Anyone else here playing Path of Exile ... it just goes to show how far D3 missed the mark by when a F2P game is this good.
I'm just levelling a Lightning/Shield Templar up and having a blast.
If anyone fancies teaming up please add me in game - Fleabags
http://www.pathofexile.com/
I've only dabbled in the game myself as I still have Torchlight 2 to go through, but I enjoyed what I played. The skill forest is a bit shocking at first and I really like the trade items rather than gold/coins route most ARPG's take, reminds me of trading to other players back in Asheron's Call using motes and keys.
Seemed to have a nice difficulty level too, not too hard, but not simple enough that you just click and hold from point A to point B - of course, that could be down to character build/equipment though, but first impressions were good. Graphics are detailed enough and a little gritty, a nice change of pace from Torchlight/Diablo 3.
I certainly plan to return, when I can free up some game time. For a Free to Play game, it's hard to find fault with what they offer.
Virtual Organ Doner - "It's better to gib, than to recieve."
My impressions are that it's fairly good, but not in the same league as Diablo 2 or Torchlight 2. I like the skills-as-items and their levelling, but I'm not hugely fond of the socketing of them into equipment. I like the way that potions work.
Irrelevant on further examination of the rest of the thread.
I think that PoE's main issue is that the leveling is somewhat boring - it takes forever for you to get a good selection of skill gems, and longer than that for you to get items linked correctly so you can use the gems. I hope things will get better once I get to a higher level (still 20 here), but I can't say I'm *enjoying* it too much right now.
Last edited by Faldrath; 17-02-2013 at 09:39 PM.
i'm playing the shit out of the poe. really quite a meaty game, with a lot of choices and possibilities to be had. it's also quite consistently difficult (in a fair way, not like the last difficulty of diablo 3) which is a rarity these days. the problem i had with torchlight 2 is that it would alternate between being boringly easy and melting your face off.
it's definitely a game less about fun and more about Fun. it is full-on masochistic in mostly all of the ways the old-school arpgs were. it is entirely possible that your first one or two (or three or four or five) characters will be fatally flawed to the point that you have to restart somewhere along the way in the higher difficulties. it's not quite as narrow as diablo 2, but it's definitely there.Originally Posted by Faldrath
i happen to enjoy that, i completely understand people who do not.
Last edited by Spider Jerusalem; 17-02-2013 at 09:50 PM.
So basically it's a good idea to plan your charater to max lvl before you start or is there some wiggle room to reset things along the way?
No, because you'll have no fun at all if you do that.
Just play normally, hoard skill gems and useful items in your stash, and make a mental note of what your next character is going to do differently, and how to leverage the gear you've stored.
Leveling isn't the only progression mechanic here - even in Hardcore mode, you can pass gear and skills from one character to another via the generously large shared stash. Your first character will be your weakest, and each one after that will be stronger, both due to you having more knowledge of how the game works, and a wider range of equipment and skills to pick from.
You'll enjoy the game so much more if you're not expecting to be an invincible god that can steamroll the game even on the highest difficulty on your first try.
Last edited by Dominic Tarason; 18-02-2013 at 03:47 AM.
Ok, that sounds fine to me. I'll go for the just do it / just play it by ear aproach then. :D
not at first. you won't have a good enough grasp on the game mechanics in order to not be overwhelmed. by the time your first character is around lvl 25 or so, you'll have a good handle on how everything works.
i'd suggest a marauder for your first character, and just start off by spending your skill points on health/health regen nodes. that will leave you in a pretty good place to go in a lot of different directions once you have a path in mind. also making peace with the fact that your first character probably won't be very good is a solid plan.
things i wish i knew before i started playing:
-don't sell or use anything on this page until you know how the game works: http://www.poeex.info/
-avoid the duelist class until the promised rework is in
-familiarize yourself with this list: http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Vendor_Recipes (basically you can sell things to vendors in certain combinations that'll net you some nice currencies. or use this: http://njs50.github.com/poe_ext/ )
-keep your low level junk yellows on a mule for the chaos orb recipe. rings and amulets are the hardest things to find (ammys more so than rings) so if you find a few early on, consider leaving them unidentified.
-hp > armor in terms of defense. the way armor works in this game is, uh, interesting. it's not unimportant, but hp and regen (and elemental resists) are generally king.
-hitting a brick wall and having to start over is part of the game. expect it, embrace it, improve your theorycrafting, and you'll enjoy the challenge. it is not an easy game.
I wanted to play this, but it just crashes every time at the splash screen. I gave up.
I've not played anything else since open beta, and I was already in closed... :)
Currently levelling a 1h/shield marauder, level 55 or so, in HC. Would certainly love to do some grouping, especially once I arrive in merciless, but I am not keen on random public groups. Current (until he dies) character name is Coaltrane.
