Path of Exile

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My re-examination of the game after one 80+, one 75+, one 60+, and two 50+ characters:

-Gear - Gear is as I previously thought. To be worth anything, it has to be at least 4L OR have high hp with at least 40+ combined resists (if it's not at least 4L+ already). HP is pretty much mandatory on all items with the exception of CI gear. Only the most insane items without HP are really worth anything.

-Builds - There are no real "builds" in HC. You pick a skill you want to use and stack HP nodes. You take a couple "DPS" passives and a couple support passives and stack 250%+ HP.

-Skils - Skills are completely imbalanced. Skills like Lightning Arrow and Bear Trap are completely overpowered vs other skills. Most supports aren't very good. Almost all characters use LMP/GMP + Faster Attacks/Cast + Chain. For example, I have seven damage/dps passives on my LA Shadow (3x 8% proj dmg, 2x 10% wep ele dmg, 1x 30% wep ele dmg, and 1x 30% lightning). His gear is generally pretty awful. He's doing almost as much damage as my Fireball witch who had MANY fire dmg, spell dmg, and AOE dmg passives. Her gear was also pretty sick. Three more points gives my LA Shadow static blows, and then he blows her away even though she was 10 levels higher with way more invested into doing damage.

-Trading - Trading is completely frustrating. I would welcome an auction house any day of the week despite what it might do to the economy. The question I ask is: Does it matter if gear devalues when you don't sell it anyway? Items pile up in your stash. I'd rather play the game than spend hours spamming chat and posting in the forums. It really shows just how awful trading was in D2. Player shops need to be implemented so I can set a price and not have to be logged in to sell.

Beyond that, there is already massive inflation. Decent bows are going for 5-10 exalts. Godly items are going for 20-30+ exalts. The current trading system only benefits people who play way too much. That includes myself. I had about 30 exalts before I died a few times. I don't think people playing a normal amount are going to have that much.


Yes, I pointed out all the negative stuff, but the game is still fun. It needs tons of work, but they patch often.

I've died quite a few times now. The good thing is I can do 1-30+ in only a couple hours now. ;)
 
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I gave this game a try for the past couple of weeks, and got a ranger up in the 70's. It is a very addictive game, but it gets old fast once you reach endgame.

I leveled with a 4l bow and 4l chest, using a LA bloodmagic ranger build. My gears are crap, but kiting most mobs with poison arrow untill you get bm works well. It's easy to solo up until you hit mid 60's. After that it becomes a slow and tedious process solo, even if you run maps.

Grouping is pretty much necessary to level and get the passive points. However, I can't stand the way it works in the game. Aoe group battles are a clusterfuck. My comp, which isn't bad ,lags during all the skill spam, and I miss most of the loot that drops. I've already lost an exalt and a couple GMPs, among other things, because either I click and get the wrong item or the timer runs out and get jacked. One dude was cool enough to give me back a chaos orb, but the rest were mum and farmed on. Looting issues aside, there is nothing to do after completing act 3 merc, just grind for loots or passive points. Either way, not enough there yet to keep me playing longer.

I may try to roll a shadow or marauder later on, but for now, I'm giving this a rest.
 
sonicboom said:
I gave this game a try for the past couple of weeks, and got a ranger up in the 70's. It is a very addictive game, but it gets old fast once you reach endgame.

I leveled with a 4l bow and 4l chest, using a LA bloodmagic ranger build. My gears are crap, but kiting most mobs with poison arrow untill you get bm works well. It's easy to solo up until you hit mid 60's. After that it becomes a slow and tedious process solo, even if you run maps.

Grouping is pretty much necessary to level and get the passive points. However, I can't stand the way it works in the game. Aoe group battles are a clusterfuck. My comp, which isn't bad ,lags during all the skill spam, and I miss most of the loot that drops. I've already lost an exalt and a couple GMPs, among other things, because either I click and get the wrong item or the timer runs out and get jacked. One dude was cool enough to give me back a chaos orb, but the rest were mum and farmed on. Looting issues aside, there is nothing to do after completing act 3 merc, just grind for loots or passive points. Either way, not enough there yet to keep me playing longer.

I may try to roll a shadow or marauder later on, but for now, I'm giving this a rest.
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The funny thing is that it has way more to do end game than D3 does, and yet it still needs more.
 
