What is Path of Exile?
Path of Exile is a Diablo clone made by a group of New Zealanders (sheep people). Opposed to Diablo 3, there are no flashing strobe lights or chainsaws scrapping chalkboards on this one - you can play it without getting a headache or entering a seizure. A lot of brown and teal and grey.
It's a bit more oriented to the sperglord spectrum of players, as you can tell by the skill grid with 1,400 nodes on the thing.
Classes
The only difference in the classes are their appearance, starting stats, quest rewards, and their location on the skill grid. The six classes are:
Marauder - Strength. He's a big fuck ox with the easiest access to powerful +life nodes. A real beast; very popular.
Duelist - Strength+Dexterity. His area is good at dual wielding.
Ranger - Dexterity. Her starting area is kind of weak in my opinion. Bows and +movement speed are the highlights.
Shadow - Dexterity+Intelligence. Assassin dude who says wonderful things while you play. Dual wielding claws/daggers, critical hits (which can cause bonus effects), and a splash of magic.
Witch - Intelligence. Elemental and AoE spell power. And minions. And wands if you want to spend a ton of skill points before they become any good. Live the dream of having a Firestorm with an area so large it covers the entire screen.
Templar - Intelligence+Strength. The most pantsless of our pantsless heroes. A super scottish old geezer. He has easiest access to +resistance and elemental weapon damage stuff.
Okay why should I care?
Because it is 100% free to play. And uh, math. And stuff!
Honestly the best way I can describe its appeal is thus: Diablo characters are a lot like children. You have expectations (driven by the skill system) and you have hopes (driven by the item system). You feel like talking about them profusely to people, and those people, if they're remotely well adjusted and not some kind of sicko, won't give a shit about what you have to say.
And then you get weary of the kid and make a new one. Maybe with a new person. That'll zazz things up. So why not make a baby with Path of Exile instead?
... That metaphor went to a creepy place. Sorry. But people are often enthusiastic talking about their characters.
Like I have this Ranger, Sheepdicer, and she has this Dual Strike skill that slams down on dudes, and a Cleave that wipes out crowds, and Whirly Blades to zoom around and kite monsters to swarm and murder my party members.....
Please stop
Okay.
So when is it coming out?
The plan seems to be this December, but I half expect them to bump it back. The open beta is effectively the real release - there will be no more character wipes after it happens, ever.
Okay, but does it have any features to set it apart?
It does not have an open world, it's basically an enhanced Diablo 2. Here is what it has so far in closed beta:
Public Parties - You can start a party, and then everyone in your act can see where you are. So if you'd rather play with people, you can wait for folks to catch up to where you are and then just join in.
Global Chat - If you feel like going solo, the Global Chat will keep you company with its precious Chuck Norris jokes and Diablo 3 gripes. Or, if you're some kind of monster, you can hide it.
Loot Timer - Loot drops for everyone in the party, but Magic items, Currency, Rares, and Uniques are assigned to someone when they drop. Then that person has a few seconds to grab it. Consensus so far is it's too damn short.
No Fiddliness - You don't have to fiddle with potions. You stick them in your belt, and they fill themselves up on the blood of your enemies and you get to be happy forever. Ditto goes for Durability - durability is not in this game at all.
No Gold - Instead there are currency items, which can be used to improve your items or fix your mistakes in the skill tree. They can drop anywhere, so your time isn't completely wasted by playing in low level areas.
PvP - Path of Exile has PvP before Diablo 3 does. I don't know if anyone in the universe is surprised by this. 3v3 and 1v1 so far.
Zones - The level layout is not like Diablo 2 with one huge neverending blob of crap. Areas link to other instanced areas that usually look different.
Leagues - Instead of a ladder like in Diablo 2 that's reset once every other year, there is a league system in the game. With prizes. They can be hardcore, full of turbo monsters, etc. Basically as leagues finish up or you die in hardcore, your character falls back into a parent league. Hardcore characters go into the Default League pool upon death.
Any important tips?
The skill grid is a kaizo trap in its current form. It's seriously Diablo 2 all over again - stats for items and skills, rest into survival. In general most offense nodes are trash, only bother getting the big ones if they won't cost you many points to walk to, or have an awesome stat (like +4% block, or +20% to elemental damage) in addition to crappy old +physical damage.
I'd suggest going with a character with access to strength on the grid. Your first play through will be much less stressful.
Instances only last 8 minutes if no one is in them. Don't go to town and stare at your skill tree for an hour and expect to get back to what you were doing; when you're trying to get an objective, reach it.
The only real reason not to level up a gem is if you won't meet its stats later. People say mana cost is another concern, but in most cases outside of flat mana reserve auras I disagree.
Ctrl-click moves items directly into the sell box at vendors. Right click skill gems to take them out of items. Ctrl+Alt click your items to link them to chat. If you want to reset an instance, ctrl+click its entrance portal or icon on the waypoint list.
Don't expect the entire game to be as much fun as goofing with Hailrake.
