A somewhat new player's review of Path of VexOhmIstDol
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Sadly, i agree with every word, OP.
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" Yes but then you have people going around, including Chris, saying that these things are skillful when they are not. We also have people going around calling this game hardcore, when that is a total joke, you want a hardcore game, play Dota2/SC/Dwarven Fortress/SF etc etc. Those games actually test your skill properly. Regarding your point about aRPG's, I went through this a year ago and you are wrong, wrong in the sense because you are ignoring the difference between PoE's skill tree and D2's skill tree. In D2, your "build" pretty much finished at lvl 30-40. maybe a bit more if you did something really extravagant. Why? Because thats how the tree was designed, at those levels you often got to the bottom of the tree (i.e. the ultimate skills), and at this point in time extra levels just make your character more powerful, they aren't really completing your build In PoE, its completely different. Most builds finish at level 80, some (like the current one I am doing) will probably finish around 90. This is due to how the passive tree is defined (some keystones which define your build you may only be able to get really late). Likewise builds that depend on 5L/6L due to requiring certain skills/gems you would only really start getting at around level 60. So what you are describing, in regards to starting a lot of different characters and trying out builds, is definitely not as rewarding in PoE as it is in D2/TL2 in regards to progression. Its rewarding in the sense that PoE's skilldrasill/gem system is highly customizable and flexible, but its unrewarding in the sense that to complete your build, you have to spend an extortionate amount of time and currency (currency because of the socket system). So its like ordering a custom made laptop, right to your desires, but when you pay for it, you only get 3/4 of the laptop, and to get the rest, you need to pay 10000 in cash See the funny thing is, this is usually a syndrome of not having enough content, however when GGG added 3X, they actually lowered the level of lunaris, so in effect, there was no change in progressability for when your build gets finished. The max level for content is still 68, it should be increased every single time content is added, but as of late thats not the case If GGG wants to give the same feel as D2 in regards to trying out characters an playing them just to finish builds, they need to allow characters and content to level easily to 80-90, and that doesn't exist currently. If you are going from 70-80, you already need a very good optimized FotM build, and anything above that requires a completely ideal build + a lot of time Last edited by deteego#6606 on Dec 13, 2013, 8:22:44 PM
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" Which is what I am advocating the number 1 thing to fix this game, just simply add a ton of more content. (more items, more ways to add power like runewords, more early game leveling items, always more stuff) Act 4 is coming out and they might even need an act 5 to have people naturally level out at 70-80. So instead of just footsies around with how people have short-sighted visions such as a self-found league with jacked up drop rates or some other pointless change, just simply getting tons of more content is needed. Last edited by RagnarokChu#4426 on Dec 13, 2013, 9:09:49 PM
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I mean I probably enjoy the game a hell of a lot more than the OP, and will probably pay and play it much more than he will.
But damn... This guy hit the nail on the head like ive never seen before. I actually kinda like the music though...could be better... Don't care about the story..never did..but that just me. Spot on OP...hope GGG reads this before the supporter defense squad tear you a new one if they already haven't. Also...notice once again a dev response and he dodged the desync topic....desync is above anything else the biggest issue with the game. without question. just for try, for see and for know Last edited by CapitalPunishment#0335 on Dec 13, 2013, 9:25:33 PM
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" It's not about game enjoyment or not... I mean look, there's a reason that reviewers give this game absolutely glowing reviews, because for basically all of normal difficulty up until act3x, really, the game is well-paced and is just an absolute blast to play, especially when coupled with the massive amounts of D2 nostalgia. And for a free game (and an ethically free-to-play game...well...unless you consider extra stash tabs to be pay-to-win) to be mentioned in the same breath as the defining ARPG which nobody has surpassed yet--not the parent company, nor the very people who created it (they went on to make the Torchlight series), well, that's quite an accomplishment. But considering that the goal of the game is to provide the exact same experience as Diablo 2 did, or even surpass it, well...for me, the game just doesn't. While Diablo 2's plot wasn't the greatest, PoE's just seems next to nonexistent. I mean here are some questions: Why is a prison blockading the pass to the woods? Also, how did people get from the coast to the woods if the only way there was through Brutus or those monster-infested caves? What exactly is a huge detachment of the ebony legion, along with who I can only assume to be a very high-ranking government official (the capital of Oriath is called THEOpolis, and Dominus is the leader of the game's equivalent of the high church, and if anyone studied their history, churches+medieval times=massive influence) doing in a post-apocalyptic monster-infested thaumaturgical wasteland? Trying to replicate Shavronne's work and create Super Soldiers ala Shinra in FFVII? To what end? And why is Piety just going willy-nilly in