Path of Exile catch-all

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I guess we don't have a PoE thread? I was hoping someone else started one so I don't have a lousy OP. Anyway, it's a blatantly Diablo-inspired free to play ARPG game that's currently in closed beta. I got my beta invite yesterday and today they sent me a code to invite a friend. I was going to offer it up, but I think I'll give it to my son, sorry. If he gets one then I'll share that.

Anyway, anyone else playing this? Anyone have codes to share with GWJ?

http://www.pathofexile.com/

This is actually one of the upcoming games I'm most interested in, but there has been an absolute dearth of new info to talk about regarding it.

No beta invite for me yet, but I keep hoping.

I was uber excited about this, but I've been waiting for a beta invite since this summer. Kind of lost my steam for it.

Looks like a more crunchy take on a D2 remake, than D3's. Have you seen those skill trees! WOW.

I think they might be soft launching in January. If so, I'll definitely be trying it out.

If I get another invite I'll give it out here as well. I've been in the beta for 3 or so months now. Granted it's taken a backseat to Skyrim but I entirely do not care about Diablo III anymore. Yes, I enjoyed myself that much playing PoE

DeThroned wrote:

If I get another invite I'll give it out here as well. I've been in the beta for 3 or so months now. Granted it's taken a backseat to Skyrim but I entirely do not care about Diablo III anymore. Yes, I enjoyed myself that much playing PoE :)

That's good to hear. High hopes for the game-- though it hasn't squashed my D3 fanaticism.

Ah, yes. I keep seeing this pop up. Not sure if I'm interested in it or not. Kind of feel like I'm on the verge of being done with lootfests.

I've signed up for beta access, but have yet to get a key. I remain ever hopeful...

The devs are having a public stress test this weekend, starting today at 8pm EDT. Instructions and info here.

Fun. Gruesome. Has a proper skill tree.

Well, there went 5 hours of my sleep.

"There are 566 people ahead of you in the queue."

It's a little rough around the edges, but much more polished than I was expecting for an indie production out of New Zealand (monster rhoas!!). The character development system has that mix of innovation and familiarity that I had hoped that Diablo 3 would have.

There are five character archetypes - warrior, archer, mage, warrior-mage, warrior-archer - all of whom have access to the same ginormous passive skill "forest." Based on their archetype, the characters start growing their skill trees from different starting points in the forest.

Active skills come from gems, which have to be slotted into equipment. The gems level up with exp, subject to some limitations on the characters' base stats. The gems also provide elemental damage and buffs, that improve with the gems' level. So, you can create a zombie summoning, fireball casting warrior if you want. And if you don't want to cast fireballs, you still get the elemental damage bonuses from the gems.

The economy seems to be based around materials rather than gold. This is a little tough to process at first, but I think the idea is that everything in the game should be useful. There's no standard medium of exchange.

Been playing part of the day. This is the game I had hoped D3 would be. I am loving D3 as well, but the darkness of the game, the skills, the runes. This is a day 1 purchase for me. Plan to ante up for beta next week as the Devs have said. Game has got a grip on me.

I got into the Path of Exile beta a while back and was really underwhelmed. Lots of unspoken dialogue that I found pretty boring, the UI was was too big (the public chat takes up like 20% of the screen) and really bad sound design. That was a few months ago though so I wonder how it's evolved. The Diablo 3 beta I found rather lacking as well so I was hoping this would be a good alternative. If they're stress testing, are they more or less feature locked now?

I just got into the beta. It's pretty fun so far. Anyone want to group up?

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I got into the Path of Exile beta a while back and was really underwhelmed. Lots of unspoken dialogue that I found pretty boring, the UI was was too big (the public chat takes up like 20% of the screen) and really bad sound design. That was a few months ago though so I wonder how it's evolved. The Diablo 3 beta I found rather lacking as well so I was hoping this would be a good alternative. If they're stress testing, are they more or less feature locked now?

