[Action RPG] Path of Exile

[Chiropteran]

Can someone give me a quick low-down on this game?

-It's Diablo 3 clone
-It's free

Can I play NOW? (today)

How do they make money then? Stupid auction house or micro transactions?

I assume you played Diablo 3.

Differences:

PoE is completely free. They are trying to make money on non-combat pets, alternate art, particle effects, extra character slots, and (the one thing that has a small in-game advantage) extra stash slots. Overall, it sounds incredibly generous for a Free2Play game, and my biggest fear is they might not make enough money.

There is no auction house, and there is also no "gold" or other basic in-game currency. The NPC merchants trade items for orbs or scrolls of wisdom (ID scroll). There is sort of a going rate for various items in barter via combinations of different orbs and scrolls, but basically the economy is entirely barter driven. I'm okay with this, but I often think the game would work better if there was some sort of regular "gold coins" type of resource. Even though there is no in-game auction house, I am sure that if the game gets popular there will be outside sources to buy items for real money. "Meh" is how I feel, I don't care that much since the game is free but it is a minor annoyance to me.

You can play today, at 4pm EST, when the open beta starts. Assuming there isn't any server trouble.


Other differences:

Hardcore characters who die are just pushed down into the regular game, not deleted. So there isn't really any reason not to try playing the game as hardcore, when you die you can just move on and play the character in softcore.

Characters are built through passive skills, one per level, one a massive skill tree that is shared by all classes. Your class simply determines where you start in the tree. It's possible to respec a few points occasionally, but it's nothing like diablo 3's free respec forever system. You basically build a character a certain way and stick with it, or roll up a new character to try something else.

There is huge variety in builds and options. Skills come from gems, which fit into armor and combine in various ways, and are not limited by class, but do have statistical limitations. So if you build your marauder (str melee class) with enough int, you can take spells like fireball and frost nova. It may not be the optimal way to play, but you have that option.

Items have incredible variety, and the various orbs used as currency can also be used in various ways to "craft" or modify existing items. Sometimes the best items to get are quality non-magic items with the gem sockets you need, because the right orb can turn it into a rare magic item.

 

[Zenoth]

Seems to be quite an interesting game, but I will have a hard time not looking at how bad the animations are. I think I'll buy it anyway though, since I don't play Diablo 3 anymore (well it's still installed but I just don't care about it anymore really). The "problem" is that Diablo 3 just didn't give me my "ARGP fix" since I stopped playing D2 so I need one. I've gone through Titan Quest and Sacred (1 & 2) from start to "finish" (levels and campaign-wise) again recently enough so won't do it again anytime soon.

Path of Exile might be it though but... ugh... them animations, they need to polish that over time if anything. I don't care if by finale release time it still looks bad, but a year or two down the road I hope they'll improve that aspect. I'm very selective when it comes to animations (in almost any games anyway, not just ARGPs).

 

[Chiropteran]

I think I'll buy it anyway though,.

It's free! Give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

 

[masterxfob]

i loved D2 and wasted years of my life playing it, but i gotta say PoE > D2. it's basically D2 on PEDs.

 

[Zeze]

Overall, it sounds incredibly generous for a Free2Play game, and my biggest fear is they might not make enough money.

Thanks, DLing it now.

The system itself shouldn't be a problem, it's how they pull it off. Dota 2 is F2P with tons of non-gameplay affecting cosmetics for $$.

They're rolling in the dough, more than people paying one-time retail price of the game. PoE should make alright money if the game itself is quality and cosmetics are desirable.

 

[badb0y]

I just started a ranger add me.

Character name - IWillShootyou

 

[gothamhunter]

I just started a ranger add me.

Character name - IWillShootyou

Ughhhhhhh I hate you.

 

[Zenoth]

It's free! Give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

Oh yeah just checked that and it's free indeed, wasn't aware of it (sorry). I'll definitely give it a try then. Heck yeah it's free but I'd still give them money to work on those animations a bit more. And not saying this to sound mean or anything, I really believe they should and could do it but I know they need money to pay their employees so yeah.

They claim that micro-transactions won't have anything to grant extra "power" to players and will be limited to utility and customization stuff... time will tell how long that can remain true. I just have the feeling that one day that's going to change even if it takes a year to happen. Anyway, I'll surely give it a try.

It's a beta, however. Is there any information concerning what's going to happen to beta-progressed characters once the final version is released or will we just keep our maxed-out beta character until the final is released and call it a night?

 

[imaheadcase]

Beta characters continue, no more wipes.

Its a ok game, it won't hold peoples attention though for long I suspect. I played for a few hours today and people are already level 50 in it, so I suspect it gets boring real fast.

 

[Chiropteran]

Beta characters continue, no more wipes.

Its a ok game, it won't hold peoples attention though for long I suspect. I played for a few hours today and people are already level 50 in it, so I suspect it gets boring real fast.

Heh, hardcore just reached 39. I guess you can level a bit faster in the softcore league since you can play a bit riskier without worrying about dying too much.

As far as holding attention, it is what it is. Once you beat the entire game you may or may not lose interest depending on how much you enjoy the character building aspect of it. Me, I like to try different classes and different builds so I will probably play it long enough to see the end 3-4 times, just to experience each of the classes I want to try- witch nuker build, templar aoe build, ranger bow build, duelist tanky melee build, etc.

 

[Ashenor]

Started playing again last night some, Name is Ashenor on there.

