I never played POE 1 but is this a Diablo isometric look a like?

Funny, but I don't remember being able to charge ahead successfully, without clearing the monsters first in the first PoE. Could this be one of those QoL improvements they were talking about?

mamaI never played POE 1 but is this a Diablo isometric look a like?

It is. But character development is much, much deeper than Diablo. You can try it anytime you want, the game client is free.

Edit: I have almost the same picture as your profile somewhere. Only taken from the right side of that bridge. And towards dusk. Rome :love:

bugBut character development is much, much deeper

I'll say. I found it harder to learn than CK2, and that is saying something.

Path of Exile actively punishes late/end-game players wanting to play with friends, and every new league seems to make it worse.

Diablo IV is too new to tell, but it does seem to reward multiplayer.

I'm hoping that PoE2 addresses the issues that hurt its multiplayer prospects beyond levelling and early maps (mid-game). It doesn't matter who you talk to or which streamers you follow in PoE, they all have issues with multiplayer because there are so many of them. My personal top three issues with PoE multiplayer are:

1. Map portals (the number of total deaths allowed per map) are not increased with player count, despite the increase to the amount of damage enemies do per hit, the additional time enemies are alive for (because even the best groups aren't perfect at focusing on the same target), and the decrease to the "safe" area in any given boss arena because persistent player-targeted floor hazards like fire and acid pools will cover much more of the arena unless all players always stand perfectly on top of each other.
2. Endgame/League/Atlas quest progress; Map sustain has been an issue at some point in several leagues, and only the player opening the map gets map drops. Also, while many quest/objective drops drop for all players if those players are at the exact same point in the quest, the chances of everyone being at exactly the same point in the quest chain is very very low, so nine times out of ten, the guest players in a map will have to redo it to progress their own endgame objectives.
3. Screen spam and lag; Not only is playing in a map with 5 other people far far more likely to result in your death, it's also often impossible to see what the heck is going on with 6 players worth of skills spam blinding you, covering up any hazards on the floor, and making even the highest-spec PC lag out and become nearly unplayable.

That's why I stopped playing PoE a year ago, and as far as I can tell, Diablo IV has none of those issues. Enemies don't seem to be massively more lethal (yet) when there are four of you fighting them at once, having friends with you increases your chance to survive thanks to combat resurrection, and performance seems good so far with no major hitches from netcode being overwhelmed, and the skill effects of other players are translucent and do not obstruct your view of the enemies you're fighting or the hazards you're attempting to avoid.

I played POE twice and could never really gel with it. There's something I dislike about the vibe and atmosphere of the game and I hate the campaign, it's so bland. Skill tree is absurd too.

As for Diablo IV after watching heaps of playthroughs on YT it looks like all the same problems are being made by Blizzard, there is only one meta build for each class, and they have been nerfing the crap out of those builds and they are not end game viable. THis is the same crap as with D3, everyone has to play a specific build for each class to survive higher greater rifts. D4 looks awesome and in the early to mid game it seems enjoyable, but I'm not going to go down the same route as in D3 and just play one build as the skills are so unbalanced. What they did in D3 was just power level a few skills rather than making alternate skills more potent and giving us variety. I'll be holding off D4 for a logn while and see how Blizzard handles this. Also the level 50 skill cap in campaign is ludicrous. If you do all the side quests/dungeons etc you'll hit 50 inside act II.

I could never get into Path of Exile either, I tried several times over the years.

Being owned by tencent these days make me feel uneasy about them

Space LynxI could never get into Path of Exile either, I tried several times over the years.

I like the game very much.
Played for a long time different characters and builds. Awesome game. Not sure why you dont like it.

Chrispy_Path of Exile actively punishes late/end-game players wanting to play with friends, and every new league seems to make it worse.

Diablo IV is too new to tell, but it does seem to reward multiplayer.

