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

how bout fixing desync so ppls actually can play properly without thinking when they gonna get butt fucked by the game
So, about time to give my Feedback...


Spoiler
I came from D3, got bored from the grinding there.
Downloaded PoE on Steam to give it a try till RoS release.


But instead of playing RoS as originally intented (I preordered it with the Currency I made with RMAH sales) I got hooked with PoE, lol.


The Domination/Nemesis leagues where about to end when I began with PoE.
So I chose to start in on of the permanent leagues to learn the basics.
Also I started right away with HC, cause in D2/D3 I also played some HC.

Played selffound and with a very few exceptions solo.

Char was a Bow Ranger, Progression was very slow due to "drop mechanics based on economy", but at least I got it to Merciless Act 3 in the 3rd try. (1st try died to Dominus' Blood Rain in norm due to not knowing the mechanics, 2nd try died due to overconfident facetanking Crematory Piety and all the mobs with a Spectral Throw-Scion).

But HC-League felt kind of being out of the Loop, cause all the Streamers where playing the Leagues.

So I started in Ambush, cause I didn't like what I saw from Invasion (1 shot rips, Alt + F4 @ Invasion Bosses etc.). And also I wanted to try out some of the juicy DPS-Nodes, I thought an SC League is better for going that way.


I decided to try out a Dual Wield Ranger, cause the DW-Nodes alway looked tempting when I played Bow Ranger.

@ Act 3 Cruel Progression stucked, cause not enough DPS due to drops and also not very tanky Char.

Tried Leap Slam Marauder as next Char.
But @ Act 2 cruel I didn't want to play a Melee anymore.


Reason:
DESYNC!

Especially when you play sf and your char doesn't deal good dps.
Desync makes my already very slow killing stuff SF-Melee-Chars killing stuff much more slower.


So I decided to make a new Char again, a ranged Char.

Saw the Streams of Willywonka, playing Searing Bond and Flame Blast.

Inspired by this I chose Flameblast as main DPS skill, cause it looked efficiant. But instead of SB i chose to raise zombies as meatshields, and Flame Totem instead of Searing Bond because it has some fire and forget Utility.

Made it to Act 3 Merc then (solo sf all the way) with just 1,4k Life (1,8k now).
Desync is not so much an issue with Flame Blast and Minions.

Died 1 time after opening a Strongbox (I always have small Graphic Freezes after opening Strongboxes, also when approaching a Rogue Exile, my screen freezes for 1-2 seconds). All other deaths happened in Corrupted Zones.


I know I'm not the only one having these little graphic lags, I saw these also at Twitch.tv.



My résumé so far:

- The Setting is really dark and gothic compared to D3 (@Lunaris 3 even maybe a bit too much for my taste. At least, after farming Piety Cruel with my HC Ranger for almost 1 week to prepare for Dominus, I needed some time out from the game)

- I really like the Skilltree/Gem-system. It gives some depth and makes me wanna roll new characters to try out other versions of a build or focusing on other Key Nodes or things like that. At least this was the thing which got me hooked to PoE instead of going back to RoS. (A pity that because of some endgame encounters focusing on Life Nodes seems mandatory, especially in HC, at least this is what I've learned from watching streams and reading forums)

- Corrupted Zones: I like the idea, interesting concept. Reminds me of Uber Dungeons in Median XL. Some bosses are a bit op though.

- I tried to give trading a chance, but the Spam-Bots in the trade chat annoyed me so much, that I decided to leave Trade Channel for good and continue sf all the way. Searching or bumping trade forums was never my kind of thing, also back in D2. SF is absolutely possible in PoE, at least with a Summoner/Caster, but I think when I'm ready for endgame content with the all the characters I want to, the league will be almost over, lol.

- Sceptre/Dominus are much harder then everything before (not taking Corrpted Zones into account). Even Lunaris/Piety are a cakewalk compared to Sceptre/Dominus. And also much harder then everything after until maybe Vaal Oversoul in the next difficulty, which is the next significant gear check (for the Bow Ranger e.g. I had to care about getting enough HP/mitigation to not getting killed by accidently getting hitted from the rocks.

