Yea when Act 4 first released the difficulty was horribly tuned. It's much better now. Still a little bit of a spike but nothing like how it used to be. It used to be Act 2 inferno for melee in Diablo 3.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Is everybody aware how tremendously good Path of Exile is these days?
- Thread starter Imp the Dimp
- Start date
Yea when Act 4 first released the difficulty was horribly tuned. It's much better now. Still a little bit of a spike but nothing like how it used to be. It used to be Act 2 inferno for melee in Diablo 3.
Can confirm this, a definite ramp in difficulty, but nothing brick wall like.
arts&crafts
Member
Well there were monkeys in Diablo 2 and act 2 takes place in a jungle so it makes sense. I guess the ribbon enemies could be considered dumb if you think too hard about it but this game (and Diablo) arent going for realism.
As for using 1 spell, the game will play however you want to play it. If you want to use one spell, you can use 1 spell and make it super powerful, or you could use 3 spells or 5 spells or zero spells or make as summoner who also uses spells, or make a barbarian that uses an axe but only does fire damage or you can make a character that summons worms to explode. As i mentioned earlier, almost all ARPGS have "basic" combat, you usually build a character around a skill you like. Blizzard Sorc was my jam in Diablo 2, I also played a shapeshifter druid that only used 1 attack. I think a lot of people that don't like the combat in Path of Exile probably dont like or remember Diablo 2. In Diablo 2 you put 80 skill points into your tree. It was literally 20 skill points for Blizzard (or other skill), and 20 for each of the synergies that made Bliizzard or whatever your skill more powerful.
The bosses in endgame get pretty elaborate, and require you to be pretty quick and precise with your mobility skill, or you basically instantly die. See this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTH1tqbOgII for an example of a lategame boss where you have to pay attention to a whole lot of things. Most bosses aren't quite that elaborate, but quite a few of them have fun mechanics.
This: https://youtu.be/HGWvIjUw2E4?t=1127 is another example of a boss with a lot of different mechanics you need to interact with to keep him from buffing himself up and making the fight a lot harder.
Keep in mind that you can attempt these fights with much worse gear than the person in the video. With bad gear you need to pretty much dodge every shot and pay close attention to the mechanics. With top of the line gear, you can just melt everything in 1 second and facetank through everything, but that's pretty hard to get.
You're never going to be utilizing many active skills - that's just how the game is, although builds to tend to have at least a mobility skill and several timed buffs you need to keep track of. The problem with watching random endgame videos is that a lot of them are just speed farming easy areas where they blow everything up in one hit, but unless you've really pimped out your character you won't be doing that for quite a bit.
Is harbinger purely a seperate special challenge or do I still follow the normal story during it? I mean I enjoyed the game for the combat before but I am more invested in story( and it being awful during act 3 was why I quit) than trying out new mechanics in a timed league.
Would my old stash just disappear forever? I did have some vaal orbs and the like I'd never gotten around to using and it seems a shame to lose them forever.
I imagine it'll take me more than few hours to get back to where I was regardless of league though since I like to comb ever inch of maps and do all available sidequests. Still bound to be fun.
Well there were monkeys in Diablo 2 and act 2 takes place in a jungle so it makes sense. I guess the ribbon enemies could be considered dumb if you think too hard about it but this game (and Diablo) arent going for realism.
As for using 1 spell, the game will play however you want to play it. If you want to use one spell, you can use 1 spell and make it super powerful, or you could use 3 spells or 5 spells or zero spells or make as summoner who also uses spells, or make a barbarian that uses an axe but only does fire damage or you can make a character that summons worms to explode. As i mentioned earlier, almost all ARPGS have "basic" combat, you usually build a character around a skill you like. Blizzard Sorc was my jam in Diablo 2, I also played a shapeshifter druid that only used 1 attack. I think a lot of people that don't like the combat in Path of Exile probably dont like or remember Diablo 2. In Diablo 2 you put 80 skill points into your tree. It was literally 20 skill points for Blizzard (or other skill), and 20 for each of the synergies that made Bliizzard or whatever your skill more powerful.