terms of mutilating so very many people? Where exactly are they all coming from? I'm finding it hard to believe that one city, or even a tiny little island nation like Oriath can supply so many criminals (assuming, of course, that the only way to get exiled to Wraeclast was indeed to commit some form of crime, large or small). Also, is every single crime in Oriath punished with exile to Wraeclast? The logistics of the experimental-lab-from-hell/concentration-camp hybrid that is Lunaris just stretch the boundaries of sense! Furthermore, why exactly is Dominus himself seemingly the epitome of all human evil within a single person? Basically, take every single evil figure from history, put them into one, and you get Dominus. I mean Diablo 2 could give you a villain that's purely evil because the entire plot revolved around "dispatch the very forces of hell itself", which while definitely not believable in the human, planet-Earth sense of the word, was the case for Sanctuary. But in Path of Exile, both the heroes and the villains are humans, some being quite dastardly and reckless with magic, but so far, there's been no rhyme or reason for the activities of the less than savory members of Oriath (the three crime lords in Act 2, the Ebony Legion in general), and with Dominus now dead and act 3 seemingly over, will we ever get to the bottom of why so many people are being exiled, and just how much something stinks in Theopolis? Also, for all of the history lessons we've been given, how do they at all play into what happens in Wraeclast in modern times? It seems now that Sarn got apocalypse'd, we may never know. Furthermore, exactly what was the extent of the Sarn "empire"? One city does not an empire make. An empire probably should have had land and people to rule over, but so far, we see no evidence of either the territory or the people that an empire would have lorded over. I mean at this point, I'm not sure what else there is to say besides the fact that how anyone sees this game should be within the context of the professionalism assumed of the game's creators. If people wish to judge this game as a F2P compared to so many other Skinner Box cheap Korean MMO ports, or a quick-indie-online free game on Kongregate, then by any stretch of the imagination, it's gone above and beyond all of that. However, if one were to judge this game within the context of "free or $60, this game aspires to supersede Diablo 2 as the defining ARPG of this generation", well, no, the developers have far overhyped that aspect of things, and at the end of the day, while there's definitely something here, and a very significant something, it's by no means DotA 2, LoL, or Diablo 2. Even if I were to concede that PoE is the best ARPG of the current generation, is that really saying so much, considering the only other competition is a completely cheesy cartoony game that doesn't even pretend it's serious (Torchlight 2), or a game that is such a travesty to the vision, atmosphere, and gameplay that its predecessor has set that it only belongs to the series it's in by name only (Diablo 3). Essentially, among two groups of midgets (cheap, poorly-made F2Ps and two other bad APRGs), PoE stands the tallest. Well, congratulations on being first-rate among two second-rate groups. But can we please see the developers make an honest push to have an honest stake among the first rate games? Because to me, that's what PoE seems to want to be, but anyone honest with themselves and say that to objectively take the torch D2 once held, that there's still a lot of work to be done? Last edited by IlyaK1986#4225 on Dec 14, 2013, 12:19:00 AM
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" Yes, the whole genre isn't that skill-based although that's not a question of inability, it's the way genre developed. There existed skill-oriented rpgs, a good example is Nox, you had three characters with a vastly different playstyle and it was very skill-oriented. So, how did Nox manage it? - No advantages All characters you make were virtually the same, you had a choice what part of their arsenal you would use but that's about it, in the case of warrior it was more of a weapon choice than anything else. - Paper equipment Weapons and armor would break - fast - so don't get attached to something because you are usually in no position to get it repaired. NPCs are tho only way to do it but for most of the game you don't have an npc handy so you'd just toss it away and use something else that dropped. That forced you to save good gear for tough encounters and use common gear on mook keeping the challenge up. - Limited resources Potions are expensive, ammo for ranged weapons is limited, mana regen is painfully slow unless standing near mana crystals which replenish quite slow themselves. So make every spell/bolt count because it may spell victory or defeat. Equipment deterioration was mentioned already. So, what all that accomplished is you had to improve, you'd get your ass kicked a lot of times but there was no other choice but to try again, maybe harpooning that mage that took half of your warrior's health with a single well-aimed fireball last time or just trying a different spell with your mages... or just manage hit that troll with your crossbow this time, it takes two seconds to reload it after all. The funny thing is this game was called an arpg back then and it probably wouldn't be now. The genre went different places, mindless skill spamming, loot grubbing, currency hoarding... and not because most people like to play like that, it's because the game doesn't allow anything else. And it's all good business, we don't quit playing the game when the content has nothing more to offer, we quit when we're so sick of it we can't stand another minute of it. It evolved from, well, maybe not a classy french restaurant but certainly a cozy neighborhood pasta shop into a mcdonalds. Wish the armchair developers would go back to developing armchairs.
