We welcome First Impression posts! Please be nice to those posts.

I've been playing around 2 weeks and the game has really high potential! In the beginning, it got me hooked the way Diablo 2 got me hooked so many years ago (that's actually the reason I started to play it - everyone talking how it almost exactly captures the feeling of D2).

My playtime story...
Normal difficulty was very enjoyable - not too hard, but not too easy too. Exploring the options, skills, passives was interesting. Than you get to the end of act 3 and see what's going on..

I started playing a Witch and the first time I tried building a summoner. You know, lot's of summons, low risk, you just hang back and your minions do all the fighting. The only problem is that rare mobs and act bosses pretty much 1 hit all your summons, especially in the end of act 3. After dying a couple of times on Dominus normal, trying to fight him alone, I left the game for a few days, just out of frustration. Came back, got into a group, killed him. Than cruel...

The first 2 acts on cruel were good, not incredibly hard, but definitely a challenge. One has to be careful and progress slowly, as not to die a lot. Act bosses are pretty much impossible to fight alone, so a group is mandatory. Than you get to act 3 and start getting almost killed by just encountering groups of blues or bigger mobs. Those hero type mobs, that spawn from time to time around some maps ALWAYS get your shields and health low from just one attack. Died 3 times fighting a jumping maniac, just because he moves and attacks 3 times as fast as me. Okay, no big deal. Progress even more slowly and carefully. Do some grinding in the docks, just to over level a little, so maybe it will be easier.. Nope, 7 levels ahead of mobs I encounter a rare giant skeleton in the library, that has health regen almost as fast as my damage output. I should note that I've switched to a cold crit build now and have a very nice dps. After running around and fighting him for almost 20 minutes, what do I get? Jack sh*t. Not even one rare drop. Anyway, continuing on, trying to do the "A Swig of Hope" quest, I get into the maze. Going around, killing mobs incredibly slow, I get ambushed by a group of blue devourers, plus the unique one that spawns there, and directly die. No chance to run, no chance to fight. After one hour and around 7-8 deaths later, I finally kill them all and continue on my way to the plum, just to find another unique (or was it rare) devourer, that again just 1 hits me. After a couple more minutes dodging and hitting, I finally kill him and the rest on the mobs, get the plum, port to the docks to finish the quest, just to be 1 hit by a hero archer the moment I moved from the waypoint. At this point I just ragequitted.


Software problems...
Dat desync. I've died countless times just from being ported in groups of mobs or bosses, or getting them ported on me. Although my ping never goes above 50ms, rarely get spikes (only after loading), this happens more than I've ever seen in the worst online games.

Awfully slow command execution. Not sure exactly how the game handles commands, like movement, casts, etc., but it needs a LOT of improvement. The game either does too much commands or doesn't do anything at all. I can't remember how many times I tried to move and my character just stood there. Can't remember how many times I wanted to move after a cast and instead got 2-3 more casts, or wanted to cast, but instead moved. Which brings me to the next problem...

Model boxes. In the beginning of the game, you know, when you have simple weapon attack bound on LMB, seems pretty logical. Until you encounter your first big group or double group of mobs. If you click anywhere near a mob, instead of moving you attack. If you click right on top of a mob, instead of attacking, you move. WAT?

Physics. (or how the hell do my skills work?) Around 50% of the time, instead of dealing damage, I just run around, trying to find the perfect angle and position, from which my spells would actually do something. Half of the time I'm just casting an AoE spell and watching how only 2-4 mobs take damage. How about the other 20-30? Move... Cast from there. Kill 2-3. Move. Cast again. 2-3. Yeah...

Oh, you thought your spells would hit through open spaces, like doors? Nope. Unless you stand right in front of the door in exactly the right amount of distance from it. But you see how the animation of the skill is actually traveling trough the space? Well, that doesn't mean that it should damage the mob, which it hits. It's just for graphics, you know... Standing too close to a wall? Well, let me take all hits from that skill, so your casting just brings up visuals and no damage at all.

Forced party. I've already mentioned how I rather play alone, but that is impossible, since act bosses, starting from act 3 normal, are impossible to beat alone. This means, you're forced to do it in a party. It's not a big deal.. or at least it shouldn't be, until..

Party ping. Remember how I said I never get ping above 50ms playing solo? Well, than why does the ping jump to 300ms++ when in party? The moment I leave the party, ping immediately drops to 40.

