As a veteran D2 player, should I join PoE on December 7?

Hey guys,

I played Diablo 2 for many years and hundreds of hours, however it seems like we won’t get Diablo 2 remastered for a long time and I did not like Diablo 3 when it came out, so I thought: should I try Path of Exile (PoE)?

Could you comment on some of my questions?

1) Do you believe PoE is worse, equal or better than D2? Why?

Do you believe it’s a good RPG in general?
Do you find it a good ARPG?
Is it fun in the first 50 hours?

Is it still fun after 300 hours? In other words, do you enjoy endgame PvE content and endgame PvP?

Should I join on the ladder reset of December 7th for the new content and the fresh experience?

2) Late-game PvP is important for me because of the way I play: I build a few PvE characters able to provide everything that my PvP character needs so that my PvP character can focus on duels (after reaching the endgame content in PvE).

How does PoE’s PvP compares to D2’s PvP? Do you find it better?

Is PvP fun in PoE?

Is PvP fair and balanced?

Is there some kind of rated 1v1 PvP?

Are there problems like hacks/desync charge hammerdin?

3) How many active PoE players are there? How many of them on PC?

Steam says around 21 000 to 96 000 players actively play PoE on a weekly basis (varies a lot through the last 12 months).

However, I hear that there are other platforms that people play PoE on PC so that they are not counted in Steam total? Where are they?

Are there sufficient PC players in the eastern USA/Canada time zone to be fun?

4) How would you rate the PoE community? Is it as friendly as the D2 community? I have heard PoE has wide open arms for all ex-Blizzard fans following the Diablo Immortal disaster?

5) I have seen some comments around the web that PoE is a fast patching / fast changing game and that your preferred build may be nerfed so hard that it may become useless. Is that an exaggeration or it is close to reality? How do you handle that without having to spend 50+ hours adjusting your characters to be playable again after each patch?

I look forward to reading you,

DarthLeader

If PvP is your focus then I would stay away. Its not balanced and as far as I know there is not a set of GM rules to stop certain things like resist/sorb stacking in D2. As an example, one map in the endgame called 'the hall of grandmasters' pits you against actual players and their builds but they are computer controlled in the map. There are a few characters that are straight up immune to damage unless you cheese them with a certain skill.

However the PvE endgame is far more robust than D2. There is a lot to do and some of the content is rather challenging at first. Id at least give it a go if you liked d2 PvE.

there is some endgame pvp, its not great and there is no 3rd party staging ground for duels or tournaments like there was for d2 in jsp. the desync thing isn't as bad from what i have seen but i don't pvp a ton.

i loved d2, but after i got into poe i tried to play d2 and i don't think i finished act one. the PvE is SOOOO much better than d2. i strongly encourage you to try out the game even before the new league starts because usually your first character or more are going to be little crap pellets, unless you follow a build guide. even then your first few might suck.

i was like u ....D3 made me over-sick....and POE make me come back to ARPG with , now , around 10000 h of fun during last 5 years.. u ll enjoy it,believe me.

one last point : PVP in POE is for frustrated childs wich can't beat end-game ...if it is ur focus , u ll be disapointed.

ofc you should, what is this question anyways ???
diablo 3 went boredom some time after release
seasons ? hahahahh get your pathetic frame while Path of Exile making whole new concent every league

you must be joking at this point man :/

Instead of writing a wall of text, why dont just try it?

mistake: you've mentioned words "poe" and "pvp" in the same sentence.

It's better than Diablo 2.
Because it's packed with endgame content. The character builds are also a lot more complex than in D2, and there is a lot more diversity in builds as a result. The game as a whole is also more difficult than D2.
I believe PoE is the best ARPG on the market as we speak. By a large margin.

Is it fun the first 50 hours? Yes. It's fun the first 4000 hours in my case.

Yes you should join on dec. 7 for the new content. PoE is a league-based game.
What I mean by that is that the majority of the player base participates in league resets. It's how the game is played. The "standard league" is more like a repository for our past characters and our accumulated wealth. Like a museum of some sorts... We mostly play the game for the new league reset.

You can check the steam charts for the player count ON STEAM. Keep in mind that the game also has a stand alone launcher and a lot of people use it. So the Steam numbers aren't accurate, but it can give you an idea.
Also, the player count is a lot lower at the end of a league.
But all-in-all, this is the most played ARPG in the world.
And yes, there are more than enough players in the NA time zone, at any hour of the day.

Community is one of the best I've seen. There are of course ass hats and elitist, like in any game. But I've never seen anyone not being able to get help. People are usually friendly and helpful. It's certainly a lot better than the Blizzard crowd is these days, that I can guarantee...