◄[www.moddb.com/mods/balancedux]► ◄[www.moddb.com/mods/one-vision1]► |
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" Hopefully the act 4 coming out by next year clears up alot of the story issues, hell act 3 was incomplete until it was released on steam and they threw in the final boss of act 3. idunno I think the biggest problem with PoE is that they released the game without actually "finishing it." They wanted to beat D2 LoD upon release but decide to release Act 4 (basically the expansion) with a large number of skills, and items they were working on but haven't finished yet to be released. Although the game is quite good and has tons of more potential, they shot themselves in the foot if they are aspiring to be better then a game that had countless years of patching an explosion and released somewhat incomplete with many major content still in the works. Last edited by RagnarokChu#4426 on Dec 14, 2013, 2:12:31 PM
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" Self found isn't short sited, in fact self found is the staple of the best aRPGS (including D2!), its just included be default!. Most people play aRGP's to find gear self found, not to participate in an online economy, because if people want to do that, they should play an MMO, because it does that job a lot better than any aRPG (PoE or otherwise) PoE, like D3 minus RoS, is balanced around an economy, so self found league makes perfect sense Also if GGG wants to put their foot where their mouth is, they really should stop readjusting the max level whenever new content gets added, like they did to 3X. 3X should have increased the max level for content to something like 71 (lunaris was 68 at the time), instead what GGG did was they reduced lunaris down to 66/67 and the new content (3X) is 67/68, which is precisely the opposite of what they should be doing " The thing is, that PoE advertises itself through mechanical skill play, but that is almost all thrown down the toilet due to desync. Also, their change that increased mob pack size has just made things artificially more difficult by putting a greater emphasis on AoE, instead of doing things like increase mob AI PoE doesn't have any real difficulty, you can copy a FotM online build, and if there is any difficulty in the game, you can just farm a safe farm area to get gear to overcome it. There is nothing thats hardcore about the game currently My current gameplay for PoE is farming maps and lunaris, and what it involves is just holding down right click. So thats definitely as far as skillfull or hardcore as you can get I have heard good things about Nox, and I would call it an aRPG even now. Another aRPG I liked was TQ, it didn't have such a huge emphasis on AoE spamming which is what most aRPG's tend to do nowadays Last edited by deteego#6606 on Dec 14, 2013, 6:48:14 PM
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Path of exile is a great game, it just could be even better ^^
The plot : i actually like it a lot. You can find some connections between everything that's going on if you look for it. And there are logical connections between each quests, allthough it could be more explicit sometimes. Warning, spoilers ahead.
Spoiler
All act 1 is about surviving your exile, making some friends, have a fresh start on a hostile land. You can learn some decent background from rock glyphs, helps you understand a few things.
