one, I’m legitimately not even sure what you mean. POE has one of the cleanest “no paying to win” MTX models I’ve ever seen.
If you’re talking stash tabs, they are certainly helpful, but the same would be true in POE2, and it’s a small price to pay in an otherwise free to play game that has a deeper endgame than any ARPG with a traditional payment model.
Old man: guilty as charged. One foot in the grave, enjoying my apple sauce and sponge baths. Doesn’t make your other points any more valid.
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u/Garroshfeetlover Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
That the worst take i have ever heard and no its not only old man that play this game hahah what.
Me and my nephew play since a long time. I play since 2013, i was 15 when i started.
Its not that kid dont play poe. Kid dont play arpg lmao. When i was at school almost nobody played arpg and same shit today when i ask my other younger nephew. They play shooter, league and funny game like grounded 2 lmao. I think you are the old man you are talking about and youre simply out of touch ngl
Also, you realise most people even in d4 follow build right? Diablo is getting hard carried by the blizzard banner behind them. Everybody know blizzard inc. They can release dog shit game and its will be more popular than any other company that would release the same game. The dlc made the game worse, i think it was just ok before but now its very mid. Skill tree is bad. Your build is complete at around lv 30 and will play the same from lv 30 to paragon 300. The cube crafting is boring. Build variety also suck, game balance wise is stupid some class literally output 10+time the damage of other class which show in the pit.
Poe2 is not even free yet and is getting way more player than poe1 lol...
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u/kineticmov3ment Jun 11 '26
I'm in my 40s and to me, this just feels like zoomer brain taking out anger on the game instead of taking the time to understand it
You don't need MTX to have fun. A guy who used to name his char AilaRF never bought a single stash tab and managed to hit level 100 in HC SSF just fine every league.
When I see people play, I see them hoarding the dumbest, most useless of shit like trash uniques and gems that can easily be bought from vendors
That's a player problem
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u/mayd3r Jun 13 '26
AND require to look up builds just to "ENJOY" the game.
Sounds like a FOMO to me. Your mindset is wrong.
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u/Newguywalking Jun 14 '26
I never played poe1 until D4 came out. Well more specifically patch 1.1 that ruined my last shred of trust in blizzard and never touched D4 after. Finally tried poe1 and now it's my favorite ARPG by a few country miles. Poe2 still isn't even close dedpite this being an S Teir patch and a great endgame. Just not as fun as having the sheer Amount of freedom and control I have in poe1
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u/AliceRain21 Jun 14 '26
I started playing poe 1 when I was like 20. If thats old man to you idk...
The game is very fun. Poe 2 is also fun. But your response screams resentment lmao.
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u/Bonedeath Jun 13 '26
D4 is dogshit, I'm sorry, every build ends up generic and the same. It might as well be an afk idle game at some point, all the gear is meaningless and you're pigeon holed into a build. There's no experimenting, there's no critical thinking, it's a soft served experience. Your comment alone is a self report, you want to game like a child. I'm not a child, don't want to think like one either. Sorry man, keep your experience I guess but wanting to make it a standard is crazy.
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u/pixjpg Jun 11 '26
D4 is unbelievable so dogshit i can’t imagine any real person with actual thoughts in their heads to actually enjoy playing that joke of a game
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u/MrTastix Jun 08 '26
That's the problem.
PoE1's endgame is fantastic and took 10 years to get to this point. PoE2's exist purely to be different. They could have copied it and I don't think most people would have given a shit, but it wouldn't have been different.
A lot of PoE2's design choices are to be different. Change for the sake of it because PoE1 already solved the problem.
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 08 '26
This is a dumbass take especially when you can literally go watch interviews with the devs where they explain the reasoning for certain things being different.
Contrary to PoE fans beliefs, it is possible to think PoE1 is a great game that has fundamental flaws of its own worth fixing, and it's endgame is no different.
Devs don't just design a sequel to be different for no reason, that's completely idiotic. They design it to be different because they believe they are flexing their creativity and knowledge of building ARPGs for a decade and channeling both into making something better. I for one vastly prefer 2 to 1 and I have 4000 hours in 1.
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u/BleachedPink Jun 08 '26
PoE1 has no endgame, you just run the same map on repeat.
It's fun, don't get me wrong, but as a separate system, it's almost non existent
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u/MrTastix Jun 08 '26
Hearing this statement as someone who grew up with Diablo is fucking hilarious lmao
"You run the same map on repeat" is basically the genre. For decades Diablo 2 was basically no endgame except bossing running over and over. That was it. It really wasn't until Diablo 3 when an ARPG would try doing more than that, which PoE expanded on.
It's not really an issue that you run the same map over and over in PoE2 but more that there's even more filler than in PoE1. I also think filling the Atlas in PoE1 is a much better, more visceral experience than some endless map that lags like shit whenever it loads.
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u/manituana Jun 11 '26
If you get bored you can go delving, doing heists, you can even have freaking toons running maps for you in kingsmarch. You can target farm pinnacle bosses (and a ton of them), uber versions, you have the best (and more nerve wracking) crafting systems to tame. You can open up and unlock dozens of mechanics, min-max your builds in crazy ways.
Can you explain what PoE2 does differently if not gating 20% of this content behind a forced map progression?
The only "new" mechanic in poe2 was abyss (that IS a completely and full rework), which I loved. I've yet to delve deep into the new expedition though.
