Patch 0.3.0 for Path of Exile 2 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment, but there are still areas where meaningful changes are needed to elevate the experience. Most Exiles indicated that new changes were needed in the 0.3.0 league, including Skill Balance, Economy, and so on.
Economy
First and foremost—and I believe this is the biggest issue impacting player retention—the state of the economy is out of control. Exalt prices have skyrocketed, currently trading at around 2,000 exalts to a divine. This inflation has been rampant since the beginning. It started at just four or five exalts per divine in week one, and by the end of that week, it had already surged to around 80. That trend has only continued.
What this means is that casual players can't keep up. If you take a weekend off and miss a couple of days of trading, you're out of luck. Prices have shifted, inflation has surged, and now you have to reprice everything. With only a couple of hours to play, you'll spend a significant chunk of that time adjusting listings—or you'll skip it entirely. Either way, you're unlikely to earn the divines needed to progress your build, and eventually, you stop playing.
The economy is suffering from two major issues. Divine-to-mirror ratios are now approaching absurd levels—around 3,000—which makes them unattainable unless you've been grinding all league or you're deep into endgame crafting. One potential fix could be a crafting bench that allows players to offload early-game currencies. For example, spending 50 exalts for a deterministic trade would help drain excess PoE 2 currency from the system and slow inflation.
The other thing that would really help offline trading is just being able to buy things from someone from their stash. So you don't have to be online all the time to make these trades. It's really unfriendly, and it hurts the economy.
Skill Balance
Next up, we have to talk about the build's diversity. It is terrible. It was bad in League One, where we had everyone basically playing a Tempest Spell, Gemling, Legionnaire, or Spark Sorceress. And then this league, we've got a return of the Spark Sorceress in the form of a blood mage. Everything that we were playing that was good enough for endgame has been nerfed completely out of the game. And what they've added is Lightning Spear, showing that about 50% of players are playing that. We've got four Ascendancies holding 50% of all players, and everyone's using the same skills. If you look at the passive heat map, everybody is on the evasion, lightning crit side of the tree. Hardly anyone's playing anything else. This isn't healthy for the game. It's not healthy for the economy. It means everyone's chasing just the same rares with the same stats. And that's all that 50% of the players are even buying. And it is because that's the only viable build for endgame. This forgets everything you know, nonsense. Tune down things that are broken. Please don't remove them from the game entirely. I think it's fundamentally hurting the player base. I've played the one class, and I've won the game with the one class. I'm not going to be able to achieve that greatness with anything else. It's an off-putting feeling. And I think that the way that things were nerfed, particularly things that were good.
Lastly, there is the Tempest spell, Tempest Flurry, and the PoE 2 items that made those builds work. I think taking all of that out in one sweeping hit has done horrible things for the game. It's got as much diversity. It doesn't feel like it's got as many options as things that are actually viable in the endgame of this league. And I do hope that trend doesn't continue. If, in the next league, 60% of the people are playing the same class, everything else has been nerfed, and everyone's playing the one new thing, that's not going to be very fun.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Patch 0.3.0 marks a critical juncture for Path of Exile 2. While the new content—like the Druid class, Act 4 expansion, and crafting overhaul—adds exciting layers to the game, deeper systemic issues still need urgent attention. The economy remains volatile, build diversity is stifled, and core systems like ascendancies and trading lack the polish needed for long-term engagement. If Grinding Gear Games wants PoE 2 to thrive beyond its initial hype, they must prioritize balance, accessibility, and meaningful choice. Without these changes, even the most passionate players may find themselves sidelined—not by difficulty, but by design.
