Player power - level progression - new player experience

Gearing Progression, Player Power, and New Player Experience

One of the biggest current issues is player power being heavily tied to gear
A big reason for this is that new players don’t understand systems like the passive tree, so that complexity i believe got shifted onto gear instead.
This ends up affecting the broader player base overall

Why this matters?

Future-proofing the game:
If 80–90% of power comes from gear, there’s little room to introduce new unique prefix/suffix modifiers in the future.

Limits creative build design:
Restricts the ability to build around uniques
and if there was less travel nodes potentially more unique builds that can grab nodes from all sides of the tree.

Weakens level-up impact as the skill tree feels less meaningful
You rarely feel stronger on level-up unless it’s a major node (e.g. Blood Magic, +1 totem, CI)

The passive tree in PoE 2 is arguably more overwhelming than PoE 1
This is despite 4 classes still missing,
The tree is already extremely large and It will likely grow even more as additional classes are introduced

There are too many travel nodes
Fewer impactful/interesting nodes to aim for

Potential Direction for Improvement
Reduce dependency on gear
Remove roughly 1/3 of the nodes on the tree
Combine power into more impactful nodes
Introduce something similar to “masteries”

Result:
Less confusion
More meaningful progression
Shifting Power Back to the Player

With better onboarding power could shift away from gear and back into:
Skill tree
Ascendancies
Skill gems
This would be more in line with PoE 1
Helps bridge the gap between informed and uninformed players

Proposed Idea: Structured Class Mode

Not traditionally a Path of Exile feature (sandbox freedom), but there’s room to better support new players
Add an optional class-based mode alongside the current freeform system
Does not replace sandbox, acts as a guided alternative

How it would work

When selecting a class (e.g. Warrior)
Showcase the relevant ascendancies
skills and weapon types tied to that class

Present:
A condensed skill tree (~1/4 of full tree), or
Highlight relevant sections while fading out the rest

Skills in this mode could be soul bound with a higher baseline power to ensure campaign completion but nothing too crazy.

Show only class-relevant skills and supports while leveling
preset loot filter for said class

Each class should have a baseline setup capable of clearing the full game but can opt out of said preset class if they feel comfortable.

Reflecting on my first-time experience from years ago:
No clear direction without watching multiple guides/videos

this could be alleviated by having predefined baseline classes

Not to restrict players, but to teach core systems through structured experience like the Skill tree, Scaling and progression of the end game.

Also Reduce the reliance on third-party tools (PoB, build guides, etc.) on first playthrough and maybe shift the player power back to the player not as heavily on the gear.

Ye they could do that.
Or a player could watch an yt video and get same info.

Cool qol for the future game polishing after the release.