Path of Exile

I think you guys are being a tad unfair and overzealous for PoE. I'm not going to argue PoE is a better ARPG but D3 has things going for it as well. Off the top of my head:

Leveling: Advantage D3 (nearly non-existant versus a massive pain in the ass)
Combat: Advantage D3 (in PoE you toggle your auras and slam your 5-supported offensive skill and it never really "feels" satisfying)
Accessibility: MASSIVE advantage D3

Now in fairness end-game, depth, eco, build variety (arguable since end-game D3 requires a set to use a very specific set of skills and end-game PoE revolves around just a handful of meta builds), point to log in daily are all huge advantage PoE. But in all honesty the combat in PoE is so boring both lose me equally fast.

Then there is the whole issue of massive RNG can either make your build complete on day 2 of the season (such as you get a few lucky exa drops) which actually makes the staleness come on quicker for me in PoE since like I said above I find leveling excruciating in this game so I don't feel like rolling a new toon using a more expensive build. But that will hopefully be addressed in the expansion.


In other words they're both good games with good and bad aspects. I don't think you need to choose sides you can play both since neither require your full attention for multiple months. Just play PoE when a season starts since the eco is less fucked up than if you try and play months in. Since there is no eco in D3 you can jump into the season whenever.

Neki said:

Ingame character name is: Nekilol

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I'll invite you when I get home if no one else's does

I'm not saying anything is better Tenks. I'm just saying after spending thousands of hours in D3 its obviously a much more casual game and has no real end game. There is no Guardians, Shaper, Uber Atziri, or anything challenging other than GRift 100 to work towards. Obviously the complete lack of content in 5 years in D3 is pretty big too when you have PoE churning out full blown expansions 2x a year and seasons actually mean something other than switch to this old set we buffed.

Here is a D3 season - Day 1 grind to 70, Day 2 get your set items, day 3 start working on ancients and the same gear until day 90 of the season. Use the same exact build, skills, set items just to do the SAME content with more hps and damage output. How can this ever be exciting to anyone?

D3 = Cool arcade game which is friendly for younger players and casual players and hasn't changed or evolved in 5 years.
PoE = Theorycrafting, build diversity, actual raids for "combat", and most of all content.

D3 kinda died for me with Paragon leveling. I can't imagine doing that shit every ladder reset; not to mention it's basically pointless if you aren't grouped for it. PoE leveling might get a bit tiresome atm(which looks like will be fixed in 3.0.0 update) but I'll take that over paragon grind any day.

And as mentioned, POE getting constant updates keeps the game fresh and interesting, D3 has mostly been the exact same thing since season 4? Just pretty comical to me that a game which sold 30M+ copies comes up with an idea like Primal Ancients for "content" while GGG give us six acts for free.

I'd take the paragon grind over master rotations seasonally

I also have a bit of a beef with resists in this game since there is not an end-game build that doesn't cap out your resists via rares. I just don't know if there is a better solution since if you gave everyone 75% all-res by default the game would turn into D3 itemization where everyone is just walking around in unique/set items. Resists just aren't a fun stat

Master leveling was toned last patch; less rep needed from 5-8, masters now teleport to you after you complete the objective, and some of the missions were made less awful(Vorici being the main one). I played pretty casually in Breach and managed to get a couple to level 7 easily, not to mention it takes like 5 minutes to do a batch of missions. You pretty much have to grind paragons all season if you want to compete on ladder. Honestly putting in a cap on paragons would go a long way, at least I would attempt to try and push GR.

Tenks said:

I'd take the paragon grind over master rotations seasonally

I also have a bit of a beef with resists in this game since there is not an end-game build that doesn't cap out your resists via rares. I just don't know if there is a better solution since if you gave everyone 75% all-res by default the game would turn into D3 itemization where everyone is just walking around in unique/set items. Resists just aren't a fun stat

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Some one obviously plays INT classes in D3.

Hi, I've been a monk since D3 launch. I wear diamonds in my gem slots because it FUCKING SUCKS. I almost always run a resist mantra AND passive. I have 2k to all resists and still half the shit on the ground melts me at 80+ GR's. Resists do, indeed suck, in both games.

Leveling: Hey, are you paragon 800? Congrats. There's basically no more "real" leveling and it's all grinding high lvl content super slow vs Are you level 100 yet? Of course you're not. Enjoy grinding medium-high lvl (T11) content super slow but you get notable upgrades via passives and random drops you can sell!
Combat: D3 is the same rotation with an 'oh shit' button, basically for most people. You could definitely argue it's the same except a lot of PoE builds have very strange charge management and such. Combat does FEEL more fluid in D3, but that's more on PoE's engine than anything. Some classes just literally clear a screen instantly and it doesn't matter, others have resources to ramp up then the 'big boom' and everything dies.
Accessibility: I'll agree. D3 is easy. It's casual. That's how it was designed. That's why I don't like it. At a certain point in the season, usually about...2 weeks in for me, I have everything. I've got my ancient weapon, I do GR 75+ solo, I clear rifts solo in under 2 minutes. The only upgrades I can possibly get are the same gear with an ancient version. Sometimes I already have that. Then it's just getting enchants and meaningless +5 dex levels. Whereas depending on your build in PoE you can get a rare randomly drop that's just like your current one, but with +15 more of a resist. That wouldn't mean much in D3, but in PoE it means you can now remove a passive with +12 lightning resist or whatever and get a jewel socket or +int and level a gem you have exp capped. Even the best geared players never have full BiS gear. They may have like 3-4 mirror worthy items, but there's still upgrades out there in the ether. That's why I'd rather have their super RNG super complex loot system rather than D3's linear gear system.