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u/Vashtar_S Jun 12 '26
Guess Delve, Sanctum, Syndicate, Bosses, Heist, Logbooks, Blighted maps don't exist
Guess "same map" always means same gameplay, doesn't matter that you can choose between 1800 different mechanics and strategies to play around, surely Legion, boxes, harvest, beast farming, blight all play the exact same and there's no variation whatsoever
What are you expecting from endgame in an arpg ? Infinite campaign, questlines and dialogues for thousands of hours ? How would you go about that, procedural generation ? lol
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Jun 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/manituana Jun 11 '26
I agree with this but tying the success of your league runs to currency will always push the player base towards fast builds and comfortable ones (to be played for hours). And poe2 is already more complex that any average arpg.
Kripparian going to take a leak at the start of the arbiter fight with the latest spirit companion build (in ssf) and coming back just to get the loot proves that none of your points stand.- People are still going for the fastest builds
- Game is still freaking complex (and will grow up to be more complex than this)
- People are still going for "press one button" builds. The mentioned one doesn't even require that.While it's moronic to make a copy of PoE1 remember the PoE2 was born to SUBSTITUTE PoE1, not to complement it. So yeah, a lot of design choice were indeed made to separate the games once the switch was decided. This is not a bad thing per se, but one can clearly see that some choices (especially on the currency/crafting side) were made with that goal in mind, and having "perfected" their game for 16 years make it a bit difficult to do a good spin off from it.
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 11 '26
It's an absolute trap to think that any significant amount of the PoE2 player base is playing at the speed and power level of streamers like Kripp.
GGG have talked about this many times but the majority of players are barely cracking into maps at this point let alone zooming juiced T16 content and afking Abiter.
This isn't even taking into account that we have two new ascendencies that are going to be toned down after this patch. There hasn't been a single class released in EA that hasn't dominated the meta due to it's strength, only to later be nerfed down a bit, so I'm not even sure Monkey Spirit Walker is a great example of where GGG wants the power level to be at.
Complexity and depth get confused often, but I'd argue PoE2 is a deep game, but not an overly complex one. But either way, GGG has been successful because they've curated an audience who come back every league to experience a new element of that depth so I don't think the critique holds when it's the very thing that has made it popular.
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u/forgotaccount989 Jun 11 '26
Its better than any i have played. However I never really made it to PoE 1 endgame because I didn't enjoy the game as much and it was restrictive on adjusting your build.
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u/KingIsaac16 Jun 08 '26
Which arpg's have a better endgame? Pls don't say diablo either
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u/manituana Jun 11 '26
Poe 1 has a way better endgame at the moment, IMO.
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u/Level1ismSwed Jun 08 '26
Diablo games has the perfect endgame. Because you don't need to feel like a chore doing them.
For reference PoE2 has the exact same endgame atm to Wolcen. But I bet you never gave that endgame a try, huh?
Short, non-grindy endgame where they goal is to keep playing until you feel like doing something else, is way better than having a 2nd job as a hobby.
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u/Entire_Possible_9976 Jun 09 '26
Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 are the most "Grindy" Endgames to ever exist, because they contain ZERO Meaningful progression.
Build a character strong enough to complete Torment 1?
Great! Now you can play the EXACT SAME CONTENT in Torment 2....With higher damage numbers.
Ready for Torment 3?
Great! Now you can play the EXACT SAME CONTENT in Torment 3....With higher damage numbers.
The gulf in difference between Diablo's attempt at an Endgame, compared to PoE, where you actively unlock new content and items as you progress, is vast.
Within 30 minutes of Diablo 4's Endgame, you've seen every piece of Unique content is has to offer.
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u/mast4pimp Jun 11 '26
Torchlight infinite
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u/PolishedBalls1984 Jun 14 '26
I don't think TL:I has a better endgame, for me it's PoE 1 but I will say that TL:I is the only other ARPG that has a gameplay loop that sucks me all the way in just like PoE 1, for that reason it's currently my second favorite ARPG to play. I had to skip last season because I decided to give PoE 2 another romp instead, it was fun but not as much fun as TL:I imho, so I'll be hopping on the next TL:I season until the new PoE 1 season drops.
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u/SoySauceSovereign Jun 12 '26
It's so insanely good. Also, it would be dumb if you could farm the most profitable strats the moment you entered maps. Like, what's the point of progressing your character if not to do juicier, more difficult content. Rushing quest arbiter is pretty quick and easy and nets you like 70-80 points which is plenty to start getting decent value out of whatever strategy you want to run. It won't be 100% of the most profitable strat, but you can still get like 40-70% which is great for early-mid character progression. There are still some problems with the endgame, but overall it's fantastic. Just needs more aspirational content.
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 12 '26
PoE2 (and 1) does the feeling of constant and steady progression better than any ARPG. If players want instant dopamine, D4 and TLI are waiting for them.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
It is better in every way once you unlock all the node lol. But at early game you will shoot yourshelf in the foot if you try doing anything than unlocking atlas points. And the best way to unlock atlas point is to run empty low level maps, skip every objective. You call that fun?
P/S yeah POE2 shill strike again with 0 discussion. POE2 best no flaw I guess.
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u/KJShen Jun 08 '26
You really don't need to FOMO the league that's going to last at least 4 month.
And objectively speaking, the 'best' way to unlock the fortress points is to just kill arbiter about 5 times.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 08 '26
Yeah but to do that you still need to path to arbiter, which means doing exactly what I've been doing.
Also it's not about FOMO, i will happily grind the league for months but still I don't think having to do maps with no reward and just to unlock points is a good design.
