Path of Exile

[Hutch]

Was very interested until I heard there are no respecs.  Fuck being locked into bad choices you made while learning the game or post nerfs.

Was very interested until I heard there are no respecs.

there are no respecs

no respecs

Yeah. That's too bad. This game was starting to sound interesting.

[trias_e]

You can respec points via currency and quest rewards.  Yes, there aren't unlimited full respecs, but you're not locked for all time into every point you spend.

Nice gamespot video/interview with the lead designer, Chris Wilson.  Should be noted that he's not paying all that much attention to actually controlling the character (since he's being interviewed):

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/now-playing/?event=now_playing_path_of_exile20130117

[ezrast]

Guys, it's a better Diablo II. You either call it good after you beat the game on the first difficulty, which you can't possibly fuck up your character enough not to be able to do, or you turn into a slavering loot addict in which case you're going to be rolling plenty of characters to try out new things anyway. And in a little less than 12 hours it will be free with no paywalls. If you think the game looks good otherwise please don't let the limited respecs be the thing that turns you away.

Anyway, full 0.10.0 patch notes are out.

[Falconeer]

I like that you have to commit to your choices, but that level of commitment seems too much to me and a way to force people into rolling more characters, which in short is an attempt at artificially prolonging the game longevity.

One respec a month, or every X "levels" would make me hate the idea way less. Unless it's a forgiving system, like in The Secret World, where you can actually get all classes and all perks and talents, and it doesn't take that long to fix your character due to flat(ish) progression.

[Kageru]

Very much looking forward to trying this. Not enough energy or enthusiasm to invest a lot of time into betas but if that's the last wipe it's basically a soft launch.

[Lucas]

Yeah,  they might need to heavily tweak/balance some classes and systems (and give a full respec along with it), plus put in more detailed ones (they plan to dedicate more time to PvP, for example), but today is basically launch day because of the lack of any future wipe, bar any disaster.

Grinding Gear also posted a batch of new videos on youtube detailing some of the initial microtransactions: vanity pets, dance animations, weapon and helmet effects (purely aesthetic)

http://www.youtube.com/user/grindinggear/videos?view=0

I really like the spectral basilisk and the green frog: the Weta, on the other hand, will make me smash the monitor multiple times...Scary stuff  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg8gVeqVSA4

One important thing about weapon effects:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/70493

UPDATE: Due to extensive feedback in this thread, we have changed the implementation so that effects can be reclaimed at no cost. Microtransaction effects can be freely moved between items. This will affect their initial pricing somewhat, but we'll investigate adding cheaper one-use "demo" versions of them in the near future.

[Azuredream]

Now you guys have got me all psyched to play this. I did a little bit on a weekend they had it open to everyone and liked it.

[Lucas]

Two and half hours (at the time I'm writing this) left for anyone who wants to buy a supporter pack:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/71010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3nY-lthJc&noredirect=1

[Fabricated]

I'll give it another shot tonight if the servers aren't all on fire. I enjoyed it; not sure if I can be arsed to do the incredibly spergy kind of specs that people have been doing in the closed beta (like, entire gigantic builds very specifically built around 1-2 unique items they MUST have to not be useless) but the idea that the devs like it when people break the shit out of their game is pretty cool.

They added some skill that increases fire damage massively while active but also does shitloads of fire damage to you; they added a minor firey aoe effect to it just to make it a bit cooler and more useful for being swarmed and some guy made a build that literally doesn't use the skill as intended. Rather than using it as a super buff to blow shit up with fire magic or whatever, he made a build specifically to buff the fire aoe and make himself nearly invulnerable to the fire damage and damage in general. He doesn't even attack- the fire aura is so powerful after his setup is complete he just runs around and all the enemies explode into flames and die.

[trias_e]

In as triaz the duelist.  Starting on hardcore, we'll see how long that lasts.

Apparently, the queue for non-supporters is pretty massive.  I didn't realize that supporters get to skip it.

[Lucas]

Microtransactions:

https://www.pathofexile.com/shop

As a silver supporter (1000 points), I'm glad about the current prices almost across the board :)

[trias_e]

Some spoilers in this video (if you care), but very helpful video to watch if you want to survive hardcore:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotd74Y3_rQ

[rattran]

Meh, not a supporter but haven't seen a queue. Fun so far, feels like a D2 mod. This is a good thing.

And loot falls like rain, which is good. In as Ratter, but only for a few days before I fall off the intarwebs again.

