I’m still getting to grips with what’s a community to my main instance (lemmy.world). I think this is on L.W?!
Anyways, I’ve never been hooked by an ARPG. I enjoyed D2R with a buddy last year, but I absolutely hated the baked in lack of QoL things, and I never knew where to go. Mostly I was trailing behind my sorc friend who would be zipping off, grabbing objectives, progressing the ‘quests’. It was a bit of a whirlwind, and it didn’t really sink in at all.
I loved the loot and the sheer randomness of stuff, but having to make a set build was kind of shit. Not being able to re-roll freely…the hell man?
#Diablo 4
Fast forward to recently, man D4 really added some cool stuff. Infinite potions more or less. It was a great time doing the story and hopping in with friends and enjoying the improvements over D2. But sadly the cracks began to show when we got to the post-campaign ‘content’.
Spongy level scaled enemies, no power fantasy; and playing druid was painful. ‘I neeeed more spirit’ as I bash enemies with my basic attack. There’s no reason minions should be so strong dammit lol.
Overall D4 was very good, and I think it’ll get to a good place eventually, especially with the open world. I kinda hate the reliance of aspects and having that anxiety of not having a replacement standing by for the next weapon/armor. The town layouts of services too really grinded on me in the end. Shoutout to Cerrigar being the best town.
We got bored of just doing dungeons for the sake of it, but I still wanted some more ARPG goodness. And yep, meta builds or bust AGAIN just like D2, argh!
#Enter POE…
I have actually dabbled a bit in POE before, but not a lot. This time, I was ready to learn and absorb. It’s got me hook line and sinker this time around. I am blown away by the sheer content, and build freedom. Somehow…I think I’ve done a good witch build so far! Most of my shit is spells, so they scale up, provided I keep up my spell damage % on gear, and casting speed passives/supports.
My lightning tendrils in Act 6 do like…30,000 or so damage and i’m largely one tapping with bursts of Arc and Tendrils, it’s an amazing power fantasy and it’s satisfying to screen clear coming from Diablo 4 where every engagement is a BORING slog, honestly. It’s the opposite effect, and I fucking love it :)
I’ve always liked lightning builds, so i’ve not really struggled with the passive tree yet, everything makes sense and I haven’t encountered any major problems. I’m making my character how I want and it’s amazing I have that ability to do so.
These HEISTS?! The mining thing, what the hell? So cool. Not quite sure what these expedition things are with the TNT placing, and detonating is. But I love the drip fed random content along the way as I’m doing the story.
I know POE’s had 10 years of content, but what a massive shock to experience this stuff for the first time. I thought the people with multi-thousand hours were just running the same campaign maps and bosses like D2. I was very wrong.
Just gushing, and enjoying Lemmy in the post reddit world. Loving the game, and hope to see this community start firing off.
Cheers.
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Yeah PoE scratches the itch for me every new league. Can’t wait for PoE 2 and a revamp to leveling. D4 could be practically the best game ever but it feels weird to spend $70 on it when PoE is free
And diablo 2 lead most of us to POE… good to see how the most recent iteration did the same for you (and hopefully / likely) many others!
It’s still important that D4 becomes good so we have competition in the space of ARPG. There were plenty of times GGG dropped the ball.
I feel that. I actually skipped D4 just cause it seems like a dumbed down PoE. I feel like very few games can really match the amount of content and rewarding complexity that PoE has. Also, I’m so hyped for PoE2!
I haven’t player Diablo 4 as the direction with gear wasn’t to my liking. I’m a big time fan of D2 LoD and hence play D2R.
However, I’ve been playing poe on and off since Ambush. I recently took a hiatus from poe once Warzone and eventually D2R came out. I’ve since come back to it as I got an itch to play it once more. I haven’t played since Harvest league and I share your excitement on the amount of end game content there is!
Uber Pinnacle bosses are a thing now, so many routes to play the game in order to craft gear or make enough currency to spend for your build. I also didn’t know the currency change in regards to Divine and Exalts! With the amount of time poe has had to polish their endgame content, it’s going to take a similar amount of time for D4 to catch up.
Big time. I’ve just cracked act 7 so I’m loving all the shit that keeps coming my way. Game is stacked!
I have played a lot of POE for a long period of time. The past year or so I have been less engaged with it. I picked up D4 on release. I have maybe 100 hours in and I am finding it a little dull. I do not dislike it but I also can’t get that excited about it. Items seem boring to me and I can’t believe it doesn’t have a loot filter. Having to use your “bad skill” so you can use your “good skill” design is weird. I guess it’s a different way to handle resources management but it really doesn’t feel satisfying. POE skills in contrast are beautiful.
Anyway, I could go on but the bottom line is I am looking forward to the next POE league. We’ll see what happens with D4 and I am glad to have another decent game to play but I’m 10x more excited thinking about POE builds than D4.
this makes me happy to read this as a longtime player of both; particuarly poe these last few years. keep going, there’s sooooo much to explore and discover. see y’all at exilecon ^*
Played a lot of D2 as a kid and only just come back to the genre today with PoE. Haven’t been so instantly hooked on a game in ages!