Yea, in Diablo 2 if you had more than 2 MAYBE 3 different main attacks, you probably messed up somewhere. You could have a bunch of different buff/utility skills depending on class.
PoE is similar in that you normally have a primary AoE attack. A single target big dps attack and lastly warcrys, utility skills for defense or movement and passive auras.
arts&crafts
Member
Harbringer league is a 3 month league where everyone starts over. These leagues happen a couple times a year and always add a new special mechanic. After the league is over all your characters and items are moved to "Standard League". In your case, all your old stuff will still be in Standard league with all the thousands/millions of other old players and items but Standard league is kind of dumb as there are 4 years of items and characters on it. The story is always the same in any of the leagues it just a fresh economy /everyone starts from scratch. (keep in mind the league is about a month in so to you it will feel the same either way. You can very well just play on standard with your already made character if you will essentially being playing solo)
Harbinger is a 3 month ladder league. In 3 months all your stuff gets moved over to standard and they start a new 3 month ladder league generally. Your old stuff doesn't disappear. When the ladder league and standard league get merged you retain both stash tabs but your ladder league stash tabs will be temporary remove only stash tabs that will disappear once you remove all the items from it.
edit: beaten
I really like the game, but play melee exclusively now.
The ranged classes are far too limited due to the closer perspective compared to the Diablo games. They could improve the situation by increasing the survive-ability or sheer damage output, but damage output is comparable to melee classes.
The ranged classes just take MUCH more skill to play since the deck is stacked against them. The list:
* Cannot move and aim-shoot, have to constantly manipulate the shift key to aim that melee does not need to, have to freeze in place to do that which limits mobility.
* Same damage output as Melee
* Much more squishy due to not having easy access to armor buffs and dodge is not often enough, basically you see a lot more 1-shot deaths.
* Little time to kill at range due to closer perspective puts you in melee much to often considering above.
If they do not want or cant increase the view perspective they need to improve the areas above to find a balance.
The ranged classes are far too limited due to the closer perspective compared to the Diablo games. They could improve the situation by increasing the survive-ability or sheer damage output, but damage output is comparable to melee classes.
The ranged classes just take MUCH more skill to play since the deck is stacked against them. The list:
* Cannot move and aim-shoot, have to constantly manipulate the shift key to aim that melee does not need to, have to freeze in place to do that which limits mobility.
* Same damage output as Melee
* Much more squishy due to not having easy access to armor buffs and dodge is not often enough, basically you see a lot more 1-shot deaths.
* Little time to kill at range due to closer perspective puts you in melee much to often considering above.
If they do not want or cant increase the view perspective they need to improve the areas above to find a balance.
bati
Member
I think the more impressive thing about PoE is how often they release content. They just released 6 new acts and then they posted this 2 weeks ago:
"Since late 2015, we have stuck to a schedule of releases every thirteen weeks, alternating between expansions (with attached small challenge leagues) and standalone challenge leagues. This schedule worked really well until the release of 3.0.0 shuffled it around, but we plan to get back onto this schedule with our next big release in the first week of December 2017. Rather than just a challenge league, this release will be a full expansion (though of course, not quite the same size as The Fall of Oriath!) Many members of our team are of course continuing to work on improvements to the Harbinger league and 3.0.0 content, which you'll see rolled out over the coming days, weeks and months. Thanks for your support and for being a great community. "
New full expansion planned in 3 months, they are madmen.
"Since late 2015, we have stuck to a schedule of releases every thirteen weeks, alternating between expansions (with attached small challenge leagues) and standalone challenge leagues. This schedule worked really well until the release of 3.0.0 shuffled it around, but we plan to get back onto this schedule with our next big release in the first week of December 2017. Rather than just a challenge league, this release will be a full expansion (though of course, not quite the same size as The Fall of Oriath!) Many members of our team are of course continuing to work on improvements to the Harbinger league and 3.0.0 content, which you'll see rolled out over the coming days, weeks and months. Thanks for your support and for being a great community. "
New full expansion planned in 3 months, they are madmen.