Weather effects. In most areas I run the game at a minimum of 60fps, no problem. In areas where there is rain or fog, the fps halves, falling even below 30fps sometimes. In some places it does it in the whole area (like the Imperial Gardens or the Hedge Maze), in others just in certain points (like in the Docks). Simple weather effects like rain and fog shouldn't cause this much strain on the performance. They desperately need optimization.


Gameplay balance...
Act bosses should be possible to be killed solo on all difficulties, by not only pro or hardcore gamers. As the mechanics probably allow it, it is rather a very unpleasant experience trying to do it on Cruel difficulty, don't even want to think about Merciless. That doesn't mean they should be relatively easy. Just not 1 hit you.

Rare and Unique mobs shouldn't be able to have some buffs together (at least on cruel). Last yellow I encountered had Curse Immunity, Health Regen, Quick, Bonus Fire Damage, Shields. This pretty much means, as my cold crit build, that I cannot kill this mob. He takes all my shields in just one hit, and 90% of my health with another (700 shields, ~850 health), can't curse him to lower damage. Can't outrun him, can't curse him to slow him down. Got his shields down? Gotta get mine up, oh! His are also up! Health regen?...

Health regen on boss type mobs. Around the end of act 3 cruel, rares with health regen buff regenerate their health almost as fast as my dps, which makes fighting them a long and tedious hit-and-run festival.

Item drops. I don't know how the game calculates drops, but since starting cruel difficulty I haven't found any better rares, that the ones I'm using since normal. And the ones I'm using are all crafted from whites.

Orbs. Since crafting is totally random, the orb drop rate is absolutely ridiculous. I've been farming the Docks for 3 hours and got only 3 chromatic orbs (trying to change my crafted gloves' sockets), which resulted in even worse socket colors. So 3 more hours for 3 more tries? This needs either a boost in orb drops or a system, which is more expensive, but 100% sure. For example: using 2 chromatic orbs to change the color of just 1 socket, but you can choose the color of the socket. Or using 2 exalted orbs to add 1 opt to your rare, but you can choose the opt (the numeric values are still random).


Options...
Chat size should be changeable. On a 1920x1080 resolution, it takes more than 1/3 of the screen. Text size should be editable as well - the current one is too big for my taste.

Disable sound should be in sound options. Although I'm using -ns, one should be able to mute and unmute sound completely in game, instead of having to restart the game and change parameters every time. Or at least have a master volume slider.

Corner map should be zoomable. Also, some kind of a frame would be nice, so it fits in with the rest of the UI. Example:

Auto level gems. While I know the reasoning behind why some might say this is not a good idea, I would really like having this feature in the options (off by default), so you don't have to manually accept the level of the gem every time you're in a fight or wait after the fight and loose xp for the gem.

Skill bindings. A few more keys for skills would be really appreciated. I mean, only 8? Come on, 2-3 more won't hurt anyone.. Only my curses and auras are 7.

Remember passive skill tree position, so we don't have to scroll it every time we open it.

Always show mob models above items' names. When fighting big groups and getting a ton of item drops it can get a little frustrating, not being able to see the mobs, because items' names just pile on top of them.

Always make items transparent, if in front of the camera. Trees in the jungles, cranes on the docks, rocks in the caves - a lot of these things can obstruct the vision of your character and surroundings when they get in the way of the camera and you have no idea what's going on behind them, until you move.

Being able to equip or unequip items, while selling window is open. While not being able to change your equips, while trade sell window is open, is some kind of protection against selling your gear by mistake, I do think that just flagging the gear as unsellable should be better. Every time I want to switch my gear while that window is open, I have to close it, switch it, than open it again...

Auto-sort inventory/stash buttons. This is a great way to focus the player on the gameplay instead of having to manually rearrange his stuff.


These are just a few bothers and ideas, which I think would make the game a lot more enjoyable and playable, if addressed correctly. Although a big chunk of my post might've sounded a little hostile, in the beginning, I do think the game is really great and can get even greater! I really like the feel and atmosphere, so I hope these things get fixed in the near future!

Ок. Relatively new player here. (joined not long before release)

Here what i see in PoE.

Good

1)Art.
I really like locations and overal setting. Looks grim and dark the way i like it. Thx alot to guys who made this.

2)Music.
This is the reason behind not being in read-only forum lurking.
As to my personal taste, music is good. and music\location combo is just godlike in some cases. GGG did amazing job here. Truly epic.