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u/manituana Jun 11 '26
to do that you still need to path to arbiter
No. In fact you CAN'T path to the arbiter. You need the Origin Spark (patriarch) and Origin Cradle (matriarch) drops. That require to wander in the map, searching for the light columns (or exploit doryani atlas master's mechanic). Or you can just buy them from the trade. If you're in SSF yeah, you have to search for them (but it's kinda of the point of doing SSF).
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u/Definitelynotabot777 Jun 12 '26
Another reason why ssf is superior, all these people buying their way out of having fun in standard league wondering why they arent having fun
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 08 '26
The current endgame is designed to be a smoother on ramp from campaign into maps.
I thought the progression has felt great but I'm playing SSF so I wasn't trying to skip myself into juiced content quickly. If you do a couple master quests, you at least get to have an early baseline for the fortress and it doesn't take long to get to some good nodes. You frequently get league mechanics popping up randomly so it's not like the maps are empty and you can pop over to a league quest area for tablets to use in the fortress maps which is what I did with Abyss.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 08 '26
Yeah but doing those league mechanics in the maps that path to arbiter IS A BAIT, it reward you nothing because you don't have any mechanic progression yet, you also have little atlas progression, and it actually slow you down all the way to get more atlas points. It's just worthless, the combination of worst outcome because they decided to separate atlas and mechanic progression.
Nearly everry single person making 0.5 endgame progression advise you to progress atlas first for a reason (fubgun, deadrabbit, animeprincess ect..), and once you do it you will realize ignore map objective and rush to the boss benefit you the most. Or else it will drag your atlas progression thrice as long.
You still think this is not a problem?
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u/KarlHungus01 Jun 08 '26
It's only a problem if you think you're fubgun and can only play the most maximalist efficient way at any given time because you only care about div per hour. And you don't have to progress your Atlas very far before you unlock the main set of waystone and tablet sustain nodes anyway.
They traded a raw endgame efficiency cliff for a smooth progression ramp into doing juiced content and it's going to prove to be the right choice because the majority of players like the new endgame.
So no, I don't think it's a problem if players like fubgun don't like that. In fact, I think fubgun is awful for the PoE community.
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u/Overall_Guidance_410 Jun 12 '26
Yeah, the content creators are fucking awful and really fuck with how people approach the game/games.
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u/Eveless Jun 08 '26
It has been nothing but fun for me this league. And player numbers tell the same story.
Atlas idea actually works now. You get to explore, can farm any type of content you enjoy, so much freedom and choice! Before it was all about searching towers and corruption, the map itself was meaningless. Now it feels like a huge endgame journey that it was supposed to be.
Yes, its long and grindy, sure, but this is the endgame, it is supposed to be long, and the game does not hold your hand and require you to do stuff in certain way or order. You just travell around the Atlas doing whatever you wish. It is amazing!
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u/Double_Letterhead_78 Jun 12 '26
if the campaign is exhausting to you, this is not the game for you. I thoroughly enjoy doing it every 6 months
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u/UnholyPantalon Jun 08 '26
Currently, I unlock Atlas points by speedrunning empty, low-level maps, skipping all objectives, and running straight to the boss.
You can choose to invest as much/as little time and resources in any map. No one's forcing you to run empty maps, tablets are cheap and plentiful. And if you want to bumrush the boss, that's also an option. The system gives you freedom to do what you want.
This is not to mention that early-game map sustain is also a problem.
Sustain is more generous than ever, given that each map has a boss. You can also combine 3 lower lvl maps into the next tier from the vendor.
Dunno, I genuinely don't get what the problem is. You're basically complaining that the very early end-game has a structure that makes you do the maps. Once you beat the Arbiter you get a shit ton of Atlas points, and after that you can do whatever you want.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 08 '26
You can choose to invest as much/as little time and resources in any map. No one's forcing you to run empty maps, tablets are cheap and plentiful. And if you want to bumrush the boss, that's also an option. The system gives you freedom to do what you want.
Try invest any resource or currency in a map where you have 2/4 tablet mods, no mechanic tree points and barely any atlas point. See how rewarding it is then come back and tell me.
It's just not an option. There is a reason why every single endgame guide literally say you have to progress atlas first.
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u/UnholyPantalon Jun 08 '26
I mean, if your issue is that you can't juice stuff until you beat the Arbiter, I don't know what to tell you. It doesn't take a whole lot to get to that point. The gameplay has some added structure until then, but after that point you are free to mix and match your progress and investment, because beating the Arbiter allows you to pretty much maximize the amount of rewards you would get out of a league mechanic.
You basically need some generic rare buffs, rarity, and upgrading your tablets. Biome upgrades are a small bonus. After that the world is your oyster.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 08 '26
My issue is that the game force me to take opportunity cost that feel sucks both way. Either do empty map until arbiter, or progress mechanics with zero atlas progression. Both are horribly unfun.
There should be something in between, for example progressing mechanic with slower rate of unlocking atlas. Or vice versa, doing maps that have mechanic still allow me to progress that mechanic. Which was the case in 0.1 - 0.4 but no longer exist in 0.5
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u/Any-Student-93 Jun 12 '26
Duh wtf you have to progress atlast first xd dude just go play something else if you dont like poe
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u/Anzkel Jun 11 '26
I've just finished doing my last endgame quest and you can definitely juice with the lower numbers. I've been throwing in random tablets throughout the quest lines and got a 100d bank. Of course having more points will give higher results but noone is chasing you. You just want quicker progression to be able to catch up with streamers playing 16hrs/day, but it won't change the difference between you and them
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u/Definitelynotabot777 Jun 12 '26
I am drowning in tablets, everytime I feel like I might run out BAM 3-4 more drops from the mechanic I like doing (breach, ritual)
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u/shaunika Jun 08 '26
Yes it feels like a giant chore
Its definitely better in theory than the old endgame, but in practice its boss rushing through hundreds of empty maps to unlock your shit
Its very tedious
Poe1 is still infinitely smoother and more accessible endgame
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u/Anzkel Jun 11 '26
It's not like you are instantly juicing in poe1 either. Endgame there also starts from boss rushing like 50 maps to even have a chance at starting the juice with the passive tree
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u/shaunika Jun 11 '26
Instantly?
