Path of Exile catch-all

I like to work my classes in stages. I have a Templar, a Shadow, and a Barbarian going right now. Going to kick a witch off today. So far I think my Templar is the most badass. Combo sword and board with minions and firestorm and it kicks pretty good.

I'm playing a shadow named ArchonVect. Friend me up, it's dangerous to go alone!

My characters are Robear and Afrina, well, two of them anyway. Friend me up.

Server is full. 1049 People ahead in the queue.... argh
-edit-
185 ... that went down quickly...
-edit-
and in. Nice!

Started with Witch, name Rixalabur.

Sorry I did not reply, Spar, was fighting. Then I got booted, I think the server dropped.

I like the Witch, mine is like 14. She's getting overwhelmed even with her minions, however, I need to figure out how to sustain her on a pure magic path (ie, without a second set of sword 'n' board or the like), as that's the build I'm giving her.

My Ranger is (so far) sword and shield and bow. That's fun.

This game actually reminds me more of Titan Quest than Diablo. Which is a good thing for me.

Robear wrote:

Sorry I did not reply, Spar, was fighting. Then I got booted, I think the server dropped.

I like the Witch, mine is like 14. She's getting overwhelmed even with her minions, however, I need to figure out how to sustain her on a pure magic path (ie, without a second set of sword 'n' board or the like), as that's the build I'm giving her.

My Ranger is (so far) sword and shield and bow. That's fun.

This game actually reminds me more of Titan Quest than Diablo. Which is a good thing for me.

The servers are crashing and being taken off line today lots. Right now as well.
So no worries there

Started Witch and yes, they can get overwhelmed easily. Especially when up against a bit tougher foe.
Liking the game lots though!

Well, managed to beat Act 1 on Hardcore. Was pretty rough towards the end (last boss was a bit more difficult than I was expecting). Good stuff though, really enjoying this so far

I'm also playing a witch, currently at level 10 and was in the prison the last time I got booted due to the server crashing. I'm not using minions and don't intend to, unless I absolutely have to. So far I'm getting by just fine with the items and gems I have. I've only died once or twice due to carelessness.

I hope they get the server issues sorted soon. The last time it went down, I had just killed a boss that dropped two rares, and I was deciding what to drop to make room in my inventory so that I could pick them up when I got booted.

Servers seem to be solid now (or for now).
Was great to see fellow Goodjers just drop in!
Thinking that maybe voice chat is nice. Maybe we
should use Mumble?

Robear wrote:

Sorry I did not reply, Spar, was fighting. Then I got booted, I think the server dropped.

I like the Witch, mine is like 14. She's getting overwhelmed even with her minions, however, I need to figure out how to sustain her on a pure magic path (ie, without a second set of sword 'n' board or the like), as that's the build I'm giving her.

My Ranger is (so far) sword and shield and bow. That's fun.

This game actually reminds me more of Titan Quest than Diablo. Which is a good thing for me.

*perks up from a slumber*

Wait..wha? I am now extremely interested. Titan Quest had the most interesting skill/class system of any of the ARPGs.

I have to say, it's similar in it's ideas, more like TQ to me than Diablo (although I understand the gems are pure Diablo 2). The skills are grouped into classes (in TQ terms), with the actual dependent skills strung out like beads on a string emanating from the start of the class in a huge two-dimensional beads-on-a-string map. You pick a path through them to put your character together. Thing is, as you go along, you can find yourself in the skill set of what would be starting or advanced skills for an entirely different class. You might have a bowman (Ranger) with magic and sword enhancements, or an elemental mage with dagger skills.

So a Witch might be intelligence and minion dependent, with additional spell damage and the like. That's what mine is. But she could also choose to go less into intelligence and put some into dexterity, and perhaps dual wield weapons or go sword and board for melee. And tucked in there are some focused specialties, like wand bonuses in the Witch region.