3)Orb system.
At last no gold. it is fine and logical to use gold\platinum\zeny\usd\etc in games, but orb system just waaaaay more cool-loking and fun to use. And nice change after my D3 time too.

4)Skilldrasil system\ skill gem system
it` just awesome. Awesome and awesome again. And icons of nodes looks cool too).

5)No visible limitation to class building (at least on the first look)
claw withh? check. dual wand dielist? check. bow marauder? check.
Freedom is a nice thing. It makes you think, invent and adapt.

6)No Pay-to-win game.
Yea. i definitely hate "deepest-wallet-wins" games. Especially when there are so many of them.

7)D2+torchlight2 feeling
Yea, in the beginning, every new location make me feel playing good old diablo 2 with a slight torchlight twist. Nice and warm feeling really.

Summarising all that, GGG did a great job trying to make D3 looks like total bullshit, and granted me several nostalgic hours.

And then i hit gearwall...

Bad.



1)Gearwall
When i hit it, it was just like D3 inferno before multiple patches. Insanity in form of game mechanics. Sucks completely, taking into accaunt drop penalties in lower(than your level) areas. And here we come to...

1)Gambling system.
Sorry GGG, you have no crafting system. Few crafting moments? yes. Well developed crafting system? Big No.
What you have is a modified diablo 2 gambling. And no, it was bad back in D2, it`s bad now and ever will be.
Without reliable ways to gear up, and with heavy luck dependancy, being even a bit "unlucky" will at least frustrate a player, and can easily ruin his game and fun of playing.
But may be i can gear with a bit farming? haha...

3)D3-like drop.
What i hate the most in D3, is a drop system. Stupid, frustrating, unrewarding, bot-oriented incarnation of Activision greed.

Same here. Exactly. 99.8% of yellow items is a junk. 0.1% moderate. May be 0.1% items left is a good, but i just never saw them.
Unique? same like D3.
Orbs? Drop was better before release. Now is plain bad.
But no Activision. So why?

4)Nerfing
This was my impression while reading forums and changelogs.
Virtual universe making rule number(don`t remember really) state: "every part of game mechanics can, and will be abused by players." No exceptions.

Skill and gem system, is a system with built-in big red glowing "ABUSE ME!" banner, even if that is not what you want GGG.

So nerfing builds invented by community is a big slap in the face of people, who put their efforts to make theese builds.

And yea, it`s just like D3 mage atkspeed nerf;) I see here posts like in D3 forum. Different words, but same idea.


Summary:
Poe is great-looking game, especially for people, who got totally diappointed by World-of-real-money-AH 3. It reminds of good ol` days of D2, but there are a lot of alarming signs of PoE morphing to D3. Hope it`s only temporary issue...


Not english-speaker, so my english may be bad.

Hi, I think this game still needs some fixing. For myself, I love Diablo 2 and think Diablo 3 went horribly wrong.
I appreciate some of the ideas in PoE, like the charge-based flasks instead of potions or the silly health orbs in Diablo 3, and I also like the idea of replacing the gold system with useful items like identify scrolls.
But one of the most important aspects of any Action RPG like this is a solid, fun combat engine. And I fear you don't have that. Killing monsters feels a bit like a drag, and kind of boring. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I believe it is due to the graphical way the monsters get hit / fall, and small stuff like that. Blizzard perfected this in Diablo 2, every monster feels a joy to kill. Sadly this is not the case in this game.
Also, there seems to be some delay and miscommunication between your servers and my client, and it doesn't seem to be the ping. It takes an unusual long time (~0,5 seconds) after using spells to run again, which makes classical run, dodge & gun gameplay difficult and straining. Also, there are many cases where a monster loses health like 0.5 seconds after your attack hits it, and there are often monsters which visually appear in a different location than their actual, physical one on the servers - in other words you seem to be hitting & standing in front of one, while its actually still far in the back.
In some extreme cases, this happens with whole groups of monsters, so you can suddenly be surrounded, lose a bunch of health in an instant, etc. Diablo 2 still has some of those issues as well, but they never felt as problematic as in this game. Also, let me note that its not rare, either - at least one of the monsters is at a different location, or gets hit too late, every 15 seconds of my playing time. It's truly annoying.
Besides that, I don't like there are no private games & that I have to see all those people in town like a regular MMO, I'm also no fan of the "let's have lots of little, insignificant perks", and the missing skill trees & stat points. Yes, there are stat points, but too few and you can't level them up yourself, which ruins the experience. Diablo 2 nailed skilltrees & statuspoints for a great, individual, interesting experience and there is no good reason in my opinion to not do the same with a game like it. You're just robbing people of possibilities & RPG feelings.
One good thing for the finish: I like many of your in-game texts, dialogues & speakers. Pretty good for a free 2 play. Also I appreciate you don't have to pay to advance in the game, this was an important decision to get right.