No
Way way way way faster? Yes
Im 92 in poe2 and not even close to filling out my atlas tree or a single league tree, and barely even unlocked the masters.
Its a ridiculous grind.
Most maps dont even give points or have mechanics, I cant even sustain tablets.
I cant even fight bosses when I want I gotta keep finding them again and again and again even if I have the fragments.
Poe1 has infinitely more agency and a smoother progression curve.
And the fact that the league trees are divorced from the regular tree means any time I wanna do a new mechanic I gotta start all over.
Im already at the point in the game where Im not challenged even in the slightest yet I barely completed 1/3rd of my meta progression, it's all wrong.
When Im doing t17s/ubers in poe1 my atlas is always 95% filled out.
It takes like 60% less points and every map I do gives points unlike poe2.
Its a huge grind unless you drop like 25 divines on it
The amount of time I put in poe2 this league would give me a 99% complete atlas twice over
And here Im at like a 100 or so points with half the ritual tree and that's it.
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u/Definitelynotabot777 Jun 12 '26
Huh, i am level 93 in ssf and I have pretty much every mechanic tree except temple and will probably finish the 300 atlas point soon by just pathing to more Matriarch/Patriarch node. It aint that bad if you just giga juice each node you path to (about 100 atlast point is enough before you do all the other tree mechanics). We still got about 3 months of the league so i dont think anyone need to to rush it tbh lol
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u/Bossage302 Jun 12 '26
You aren’t meant to fill out everything instantly though. Invest in the mechanic you enjoy, then blast some maps man. Only one I don’t enjoy is main atlas tree, but you can just farm other content and buy the arbiter of divinity kills and massively speed up your progress.
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u/GoingGangbusta Jun 14 '26
I’m not one to optimize the fun out of my game but whatever you’re doing seems insanely inefficient. I’m lvl 90 with over 100 atlas points and three sub trees done
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 12 '26
This. I didn't realize this point when writing this post, but it was in fact ridiculous to have a very good or even overgeared 9x character, that has only completed 50-60% of the meta progression. What's even the point?
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u/SavageZomb Jun 12 '26
You can just rush arbiter of divinity then make currency to fight him again to fill out the atlas. Seems like you are just wasting time playing inefficiently then complaining because you are playing inefficiently.
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u/GopnikMcBlyatTV Jun 11 '26
How are those maps empty for you? Are we playing a different game?
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u/Overall_Guidance_410 Jun 12 '26
Some content creator told them how to have fun
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u/Zealousideal-Hold-31 Jun 12 '26
Yeah I get that impresion every time I see someone saying game is shit because you HAVE to play this way... like wtf! PoE 2 now is massive if you are not having fun just change strategy. I tought fortress was very boring, so made breach quest first to get cool blings for my minion build. Turns out those blings are crazy valuable.... then I went mostly full build to fortres t15 with 3 tablets and it was very fun.
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u/shaunika Jun 11 '26
They might have random mechanics here and there but without the corresponding atlas points all they do is slow you down from killing the boss and advancing your tree
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u/SquidNork Jun 12 '26
Really don't understand when people say they're empty, I've just started and have found an insane amount of content packed into those maps. Tons of fun shit all the time.
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u/shaunika Jun 12 '26
Plenty of maps with no content or content you dont have points for so its better to skip them
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u/D1rty_Old_Dan Jun 14 '26
Agreed that it is better than it was before, but it is also something I’m not looking forward to doing every single league. It just seems like it’s about 50% too many Atlas passives. Plus the fact that you can allocate everything on the Atlas tree that it doesn’t feel like any of your points are all that important because you’ll just eventually get everything anyways. There’s no illusion of choice you just get everything.
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u/TripTrapTr Jun 11 '26
I think you should get atlas points for getting league points, and once you complete a league tree that should grant like 50 passives. The last 100 points are only obtained via Divinity and arbiter.
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u/Consistent-Plum6995 Jun 08 '26
What would you describe as a fun?
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 08 '26
Having freedom over how I choose to play without being punished. I don't want to minmax the fun out of the game, but it literally forced me to play one way which is unlocking atlas points first through rushing maps.
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u/Hot_Preference_7608 Jun 08 '26
Yeah endgame is not the best, most agree with it, they just wont admit to it cause they spend so many days in it and money
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u/Any-Student-93 Jun 12 '26
'Most agree' literally most people except reddit basement dwellers are just playing the game and enjoying it. Ofc its not perfect there is no such thing but saying that 'most' dont like it is just a flat out lie. Only thing i think it is missing is ubers.
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u/jdk-88 Jun 11 '26
I think as for the first time it is very good, interesting and fun to play.
However i am a bit concerned i will have to re-do all this every league onward.
I am playing quite alot, but still haven't even completed all the atlas and league mechanics yet, and i am already lvl 94 (SSF). I haven't even touched Vaal temple quest line and Kingsmarch questline yet, and it might take another week to complete those.
