Path of Exile - Ascendancy Available Today
 

Path of Exile's latest chapter, Ascendancy, will become available today. In addition the Perandus Challenge Leagues also become available.

More information.

Absolutely awesome stuff! It's so great to see an ethical free-to-play game be a huge success, and one that is actually more deep and interesting than most $60 AAA titles!

I actually envy anyone who has never played before and jumps in right now. The game has never been in a stronger position. It is the most balanced, rewarding, content-rich, and optimized it has ever been.

PoE truly is the worthy successor of Diablo 2. It's my most-played game because it's just that interesting!

Go play it! Feel free to add me as a friend on Steam (Brumbek) if you want to chat/Skype for help as a new player.

PS: this patch gives some HUGE changes to make the game much less tedious and grindy. They made it massively easier to 5-Link and 6-Link gear now, which will let average players have a chance at the best-of-the-best end-game builds.

Maybe i would give it a second try when there would be no Grim Dawn.
Played it 2 or 3 years ago and stopped becauswe the act endbosses were really hard with my summoner build and totally not in balance with the other enemies i´ve encountered.

The game you played 2-3 years ago is long gone.
They've made several massive changes each year.

Maybe but the disbalance Kylex talks about is still very much there. Maybe expansion will change that but I really dislike the way boss encounters are handled. You are locked in a small area with no place for subtlety or tactics.

True, especially in not long ago added act 4.Most bosses there are pain if you are playing ranged class that rely on mobility and tactics.

One thing that also annoys me is stash is not transferable through leagues.Since there is new leage every content patch I practically never have access to shared stash on new characters.

Hmm, that is indeed appealing. So much character build potential is locked behind incredibly rare/expensive 6-slot items.

PoE vs Full Pillars/Eternity playthrough vs finishing my Wasteland 2 playthrough vs finishing a FO:New Vegas mod, ugh!!!!!!

You couldn't have said it better, Brumbek!

Yes, I was thinking about that while playing in the morning with new character. Running AGAIN through all that even with few bells and whistles added? I just might have to do that once but that's it! Most likely I will run through one or two chars and that will be that for the Path of Exile.

I loved the atmosphere and especially that Dominus guy - the voice acting was done superb for him, but…
This kind of games are all about loot, unfortunately here all coolest stuff is only cash shop items, i mean cool looking armor and weapons. In game your high level character will run in same ugly rags as when he just started back at lvl 1, only higher stats.
I know I must support devs and buy some items, but what's the fun then to go after the shiny loot when I already bought it. And grinding just for stats turned to boredom very fast for me.

Lol, what? Everything from the cash shop is cosmetic and has no bearing on gameplay. The cash shop in PoE is one of its strongpoints.

This is EXACTLY what a cash shop should be if you have to have one.

No stats, no buffs, no pay to win, no unobtainable godly items.

If people want to pay $10 for a shiny suit glamor that has the same stats as my rags… YAY!

What lol? I'm not talking about shop items having some stats or not, I'm talking about cool looking armor and weapons, which in this game are only in cash shop, while those you can obtain by plain playing looks like crap in comparison.
For me finding cool looking stuff is one of the main things why I play such type of games, hope now you get my point.

Well…here is my level 91 Witch. I used a couple Skin Transfer Microtransactions to give her a pretty decent "Lightning" look. The Skin Transfers let you grab any other piece of gear's look and apply it, and they only cost something like $0.60 per use.

I personally strongly dislike all that blinged out non-lore flaming/shining/demon armor MTX stuff. It makes no sense in the world of Wraeclast where you're supposed to be searching for items to survive.

But yeah, if you want to look like a Christmas tree, it will cost you anywhere from $20 to $100 for a full set.

It brings up an interesting question: would I rather PoE be buy to play? If the base game was $40 and each expansion was $20, I'd have paid $120 so far. That's almost exactly what I've paid so far, spending on Stash Tabs mostly.

But since PoE is free, their artists have to spend tons of time making these MTX armor/weapons, which I'll never get. If the game was buy to play, then perhaps they would spend more time making more of the Unique in-game pieces of gear have a unique 3D look.

Clearly Diablo 3 crushes PoE as far as appearance goes. Diablo 3 lets you change any piece of gear to look like anything else for free, and Diablo 3 has way cooler looking stuff…

It's an interesting discussion…but since PoE is lesser known, they probably would have never gotten as big and successful if they charged $40 at the gate. Being free to play helps many players overlook the games…issues.

