CRAFTING SHOULD NOT BE RNG, OTHERWISE IT'S NOT CRAFTING

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First Input:

Let’s be real here:
Right now, "crafting" in PoE2 is like shaking a magic 8-ball and praying for "Your item will be OP." It's not crafting. It's not even close. It's gambling in a robe, holding a Chaos Orb like a deck of cursed Uno cards.

if we get a decent weapon, we only have a few tools to improve it (ill mention some of them): Exalted, Chaos, and Divine. Here's how they work, and here's the problem:

1. Exalted Orb:
You want to add a mod. This is fine, it's RNG, yes, but it doesn't break the item. You’re just adding a new prefix or suffix. No issue here.

2. Chaos Orb:
You want to change something. But this is where the system becomes completely random. It rerolls everything, the prefix, suffix, and even the stat. You could go from something useful like Physical Damage to “Light Radius”.

At this point, it's not crafting,it’s gambling.

A better idea: Chaos should let us pick the prefix or suffix we want to reroll, not throw the whole item into a dice cup.

3. Divine Orb:
You want to adjust numbers, but it randomly picks which mod to reroll. Again, not crafting. This is rolling dice on top of your existing dice rolls.

Better approach: Let us choose which stat we want to reroll. Simple. Logical. Actually useful.

Note:
Then again its still gambling with better approach, atleast closer to crafting, we have some control over it.

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Second Input:

So what should crafting actually look like?
Here’s a proper system that would make more sense and feel like actual progression, we the player have control over it, and we as a player know it as crafting:
-Transmutation Orb : Add a random prefix
-Augmentation Orb : Add a random suffix
-Alchemist Orb : Add 4 random suffix/prefix
-Regal Orb : Upgrade one affix to Tier 1–3
-Exalted Orb : Upgrade one affix to Tier 4–6
-Chaos Orb : Upgrade one affix to Tier 7–8
-Divine Orb : Upgrade one affix to Tier 9–10
-Vaal Orb : The only true gamble: can change suffix/prefix, can change tiers, break or exceed into T11–T12

Note:
If you call something "crafting," it should mean player-controlled improvement, not slot-machine results.
The current system doesn't let us craft. It lets us hope.

That’s why people don’t engage deeply with crafting unless they’re ready to burn through stacks of currency just to MAYBE land one usable mod.

Crafting should feel like building a weapon, not praying over it.
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Update: I divided the 2 section

First Input: Some sort of control over crafting. not a complete RNG Fest.
Second Input: Full control over crafting

Note:
The core point of this post is simple: players should either have some meaningful control or full control over crafting. That's the heart of it.
It’s about respecting player time. Not everyone enjoys gambling on every upgrade attempt. Some like it, some don’t. A good system can serve both.

the current crafting system seems intentionally designed as aversion therapy for gambling addicts. It's the only logical conclusion I can draw from how bad it is.

I 1000% agree with OP. Even if you could SELECT a mod to change, it would STILL take a lot of currency to get it to be good. Look at Last Epoch. You have determinism up to mid tier, then to get perfect items it still takes a ton of time and RNG, but it's CONTROLLED RNG, so you feel like you actually have a chance to get something useful. I feel so disheartened with poe 2 crafting. I've been playing last epoch and the things LE does right are so obvious and massive it makes me sad... The combat in poe 2 feels great. Everything else feels awful. If streamers that normally grind 12 hours a day are quitting, that should tell you how unrewarding it is.

Not to harp on the obvious LE comparisons too much but the forging mechanic for LE seems like actual proper crafting. Granted im only 40 there but actually picking the modifers I want on my item is a world of difference.

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Imezruez2#3129 написал:

the current crafting system seems intentionally designed as aversion therapy for gambling addicts. It's the only logical conclusion I can draw from how bad it is.

Hah, that’s one way to put it, “Congratulations, you’re cured! You now hate gambling and your item!”
Honestly, though, it really does feel like the system punishes any attempt at focused progression. Like, you just want a decent weapon, not an existential crisis every time you click a Chaos Orb.

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mathius777#7973 написал:

I 1000% agree with OP. Even if you could SELECT a mod to change, it would STILL take a lot of currency to get it to be good. Look at Last Epoch. You have determinism up to mid tier, then to get perfect items it still takes a ton of time and RNG, but it's CONTROLLED RNG, so you feel like you actually have a chance to get something useful. I feel so disheartened with poe 2 crafting. I've been playing last epoch and the things LE does right are so obvious and massive it makes me sad... The combat in poe 2 feels great. Everything else feels awful. If streamers that normally grind 12 hours a day are quitting, that should tell you how unrewarding it is.

Exactly. We're not asking to create perfect gear instantly, we just want some control. Right now, even after spending tons of currency, we end up with something worse than we started with. The system punishes you for trying. If you get one bad mod and try to fix it, the whole item falls apart. That’s not crafting, that’s sabotage. Everything feels like it's actively trying to break your spirit.

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masskillers#5403 написал:

Not to harp on the obvious LE comparisons too much but the forging mechanic for LE seems like actual proper crafting. Granted im only 40 there but actually picking the modifers I want on my item is a world of difference.

Right? Even just being able to pick what mod you’re working on changes the entire experience. It feels like you're building something with intention, not rolling dice and praying to the RNG gods for mercy. Crafting should be about decisions, not desperation. Honestly, if PoE2 let us just pick one mod at a time to modify, the whole system would feel 10x better instantly.

Repeat after me:

Crafting as you see in other games has no place in a looting game.

Imagine if you could just use gold in Diablo 2 to craft any item you want...

Real crafting just has absolutely no place in games like PoE and would be a very, very, very, very stupid idea to implement such a thing.

"Crafting" in ARPGs was always about using certain items in combination to ROLL something that has more chance to be what you want.

Randomness when getting items is the CORE of ARPGs

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Gordyne#2944 написал:

Repeat after me:

Crafting as you see in other games has no place in a looting game.

Imagine if you could just use gold in Diablo 2 to craft any item you want...

Real crafting just has absolutely no place in games like PoE and would be a very, very, very, very stupid idea to implement such a thing.

"Crafting" in ARPGs was always about using certain items in combination to ROLL something that has more chance to be what you want.

Randomness when getting items is the CORE of ARPGs

Repeat after me:

Random ≠ Fun. Random ≠ Crafting.

Nobody’s asking to hand-pick perfect gear like it’s a Skyrim mod screen. What people want is a semblance of control. If I spend 50 chaos trying to fix one stat on my helmet and end up light radius, that’s not exciting, it’s exhausting.

Looting can still be random. Drops can be random. But crafting should let me push something closer to what I want, not send it through a slot machine every time. If randomness is the only design pillar left, then PoE2 is less of a game and more of a gacha with extra steps.

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Gordyne#2944 написал:

Repeat after me:

Crafting as you see in other games has no place in a looting game.

Imagine if you could just use gold in Diablo 2 to craft any item you want...

Real crafting just has absolutely no place in games like PoE and would be a very, very, very, very stupid idea to implement such a thing.

"Crafting" in ARPGs was always about using certain items in combination to ROLL something that has more chance to be what you want.

Randomness when getting items is the CORE of ARPGs

if you don't like it don't USE it but don't penalize the rest of us that aren't pain junkies.