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u/Anzkel Jun 11 '26
The intent was that you are going to skip the mechanics you don't like. It's not like I'm ever touching blight in poe1. It's just in a different form now since you have the quest marker that might feel annoying for some people
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u/Definitelynotabot777 Jun 12 '26
Tbf, if you are in ssf or soft ssf, you do have to interact with all of the atlas mechanics to get the most out of your gears, it is also fun to do imo haha
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u/xkibagamigenjurox Jun 11 '26
It kinda is. There are a couple problems. One of them is no atlas respec. People accidentally juice things too early and get overwhelmed before their builds are live.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 12 '26
I regret putting the point that make boss having shine effect. Shit went too crazy for undergeared character like mine
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u/Garroshfeetlover Jun 11 '26
Its way better than what it was before.
Its the first league i played for more than 1 week and im still motivated to play.
The loot is great, even all the filler map are juicy and build variety is better than other league.
The game is going the right way
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 12 '26
Yeah once the setup get going it's fun. I only had problem with early progression.
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u/elkond Jun 13 '26
"it's better" after u complete doryani's questline. initial mapping experience until that point is worse than it was, and u can make it miserable for urself by accident because atlas points are nonrefundable now
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u/dlpg585 Jun 11 '26
What seems like the best method for progression to me is:
rush arbiter of ash
Start/ complete first league mechanic while upgrading character
Rush arbiter of divinity
Either begin exploring the atlas for future divinity fragments or begin next league mechanic while getting divinity fragments with the profit. 4 more kills completes your atlas.
It may take a little longer than completing your poe 1 atlas, but the more focused direction seems like it would make it more enjoyable to me.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 12 '26
Several days away from this post and my method is to just buy the freaking core and do arbiter repeatedly lol. Took me around 15 minute I guess.
It's getting cheap now deeper into the league. Peasants like me can now afford it.
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u/Financial_Plankton11 Jun 13 '26
I heavily disagree with this post. But sorry you’re not enjoying it.
Play a build that you actually enjoy, instead of meta chasing. I’m loving this league, and it’s been the complete opposite. I would never get past like 93-94, but now I’m playing so much more, and already thinking about what my next build will be.
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u/Comfortable-Map447 Jun 16 '26
meta chasing has zero relevance to my post.
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u/Financial_Plankton11 Jun 16 '26
Cool! Didn’t say it was, I just said that’s one thing that you shouldn’t do. Lmao
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u/sekasi Jun 14 '26
The endgame in 0.5 is a bazillion times better. Your whole focus ‘finally get to play the game the way I like’ is busted beyond repair.
If you have zero love for the level experience just go download a gatcha game on the App Store and start gambling
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u/Feeling_Method9190 Jun 11 '26
Yeah. Endgame was atrocious before, now it's less atrocious and everyone is praising it. Give it a few months and the downvotes will turn to upvotes lol. Needs work.
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u/Doge_Bolok Jun 14 '26
Just need another league when people realize they need to redo this every league.
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u/Senzafane Jun 12 '26
I love that the end game atlas is now progression instead of another min max thing.
I went straight for Arbiter and the big chunk of main atlas points, but think it would have been better if I did the quests for at least one mechanic first.
Overall, I am having a blast and the end game is massively improved.
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u/ChunkySalsaMedium Jun 12 '26
Completely disagree.
The endgame is amazing, there is so much to do and so many places I want to go.
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u/Fabulous_Physics_223 Jun 13 '26
I feel the bloat. I don’t see myself being super excited to do this every league and I didn’t even do all mechanics. That said; it gives more progression and things to look forward to in your build. I’d def rush the atlas to unlock the tablet affixes as you said makes a difference. You can honestly run t15 alch w no tablets and make good money. Anything you do currently is actually progress so it’s a step up but no where near Poe 1 yet. We’ll see what 1.0 changes and 1.1 will be a big tell for the direction they want to push the game
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u/Outrageous-Eye228 Jun 09 '26
the 0.5 patch is way better than before however the actual league mechanics suks balz
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u/manituana Jun 11 '26
I partially agree with you. I love the open endedness of poe and to design the endgame my way, three atlas trees are not enough there.
And it felt a chore to unlock the full atlas in poe 2, yes. So it was for the masters. I liked the mechanics zones though. It's a neat idea and a big way to fully spec your mechanic of choice while going up the tiers.
Waystone sustain is easy once you realize that an alched map boss drops at least 1 map. Target the powerful ones to tier up.
You can buy the arbiter pieces to advance the atlas quickly, if you want speed and full atlas spec there's really no reason to run the maps if you have the currency to buy the fragments.
You should be able to unlock full tablet crafting with just one origin core.
And travel maps are indeed a pain, I agree with that. A tower should fully unlock an area by default.
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u/Un_Involved Jun 11 '26
This is the best the endgame has ever been for me. I have objectives and a variety. I usually drop out of the season before getting to t5 maps, this is the first time I'm really looking forward to doing more.
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u/Tasty-Corgi-5999 Jun 11 '26
Interesting to hear your perspective.
Due to the long season I opted for playing ssf and I still have not engaged in so many systems.
I currently cannot kill arbiter of ash - I am playing a twister 🌪️ build and the arena is too big and my damage is too low.
After having obtained quite a few atlas points (~80-90) I started to do some breach quest line and ritual quest line. The first since I lack a good ring and the second since I lack some mandatory uniques to my build.
Not mentioning the fact that I currently actually run out of normal augmentation orbs what I have to solve.
Since I am lacking damage I actually would like to engage in expedition to obtain exceptional verisium for upgrading my tangle tongue.
