My impression of the game.

Good game. I'm not sure which is better between this or Diablo 3.

Pros :

Complex tech tree
Free to Play
A lot to explore
Lots of viable builds

Cons :

Gem link system favors single skill spamming over combos of skills.
Lack of slider difficulty ( like torment in Diablo ).
Changing your build is awfully pricey.

I'd love if you could do something about these 3 cons because damn, few flaws but these are huge flaws in themselves.

The gem link system that favors 1 skill spamming is the equivalent of Diablo 3's completely OP sets ( that made me leave the game ). Diablo has 25 skills or so per class with 6 runes each but since sets are the only builds viable end game, all those skills are reduced to only 5-6 per class. Chopping their own well balanced skill system like that is sad. You guys should find a way to favor multiple skills to be used in tandem.

A slider to change monster difficulty at will is just so fun and nice. Why not put it in?

Changing builds allows for fun stuff. You guys prevent fun from happening. Only the most ultra nerdy people can build without making any flaws. It's not fun for casuals like me and I assume plenty others.

Aside from that, fun game.

I'll point out that you have 24 character slots. Lots of room for multiple characters.

It might very well be possible that all three "cons" you mentioned are intended (I'm pretty sure that's the case). While having strayed quite a bit from it already, this game has a far more specific target audience than d3. Having said this, you should know that the things you mentioned as negative are probably the least likely to change and actually part of the reason for many players to actually play this game.

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FCK42 wrote:

It might very well be possible that all three "cons" you mentioned are intended (I'm pretty sure that's the case). While having strayed quite a bit from it already, this game has a far more specific target audience than d3. Having said this, you should know that the things you mentioned as negative are probably the least likely to change and actually part of the reason for many players to actually play this game.

This. Plenty of players do find them to be drawbacks but they are intentional decisions. Well, 2 and 3 are. 1 is more a natural consequence of other decisions than a direct decision in itself. Alas, no game can appeal to everyone.

What's nice about the Diablo torment difficulty slider is that it gives a second gameplay style. Instead of just people grinding maps as quickly as possible you can also give yourself a challenge and creep them maps slowly. It opens up plenty of new builds too cuz monsters got so much hp.

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Superbobbybobben wrote:

What's nice about the Diablo torment difficulty slider is that it gives a second gameplay style. Instead of just people grinding maps as quickly as possible you can also give yourself a challenge and creep them maps slowly. It opens up plenty of new builds too cuz monsters got so much hp.

Excuse me kind sir,but are you seriously compare d3's more hp-more damage placebo difficulty,to the difficulty provided by multiple mods in PoE?

PoE difficulty is dynamic,even more so with the legacy stones in which you actually bring customizable on-the-fly mods similar to those of maps,which previously you had to pay some currency to enjoy one of those leagues.

So in d3 you can have literally only damage and HP scaled,while also be max level casually on normal.Let me puke for a sec then continue...

Okay I am back.You even a knowledge in your op how sets are limiting essentially diversity yet you want the same here.In poe,the skills don't just do x*damage only,you alter them in whatever way you want to.Moreover the spam here is more intensive through potions.High level players that are into maps value them greatly and actually spam more buttons,unlike d3 1-2-3-4 repeat CD placebo.

Changing build is intended this way.That's why you have 24 character slots,unlike many games I know

People tend to spam one skill simply because there are plenty of ways to indirectly use and cast other skills. Consider this. I might be only casting Arc, but it's using Curse on Hit to apply Vulnerability and Elemental Weakness (as well as the Elemental Equilibrium keystone) for debuffs to Physical and DoTs and massive debuffs to Fire and Cold, which in turn sets up for my minions (who deal Physical, Fire from a support gem, and Cold from an aura, and a DoT if they die from an ascendancy) to deal a ton of damage.

That's a lot going on for two skills, Raise Zombie and Arc. But it's really five skills, Raise Zombie, Arc, Vulnerability, Elemental Weakness, and Hatred. You might only ever see me using Arc, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Most builds operate on similar principles - They have one major skill, one secondary skill that in turn applies other skills, a movement skill, and one or two utility skills for when they're needed, on top of a defensive skill or two set up to activate automatically as needed.

Just because they're not self-casting everything doesn't mean they're not using a lot of skills.

The customization of skills is nice... but in the end, you kill everything by the press of only one button.

I kind of wish group difficulty would work just by being in a team, not by having them on the same map as you.

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Superbobbybobben wrote:

What's nice about the Diablo torment difficulty slider is that it gives a second gameplay style. Instead of just people grinding maps as quickly as possible you can also give yourself a challenge and creep them maps slowly. It opens up plenty of new builds too cuz monsters got so much hp.

Legacy leaguestones.
If you want challenge, use stones combination that give monsters the edge.
Like Invasion (with boss mod) + Warbands (with increased damage, attack and movement speed mod) + Beyond (more pack spawned mod) for example. Since we got 5 charges each stone, it can make you creep for 5 maps.

Putting deadly stones combination made map clearing much more fun for me. Few times got oneshotted and couple of times dangerously low on life.


But with 3.0 expansion going to be single playthrough, who knows there if there will be difficulty slider added, since cruel and merciless will be removed.
From what I heard, prior Act 4 was added. This game had another difficulty level between Cruel and Merciless.

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Superbobbybobben wrote:

The customization of skills is nice... but in the end, you kill everything by the press of only one button.

I kind of wish group difficulty would work just by being in a team, not by having them on the same map as you.

Actually, that would just destroy pretty much the entire balance AND trading while in small mapping groups.
Imagine you are helping a friend of yours while he's leveling and suddenly someone wants to buy a item. You invite the guy and maybe there's some discussion because he wants to pay in a different currency. During this time, your friend either has to fight monsters that were meant to be fought by 3 players or he has to got back to town where he can't progress.
To be honest, if that ever became reality in poe, I'm pretty sure that I'd quit the game. That is NOT a good mechanic.