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[Path of Exile] Released on Steam! New Leagues! Now with more balance complaining!
Spawnbroker
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Welcome, Arcadians, to the Path of Exile thread! This game will ruin your life and shit on your responsibilities like Diablo 2 did. But don't take my word for it, let's get into it.
What is this game?
Grinding Gear Games wrote:Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. We're a small independent team of hardcore gamers based in New Zealand and have created Path of Exile as the game that we'd want to play ourselves. It is designed around a strong barter-based online item economy, deep character customisation, competitive PvP and ladder races. The game is completely free and will never be "pay to win". Path of Exile is currently in Closed Beta and will enter Open Beta on January 23, 2013. If you'd like to gain access to the Closed Beta, please purchase a supporter pack here.
So what? I already own Diablo 2, and Diablo 3 sucked donkey balls.
Now wait a minute, take a look at this:
HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?
That's about 30% of the passive skill tree in Path of Exile. Every time you level (and sometimes when completing quests), you receive a skill point to put in that tree. Many of the skills do things like +10 Strength, or +8% Life, but some skills drastically change the way you play your character. For example, one skill near the Intelligence portion of the tree decreases your life total to 1, but makes you immune to a certain type of damage and gives you 50% bonus energy shield. Another skill makes you unable to dodge attacks, but you can't be stunned. The list goes on.
Wait a minute, you said "passive" tree. What, I don't get active abilities?
Active abilities are gained through questing and drops in the form of colored gems. These gems can be socketed into your weapons and armor, and they level up while you do. In addition, sockets can be linked to each other which lets you change how the abilities work. For example, you could take Burning Arrow and add the Fork gem to it, which would make your Burning Arrow shots split into multiples. Then you could add Pierce on top of that, with Added Cold Damage. So you'd be firing three burning arrows that also deal cold damage and pierce through your targets.
Okay, you have my attention, give me the pitch.
Path of Exile is like Diablo 2 had sex with Final Fantasy VII's materia system and had a fucked up baby with Final Fantasy X's sphere grid.
Well that sounds fun, but what's the catch? I got burned on Diablo 3, I don't want to spend another 60 dollars on an ARPG right now.
Well good news for you, Path of Exile is going to be Free to Play. It is currently in Closed Beta, and the Open Beta starts on January 23rd. The developers are currently stress testing the servers because they expect upwards of 100K new players on that date. If you absolutely cannot wait to play it, you can either ask in the thread if someone has an extra key, or you can donate 10 dollars to become a supporter and you get a key. Those 10 dollars will be spent toward unlockables when the game launches. For those interested, here is the supporter link.
Hmm, free to play? I've had bad experiences with those, is this going to be pay to win like some recent free to play games?
The developers are very aware of potential problems with the free to play model. They've publicly stated they will never allow you to buy power in the game using money. The most they've allowed so far is extra bank tabs. Since a lot of the gear below max level looks very beat up (as it should), a large portion of their store is probably going to be cosmetic stuff and vanity pets.
If it's free to play, how are they going to prevent botters?
Path of Exile doesn't use a currency system based on gold. Certain items that drop are "crafting" items, which can do anything from open a town portal to adding new magical properties to items. Some of these are very rare and valuable, and their effects are more powerful than the basic stuff. The rarest item allows you to duplicate an existing item. Since these are all useful to people, they have an innate value as currency; and since there is no gold, that's how the economy works. It's all barter.
Is there PVP in this game? I really want to click people to death
There is! There is an NPC you can talk to in town that will matchmake you with PVPers, and you can join with friends to do multiple person duels and team battles. It's minimal right now, but it IS there and it's quite fun to waste an afternoon with friends.
What about the end game? Does it have one? Am I just going to be grinding endlessly for no reason?
There is an end game currently implemented, and yes you will be grinding. But it won't be for no reason. So the end game in Path of Exile is based on maps, which are an extremely rare item that drop on the highest difficulty. Maps from the game world drop as level 60 or 61. Once you have a map, you can add magical properties to it. Each magical property makes the map more difficult; an example would be "All monsters in this map deal 85% additional fire damage." The benefit to this is each property will increase the quality of items that drop in the map.
Inside each map, the monsters have a chance to drop a map of that level or one level higher. So a level 61 map can drop level 60-62 maps. In this way, you can "climb the map ladder" to get all the way to 69, the current maximum. Obviously, each map level is progressively harder and gives more experience and loot.
Speaking of ladders, do they have a system like in Diablo 2 for ladder resets? How about hardcore?
Yes they do! They have a hardcore ladder, and if your character dies it is sent to the softcore ladder; this way, you won't lose all of your progress. They also have special event ladders that they run, and those are a whole lot of fun. They just got done with a week long hardcore leveling race, and most of the hardcore players were streaming the whole time. They also do 3 hour long leveling races, races that don't allow you to party with people, and others. My favorite are the "cutthroat" races where you can invade other people's zones and try to kill them to halt their progress.
What if I want to play with Penny Arcade people?
Send me a PM and I'll make a list of people's usernames in the OP. Any other questions, just ask in the thread.