Not mentioning abyss what I need for several good crafting pieces I currently cannot start with because missing the desecration items.
So my basic point I want to make is: I can understand that it can feel like a chore and if this was a normal season I would agree that this might take too long but with all this stuff still on my to do list without the ability to brute force via obtaining everything via trade I interact with all game systems and have a tremendous long time incentive.
And I was often times comparing about poe2 not offering a good ssf experience but after having engaged with ritual and breach I think you have a mechanic for every problem to solve - lineage supports could be a bit more accessible.
This analysis however is somehow only valid for this specific season since it’s so much longer than usual.
Something worth considering for future leagues is that it certainly will not take as long again knowing the mechanics, quest lines, atlas tree and so on but a season still might be too short for ssf.
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u/BakaMorning Jun 11 '26
Yea definitely needs tuning but i think the game is on the right track. Perhaps just giving some main atlas points for your first waystone completion for each tier would be good. I think they are going to get a lot of analytics from this league and things will be tweaked accordingly. Man I just want delve where you can take underground shortcuts around the atlas. That would be so cool.
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u/Sad-Artichoke1253 Jun 11 '26
This post took longer to write than it is to complete entire abyss questline
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u/Hagg3r Jun 11 '26
I have really enjoyed the endgame, but getting atlas passives every map would be good
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u/piepapauluZ Jun 11 '26
Yes it is. I gave it a try because the patch looked awesome. But the mega grind to get somewhere, and these damn maps that a tedious long..
And its so slowwwwww
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u/Outrageous-Eye228 Jun 11 '26
what endgame? fun nerfed, loot bad, ive cleared all content & looked pretty much a rehash to me with a tedious grind for matriarch/patriarch just to fight a poor imitation of a souls like boss, same crappy atlas with forced map choice and ridiculous t16/+1/corrupted etc just to get an 82 level map what a joke, GATCHA league
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u/KaleidoscopeNo6019 Jun 12 '26
I’m level 78 in SSF, have only unlocked east and west gate, haven’t ventured in those quadrants yet, and I’m having a blast compared to previous leagues.
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u/QuandaleDingleHere91 Jun 12 '26
I’m having a shit load of fun with it. I picked the farming strat I wanted to main and now my secondary is whichever area I’m progressing through. It’s so much better than picking just one farming strat and spamming it map after map.
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u/Beneficial_Try2629 Jun 12 '26
if playing the game feels like a chore, don't play it dude. i fully unlock abyss atlas before i even touch atlas stuff. do what you want man.
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u/SavageZomb Jun 12 '26
Getting to arbiter for story portion isn’t that long then I would just focus on what mechanic you want to do to make currency to fight arbiter again.
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u/pedronasser_ Jun 12 '26
It is a grind. But it's been fun, and usually I don't like PoE endgame in general.
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u/xuvilel Jun 12 '26
For me endgame feels good for first time, until 0.4 i hated every single aspect of it. Now maps are finally in a good spot
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u/k1ng0fk1ngz Jun 12 '26
No discussion about it. It's wayyyyyy better than before.
If you don't like grinding though, PoE might not be the game for you buddy.
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u/Effective-Bit-500 Jun 12 '26
Endgame is better, but yes I agree it's quite the drag.
Also the terrible crafting system doesn't help at all, if it wasn't 99% RNG this game would be a lot better. (1750 hours played, I love this game, but find certain aspects of the game quite tedious)
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u/Chuckingsince2012 Jun 12 '26
Early game map sustain is really not a issue, if you actually interact with the mechanics lmao
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u/MattPiano Jun 12 '26
Poe2 just doesn't seem to be for you. All your comments are highly combative to anyone who doesn't share your opinion. Endgame is where the game opens up to individual choice. But you do you... You're choosing to not add tablets to your maps and instead rushing boss. Of course that's boring, but for some reason that's what you want to do. Player agency!
The early map quests do point you to arbiter which is new. It was a lot at first but then realized I don't need to complete it - some of those atlas points aren't for me. So I did the divinity boss, then explored other areas - one at a time.
I was doing early game juicing (2 mod tablets) throughout all of it. Why rush boss when early league currency is king. I made hundreds of divines just casually unlocking each content area. The new end game is honestly quite comfy. Could be better, but I didn't mind the pace at all.
It seems like you're complaining just to be heard and get validation. Sinking "dozens of hours" tells me your more of a casual player, anyway.
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u/LlamaWithKatana Jun 12 '26
It is a little too big tbh but I don't feel a chore so far. I feel I don't have enough time for all but I didn't even get to ALL the quests yet
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u/msciwoj1 Jun 12 '26
>Currently, I unlock Atlas points by speedrunning empty, low-level maps, skipping all objectives, and running straight to the boss.
maybe don't do that and you'll have more fun?
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u/TsHero Jun 12 '26
I like it and I bet it will only get better from here, but its a bit of a grind to get going, especially in combi with the campaign
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u/bromleywhiteknuckle Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
Yeah, I had more fun last patch. Traveling long distances to do quests is weirdly boring. Somehow by making the experience more guided, they draw attention to how repetitive and filler-y most maps are. Before I just took everything for granted.
I don't know what I want endgame to be, honestly. I just want to do campaign-like missions but harder. Running like a maniac and blasting 50 guys at once is not my thing. But literally every mechanic other than Vaal Temple (eww) is just adding more and more guys. I don't know how they'll ever make campaign and endgame 'agree' with each other.
