Instanced Loot + Party Matchmaking — the two features that would make group play actually work
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Group play in PoE2 has real potential but two missing features make it impractical for most players, especially those without an existing friend group or guild. This post proposes both, explains why they work together, and addresses the most common counterarguments.
Problem 1: Loot is shared, which makes grouping with strangers a bad experience Currently all loot drops into a shared pool. Even with allocation settings, this creates friction — items can be sniped in free-for-all, short allocation requires trusting strangers to be fair, and permanent allocation means standing around waiting. The result is that most players avoid grouping with anyone they don't already know personally, which makes the social layer of an always-online game largely unused. The fix is straightforward: instanced loot. Each player in a party receives their own independent loot rolls from the same monster, visible only to them, automatically allocated without any timers or trust required. Items remain tradeable as normal — a player can choose to trade or drop something for a party member, but strangers never compete for the same drop and never even see what others received. This does not affect the economy. Each player is already receiving random drops when playing solo — instanced party loot gives each player the same equivalent solo rolls, just while playing together. No duplication, no inflation, no new items entering the economy beyond what the same players would have found in separate solo sessions. Problem 2: The notice board party system is not a party finder The existing notice board lets players manually post and browse party listings. This requires both players to be in town simultaneously, one to post and one to browse, then manually send and accept an invite, then travel to the same instance. In practice almost nobody uses it, which is why the third-party PoE community relies on Discord servers with LFG channels instead — an external workaround for a missing in-game feature. What is actually needed is matchmaking: a player opts in, selects what content they want to run (endgame maps, specific league mechanics, campaign range), and gets matched with others who selected the same. No manual browsing, no whisper exchanges, no coordination outside the game. An API endpoint exposing party listing data publicly would also allow the third-party tool community to build on top of this immediately, without GGG needing to build a full matchmaking UI from scratch as a first step. Addressing common counterarguments
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"This would cause aurabot abuse in random groups." Aurabot builds require deliberate coordination between players who know each other and have specifically built around the role. Nobody queues into a random group on an aurabot build. Random matchmaking would actually reduce coordinated min-maxing, not enable it. "Power gaps between players would make the experience bad." Power gaps already exist in every manually-formed group today. Matchmaking does not create this problem, it just changes how the group forms. Optional content tags (map tier range, softcore/hardcore) give players enough filtering to find reasonably matched groups without needing complex MMR systems. "Campaign state mismatch makes matchmaking complicated." Restricting matchmaking to endgame maps sidesteps this entirely as a first implementation. Campaign co-op can remain as-is for players who want to manually coordinate with friends. "PoE is designed as a solo or small-group game." Party play is already in the game, guild systems exist, the notice board exists. The infrastructure acknowledges group play as a supported mode — the missing piece is just making it accessible without requiring players to already know each other outside the game. Summary Instanced loot removes the friction that makes grouping with strangers a bad experience. Party matchmaking (or at minimum a public API for party listings) makes finding a group possible without external tools. Neither feature changes the game's core economy or design — they just make an existing supported feature usable for the average player, not just those with established friend groups or guild connections. Both have been standard in the ARPG genre for over a decade. PoE2 is a better game than its party system currently suggests. Last bumped on Apr 10, 2026, 8:14:12 PM
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*deleted* but I still don't see that big of an issue with permanent allocation to be honest^^
Last edited by Supercow_X#7071 on Apr 10, 2026, 7:30:25 PM
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Ok, I misunderstood how that works. Permanent allocation prevents stealing but is not enabled by default so new players might miss it, and there are loot distribution problems noted in other threads like https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3649456, but for the most part, permanent allocation solves problem 1.
TLDR of the distribution problem:
Spoiler
The math is slightly different from a true instanced approach, but I am not sure how this works in practice(from a quick search): items dropped are increased by ~28% per additional party member, but currency dropped is increased by 100% per party member, so it seems on paper that players get less loot when grouped which incentivises solo play more.
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