Monday, December 18, 2017

A Second Look at Path of Exile

On the recommendation of a friend, I'm taking a second look at Path of Exile.

I've gotten a lot further than last time. I'm currently in Act III with a Witch, but I'm thinking about starting over with a Scion. My Witch is currently a Lightning caster, but I kind of want to try a sword-and-board melee class instead.

I really like the story so far. It's told well, and the New Zealand flavor makes it a bit different than the norm.

The Path of Exile devs have spent the last few years steadily adding to the game. It makes it more complex, which can be daunting, but it also means there's more to dig into if you want to.

Speaking of complexity, so much loot drops in the game. Players can actually write "loot filters" in a quasi-scripting language to only show loot that you want to drop. I downloaded a loot filter that literally has a Github repository. While it seems like overkill, it does go a long way towards cleaning up the clutter on-screen.

The ironic part is that even if a lot of loot drops, you don't really replace what you're wearing all that often. D3 had the same issue at launch, but Blizzard went in the direction of having fewer but more relevant drops.

If you're looking for a ARPG, give Path of Exile a shot. You'll probably have to spend your first character just figuring out how everything works. But once you get a handle on the complexity, it's pretty neat.

4 comments:

  1. I'd recommend looking for a good build. That tends to be counter to the way I play, but I've made three characters in recent weeks which have got progressively further on before hitting a wall.

    The last, my Claw Shadow was doing exceptionally well until Act 5. I was able to take Dominus down within a minute (and not dying once) which was a first. My Witch died maybe 15 times!

    But the first Act 5 boss is completely un-doable with my Shadow. I'm now looking at a Marauder Earthquake build.

    I love the game, but it's a bit annoying that just playing the game and allocating skills where you'd like results in a character that is effectively gimped through the Acts. It does have a very steep learning curve, especially if you want to get to the end-game bosses and maps.

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    1. Hmm, I guess I'm not far enough in that I've hit a wall. Can't you just respec? I haven't respec'd yet, so I'm not sure exactly how that works.

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    2. You get a limited number of 'respec' points, but each point only removes one item from the passive tree. Not sure if there's anything that resets the whole tree though. I really only just started playing at the end of last month and the game is quite complex. There's a lot to learn.

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    3. There is no complete respec. Only one point at a time (limited by how many respec points or items you have collected). So for a significant respec, its actually easier to start a whole new character than try to modify the existing one. I quite like the game myself, and have now played to level 86 (Frostblades Raider), but I really don't like that you need to know the end-goal of your build before you even start. Also, getting items from drops is near impossible, so you are "forced" into just farming currency and then buying what you need.

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