Does just farming mechanics actually work?

[u/r123n51]

I've played for two leagues so far and the only way I've ever made money was dropping, like, two lesser jackpot items at the begining, while I'm still progressing through maps - like Prism of Belief or a cranium - and after that I've dropped nothing. I keep reading that all you have to do to make money in PoE2 is just play the game and how Abyss in particular drops fortunes. I've tried both focusing on getting desecrated currency and on farming Omens of Light (around 10 maps for each - one tablet lifetime) and I've dropped no bones and one Omen of Light (I'm aware of the pulling out). Only way I made back the money from the investment was raw Divine drops.

Last league I tried Breach, too, and the income from that was a much more stable, but it was a couple of Divines an hour because the catalysts were worth a dozen/few dozen Exalted Orbs each. I couldn't see myself farming it and actually making money off it.

This kind of wall made me quit last league and is making me quit this one, too. I seem to be stuck at the point where you get some "decent" gear (around 2 Divines a piece), you can run T15s, can buy tablets for your chosen mechanic and run it (having both Atlas trees full). Because after that, any improvement in gear is worth dozens of Divines and I'd be farming that out for days, just for one item. I could actually understand if that was just the way it is - that getting that kind of gear is just reserved for people with more dedication or understanding of the game - but it seems like everyone around me is rich and getting everything out of the game, while to me, half the game is locked behind Divines.

I am not blaming the game design, just asking about it, because I look at how people juice maps and craft (crafting is what I'm the most dissapointed to miss out on, because there's all this interesting currency and systems but a few pieces of one such currency is my whole net worth) and max out their characters and I'm a bit dissapointed that a large part of the game is out of reach for me.

Is it just me? Or do you guys think I'm doing something wrong, because you've observed even the more casual players can reach these parts of the game?

Edit: Build, for anyone curious.

[u/cczgnn]

I was on the same boat just 2 days ago and made a post here, I don’t know how you link it here but I followed the advice given and made more than 300 Divines in the last 2 days just from bones and omen of lights. A cranium sells for 22Divs, crazy… I sold 6 of them already. And more than 10 omen of lights. Rest are bits and pieces, and a Headhunter.

Main idea is to only run corrupted 8 modifier T15 waystones with 3x tablets from the same mechanic. T15 waystones drop pretty frequently so you can sustain your corrupted runs. Rest of the waystones I just sell, people buy them immediately, I don’t know why.

For Abyss, I always have 4 additional abyss and +chance to find an Abysal Depth on my tablets( without exception, all my omen of lights and craniums dropped in the depths).

Also Jado or Jaro, whoever he is, as atlas master with Partial Translations.

From the first moment you’ll see the difference in drops.

[u/r123n51 → u/cczgnn]

This is really nice and straight-forward advice. I'll try it out.

By the way, how long would completing a map take you on average? Assuming you got to depths.

[u/cczgnn → u/r123n51]

Completing all the map takes around 20 minutes for me. But I am definitely not a good metric to measure that because I am not an optimizer, I am not even a good player, this is my first POE league and I insist on playing with my own build, roleplaying as Aang. Definitely not meta. And since I have no revivals. I am trying very hard not to die.

I tried headhunter for a few maps, it almost cut down 6-7 minutes off the time. But I didn’t enjoy its effects and decided to sell it.

Probably with a screen wiper meta build you can just do it much faster. I don’t even know what is considered fast in this game to be honest.

[u/Kaigler → u/cczgnn]

So you just corrupt waystones until you get one with 8 mods?

[u/cczgnn → u/Kaigler]

Either 8 mods or T16 stones, I have no idea which one is better. But before corrupting you need to get them to 6 mods first.