Path of Exile

[Lucas]

Is 1.0 going to include Act IV?

Nope, from what I read in other threads, only the "remainder" of Act 3 (I still have to get there, so I don't know what that involves); also, a single full respec possibility for any character  and other stuff they're pretty silent about:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/519154/page/3#p4633991

There is some speculation going on, of course: new class (they're talking about a "Death Knight" class), guild system, complete and revamped tutorial, another endgame activity beside maps etc.

[trias_e]

Act 3 is supposedly only halfway implemented into the game right now.  Which is impressive considering as is it feels just as long as the other two acts, and is of higher quality.  I'm certainly looking forward to the last half of act 3.

I have no idea how a new class would work...I suppose it could start in the middle of the tree, or they would have to revamp the entire tree to make it work.

I haven't played PoE in a little while but I'll be eagerly starting a new character when 1.0 arrives.  I really love this game, and can see myself playing it off and on for years.

[Pennilenko]

I really love this game, and can see myself playing it off and on for years.

[Signe]

If you go to Razer, you can get free glowing green footprints shaped like the snakey razer thingy logo.  Srsly.  For free!  FREE!!

[Yegolev]

Ew.

[Signe]

I think it's a riot.  I'm glad you didn't say "ewe".

[Yegolev]

Somehow I think you'd have liked it if I did.

Anyway, I'm just not excited about footprints that look like a corporate logo.

[Lucas]

Those of you who are interested in playing at release probably have already read everything concerning 1.0, but just in case:

Media coverage links:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/533261

Release trailer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/lhwfkl/path-of-exile-release-trailer

The Gamespot link includes a nice gameplay walkthrough by GGG's Chris Wilson
----

- New Class: The Scion (female character, starting in the middle of the tree) ;
- New areas, monsters, Act 3 finale;
- Guild storage, guild ranks ;
- updates to PvP ;
- Two new leagues at launch, Dominion and Nemesis (read here) ;
- New skills and support gems (as above)

It's shaping up to be a great launch :)

[Lucas]

Coming soon on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/238960/

[Mrbloodworth]

Good move for them.

[Dark_MadMax]

Overall its a quality game  and imho worth playing trough at last once (itst f2p after all) . Long term though its imho only attractive to people who enjoy mindless grind of the worst kind and those wierdos who like races (for those who dont know - timed events  with winners defined by highest level achieved)

[Lucas]

Here's a new official article about what can we expect from 1.0.0. Great summary:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/536969

[rattran]

It's not a bad game, just a bit too 'HARDCORE!!!11!' minded for my tastes.

[trias_e]

I love this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xud0Xf3UaVY&feature=youtu.be

[Lucas]

Release in 1d 4hrs and counting...

(Humongous) Release patch notes (1.0.0) :

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/545523

Of particular interest for a possible PoE Bat Country guild:

Features - Guilds:

We've added Guilds! To create one, use the Social screen. Guilds can initially hold 30 members, but more slots can be purchased.

- There are three membership tiers - Leader, Office and Member. Leaders can change permissions. Officers can invite people to the guild.
- There's a guild chat channel (bound to the & symbol). It spans across leagues.
- Powerful guilds can obtain tags that appear next to their members' names in chat. This requires sacrificing a set of end-game Maps, each of which corresponds to a letter or symbol in the tag. Tags are unique and some symbols are much rarer than others.
- You can purchase Premium Guild Stash Tabs which allow you to store your guild's wealth. You can set permissions for different tiers of members to view, add items and remove items.
- Guild purchases are handled by the guild leader. Players can visit their guild page on pathofexile.com to donate points to their guild.
- Guild Challenges are coming very soon!

[ezrast]

Other interesting changes:
-new character class that starts in the center of the tree
-all auras except Clarity changed to 60% reservation (lol)
-life nodes rebuffed, but reduced in number
-new "trigger" support gems that cast your spells for you under certain conditions

I'm thinking frenzy + cast on crit + discharge for most broken trigger combo, but I'll have to think about it.

[Fabricated]

So basically all auras are now useless for characters that use blood magic?

[trias_e]

Not at all, considering the effect of individual auras has been buffed considerably.  What has changed is that more than 1 aura will be impossible unless you spec for it.  I like this change, because too many builds before were focused on running basically every aura possible, which is kinda boring.  It's more interesting to actually have to make a decision as to which aura (or two, if you grab the aura mana res. nodes) to run.

Also, auras and blood magic do not get along now.  Before, you could run auras that used a flat reservation with blood magic.  Now they all use percentage, which even with 30% reduiced res. is very bad for blood magic builds. 

[ezrast]

Nothing's for certain until we see the new tree. Supposedly there will be a lot more reduced reservation nodes, so multiple auras will still be possible, you just have to spec into it. Most aura effects are getting buffed as well, so they're pretty much a wild card until we can actually see the details.

[Mrbloodworth]

2 hours till this is launched on steam.

[Pennilenko]

I love these developers. I purchased support packs for both open and closed beta, and continually spend some money tricking out new characters with cosmetic items.

[Mrbloodworth]

Its crazy to think they were once just a 10 man before beta, and have only been a 33 man in beta.

[MediumHigh]

So before I play/uninstall this a few questions.

How grindy is this. In terms of meaningful upgrades to skills, stats, weapons, and shit that helps your weapons blow up stuff and how noticeable is it.

Is skill/stat allocation free or am I stuck with my choice until I "earn" or "purchase" a reset. Same goes for weapon slots or upgrades.

What type of pvp is there and is the level cap/weapon rarity low enough to warrant giving a fuck.