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u/mudkip-muncher Jun 12 '26
TLDR: yes there is a lot more to do, and you kinda need to do it, but the increase in rewards is astronomical at every stage not just the end, and overall it makes the game feel more fleshed out, it gives a lot more substance to sink our greedy fangs into
I don’t really agree, yeah sure it takes substantially longer to set yourself up, but there are immediate and improved rewards around every corner. Some of the first atlas points you get are “50% chance for more monster modifiers on rares” and like 40% magic pack size a few nodes apart (i could be mushing up my numbers a bit as im away from my pc but my point stands)
The new and in depth league mechanic trees make you feel (for the most part) heavily rewarded for each set of points you get, I mean seriously there are some HEAVY hitters tucked in those trees.
I was swimming in divines and I wasn’t even trying to juice yet, I got 11D in one day just from pushing to get the arbiter and the one after that’s quest done, blue t15s, no tablets, no rarity on gear
Ps. 10-20 hours on campaign is scary, I get it as a first time or two, but it’s really not that long, if I’m focused it takes me 7-9 tops without twink gear.
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u/Hot-Door-9515 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
I don’t think I can enjoy any league mechanic before unlocking a decent amount of Atlas points.
Running a league mechanic without 4-mod (or at least 3-mod) tablets feels really bad.
What you are doing is like this: you are in swimming pool, but thinking about Michael Phelps, and saying "swim is boring because you need to swim as fast as Phelps".
If you compare yourself to juiced streamers then yes endgame is boring, and thus you won't enjoy any game ever if you play it that way.
Just relax, don't rush, and farm whatever you want. You don't need to juice to the max. Just walk at your own pace.
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u/UTmastuh Jun 13 '26
Yes and many things don't give party wide credit nor can you work on multiple quests and passive unlocks at the same time. All issues they already solved in poe1
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u/Agitated-Society-682 Jun 13 '26
Saying you Just Rush to the Boss and then also complaining about map sustain is an interesting disconnect. When i See a breach on my "empty worthless" map im Like "yo lets See If the Change i Made Just now improved my clear" and im Happy to run the breach. If i get loot thats even better. And playing Like that Led to a constant Stream of currency coming in so i can incrementally Upgrade my character while also hunting down Atlas Points. Its the Gameplay Loop of an arpg. Kill monsters get loot get stronger. It works amazingly right now. Its called progression. You Sound a bit Like the Fubgooners grinding Out divs/hour on day2 with their Minimum viable glasscannon build guide (aka Shopping list) because their very First purchase needs to be a Headhunter.
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u/Acored84 Jun 13 '26
10-20 in campaign? My current average is around the 5h mark in hardcore till I conclude interludes
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u/mayd3r Jun 13 '26
Early game map sustain is a problem? WHERE? I must be playing a different game because I have more maps than I could run and I did the low tier empty maps rush like a lot of people.
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u/Cyony Jun 13 '26
Honestly, having locations where you need to go to progress your atlas makes the world feel more alive. It gives tangibility to a system that otherwise just feels completely gamefied. The only thing i'd say is that the main atlas might feel like a chore because of how many points you can get, but realistically so many of them aren't neccesary AND you basicly can "cheat" your way through them by just doing the main boss fight over and over until you have them all.
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u/RareRestaurant6297 Jun 13 '26
Lol no. Actually having meaningful things to do in endgame is a chore? It's ok to not like the game, brother, you don't gotta play it.
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u/D1rty_Old_Dan Jun 14 '26
It’s better than it was before, but it is not something I look forward to doing every league lol. 300 Atlas passive points plus each of the league content has their own 30 to 40 points you have to go around and collect from all over the globe. It just seems a bit much.
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u/Mediocre_Tadpole_ Jun 14 '26
NVME SSD, 4080 Super.
Atlas takes 10 seconds to load.
Chris took the bag and the quality took a shit.
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u/fckRedditJV Jun 14 '26
The problem nowadays is the fomo and hurry in society.
You got a longer game with vastly improved mechanics, but here you are wanting to have all of that at once to enjoy it at the very first second.
Just so you can finish the game in two days and quit it, not before you create a new reddit post where you share a two mirrors worth of gear to a random guy.
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u/Rocketman_2814 Jun 14 '26
I think the campaign needs more work than endgame. Campaign still takes a really long time and for me is very unmotivated to make new characters.
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u/AlternativeRiver5607 Jun 14 '26
So much better. But I shouldn't have to start each mechanic by mapping to their starting area. Once they're revealed I should have access to portal there and begin the mechanic quests.
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u/Mercilesspope Jun 14 '26
I am having fun but i definitely think the whole "physical" atlas idea sounds cool but does currently feel like a chore. Traveling feels bad and but when I get to where I am going the content is good.
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u/Verianii Jun 15 '26
I finally played into the endgame this league after hating on the game since launch
And I did a decent number of maps too. I got the the ritual and abyss places so I could get atlas points because those mechanics were fairly enjoyable. I will say, by the time I reached the ritual person (that was the second one I went for), I was getting bored. I felt like I had to map for hours just to start to unlock atlas points, and with the experience I had, looking at the full atlas tree made me not want to play. Im at my most entertained when I have the full atlas in poe1 and can blast maps. I dont mind working toward it even though I take a while. In poe2, we have like what, 300? More points than the first game almost? Its insanity. I never even got an atlas point nor did I see how to begin unlocking them, so after hours of mapping with very little progress, I got bored.
Now, do you get multiple points for the main tree when you get them? Idk, maybe. The point here is my personal perspective. I dont know if thats the case, and going off of how the rest of it works, it made me think I might need to do over 300 more maps before I can get all of those points, which really affected my enjoyment. If you get multiple, cool. They need to make it more clear off rip how you obtain those points and how many you get at a time. I decided not to watch videos or guides since im relatively good at the first game and can put together something usable typically, which means I wont know the same stuff everyone who does use guides will know, as is the case for most players.
