Concerns About Death Penalty and Progression in Endgame

Hey GGG and fellow Exiles,

I wanted to share some feedback and get thoughts from the community regarding the current experience (XP) penalty system in PoE 2, particularly as it relates to the endgame.

Right now, once you hit the endgame, progression feels heavily stalled—not by difficulty alone, but by how deaths are handled. Losing a chunk of your earned experience every time you die creates a really frustrating wall. It can feel like you’re not progressing at all, especially during tough boss fights or challenging content where learning the mechanics often involves dying a few times.

I understand the intent might be to reward mastery and minimize reckless play, but this kind of penalty punishes experimentation and learning. It can also make the grind feel more punishing than rewarding, especially for more casual or time-limited players.

Could we consider alternatives? Maybe:

A cap on how much XP you can lose per day or per level

A forgiveness mechanic where your first death in a certain time period doesn't cost XP

A more gradual XP loss curve based on level or map tier

I’d love to hear how others feel about this. Does the current death penalty system encourage careful play, or does it make you want to stop playing altogether once you start hitting the wall?

Thanks for reading.

Its a difficult thing to balance design wise. If theres a small punishment, people will see it as a defensive layer (poe1frogs already do). If its too punishing, it can lead to burnout and hurt player retention. I believe that exp loss is fine, mainly cause the amount of exp you earn times the exp loss per death shouldn't be nowhere close. If they are, it means that something is severely wrong with your build (especially early into maps, you level pretty fast) and should start looking into it. I say this not to accuse people of skill issue, but rather as a motivator to keep pushing and upgrading the character in terms of gear.

If anything, what genuinely bothers me is losing item drops, especially during the campaign. My current character died killing a rogue exile and it was very upsetting to lose a unique item and rare rings.