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

I'd suggest you find a way to make an offline mode for a sequel to this game. I'd gladly pay for it (or one for this game itself, even). I'm new to POE but it's hard to get into when I can't play a full five minutes without getting rubber-banded or disconnected randomly, and then reset back into town when I log back in.

Backtracking my routes after every disconnect or death due to lag isn't giving me any incentive to push through it. Neither is the dying and being sent back to a checkpoint because of internet-based lag where enemies ambush me and I can't do anything about it. If I'm dying, it should be to my own mistakes.

I've already read threads around here saying offline mode won't be a thing for this game, so I won't bother making a new one about it. Just suggesting that you look into it for the sequel, should that ever happen. Virtually every other game this has been inspired by has one and it's useful.

My first impressions is that POE is a game I could really get into (because I'm a fan of Diablo II and the Torchlight series) and I'm liking the Ranger and Shadow classes so far, but being always online is a big hinderance. I wish it wasn't. I'd really just like to sink some good time into it and play. But I spend half my time reconnecting and waiting for the pause/rubber-banding to catch up. Super distracting.

Overall I wish I could like this game, but I find the beginner experience pretty damn terrible. Not being able to respec easily to try new things or if you mess a build up with the only solution being to build a new character is pretty crappy. I messed up my Ranger build by a few points, and basically hit a wall on Kitavana in Act 5. She killed me in 1-2 hits repeatedly, and spawns a ton of adds that I could not kill in time. Basically means I have to make a new character, as there is no way to really repair mine. Gear upgrades are very vague as well, and the require stats to use items makes it a even more complex items. I can't replace some gear otherwise I can't use my bow, and even the upgrades do not seem that much better.

This is long long overdue, but my first impressions of seeing PoE on someones computer was looking at the skill tree and thinking simultaneously "that is beautiful" and "this looks like a chemistry formula" as it looks exactly like the chemical compound formula. I assumed that is what the original creators of this kind of skill tree had in mind (not sure if it came orgiginally from Diablo, Final Fantasy, or something else which those two games took liberties from). I also noticed the aesthetic and beautiful detail the game had. Yes I am a visual person and I saw beauty in what I would later learn is a dangerous world of Wraeclast.


Having said that after I was talked into trying out the game I actually remember selecting the character from the boat. I will always miss that for a number of reasons if I get into it, the topic would become a subject of it's own.

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GoodOldGamer wrote:

I'd suggest you find a way to make an offline mode for a sequel to this game.

Acts 6-10 is basically a sequel. The Epilogue is yet another story, making PoE an epic trilogy.

I started playing this game shortly before finals week, thanks for making my grades suffer, I mean that as a compliment. You immediately drew me in and this game was all I wanted to do when I got home.

This game was everything to me that Diablo 3 should have been, the Xbox user interface is smooth, story and voice acting is well fitted, the fact I could let a bit of story content play as I continued slaying monsters was fantastic (maybe slightly lower game sounds while narrative is playing) if that’s already an option I apologize as I’m still very new, and the options in every aspect of character building are just mind blowing. I spent money on this game and that’s a big deal, I mean big. Not much, just $5 for a stash tab. What’s important is that I didn’t have to, there was no reason to spend it, there was no better gear to buy, no pay to win sharking, and none of the pay for a small chance to get what you want loot box stuff seen in so many other free to play games. You made a game that made me WANT to spend it. That is an achievement, I felt good about it and still do.

Id like to go over some problems, the league system is fantastic, I love the idea of it, the economy refresh, the content, all of it. The problem now is my character is just stagnating, the economy in standard is almost nonexistent, the XP penalty is harsh and I can't believe it only gets worse (I’m only 71) and the game mechanics are absolutely punishing. I feel like I just hit a wall I cannot climb over. I can’t progress at the moment and although I’m going to keep at it all I can say is, damn. The desync is hugely upsetting and often gets me killed and since I have to be so on top of the game to live and avoid punishment I often feel cheated and I’m very frustrated.

I’m not a hard-core gamer, I’m an avid gamer but I have no care to be the first to be in a map on a new league, or to be the first for anything. I have no interest at being the best, or showing off my swag so I can make known how well I did at something. I don’t have to show off and even if I could, all that matters is that I had been there, I had beat the boss, and I did it to have a good time. If I get a cool cosmetic item cool, if not, meh. I love hard games but not punishing games, not until I’m comfortable in my knowledge, and abilities. When I understand more, when I’ve figured out the tips and tricks, then I will worry about upping the difficulty to test my abilities. While I will grind with the best of them (see min/max Federal Corvette in Elite Dangerous) it doesn’t feel like I can even grind to get anywhere, I’m not stating that as a fact, that’s just how it's interpreted and seems on my end.