[trias_e]

So after a lag-death and a idiotic death by burning and not noticing my health, I'm on the third iteration of Triaz.   Level 21 and in an awesome groove now.  Love this game.  Shield Charge + Cleave + lots of life regen/leech is working very well for me at this point.

Excellent beginner's guide from Curse:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWs7vAR-WzA

Some other general advice:  Make sure your build has a specific defense (armor, evasion, energy shield).  Make sure you buff that defense, along with picking up life and resists in the passive tree.  You don't need a ton of offensive skills to be effective, although you do need some key ones for certain builds.  Try to avoid picking up a lot of +10 stat nodes:  These are crap.

Don't identify most items before you sell them.  If you know you can't use it, just directly sell it.  Scrolls of Wisdom are currency, and you will become poor very quickly if you identify everything.

Keep some resist gear in the stash.  Do your best to not get frozen, shocked, or burned against elemental-wielding enemies.  If you do, get out of the battle ASAP until these conditions fade.  Shock especially is a nasty one, because it's easy to not notice since it doesn't do damage directly.  You'll notice when you take double damage from all sources however, and that might be too late.  Burning can sneak up on you too.

Pick up all items that have a linked red, blue, and green socket.  They sell for a chromatic orb.  Just found this out today!

[Setanta]

Got to level 6 on my ranger so far. The first 2 gems (multishot and flame) were pretty meh and I was getting bored. Then along came the poison cloud gem - holy shit! I love it as it rips through packs. I did the first optional quest (medical supplies) and got owned by the boss - that lance freezes you solid and he can 2-shot you. So far I've gone into the +hit, +damage and +agi - is this a bad thing and how badly do I need to go into evasion? Drops are good and I realised that the game is everything D3 should have been. I'm just hoping I don't stuf her up too badly for a first run at the game.

Are there any links to builds yet?

[trias_e]

Since with open beta things have changed, many of the previous builds are no longer as good as they once were.    This thread post might help:  http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/69224

There's some build ideas a few posts down the thread, by the OP.  I'd look at those for starting points.

[ezrast]

On Fenne the HC level 16 fire trap ranger. Whole thing was smooth as silk all evening except for one server hiccup and a couple of lag spikes which might have been my connection. Pretty impressed with that, really.

edit: Also I have a weapon that emits butterflies.

[Azuredream]

So after a lag-death and a idiotic death by burning and not noticing my health, I'm on the third iteration of Triaz.   Level 21 and in an awesome groove now.  Love this game.  Shield Charge + Cleave + lots of life regen/leech is working very well for me at this point.

Excellent beginner's guide from Curse:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWs7vAR-WzA

Some other general advice:  Make sure your build has a specific defense (armor, evasion, energy shield).  Make sure you buff that defense, along with picking up life and resists in the passive tree.  You don't need a ton of offensive skills to be effective, although you do need some key ones for certain builds.  Try to avoid picking up a lot of +10 stat nodes:  These are crap.

Don't identify most items before you sell them.  If you know you can't use it, just directly sell it.  Scrolls of Wisdom are currency, and you will become poor very quickly if you identify everything.

Keep some resist gear in the stash.  Do your best to not get frozen, shocked, or burned against elemental-wielding enemies.  If you do, get out of the battle ASAP until these conditions fade.  Shock especially is a nasty one, because it's easy to not notice since it doesn't do damage directly.  You'll notice when you take double damage from all sources however, and that might be too late.  Burning can sneak up on you too.

Pick up all items that have a linked red, blue, and green socket.  They sell for a chromatic orb.  Just found this out today!

Good advice and stuff I did not know. I played a Witch up to level 17/Act II. I've been mowing everything down with Freezing Pulse.

[Setanta]

Cheers trias, I'd put 2 points into agi and was debating whether to restart or not (L7), decided to suck it up and then stumbled on the quest that lets you refund two points - problem solved and Jetamio is on her way to being a standard physical damage ranger. Generic but I'll also build an elemental ranger as I'm having fun developing the magic side too.

[Lucas]

Tsk tsk, you folks...My biggest problem right now is that I can't decide between the plain red and the royal blue frog pet. 

[Sparky]

Was very interested until I heard there are no respecs.  Fuck being locked into bad choices you made while learning the game or post nerfs.

First of all, they refund all your points if they make significant changes to the passive tree.