- Desync is not much an issue for my Flame Blast/Raise Zombie-Witch, but for my Melee Chars it's really a pain

- I'm thinking about giving Invasion a try. But from what I saw, one needs always be prepared to make instant use of logout-makro, eh? Not sure, if I like that concept.

- But at least I have to give GGG a big compliment for: A company that continuously works on a F2P game, with almost weekly patches/updates, and also the affinity to the community, that's really remarkable!
BAD, very bad. Confused tree,


Lo diré en castellano, porque es la segunda lengua más hablada en el mundo (y porque si lo digo en inglés no me va a entender ni dios).
Este juego es una pasada gráficamente y una mierda a la hora de jugarlo. Después de empezar dos personages y de ver que pasado el nivel 10 los había hecho mal... me he pasado dos horas mirando tutotriales en youtube para ver como hacer un mago, un asesino y un paladin. Imposible. Hay tantos puntos de experiencia absurdos (magia, fuerza y destreza) que cuando ya has ido por un camino que no es, no hay vuelta atrás, y las 6 horas de juego que te has pegado se van a la mierda. dan ganas de quemar el personage.
Y es dificil acertar porque no sabes las magias que te van a salir, no sabes las armas... y menos aun se te ocurre cuando empiezas, que las habilidades del principio mejor no tocarlas. En fin, un autentico lio. Y me defino como un jugador RPG de toda la vida.
Por cierto, hay muchas habilidades pero son todas iguales. TODAS!!!! te vayas donde te vayas del arbol de habilidades son todas de 8 a 10 puntos de , vida, mana, magia (fuego rayo hielo psiquico), y puntos de vida en los minions. Todos ellos repartidos por todas partes para que parezca que son distintos.

Hay formas mucho más interesantes de hacer un arbol, y la que habéis hecho no lo es. Es desesperante.

Y ahora decirme que os lo diga en inglés.. XD anda y pagar un traductor.
Ale. no lo juego en la vida, que forma de perder el tiempo. Menos mal... que era gratis.
Usually I am very sceptical concerning free to play games. Simply because in my personal experience many f2p titles were not so good. That said even in the larger pay-to-play branch good games are scarce.

But PoE is really a pretty awesome game. Whoever liked Diablo 2 will instantly love PoE.

In a time where there is really not much innovation in games anymore it is good to see that GGG implemented some fresh ideas in terms of how skills/abilities work. GGG seems to understand that there has to be some depth to the gameplay, a game 'outside' the actual action part of the game, so that a player really has to start to pay attention the the items, their jewl slots, what kind of abilities work well with other abilities. Changing properties or items and so on.

This makes the game much more enjoyable than a 1 : 1 copy of the Diablo 2 gameplay. It uses the basic concept of an argp but enhanced it in a lot of very fun and captivating ways.

I have played as a summoner and just finished my first playthrough on normal.

The summoner is a fun class and I also played it a lot in D2.

And while I like this class I also started a dual wielding duelist for the melee experience.

The only problem is that the desync issue takes away much of the fun for me when playing a class that has to jump into hordes of monsters. It is playable even with the desync issue but I decided not to do it because it would spoil a probably awesome experience. I want to wait and see if they can implement what was mentioned in this video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y-QFqRHoPM

at some point. Even though the video interview is half a year old and the desync is still pretty bad. At least that's my impression.

Playing as a summoner those issues are not as gamebreaking. Usually you do not jump into mobs and try to avoid close encounters anyway. So with this class I am having a lot of fun as I just don't really feel the desync. In merciless andd/or hardcore the desync could possibly be a problem even as a summoner.

But it is truly - and sadly - a waste if you asked me as it limits a player like me ( I just need spot on hit registration and accurate/instant movement/hit feedback otherwise it annoys me too much)to classes like the summoner or possibly mage-like configurations which I haven't tested yet.

I listened to all the arguments in the video and I can even understand the developers reasoning; that you either face cheaters or rubberbanding. Both problems can potentially break the game. There seem to be good arguments for both sides.

For somebody like me who likes to play alone the anti cheat argument is bad dwl. So I wish they had an offline option like D2 had so that you could play without any desync problems whatsoever by yourself. But that's notwhat they had planned for this game so I understand that's an impossibilty.