Yes PoE is a game that gets important content updates and balance patches about 4 times a year, with each new leagues basically.
So of course, some builds get either nerfed or buffed as it happens.
But it's very rare that a build gets completely destroyed by a patch.
When the patches make change to the skill tree, the game offers you a complete re-spec as well, so you can re-make your build in a newly optimal way, or even make a completely different build, without needing to level a new character.
Anyway, as I said, this game is played mostly for the leagues, so most people start a new character every 3-4 months.
That isn't to say you can't just play standard though, the community over there is big enough for the experience to be enjoyable. It's just that the devs mostly focus on the new leagues.

Speaking about the devs, they are awesome :)
They listen to and talk with the community on an almost daily basis.
And they make a damn good game. Very talented people.

No PvP, loads of fun (6+ years for me)

1) Do you believe PoE is worse, equal or better than D2? Why?

Better. Even since 2014 or so I felt like PoE was "better overall" but "not as good for its time", ie, D2 was just a masterpiece for 2000/2001(LoD), and PoE was better overall, but partially just because more was expected of a video game in 2014 than in 2000.

Ever since the game was "finished" with 10 acts, according to the original design of Chris and the other founders, I think this game has become just as good for its time--ie, a true masterpiece beyond compare to other ARPGs of the era.

Do you believe it’s a good RPG in general?

Yes, though they still need to add character voices for reactions past act 4. The story is good, a bit confusing if you don't read all the lore, but good. But like with D2, once you've experienced it once you will be inclined to just click through dialogue :) Speaking in terms of the expected qualities of RPGs, I won't call it nearly as good as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 6, but you asked if it's good and I say yes.

Do you find it a good ARPG?

Yes. The best ever.

Is it fun in the first 50 hours?

As long as you don't suck? It's possible to roll your own build, fall into noob traps like taking passive clusters of "armor" (because that'll make me tanky, right?), assume that you don't need to cap your resists or get a 4-link until level 70, and then just die repeatedly to things that the game gives you more than enough preparation to fight because you don't understand what part of the mechanics make you "strong". If you read a single "budget build guide" you should more or less understand how to build a character that gets through the story no problem.

Is it still fun after 300 hours? In other words, do you enjoy endgame PvE content and endgame PvP?

There is no endgame PvP. The hall of grandmasters is a joke that requires a couple very highly specialized builds to clear, and the pvp queues are empty 99% of the time.

Endgame PvE is enough to keep me playing for at least a month every league--2 months if the league is particularly good (and then I come back for the 1-month race league after those first two months... IF THEY HAVE THEM... still salty they skipped it this league).

Should I join on the ladder reset of December 7th for the new content and the fresh experience?

Yes, but before that, you should play a character in standard for 5 days (ie starting now). Get a feel for it. The challenge league is great but it's a lot more rewarding if you have literally any experience playing the game first.

2) <pvp questions>

Sorry but no.

3) How many active PoE players are there? How many of them on PC?

There are probably around 200k non-bot accounts I would consider "active", ie that have played a nontrivial amount within the first month of each recent challenge league? I'm only counting PC by the way. I have no idea how many people play xbox and ps4 because those servers are completely separate and so don't matter.

Steam says around 21 000 to 96 000 players actively play PoE on a weekly basis (varies a lot through the last 12 months).

Most people don't even play through steam, they play through the standalone client. Steam can't track people through the standalone client.

However, I hear that there are other platforms that people play PoE on PC so that they are not counted in Steam total? Where are they?

They aren't tracked, but it's been stated multiple times that there are more people on standalone than steam. And you should also use standalone, the updates download faster!

Are there sufficient PC players in the eastern USA/Canada time zone to be fun?

Hahahahah the plurality of PC players are in the US. There are so goddamn many of us. East Coast US checking in btw.

4) How would you rate the PoE community? Is it as friendly as the D2 community? I have heard PoE has wide open arms for all ex-Blizzard fans following the Diablo Immortal disaster?

I would say it is very much as friendly as the D2 community, as most of the PoE community is actually made up of people that were disappointed with D3 after loving D2 for years.... However, scams are a bit more common simply because of the extremely high volume of trading that goes on in PoE, compared to D2 which had a significantly smaller-scope economy due to lack of online trading tools. So watch out for that. But most people are willing to help noobs, and late in the league you will for instance have kind people giving out high-value stuff to people who need them. Very reminiscent of my experience with late-ladder D2.

5) I have seen some comments around the web that PoE is a fast patching / fast changing game and that your preferred build may be nerfed so hard that it may become useless. Is that an exaggeration or it is close to reality? How do you handle that without having to spend 50+ hours adjusting your characters to be playable again after each patch?

They almost never do those patches in the middle of a league unless your build is only good because of an actual bug. There have certainly been patches in the history of PoE that have fundamentally overhauled the meta and ruined many many top-tier builds in "standard" (what you'd think of as non-ladder), but those have come with important version numbers (like the upcoming 3.5.0). Most of us play challenge leagues (ladder) so we just create new characters with new builds when those patches hit. If you plan to play standard, yeah, be prepared to get fucked.