do i start playing PoE2 now or when it fully releases?

What do you mean "keep replaying act 1" ?

You can always play standard, which is where all the "reset" characters go, but everything is expensive in trade because its the accumulated wealth since release, and new players have little to no chance of catching up.

Once you actually get to the endgame and juicing your characters to the max, you will realize the game is pretty boring if you just stay at the top forever, and start looking forward to the reset. Its not quite the same feeling as making a new character, since everyone around you is also back at the starting line. The feeling of gradually powering up is what makes this genre addicting, at least for me.

The League Design will probably be there forever but you could always just stick to Standard League.

The economy in Standard is just fucked but thats a big part of the reason we have leagues. So you more or less will be playing self found in Standard.

This period right now is just for you to learn game mechanics, crafting items, theory-crafting builds, learn how to come up from nothing to something in a season. Try solo self found mode, if u can bear endgame content in ssf then you've earned your stripes.

The standard league exists for a reason.

path of exile, both games, reset fully every 4 months. That is never going to stop. That is the money model, it works, and 99% of players burn out after about 4 to 6 weeks anyway, so it gives people a chance to come enjoy the game with fresh balance and a fresh economy.

On lunch there will probably be a new class or two, and I expect all six acts to be available, and there will probably be a new league mechanic that's kind of fucking huge, but it won't be so different from the current game that you can't recognize it

Except that the end game is probably going to be completely reworked by then

No one is forcing you to play seasonal. But the game becomes boring af if you don’t imo

I started this league and this is from pretty much no arpg experience and well all I can say is I have been averaging over 70 hours every 2 weeks... what is life?

Game is fun now

Will be more fun later

No reason not to start now

It’s free so might as well try

Be prepared to maybe spend a little bit on “stash tabs” for storage at some point but outside that it is genuinely free

Since you’re not paying anyway and it’s a quality experience I just viewed my eventual purchase of stash tabs as “I played this for a month straight and it’s great, I feel like I should give the some money”

Now! Don't waste your life on waiting