Looks interesting…
I’ll graciously accept any leftover friend invite.
Very much Diablo-like in terms of action/controls. The character building is quite interesting, I’d say the most interesting system that I’ve experienced in an ARPG.
The game has massive spiderweb (The screenshot appears old and doesn’t represent today’s web, but it gives you the idea) of passive skills, and each level you gain you get a passive skill point to spend. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say massive, it is seriously enormous. While each class shares the same web, they start in different locations of it. The Witch, for instance, has a lot of spell-related stuff around her start location, or things like mana regen and the like.
More importantly, as of the last update, littered throughout the web are Keystones, which have cool effects. Check out the list:
Minion Instability: Minions explode when reduced to low life, dealing 200% of their maximum life as fire damage to surrounding enemies.
Hex Master: Curses you cast never expire.
Conduit: Party members gain endurance/frenzy/power charges whenever you do.
Acrobatics: 20% chance to dodge all enemy attacks. Removes all armour. Removes all energy shield.
Iron Reflexes: Converts all evasion rating to armour.
Resolute Technique: Never get critical strikes. Always hit.
Avatar of Fire: Converts all physical damage to fire damage.
Unwavering Stance: You cannot be stunned. You cannot evade enemy attacks.
Armour Master: Ignore all movement penalties from armour.
Chaos Innoculation: 20% increased maximum energy shield. Provides immunity to chaos damage. Maximum life becomes 1.
Eldritch Battery: Converts all energy shield to mana.
Blood Magic: Removes all mana. Spends life instead of mana for skills.
Some of those Keystones really dramatically change the way you play the game. Again, different classes may start out a bit closer to certain keystones based on their position on the web. Plot your passive skill path wisely!
The way active abilities are handled reminds me more of Diablo 1 than Diablo 2. Actually, it was the one thing about Diablo 1 that I sorely missed in the sequel: Searching for spellbooks. Each item in Path of Exile contains colored gem sockets (red, blue, green). Throughout the course of the game, you find Skill Gems, which also come in those colors. These gems grant skills to the user. For instance, you can find a Fireball gem that allows you to shoot fireball, as long as you have a Blue socket to put the gem into. The gem then levels up as well as you gain EXP, becoming more and more powerful (but also requiring more stat points to be able to socket, i.e. the Int requirement to socket a L10 fireball is higher than a L1 fireball). Unlike other games, gems are not lost when removed. Instead, they intend there to be a market/economy for gem trading and selling.
Anyway, it’s a very interesting game so far, mechanically. Definitely give the game a whirl when you get a chance (whether it’s a beta key or when the game releases).
Can you have more than one keystone at once? I’d guess not since Blood Magic and Chaos Innoculation together would seriously gimp your character.
From the developers 0.94 release notes
“Added 12 Keystone passives! There’s no limit to how many you can take, but they have very large permanent effects on your character, so plan carefully before picking any.”
They don’t make money off guys like you. They make money off guys like me. They even have a name for guys like me, whales.
This actually looks pretty interesting. Between this, Torchlight 2, and D3, I think I will manage to get my action RPG fix in the next year.
If people who buy stuff are whales (I assume that’s people who buy a lot of stuff), what are the people who don’t buy anything/much called? Fishes?
Charlatans!
I like the term barnacles.
Harkonis wins, fatality.
I decided to sign up, and do my best to raise the noise to signal ratio of the forums. Thankfully, it seems like there are dedicated threads to do so, so I didn’t have to be a big douche. Seems like meaningful participation in the forums is tough without actual beta access, as I can’t say squat about the game itself.
My thoughts exactly.
Once you get into the beta a whole new section of the forums open up anyway.
I felt a bit uncomfortable whining in the forums as well but it does work. The count to 300 or 1000 thread is relatively harmless.
Incidentally they are upgrading the game this morning to 0.95.
Anyone have a spare beta key? (sorry I had to ask lol!)
The one thing I’m a bit worried about is the resistance the developers have towards any kind of feedback. It seems once they decided on an idea they will go to great lengths for it no matter the cost.
The Beta invite thing is one example. What might have felt like a neat idea has drawn quite a bit of negative feedback, yet they defend it. They say that they are tired of explaining the system again and again to new and old user alike, yet they stick with it.
Limited closed beta alright, but is it really worth it to alienate so many players again and again just because of that tiny idea they had once? Wouldn’t it make sense to invest in a less negatively perceived system?
Another one is the free looting. They suggested that everyone can loot anything because they want a “cut-throat atmosphere” when playing. Which garnered lots of negative feedback. So they showcased their new system: Items are randomly assigned to one player for one second, after which everyone can loot it…
I was surprised to find a beta invite email today, so I fired it up and got … not very far. I took a duelist, and after the initial <Keanu Reeves>whoa!</Keanu Reeves> moment of looking at that insane passive skill web I was less impressed when I started mousing over the stuff. I expected to see a lot of neat skills in there instead of mainly stat boosts.
I do like the items so far. Most stuff has sockets and upgrading is painless since you can just pop the gems out when you find something better. The loot drops are also interesting right off the bat instead of forcing people to pay gamer tax using all white gear for umpteen levels.
Interesting game, but I wish the (fixed) zoom level wasn’t so tight. I kept subconsciously flicking the mouse wheel to zoom out and was disappointed every time nothing happened.
All the skills in the web are passive, right?
All active skills come only from gems you socket into items.
Correct.
See, I think that’s great. I appreciate it when developers are so totally up-front in saying to me “We don’t want you to play our game.”
The passive skill tree is just that… passive. Consider it akin to stat point allocations but with additional things like mana regen or skill with certain types of weapons, etc.
The skills are obtained via gems found throughout the game, but sounds like you know that. :)
Completely agree about the zoom level!