New player question

Hello all, I am downloading PoE for the first time today, and have some questions.

Been reading in the forums while downloading, and see a lot of talk about the leagues. Do you have to join a league in order to play? If not, is there a part of the community who just chase loot, achieves, etc?

My family and I like to play D3 (please don't stone me), but like the idea of being able to play that sort of game in an mmo setting, and wondering if this is the game for that.

Any constructive thoughts and/or advice will be much appreciated.

Hey,

So you might get contrasting answers on this. Technically the answer is yes, but functionally the answer is no. You see, before naming a character or choosing a class, you'll be asked to select a league (a game mode, basically). If you don't want to take part in the three month challenge leagues, you can choose one of the permanent ones and that isn't a problem.

I would say that the majority of the playerbase tends to be active in the challenge leagues, and as characters, currency, items and so on are migrated over to Standard when a challenge league concludes, the economy has been affected by years of inflation.

I'd actually generally recommend challenge leagues to new players due to everyone starting off with zero currency, no items, and from level one as this offers a more level playing field. You won't lose anything at the end - everything is transferred to Standard (or Hardcore, as appropriate) and there's nothing stopping you from continuing to play your character(s) there.

Hope you enjoy the game! You can definitely play for free quite comfortably for a while, but I would be honest and say that if you're interested in playing for a long time and trading with other players, things would be a lot more comfortable if you invest €20-30 in some premium stash tabs. No reason to spend any money until you've tried the game and decided whether you like it.

Not a perfect F2P game in that respect, but for a single game indie dev I think they do okay. I'd like to see them offer a bit more storage for free (and a Linux client, but, well...).

Anyways, sorry for rambling - and welcome to Wraeclast!

Thank you for your post, it was exactly what I was looking for. \

I work 6 days a week on 2nd shift, so I think I probably wouldn't be the best example of a PoE player. Hard to be an effective and dependable group/guild player with the hours I work, especially in something like leagues. It's the reason I never really got into it in D3.

Oh well, I will still give it a shot. I like the look of the game, and have heard a lot of talk about it in other games.

Thanks again for the reply.

You dont have to play leagues, but you should give it a shot.

Because when the league ends your char and everything you found will be moved to standard league.
Standard never ends. So you can always continue playing your char or hop onto the next league.

Your choice :)

You can play with your family or friends as a party in this game but not with the "mmo" feel because of isometric view.

Yeah, I will give it a shot, only way to really know if you will like something or not. I was just wondering if I don't play the leagues and just do standard (still reading forums and learning more) if there is an actual community to do stuff with. There isn't in D3; it's either the current season or solo play, in my opinion.

Which is what I mean by mmo feel, actually having community around, even if that only means standing around in capital cities, lol.

Thanks again for the replies. The download is done, guess it's time to jump in and see what it's like.

this isnt mmo in the first place. it is oline aRPG. It is a grindy hack and slash game with complex mechanics. the longevity is given by endless possibilities how to make a character rather than endless content for one character/party. this is driven by leagues, they offer fresh start (ladder reset) and fresh economy as well as interesting exclusive content.

definitely worth trying, maybe you will find some "feeling" you are looking for

Abyss league will end soon and the Bestiary league will start. I suggest starting now in Abyss to get the first experience. your first char is going to suck anyways but you gain important basic knowledge before you start in upcoming Bestiary league (that will last for three to four months)

As a followup to what Ludvator posted, you should play around with a couple different classes over the next few days. While some aspects of this game are easy to pick up (an argument can be made for "many" if you're familiar enough with the genre), others are only picked up by playing the game. If you play for a while, you'll start to get a feel for skill gems, the passive skill tree, and the like.

Also, feel free to check out the "Gameplay Compendium" sticky thread in this subforum, as well as the "Classes/Builds" section of the main forum. There is a wealth of good info there.

Don't be afraid to ask questions about anything, either. We won't tell you "git gud n00b" or anything of the sort.

If I don't hear "git gud n00b", it'll be a first. Seems to be the only way most players know how to talk these days.

I've played Diablo for a long time,and I find PoE to be a lot like it, so far. Ladders aren't new to me either. The whole point of it is to try and place as high as possible, especially once you join a guild and/or group a lot, and I just don't have that kind of time. I'm lucky to be able to sit in front of my PC for 2 hours on any given day, much less 7 days a week for 2 or more hours a day. As soon as most players see that, they have no use for you.

I realize this isn't an mmo, but I've heard many players in other games say it's close, so I decided to give it a try. The reason I look for that is so that I stand a better chance at finding pugs so I can get a chance to try and run some things that guilds and "elites" do in their sleep 7 days a week.

So far as complex mechanics go, I haven't played a game yet that a little attention to detail and spatial awareness doesn't take care of that. Trial and error builds are a big part of the fun for me.

Thanks again for the info and mature responses. Makes asking questions much less irritating and much more informative.

That's again the double edged sword of standard. And hardcore permanent leagues. They have been around forever and will continue to be as long as the game exists so there is no rush to get things done. But if you want public groups... You won't exactly find them all the time because a good chunk of players will vanish into temp leagues given the chance.