Did you find Din's Curse lacking? If so, perhaps you're just burnt out on the genre.

I don't want to be down on this game, especially since its going to be a Free to Play. I got in the beta recently and there are a lot of new fresh ideas in the game that make it very very interesting but it just didn't hold my interest.

Pros:
- The skills being items that you slot into equipment and level up is awesome.
- Special bonus for slotting skills to equipment is great
- Instead of using gold, the barter system in the game really rocks
- The level up system (perks) uses a final fantasy X system for selecting your own perks and developing your character.

Cons:
- The level up system (perks). After 10 levels, I was not impressed. Most of the level up's are pretty boring and you don't see much visible difference for getting +10 mana. The real perks were also lackluster, eg. Spell dmg increase by 10%. The theory sounded better than the execution.
- The look and feel of the game in general. I know people are looking for a darker more serious game but the color scheme really make every seem a little bland. And I didn't get that "oomph" feeling when I executed a skill. Eg. In Diablo 3 when you hit a monster with a skill, the combo of sound and effects makes every hit satisfying. This was missing in Path of Exile.
- Inventory. OMG 1 hour in and I had HUGE issues with inventory and no easy way to get to town without a 15min run back to sell stuff. Very reminiscent of Diablo2 and not welcome at all.

garion333 wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I got into the Path of Exile beta a while back and was really underwhelmed. Lots of unspoken dialogue that I found pretty boring, the UI was was too big (the public chat takes up like 20% of the screen) and really bad sound design. That was a few months ago though so I wonder how it's evolved. The Diablo 3 beta I found rather lacking as well so I was hoping this would be a good alternative. If they're stress testing, are they more or less feature locked now?

Did you find Din's Curse lacking? If so, perhaps you're just burnt out on the genre.

I actually have Din's Curse but have never had time to play it. The thing is, I don't think I'm burnt on the genre cause I haven't played anything like this in a long time and it traditionally is one of my favourite genres. I do intend to give Path of Exile another chance when I get back from a trip I'm going on and see if it can grab me again.

emyln wrote:

Cons:
- The level up system (perks). After 10 levels, I was not impressed. Most of the level up's are pretty boring and you don't see much visible difference for getting +10 mana. The real perks were also lackluster, eg. Spell dmg increase by 10%. The theory sounded better than the execution.

I see that as an alternative in my view. Similar to how you'd put points in str/con/int/wis/etc. The other thing about it is that it seems to make power progression smooth, rather than hitting a certain level and then you're hugely more powerful than you were ten seconds ago.

emyln wrote:

- Inventory. OMG 1 hour in and I had HUGE issues with inventory and no easy way to get to town without a 15min run back to sell stuff. Very reminiscent of Diablo2 and not welcome at all.

Besides only picking up the really good stuff, did you find any waypoints?

You can now buy your way early into the closed beta, along with other benefits: https://www.pathofexile.com/shop/pur...

Before you think that's not so free to play, it looks like a fair deal. It's basically just an early $10 (or higher tiers for more goodies) microtransaction for the usual F2P points/coins that you can redeem for sweet capes*.

*You can probably buy stuff other than capes if you're not awesome.

Yes, the MOTD during the stress test said people were looking for this, so it seems silly not to meet that demand, everybody wins.

Scratched wrote:

Besides only picking up the really good stuff, did you find any waypoints?

I did. But with the slow run speed and distance between them it was a problem. I had to run back to town 4 times before getting to the first way point.

I'm a pack rat, its how I play and not picking up stuff is just wrong. Also, when I was starting out you want to get as much currency as possible, so leaving stuff on the ground is just wrong to me. My philosophy is that if we were not meant to pick them up, make the mobs drop less junk, but that's just me.