[Fabricated]

There's arena-style PVP, it's grindy as shit in the higher difficulties since you need gear/levels to advance but skill gems tend to drop more than consistently enough (also you get them from quests) that you'll have what you likely want, and you're largely stuck with your spec because you get a smattering of respec points (1 per node you roll back) and more require random drops/vendor trading (vendors kinda operate like horadric cubes)/trading with other players.

Read the class forums and look at what people are doing and popular builds to kinda get what works and what doesn't.

I made the mistake of trying to rebuild my blood magic+lightning arrow ranger the best I could and she's fucking worthless now. They really, really fucked my old build up.

[MediumHigh]

There's arena-style PVP, it's grindy as shit in the higher difficulties since you need gear/levels to advance but skill gems tend to drop more than consistently enough (also you get them from quests) that you'll have what you likely want, and you're largely stuck with your spec because you get a smattering of respec points (1 per node you roll back) and more require random drops/vendor trading (vendors kinda operate like horadric cubes)/trading with other players.

Read the class forums and look at what people are doing and popular builds to kinda get what works and what doesn't.

I made the mistake of trying to rebuild my blood magic+lightning arrow ranger the best I could and she's fucking worthless now. They really, really fucked my old build up.

Looks like another uninstall. Its 2013.... 7 years of game design says hello.

[Pennilenko]

Looks like another uninstall. Its 2013.... 7 years of game design says hello.

I get where you are coming from. However, one thing to keep in mind is that these guys have been pretty open about only wanting to make a classically styled, complex ARPG, so if you don't like that sort of thing you shouldn't waste the bandwidth.

[MediumHigh]

Looks like another uninstall. Its 2013.... 7 years of game design says hello.

I get where you are coming from. However, one thing to keep in mind is that these guys have been pretty open about only wanting to make a classically styled, complex ARPG, so if you don't like that sort of thing you shouldn't waste the bandwidth.

Give me the difficulty, not the treadmills. I mean some of those 20 year old ARPG still work you know  

I mean especially with the skill points. I mean the fuck do I have to go a forum to find a build before I even play the game in 2013? The internet was for rich basement dwellers 20 years ago... who could tell you your 90strength mage was a bad idea  

[ezrast]

Give it a shot, at least. It's definitely designed for the hardcore but there are quite a few skills available early on and the game doesn't get really punitive about screwing up your build until later. As long as you're not throwing away good gear you can probably make it through 100% of the content without trouble. You'll either get bitten by the bug or decide it's too ugly and clunky before the lack of full respecs really enters into the equation.

[Fabricated]

Normal is like D2 normal in that anyone can do it with any build really. Cruel is harder than D2 nightmare IMO, and Merciless is pretty mean.

It is honestly not difficult to completely fuck your build up to the point where you'd need many more levels to get the nodes you need (probably some sort of survival, like more life/shield and your primary defensive stat) to get by.

[Njal]

Anyone have any links to a decent guide/character builder?

[Fabricated]

Also the game is definitely focused around hardcore and other temporary leagues, which is probably why respeccing isn't very easy. They've specifically said they don't ever plan on selling respecs, so it's more of a mindset/vision thing for the game rather than a moneyhat thing.

I dunno how well their "ethical microtransactions"  thing is working but it seems to have been somewhat successful if their expansion and launch is any indication. In case you didn't know MediumHigh; their big thing is that the devs are pretty surprisingly vehement about how much they hate Pay2Win. You get a shitload of stash space and quite a few character slots; the most tangible quality-of-life stuff they sell are bonus stash slots and character slots but you really only need them if you're way, way into the game.

Everything else is goofy-shit cosmetic stuff; mostly alternate spell effects and weapon glows/effects.

Anyone have any links to a decent guide/character builder?

They have their own character builder here: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree

As for guides, the 1.0 patch changed a shitload of stuff and rejiggered the whole passive skill tree so it's still in a state of flux but check the class specific forums- they have full integration there with item-links and build links, and the really hardcore therorycrafter type people actually use the main forums: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum

Note that all of the classes are actually fundamentally the same- the big difference is where they start on the passive tree. Any class can get any node on the skill tree if they want to spend the points getting there.

[Mrbloodworth]

I mean the fuck do I have to go a forum to find a build before I even play the game in 2013?

You don't.

[Lucas]

Well, it really depends on how you approach ARPGs: POE is time consuming if you want to be "competitive" (ladders, min/maxing, trading, etc.), but IMO it's perfectly viable, challenging and fun for a normal/casual player too, with the big passive tree, gem combinations, etc.

[Pennilenko]

I only use the forums to discuss specific passive and gem interactions.  I avoid builds that other people have done. I hop on the passive tree character builder on the website and kind of get a general idea for what I want to do and then I just play the character following a loose plan to see how my ideas pan out. I have gotten several characters into the 80s without following some theorycrafter's build. My most favorite part of POE is building characters around ridiculous skill combinations to see how far I can take a character just to stick it to the min/maxers that say only a handful of builds are viable for late game map running.

I would link some of my builds, except the recent update release completely changed how their passives are arranged out and I need to figure out what I am going to do with them. So, I am kind of in a learning zone before i use the free respecs that got handed out.

My favorite character so far has been my full on dedicated summoner, no personal offense, but I run with 10 zombies, 4 specters, and 14 skeletons on an auto-cast totem. I am currently playing around with the animate guardian gem that is new, it lets you cast on armor and weapons and it puts them on an invisible guardian. Its like a fun little mini-game with the armor and weapons I would never pick up.

[Mrbloodworth]

I suspect that's how most people play. In a system that allows for near limitless combinations, limiting yourself to a few combinations you found on the web seems like a bad way to play...anything. Even more silly, is using your own set of limitations you imposed as a way to say "this game sucks".