I find the map metagame to be enough for me, for now. With Act 3.5 coming soon, and ActIV on its way later this year, there is much more to do than any other game in the genre. I've been sticking with it for a year now and I'm still not bored. It helps to have friends and forum members who have integrity in your groups.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
I find the map metagame to be enough for me, for now. With Act 3.5 coming soon, and ActIV on its way later this year, there is much more to do than any other game in the genre. I've been sticking with it for a year now and I'm still not bored. It helps to have friends and forum members who have integrity in your groups.
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I haven't even reached the map endgame yet. I'm still stuck farming act 1 merciless on my witch because i'm too squishy to progress any further.

Really reminds me of leveling in D2. If you want a level, go and get a level on some baal runs, but do nothing else! because if you die, there goes hours of your work.
 
chockomonkey said:
I haven't even reached the map endgame yet. I'm still stuck farming act 1 merciless on my witch because i'm too squishy to progress any further.

Really reminds me of leveling in D2. If you want a level, go and get a level on some baal runs, but do nothing else! because if you die, there goes hours of your work.
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I'm not running maps yet since OB, just collecting and doing builds. I had a lot of fun with maps in CB, but I have yet to try the new areas.

At this point, it's all about trading and filling up stash tabs with gear and currency for specific builds I want to try out. I'm also trying to get a friend of mine who just started up to speed with his dagger Shadow... damn noobs.
 
Currently have a level 77 and seven other characters 60+. Yes, being temporarily unemployed and not going to school gives me a shit-ton of time to play. :p

big_aug said:
-Skils - Skills are completely imbalanced. Skills like Lightning Arrow and Bear Trap are completely overpowered vs other skills. Most supports aren't very good. Almost all characters use LMP/GMP + Faster Attacks/Cast + Chain. For example, I have seven damage/dps passives on my LA Shadow (3x 8% proj dmg, 2x 10% wep ele dmg, 1x 30% wep ele dmg, and 1x 30% lightning). His gear is generally pretty awful. He's doing almost as much damage as my Fireball witch who had MANY fire dmg, spell dmg, and AOE dmg passives. Her gear was also pretty sick. Three more points gives my LA Shadow static blows, and then he blows her away even though she was 10 levels higher with way more invested into doing damage.
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Agreed with you here, skills could definitely use some work. LA is really imbalanced, but so is ranged in general. I feel bad for anyone who plays melee right now, but they did say they're going to be helping them out a bit.

-Trading - Trading is completely frustrating. I would welcome an auction house any day of the week despite what it might do to the economy. The question I ask is: Does it matter if gear devalues when you don't sell it anyway? Items pile up in your stash. I'd rather play the game than spend hours spamming chat and posting in the forums. It really shows just how awful trading was in D2. Player shops need to be implemented so I can set a price and not have to be logged in to sell.
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I gotta disagree with you here though, I love the trading aspect and hated the D3 AH. This just seems to be player preference though. I like interacting with players one on one to make my trades.. Just makes the game feel more alive than clicking Buyout on a game window. You're able to haggle this way as well.

I really enjoy the maps system too. I think they did a really good job on that, but if you're going solo, you might not get enough map drops to sustain your farming, unfortunately.
 
chockomonkey said:
The funny thing is that it has way more to do end game than D3 does, and yet it still needs more.
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in the end it seems you're kind of doing the same shit though really... repetitive gameplay for loot (maps or not). i guess i have extreme ADD... how the hell do people like krip play this day after day and not get bored? i guess if you like farming you like farming. i thought i'd like the game more due to randomly generated levels; it didn't really feel like that to me - sure wp's etc might be in different spots but it was the same shit as your last time in the area. the loot system is among the worst i've ever seen.
 
sonicboom said:
I gave this game a try for the past couple of weeks, and got a ranger up in the 70's. It is a very addictive game, but it gets old fast once you reach endgame.
...
there is nothing to do after completing act 3 merc, just grind for loots or passive points. Either way, not enough there yet to keep me playing longer.

I may try to roll a shadow or marauder later on, but for now, I'm giving this a rest.
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You never got a character above level 90 in Diablo 2, did you?
I will tell you that it took more cummulative time to level from 97-99 than it took from 1 to 97.
One death will erase a week of experience.

What was there in Diablo 2 endgame? The cow level and Baal. That's it. Pindle runs? how exciting. :rolleyes:

Maps are a HUGE improvement. What more do you want? Seriously.

Also, you tried one character with a bow and you think the gameplay wouldn't be any different from any other build? So what's the point of having 6 classes and 1350 passive nodes?
125 skill gems? How many combinations of supports + skills?

jeez dude.

