Path of Exile 2 has plenty of people excited, but one issue keeps dragging every conversation back into the mud. It's not bosses. It's not loot. It's the question of whether players should have to replay the whole campaign on every new character. For a lot of people, that old routine starts to wear thin fast, especially once they're thinking about new builds, new classes, and farming PoE 2 Currency instead of running the same story beats again. You can feel the split everywhere. Some players see the campaign as part of the game's identity. Others see it as a speed bump that gets in the way of the part they actually logged in for.
Why players are frustrated
The complaints aren't hard to understand. The first run matters. It sets the mood, teaches the systems, and gives the world some weight. That part's fine. The problem shows up on character two, then three, then four. At that point, the campaign doesn't feel fresh anymore. It feels like admin. You're not making meaningful choices. You're just clearing familiar zones so you can finally reach the build you wanted to test from the start. A lot of modern ARPG players don't mind grinding. They signed up for that. What they do mind is being told to repeat a fixed path before the real experimentation can begin.
Why veterans push back
Older Path of Exile players usually aren't arguing just to be difficult. From their side, the campaign creates structure. It slows progression, makes early gearing matter, and stops fresh characters from feeling disposable. There's some truth in that. If every alt could jump straight ahead with no effort, the game might lose part of its rhythm. Still, that doesn't mean the only answer is full repetition forever. A lot of the heat in this debate comes from treating it like an all-or-nothing choice, when it really doesn't have to be. There's room between “start from scratch every time” and “press one button and skip everything.
A better way to handle alts
A smarter system would ask players to earn a shorter route rather than hand them a free pass. That's why so many people keep pointing to Last Epoch. Its approach works because the player is still involved. You unlock faster progression through actions, not by ticking a box on a menu. Path of Exile 2 could do something similar with milestone clears, account-wide unlocks, or side content that lets later characters bypass selected campaign sections. That would keep the first playthrough important while making later ones less of a slog. It also fits the way people actually play these games now. They want to tinker, compare setups, reroll often, and maybe buy Divine Orb when they're shaping a build, not spend another night walking the same road for the fifth time.