Even with so many options, it seems like I must fall in line with certain builds to be viable, like this is the path, stay on it or suffer. It’s the promise of build and play in many ways but only key things let you truly explore the content so all those possibilities are wasted. The character I make reflects on me, my play style and how I like to play. This is my build, I built it, I’m raising it, and I will help it to progress and grow stronger. In a sense, it’s my baby, it’s part of me in a little game world and It’s built to suit the way I play and if I build something great I’d love to share it with others. But I can’t help it grow, if I can’t get anywhere why bother climbing to the end of the content if every time I try I slide back down to where I started.

What I ask is simple, in standard league only, remove the XP penalty. Standard should be the place I go to work my build, to casually play the content and learn what works and what will not. I’ll still be playing the league because I want to experience it and try my luck for drops and what’s on the market board, but my poor attempt at a dual wield cyclone looks the be a loss and that’s unfortunate. I don’t mind the punishing mechanics so long as I can progress, even if I have to claw my way through content with XP loss how can I hope to progress. The desync paired with such hard punishment on deaths is just a nightmare, I don't want to know how many hardcore characters died to this. It’s just hours of work that feels lost and was a waste. The leagues and everything else about this game is great, I love it and I’ll probably spend more money to keep the item skins I want. I just feel that as a new player I hit that difficulty wall hard and fast in the epilogue and while I love the challenge, it felt to soon and I can see many players losing interest because of it.

I'm 38 hours in and I've been asking people who play a few questions here and there. After getting to Act 6 it reached the point where I could no longer do this on my own.

This game has a ton of depth and a lot of flexibility in how you wish to play. The problem is that, as a new player, it's hard to know if I'm doing something right or wrong in regards to building my character, selecting items, modifying them.

I don't mind making mistakes, I like a game that allows for me to make the right or wrong choice.

But many of these factors feel obtuse and moments when I am making the wrong choice or doing something wrong without even being aware of this, it's difficult to enjoy. Just copying or doing what people say doesn't help either, because I need to be aware of the reasons WHY those choices are made. I don't need to play the most optimum build or make every right choice. But for someone to take a quick look at my build and just realize it's a pile of poop, I realize something is wrong when I was thing wowee I'm glad I finally have a handle on this game. My deaths were merely poor positioning in a game that cares much more about it than previous moments. I had nothing to point me to the contrary, that I lacked health and resistances and my build's DPS was suffering from picking the wrong bow passives.

It's a great game with a lot to discover, I just need better pointers on how to discover these.

So, my first (sorta) impression ...

As someone who really liked D1 & D2, I had my eyes on PoE for quite some time. However, I bounced several times in the past due to the game being really rough around the edges and my fear of screwing up my character since there is no easy way to respec (and I no longer have the luxury to pour hundreds of hours into a game as I used to when I was young, especially if I don't have fun).

So, a couple of days ago I finally bit the bullet and decided to follow a build that would allow some customization. I made it to the end of Act 4 without issues (including one lab run) and decent speed with a 1h/shield dual strike/sunder Juggernaut. I died twice on the way, once due to some stupid named in the mines who blew himself after death and once against Malachai phase 1 tentacles due to being too slow. So far, so good.

Then I started Act 5 which I found quite dull in term of environment and monsters. But whatever, I still had fun although the drops were quite poor (maybe due to my character being over level). In the end, I made it to the High Priest without much sweat (besides a couple of damage spikes from huge packs of named/mobs) and no additional death: Juggernaut, level 46 with 1.8k hp, 1.1k DPS, and some below average resists at ~30% (yes it could have been better, but it's not like anything hinted me so far that it had to be better). SSF by the way because I don't like to trade.

Then everything went downhill during the High Priest boss fight. I literally got roflstomped, especially during phase 2 (Innocence). My level of frustration went out of the roof (especially since everything went smoothly until then and some things are not available to improve yourself, like combat logs to understand the amount/type of damage killing you). In the end, I had to die 20+ times to kill it, and spend a lot of time running around instead of hitting it which is a shame for a melee character. I even reset the zone to practice afterwards and had a more difficult time during phase 1 and gave up on phase 2.

Seriously, I don't get it. If I wanted to play a Dark Soul like or a Bullet Hell, there are way better games on the market. So, yeah I gave up even if I made it through. I gave up because I don't want to spend more time and frustration to discover if the other 4 acts are like this: bland, with crap loot and filled with bossed with a bunch of stupid mechanisms. It doesn't seem to be the case from what I could read on the forums, but it seems so many people are using near-perfect builds with tons of loot from previous runs to back them up that I'm not sure which feedback is relevant to me.

