Server issues on Path of Exile

SERVER DO YOU EVEN LIFT?

PoE has recently taken a rather large influx of players, and thus the servers are disconnecting people rather frequently. I've taken a break from playing because of this, because it's quite annoying. Hopefully they'll sort it out in the next week, because the more I play it the more addictive it gets.

Normally you will encounter a few bugs and maybe disconnect once every couple of hours. It's inconvenient, but it's not enough to stop you playing such an awesome game. However, I've been kicked off the server as frequently as 10 minutes apart in the last couple of days. I wouldn't mind continuing to play, but I can barely make any progress.

If you haven't checked out Path of Exile yet, please make sure to have a look. It's essentially everything  Diablo 3 should have been. In other words, it's not a huge disappointment. I don't think any amount of hype could let you down before playing PoE. There are actually people playing the game and enjoying it, instead of D3 which is essentially populated by bots and farmers now.

Path of Exile has an enormous skill tree.

I'm level 16 and I've barely made it out of the starting gate.

After spending an entire evening glued to Path of Exile, I've not encountered something I dislike yet. But my favorite part is the skill tree. It's just unbelievably big. It's also remarkably similar to the Sphere grid on Final Fantasy X. Since all the classes share the same grid but start in different places you can head towards another classes zone if you want to pick up some of their talents. It's simple yet complex at the same time.

Maybe I'm biased because I truly do love being able to customize my characters build to be completely unique. Instead of having some douchebag join your party on Diablo 3 and copy your build, on Path of Exile they would have to start a new character. So I've been feeling fairly original whilst carefully designing my build, which is rare for me on a game these days.

I zoomed out as far as I could, and this just about half of the talents in the game.

So if you're going to play Path of Exile, the talent tree is a huge plus. It's got plenty of nifty little features you won't really see in other games. For example, the closest thing to currency in this game is scrolls of identification. What's that you say? No money? Yep. It's more like a barter system. You trade your items to vendors for scrolls and other interesting scraps. Another cool feature is when you die on your hardcore character, it is automatically converted to a normal one. So instead of losing your character, you just lose your bragging rights.

Path of Exile is going to be a great game when it's finally released. If you don't believe me, try out the beta. Sure, it can't sport a high budget like the usual suspects, but that doesn't change the facts. Grinding Gear Games clearly have a passion for games, and the know what Diablo and Torchlight didn't deliver. They are bringing it to Path of Exile.

Open beta on Path of Exile!

For those of you who want alternatives to Diablo 3 or just like the dungeon crawling Hack'and'Slash style of games- Path of Exile is in open beta. Hosting an enormous skill tree and a true challenge, people are flocking to this semi-mmo RPG. I say semi-mmo because in part, you can interact and join other players whilst you're in the towns. It's definitely worth a try, I'm really having fun testing it out.

The graphics aren't half bad.

I've only been playing for 30 minutes so far, but it looks incredibly promising. The witch is the class I am testing, because I'm partial to playing spellcasters. There are currently 6 classes to try out- all of which start on different places in the same talent tree. This mechanic is really intriguing. Essentially, you can start as a warrior and level your way to the healer tree to access restorative talents. Another interesting feature revolves around how your active skills work. They are slotted into your equipment through gems. Weird, right? Instead of unlocking a new ability when you level up, you find a gem in the world and whack it in your armor.

Combat is bloody and brutal, like it should be.

I thought I'd make a quick post in case there is anyone interested in getting in on the free beta. It's not going to cost you anything but a little time and bandwidth, so give it a go! Link to Path of Exile, if you want to test it.