Try a new build, play with some friends who don't ninja you.
 
J Macker said:
You never got a character above level 90 in Diablo 2, did you?
I will tell you that it took more cummulative time to level from 97-99 than it took from 1 to 97.
One death will erase a week of experience.

What was there in Diablo 2 endgame? The cow level and Baal. That's it. Pindle runs? how exciting. :rolleyes:

Maps are a HUGE improvement. What more do you want? Seriously.

Also, you tried one character with a bow and you think the gameplay wouldn't be any different from any other build? So what's the point of having 6 classes and 1350 passive nodes?
125 skill gems? How many combinations of supports + skills?

jeez dude.

Try a new build, play with some friends who don't ninja you.
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95% of those passive nodes are useless and will never be taken by anyone who has a clue. Maybe not 95%, but quite a bit. The passive tree is an illusion. A large majority of skills and supports also aren't viable.
 
D2 end game for me was Uber Tristram with my lvl 79 Smiter. I kept him that level because I could.
 
big_aug said:
95% of those passive nodes are useless and will never be taken by anyone who has a clue. Maybe not 95%, but quite a bit. The passive tree is an illusion. A large majority of skills and supports also aren't viable.
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This is true of Hardcore. SC can get away with a lot of different builds. There are gimped skills and passives either way, but HC is limiting in playstyles due to the very nature of it.
 
No, I didn't play diablo 2. However, back in the day, I had a ragnarok acct with a 97 priest...which I ended up giving up on for the retarded amount of time it took to grind the last 2 levels.

Listen, I'm not new to grindfests, and I don't get bored because the of the xp required. I do however dislike literally needing to spec one certain way to even think of doing merc difficulty with any other melee class.

The fact that any class can use any skill gem or spec into any passive tree is not lost on me. It's a cool concept marred by its implementation. In the end, you will have to go back to the same passive nodes to survive. Someone above me mentioned it already, but this game right now boils down to this: spec Hp nodes or reroll after cruel. Beta or not, that is not fun after you understand its intrinsic limitations.

As far as maps being a huge improvement, well I disagree, I see it as a stop-gap measure for lacking endgame content. I'm not hating on the game, I found it entertaining, but I do want more - that's my opinion.
 
big_aug said:
95% of those passive nodes are useless and will never be taken by anyone who has a clue. Maybe not 95%, but quite a bit. The passive tree is an illusion. A large majority of skills and supports also aren't viable.
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95% of 1350 is 1282.5

That means there's only 67.5 useful nodes, and there's 6 classes. So you're telling me that I really only need 11 points to be successful in the game?

Let's drop it down to 80%.
That's 45 useful nodes per class. Does that sound right? So we don't ever need to level up past 35? and keep 30+ unspent skill points?

Come on.

I think it's fun to try new builds. You don't have to research every single build before you decide you want to try a new class and use a skill gem you've never used. You're hardcore though, and there are many viable builds in SC.

You don't have to take every character to endgame (level 70+).
Sometimes it's fun to just play with a friend with a different build.

But, I'm one of the few who had fun doing fist-fights (no weapons) in diablo 2 with my buddy. it was hilarious seeing the bitch slapping between the sorc and necro.
 
J Macker said:
95% of 1350 is 1282.5

That means there's only 67.5 useful nodes, and there's 6 classes. So you're telling me that I really only need 11 points to be successful in the game?

Let's drop it down to 80%.
That's 45 useful nodes per class. Does that sound right? So we don't ever need to level up past 35? and keep 30+ unspent skill points?

Come on.

I think it's fun to try new builds. You don't have to research every single build before you decide you want to try a new class and use a skill gem you've never used. You're hardcore though, and there are many viable builds in SC
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I agree that what this game does EXCEPTIONALLY well, is the journey TO endgame. You get points at a fast enough pace, get new gear at a fast enough pace, and are constantly trying to combinations of gems to perfectly match what you've chosen in your skilltree and for your gear.
 
J Macker said:
95% of 1350 is 1282.5

That means there's only 67.5 useful nodes, and there's 6 classes. So you're telling me that I really only need 11 points to be successful in the game?

Let's drop it down to 80%.
That's 45 useful nodes per class. Does that sound right? So we don't ever need to level up past 35? and keep 30+ unspent skill points?

Come on.

