Stash tabs and slots (or lack thereof) are not the problem; they are a symptom. The fact is that each league adding a dozen-plus new items to loot, save, craft, combine, trade, juice maps with, or otherwise use is unsustainable.

100% agree. The content, individually, is fun, but this kind of item and mechanic bloat is terrible for the long-term health of the game. The divination cards are a special case, I think, but the others all add substantially to this problem.

For most people on the subreddit, who are generally playing considerably more than the average person, the mechanics may not seem like a big problem. This is especially true for those of us who have been around for the leagues that spawned them--for us, it was a gradual increase, with plenty of time to absorb everything bit by bit. On the other hand, I can't imagine being a new player these days and trying to come to terms with so damn many bits and pieces of systems that you randomly encounter while also learning the core mechanics of the game and the passive tree, which are not simple.

Complexity has always been a hallmark of PoE, one that keeps many of us engaged and entertained when simpler games like D3 do not. But that complexity needs to have a purpose in the greater scope of the game, like the passive tree and skill gems do. Complexity for its own sake is never good.

Hmmm I'm pretty sure YES or NO is the right anwer here, but it seems like a trick question...

I'll probably get downvoted hard for that, but I really wish PoE 2 introduce a hard reset on many league mechanics except very unintrusive ones (such as shrines, exiles, strongboxes etc) and making the most important league currencies core as normal drops (looking at maybe catalysts).

When you take into account GGG is owned by Tencent and their prime directive is "make as much money as possible while cutting as many corners as possible" it makes sense they are pushing out barely playable content every 3 months solely as an excuse to put out new limited time MTX to prey on their whales. Player enjoyment is low on the list of priorities.

As i always teach new players i come across while trying to help them and so on that its much easier to focus on one thing get used to it and learn it then move to another.

This is what i always do, start with the main league encounter in story-and beyonds since its in every area while doing the requirements for main quest.

I then slowly move for delve, empty the sulphite, then return to mapping while running alva in between(only alva)

Essences? Just use them to craft your early gear, and ignore it completely unless you wanna focus on them.

Divination card are indeed qualified for the job, but only a few are worth it if you don't have divination tab.

And so on, i explain and tell them how to do it efficiently.

Yeah it may not be the best course of action to almost always add league mechanics into the core game in full. I mean, out of the last ten leagues, Bestiary got simplified, Synthesis got culled to almost nothing.. but the other eight basically got added full-fledged, with just their spawn chance tuned down.

I daresay that if any of them had been simplified, people who loved them might have been upset. But you're right - we don't need that many tiers of essences, we just need a few, to cover leveling, high level, and stretch goal. Oils could have been trimmed into a small number (common, uncommon, rare, very rare) with anointing being like a crafting menu, with prices. Alchemical and Chaotic resonators could have been combined. Delirium orbs could be simplified, imagine one that could give weapons, armour or trinkets rewards, another that could give maps, fragments or scarabs.

Hard to fix now, though. Although I guess, if you did the trim, you could replace items in Standard with their merged versions.

I'd say yes to most of those. But I also think a loot filter tailored to your specifics helps with some of that, not to mention the other clutter not related to leagues.

Looking at what is present - I think the leagues that don't provide any real value any more are Metamorph, Essence, and wild Talisman drops (Jorgin is fucking awesome, keep him). Lots of leagues don't really have specific things any more, like Beyond or Harbinger, those are great.

Divination cards are really annoying to me. They are a shortcut to getting what would otherwise be exclusive items from specific locations. But they are paid for by supporters, so it's hard to do anything about them.

I also think they should do away with letting league mechanics drop other specific league mechanics. Like, some Delirium things randomly drop an entire Breachstone, that seems messed up compared to what you normally have to do to farm them.