I used to like path of exile. I still do, but less than before...
There seems to be a trend with the game (and many other games), everything becomes easier over time. So, to balance this, new stuff is added that is harder. It's fine in some cases, but now I am playing through for the first time in awhile and it's just silly.
Acts 1-3 were a joke, basically can run through as fast as you can run, only thing slowing me down was when I wanted to do a perandus mob or picking up loot.
Act 4 was like a wall at first. There was some boss in kaom's area I literally couldn't kill, it sends up 3 totems that shoot my so hard it was a 100% stunned until dead situation. I skipped it, killed daresso and killed kaom, some hard fights though. Get to the end, kill malachai, another hard fight with nonsense mechanics. Whatever, it's doable, I'm okay with the difficulty level... but now I enter Act 1 cruel, and the game becomes a complete snore. I'm pretty sure cruel Hillock died faster than most Act 4 white mobs. The difficulty curve is totally out of whack, the whole of Act 1-3 is a huge joke snorefest and then Act 4 is too hard in comparison.
I also find replaying the game exceedingly boring, I wish they would have dropped down to just 2 difficulty levels with Act 4, but whatever. Going to slog through and see how endgame is these days.