I think it's fun to try new builds. You don't have to research every single build before you decide you want to try a new class and use a skill gem you've never used. You're hardcore though, and there are many viable builds in SC
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You don't have to research builds if you don't mind reaching level 50-60 and realizing the build is not viable.

There's a reason lots of gems are basically worthless even with 15%+ quality. They suck.

You're looking at it all wrong. There are no classes. Only starting points on the passive tree. You wouldn't keep unspent skill points. You'd put them into the few worthwhile types of passives - HP nodes, armor/es/resist, evasion/es/resist, resolute techniuqe, etc.

The best way to make a character - take nothing but HP nodes and necessary nodes, i.e., resolute technique, blood magic, etc. Damage passives are really not worth it.

Here's my current shadow: Shadow

Notice, I have spent only 13 points on things that are not HP or Stats. There is no reason to take anything else until 80+. It makes such a small difference that is almost not noticable.

Can you guess where I'm spending my next six points?

Edit: I just realized I forgot the three 8% life nodes above the shadow start - nice little bonus to respec to when I log on :D
 
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big_aug said:
You don't have to research builds if you don't mind reaching level 50-60 and realizing the build is not viable.

There's a reason lots of gems are basically worthless even with 15%+ quality. They suck.
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Lets get some examples of these shitty gems.

In my own experience, I thought arctic breath was a shitty gem until i combined it with LMP. Now it melts groups, and i prefer it over freezing pulse because of its range.
 
Arctic breath isn't going to last you past 66 or so. Freezing pulse works too well with GMP/LMP, Fork, and things like crits and faster casting.
 
chockomonkey said:
but it requires me to be pretty close to the damage which will 2 or 3-shot me lol
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I'd argue that at long range, Ice Spear is better than Arctic Breath. The secondary effect of Arctic Breath is that ground freeze effect, and it is slow. Ice Spear is faster and has a secondary effect of piercing and massive criticals at full range.
 
big_aug said:
95% of those passive nodes are useless and will never be taken by anyone who has a clue. Maybe not 95%, but quite a bit. The passive tree is an illusion. A large majority of skills and supports also aren't viable.
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The passive tree is one of the games' greatest strengths. It's amazing the different kind of builds you can go. I rerolled an EK build with a friend, and have another friend who already has an EK build. The difference? I'm CI, one is Blood Magic, and the other is EB. It's amazing the build diversity in this game. They usually go back to the same several skills in the end (unfortunately), but the playstyle is different, and the build is different. Kripp's wand templar? That was innovation. His FP-tank? Same thing. The amount of builds you can do is quite staggering. There are very little of those smaller nodes that are useless, but I'd say 15-20% of the big nodes that are actually useless, or at least some builds haven't recognized their usefulness yet. Like Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics, or Elemental Equilibrium.

The build diversity is what caused me to have eight characters level 60 or higher. I group with someone and think "hey, that looks fun!" and reroll to try it out. I currently have: Glass Cannon Ice Spear Witch (failed), Glass Cannon Bow Shadow (failed), Ice Spear Totem Templar (awesome), Dual Wield Sword Ranger (awesome), Blood Magic Bow Shadow (awesome), Freezing Pulse Tank Shadow (my main, my favorite), Wand Templar (awesome), EK CI Witch (awesome).

And surprise, surprise, glass cannons don't work well in an ARPG. I made this mistake on my first two characters (who I got to 60 with) until I realized it. I don't remember any glass cannons in Diablo 2 that did well either.
 
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LeninGHOLA said:
I'd argue that at long range, Ice Spear is better than Arctic Breath. The secondary effect of Arctic Breath is that ground freeze effect, and it is slow. Ice Spear is faster and has a secondary effect of piercing and massive criticals at full range.
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Hmm i suppose i could get another ice spear gem and put LMP on it... i'll have to try that.

Thanks for the idea!

Skizzy said:
Wand Templar (awesome).
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I just made a templar and was unable to equip a wand. What am i missing?
 
hmm sweep + leap slam seems to be a bit of a win button esp once you consider the insane ammount of damage the staffs do and how much you can pump up ice magic, why would anyone concentrate on fire or lightning? stopping people and slowing them down gives you so much more attack and recovery time.
 
Fire burns for extra damage over time and Lightning can inflict shock up to 3x, which increases all damage done to the enemy.

So a lightning focused player would be beneficial for a full party as a debuffer (thinking in a mmo-synergy type sense).

