I'm a long time player of POE 1 and I just hit level 97 in POE 2. I have not had any problems with sustaining maps.
I suspect that you are not crafting your maps. To sustain maps, you have to invest in your maps. A general rule of Path of Exile is that the more currency you spend into your maps, the more rewards you get out of it. If you invest nothing into a map, you might not get anything back. Currently I'm investing up to a divine in value into my juiced maps and I get multiple divine orbs dropping in 1 maps, my highest was 4 raw divines and around 60 exalted orbs.
A waystone/map item has 6 mods, which is 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. The prefixes are loot rewards and the suffixes are difficulty and waystone quantity. You always want to have the map to have 3 prefixes and sometimes want it to have 3 suffixes. Suffixes will up the difficulty but give you more waystones back.
If you have a normal/white map, use alchemy orb to get 4 mods, then use 2 exalted orbs. You will find 2 more exalted orbs in the map. The cost sustains itself. If you have a magic map, augment to 2 mods and then regal for the 3rd, then exalted slam 3 times. If you reach a suffix that you can't run at any stage in this process, vendor the map for like 10k gold, you can gamble a ring at Alva.
The best 2 prefixes are "increased rare monsters" and "increased rarity of items found". If you get a t15 map with these 2 mods, people will pay upwards of 50 exalted orbs for it.
Once you have a map with 3 good prefixes, you can run it or you can craft it even further for more rewards. You can use a vaal orb on the map and it will either add more mods to the map, +/- tier of the map, change the map to all prefix or all suffix. All suffix is the worst outcome because it removes the prefix rewards. Second worst outcome is reduce tier. Extra mods and all prefix will give you extra rewards.
Another option for crafting your maps is to use "distilled emotions" fka oils. The 3 cheapest oils are Ire, Guilt, Greed. Ire gives increased magic monsters in the map, Guilt gives increase pack size, Greed gives increased Item Rarity. You can apply up to 3 oils to the map which will increase the map loot by ~25% and also make the map about ~25% more difficult. Guilt is probably the best one price wise for you. This will also make splinters drop in your maps that you can sell to recoup the costs of the oils. I currently use 3 Paranoia oils on my maps, which costs around 5 exalted orbs each.
I don't recommend corrupting oiled maps but it's possible if you are brave.
The next thing you can do is to utilize the towers on your atlas. You get these things called "precursor tablets" which you can put into the towers to buff your maps. I only use tablets which say "increased quantity of items dropped". You take the tablets that you already have and transmute + augment all of them for 2 mods. If it doesn't say "quantity of items dropped", then I put 3 to 1 in the reforge bench, until all of them have that modifier. I look for zones on my atlas which have 4+ towers close together so that the quantity stacks. Combined with the right atlas nodes, I've had maps with +300% quantity of items drop.
Seems like good advice, i will test it when i have time. I'm reluctant to use exalted on maps but above T10 i have more of them drop so i might check this out.
I'm a long time player of POE 1 and I just hit level 97 in POE 2. I have not had any problems with sustaining maps.
I suspect that you are not crafting your maps. To sustain maps, you have to invest in your maps. A general rule of Path of Exile is that the more currency you spend into your maps, the more rewards you get out of it. If you invest nothing into a map, you might not get anything back. Currently I'm investing up to a divine in value into my juiced maps and I get multiple divine orbs dropping in 1 maps, my highest was 4 raw divines and around 60 exalted orbs.
A waystone/map item has 6 mods, which is 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. The prefixes are loot rewards and the suffixes are difficulty and waystone quantity. You always want to have the map to have 3 prefixes and sometimes want it to have 3 suffixes. Suffixes will up the difficulty but give you more waystones back.
If you have a normal/white map, use alchemy orb to get 4 mods, then use 2 exalted orbs. You will find 2 more exalted orbs in the map. The cost sustains itself. If you have a magic map, augment to 2 mods and then regal for the 3rd, then exalted slam 3 times. If you reach a suffix that you can't run at any stage in this process, vendor the map for like 10k gold, you can gamble a ring at Alva.
The best 2 prefixes are "increased rare monsters" and "increased rarity of items found". If you get a t15 map with these 2 mods, people will pay upwards of 50 exalted orbs for it.
Once you have a map with 3 good prefixes, you can run it or you can craft it even further for more rewards. You can use a vaal orb on the map and it will either add more mods to the map, +/- tier of the map, change the map to all prefix or all suffix. All suffix is the worst outcome because it removes the prefix rewards. Second worst outcome is reduce tier. Extra mods and all prefix will give you extra rewards.
Another option for crafting your maps is to use "distilled emotions" fka oils. The 3 cheapest oils are Ire, Guilt, Greed. Ire gives increased magic monsters in the map, Guilt gives increase pack size, Greed gives increased Item Rarity. You can apply up to 3 oils to the map which will increase the map loot by ~25% and also make the map about ~25% more difficult. Guilt is probably the best one price wise for you. This will also make splinters drop in your maps that you can sell to recoup the costs of the oils. I currently use 3 Paranoia oils on my maps, which costs around 5 exalted orbs each.
I don't recommend corrupting oiled maps but it's possible if you are brave.
The next thing you can do is to utilize the towers on your atlas. You get these things called "precursor tablets" which you can put into the towers to buff your maps. I only use tablets which say "increased quantity of items dropped". You take the tablets that you already have and transmute + augment all of them for 2 mods. If it doesn't say "quantity of items dropped", then I put 3 to 1 in the reforge bench, until all of them have that modifier. I look for zones on my atlas which have 4+ towers close together so that the quantity stacks. Combined with the right atlas nodes, I've had maps with +300% quantity of items drop.
Seems like good advice, i will test it when i have time. I'm reluctant to use exalted on maps but above T10 i have more of them drop so i might check this out.