Penny Arcade players in-game:
Spawnbroker - Ishootthingspewpew
Zehbrahs - Zehbrahs
Mahnmut - jericho89
Pacificstar - Pacificstar
sliver911 - thesliver911
MrVynGaard - Vynhelm
Taranis - Taranicia
exis - Glykta
Anon the felon - Anonthefelon
Albino Bunny - Albinobunny
Bubs - Bubballs
Dac Vin - Karvados
Thanatos - Thanatosian
valiance - vexillary
Arthil - Dathrek
JimmyNavio - JimmyNavio
m!ttens - DoctorEw
Kai_San - Klineshrike
Silas Brown - SilasB
Xantus - waffenheimer
Griswold - Frumpalise
Chubby Bunny - Morghoulis
Useful Links:
Passive skill tree build planner.
Item Data
Path of Exile Wiki
Passive build comparison calculator
Also, we have a Google Document for finding PA players!
Steam: Spawnbroker
Spawnbroker on
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Steam: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
It's pretty much a given that you are going to fuck up your first character in some way. However, the community is pretty good about posting builds and helping out new people, and there's a section of their website where you can play around with the passive tree. Actually, I'm going to add that to the OP, thanks for the reminder.
Anything with a FFX-style leveling grid gets a thumbs up from me!
Gamertag: PM me
Melee has always been a bit slow...but the biggest issue for me has always been that edged weapons felt more like you were slapping someone with it's flat side rather than carving into them with the blade. Maybe that's a stupid thing to let ruin my experience, but it really twisted me the wrong way.
Complaints aside; this is one high quality action RPG. Anyone who's a fan of the genre owes it to themself to at least try it.
I should probably give it a try now that the grouping functions are in. But then again, grouping with people you know will result is less loot drama. :P
I think there's a link in the "what is this game".
Ha! So there is.
Then perhaps just more obvious.
Good point, I'll change that right quick.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
It's not actually that bad. Quests give you a hefty number of respec points over the course of several difficulties and there are (rare) items that give you said points. Said points also make early game more enjoyable as you can go down a short-term build strategy and refund it all back to pursue a more long-term build.
There seems to be a lot of effort at making the various clusters viable and more-than-not you'll be worried about slotting gems and getting the right combination of slots/linkages for your equipment. Straightforward vanilla builds will probably be balanced for the official release. Unless you're shooting for some truly esoteric and experimental build, it's unlikely you'll screw up.
I built a lightning witch the first time around and just bought every node that had to do with doing more damage with lightning. I figured it was a straightforward in terms of strategy and what I needed to get. And I had just enough respec points to realize that dipping into totems would probably be better than a marginal amount of crit advantage. Thus far, I am mightily pleased with my first character and will likely build her again for open beta.
Yeah, it's very much a spoke and hub type of persistent online world. All of the towns are populated with other people and from there you can either group up or go alone into instanced areas.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Edit: Magic Pink has a pretty good point. I'll just wait until the 23rd.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
if anybody got any real talk questions (not about alpha stuff which is nda) hit me up y0
The hub town/MMO-esque part of it seems kind of interesting. I am curious to get a feel for their money making plans though. F2P can either be executed well, or be a total travesty, and I've seen little info on how that will work out for PoE. Also, that skill tree looks complex simply for the sake of being complex, and that's sort of a game design tenant I've out grown over the years...so we'll see if that rubs me wrong. Adding a bunch of bubbles of "+10 damage" everywhere just to add more steps, to me, is not good design...but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I actually play with it in action.
(P.S. the fact that the always online thing seems to be like, no big deal here, but was the end of the world for that other ARPG, is kind of humorous...I guess we mold our conniptions to fit the narrative we want to project).
If you buy a game you can argue you should be able to play it however you want
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
I don't expect Guild Wars 2 to be playable off line so I wouldn't expect it of PoE.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
The game isn't free. It's "free". They have to make money somehow. I will buy Entaru's single player explanation more here than cost of entry.
Edit: I have these same reservations about games like Guild Wars 2, don't get me wrong. I just feel like the cost of entry is an important consideration here.
Yeah, they have to make money but you don't have to give them any. Use all the quotes you like, it doesn't change the fact you don't have to pay anything to get the game and play it.
there is no locked content or power u can buy
EDIT: also I am a grad student and broke.
Realistically you'll want to be a bow shadow until you can be a wand shadow. Wands are pretty weak until you can get a decent wand and get to the wand passives. I am trying a intelligence/dexterity wand witch and the early levels are pretty rough. Power Siphon is incredible, but you need some mana to take advantage of it.
Elemental Hit and bow-related gems will probably be your transition strategy. I also wouldn't waste nodes on element damage increases, as most of your damage (even elemental damage) scales off base damage increases.
A major problem with wand builds is survivability. You have no reliable crowd-control without multiple projectiles support gems and you don't get that awhile. Bows have more active skills than wands do, though wands can do some pretty good damage later on (via reliable bonuses and power charges). However, I question whether the trade-off is worthwhile.
dont need cc when half your attacks freeze everybody >:V