What do you love/hate about PoE?

In light of all the "RIP mapping" salt, I'd like to know what people love or hate about PoE in general.

Love:
The crazy power gains of a new character when they first start mapping.
Challenging challenges and end-game fights like Uber Atziri, Shaper, and the Hydra challenge last league.
Seeing the Uber Lab loot explosion when you get nine keys.
Seeing a valuable drop like an exalted orb, the doctor, or taste of hate.
The new shaper/elder influence in maps.
Crafting (even though I'm bad at it).
Feeling powerful when mapping (like on KB wander or starforge cyclone).
Trading/haggling (I'm weird, I know).
Teamwork - I really enjoy playing in a group.
Path of Building (not technically PoE but it's so fun moving nodes around and trying to min/max as much as possible).

Hate:
Backtracking in maps when you're trying to maximize profit.
Running the same map over and over.
Leveling through Act 3.
Using IIQ - I hate having to play a weaker version of my character to maximize profits.
Not using IIQ - I hate not being able to run expensive maps with my full power because it's a waste of currency.
Price fixers.
Scammers.
Six portals regardless of party size - I wish for SC at least that each party member would have access to their own set of portals so that we're not punished for trying to work together. I'd also prefer that enemy hp scaled dynamically with the number of people in the map at the time.

All in all, I love PoE and think they're taking it in the right direction. If I had my wish, they'd change IIQ to be purely based on difficulty and not come from gear at all. So what are your lists?

Love:

The business model. No P2W. All MTX are cosmetic.

The constant attention to the community and to the game itself. It's obvious they really care about this game, even if you don't always agree with their decisions or changes

I've been playing since beta, overall it's a great game that keeps adding content and trying to improve. It's hard to not love that.


Hate:

The state of the game now... there's so much to say here, but it isn't really hate so much as disappointment.. but I hate disappointment so...


Uniques -

Drops need to be level of area/map. Killing a T15 boss and getting a terrible low level item is fucking dumb. Why are those items even in the drop pool at high levels? I'd rather get nothing than another shit item. It just says "yea, we don't really care what you want"

Uniques need to be fully re-worked or removed from the game.

The current map system. It's garbage. If you don't play it exactly the right way (sextants, etc), you get almost nothing for your time. So much for choices. Maps that drop should never be more than 1-2 levels below current. Just make it a simple +/- 1-2 of current level. Why are they intentionally gating content from players?

No AH. Ok, so GGG has said plenty of times there will be no auction house. Fine, don't have one, but you can still have offline player purchase set up through a master or some such NPC in your HO. Offline sales with a price tracking tool so you know you aren't getting robbed would be so damn easy that it's simply insulting that we don't have it or something like it already. The vast majority of players want a safe reliable way to trade.

Master leveling. It's stupid and what's worse.. NOT FUN. Change all master leveling based on your level (maybe not Zana, but faster than now). Every 10 levels I get, my masters go up 1. It's fair, it's balanced for racing and you don't have to level your masters EVERY FUCKING NEW LEAGUE. Keep daily rewards for the points to buy HO cosmetics for those that like to do that.


OK, this one get's difficult to express as I'm not sure how I feel about it or what can be done, I only know it bothers me the most of all my issues...

I play the temp leagues to try the new content and to get access to the temp league only items.
All temp league items go to standard after the league ends.
I don't play standard. I don't know what percentage of players do, but I suspect it's fairly low (I could easily be completely wrong about this)
So all my effort to attain items and currency are wasted because I don't follow them to standard (my choice, I know)
I do it over and over again with each new league

I could play standard, but then I'd miss out on any content or items that do not come to standard.

It's a catch 22 that I can no longer get past. I have lost the excitement of the game, despite all it's good points. This constant chase with no reward has worn me down and I just don't care about Path any more.

Bestiary looks cool. Lots of new content, lots of game changes and I just don't care because it seems pointless, to me.


My only suggestion about all that would be that it would be amazing if the leagues weren't separated from standard somehow. I know that seems impossible, and probably is, and even if it isn't impossible, GGG will never do it. but bear with me.

When a new league starts, have 2 versions.

Version 1 - just like it is now; rewards included for "player x is first to X", challenge completions, etc.

Version 2 - connected to standard by means of characters and all gear in your current standard game. There are no rewards of any kind, just access to the new content. There is no "unfair head start" because there is no race.

I know none of that will ever happen.


Thanks for reading my wall o'text

To preface this, I'm a newbie at this game, coming from playing Final Fantasy 14, WoW, and Runescape, with periods of playing D3 and D2 as well. That said:

Love:

• Skill Tree. Good god, man! Way more things to do in the tree than in Diablo 3 or 2. If I was to ever get a tattoo, it'd be this (unfeasible though it is).
• The shared stash. You start with 4 "pages" of stash space. None such in Diablo 2 and in Diablo 3 you get one page, but you have to pay for more (with in-game currency, which isn't that hard to get, but still,... )
• The gem system. The possibilities are nearly endless. I can't recall having this much to work with in D3/D2. I feel like a kid in a candy store in this game.
• The fact that this game was made in, of all places, New Zealand. And not in Japan or the United States or Korea etc. Nice to see great games coming from more obscure countries for once.
• Microtransactions. It's all either cosmetic or stash related. No pay-to-win (I played a few games that were like this. No fun at all).
• Maps! I'm nowhere near the end-game, but if those maps are all RNG it looks like the end-game will have some staying power with me. Unlike D3 or D2, where it was the same exact thing over and over.
• I like the crafting system as well, more than Diablo 3 or 2, but no crafting system comes close to Final Fantasy 14's, which in my opinion is second to none (given the few games I've played).

Hate:
• Can't move UI parts around, change their size etc. like you can in WoW or Final Fantasy 14. UI is basically an eyesore to me.
• The fact that, in HC, when you die your character just gets moved to softcore instead, although I'd understand why they would (getting DCed or AFKing or something beyond your control). Crazy as it might sound, I actually want my character to be dead and gone and wiped from the game because, to me, that's HARDCORE (as a workaround for this, I just delete my character immediately, but still,.... ). If I wanted to play softcore I'd be playing softcore. :\

There's probably more loves/hates I have, but I can't think of any at the moment.

Love: Most of it.

Hate: Lack of balance at times.

Love leveling
Hate endgame
Map layouts are boring and endgame leveling feels stale
Dont get me wrong , a weak endgame is better then no endgame, at least...

Hate: the grind.
Love: the grind.
uuuhhhh...

Jmus... Your "hates" can mostly be cured by playing SSF. Can't help you with act III.

Hate and love the map system ^^

Love - the game

Hate - the players

Yeah, I should add:

Hate: Rolling maps and general micro management of map system.