Path of Exile

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I very rarely feel any desire to pay for something that isn't out, let alone something """releasing""" into early access, but I've been watching most of the Gameplay trailers and stuff over the last year, and assuming the game plays like it did in those trailers, I'm sure I'll be happy with it. I've of the only times I've ever done something like this was with Elden Ring, and that turned out to be a good call. Got it all preloaded, do I'm just waiting for work to finish so I can shoot home and nerd the fuck out all weekend.

A little disappointed there might be queues all weekend, but I understand why and at least Rogers put out the video yesterday where he explained what the fuck was going on (5x expected preorders) and how they were trying to fix it (spinning up more servers, etc)

Probably going to play another Summonmancer. I just did a summoner playthrough on DII like a month ago (which was legitimately not viable tbh, had to respec off Summons and into spells for Diablo, and then again for Baal, to have any chance of killing either of them), am currently doing a ColdMancer in PoE1, and wanna keep that mood going for a bit.
Immediately after that though I'm definitely going down the Blood Witch path, and gonna make a couple Monks and try both of his Ascendancies.

At absolute worst, if I can't get in this weekend (hopefully NZ still has its own server in PoE2 and we don't get flooded) I'll use the time to get footage for a Def Jam FFNY video I want to make, and same for a Tasteful Pairing of a Doom mod and wad.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

I played to like level 10 this evening, had to log out a couple times, but even being in the 9000s queuing, it was only maybe a 10-15 minute wait. Game plays pretty smooth, but there are a few lag spikes (was thinking that might be me, cause I'm on Starlink, but others were complaining in chat as well). Also some targetting jank, especially around corners and such - again, not sure if that's actual jank they can fix, lag related or just feeling very different than POE1 or Grim Dawn.

Also, at least early game, spells WAY outperform attacks. This might balance out with improved equipment, but who knows. I didn't play melee (i only played the merc for a bit and best-Witch), but apparently it's the absolute worst.

Kind of tentative on this, I don't really like the active skill system. Even though everything is open if you get the uncut skill balls, but it feels very stovepiped - like you can't put bow skills on a witch or make an arc lightning merc. I know it's early access, but if this is the design philosophy it's a big step back from POE1.

All the other stuff is good - graphics, music, voice acting. Passive tree is still huge and interesting. Worth playing for me, cause nothing has scratched the ARPG itch in half a decade - and even with all my complaints, and early access jank, it's still gets most stuff right. Hopefully they speed it up, add more mobs and re-think the akill system, but even as is, it's still pretty cool.

 

[crowabunga]

My immediate impression is that, despite all the polish, effort and mechanical potential, I'll not want to replay this campaign as frequently as new leagues release (for reference, I was fine replaying PoE1's campaign for each new league): it's almost as slow as Grim Dawn, but without the secrets, the exploration, or the persistent area reveals to give a sense of discovery and permanent progress. I'm having a good time on the first playthrough, but what is novel the first time around will be a slog on the umpteenth.

 

[Burning Bridge]

My initial thoughts after yesterday are this: Mobility is king. Not getting hit is your single greatest defensive option. Learning all the attack animations are going to be a must simply to know where to stand. You can dodge most attacks by walking in the right direction. Hallways are going to be even worse deathtraps than they were in PoE1, and I fully expect to get oneshot trying to go through doorways.

 

[hawkisnight]

Played few hours as a quarterstaff Monk and it's rough out there. Melee seems to be gimped just like in first one. After I got a little mad at some bosses I did few levels as a witch and it was heaven and earth between them however I returned to monk because the game aint gonna beat me. HC mode will be a true nightmare because even normal mobs can fuck you over hard.
I am sure the game will change and people will figure out some leveling builds but I agree that going through campaign in leagues will be even rougher than PoE1. I could do poe1 acts pretty fast 7-10h over the weekend. I don't think in poe2 you will be able to zoom like that but we will see.

EDIT: I tried to figure out strategy not to die but is it me or the tree has barely any life nodes ? What da?!

 

[Mobster Monitor]

This game looks so great visually, and the sound is even better IMO. I get why people aren't enjoying it gameplay wise, but it's exactly what I expected...? I thought they advertised this to be ruthless 2.0? I'm really out of tune with the overall opinion so far other then agreeing about going through the campaign once or twice every 3/4 months for each league is likely going to feel awful with how this is paced. Good content, I just don't want to spend 40 hours to get to maps every 3/4 months. I started with warrior and I'm just 1 shot slamming everything and chunking bosses with bone shatter and I don't even have that great of a weapon, I guess spamming life flask every encounter is annoying but I don't get why people are saying melee is too weak. The game does really rely on comboing abilities though, I tried merc for a little bit with friends and it struggled to do anything that wasn't freeze into buckshot, until I realized the basic attack actually does decent damage and can 2 tap common enemies so I don't have to spam dodge and reload.