Some basic stuff, like attribute mods (increased intelligence, dex and str) do show up in multiple places. And as someone mentioned, you get some skills via gems that you put into items. Thinks like fire arrows, or a frozen spectral hammer strike, or an aura that adds an elemental attack to you and your allies. Then too, you have items that modify other items, to add enchantments, change the color of gem sockets, upgrade a normal item you like to a magic one, stuff like that. Many items are limited use depending on your basic stats and level (but not your starting class, as far as I can see.)

Gems are always removable, and health/mana potions are items replenishable by killing stuff, and they can be enchanted.

The game itself has the collapsing/exploding skellies, open fields and narrow ledges, caves and the like, although the paths are a bit more linear than TQ. Well, not that much. But in visual appearance, it reminds me of a darker Titan Quest.

Check it out, see if you like the idea.

Vector wrote:

Wait..wha? I am now extremely interested. Titan Quest had the most interesting skill/class system of any of the ARPGs.

Oh yes I remember that! The first character I made was a Warfare/Rogue dual wielding melee guy. He basically won fights by triggering ridiculous strings of critical hits.

Later on I made another character, this one Nature/Spirit who focused on minions. There were other skill trees with summons but I calculated that this combination was the best since it gave you three wolves, a fairy archer lady and this floating undead lich guy who blasted stuff with lightning. It was a weird combo visually speaking, but it was very effective.

Damn you guys for talking this up so much.

Templar Crystone is lvl5. Planning on making him a Totem Warrior, as long as I stick with the game, anyhow.

Oh yes I remember that! The first character I made was a Warfare/Rogue dual wielding melee guy. He basically won fights by triggering ridiculous strings of critical hits.

That's doable with POE, there are several regions of Criti buffs (chance to occur, and damage therefrom) in the skill map.

As for followers, I've seen zombies and skellies, and it looked to me like a person at the first city had a pet or an animal minion or something.

This game does remind me more of TQ than D2. TQ was a criminally under appreciated game with a brilliant design so I wouldn't say that is a bad thing.

I think I've put my finger on where this game is lacking for me. Both TQ and D3 had rag doll physics. PoE does not and it shows. I'm not sure how many death animations each creature has but they suck compared to real physics. As a result, when things die, they fall down is about it. Boring. In TQ and D3, there is an immense amount of satisfaction from kicking someones ass and watching it fly across the screen. They desperately need to add physics to this game.

Other than that, I am about 8 hours into the game and enjoying the rest of it immensely. They've really implemented some good design decisions. In fact, I feel guilty because I'm playing for free and I've yet to come upon a single reason to buy any microtransactions. They really need to give us smaller inventories or fewer character slots or something.

Copingsaw wrote:

In fact, I feel guilty because I'm playing for free and I've yet to come upon a single reason to buy any microtransactions. They really need to give us smaller inventories or fewer character slots or something.

You can always look at the microtransactions as a tip-jar rather than needing to find a gameplay reason for it. Just buy a silly hat.

Once you buy a hat, you can't stop.

But tbh, the micro-transaction items are quite lacklustre.

Scratched wrote:

You can always look at the microtransactions as a tip-jar rather than needing to find a gameplay reason for it. Just buy a silly hat.

This is usually how I approach these types of games

This game is gooood. My only nitpick so far, which may end up being a deal-breaker in the long term, is that it doesn't save your progress, or your portals, when you leave the game.

My Witch, Pauletta (my wife did not approve ) is at lvl 23 or so in Act 2. If you go minions (which I did) get the extra minion, extra health, and damage as quickly as possible. Also cant recommend highly enough the mana regen boost passives. I am running 4 Zombies, 6 Skeletons, and a Spectre plus my fireball and firestorm are crazy effective with the fire and AOE boosts. Also I highly recommend tailoring your armor to your class. For instance with the witch you really want blues and as many as possible (max is 3) If you find common items with 3 gem slots - save them and use Alchemy orbs to make them rares. I really am enjoying the game. As for the F2P - buy more inventory slots - Id kill for that in D3 and they (POE) really have a wickedly good game on their hands here.

