Loot kinda felt like a free for all ( I didn’t grab anything) what’s the system for what’s yours and what’s not?

Loot allocation is based on party leader’s settings. The “fairest” is permanent allocation where you can only pick up items allocated to you by the game, everything else will still show up but be greyed out. If you pick up an item and drop it, even if due to lack of inventory space, OR if you leave the map by porting to town then anything that was allocated to you becomes free for all (anyone can pick it up).

As I said, this is wholly based on the party leader’s settings so if it’s set to free for all or partial allocation (time based for you to pick up before being open to everyone else) then take what you can/want.

Juicing is ass however here it is : find 3-4 towers circling a corrupted area. Do towers and fill with 7% quant and rarity /rare monsters . Get party of 6. Get couple good dps, rarity bot and banner bot. Rarity bot will use gravebind gloves and 400+ rarity minimum. Rarity and quant stacks with player count , this means loot pinata. All waystones need to have +100 rarity and >60 quant. Proceed to farm and never enjoy solo play again because of how unbalanced shit is. All the prep is a dumb chore. Towers really need revamp, fk the other classes when the mechanic is fucked.

Xp wise, I’ve heard you won’t gain exp from each other if you more than a screens worth away from each other. Still true or not? Because I have some party members just running around away from me on juices maps doing their own thing

From personal experience:

Xp same as solo , (as long as you are nearby when the monster dies)

Loot and etiquette depends on host: His map , his rules. To give you an example: When i host juiced maps party i have free for all alocation and only pick up chaos orbs and above / high tier uniques anything else i leave for the others. More people = more quantity of items, i think the formula is 50% more items/extra player (not sure on this one so correct me if im wrong)

Never played with mic

“Party leader is the map guy and it’s their show on juicing” not sure what answear you are looking here

Benefits: Free xp + low curency with zero insvestment

Tips if you wana host: quantity tablets + rarity and/or quantity on maps + delirium (increased rare monsters , rare monsters have a extra nidifier / stack size of simulacrum splinters also a options for a guaranteed payback, must be all 3 + incresed efect on wastones from atlats to reah 100% stack size or it dosen’t work)

Something that I find so annoying in Poe 2 is: people that run off and go solo. No reason to do it, it’s only losing xp for yourself and the other, it’s just stupid. Also counts for breaches, don’t split up its just silly