Overall D3 is fine if you're fucking around 1-2 hours a day after work. PoE is if you're looking to get in depth and spend 3-4 hour segments and actually finely tune a character and vastly min/max more than just getting a 4.2k dps weapon from a 4k dps weapon.

Neki said:

Ingame character name is: Nekilol

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invited, but guild is pretty dead till next season I believe.

Tenks said:

Leveling: Advantage D3 (nearly non-existant versus a massive pain in the ass)

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Wat... Levelling in PoE is stupidly easy once you know how to play the game, even on a fresh char in a fresh league, but especially once you have some twink gear.

Derkon said:

Just pretty comical to me that a game which sold 30M+ copies comes up with an idea like Primal Ancients for "content" while GGG give us six acts for free.

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Comparing box price games to f2p games is silly. GGG isn't pumping out 6 acts of content while they aren't raking in the cash. They slap a ton of pricey microtransactions out there with every expansion and sometimes in between expansions, plus stash tabs etc.

Primal ancients is no different than poe saying "+1 tier possible for gear rolls!" which they do.

PS: There really isn't build diversity or theorycrafting in PoE for the masses. Sure you can do it individually for yourself but at least when I was playing D3 (way back in the day before seasons) you could do the same thing. In the age of the internet and streaming etc. tho, 99.9% of players in games just copycat what they see doing good with no worries about how or why it works etc. That's why Mathil can do 1 youtube video of whatever build he's doing and the price of the items quadruples in 30 minutes, because everyone just runs out to copycat what they see working well.

zombiewizardhawk said:

omparing box price games to f2p games is silly. GGG isn't pumping out 6 acts of content while they aren't raking in the cash. They slap a ton of pricey microtransactions out there with every expansion and sometimes in between expansions, plus stash tabs etc.

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Sure I'm aware GGG funds themselves through microtransactions but I'm not forced to buy any of it; all the expensive transmog shit is there for the whales really.

Derkon said:

Sure I'm aware GGG funds themselves through microtransactions but I'm not forced to buy any of it; all the expensive transmog shit is there for the whales really.

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you just need dat currency tab and maybe card tab

Harfle said:

you just need dat currency tab and maybe card tab

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Yeah I finally bought the currency tab heh. Total POE spending over that last two years is maybe $40 on tabs and the stupid SRS skin, less than what I spent on D3+ROS.

Ryanz said:

I like the idea of the 10 acts instead of playing the game over and over just at + difficulty. Pretty clever way of Chris making good on his promise of 10 "acts" all the while eliminating cruel and merciless which is what the community wanted. I just don't see these act's being much more than slight reskins, with different mobs placed here and there however....which kinda sucks. Still an improvement over the current system, but unfortunately we won't be getting 5 more "expansion" type acts. Makes me kinda wonder what their plans are going to be past this point. With them reaching the 10 act goal that they initial set to accomplish...what does that mean for future expansions?

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I think it's gonna be a lot more than just remix, all the bosses are new, which is huge.

They can go explore other stuff. Atlas is awesome, but also kind of boring - what about a system that lets you run 3-5 maps in a succession with buffed rewards ? Don't die though.
More classes ? New item slots ? Labyrinth-esque gauntlets ? I'm sure they will come up with something

Harfle said:

invited, but guild is pretty dead till next season I believe.

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Thanks Harfle!

It's fine, I'm just re-familiarising myself with the game again after such a long time out.

Stuff in the guild stash available to use? I can see several pieces of gear in there that would be useful for leveling. Will replace afterwards.

new chris wilson/ziggy interview answers some of the act removal questions.
skillpoints will stay the same. quest points will be moved to new quests.
cruel/merc bandit rewards will probably NOT be directly replaced. instead, new systems like the pantheons will replace. With base rewards rebalanced.
suggested which bandit you sided with will effect act 7.
side missions which are plot relevant in act 6+ are still just side missions. assume someone else cleared teh fetid pool, road block, etc. if you didnt.
laby. plan atm is one labyrinth, with select a difficulty, allowing for all 4. normal lab might be made shorter.
resists. plot event -30, -30.

Pyros that video Caliane linked above has Chris saying its more like 30 acts as their end goal if you're measuring in acts. You can easily cap with rares in PoE as a matter of fact unlike D3 in Path of Exile rares are actually BiS.

The trade stuff he's hinting at worries me, I know its going to be some kind of odd auction house that doesn't give you searchable results but more a list of items to look through.

Almost all abilities are from the gem vendor, there is a few items which grant skills. In D3 you modified Seismic Slam by the rune you attached and items. In PoE you are modifying it by attaching support gems which have to be linked in your gear to modify it and also items. Ground Slam + faster attacks + increased AoE + melee physical damage – That’s 4 links almost like runes from D3 which are going to make your slams much bigger in radius, multiply the physical damage, and swing faster. You can customize it to behave in however you find it more appealing or even make it based on elemental damage versus all physical.

If you really like Ground Slam stick with it, I would maybe say to hit the forums under Duelist and follow a guide with a lot of pages of responses which means its popular and good for starters. You might want to try Earthquake though, it’s a 360 degree ground slam that does much more damage.

The reason I say Duelist as the class choice on the forums is that even though we have classes those classes are further modified by sub classes which specialize you character into sub classes. For example the Duelist has a sub class called Slayer which specializes in 2h weapons + leeching + AoE increase to skills. Duelist also has Gladiator which specializes in bleeding damage, blocking, and dual wielding.