I plan on getting one of those +1 curses rings and making my "final" spec/rotation on my witch as:
Spark Cast (w/ life leech that converted to ES leech), Arc on a Spell Totem (which has a >50% chance to inflict shock), Conductivity and Critical Weakness curses, Tempest Shield for extra block, a few passives to increase block chance (which will sit right at about 50% along with a passive making 12% (6% )of that have a chance to block spells), with stats being INT stacked but also STR at ~150. I wear AR+ES armor with nearly capped ele resist, and decent AR/ES/HP.

It's actually a silly and underpowered build compared to others I've seen but it's fun. I'm starting a melee guy soon, but unsure where to go with him as I want to take advantage of the new stuff being added (hopefully a mirror to D2's whirlwind soon).
 
I can hardly even play this anymore between the desync kills/ general lag, unresponsive movement and actions, and constant crashes. Damn near every new area I load anymore on act 3 will hang and I have to ctrl alt delete to desktop, where it gives me exception errors saying I ran out of memory. I've got 1 gig video ram and 3.25 gigs of available system memory, there's no way it's using all that. I realize it's still beta, but damn...
 
what or when would you use Chaos Innoculation.
1hp....how does that work?

seen a lot of arc totem builds but what totem fires 3 or 4 lightning? They were wide, not thin like arc the guy said lightning but they looked like some type of ice
 
sparks said:
what or when would you use Chaos Innoculation.
1hp....how does that work?
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I was wondering about this too. There aren't nearly enough ES nodes to build a powerful enough shield. unless with that spec maybe you have to go hybrid gear.
 
chockomonkey said:
I was wondering about this too. There aren't nearly enough ES nodes to build a powerful enough shield. unless with that spec maybe you have to go hybrid gear.
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You can actually get a pretty large ES, but in general I think it works best with builds that provide survivability in terms of immobilization. I basically never get hit on my dual ice-spear totem witch.
 
chockomonkey said:
I was wondering about this too. There aren't nearly enough ES nodes to build a powerful enough shield. unless with that spec maybe you have to go hybrid gear.
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There are plenty of ES nodes and bonuses for CI. You also have a couple keystones that help this out ;) Plus you can convert all life leech to ES regen.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
There are plenty of ES nodes and bonuses for CI. You also have a couple keystones that help this out ;) Plus you can convert all life leech to ES regen.
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I just know that i've spent time looking for more ES nodes, and can't find shit.

Ended up having to go to the shadow tree for their %ES/%ER hybrid talents.

Does life leech apply to spells?

here's my witch: Chocko's Witch

I have a lot of points spent on offense, and as i was plotting out my spec to show you guys, i saw a ton of HP nodes i could grab, but not so many ES nodes.

Is my spec beyond repair?
 
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chockomonkey said:
I just know that i've spent time looking for more ES nodes, and can't find shit.

Ended up having to go to the shadow tree for their %ES/%ER hybrid talents.

Does life leech apply to spells?

here's my witch: Chocko's Witch

I have a lot of points spent on offense, and as i was plotting out my spec to show you guys, i saw a ton of HP nodes i could grab, but not so many ES nodes.

Is my spec beyond repair?
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I'll sit down and look at this during lunch.

*life leech typically applies to physical damage.
 
The Life Leech gem is only labelled as "Support" and works with virtually all abilities to provide x% of life.

Life on Hit (both gem and on items) and Life Leech (on items) are for "attacks", which means only physical damage (melee or bow)
 
lilbabycat said:
The Life Leech gem is only labelled as "Support" and works with virtually all abilities to provide x% of life.

Life on Hit (both gem and on items) and Life Leech (on items) are for "attacks", which means only physical damage (melee or bow)
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Okay that's what i was figuring... usually life leech = physical attacks, and spells require something else. But if i understand you correctly, the Life Leech support gem, coupled with one of my spells would give me effective spell vamp (term borrowed from LoL)?
 
Yes, though I think the +life leech passive are all physical damage unless they modify the effects of life leech.
 
I think the biggest thing is I have never seen a LOT of the gems and it pisses me off to see someone using 2 and has 4 or 5 in their stash.
BS

F a lot of them are worse than finding a ZOD in d2
 
sparks said:
I think the biggest thing is I have never seen a LOT of the gems and it pisses me off to see someone using 2 and has 4 or 5 in their stash.
BS

F a lot of them are worse than finding a ZOD in d2
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what are you after? I have a lot of gems, and will hook you up if i have what you want.
 
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