# Path of Exile



## Cid (Nov 2, 2013)

Multiplayer free to play Diablo clone.

However it's not strictly multiplayer; it's always online (I imagine to make it easier to control modding, keep in-game economy going and various other things), but is basically entirely instanced. You'll see other players in towns, and obviously if you want to make parties and stuff, but is (apparently, only played a few hours so far) entirely soloable.

Nor is it classic free to play. It is, in fact, actually free to play. Again have only played a few hours, but it's been in beta since January, so plenty of chat about higher level stuff. Funding was initially via a crowdsource thing (got $2.2 million) and is now via points packages... These enable you to buy pets, get forum titles etc but are entirely cosmetic. There's an in-game economy similar to Diablo 3 but afaik there's no way of directly spending real money in it (I'm sure the usual cash for items companies will sell you shit if you want of course).

Mechanics are similar to D3... Main difference is that skills come from gems. There is a (massive) skill tree, but this is for passive stuff, spells etc are placed into socketed items and linked to 3 mouse buttons.

6 classes (7th unlockable); Templar, marauder, shadow, duellist, witch, ranger. They do what you might expect.

Unlike (well, I think, sort of gave up on it) D3 there are actually mechanisms that make repeat play interesting... These come in the form of leagues and races. 2 main leagues changed every 4 months (next change is feb 23rd). Domination is the current standard league, has a few modifiers I won't go into. Nemesis has the hardcore modifier; this effectively means permadeath (you don't actually lose the character, but it's knocked down to standard league). Also has some other difficulty modifiers. Various PvP and co-op things as well. Think you'll also be able to pay to create your own leagues.

Races I've not really seen anything of, they come in seasons and the next will be in a couple of weeks afaik. These are effectively challenges with various time limits and rewards at the end. Rogue-likes and various other stuff. Further end-game content is available once the game's been finished on the two higher difficulties.

I like it so far, darker and more real than D3. The character development isn't exactly deep, but still beats D3 imo... I think mainly D3 was disappointing given the cost, this isn't because it's free. Notes on starting: there's no gold, trade is with various items, scrolls and stuff. Can be slightly off-putting at first, but fine really. Annoying chat window on the left can be limited by unchecking trade and general chat channels.

There's a lot more to it than I can sum up, but definitely worth a look.


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## Cid (Nov 4, 2013)

Played about 22 hours now (bearing in mind I'm a bit err... obsessive about unrevealed map corners), probably half way - three quarters through Act 2, still good... Perhaps a bit easy, but I'm not on the hardcore server and still on the lowest difficulty, so not unexpected.

The skill tree is bloody enormous and a bit intimidating initially, however it's not actually that complicated - points with large bonuses connected by basic stat upgrades. It allows a fair bit of customisation... I'm playing a templar with a fair bit of int (magic of course) and decent dexterity (high strike rate), but a templar could equally go for a high strength build 2 hand or high dex dual wield etc. Convenient planner here, press f for fullscreen.

This is partly aided by the skill gems; you don't need to worry too much about which abilities you'll take - rather you can tailor your passive skills (via the skill tree) around gems you happen to like. Any class can use any gem, but gems have requirements - again it's the 3 central stats; intelligence, dexterity and strength. You can five on QWERT and 3 on the mouse... gem slots can also interact, certain types of gems will buff other gems. 

Basically it's a very solid ARPG, well worth a try if that's your thing.


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## Cid (Nov 15, 2013)

Did first challenge league today; 2 hour solo... Basically just level as quickly as you can in two hours, hardcore (permadeath and more powerful unique monsters). Only lasted 40 minutes... Good though, makes you play in a very different way. I reached er... level 6 i think (quite shit), looking at past runs people manage 30+ at the top of the leaderboard. 

Every challenge has to be started with a new character, which is a good thing imo - keeps things interesting.


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## tommers (Nov 15, 2013)

Jesus christ this download is a bit much.


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## Cid (Nov 16, 2013)

On steam? think I left mine going while I was out. Had problems with a few games of late, Rome 2 updates have been terrible (not even been playing it). Spends most of its time on 0 kb/s... Dunno if it's their server allocation or something wrong with my current version. PoE has also had an update or two since release, so may have reset the timer for that.


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## tommers (Nov 16, 2013)

I got it off their site.  I think.  I was drunk.  It took about 3 hours, there's 2 downloads and a bit in the middle when it 'allocates space' or something.  And then there's a big loading screen whenever I start it, but that might be patches I suppose.

Anyway, I like it.  Gone for witch with summon zombie.  I do like having things to fight for me.  Inventory could be bigger and is there a map screen?  I can get it overlaid but can't see a bloody thing.

How does multiplayer work?


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## Cid (Nov 16, 2013)

Not tried multiplayer due to being anti-social. I've been using the overlay map, seem to be some writings about a minimap - try the UI tab of the options menu.


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## Cid (Nov 16, 2013)

Ah yeah - UI has a show corner map option and you can adjust map transparency (affects both).


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## Cid (Nov 16, 2013)

poului as a Diablo fan of old you tried this?


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## poului (Nov 16, 2013)

Nope. Reckon I should give it a go?


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## Cid (Nov 16, 2013)

Yeah, I think so. I mean it's free, so you can't really go wrong, but it's also definitely the best Diablo clone I've played... I like it, and I like the way they've gone about funding and designing it. As i said above development was paid for through crowdsourcing and the only other way you can spend money it is to get cosmetic upgrades (kind of tempted as I've got a lot of enjoyment out of it). They also ran it in Beta for ages; open since January and closed for a while before that, which has resulted in a generally polished version on release... I also like the way the races are set up so that you have to keep starting new characters etc - discourages the obsessive loot grinding of Blizzard games and means you can just dip in if you want. Sometimes loading times are a bit erratic and I've had a connection error when I tried the race league, but no problems at all doing the campaign solo.

It compares favourably to Diablo 3... I seem to remember I had to use some kind of physical disc type object for that, so have been unable to reinstall it and properly compare, but vaguely remember the game pretty much choosing how your abilities etc progress. Poe has a massive skill tree, which is actually not too complicated once you get how it works. Combat is good, three abilities on mouse, 5 on qwert and 5 potions on 1-5. Graphically it's definitely AAA quality, and the general design is good.

I might get out Torchlight 2 again at some point, that might give it more of a run for its money than D3, which I just got a bit pissed off with.


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## tommers (Nov 16, 2013)

It's much less stylised than Torchlight and "grittier".  I like that about it, but Torchlight has the pets which are brilliant and take away the endless returning to town to sell your loot which is starting to annoy me a bit.

I do like the character upgrade thing.  It's like FFX.


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## Private Storm (Sep 29, 2014)

Anyone still playing this? Had a pretty expansion of the content recently with the addition of Masters. Love/hate the complexity of the item trading system, same goes for the skill tree. Still prefer it to D3 though.


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