MarmiteBadger
Member
It's always been good since beta. Just needed some fine tuning and it was a game of it's own, definitely satisfied my ARPG itch.
Usually, the poe community argues the opposite actually. Ranged builds can build far more offence and essentially clear 2 screens away from you. There's quite a popular bow build (doomfletch prism) currently that's very good.
Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll just restart in standard for now while I get used to things again and then when the next ladder league begins in a few months I'll do that since I'll be able to take advantage of it being a fresh economy and all.
Wouldn't it be better to start in Harbinger?, you might get 12 challenges completed which (I think?) gives you a microtransaction.
I tried it out a hit yesterday. Only for like 30min though. Made a Ranger and did the first quest or 2 in the tutorial.
Impressions.
-Nice looking game. Love the death animations of the zombies.
-Besides loot tabs all micro transactions seem to be vanity style from what I briefly looked at
-Skill tree look intimidating as fuck, but it's not really a bad thing. It's just HUGE. Probably means there's a reasonable amount of verity.
-No character customization but I'm guessing that's pointless due to armor covering everything.
-Voice acting has been good so far. Wondering if everyone is voice acted in the campaign.
Overall I feel I'll keep at it at a slow pace. Got way too much to play right now and PUBG is ruining it all, but I can't stop, won't stop for now at least.
Thanks for turning me onto trying it OP.
Impressions.
-Nice looking game. Love the death animations of the zombies.
-Besides loot tabs all micro transactions seem to be vanity style from what I briefly looked at
-Skill tree look intimidating as fuck, but it's not really a bad thing. It's just HUGE. Probably means there's a reasonable amount of verity.
-No character customization but I'm guessing that's pointless due to armor covering everything.
-Voice acting has been good so far. Wondering if everyone is voice acted in the campaign.
Overall I feel I'll keep at it at a slow pace. Got way too much to play right now and PUBG is ruining it all, but I can't stop, won't stop for now at least.
Thanks for turning me onto trying it OP.
Hellshingu
Member
My doomfletch prism build with 7 tornado shot arrows up at all times says differently. Whole entires screens of enemies get blown up in 1 shot most of the time. Ranged has always been the best and preferred choice in Poe. You must be doing something very wrong in your ranged builds if you are having the issues you are saying.
My single target barrage setup downs bosses faster than any melee buuild I've played in years.
I just returned and am doing an essence drain build.. it's freaking powerful. Lots of fun
/shudders
I still wake in cold sweats
Try playing a DH doing no damage and getting one shot by wasp farts
/shudders
I still wake in cold sweats
Try playing a DH doing no damage and getting one shot by wasp farts
KittenMaster
Member
Serviceable is how I'd describe it. There is lore, but it's less Lord of the Rings or Elder Scrolls and more "D&D Monster Manual 1st-4th editions with several campaigns to use them with". The story is told entirely through NPCs describing what's happening.
You are not using all that many skills in D3 either, it's almost always one main skill and a bunch of skills (most that are passive) that support it. PoE follows a similar structure of skills. Here's how skills in a build look like in Diablo 3:
Multishot build:
Multishot - The move you are using 99% of the time, spamming it.
Random generator - You have this to proc Focus rings once every few seconds.
Vault - Mobility skill
Vengeance - A passive damage boost on a long cooldown, you just pop it once in a while.
Animal Companion - Generic passive boost to your character.
Gloom - Another passive boost on a cooldown this time on a defense. Sometimes people replace this with Preparation for the Hatred/Discipline boost but you are trading a cooldown for another.
99% of the game play in this build is Vaulting around and spamming Multishot. You pop your cooldown when they are up but they make such a low portion of the actual playstyle. You use your generator to pop focus and restraint but if you are not using those rings then you don't even need to do that much, you can use the armor generator.