Personally, I don't care one iota about my character's appearance in an A-RPG (or most games for that matter). Graphically-speaking, what I do care about is the spell effects and PoE has these in spades.

This is exactly what I am talkig about! In loot driven game you want to see your character progressing through the levels not only stat wise but also getting new cool gear and get that look of battlehardened veteran.

"But yeah, if you want to look like a Christmas tree, it will cost you anywhere from $20 to $100 for a full set." - you know that you exaraggate here as a long time player. Look at some armors like Gore or Arcane, they look cool and nowhere near Christmas tree and times better that epics you could find with your long grind.

"I personally strongly dislike all that blinged out non-lore flaming/shining/demon armor MTX stuff. It makes no sense in the world of Wraeclast where you're supposed to be searching for items to survive."
I understand that, but the irony is GGG thinks it fits their lore, all those wings and glowing horns, it's their creation not fan mods.

Funny you should bring this topic up in a Path of Exile thread Zogar Zag… Check out the post at the top of this page from a thread from the Path of Exile forums:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/vi…/485358/page/3

It's by someone called 'Deleted'. Hmmm, now, I wonder who that could have been. And whoa, old thread too ;)

That golden armour from NWN was exactly what you're talking about, that sense of 'getting there' and seeing the avatar change to complement this.

True, some are more tasteful and make more sense in the lore. But then again, you can also buy this abomination. If I ever see a character wearing that rubbish, I shall scold them ever so severely.

Do you have proof on this? I don't think GGG has ever addressed this. They know all this crazy angel/demon armor doesn't fit their lore. They're just making what players like from all sorts of fantasy games. PoE has no angels or vampires or whatnot.

Again, it's just done to make money, not because it fits the lore. Hence, us lore-freaks who really adore the excellent backstory and lore, don't like this stuff.

But paying $40 for an Angel armor set gives GGG more money to finance the game…so I begrudgingly accept it…sort of like how I have to rob banks to finance my crack habit…it's just how life goes. [Some of this last paragraph may not be true…maybe.]

Some weird stuff is going on… I have lost 2 Tabula Rasas in the reset and, yesterday, I have seen in Sarn a 21st level witch armed with 2 Lifesprigs. How?

Isn't it a bit weird or stupid to make rich lore and then add absolutely out of lore stuff in your own game only because some players like it. Players would like chainmail bikini or sexy lingerie 10 times more than some demon armor, believe me.
Anyway if what you say is true, then where is grantee that next time they will completely not broke their lore, because players would like it and will buy!
Don't get me wrong, I don't like all that wings/horns stuff myself, it also gave me salty feeling about game direction and how serious devs are about their lore.
Why not add some cool armor in game along with those from cash shop, but more lore friendly, no? Maybe because at some point cash shop becomes priority?

Hmm not sure how meant that, but it wasn't me hiding under name Deleted - I don't care for this game that much to participate in forums.

Just started messing around with this today, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed. Despite being F2P and made by a company I've never heard of, it looks and plays like a AAA title.

I'm not a big fan of being forced to play online though, and it annoys me to see other players running around when I'm in the town.

I gotta say though.. the monster design is some of the best I've ever seen in an action-RPG.

Been playing some for the first time in probably a year. This game is fun :) The new Act 4 is so good - especially with all the new art assets! You would think GGG would have just recycled art from prior acts but that is definitely not the case!

The new bosses kick some serious butt too; after struggling with them a bit on normal difficulty, I can only imagine how hard they're going to be in merciless and cruel difficulties.

Started playing this again after the expansion for the first time in ages. Love all the new content since I last played, but still don't really see a real point to the Masters.

It seems a lot easier than it used to be too. Just breezed through the first 3 acts in Merciless this evening. There was noticeably less explosive arrow and poison arrow archers in Act 2 than I remember in the past.

Masters are mostly just good good for crafting affixes on to gear. They're pretty useful but unlocking their different tiers takes a lot of grinding and needs to be repeated with each new league :(

Well, grind is the name of the game in MMO. I'm level 55 and have (after some purchases) over a thousand coins. At the lower levels Cadiro offers stuff at very affordable prices but recently he offered a legendary ring (good but not great) for 2500!

Coins?