Lost Ark is quest runner, POE is a mobb smasher, they don't even play similar

So ye as the title says. After playing LA, comparing these 2 games wasn't right. They play entirely different.

For the 1st 10 hours of Lost Ark, you're only running to npcs, theirs more dialogue than their is stuff to kill. Meanwhile the first 10 hours of POE has you smashing through act 1 goats on the Ledge or prior to that.

While Lost Ark fills the role of having long term progression for a top down game. LA will never fill the role of being the best mobb smasher. Because it simply isn't built for it. It's built for pathing. Or walking to npc's.

Which game has the better new player experience, from a unbiased stand point? First 3 hours of LA, with the prologue and starter town, or first 3 hours of POE with the 1st act. Obviously POE has a faster / more entertaining new player experience. LA is four times slower, for the early aspects of the game.

How about LOOT? LA early game loot non important. Only its end game loot has value. Meanwhile POE during the start of the league, has rng percent chance drops, from the start of the act 1. LA has no rng loot for early or mid game that's worth it. Meaning D2 style loot is more fun to gain, than some korea grinder item tab list is (of only gaining useful items through quests, but not drops). Yes POE loot per season start isn't always useful mid-game as you can just buy auction better gear by then. Tho still overall POE is made to drop potentially fun loot randomly early to mid game too & LA doesn't have that early to mid game, not at all.

LA has better face customization for appearance. Yet LA has worst skill customization. Only being able to pick 3 passive utilities per skill tier rank, isn't good enough. POE has support gems that give you skill customization, plus allows you to pick from an assortment of gems, & lastly has a huge skill tree. Meanwhile LA just has less items that make your play style differently, no tree, and only a small buff for skill variations.

I was hoping Lost Ark would play like Ragnarok Online & be a open map with mobs. LA doesn't mix the map walls, like POE does. The maps are more basic for LA. Yet I still like the art style of both games. Also why the freak, is no dev in 20 years able to recreate a better version of Ragnarok Online, without bots?! IS THAT SO HARD?! Jesus. Would be better than a Diablo 2 clone or some old korean grinder / Dragons's Nest clone. JUST MAKE RAGNAROK ONLINE MAPS with similar mob density & guild town hangout grassland spots.

Anyhow, besides that rant, at least I have a top down game that has social towns, saved progress, & pvp. Even if it is mostly a quest runner & has nearly zero mob smashing, for the first half of the game. Also enemies give nearly zero exp, only quests give exp, & most quests are walking. While POE has quest runners too, you're still smashing mobs while running to those quest, LA you simply are not smashing mobbs. Overall, neither game outshines the other. You literally have to play both games, to experience something the other is missing.

Of course you can't compare them. That's really not what people are doing. They are looking into the effect Lost Ark will have on the PoE player base. Everyone and their mother could foresee that Lost Ark would steal players from PoE. The questions are:

1) For how long?
2) And are these players only playing LA for the entirety of Archnemesis?

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RuneLuthien wrote:

Obviously POE has a faster / more entertaining new player experience.

In what universe? Please.

How about we just let the millions and millions enjoy LA, and the remaining few thousand can grind terrible loot in whatever gated maps they have unlocked here in PoE.

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Phrazz wrote:

Of course you can't compare them. That's really not what people are doing. They are looking into the effect Lost Ark will have on the PoE player base. Everyone and their mother could foresee that Lost Ark would steal players from PoE. The questions are:

1) For how long?
2) And are these players only playing LA for the entirety of Archnemesis?

True. Tho it appears, due to hype. That many people who don't usually play top down games or mmorpg's at all, are giving LA a try. So may lead to a top down gaming boom. Perhaps.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

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RuneLuthien wrote:

Obviously POE has a faster / more entertaining new player experience.

In what universe? Please.

How about we just let the millions and millions enjoy LA, and the remaining few thousand can grind terrible loot in whatever gated maps they have unlocked here in PoE.

In the universe of many people in game LA chat, talking about how slow the start of it is. & If you played LA, you'd know that in the time you killed 8 enemies for a quest to finish the map for LA, you'd plowed through 80 enemies in POE's act 1.

I'm not saying LA isn't fun for me, It's good enough, tho most are staying due to the promised better endgame & not because the initial starter towns or quests are more engaging than POE's 1st act.

Now if you're burned out from POE 1st act, from overplayed, that's your problem. But from a new players perspective, they aren't burned out, & Act 1 has 100 times more action, than the 1st hours of LA.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

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RuneLuthien wrote:

Obviously POE has a faster / more entertaining new player experience.

In what universe? Please.

How about we just let the millions and millions enjoy LA, and the remaining few thousand can grind terrible loot in whatever gated maps they have unlocked here in PoE.

Your numbers are not wrong. But personally, I do enjoy the gameplay loop of POE much more that LA.

I really don't see the appeal of Lost Ark, I played up until that point when you're killing demons in town and was unbelievably bored the entire time. It's literally just top down Tera, but way slower paced, with simpler gameplay and better graphics.

Absolutely no way this game's not gonna start dying pretty quickly.

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CanHazName wrote:

I really don't see the appeal of Lost Ark, I played up until that point when you're killing demons in town and was unbelievably bored the entire time. It's literally just top down Tera, but way slower paced, with simpler gameplay and better graphics.

Absolutely no way this game's not gonna start dying pretty quickly.

The appeal is it being a good MMO with a lot of stuff to do in endgame. But if PoE players wanted to play an MMO, they'd play WoW, or FF14, or ESO or any other MMO out there. It's kinda funny that the only reason LA and PoE are being compared is because of the camera's point of view.

People keep missing the point.

It doesnt matter why, or that its even a different genre. If PoE players move to LA, regardless of loops or other reasons, it's still a net loss of players/customers.

This was never binary, or direct arpg competition. Players play all kinds of games. It's pointless to argue semantics, or try to come up with reasons why this shouldn't be the case.

Its is what it is. LA is good. The endgame is good. There is no sense in denying it. And this notion that somehow, after years of success, it's going to fall flat, based on nothing, seems like desperate "but, but, buts" to me.

Lost Ark is a weird hybrid of a MMORPG that plays like a ARPG. Lost Ark is way more player friendly to new players than POE. There are a lot of tutorials and hand-holding. We will see if Lost Ark can keep the players but it hit 1,300,000+ players again on day 2. This is with problems still plaguing European servers.

In POE, all of the experience comes from killing monsters. In Lost Ark, most of the experience comes from quests. So there will always be more monster killing in POE than in Lost Ark. Lost Ark combat feels a fairer than POE though and individual button pressing/timing is more important.