 

[Zeze]

Pretty fun game I guess, I'm level 6 now.

I do appreciate the improvements & refreshing mechanics from Diablo & Torchlight.

However I don't think I'll be playing it too much. I'm just generally so sick of Diablo and clones- even the skills are all same (fireball for witch, cleave & bash for barbarian & duelist).

 

[badb0y]

Pretty fun game I guess, I'm level 6 now.

I do appreciate the improvements & refreshing mechanics from Diablo & Torchlight.

However I don't think I'll be playing it too much. I'm just generally so sick of Diablo and clones- even the skills are all same (fireball for witch, cleave & bash for barbarian & duelist).

The skills get really interesting once you start getting support gems.

 

[Chiropteran]

Leveled up to 26 on my hardcore ranger. Been playing around a bit testing other classes, I might switch to a witch.

Zeze, that is part of the intended design- the class doesn't really determine anything except the starting position on the skill tree and your base stats. There is a lot of overlap of skills between classes, but that is to give you options. Not every duelist will play as a cleave/basher, some will use a bow and play as a ranged. There are new skill gems found as you level up and the options get more and more diverse. It gets to a point where there are so many skills you need to pick and choose a few to use, you can't just take them all, and it becomes a trade-off between damage efficiency, aoe and single target, utility and other factors.

Also, there are support gems, which are used along with skill gems to improve them. For example on my ranger I have a lightning arrow skill gem linked to two support gems, one is "fork" which causes the attack to split and hit multiple targets, and the other support gem adds additional frost damage to each attack. This isn't completely free, as the support gems multiply the mana cost of the ability they are linked with, but when you can make it work it does work well. My understanding is that the support gems are very flexible as well, for example the "added frost damage" gem will even work on monster summoning skills, giving the summoned monsters the frost damage.

Some of the passive skill keystones really change the game as well, for example blood magic removes your mana pool and allows you to cast using your hp instead, while chaos inoculation makes you immune to chaos damage and reduces your hp to 1- sounds like a poor trade, but it's used by casters who focus on having a high magic shield and I believe the 1 hp enables other abilities that gain bonuses when you are "low on life". Lots of interesting options in the long run, and I certainly wouldn't say all the characters skills are the same once you get up a bit in level and start unlocking the more unique passive bonuses.

 

[Ashenor]

When you dual wield with the Duelist, does the 2nd weapon only hit if you are using the dual wield skill? Can't till from the normal animation if it applies doing a normal or double attack.

 

[pontifex]

reminds me of sacred 2

played a little and i absolutely hate the currency system. your "money" is your "identification scroll" and some other item I forget if it has a dual use. you get partial items like scroll pieces and 20 of those makes a full identify scroll. seems like a waste of inventory and just really bad way to deal with currency.


I like the health and mana potion system though. you get flasks that hold so many charges and the bigger the flasks the bigger the heals and charges. they refill as you kill enemies.

combat is fairly meh so far. enemies do a lot of damage and you really get ganged up on a lot.

 

[pontifex]

When you dual wield with the Duelist, does the 2nd weapon only hit if you are using the dual wield skill? Can't till from the normal animation if it applies doing a normal or double attack.

i started as a duelist and it does look like he hits with both weapons whether you have any dual wield skills or not.

 

[Ashenor]

i started as a duelist and it does look like he hits with both weapons whether you have any dual wield skills or not.

Ok cool was not sure i could not tell.

 

[Chiropteran]

When you dual wield with the Duelist, does the 2nd weapon only hit if you are using the dual wield skill? Can't till from the normal animation if it applies doing a normal or double attack.

http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Dual_Wielding

Dual Wielding automatically grants 10% increased Attack Speed and 15% Block Chance (based on the idea of parrying attacks) whenever you equip two One-Handed weapons of any type. The attack speed bonus is applied multiplicatively with other attack speed modifiers. These two bonuses to Dual Wielding can be increased via passives. Weapons do not have to be of the same type to receive Dual Wielding bonuses.
There are no penalties of any kind to attacks with your off-hand weapon. The large majority of attack skills in Path of Exile will alternate between equipped weapons for attacks, swinging first with the main hand and then with the off-hand weapon. There are a few exceptions:
If you have two different weapons and the skill you attempt to use only works with one of them, usually only the valid weapon will be used for every attack made with that skill.
The following attacks use only your main hand weapon: Ground Slam, Leap Slam, Double Strike.
Cleave and Dual Strike will attack with both weapons at the same time.

 

[pontifex]

witch is kind of cool too.

 

[Zeze]

I have a Q:

Is the weapon's DPS the end-all calculation? (does it include critical chance and multiplier? How about chance to hit?)

 

[smackababy]

Wow seriously... Unique character names. WTF?

 

[Arglebargle]

Last night the PoE mods were seriously riding herd on the global channels, and busting asshats right and left. I really liked that. The community was pretty good about helping the new and clueless with info and advice.

 

[Mopetar]

Wow seriously... Unique character names. WTF?

What's so wrong with that? I kind of like it.

 

[smackababy]

What's so wrong with that? I kind of like it.

Sure, lets have 5 million people have to pick a different name for every character. That is just silly. How many stupid xxxBillOneTwoThreexijs do I have to make? We had ununique names in an MMO in 1997. Go by a character ID and let the name be arbitrary. Especially in a game not realm based and everyone trying for that one name they want.