PoE vs Diablo 2 - Why D2 is still better

I also cannot describe how wrong it feels for basic access to endgame item and xp hunting to consume currency. It is not a fixed amount either, it basically means the richer you are the higher maps you can run and that's period in a mathematical sense. It is completely elitist and favors the very top end players. Yes i realize higher areas are being added so that maps are mostly about item hunting, but let's face the inevitable realization ahead of time; no one want's to run crap areas when there are better areas to run, that is frustrating and is not like choosing not to wear mf gear.

It also means you farm better experience by using MF gear until the game catches up in development, a point in time which may be too late as this game is being looked upon, judged and played as though it was complete already by the world. Usually you pay in clearing speed to wear mf gear and thus pay with xp for your increased drops, here it is the complete opposite. In poe you cannot get enough currency to continue running top end maps without using mf gear, or by taking advantage of your position in a league. For example by selling crafting gear and lower maps by being some of the first to reach top end maps, or by being a streamer getting help from other people. It changes MF from being something you use to build your gear after which you replace it, to something you must always have in the group to optimize your grind in all ways, it becomes endgame gear until you reach level 100 (harh harh).

The currency in this game has value because it has an use, it will be used no matter what, there is no need for maps to be a currency sink, return rate on crafting with currency can be simply adjusted to match with currency drops so that the economy is not flooded with perfect items. Also, as many have mentioned, it takes too long both to level and gear in path of exile. It is great for a 2 year league the way it is now, but ideally 3-6 months long leagues are best for gameplay, D2 ladders showed us the best form of this thus far.

Diablo 2 was an all time classic that loads of people enjoyed because it was easy to get back into. It was easy to level, or you could also do it the slow way if you preferred to play in that fashion, and it was much easier to acquire gear.

No one likes to talk about how D2 was still the bomb for years and years despite bots farming the shit out of everything. If the bots were not there to farm for people, it would not be as popular, it was in a quite good state when the economy was infused with drops from bots farming. It allowed people easier trades, easier power growths, to achieve godlike within a month if they wanted without cheating, etc. The real reason few people play D2 anymore is because of chat spam, that shit is outrageous. It is not because of the bots farming, that just made the game better and more rewarding, hands down.

Now, in PoE we have a group of developers dedicated to fight the botters, and i love that, i really love that the most of all. That being said, it leaves space to take advantage of the lack of bots by being able to boost currency drops for everyone so that people may craft the gear themselves. The crafting system in this game is more addictive than crack, take my word for it, but you are starved from it and you never really get hooked due to that.

This game takes massive time investments to get anywhere in terms of xp or items. It is very punishing in the sense that if you do not go all in you are going to be a random trashhead. I am not feeling this direction. D2 players wanted to build godlike characters characters without investing 3-4 months of nonstop farm to almost complete them, and being able to do so in about a month of playing D2 due to bots overflooding the economy made the game experience something you wanted to revisit often and could always enjoy and jump right into. This is not the case to even approachingly the same extend in PoE. Usually when people are done here they aint coming back or it will take a long time, because they know they are in for a serious investment of time to do anything at all and have fun feeling godlike.

There are many here who say that they dislike the speedleveling and bossruns from D2, but despite how many times this is stated there has never been any more addictive ARPG experience than that. D2 always lacked build variety if you ask me, i mean that were maybe 7-15 builds an average person might like, that was it. Paired with the speed leveling methods and easier gear grinding, it meant it was possible to play all your favorite builds enough times to get bored of them. PoE has the advantage here when this game becomes more complete, because it is more modular and the experience is not exactly the same each time, but it does not have the grinding experience nailed at this point.

Also, there is a general misconception that the addictiveness of hack n slashes come from the gameplay being challenging. In fact the biggest challenge in hack n slashes is building the character. That people enjoy whooping the hell out of things big time was proved over and over in D2. Cow level massacres anyone? The longer you keep making it harder for players to reach godlike in any reasonable time frame, the worse the game experience will get for your average player.


My advice:

Boost currency drops to allow easier gearing and more addictive/rewarding gameplay, possibly make an average orb usage less rewarding.

6Linking sucks, for example my armour has taken over 5k fusings without a 6L, and as the result i am taking a break now for over a week and am not ready to get back yet. Save 1 number on 6S items, that's the number of fusings used since last 6L, and plug it into the chance to get 6L formula so that once you approach 2k fusings used you are almost certain to get a 6L, 100% chance at 2.5k used. Also make a unique sound when you hit the 6L to support it.

Change maps consuming currency, solution i do not have. Maybe make good map mods more common to roll, together with increased currency drops and higher base areas in the future it may be sufficient.

Make the story more prominent, make the exile feel he has a role to play. Player's love being submerged in a complete environment.