This is what the Multishot build looks like at end game:
https://youtu.be/CVZ4nPZ83GI
Here's what a generic Flame Cyclone build looks like PoE (remember that you aren't restricted to 6 skills like in D3):
Cyclone - Main skill you are using 99% of the time.
Ancestral Warchief - Single target damage skill you use on bosses/high HP enemie while Cycloning, places a Totem.
Leap Slam - Mobility skill to move around ledges and stuff, procs Fortify and Endurance charges on Stun if you have it.
Vaal Cyclone - A skill on a cooldown that you use in massive packs. You don't use this that often but it sucks all enemies into you while you Cyclone.
Vaal Haste/Lightning Trap - Another skill on cooldown that boosts your character.
Herald of Ash/Flammability Curse on Blasphemy - Passive auras that you reserve mana.
Flame Golem - This is like your animal companion but it can die so you have to cast it again or you can attach it to cast on damage taken.
Blood Rage - Cooldown you pop for better attack speed and Frenzy generation.
And then you have 5 flasks that you have to manually use.
So how you play this build is you go around Leap Slamming to move around and get Fortify up, spam Cyclone, when Vaal skills become available you use them for bigger damage/boosts and then use Warchief Totem on bosses to help you take aggro off you and do more damage. You use Flasks when they are up except the Life one which you use when at low HP.
Here's a video of it:
https://youtu.be/f3wWez3zBOw
This dude is using fairly standard gear, level and items nothing absurd like the other videos posted of people in Mirror gear and Head Hunters. Average players can get to this level within reasonable time. I know this because I have actually used this build last league and killed Shaper with it (with some tweaks on my own).
How about both though? Like direct movement but still aiming attacks with the mouse?
They are called orbs of regret. This hasn't been an issue for sometime.
Only started playing the game since march.
I put an hour in yesterday but I gave up. All the skill builds and information out there is really overwhelming, I have no idea what I should do, and trying to watch these videos that explain builds and newcomer videos are really long and I don't have the attention span.
This sounds like a dumb question, but is it a bad idea to just start playing and do whatever I feel like?
This sounds like a dumb question, but is it a bad idea to just start playing and do whatever I feel like?
darth_infamous
Member
Holy shit, having never played Diablo 2, some of those are straight-up WoW icons.
I would recommend this, sure your build for the ultra end game may not be optimum and you will hit some walls maybe as your going through the acts but learning yourself is way way more useful for understanding the game opposed to reading a guide and just following it mindlessly.
You could always do what I did yesterday and start an essence drain build which levels quickly and is pretty fun.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1625254
You don't get get it until level 12, but until then, I looked for skills like fire trap and freezing pulse. they both do good damage at low levels.
Try to get a three link eventually and look at the support skills for essence drain used in that guide.
I would look at the PoE forums (what I linked is from there) and pick a build that looks the most fun to you.
Honestly I think it's best to spend an hour or two looking at builds because it WILL pay off in the end. Sucks having to restart a character because you didn't pick stuff that is very strong.
BrownWalrus
Member
I played this a bit on my PC back in the day ~2013-2014 and loved it even then.
Would this be fun on Xbox One X or would my experience be limited in comparison to playing it on PC?
Would this be fun on Xbox One X or would my experience be limited in comparison to playing it on PC?
I havn't played the Xbox One version but it doesn't sound like it's as smooth of a transition as Diablo 3 was. Not to mention Path of Exile is kind of built upon the idea of trading, I imagine that's harder to do on the console. So my gut feeling is that your experience would be limited.
arts&crafts
Member
Those icons are modded. It normally looks like this:
You are right, it has been way too long. But my point about the skill tree stands!
I can totally understand that, I feel / felt the same way, my advice would be to ignore all but the very beginners tips and videos and just play, new mechanics are introduced along the way in the format of unlockable help pages.