So my first impression of the game after about 20 hours:

Pro:

- Great reimagining of the basic/classic arpg experience introduced by Diablo 1 and 2
- Fantastic monsters, effects, abilities with big encounters against hordes of monsters - visually very appealing, cool bosses, kazillion items of all kinds, a lot more influence on the 'loadout' by allowing the player to basically modify anything and everything
- addictive, fresh and innovative spell/gem/skill/item realization which enhances the addictive element of an already addictive (less complex) Diablo 2 experience
- simply fun 'gameplay'

Con:

- Desync renders a melee class pointless for me. I do realize many ppl can overlook, ignore or somehow play 'around' that issue. While that might be possible it would take away the awesome experience a 98 % desync-free poe experience would provide for me with a melee char. And I do not want to spoil that experience when it might be fixed/solved at some point in the future.



So, all in all I can say that you guys at GGG did a fantastic job. And personally I think you have even managed to challenge the Lord of arpg himself hehe. You really have some talented ppl in your crew.

The summoner class is so much fun right now that I can, for now, even overlook the disappointment of not being 'able' to play melee classes.

Without the desync issue I would give the game a higher rating even than D2 as I love the complexity and the freedom of choices as well as the awesome general feeling/gameplay fun.





Last edited by on3da on May 11, 2014, 9:37:25 PM
(I was told to post this here)

My review of PoE, called: F2P Beta, an attitude not a title.

"
Zell_Naga wrote:
Overall impression: Great
Spoiler
I am a big video game player and a big D2 fan, (not D3). I've been playing poe for less than a year now. I thought the game was great, more complicated, but more detailed and great in its own way compared to D2. PoE is finely crafted, I am highly impressed with the philosophies and commitment by GGG to make a beta free to play and constantly develop and successfully generate money in a non pay2win environment, also how the game does not require an outstanding computer. This fresh complex attitude by GGG is no doubt what attracts so many to the game of PoE, and many die-hard or should I say hardcore tenacious gamers especially. This game isn't for those who want a short relaxed experience, its for those who want a long time game to play, one that never ends and always gives you something to do, there is always room for improvement and achievement. I'd say PoE is the best game on the market today that involves grinding. No game stands a chance when compared to PoE and not because of the fun of the gameplay and design but more of the staff/dev and community who interact positively and actively. PoE will only be more successful if it continues to develop the game and give the community content or changes it needs. Otherwise the game will suffer the same fate as D2, losing its replay value after so long the community slowly died. I want to see that be the best you can attitude with GGG and everyone. Keep this game popular and profitable for years to come.


My feedback:


Add content,
Spoiler
Little by little, the more frequent the better, 30 small patches is better than 1 huge one. Stimulate the players and capture interest with new content whatever it may be. There is so much to build off of, design, and improve. Content like: Items, acts/quests, skills, currency, areas, enemies, leagues, races, events, etcs


Do not ever come out of beta.
Spoiler
EVER. that's giving up. Reason being is that if you charge money for a non beta game or expansion or something, you would be selling out on a major reason the game is widely liked. Its free to play.


There's a lot of "aftermarket" websites containing tools
Spoiler
used for PoE, whether it be an xp penalty calculator site or a website that aids in trading, a better skill tree designer, whatever. All of these functional tools should be built into the game or on this site for ease of access.


One thing I would like to see besides just new season league/races
Spoiler
is, content with a deeper story environment, not a new act with a romantic love story, or complicated twists. Something separate, like a series of unique maps with a quest, a little npc interaction, some flavor text or audio, an environment with some animation nothing to stale or similar to anything else PoE has seen yet. A fancy new boss or something is always nice. Primarily though, it should give the player a fresh new experience and an increasing level of feeling achievement. It doesn't have to be extensive, long, or a crazy difficult, but just something dynamically different. My ideas are like 8 different island maps with different climates. Each could randomly generate a different npc with a quest. I picture one quest being talk to an npc in a town and waves of enemies attack until completion. Simple but still fresh to PoE. Quests could be exploration, extermination, scavenging, defending, escape, puzzles, etc. What I really want to fight is a random group of exiles at once or one really tough one.

