Path of Exile 2

[Kwinny]

Path of Exile 2 hits Early Access over the past weekend to much fanfare. Needless to say, it warrants a thread here for like-minded individuals who are playing the game as well.

 

For interested patrons, you can get into EA for $40 via their cheapest Support pack, or wait several months for its Free-to-Play release.

 

Seasoned players of the first game will find familiarity with most of the game's inherent mechanics - some of which were seasonal ones from the prequel that were baked into the game after like Essences and Ascendancy Trials.

 

While PoE2 is similar to 1 in those ways, the inclusion of Dodge Rolls, WASD movement control and the emphasis on Boss fights in campaign and endgame make the game stand out on its own as a one-of-a-kind, top-down action RPG - a blend of Soulslike in a Diablo-esque game (new genre "Exile-like" perhaps?).

 

PoE2 will have 12 base classes on release, each with 2 specializations to compliment your build with extra niche passive buffs on top of the expansive skill tree. Theorycrafting is easier and less restrictive due to the removal of the generic Life & Resist nodes on said tree, so that you can allocate your skill points into other passives that increase your damage, grant you more combat resources & charges, or even Major notables that change how you play your character. Currently in EA, we have 6 of them being playable - a combination of new (Warrior, Mercenary, Monk & Sorceress) and old (Ranger & Witch) classes.

 

The game is available on Steam, Epic Game Store & the PS5 + Xbox consoles, and is currently treated as a Buy-to-Play Early Access app until its F2P release several months later.

Edited December 11 by Kwinny

[ClosureEssentials]

How's the game so far?

[Kwinny]

19 hours ago, ClosureEssentials said:

How's the game so far?

 

Since it's barely been 2 weeks of Early Access, things have been moving quite fast in response to player feedback on various aspects of the game.

 

Generally, PoE2 feels like a new game altogether especially when playing through the first 3 campaign acts - boss fights are an actual thing and it really does make the game feels Souls-like. Because they prioritized getting endgame mapping out to retain players and garner more valuable feedback over a longer period of time, they are working on the later 3 acts in time for release, so you'll instead loop over said first 3 chapters over again on a harder difficulty "Cruel".

 

Once you do hit endgame mapping, the game feels a bit same-y to PoE1 because you're gonna want to zip through the zones and defeat the bosses ASAP. Since there's a lot of things that are lethal even with high Armor & capped resistances, and you only got 1 Portal instead of 6, you'd best hope that you don't succumb to mob's on-death effects, magic & rare -fix modifiers & boss one-shots. On that end, GGG has removed the threshold resist penalties (i.e. you don't get a reduction on all of your resistances anymore at Tiers 6 & 10 IIRC) and perfect / removed most of the on-death effects.

 

On character balance, melee builds seem to be struggling a bit more than ranged but they're much more satisfying to play with the new control scheme. People are also trying to get used to Life builds since they removed the related Life nodes from the passive tree (but not ES). Despite that, it should still work by means of STR stacking - this stat gives flat-value Life now, and it's supposedly more effective than the %-based ones from the previous game. One thing's for sure - trying to get resistances on gear is paramount, especially chaos.

[maddfreesia]

is it worth the early access price atm?

[Kwinny]

2 hours ago, maddfreesia said:

is it worth the early access price atm?

40$ is a bit steep for a game that's currently on Early Access and probably without any ongoing seasonal content for at least several months. 

 

Personally I still paid for it due to the anticipation of this game as a long-time fan and it definitely does not disappoint. If you're someone who likes PoE1, and/or Souls-like games, you'll appreciate PoE2 in its current form. You can even choose to buy the supporter packs later after a month or two to see how GGG changes the state of the game before you make your decision.

[maddfreesia]

Yeah true. The twitch streamers have been so tempting though 😅