I was really wrong about this being more welcoming to newcomers, this is as hardcore as they come. Playing mage would probably be more welcoming for them since it seems they can kill without relying on combo abilities or really good drops. Getting through the tree doesn't seem obvious so it's just kinda sprawling out to node clusters you want (they removed life clusters). I want to do a totem build and I'm struggling to figure out my ideal route through the passive tree, really hoping that respec isn't expensive as hell. Strength nodes technically give life. +5 str = 10 life. So I guess extra small attribute passives should go to str for everyone.

I have literally nothing else to play except... Yiik I guess so I think I'll have fun playing up until monster hunter. Can't wait for the public opinion to change on this once someone puts out a build/leveling guide that everyone follows and face rolls content just like 90% of the POE1 players do anyways.

 

[hawkisnight]

I started with warrior and I'm just 1 shot slamming everything and chunking bosses with bone shatter and I don't even have that great of a weapon, I guess spamming life flask every encounter is annoying but I don't get why people are saying melee is too weak.

I don't think anyone has problem with trash mobs it's the bosses. Overall melee has more mechanics and dodges to worry about at melee range like pools of 'fuck you don't stand here' right in front of boss while ranged character can just move and shoot.
I didn't have a good time with monk until I got a nice weapon and more life on gear which is another issue for melee where ranged casters just do their thing even in shitty gear.

 

[Sugriva]

I didn't play the first game, and I don't even really like ARPGs in general. But my friend bought me the game so he could have someone to play with and I gave it a shot. We played about 5 hours straight today and just got to act 2 with him as a monk and me as a witch.

My first impression is that the game is pretty good! The areas look nice, the dungeons are cool, and I really like the enemy and boss designs. I feel like there's a ton of different ways to customize your character and the skill tree is so huge it ends up being intimidating. I had a great time going around with my friend and slaughtering untold hordes of enemies and bosses. My favorite moment so far was the end boss for act 1. That was a really great and fun fight. Really difficult too.

It's not all positive though. I understand it's early access, but both my friend and I experienced tons and tons of bugs. In the 5 hours we played we both had hard crashes or had to restart the game due to bugs 6 or 7 times each. It is unbearably laggy in town areas too.

I feel like the balancing is really off too. Like I don't think they scaled the enemies to account for multiple players. Most bosses we ended up slaughtering in under a minute, and a couple of them in literally under 10 seconds. The classes are also clearly not created equally. My friend is so hilariously underpowered compared to my witch character who's walking around with a literal army of skeletons and bone scorpions. I feel kinda bad for him because my character is just so much stronger.

One other thing I want to mention is the fucking cash shop prices. That shit is disgustingly greedy. They really expect you to pay upwards to $100 for some of these skins. I cannot believe they're allowed to charge these prices, and it really makes me hate the developers. I'm glad I wasn't the one who gave them any money.

 

[Bonesjones]

Tried most of the classes for the first bit, but have been maining a witch, up to the act 1 boss. The game is good, hard, and way more streamlined in a good way. I think every poe player is mad you don't just overpower one skill and steamroll everything.

One other thing I want to mention is the fucking cash shop prices. That shit is disgustingly greedy. They really expect you to pay upwards to $100 for some of these skins. I cannot believe they're allowed to charge these prices, and it really makes me hate the developers. I'm glad I wasn't the one who gave them any money.

You know you don't have to spend a single cent on the game to get the full experience. If you want to play tranny dress up then pay for it, otherwise the game is entirely free.

 

[Sugriva]

You know you don't have to spend a single cent on the game to get the full experience. If you want to play tranny dress up then pay for it, otherwise the game is entirely free.

So we should just let them charge $100 for a skin because it's optional? Fuck out of here with that trash opinion.

Also the game is technically not free right now since you have to pay $30 to get into early access.

 

[Bonesjones]

So we should just let them charge $100 for a skin because it's optional? Fuck out of here with that trash opinion.

Also the game is technically not free right now since you have to pay $30 to get into early access.