Do your best to help noobs understand
Spoiler
the game. One tutorial video with sections at each topic explaining everything players need to know that they can get linked to by a tutorial button. Its better than a FAQ. The ease of access to information and help with basic concepts is imperative. I gathered all my information and arose from newbness after long hours of watching videos and reading for research before I made my 3rd char my only good char. Not to mention I looked up builds before first playing and I'm a D2 Vet and i still screwed up 2 characters. I still am no good at trading whatsoever though xD


Trading functionality
Spoiler
is pretty good, I'd like to see the ability to link a whole stash tab of items so trade chat isn't so spammy. A better idea would be to have a separate window for trade/shops/searching, where you can have your selling tab/shop all in one link, design it so you can search for items within the stash tab/shop link and be able to add descriptions for the shop, you can title your shop "epic rares" "low-mid lvl uniques" "rare res jewelery". It could be designed that everyone has a shop that holds 5 items of any size, and you would have to pay for more separate shops for another extra 5 slots lets say. Either that or stash tab linking would be similarly useful. I understand if GGG wants to keep shops how the are on the forums but, It is somewhat a pain to open the browser and search, trade chat could be eliminated to compensate for a new shop system.


If I would add one more thing it would be, neutralize the problems with disconnection, desync, instance failures etc.
Spoiler
Its probably the most annoying part about the game, not all games punish players for latency, I would like to see some kind of system where players are teleported to the nearest checkpoint, or the game literally pauses your instance until you click unpause when the lag is gone, or keep it how it is now but don't allow dmg to be dealt or taken during lag. Obviously you don't want to make it to easy for third party programs and such to take any advantage in hardcore (anti abuse protection would need implementing), however I would like to point out there is no bigger downside to PoE than desyncs. One method of remedy I see is creating a super low graphics setting, or one for "animations" lets say, so that a spam of summons or fireballs or any skill doesn't lag so much for those with bad computers in big parties or some one solo with really fast attack/cast speed


(I now know about action prediction with desync and etc)
TeamSpeak: 104.206.199.149 - all friendly Poe'ers welcome, American+Euro+others, spam message Zell_Naga. cheers mates.
Last edited by Zell_Naga on May 26, 2014, 4:10:23 PM
in the last announcement it was mentioned how the SOV feedback was understood. i dont know where to find this feedback but ill just blog my own right here.

there are somethings i really like:
-vaal orbs
these are just pure genius. more specialization for the interested without any obligation.

there are somethings that have the right idea
-extra (hard) areas
also no obligation here. but it somewhat limits the builds that can actually kill (uber)atziri&co successfully and this narrows the build variety.

there are somethings that have the wrong idea
-atziri uniques
these items are a complete new ceiling by themselves. especially the gloves are disgraceful. they allow stacking dmg without any further concern for poe unique mechanics one is challenged to build around. low life builds using bloodrage become unbound and their eventual gear is limited to the crown of eyes, the shavronnes body armour and one of 2 shields.
this is really killing the build variety and ingenuity. why is simply stacking (crit) dmg and hp being rewarded??????
Gotta love this game, reach cruel and got this:



IDK i can't play, i'm sad :/
"
miltonw wrote:
Gotta love this game, reach cruel and got this:



IDK i can't play, i'm sad :/

This is probably coming from your ISP, I've not experienced that recently.
SSF is not and will never be a standard for balance, it is not for people entitled to getting more without trading.
I don't know, it only happens to me on cruel ..
To play well and to be good at this game you need to be very familiar with this kind of games..

First I have to say I am a NOOB! :/

I can play yes but... My characters are very basic because I just don't understand all thoses Vaal and corrupted items and gems...and yes i've read somes tips but still need explanations about a lots of features.

Peoples in-game don't like to answer noob question and don't like to explains all thoses abbreviations they'r using in chat...for example, What is farming, what is vaaling an object?

Some people told me to return to play Diablo3 cause i'm too noob... I don't catch it, I'm noob in diablo too... I usualy play FPS games so there is big differences between these kinds of games.


So my first impression is:

This is a GOOD game, graphics are awesome! spells are very nice to use,skill tree is very cool but I think as a newcomer it may be hesitant to make the move from another game to Path of exile

Please don't tell me to shut up, or anything else like this I'm tired of this!

Thank you! and keep making good work like this!

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