I'm hoping that PoE2 addresses the issues that hurt its multiplayer prospects beyond levelling and early maps (mid-game). It doesn't matter who you talk to or which streamers you follow in PoE, they all have issues with multiplayer because there are so many of them. My personal top three issues with PoE multiplayer are:

1. Map portals (the number of total deaths allowed per map) are not increased with player count, despite the increase to the amount of damage enemies do per hit, the additional time enemies are alive for (because even the best groups aren't perfect at focusing on the same target), and the decrease to the "safe" area in any given boss arena because persistent player-targeted floor hazards like fire and acid pools will cover much more of the arena unless all players always stand perfectly on top of each other.
2. Endgame/League/Atlas quest progress; Map sustain has been an issue at some point in several leagues, and only the player opening the map gets map drops. Also, while many quest/objective drops drop for all players if those players are at the exact same point in the quest, the chances of everyone being at exactly the same point in the quest chain is very very low, so nine times out of ten, the guest players in a map will have to redo it to progress their own endgame objectives.
3. Screen spam and lag; Not only is playing in a map with 5 other people far far more likely to result in your death, it's also often impossible to see what the heck is going on with 6 players worth of skills spam blinding you, covering up any hazards on the floor, and making even the highest-spec PC lag out and become nearly unplayable.

That's why I stopped playing PoE a year ago, and as far as I can tell, Diablo IV has none of those issues. Enemies don't seem to be massively more lethal (yet) when there are four of you fighting them at once, having friends with you increases your chance to survive thanks to combat resurrection, and performance seems good so far with no major hitches from netcode being overwhelmed, and the skill effects of other players are translucent and do not obstruct your view of the enemies you're fighting or the hazards you're attempting to avoid.

I always played alone and it was a ton of fun for me. In my opinion, there is no need to specifically play multiplayer. Also, if you have started later to play it does not matter much. The game is not pay to win. All you get in the store is skins. At least, that is what it used to be. Has it changed? I'm not sure, haven't played for a while now due to a newborn.

The problem with PAth of Exile wasn't the gameplay, but the main story. No lore, story background, no logic, no interesting quests, no nothing. Just mindless grinding and that's it. And don't get me started about that ludicrous skill tree

Chrispy_Path of Exile actively punishes late/end-game players wanting to play with friends, and every new league seems to make it worse.

Diablo IV is too new to tell, but it does seem to reward multiplayer.

I'm hoping that PoE2 addresses the issues that hurt its multiplayer prospects beyond levelling and early maps (mid-game). It doesn't matter who you talk to or which streamers you follow in PoE, they all have issues with multiplayer because there are so many of them. My personal top three issues with PoE multiplayer are:

1. Map portals (the number of total deaths allowed per map) are not increased with player count, despite the increase to the amount of damage enemies do per hit, the additional time enemies are alive for (because even the best groups aren't perfect at focusing on the same target), and the decrease to the "safe" area in any given boss arena because persistent player-targeted floor hazards like fire and acid pools will cover much more of the arena unless all players always stand perfectly on top of each other.
2. Endgame/League/Atlas quest progress; Map sustain has been an issue at some point in several leagues, and only the player opening the map gets map drops. Also, while many quest/objective drops drop for all players if those players are at the exact same point in the quest, the chances of everyone being at exactly the same point in the quest chain is very very low, so nine times out of ten, the guest players in a map will have to redo it to progress their own endgame objectives.
3. Screen spam and lag; Not only is playing in a map with 5 other people far far more likely to result in your death, it's also often impossible to see what the heck is going on with 6 players worth of skills spam blinding you, covering up any hazards on the floor, and making even the highest-spec PC lag out and become nearly unplayable.

That's why I stopped playing PoE a year ago, and as far as I can tell, Diablo IV has none of those issues. Enemies don't seem to be massively more lethal (yet) when there are four of you fighting them at once, having friends with you increases your chance to survive thanks to combat resurrection, and performance seems good so far with no major hitches from netcode being overwhelmed, and the skill effects of other players are translucent and do not obstruct your view of the enemies you're fighting or the hazards you're attempting to avoid.

Idk why this is almost always the case, I mean you either get punished for playing solo or multiplayer.
D3 went through both end of that and ended up being quite anti solo friendly, I mean you can pull off pretty much anything in solo but it will take you a lot longer. 'Split bounties and paragon farming being the prime example where party is just in a different league'
I've been playing almost exclusively solo self found in D3 for years now and thats how I prefer playing actually, thats one thing I liked about PoE that it has a SSF game mode + I'm not being directly punished for that.
In D4 I'm also not really planning on playing in parties much, random world boss event with randoms are all fine with me but the end game dungeon runs I would prefer to run solo just like I did in D3 so I hope I won't be massively punished for it yet again.