Yes they can charge as much as they want for an entirely optional cosmetic feature no one cares about if it means the game is free for everyone. Stop being a dipshit and getting mad over nothing.

I literally got given a key from this thread for free. So not entirely true.

 

[Pattern Juggler]

Played ~10 hours, which consisted of 1 hour of fun and 9 hours of doing barrel rolls.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

After having sat down and played for about two days straight, I'm very pleased with the investment.
Seeing the ridiculous amounts of QoL improvements, how each of the characters I've tried feels like playing a different game in the same engine, seeing what design methodologies have been kept and cut and change and added. It also hits on a handful of specific ultra-ludokino things I've been hoping to see in a game for a long time.

Playing as the Monk feels like playing a Fast FromSoft character like Sekiro/The Hunter contrasted with the Warrior being a Tarnished. Witch has a nice Queen of Blades vibe. Mercenary feels like playing a literal twin stick shooter, I'd love to see him get to the speed of the Raider class from SYNTHETIK. I've only touched the Sorceress for like 5 minutes so far but she gave me notes of what I remember from those MAGICKA wizarding games by Arrowhead Studios.

I also appreciate how absolutely fucking freeform setting up the skills is now that they're not restricted by gear sockets, and now that you can just choose what goddamn skills/supports you want when cutting gems. I felt like a fucking retard when I realised I could've been playing as a Chaos monk the whole time instead of waiting for the Ascendancy. It's not PoE1, I don't have to wait for the game to let me get Chaos gems. Also, I have a hunch the reason I see so many people playing Monk is it's the class doing the best job of being extremely versatile and the most freeform. I'm hoping, partly based on the gameplay trailers of him, that the Druid's not in early access because he's going to be similarly ridiculously synergistic in how all his skills work and he's going to be stupidly fun to play.

Now that I've seen other people mention it though, I too am concerned about how much of a slog repeat Leagues might be. Playing RPGs online is sort of a new thing for me (I've only ever played PoE1 casually over the course of something like 7 years, and before that I'd only played things like Diablos/Dungeon Sieges/Dark Soulses in a 'solo self-found' no-internet way. Not only is the start of PoE2 a bit sloggy (especially when you've done it with 4 characters at this point) but I initially thought there was a Diablo 1 kinda thing going on where not all quests appear because I'm finding it difficult to discover some important quests like The Hooded One. Having access to a Quicksilver Flask equivalent early on would be really nice.

Edit: Also yay for being in NZ, not only have I not had to endure queueing which would probably turn a single player person like me off, but it means I usually get somewhere between 14-30ms latency even on wifi which is near fuckin unthinkable in the southwest pacific

 

[Pumpkin Girl IRL]

Yes they can charge as much as they want for an entirely optional cosmetic feature no one cares about if it means the game is free for everyone. Stop being a dipshit and getting mad over nothing.

I literally got given a key from this thread for free. So not entirely true.

They're charging for access to the game, but still have the expensive microtransactions live.

 

[Back me up!]

Now I'm really wondering how the other classes are going to play like the huntress. I feel like they are going to be variations on the flow that monk is going for compared to how different mercenary is.

 

[Endlosung]

First death on lvl 29 as mercenary. Game feels harder than PoE 1 but dad gamers are overexaggerating. Loot is scarce, PoE 1 has too much and PoE 2 doesn't have enough of it. But I think I still prefer PoE 2 in terms of loot philosophy, I'd just up the numbers a bit. Melee players are, as usual, screwed hard. Map and boss design are top notch.

They're charging for access to the game, but still have the expensive microtransactions live.

If they didn't the servers wouldn't have problems for 2 hours but for 2 days. It's a dick move but it was beneficial to those who payed.

 

[Estate]

Played the game over the weekend and I had a blast.
My first death was in Act 2 to the flamethrower boss, when it's doing some melee wild swings and I literally got 1shot.
I like it, I like it a lot, especially because it's more slow and methodic, as opposed to the ADHD zoomy experience that's PoE1.
Also, the chat was incredibly fun, especially once I saw a guy name "ScaredHealthcareCEO" appear and talk shit.

How it started.

 

[Kane Lives]

Are they intending to eventually go F2P like the first game, or will this remain a paid game?

 

[Pumpkin Girl IRL]

Are they intending to eventually go F2P like the first game, or will this remain a paid game?

In about six months, AFAIK.

 

[Kane Lives]

In about six months, AFAIK.

Sweet. Enough time for me to actually clear out other games before I inevitably get sucked in.