So yeah, the game shows promise, but some of the most important mechanics are flawed in my opinion. No idea if you can still do something about some / all of them at this point, but I feel you really need to. I might still play this game a bit 'cause I'm extremely bored at the moment. But I would not play this any further if it would cost something.

Hello

I have been playing this game now for about two weeks. Still learning much, and I still have much to learn. Aside from your random 'lottery' on sockets and links, I have little in the way of issues with your game. I made a suggestion on the feedback section on my take on the sockets/links, so I will not divulge my rants on those here.

The ONLY issue I have with your game is your auto-prediction calculations. I hit shift and cast EVERYWHERE when I play my ranged build and then suddenly, I will find my character in an adjoining room, alone (without my minions) facing down a hoarde of blue mobs I would otherwise be blasting at from a distance with a wall of minions between me and them. WHILE HOLDING SHIFT NO LESS!

I'm obsessed with this shift button, absolutely passionately in love with it, since, well I don't move and cast everywhere my eyes can see! AND MOST OF ALL I DON'T MOVE!! Yet, the prediction algorithm seems to take offense to this perverse love of the shift key and randomly ports me to a new location all by myself so that I can insta-die to mobs I normally would not associate with up close and personal. And forget about running away. By the time you sync up with the server, you have but a moment to go oh sh*t and run, only to die...

How do people play Hardcore like this? This cannot be your business model, for it absolutely will destroy any credibility you have if this is intentional. And if it isn't working as intended, perhaps a quality move would be to fix it, yes??

Thanks!

8/10 for your game overall imho.

I've been playing since full release and I have two thoughts that can sum up my impressions of the game:

1) Very fun and enjoyable. PoE took two things I love - ARPGs and sphere grids - and combined them. This is basically the game I was hoping D3 would be. While that comparison may not be fair, it is what comes to mind. Aside from small tweaks that most people have already mentioned, there is very little wrong with the game design.

2) Desync and server/client issues need to get better. A lot of people are experiencing this issue and it seems to be getting worse with time, which I can only imagine is due to more and more people picking up the game. On a basic level, I understand why desync happens, and will always happen, but it needs to be less impactful. I'm not a programmer nor do I know a lot about networking, but if this means getting more servers, then that's what needs to happen. If there's some other fix, then it needs to happen sooner rather than later. I would hate for this game to go the wayside because of connection issues and people just giving up on it.

Personally speaking, I've spent roughly $15 in the shop and fully intended to spend more; however, because desync is literally stripping me of certain content (for example, being able to use certain skills effectively, like cyclone and whirlwind blades; or, preventing me from actually attempting a Hardcore character), I have completely reversed this decision and will hold off to see what happens with the connection issues as this season progresses. I like the game and will continue to play it a bunch, but I can foresee myself walking away entirely if the situation doesn't change or if it gets worse. Desyncs really are that much of a negative, as many others have brought up.

All that being said, I do very much enjoy the game and think it was made well, and if it wasn't for one really, really big issue, I would be giving it 10 out of 10.

I played since closed Beta. Just came back, to check out the release version.
I'm overwhelmed how much you actually put into this game. The 3rd act is just huge.

The only thing which needs improvement (talking on a AAA level here) are maybe character animations (Scion's are nice though)and netcode. Too often you get out of sync. I know you are aware of this, I'm also aware that netcode in general is a bitch.

And on a side note i like the way you force the player to dig up the background story by himself (lore shrines/optional dialogue etc.) and not throwing everything at him for free.

Good job guys, don't let it die.

Well, I'm playing for about 3 weeks now, and really it is a great game, overall. I really like the atmosphere, which is adult (not like an other commercial game that I prefer not named), and well done, specially in Act 2 and Act 3.

Why I don't say Act 1 is great too... well, because my first impression, on Act 1, was not very good, I had think littles red monsters were a bit too colored and landscape was too static, not very dynamic, and water doesn't render your body wave. So I had think graphics were not good, frankly, until I reach Act 2, and damn good Act 3.