It's a pity because I love ARPG and I started to like PoE. Also, I found the labyrinth fun and was looking forward to doing maps. But Act 5 ended with a big NOPE and I decided to just dump all my stuff in the river due to frustration. Maybe I'll give it a try again in several months/couple of years once difficulty curve is polished.

So, yeah, that was my first (sorta) impression ... and maybe the last one. Peace.

Hello.


First of all, I`d like to congratulate Grinding Gear Games for the spectacular game you made. I really like it.

The second thing is just an warning about Brazilian Portuguese translation, but, please, DON`T GET THE CAPITOL LETTERS WRONG, because it`s just a way to make you understand what I mean, ok ? I`m Brazilian, and I`ve found many language mistakes on the game related to grammar rules. I`ll give some examples of them using English regular names : There`s no ´´O Andrew``, ´´Da Rachel``, ´´A Tiffany``, ´´Do Steve`` ! It would be THE SAME THING if people wrote ´´The Andrew``, ´´Of the Rachel``, ´´The Tiffany``, ´´Of the Steve``. IT`S WRONG ! The first examples I wrote are the way people from Portugal speak, and it`s not BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE ! The correct, in Brazil, is the same as in English language : Just ´´Andrew``, ´´Of Rachel``, ´´Tiffany``, ´´Of Steve``. Ok ?


Thank you and hugs.

I fucking love this game.
Thank you GGG.

"

Fogia wrote:

So, my first (sorta) impression ...

As someone who really liked D1 & D2, I had my eyes on PoE for quite some time. However, I bounced several times in the past due to the game being really rough around the edges and my fear of screwing up my character since there is no easy way to respec (and I no longer have the luxury to pour hundreds of hours into a game as I used to when I was young, especially if I don't have fun).

So, a couple of days ago I finally bit the bullet and decided to follow a build that would allow some customization. I made it to the end of Act 4 without issues (including one lab run) and decent speed with a 1h/shield dual strike/sunder Juggernaut. I died twice on the way, once due to some stupid named in the mines who blew himself after death and once against Malachai phase 1 tentacles due to being too slow. So far, so good.

Then I started Act 5 which I found quite dull in term of environment and monsters. But whatever, I still had fun although the drops were quite poor (maybe due to my character being over level). In the end, I made it to the High Priest without much sweat (besides a couple of damage spikes from huge packs of named/mobs) and no additional death: Juggernaut, level 46 with 1.8k hp, 1.1k DPS, and some below average resists at ~30% (yes it could have been better, but it's not like anything hinted me so far that it had to be better). SSF by the way because I don't like to trade.

Then everything went downhill during the High Priest boss fight. I literally got roflstomped, especially during phase 2 (Innocence). My level of frustration went out of the roof (especially since everything went smoothly until then and some things are not available to improve yourself, like combat logs to understand the amount/type of damage killing you). In the end, I had to die 20+ times to kill it, and spend a lot of time running around instead of hitting it which is a shame for a melee character. I even reset the zone to practice afterwards and had a more difficult time during phase 1 and gave up on phase 2.

Seriously, I don't get it. If I wanted to play a Dark Soul like or a Bullet Hell, there are way better games on the market. So, yeah I gave up even if I made it through. I gave up because I don't want to spend more time and frustration to discover if the other 4 acts are like this: bland, with crap loot and filled with bossed with a bunch of stupid mechanisms. It doesn't seem to be the case from what I could read on the forums, but it seems so many people are using near-perfect builds with tons of loot from previous runs to back them up that I'm not sure which feedback is relevant to me.

It's a pity because I love ARPG and I started to like PoE. Also, I found the labyrinth fun and was looking forward to doing maps. But Act 5 ended with a big NOPE and I decided to just dump all my stuff in the river due to frustration. Maybe I'll give it a try again in several months/couple of years once difficulty curve is polished.

So, yeah, that was my first (sorta) impression ... and maybe the last one. Peace.

Lol yes, stupidly OP boss fights start in Act 5 and continues on to Act 10. After that, you start mapping, and, from T1 on, bosses fold at your feet. Amazing boss balance.

But, it get's better. You'll find yourself running out of usable maps quickly until you get to the point where you don't have any more good maps to run. So, you just say F@ck it and get on the forums and troll for a while instead of playing the game.

In short, you were better off quitting when you did. Big time saver for you.

For new exiles who enjoy the game but want to ask something or looking for help don´t hesitate to post here: