Loot is the #1 problem right now

Ruthless loot is awful, and it is what we have.

Vets are not used to having to trade for gear in act 1/2, new players don't like the 3rd party site, and if they do probably have no idea how to use the filters correctly, or even what to look for. Same goes for loot filters, and if they do use one they probably just use basic neversink which is great for PoE1 but godawful for PoE2. You need to have bases specifically for you build highlighted, you need to pick up every white/blue item, and even then maybe 1 out 20 white items you trans/aug turn into something like good life or def + res, and then you don't even have enough trans/aug to roll everything, you def don't have enough regals to gamble these, and you would be retarded to use exalt after that point.

I broke down and started traded the few ex I did find and turning it into 2 mod pieces of gear and the game is significantly like maybe 3x easier with 50%+ resists, and a weapon with 80%+ phys roll or +2/3 to gems for level scaling builds. But most players right now are wearing rags, using a weapon thats 10+ levels below them with bad rolls and no amount of nerfs to monsters or buffs to skills is going to fix this problem, you are still going to have wildly different experiences based on RNG, and for most its going to be bad.

You have to hoard the few alch/ex you get while leveling and turn that into power via poe.trade even in act 1 if you want any sense of smooth progression. And im not saying you need twink gear or even good rares, you just need like 2 mod gear, and keep your weapon and chest updated. You are simply not going to do this SSF, and if you do it requires constant vendor checks, a VERY GOOD TAILORED loot filter, not something you are going to have access to as a new or casual or even mid player probably, and honestly there's still a good chance you get fucked with bad rng, waste the few orbs you do have and still have to eat shit, I know because I leveled in ssf in 0.1 and was forced to play a build I didn't want to because the only chance in hell I had was going gem leveling scaling build with a +3 wep I found, I was not getting any good phys weps, with a loot filter that highlighted my bases, checking vendors, selling everything, and gambling.

If you keep nerfing monsters, buffing things to placate people, you are still going to have this problem where a majority of the playerbase hates trading, isn't going to want to pick up white bases/blues constantly ID and fail at """Crafting""" and have a loot filter to facilitate that (basic filters DO NOT work in poe 2 for this). And the end result is people that do are going to be exponentially stronger than those that don't, and you are going to get wildly different feedback and experiences in the campaign. I'm about to finish act 3, and the only gear im wearing that I didn't get off poe.trade is 2 rings and an amulet I found in act 1 (stuff like +6 str, mana regen, +20 life etc) and some horribly mid helmet I found in act 2 that I just haven't got around to swapping out since im staved for trading currency and upgrading weapon/chest is more important atm.

Like you could give everyone 200% IIR in campaign and new/casual players would still probably struggle its that bad right now. If you are playing self imposed SSF because you don't like the outside systems like custom loot filters or trade site you are playing the game on hell mode, and its probably 3-4x harder than it needs to be. Act 2 boss is a joke with 50%+ light res and a weapon within 5 levels of you with a single good roll on it, but most players are probably going in with absolute dogshit and now instead of 1-2 minute fight where maybe only the wind phase in phase 1, and the sound que attacks in phase 2 might kill you, you are instead fighting him for 5 minutes, and every single ability he does is deadly. Players have to have a path to power progression in the campaign that doesn't involve constant trading via an outside website, or deep knowledge of the game + custom loot filter tailored to their build or the feedback every new fresh economy is going to be the same