I do approve of the 'donation' drive and will probably drop 10 to them. It is a good ARPG, my only real problem is the art style but that's my hangup, just like some people will skip World of Warcraft cos they don't like the Art Style.

emyln wrote:

I'm a pack rat, its how I play and not picking up stuff is just wrong. Also, when I was starting out you want to get as much currency as possible, so leaving stuff on the ground is just wrong to me. My philosophy is that if we were not meant to pick them up, make the mobs drop less junk, but that's just me.

I'm the same. The other thing about PoE and other games like it is the shared stash, if you're running multiple characters you're always wondering if something fits for another character too.

I enjoyed the game immensely and I suspect the inventory system will be changed and/or added to the purchase options. You can already buy loot tabs for your stash. I'd bet that character inventory tabs will be for sale eventually as well. My only complaint is that I'd like to see an ability to zoom out farther, but that is small.

I threw $10 at em to get into the beta and see if I'm at all interested. If not, more Din's Curse playing for me.

Edit: Played a few minutes and I really like the atmosphere. Was feeling a bit odd though because while the game was downloading I played Din's Curse. So, not to keep bringing the game up, but there's a sense of urgency in DC that's missing in other ARPGs. I found myself running around and killing things as fast as I could in this game while not bothering to look at the stuff I was picking up because I was thinking a quest was going to end or I had to make it to level 5 of the dungeon before an invasion occurred. But, no, I could take my time. I found that nice as DC sometimes can be exasperating to play when everyone is starving and cursed and you're on the verge of failure. This game is more of a grim lootfest. I'm good with that.

I played in the beta weekend last week and then gave $10 because I enjoyed it and to have something to play whilst I wait for GW2/D3.

Got each class to about level 10 or so, and a 2-H Maurader up to about 27 or so. Pretty close to end of Act II. I will say I enjoyed the final boss area of Act 1 and then most of Act 2 much more than I did the previous content in Act 1. It got harder/more frantic, and the variety was a bit better. However, I did notice some hand/clicking fatigue after a couple hours that I never experienced before with Diablo/TQ/Torchlight. Not sure what to make of that.

I ended up mostly just using Heavy Strike as my main attack, and consistently just 1-shotted all but uniques and the blue-named enemies (uncommons? forget what these were called in Diablo 2). Nothing else really seemed to be worthwhile. If I ever found some solid mana leach or steal I would be golden. As it was I basically had to chug mana potions every 6-8 enemies, but it wasn't too bad. The closest I came to death was fighting the bandit lords.

I like the new things they are trying with the inventory, the sockets, the links, and the various orbs. I was a little frustrated at times, though, because once you get locked in to certain configurations, it seems awfully difficult to upgrade. For instance, I had found some amulet early on that added +25 str and +11 int, and had gone on my merry way leveling up my skill gems. Later I found an awesome amulet I wanted to use, except when i took off my +11 amulet I found I could no longer use the 3-linked-red-socket armor I was currently using due to insufficient int. Other times I couldn't upgrade equipment without severely compromising my skill layout, due to the linkages and socket colors. I wasted lots of orbs trying to change socket numbers, colors, and links, to no avail. I wish there was a bit less random way to get the equipment you wanted, or else a surefire way for getting the exact orbs you need. Maybe there is, and I didn't find it? Or maybe you're supposed to trade for them. Dunno. I did do one trade and was expecting a secure trade window, but the dude just dropped his item on the ground and I had a sudden flashback to 1997. Got real paranoid real quick.

Fun game, I mean, beta-test, for $10 overall, though.

I have an extra closed beta code from kicking in some cash to the devs as a preorder. First come, first serve. If my son doesnt want the other than I will have a second one. PM me.

I've been playing a bit of this since earlier this week. Interesting. I like doing stupid things like making a bow-witch.

My biggest complaint about the game right now is probably the chat. (And yes, I know you can turn it off.) The level of civility and maturity rivals that of classic WoW Barrens chat crossed with MOBA players' respect for newcomers.

Yay! I got my bow-witch up into Cruel so I can leave the Normal chat channel behind.

Turns out I have an extra key. If any of you want it just shoot me a PM

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