As for Torchlight 2 being mentioned, I think it's the weakest of the "big 3" current ARPGs by quite some margin, and the only one I was done with after one playthrough, but to each his own!
Does it just hang? If so, just wait a while longer - it sometimes takes a min or two to initialise when it is first launched.
I've been steadily building up a team in hardcore, each time dying a little further on, and usually driving 3 characters in parallel at similar levels. The last death was at level 40 (running while punctured, don't ask), and then I start over (just can't bring myself to play in the default league, since that's where you're sent when you die in hardcore). Taking it slow, in other words. Letting the content stay ahead of me.
As someone noted above, I get better each time, the supportive pool of loot in my stash steadily improves, and whatnot. I went from 0-30 in just a few hours on Saturday.
I'd be up for some grouping, if there's ever an RPS group that forms around this one. Been soloing so far, as I'm not much interested in a PUG. Heck, I'd be up for some trading, too, since there are no in-game features for that sort of thing. The diehards claim this is a good thing, that the auction house ruined Diablo, etc. etc. I'm not buying it.
Oh, the auction house did ruin Diablo. Not sure if going the opposite way is the best way to go, but man, did the AH ruin Diablo.
well the lack of an auction house fits with the vision of poe. it's supposed to a tough game, with an emphasis on survivalism. they really want to play up the whole exile angle, etc. not sure if it's the best choice, but they are committed to it.
I love the way potions and skills work but I don't find the combat particularly engaging, can't say it's the only ARPG where this is a case but torchlight 2 was certainly a bit more exciting on this end.
How does coop work in this?
"I was one of those. I meddled with dark powers. I summoned demons. I ate the entire little cheese, including the rind."
~Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear
I think it's a better diablo 3 than...diablo 3. In the end it didn't captivate me more than maybe...10 hours but that's about 9 and a half hours more than diablo 3.
The biggest problem is the leveling system.
The skill tree is indeed HUGE but that's bullshit. It's combined for all classes and 90% of them just add a few % to something, like 5% extra mana or 3% extra crit with bows. I gotta go through 10 levels of this shit until i finally get a passive that's any interesting. After that, i gotta go again too many levels with those boring % passives.
For the actual fun skills, the active ones, i never know when i will get them or what they will be. You get them for quests or random drops. You can't plan in advance the first time you play the game because you don't even know what all the compatible skills for your class are.
But the funniest part about this game is the community.
If you're having a bad day and want a laugh, just head over to their forum and enter any topic where someone wants something in the game easier.
At times i honestly couldn't tell if i was reading a real forum or it was all a big parody of hardcore gamers.
Any criticism ends with dozens of replies along the lines of "NO, go play diablo 3!".
That was more or less my impression of the game too Alez, it is better at being Diablo than Diablo 3, but that's a bit like saying stepping on a drawing pin is preferable to stepping on a 1 inch nail, sure it's preferable but neither is an enjoyable experience.
Honestly I think Torchlight 2 wins this round of the ARPG showdown quite easily.
it's a passive tree.
not really. i mean it is all technically connected, but where you start as a class makes a pretty big difference in the early game. and it seems like that at first, that all the nodes are minor and uninteresting, but that couldn't be further from the truth. in terms of the passive tree, it's all about paths: paths to the big keystones that can define a build and what you take along the way. things like blood magic (which removes mana), chaos inoculation (sets your hp to 1 and makes you immune to chaos damage), resolute technique (removes the ability to crit, makes your attacks never miss) and dozens more are extremely important nodes, so the passive tree becomes about building toward those crazy combinations that can make some really interesting (or horribly gimping) shit happen.
well you can check the wiki: http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Quest_Rewards and plan your build that way (and pretty much all the skill gems you'd need to make a decent build you get as quest rewards), but there are some rare, powerful skills that can only be obtained via a monster drop (or trading for someone else's drop). as someone currently hunting for about 5 of those, i can understand how that is frustrating.
i mean, it's a f2p game in open beta. that's true of just about every one (and possibly every semi-popular game that has a forum on the internet). people are generally terrible to each other on the internet. it's gross. i've had a really pleasant experience on the poe forums though. i stay the fuck out of general discussion and stick to the theorycrafting/buildmaking threads in the class forums. the people there are incredibly patient, gracious with their time/information and like working together to make some crazy builds happen.
poe is a difficult game. that alone isn't enough to make it interesting, i agree, but i think you haven't spent enough time to allow everything to cohere. it definitely has quite a few flaws, but it does come together nicely if you give it the opportunity (and you're pre-disposed to games like this in the first place).
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