Act 2 is the real start of the main storyline, but the fact that there are men from oriath in ancient ruines so you better look out what they are doing since you came from oriath too is reall quick... (not like my sentence) it's logical, but quick. Then the real shit is starting. Why are Dominus and Piety looking for maligaro's creation? Why do they want the eternal empire's power, the vaal's power? What are those after all? Some NPC or others object give you some hint about everything, but more is needed to understand it all. Act 3 brings allmost all the answers. Dominus, the high templar, man closest to god, wanted godhood. He thought about the vaal, the virtue gem, the power they give, he wanted to have all this, for him, for oriath, for god. He exiled enough people for thaumathurgy, you included, and started to get power. In the meantime, you, a simple exile, started to get the same power, from the same source (the gem, not the thaumathurgy), and with maybe more understanding (all hail the gemling queen!). Basically, it's a mere human, exiled by dominus, who will raise for is own purpose (revenge, forgiveness, self achievement...) and in doing so, will end some psycho power crazy oriath leader. Having learned more about the vaal, the gem, the unnatural cataclysm, the black spirit who destroyed the karui, and the thaumathurgy, those thing still diserve more explanation. We aren't even sure that act 3's event where without consequences. That's what an act 4 could be about : the remaining mysteries, and this little exile here, with god's power in his and. I could be wrong or mistaking some point, but here is (roughly) summed up what i could think about the plot in the middle of the night. I really enjoy it, what was even more fun was to try to understand each event, just by the item's description. (main quest item i mean), or with the NPC's talk. And all those writings about all those civilisation who tried to master the gems, it really is a world i dream of sometimes. Yes i read a bunch of books with far more deeper history or lore, but PoE is allright for me. By the way, adding a "library" menu could be great. With all the lore info we could get during the game. The music : some area are better than others. Sometimes i play with, sometimes without music. We are indeed far from Diablo 1's mood. It could be better done. The desync : this has been beeten to death, i just lost a character in cruel nemesis to it. Not beeing able to say « i'm lacking some skill» is frustrating, i know, and GGG knows. Improvement needed. The stuff/gameplay/loot : PoE as some great mechanics in there. The builds possibilities are awesome. Me and my friends are having fun trying our selfmade builds, and the amazing thing is that those build evolve through the whole game. A build is never finished. yes you can have most of your active skills during normal difficulty, but the fun goes up with the supports gems, and the stuff going with it, and the monsters^^ I had trouble at first with the one shot gear up system, but now it just flows with all the PoE mechanics to get aware about the damage type and amount in each zone. The whole gameplay system is great, it just needs some more improvement that in my mind are as follow : The sets : i don't care at all about their power, just add set in game. If it was for the sole purpose of collection, it would be allright for me. Don't be afraid that people would be for too long in the same stuff, with the gear check mob system you have everytime you have to gear up^^ (oh kole, oh one shot, bad gear, really bad, bad gear) Because with only unique items you don't feel like getting all of them, you just use those who seems powerfull, you don't care about collecting them. I want more to grind^^ Some logic in orbs : oh dear, a whole stack of chromatic, 3 color set seen. Fun, fun everywhere. If a color set has been seen 2 times, don't bring a third, it's boring, really. Learning vendor recipe/more recipe : having some in game menu that shows all the vendor recipe found, and how it works would be great. I'm tired of the wiki. Furthermore, it seems more recipe are comming, this is great, if they could bring us more choice and less hope about item stat, that would be perfect. The pace/rythm : please, just increase the global movement speed from 20% at least. It moves really slowly, could be more nervous^^ And the whole building up your character throung normal/cruel would be faster. (yes i know the race league score table should be rewritten, but please....) Inventory sorting : with all the junk we have to get, please, add a button to sort the character's inventory so that we don't go through the portal with i don't know how much free space. All this was just my personnal opinion following this thread,there were some great ideas and thoughs, here is mine. I need some coffee right now, and i'm going back to nemesis. PS : sorry about my writing, it's not my native language Last edited by Necrark#2626 on Dec 14, 2013, 9:32:28 PM
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" It is short-sited, because self-found would imply that you "don't trade and only solo." But then complain about how other people that can trade is unfair. If you don't need to trade in the default game with tons of more content, stuff like runewords, even more early game Legendaries/sets. Why do you need a "self-found" league when you can just fix the base game in a way that is beneficial to everyone. Most people play aRPGs to find loot, and many people in fact do enjoy trading? D2 which apparently many self-found people herald as an amazing self-found game, conveniently ignore that trading was massively and ridiculously popular to the point it had one of the biggest if not biggest RMT markets in existence with one of the most shitty trading systems in existence (don't get me started on how shitty trading in D2 was, it makes PoE current trading system look like a automatic AH). Self-found league is just a selfish short sighted band-aid to an "issue" (the extreme lack of options/content) as oppose to hunkering down and just making the actual game >better<. Last edited by RagnarokChu#4426 on Dec 14, 2013, 10:24:46 PM
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