Imo playing in a party/with friends should be just that, done for fun and not for the extras it bring but apparently Blizz doesn't agree with this and doesn't like solo players that much. 'they were asked about a SSF mode multiple times and they refused the idea every single time'

Minus InfinityI played POE twice and could never really gel with it. There's something I dislike about the vibe and atmosphere of the game and I hate the campaign, it's so bland. Skill tree is absurd too.

As for Diablo IV after watching heaps of playthroughs on YT it looks like all the same problems are being made by Blizzard, there is only one meta build for each class, and they have been nerfing the crap out of those builds and they are not end game viable. THis is the same crap as with D3, everyone has to play a specific build for each class to survive higher greater rifts. D4 looks awesome and in the early to mid game it seems enjoyable, but I'm not going to go down the same route as in D3 and just play one build as the skills are so unbalanced. What they did in D3 was just power level a few skills rather than making alternate skills more potent and giving us variety. I'll be holding off D4 for a logn while and see how Blizzard handles this. Also the level 50 skill cap in campaign is ludicrous. If you do all the side quests/dungeons etc you'll hit 50 inside act II.

I've also tried PoE multiple times in different leagues but it just doesn't click with me + I don't like that the game doesn't even have a free transmog system for your gear so if you don't buy cosmetics you will look like a walking garbage.

As for the D4/D3 builds, well it depends if you care about being 'competitive' or not cause if you don't then there are more than 1 builds to play that can play end game maybe just not as well.
D4 is still brand new and the ppl are still figuring out builds and whatnot and yea Blizz will most likely change the meta up quite often like they always do. 'First Season is in mid-late July and I expect things to change a fair bit by then'

And yea the story capped at lvl 50 is defo something that needs to be looked at.
I guess they did not expect ppl to be slowpokes and do every side mission while doing the story, I'm active on a D4 forum currently and from what I read most ppl do the story first and then go back to do the side quests later.
I'm doing the do everything kind of playthrough cause I'm not a fan of backtracking quests/like to take my time with my first playthrough and I'm almost lvl 52 at the ~end of ACT 3. :laugh:

POE right now is very different from what it was a year ago. The devs keeps nerfing the builds on each expansion that they release and recently they heavily nerfed even the loot, so now the player has to spend way more hours to find some decent gear to use or trade. Seems designed for the people who don't have nothing to do in life, but play videogames. It's not for casual gamers, but for korean starcraft-like players.
The animations are cool, the graphics too, the build can be awesome once one masters the skill tree mechanics, but the fact that the devs keeps costantly nerfing the skills is underwhelming and frustrating. See, the player spend many hours to create a certain powerful build, spend most of the currency collected in game and after four months everything he has can become trash.
I'm not talking of the usual balancing patches released by developers of ther games, such as Diablo, but of changes that can completely kill a build, or a skill, or a piece of gear.
Beside this aspect, the game is superior to Grim Dawn and Diablo IV on the graphics and mechanics side. It's free, everyone can give it a go. There is no offline mode and there are no mods. Can be played through Steam of using a standalone client. The main campaign is single player, after that can be played solo or multiplayer.

vmarvPOE right now is very different from what it was a year ago. The devs keeps nerfing the builds on each expansion that they release and recently they heavily nerfed even the loot, so now the player has to spend way more hours to find some decent gear to use or trade. Seems designed for the people who don't have nothing to do in life, but play videogames. It's not for casual gamers, but for korean starcraft-like players.
The animations are cool, the graphics too, the build can be awesome once one masters the skill tree mechanics, but the fact that the devs keeps costantly nerfing the skills is underwhelming and frustrating. See, the player spend many hours to create a certain powerful build, spend most of the currency collected in game and after four months everything he has can become trash.
I'm not talking of the usual balancing patches released by developers of ther games, such as Diablo, but of changes that can completely kill a build, or a skill, or a piece of gear.
Beside this aspect, the game is superior to Grim Dawn and Diablo IV on the graphics and mechanics side. It's free, everyone can give it a go. There is no offline mode and there are no mods. Can be played through Steam of using a standalone client. The main campaign is single player, after that can be played solo or multiplayer.