Something annoying too is the desync problem, when sometimes monsters disappears, and something strange too, is the not reset map on multiplayers, when we found map already done, I think it is not normal, maps should be automatically reseted when we take a new party, it must not be manually done by us (and it is not explain clearly too).

But what I found really great is characters and skills systems. Really great, so many possible combinations.

So, to resume :

Good points :
Act 2 and Act 3 ambiance and graphics
7 characters, skills and gems,
Quests freedom, mature story (18+ contents),
Free (bit good point :) )
Frequent update patches (yeah, this game's going higher and higher)
Events and ladders (I don't use it for now, but seems quite cool)
Dark ambiance
Good voices too
Works under Linux Wine too ( Linux forever :) )
Music and sound of course (really good)

Not so good points :
desync,
no auto-reset maps,
static landscapes
lack of physic behavior (on 3D engine, like Havok Physics engine for example)
Act 1 looks a bit older

Maybe an other Act will be cool too :)

I usually don't play hack&slash games, but this one is first since Diablo 2 that I find enjoyable. Game is made by small team and it's FREE. I want you developers to know that I really appreciate your effort and am grateful for the game.

Gameplay 5/5
Gameplay is most important part of game and in this game it is just great, walking around and killing monsters for no reason was never that fun, end of story.

RPG elements 5/5
Skill progression in game is probably the best I saw so far. The ability to level up in so many different directions really give sense of freedom, and ability to chose your skills through gems is also great (except that some gems is really difficult to find).

Story 2/5
I finished game 3 times on normal and I still don't know much of the story and those parts I did understand haven't impress me. But than again, there are many games with really stupid stories, so this is really not that impotant.

Economy 1/5
Economy is just terrible, worst part of the game. Bartering system is unfair to say the least (4x Jeweller's Orbs for 1x Orb of Fusing for example). Anyone that tried using Jeweller's, Fusing, Chromatic or some other orbs with idea to modify certain item, knows what I am talking about (for example, I wasted probably 40+ Orbs of Fusing trying to link 5 sockets in armor with no luck so far). My recommendation would be that Jeweller's and Fusing orbs always give +1 socket/link until they meet maximum.
Trade channel (aka spam channel) is to chaotic to use for average gamer (My friends & I abandon all hopes long ago to even pay attention to it). What this game desperately needs is some form of auction or marketplace between players.
In conclusion, this economic system can be enjoyable only to people that like farming (I really, REALLY hate farming), have masochistic tendencies or have to much free time and no challenges in real life.


Difficulty 3/5
Difficulty in normal mode is really enjoyable, not to hard, not to easy.
Difficulty in cruel mode is tricky and hard, you can play casually for some time and than meet some boss that kills you in 1-3 strikes.
Also cruel mode is really hard in Act3 for solo play (I like playing solo most of the time, it's most relaxing, no one rushing me...), for example, my 51 lvl Scion is pretty much stuck as areas with monsters lvl 48+ are to hard to play (better equipment would help, but finding it depends on luck).

Visual design 3/5
No matter what armors and staff characters wear, they look like hobos. My friends & I have quite a laugh over teamspeak by just commenting on most players visual appearance.
Most swords look good with exteption of Infernal Sword and Midnight Blade (maybe it's just me, but I can't use sword that doesn't look like one).
In total visual design isn't great, but is still better than most kitsch I see in most games.

Internet connection 1/5
I played many online games (still play several, including some net intensive like BF3...) and I never met any that have such lag as Path of Exile. Latency spikes make game really unplayable, even in solo play.

Price 5/5
Game is FREE and if there is game that deserve support, it's this one.
I really hate those FREE PAY TO WIN games (like WoT...) that are increasingly more popular.

Conclusion
Game is really great, if I was harsh on some parts it's because I care. Game is great at this point but it's still have much room for improvement.
Thank you for great game!

Just started playing and at Level 10 right now. I cannot believe this is a free game. It's better than 95% of the games they charge $50 to buy. Even the forum is better than most games. Took me a couple hours to figure out the basics of gameplay, but really enjoying it now. Just wanted to say thanks a lot.

Playing for ~3weeks. Well, the game overall is fun. Story is unappealing, trade system is utterly terrible (cant there be channels for certain lvls/classes and/or price ranges?), the community is fine and i dont know if ill play this much longer. The game story isnt very repeatable difficulty wise, it's quite annoying doing th same thigns 3 times and still getting the same shitty drops. i t feels like i have to paly this game 5 human lifetimes to get good at.