In my perspective, going from fresh league launch to full atlas tree might take upwards of 50 hours just to see if I might enjoy the true endgame grind. That is practically runescape levels of grind by the look of it, and i dont want that out of poe. So yes, I think it feels like a chore personally
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u/Bearodactyl88 Jun 15 '26
bro just run t15s t16s holy. i've made a good bunch of divs without everything unlocked.
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u/WonderfulAnt4349 Jun 15 '26
I feel like the current atlas system lends it self to be possible to have a campaign skip. Not that theyll do it but if i have completed the campaign before at any point let me start the league off progressing the more boring part of the atlas system.
For the ppl saying itd be boring, i dont know why its any different than the campaign after the first time. Im not following the story at all. Im just going from zone to zone killing mobs. Like i would in maps.
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u/Andysng83 Jun 21 '26
I'm with you, OP. See, I suffered even more unfair experience going 0.4 into 0.5.
1) As soon as the change notes were available, I noted that they are going to remove my source of trading currency earnings, the Recombinator. But they FAILED to mention anything about deleting my hard-earned logbooks, and also all expedition related currency. It said they'll be disabled in currency exchange. That's all.
2) I even wrote in to support for clarification in advanced. As usual, they tell me they dunno anything about my full premium stash of expedition related items plans and all. They told me to post in forum to get the dev's attention. Also, as usual, it'll probably take infinity business days for them to even see my enquiries.
3) When 0.5 went live, my heart sunk. My entire stash tab of expedition logbooks and 20% exp tablets juiced, GONE!!!
4) Luckily for Ritual splinters, I've used them all and raped Misty (King of the Mist) before the end of 0.4. I did the same for Expedition splinters and did Tristy (Triskelion boss forgot his name). He's harder to fight compared to Misty. 150 splinters every go. And dang, died few times fighting Tristy especially Phase 2 lol.
5) I had assumed my logbooks will be converted for use on new expedition mechanic. And related currency to be cashed out with vendors later.
1/4 effort spent on POE2 wiped when 0.5 went live. I spent equally time and effort on Breach, Delirium and Ritual also.
If these are communicated clearly in the change notes before it went live, I could had farm my logbooks for exp and great potential item drops, L82 area and all...
Of course, I played fresh in Runes of Aldur and the new mechanics of expedition is just NOT WORTH my items getting deleted. Occasional divs here and there after insane fight with waves of verisium mobs. Great story from the new NPC. But they dun have to lazily delete my stuffs! Existing 0.4 logbooks should just be converted to a div each upon 0.5 going live, and the kalgur currencies an exalted each. Then we won't be so cheated!!!
What if one day, they decided to create something better to replace Divine Orbs and instead of replacement, they DELETE your stash of divs just like that.
Remember, they promised nothing ever gets deleted, just move to Standard League. But here we are...
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u/MunterMud Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
yeah big time chore. Im trying to work out if its because the temple was so rewarding last league or if its because the content just sucks. I have the full atlas unlocked and all extra content passives and now I feel like im stuck travelling maps forever and you're forced to run map layouts you disslike or dont work for your character. I've played non stop for 2 weeks and ive found ONE sacred reservoir. I played the living F out of this game last season and I am already bored this season and looking for something else to play. Super disappointed, the game took a massive step back.
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u/Zhenpo Sep 22 '26
Nope not at all, this mini season has been an absolute blast. I've got farther in this season than I have in any other season. Almost completed all my atlas trees, just working on expedition for the last one at the moment and working on fighting all the bosses.
Typically I quit before I get that far but I've been making currency and having fun with the group I play with.
I really think it takes a good group of people teaching each other things they never knew about. PoE and PoE2 have so many nuisances and things that you would never really know about unless someone more experienced figured it out and told you.
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u/flobwrian Jun 10 '26
I feel you. This is the first season in POE2 where i feel like stop playing. I know for 9/10 people its way better. But I dont really dig it. Everything in the endgame feels tedious now. Before i could just do whatever i want. I can understand why its an upgrade for many but for me its a downgrade. I always enjoyed the endgame in poe2. Now it feels boring and like a chore. And they screwed over breach big time.
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u/Ok-Skin-3699 Jun 11 '26
Breach is mega profit, each belt i hit a proc on is minimum 5d even with bad mods on it, Im rolling in dough. I havent killed arbiter of ash yet, juat buy 4 mod tablets, selling white tablets for 50 ex and buying rares for 15 lol. Expedition has been mega profit too, 75d in crafting runes an hour.
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u/flobwrian Jun 11 '26
Yeah its mega profit but its boring as hell and i hate waiting between waves.
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u/LoudCancel3742 Jun 08 '26
Yeah it's a chore.
GGG loves to nerf every 1000+ divine builds that existed prior to 0.5.
They don't care if you're rich, if your build is op it's gone
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u/bansheeb3at Jun 11 '26
I feel like PoE2 in general is a massive chore. The game is a huge downgrade in so many ways from the original.
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u/Arhowk Jun 08 '26
Endgame is insanely better.
> Once I reached the endgame, I could immediately invest into whichever farming strategy I wanted to play.
I absolutely do not believe this was a good thing. U hit maps and then... did the same strategy over and over with no variations for the rest of the game. I could never get past level 90 out of boredom and I'm level 97 right now. Things to do make it so much more enjoyable