They pretty much have to do all that, otherwise a handful of builds would dominate and the economy would be in shambles.
Grated, this is very, very off-putting for people that, like me, play on their own. You can't really plan for a build, because by the time you get there, one or two rounds of game rebalances will land, making that build sub-par. You kinda have to play going by the drops you happen to get.

And about loot... invariably these games turn into a proper exchange, where you spend more time watching the buy/sell prices than you spend on actual gameplay. It can't be any other way if people keep playing and items get generated.

bugThey pretty much have to do all that, otherwise a handful of builds would dominate and the economy would be in shambles.
Grated, this is very, very off-putting for people that, like me, play on their own. You can't really plan for a build, because by the time you get there, one or two rounds of game rebalances will land, making that build sub-par. You kinda have to play going by the drops you happen to get.
And about loot... invariably these games turn into a proper exchange, where you spend more time watching the buy/sell prices than you spend on actual gameplay. It can't be any other way if people keep playing and items get generated.

Not really. The devs nerf the builds that streamers show off on YT, without considering that these guys make them using currency and gear that 99% of the players won't ever have. Builds worth some Mirror or hundreds of Divines, stuff that casual gamers can't find or collect even after a year of gameplay, especially if they play the expansion and not the standard league.
I have maybe 3000 hours of gameplay, because I play since the game was in beta, and I never seen a Mirror doing maps and endgame (mirrors and divines are some of the game currency, for people who don't know). So the devs punish the entire playerbase for something that they can't even hope to do. For example, they heavily nerfed the summoner class just because some streamer afk the end content, when instead casual gamers struggle to even reach level 90. Add to this that now the players have to spend waaaaay more time to find the same loot of a year ago, and this just kills the joy of playing for a huge piece of playerbase.
It's not a smart approach by the devs and they always been like that. I uninstalled the game when they nerfed the loot months ago and the last expansion haven't fixed this thing yet.

This video sums up well what the gameplay experience is:

@vmarv They have to rebalance things, no online RPG is immune to that.

I agree with most of what you said. I've also played since beta and never seen a mirror (do they still drop? I thought they were removed at some point). But I did get ~3 years worth of fun regardless - I quit shortly after they got rid of difficulty levels and folded everything into one pass. First I built 3-4 different characters to 90. Then I remade some of them around some gear I found (thank God for free respecs). Then I was able to tackle some maps. I was never able to reach Atziri (much less the Shaper or the Elder). There was just so much to do, even without getting into the end-game.

I've dropped a mirror in SSF in white maps :laugh:

On topic for those confused, PoE2 is just PoE1 4.0. It's just a big expansion, main change is the gem sockets will be moved from gear to the gems themselves. So if you drop a nice body armour, you can actually wear it since six linking gear is no longer needed.

razaronI've dropped a mirror in SSF in white maps :laugh:

:respect:

razaronOn topic for those confused, PoE2 is just PoE1 4.0. It's just a big expansion, main change is the gem sockets will be moved from gear to the gems themselves. So if you drop a nice body armour, you can actually wear it since six linking gear is no longer needed.

I know and I'm ok with that. The game was pretty solid already, no need to reinvent the wheel. I understand there will be some QoL enhancements and some sort cross-play with the original PoE. I hope I'll have the time to jump in the beta and check it out.

bugFunny, but I don't remember being able to charge ahead successfully, without clearing the monsters first in the first PoE. Could this be one of those QoL improvements they were talking about?


It is. But character development is much, much deeper than Diablo. You can try it anytime you want, the game client is free.

Edit: I have almost the same picture as your profile somewhere. Only taken from the right side of that bridge. And towards dusk. Rome :love:

Close. Beautiful Florence.

mamaClose. Beautiful Florence.

No way. That's St. Peter's and Vittorio Emanuele II bridge. Brunelleschi's dome in Florence is made of bricks.

bugNo way. That's St. Peter's and Vittorio Emanuele II bridge. Brunelleschi's dome in Florence is made of bricks.

Just testing.