Currently planned trade system is a mix of open and semi-restricted trade, based off of a faction you choose on a per-character basis: https://forum.lastepoch.com/t/trade-development-update-introducing-merchants-guild-and-circle-of-fortune-factions

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Add 50 hours to whatever my Steam play time is.

Last Epoch has a strong foundation with its individually customizeable active skills and long lists of passives. Generic gear can be modified and upgraded, and stat-locked epic gear enhances or enables builds without necessarily being best in slot. A lot of love went into trying to make enemies different from each other, and you'll notice yourself anticipating their behavior at mid-to-high levels in order to avoid their attacks.
Combat moves at a slower pace than most other games of this type, especially when you start facing end-game scenarios with stacking damage modifiers. I get the impression that the devs want you to be choosing the right skills during a fight instead of keeping everything on a cooldown rotation, but your mileage will vary depending on your build. Getting one-shot to a crit is a distinct possibility, especially late game. Defenses have been reworked several times to try and address these situations with the lead dev saying there are plans for a last big pass on defense mechanics using everything they've learned before v1.0.

The game doesn't have the visceral feel of combat of PoE or D3, even with new animation improvements. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a spreadsheet, but it's a fun spreadsheet. If you're the type that enjoys theorycrafting, this game has it in spades. There are plenty of skills that offer underwhelming choices, but every other week seems to bring new tweaks and balance changes to the trees. Each class has a distinct playstyle, further highlighted by a choice from three subclasses.

This is one of the few hack'n'slash ARPGs I can play with a controller, which is essential to me due to a nerve injury. It's not a great setup right now, but the devs have said that they intend to have full controller support, and given their track record of constant improvements and forum interaction, I believe them.

With its main systems in place, the game is now undergoing major rebalances for items, skills, endgame mechanics, and just about everything else. If you're looking for a polished experience, this ain't it. If you wanna sit down and figure out how many weird ways you can make a melee mage or pacifist paladin, this is the spreadsheet for you.