Necronic
Staff member
For all of you who really wanted D3 to be be the proper sequel to D2, then you're in luck, because Path of Exile is the sequel you've been looking for. It's a F2P Action RPG made by some New Zealand sheep programmers, and it's very very well done.
Now, it's important to note that PoE is REMARKABLY different from the Diablo franchise (in just the right ways). The main difference is how skills work. First off you have a 'Passive Skill Tree', this is a single tree that contains EVERY class, with ~1400 different options. I think it's really important to repeat, EVERY class is on the same tree. It's just a matter of where you start. So the Ranger, a dex class, starts on a dex heavy side of the tree, while the Maurader, a strength class, is on that side, or a Templar, a hybrid Str/Int class starts somewhere in between.
For passive skills you get 1 per level, and nodes can be stuff like '+8% life' or '15% def from shield' with scattered big nodes (like '+18% life), and then the giant weird nodes that do stuff like turn all evasion into armor, or makes it impossible to miss but removes your crit chance. You have to put a lot of thought into your build, and even if you copy/pasta a build from the forums there is plenty of room to tweak it to give it your own personal flair. The important thing to realize is that classes are highly liquid. You can build a spell flinging Maurader or a super tanky Witch.
Then there are the Active skills (things like AoE attacks or 'leap slam' etc), and Support Skills (like 'Add fire damage). These come in the form of 'Skill Gems' that socket into your items. It doesn't actually matter which item you socket into, and they pop right out. What does matter is that your socketed items have to have the right color socket to put the skill gem in, and you will want to get 'links' between the sockets. If you have an active skill gem, like Leap Slam, and you have it linked to a 'Support skill gem' like 'Added Fire Damage, your leap slam will add fire damage. Or say you link Summon Skeleton to the support gem "Spell Totem" you will have a totem that spews out skeletons. Which is awesome.
The way your sockets lay out becomes incredibly important. Having the right colors linked to each other makes a huge difference. Like with that Skeleton Spell Totem. What I would really like is to also have "Added Fire Damage" and "Improved Minion Life" on there as well, to make the skeletons more beefy. As you can guess, socket layout can be almost as important as magical stats on an item.
Sound confusing? It is.
BUT WAIT THERE"S MORE!
Possibly the best part of the game is how the economy works. There is NO GOLD. Instead you get 'ORBS'. Orbs do all sorts of weird stuff. The low level ones will turn a normal item into a blue item, or reroll the stats on the blue item. The higher ones do stuff like changing the color or socket count or links on a weapon. But it's totally random. You can't just add one socket of some color. You have to use an orb and hope it comes out the way you want. The really high level orbs do stuff like turning a normal into a rare, or rerolling the stats of a rare. The rarest currency orb simply duplicates an item.
Anyways, this game is awesome and you should get it. There isn't any pay2win at the moment, all you pay for is increased stash slots (which is useful, but I've never needed it).
Oh yeah and they do all sorts of crazy ladders in this. Like twice a week they do a 'race' ladder where you start a new character and see how far you can take it in 5 hours. Personally I just play hardcore because the economy is always guaranteed to be better in those, but softcore is cool as well I would assume.
Now, it's important to note that PoE is REMARKABLY different from the Diablo franchise (in just the right ways). The main difference is how skills work. First off you have a 'Passive Skill Tree', this is a single tree that contains EVERY class, with ~1400 different options. I think it's really important to repeat, EVERY class is on the same tree. It's just a matter of where you start. So the Ranger, a dex class, starts on a dex heavy side of the tree, while the Maurader, a strength class, is on that side, or a Templar, a hybrid Str/Int class starts somewhere in between.
For passive skills you get 1 per level, and nodes can be stuff like '+8% life' or '15% def from shield' with scattered big nodes (like '+18% life), and then the giant weird nodes that do stuff like turn all evasion into armor, or makes it impossible to miss but removes your crit chance. You have to put a lot of thought into your build, and even if you copy/pasta a build from the forums there is plenty of room to tweak it to give it your own personal flair. The important thing to realize is that classes are highly liquid. You can build a spell flinging Maurader or a super tanky Witch.
Then there are the Active skills (things like AoE attacks or 'leap slam' etc), and Support Skills (like 'Add fire damage). These come in the form of 'Skill Gems' that socket into your items. It doesn't actually matter which item you socket into, and they pop right out. What does matter is that your socketed items have to have the right color socket to put the skill gem in, and you will want to get 'links' between the sockets. If you have an active skill gem, like Leap Slam, and you have it linked to a 'Support skill gem' like 'Added Fire Damage, your leap slam will add fire damage. Or say you link Summon Skeleton to the support gem "Spell Totem" you will have a totem that spews out skeletons. Which is awesome.
The way your sockets lay out becomes incredibly important. Having the right colors linked to each other makes a huge difference. Like with that Skeleton Spell Totem. What I would really like is to also have "Added Fire Damage" and "Improved Minion Life" on there as well, to make the skeletons more beefy. As you can guess, socket layout can be almost as important as magical stats on an item.
Sound confusing? It is.
BUT WAIT THERE"S MORE!
Possibly the best part of the game is how the economy works. There is NO GOLD. Instead you get 'ORBS'. Orbs do all sorts of weird stuff. The low level ones will turn a normal item into a blue item, or reroll the stats on the blue item. The higher ones do stuff like changing the color or socket count or links on a weapon. But it's totally random. You can't just add one socket of some color. You have to use an orb and hope it comes out the way you want. The really high level orbs do stuff like turning a normal into a rare, or rerolling the stats of a rare. The rarest currency orb simply duplicates an item.
Anyways, this game is awesome and you should get it. There isn't any pay2win at the moment, all you pay for is increased stash slots (which is useful, but I've never needed it).
Oh yeah and they do all sorts of crazy ladders in this. Like twice a week they do a 'race' ladder where you start a new character and see how far you can take it in 5 hours. Personally I just play hardcore because the economy is always guaranteed to be better in those, but softcore is cool as well I would assume.
