Fate of the Vaal is one of those systems that sounds tidy in a patch note, then feels rough the moment you're in a real run. You're clearing a map, you get told to step out, handle a side zone, and then you're dropped back into the same spot like nothing happened. In a game where a lot of players already think hard about upgrades, drops, and even PoE 2 Currency planning, that kind of forced detour doesn't land as "variety." It lands as a hard stop, right when you were finally getting into a groove.
PoE 2 is slower on purpose. You feel the weight of movement, the wind-up on attacks, the idea that you're meant to read the screen and commit. That's fine. I'm into that style. The problem is that Fate of the Vaal doesn't respect the pace it's built on. You don't just take a quick portal and bounce back like in the first game. You leave, load, re-orient, do a separate objective, load again, then try to find your rhythm in the original map. After a few times, you notice the travel more than the fights, and that's not a great sign.
In the original Path of Exile, speed covers up a lot. You'd zip through a map, pop out for something optional, then chain right back into the loop without thinking. In PoE 2, everything takes a bit more effort. You're positioning more. You're checking corners. You're not blasting screens in two seconds. So when the game yanks you into a side area, it doesn't feel like a quick diversion. It feels like you're being asked to restart your focus over and over, and it can get tiring fast.
This is also happening at an awkward time for the endgame. A lot of folks don't feel like there's a single, clear long-term target pulling them forward yet. No obvious "I'm grinding toward that" moment. So you end up building a character because you like the build, or because you're testing skills, or because the combat's still fun in bursts. In that mood, interruptions matter more. If the reward from the Vaal detour doesn't feel worth the pause, you start skipping it, or worse, you start asking why you're running maps at all.
If Fate of the Vaal is meant to be a spice, it needs to keep the meal hot. Let it live inside the map more often, or make the return feel clean and intentional, not like you got shoved back mid-sentence. Better rewards would help, sure, but the bigger fix is respecting momentum. Players don't mind doing extra work when it feels like forward progress, and when the loop stays satisfying even on a long night of grinding path of exile 2 currency for the next upgrade.