Second, by the time I was level 50 (not too far) I had used about 15 refund points from quest rewards and orbs of regret (that I came about naturally while playing the game).  So as long as your build isn't absolutely horrible, it's fairly easy to correct small mistakes.  No, you won't be able to totally change your character at a whim, but you aren't locked into every point you've spent. 

True, I read on the SA forums you should expect to get about 20 orbs of regret levelling your character.  But that's out of 90 passive skillpoints so it's barely even a dent - more a sop to those who bitched about respecs.  If they're fairly liberal with refunds then it might not be too bad but IMO they made the classic mistake of listening to the hardcore crowd who say they enjoy being punched in the dick.

Still, free game with absolutely no P2W or even P2convinience so I can't complain too much.  It's take it or leave it.  But I'm hoping they break down eventually and include paid respecs or something if the kiwis and dyes don't end up generating moneyhats.

[Pennilenko]

I'm on my phone so linking will be impossible. Don't forget to use the passive tree skill planner that is on the official website under one of the tabs. It's super helpful for having a point placement strategy.

[Rokal]

It's very odd to play this game and realize that you aren't supposed to ID or pick up every magic item you find. Doing so means running out of ID scrolls (one of the main currencies in the game) quickly, and doesn't seem to change how much the item is worth to a vendor.

It'd still pretty rough around the edges but they have some really amazing ideas packed in here. I love that any common item can eventually become the best item in the game. You aren't just waiting 60 levels for awesome items to drop, you are trying to work towards building awesome items from level 1.

The skill system is amazing too. Can't wait until I start seeing support gems.

[Fabricated]

I'll probably make a pretty boring sword-n-board charge/cleave/aura/big-single-hit maurader for my first guy and not really go wild outside of maybe going for blood magic. If I can get a good grasp on the game or pile up some interesting uniques I'll look into the spergy-as-hell item specific builds.

[ezrast]

I love that any common item can eventually become the best item in the game.

I hate to be that guy, but this is unfortunately not true. Item mods and maximum sockets are bounded by item level, which is determined by the level of the monster that drops it and is immutable. Pick up an item and type /itemlevel; no matter how you try to reroll it it will never gain mods higher than that level.

[trias_e]

Going to start streaming my HC sword n shield duelist.  Just got to act 3, which I haven't played yet, so death is likely imminent.  My upload rate is kinda crap, so quality won't be the best unfortunately.

http://www.twitch.tv/trias_e

Edit:  I'm getting some pretty nasty desync/lag issues, so I'm not going to continue this just in case it's contributing.  Unfortunately, I don't think the streaming was where the problem is.  The catacombs in act 3 are simply for whatever reason a desync death trap for me.  Thank god for alt-f4.

[Rendakor]

Finally getting back into this after toying around with it a bit back in closed beta. I'm doing a s/b Marauder like Fabricated for now, but I might switch to a Ranger or Witch.

[Pennilenko]

It's very odd to play this game and realize that you aren't supposed to ID or pick up every magic item you find. Doing so means running out of ID scrolls (one of the main currencies in the game) quickly, and doesn't seem to change how much the item is worth to a vendor.

It's not to far into the game and you'll have more id scrolls than you can use.

[trias_e]

My level 40 hc duelist just died due to desync :(.  Desync is a serious problem with mobility skills.  I don't know if shield charge/whirling blades are even viable in HC due to it.  Disappointing.

[Rendakor]

Rolled up a Witch, planning on a fire/aoe based build. Got to level 13 or so, having a blast. Anyone know about what level/act support gems start dropping? I see all kinds of linked slots and its a shame I can't really do anything with them.

[Megrim]

I got my first in end of Act 1 iirc.

[Xilren's Twin]

I have to say, I've been pleasantly surprised so far.  It seems much much deeper than D3 in terms of character building.  Took a little getting used to with the flasks, lack of coin currency and skill gems, but having played a Templar to level 8 so far, I like it.  The quests, mobs and areas seem a little underwhelming right now but the progression game is definitely enough to keep you moving forward and the loot drops seem much more plentiful.  If you like arpgs at all its worth a look at the open beta.

[trias_e]

Servers down again.  I don't think they were expecting 70k concurrent users.

https://twitter.com/pathofexile

[Bzalthek]

Played a Ranger to 20 something, which is fun but I'm kinda squishy when I get to a big boss.  Tried out a Marauder and he is practically fucking invulnerable.  It's quite enjoyable, much better than D3 imo.

[Fabricated]

This is a pretty good game and you really have to think about your equipment and how you wanna spec and use your consumables hard.