In other words, you still have to play through the first 4 acts before reaching any significant level of challenge.

The easy portion of the game may as well be your tutorial; it takes all of an afternoon to reach level 60 and beyond - where your full abilities will come into play. The reason the early part of the game is easier is to accomodate niche builds that don't come into their own until much later. The consequence for doing this (easy gameplay for builds that already start strong) really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things considering that level-up period encompasses very little of a player's overall time once they begin mapping, etc..

tldr; noone that plays PoE for any length of time really complains about the ease of the newb levels - you barely spend any time there.

p.s. if you want to challenge yourself in that "early" part of the game, I recommend running 1-2 hour "races" in the latter half of each League. You need to push your character's limits to be competitive.

You sound like Joxer; those are pretty oddball reasons to rag on an a-rpg. Bad running animations? Who cares. Also fail to see how it's any more of an MMO than D2.

I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm pretty sure I put in somewhere around 12 to 15 hours before quitting. That's much longer than any tutorial I want to play.

I have 1179 [Steam] hours in PoE… and I barely play compared to most :p I've played in maybe 3 or 4 leagues total. So, 12-15 hours is definitely a tutorial - HAH! It's a grinder arpg in the vein of D2 and makes no apologies for being thus.

Diablo 3 is better overall, but PoE is definitely up there.

Exactly. It's hard to explain someone who plays casually and does not min/max why PoE is the best in the genre.

Also, I had more than 20k hours on D2 back in the days and I am not buying an HD version of it for a simple reason - D2 time is gone. D3 time will be gone too if the current developer team doesn't start to solve the real issues in the game soon.

PoE is light years away from both D2 and D3 in terms of overall character progression freedom and min/maxing. PoE only real issue is the engine, which feels old, but that is what an indie studio can pull off atm. Maybe they start PoE 2 in 5-6 years and this is solved too.

PoE has a ton of issues, like most games do.

The environments are dreary and dull. The story and presentation are weak and anything but engaging. The actual combat is utterly inferior to the sheer visceral joy that is Diablo 3.

I could go on - but it's still a very good game in my opinion.

I just prefer D3.

Now, if only they could combine the character system of PoE with the moment-to-moment gameplay of D3 - we'd really have something.

On top, I would want them to add back the original RMAH so there's actually a reason to grind beyond getting to grind some more.

I'd just like to be able to zoom out a bit more

I am sure this is their plan for PoE 2 - having D3-like engine and combat - but for this to happen they have to first build a bigger team and second acquire the cash. 4-5 years more of milking PoE micro-transactions will do the job and we will have our dream ARPG after that. Blizzard can raise the 10k D3 paragon cap in the meantime and welcome more botters rofl.

Wouldn't mind that at all.

I doubt that's the plan as it would require an entirely new game - but if they make it, I'll be very happy.

I stopped playing D3 after they started to focus on endless boring Rift runs. That's not my kind of gameplay.

However, I had a lot more fun with it than I ever did with PoE.

There's no reason to bash one game just because you like another. They both have their charms.

You don't need to be lvl 60 to get access to support gems. These start appearing before end of Act 1 and they already can do cool stuff like adding more projectiles to one projectile skills.

If you are talking about SSF (Solo Self Found) that already exists now and it does not solve the MMO feel PoE has. All it does it prevent you from joining a group or trading with anyone. Drop chances for useful items are 100% same like in normal game where people all trade like crazy because drop rates for useful items suck big time.

When I get to end game I don't even identify items anymore, I just collect rare items, do the chaos recipe with them and then use the chaos orbs to buy the rare items I need. Getting what you need yourself is a fool's mission in PoE .

How did you come to the conclusion I dislike D3? I have more than 3k hours in D3 and as I said its engine/combat is the best there is. However, that is not enough to catch up on PoE. And with the D3 current developer's team there won't be any catch up at all. The difference will become larger and larger with time.

As for PoE 2 - the game only needs a better engine - they have all the other stuff already written and can copy-paste it from PoE 1. But the engine part is the hardest and the most expensive one. Once they have the cash they will push it and this will be the end of the clowns doing ARPG stuff at soonTM Entertainment.

My mistake, it sounded like you weren't too fond :)

Well, I can't predict the future. I'm confident we'll see more of D3 or even a D4, eventually.

For my part, they would have to redo almost everything. I don't enjoy repeating already dull content - even if it's a shiny new engine.

But to each his own.

Nah, PoE does not need D3 flashy combat. At best it could use some of the combat from Grim Dawn but no more. D3 is too cartoonish for PoE players to ever accept that.

I wouldn't mind updated charactermodels and animations.

I'm pretty sure it's possible to have great animations and character models without the game being a cartoon.

D4 will be an MMO, it's pretty much confirmed at this point, the revenue from D3 is not big enough for Activision.