I am just playing and doing whatever and I am haven't a good time.
bati
Member
Yeah, very. Probably the best way to get turned off by the game.
My recommendation would be a 2h slayer cyclone. It's simple but effective, plays like WW D2 barb. No gimmicks or hoops to jump through, just spin to win. Cyclone also has the benefit of stun immunity and being able to pass through enemies. This type of character is also pretty easy to level due to abundance of leveling 2h uniques. Probably the most fun way to level a character, actually.
Literally had no clue it was free to play, or on consoles. Also thought it was single player, no idea that it was online.
I'm surprised because a few of my friends talk about it often enough I feel like I should have known this. After checking, I totally had it confused with Pillars of Eternity.
I am now aware thank you OP.
I'm surprised because a few of my friends talk about it often enough I feel like I should have known this. After checking, I totally had it confused with Pillars of Eternity.
I am now aware thank you OP.
krameriffic
Member
But part of the point (some would say the whole point) of these games is the sense of progression, which is where D3 fails spectacularly. You can't have that same sense of progression if your character starts as a powerful nephalem warrior and then ends as essentially the same thing with bigger numbers. PoE's character growth isn't expressed in adding 0s to the end of your numbers, but in making the act of playing feel better and more rewarding every step of the way.
Imp the Dimp
Member
Glad to hear that. Looks like many people gave the game a try after reading this thread which is awesome. It'll blow people's minds honestly.
Redshirt
Banned
I started off doing it that way, and I'm OK. We all learn learn different.
When does it happen because each level and act feels like losing progress. Things take longer to kill and the bosses just are there to make me lose exp it seems. Even wandering yellows can feel like I am shooting a bb gun at a train. Kind of opposite issue with Diablo the loot is way to cheap and hard to come by with no real trading on console. A lot of item 20+ plus levels behind. Just a frustrating day 100 deaths between act 5 and 6. The experience penalty ensures I ain't fighting any boss if I am over 2 bubbles. Because I am not reading 10 guides and watching 10 hours of tape to fight a boss in this kind of game to avoid xp loss.
Wow a FREE respec?
You don't start as a powerful nephalem though. You start basically naked with one skill. Your powers ramp up quickly and consistently as you go.
Very well said....
I see videos of end game D3 now and it's just throwing around damage numbers like 400 million all over the place. Like great....but the playstyle is the same as it was when you were doing 1 million dps.
POE feels great because my character goes from being fun to level with to blazing across the screen at high speed and blowing up enemies 3 screens away.
Primethius
Banned
Never had that issue with D3 tbh. I started out feeling satisfied with the combat and it only escalated from there.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I've been playing a Ranger in my most recent attempt to get into the game and I really feel you about the mobility stuff.
I feel like holding the shift-key plus shooting often doesn't work how you would expect it to, either. Like if you're shooting in the exact direction of the enemy while holding the shift key, but not actually clicking on the enemy, your projectiles sometimes just won't hit at all. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like that has happened to me a ton already.
You understand that attacks have a chance to miss, right? In your character panel, click the skill you're using and it'll show your chance to hit.
Yea accuracy is important for a ranged char. Also in regard to shift not working how you would expect it to, it works exactly the same as it did in Diablo 2 so to me it feels right.
feels better than D3 to me and i have both on PC and Xbox
and the game isn't built for trading when there's an entire mode for not trading (SSF)
don't turn the guy off, the xbox version is fantastic
It handles both. Trading isn't required but the API to make trading easy disagrees with your notion.
Having argps on consoles is nice love playing with certain groups of friends I know on them.
my notion of what, that the game is playable without trading? because the game is playable without trading. its a commodity for many people and not a bad thing to have around, but it's not strictly neccessary to progress or reach end game. hence SSF mode
You said the game wasn't built for trading not that it's playable without trading.
I'm not disagreeing with you. But your comment can be taken a variety of ways and there are mechanisms GGG left in place to make trading what it is vs the disaster of D3.