Edit - the lines go really quick to get in game.

Tried to make an account today. Got stuck on the captcha. It simply didn't show one, even though it had a refresh button and everything. I asked around my steam friends and everyone who plays either didn't have trouble making an account or made one a long time ago in the closed beta.

Given how wobbly the servers are now I figure its just not working at the moment.

SpyNavy wrote:

My Witch, Pauletta (my wife did not approve ) is at lvl 23 or so in Act 2. If you go minions (which I did) get the extra minion, extra health, and damage as quickly as possible. Also cant recommend highly enough the mana regen boost passives. I am running 4 Zombies, 6 Skeletons, and a Spectre plus my fireball and firestorm are crazy effective with the fire and AOE boosts. Also I highly recommend tailoring your armor to your class. For instance with the witch you really want blues and as many as possible (max is 3) If you find common items with 3 gem slots - save them and use Alchemy orbs to make them rares. I really am enjoying the game. As for the F2P - buy more inventory slots - Id kill for that in D3 and they (POE) really have a wickedly good game on their hands here.

Edit - the lines go really quick to get in game.

I am also running a minion witch build. Definitely get the minions +healt and +dmg boosts. Also, get the Explosion trait asap. Whenever one of my minions die, they let off a little explosion, dealign 33% of their max health. It turns your skeletons into more than just a damage soak. That plus laying down AoE Firestorm kills of large groups of monsters extremely quickly.

Tamren wrote:
Vector wrote:

Wait..wha? I am now extremely interested. Titan Quest had the most interesting skill/class system of any of the ARPGs.

Oh yes I remember that! The first character I made was a Warfare/Rogue dual wielding melee guy. He basically won fights by triggering ridiculous strings of critical hits.

Later on I made another character, this one Nature/Spirit who focused on minions. There were other skill trees with summons but I calculated that this combination was the best since it gave you three wolves, a fairy archer lady and this floating undead lich guy who blasted stuff with lightning. It was a weird combo visually speaking, but it was very effective.

My first was a Hunting/Storm build. Stun and arrow. Stun and arrow. Highly effective.

My second build was almost the exact same except I went for Earth instead of Spirit. I had a Lava Man instead of a Lich. 3 wolves, fairy archer lady, my Lava Man. God, I loved that game.

Copingsaw wrote:

I think I've put my finger on where this game is lacking for me. Both TQ and D3 had rag doll physics. PoE does not and it shows. I'm not sure how many death animations each creature has but they suck compared to real physics. As a result, when things die, they fall down is about it. Boring. In TQ and D3, there is an immense amount of satisfaction from kicking someones ass and watching it fly across the screen. They desperately need to add physics to this game.

Don't quote me on the timeframe, but I believe the devs said within a couple months there will be a microtransaction that will allow additional gore. This might enable some of what you are talking about. There are a couple items in game that do have "Extra gore" as an attribute but they are few and far between.

That plus laying down AoE Firestorm kills of large groups of monsters extremely quickly.

It kills my Zombies, though. Or seems to...

Cayne helped me create an account, thanks! But I did find the problem with the captcha. Firefox is set to block all cookies by default unless I manually enable. And it only gives me the prompt to do this the first time I visit a website. I think I remember going to that page a long time ago and I must have hit the "no" button. Anyhow everything works fine, DLing the client now.

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure you get the xp from their kills. I checked, and it *looked* like that was happening.

Is gem leveling by damage done or kills? Which gem you have active doesn't seem to matter either, they all "soak up" xp at the same rate.

Here is my beef with using minions. Don't they take away xp you would otherwise have gained killing monsters yourself?

Sparhawk wrote:

Here is my beef with using minions. Don't they take away xp you would otherwise have gained killing monsters yourself?

No they dont take your XP. Also, you cant kill your own minions so Firestorm, Chain Lightning, Ice Bolt, Cold Snap to your hearts content.