Advice on Trading System in Path of Exile

As a longtime players in PoE, I love this game very much. But what make me uncomfortable is the trading system in this game which has no Auction House or similar in-game trading method because it brings too much uncertainty and hinders your progression. I think developers should implement in-game trading method such as Auction House. 

Some people make the argument against bringing back Auction House. This argument can take a few different forms, but it basically boils down to it would make getting gear too easy. In fact, trading doesn’t make getting gear easier. Getting gear without trading in PoE isn’t difficult. It’s random. There is no difficulty involved in many players picking up a valuable unique item if it happens to drop after they kill a pack of monsters. It is purely dependent on RNG and nothing more.

As for the remark that an auction house would lead to hyper-inflation of prices on top-end items, this is extremely unlikely to happen. Currency in PoE isn't gold coins that sit there and don't do anything. Currency can be used to craft items. So prices on even the best items in the game will never rise beyond a certain point, because if they did no one would buy them, they'd simply craft their own instead.

Further, with the way the game is structured now, progression in the endgame requires trading if you don’t want to be completely at the mercy of RNG. You can play solo self-found, but if you do, your progression will be stunted compared to if you trade. Endgame is a completely different story. To upgrade your gear in the endgame, you have three options: random drop, crafting, and trading (and if you want a unique item, your options are really only 1 and 3, or chance orbs I suppose). Of those options, the first two are completely dependent on RNG. You have no control whatsoever over whether you get a good item drop. And it’s the same with crafting. Alt-regal crafting might be a better option in some cases, but it’s still subject to the same RNG.

So what really matters is luck instead of skill now. For leveling, gear upgrades are pretty easy to get. You find them fairly regularly. Mostly, you can improve your gear as you level without too much trouble, or having to trade for much of anything.

That’s why trading is a good option for so many people. It removes the random element that you have no control over and puts the process of character progression under your control. If you have crappy RNG, it gives you a way to progress where you had none before. It doesn’t make getting gear any easier than not trading and it simply removes the randomness from the equation.

Trading is also important for divination cards. Without trading, the rarer divination cards might as well not even be in the game. Say you’re running Spider Forest and a Doctor card drops. Most likely, what you’ll do is either immediately try to sell it, or try to make currency to buy seven more so you can get a Headhunter at a discounted price. What you won’t do is stick it in your stash and hope you’ll find seven more to complete the set. That is simply not a viable option for most people.

In conclusion, the advice is that leaving the current half-assed trade system in place, which allows price fixing and other abuses, as well as being incredibly inconvenient to use, should not be acceptable. Either change the game so that we have a way to progress in the endgame that isn’t 100% dependent on RNG, or leave the game the way it is and give player an actual in-game trade system that’s convenient and user-friendly.