Casual gamer here...

Hi everyone, guess I am a slowpoke or something but I have just heard of this game. It look awsome in many ways but I was wondering a few things.

First off, I watched some stream from Kripparian and thought this looked cool but I also realised that I didn't understand what was going on with the items, the sockets, the colors and yada yada. I am a casual gamer, I love playing a good hack and slash but is this game hard to learn? Do you have to invest a lot of time to understand the mechanics and get a grasp at what is going on?

Also, I love challenging games and I was wondering if this game is easy or hard.

Lastly, is this game easy to get into or does it get better as you keep playing. What I mean is ; do you have to invest like 20-30 hours to get in ''the good stuff'' or is it good from the start.

Thank you for your time!

its good from the start and is easy to get into.

some people say that the combat feels too slow at the beginning, and it is fairly slow for a while when playing as most classes, but it encourages you to get used to how the game controls and not to rush into the middle of packs. Because they will kill the shit out of you.

Also the game isn't slow at ALL if you don't want it to be. Especially dual wield Shadows (a class).


There are a lot of different thing going on with sockets, skill gems, and support gems. But the good news is that the system's basics are pretty easy to grasp: Skills & abilities come in the form of Gems: You click a gem and put it into and armor or weapon slot of the same color.. then you're good to go.

The game's difficulty relies entirely on your build. As a new player going in blind, the game is adequately challenging -- definitely not easy. I suggest choosing hardcore mode

(btw you don't lose your character when you die, it just goes to "default" or softcore mode, and is no longer ranked on the hardcore "I've never died" ladder)

The first 3 or so hours of most classes is boring, longer in a few specific cases, especially your first time playing. It's surprisingly restrictive. After that, much better. It's not that long, but it's significant.

The learning barrier for entry is at least 10 or so hours of playing. I've played 50ish hours as a low estimate, and I'm still figuring out some of the broader concepts. You'll learn the vital things quickly, but after that, you're basically thrown in the deep end of technical details with a lot of questions to be answered, mostly through trial and error, forum searching, and death.

Thank very much for the replys!

This hardcore mode is actually very cool, I played some diablo 3 and since I started hardcore, I can't play softcore anymore. This said, not loosing your characters and moving it to softcore once he has died is pretty sweet I think.

Anyhow, is there a reason why one would not start his hero ''hardcore'' in POE?

Visually he ain't the most appealing but this is never what I am looking for.

As for the rest, I feel I might have a rough time at first, but the game look just awesome.

Guess I will stick to watching some stream for a time, before I make my mind.

If anyone have another opinion or something else to say, feel free to post it here, I will come back to read it.

Thank again.

I consider myself as a casual player as well. I loved the game from the start, and still do.

Biggest issues for me, I enjoy not being in a party all of the time. However, during your gaming session if you need to run across the house to use the restroom, you take a great chance of losing any portals you have up, or getting killed by roaming monsters while AFK.

In a solo instance, I, for the life of me, do not understand why there is no pause button available.

Once dead or you lose a portal, depending on where you are in the game, all will need to be redone. Hashing out more time to kill everything again, finding your way through the maps again. This gets to be aggravating and sometimes I just say the hell with it and log off.

I get the feeling that the intentions of the developers are for us to farm the easy areas until you can become overpowered for the next area and just roll right through it. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to using everything you have available to you, in order to just make it through a zone. Many times, I am just barely getting passed that last boss. If I would have died, I would have had to redo everything I just completed the last hour+ and try the boss again.

There seem to be be some things off with this last post. While I agree that a pause button would be nice it is probably too much of a hassle to implement in an online game.

When you are at a boss fight or in hard areas in general just open a portal at the beginning and you will be able to go back to the boss right away. No need to do it all over againö

The instances do reset after 15ish minutes, yes. That can certainly suck and more than once did I have to do something twice. It is certainly more than enough time for a bathroom break though ;)

Also, over-leveling to rush through the next areas has penalties. Your loot will decrease once you are more than 2 levels above the areas level.

@OP: I pretty much jumped into the game without many preparations and I never felt lost. At the beginning you only have a handful of gems and equips so you can get used to them slowly. Later on the choices become more plentiful, but by then you already have a hang of what you need and what you can leave aside. Only thing that can be pretty intimidating is the skill tree I guess. For me personally though it was the sight of said tree that made me download the game instantly. So much room for activities!

Trust me boss the looks grow on you like mold on the sandwich you forgot in the bottom of your locker in grade 3

"

Also, over-leveling to rush through the next areas has penalties. Your loot will decrease once you are more than 2 levels above the areas level.

Just to clarify, there is only a penalty to currency drops. There is no penalty to weapon/gear/item drops.

This game is quite awesome, and much more complex than a D3 or torchlight and it is intended to feel much different; and it does.

That said, it IS an indie game, made by a dozen and a half people. It has its problems. The combat and control system is nowhere near as smooth as in a game like D3, it is visually attractive but suffers from readability issues.

But remember, this thing is in closed beta and is already a blast to play. These devs listen to their community a lot, but also have a firm vision for what they want their game to be.

Definitely worth jumping into if you have 10 bucks or the RNG Gods smile on you.

L

"

Airtaz wrote:

If I would have died, I would have had to redo everything I just completed the last hour+ and try the boss again

Just drop a portal near the boss instead.

Many thanks for the comments!

Looked at some info in this game, woah, there is a lot of stuff but it does seem very well put together!

Guess I should just wait the open beta then just trow myself into the beast (any rumors for a possible date?)