Desync, im not going far into this, but you know what it is. It is not working. It is admirable to want all the good things for the game, but desync is worse than no hit rolls.

Reduce the playing time required to go from about 75-100. That may in part happen when the areas you mention are implemented, but be warned this game is being judged by this world as it is now, people are playing it now and using their innocence up.



P.S.

For players wanting to get at me because they think they want to keep grinding for eternities before reaching godlike, that should be no problem. There can be different rules for different leagues, different currency drop rates etc.

The only thing I'm missing is being able to PvP the way it worked in D2.

lol even d3 is better than poe ... and d3 will even get better end of year ... until then half of poe players will have quit due to dsync and sluggy combat ...

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exorzist wrote:

lol even d3 is better than poe ... and d3 will even get better end of year ... until then half of poe players will have quit due to dsync and sluggy combat ...

Still mad about the open support packs? ;-)

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Hodari wrote:

I'd have to disagree on both actually.

1. This means in D2, you were basically skipping nearly all of the actual content of the game because the only part worth playing at all was the end-game(and even that came down to just running the same area or small number of areas over and over and over and over....)

In PoE, it's actually fun to PLAY the game. All of it. Maybe this will change in a few years when I've done it on a few thousand characters, but for now I still enjoy trying out all the different build types.

2. There are a number of different types of uniques in PoE. A few are just flar our best in slot endgame items, but not many. Many are good items for leveling, maybe even close to the best ones you'll have for 20 levels or so but worthless at endgame. Some are seemingly useless for most characters but designed to work very well with one specific type of build or even to make entirely new builds possible.

As for sockets, you can always rerolls those until you get the ones you need, so I don't think they need to be fixed.

He's right you aren't skipping content? Most everyone has played through Diablo 2 and if you have done it once, Why would you want to do it the next 50 times? Thats why a rush was necessary and just made it more fun. Leveling fast is fun. I feel like you should be able to get to 80 FAST on POE and make the next 20 levels realllllllly hard where you have to grind and grind and grind. I never had a lvl 99 D2 Character and I played for so many years. Highest I made it to was 94, and I never botted or anything like that. He's also right about the Items. There needs to be an overhaul of items and A LOT MORE of them, and make them where you can actually find uniques easier. Diablo 2 was so good, but I will give PoE this, This is the ONLY ARPG since Diablo 2 that has kept my attention and didn't get an uninstall after 20 minutes of gameplay. I agree with OP with a few slight modifications here and there. PoE needs more Skills and A lot more items, Also more item graphics as well.

Edit - Also, Better pvp, Maybe a CUTT THROAT LEAGUE. < - - - I know every person on my friends list would play in a cutt throat league. There is nothing more exciting on this game than cutt throat. Heart Racing. lol

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exorzist wrote:

lol even d3 is better than poe ... and d3 will even get better end of year ... until then half of poe players will have quit due to dsync and sluggy combat ...

I see you are really enjoying AH Simulator 3. Quite mindboggling :D

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Xavderion wrote:

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exorzist wrote:

lol even d3 is better than poe ... and d3 will even get better end of year ... until then half of poe players will have quit due to dsync and sluggy combat ...

I see you are really enjoying AH Simulator 3. Quite mindboggling :D

You don't have to use the AH. I have one of each class to 60 and geared pretty damn good with only self found items. Any one of them can solo MP10. I don't get why everyone cries about the AH... fucking kids...

Please don't mention Diablo 3 on any games forum. Diablo series ended at 2.
I know POE has it's faults, but comparing it to D3 is like comparing a cup of tea with the flood in fukushima. Sure, technically they're both water, but one nurtures you while the other took out a part of the world and made countless victims and polluted the ocean for decades.

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Tsoukalos wrote:

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Xavderion wrote:

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exorzist wrote:

lol even d3 is better than poe ... and d3 will even get better end of year ... until then half of poe players will have quit due to dsync and sluggy combat ...

I see you are really enjoying AH Simulator 3. Quite mindboggling :D

You don't have to use the AH. I have one of each class to 60 and geared pretty damn good with only self found items. Any one of them can solo MP10. I don't get why everyone cries about the AH... fucking kids...

Outsmarted by kids, must feel bad x)

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Xavderion wrote:

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exorzist wrote:

lol even d3 is better than poe ... and d3 will even get better end of year ... until then half of poe players will have quit due to dsync and sluggy combat ...

I see you are really enjoying AH Simulator 3. Quite mindboggling :D

While D3 has its problems and the AH revealed a lot of problems, people don't give the core gameplay and monster difficulty the credit often deserves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_1k-z_MaPQ

There's a video of Kripp losing a barb to a nasty pack =p

good memories