[IMPRESSIONS] Path of Exile - (NOW OPEN BETA GO PLAY IT!!!!)

[EdgeDamodred]

-snip-

Most your problems are summed up with the simple word of "beta" or the short phrase "beta is beta" or the longer phrase of "The game is in beta, expect lots of bugs and lack of information and solid mechanics(especially server related bugs like characters vanishing or levels doing funky things)". If you run into a problem, ask someone. Don't complain about lack of information because you can't be bothered to go to the forums or ask people in game, that's how betas work unless you're named Notch or Redigit.

I understand there will be bugs in betas, that's what they're there for. But again it goes back to the whole half-assed thing. It's the lack of "trivial" information, stuff that is really not worth searching through forums to look up such as the tool tip saying "Hey this skill needs weapon x", not just "Hey, this skill doesn't work with this weapon". Or at least hints about what a vendor might be willing to trade for an item. That even a multi-class system exists(it was under negative not because I don't like it, but because the game does nothing to make you aware of it). Or even an indication as you said that you gain rep with vendors and that it effects what they're willing to part with for items. They're not the only developers with this problem, they play/test/iterate the game on a daily basis so everything is already known to them. There's simply a lack of conveyance about the rules of the game to the player. Every game designer needs to watch EgoRaptor's video Sequelitis on Megaman Vs. Megaman X (NSFW language wise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM) and pay especially close attention to the section regarding Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde.

[Ragnar119]

-snip-

Most your problems are summed up with the simple word of "beta" or the short phrase "beta is beta" or the longer phrase of "The game is in beta, expect lots of bugs and lack of information and solid mechanics(especially server related bugs like characters vanishing or levels doing funky things)". If you run into a problem, ask someone. Don't complain about lack of information because you can't be bothered to go to the forums or ask people in game, that's how betas work unless you're named Notch or Redigit.

I understand there will be bugs in betas, that's what they're there for. But again it goes back to the whole half-assed thing. It's the lack of "trivial" information, stuff that is really not worth searching through forums to look up such as the tool tip saying "Hey this skill needs weapon x", not just "Hey, this skill doesn't work with this weapon". Or at least hints about what a vendor might be willing to trade for an item. That even a multi-class system exists(it was under negative not because I don't like it, but because the game does nothing to make you aware of it). Or even an indication as you said that you gain rep with vendors and that it effects what they're willing to part with for items. They're not the only developers with this problem, they play/test/iterate the game on a daily basis so everything is already known to them. There's simply a lack of conveyance about the rules of the game to the player. Every game designer needs to watch EgoRaptor's video Sequelitis on Megaman Vs. Megaman X (NSFW language wise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM) and pay especially close attention to the section regarding Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde.

You must understand more complex system it is, the more harder is to explain and make tutorial. Mega man is really a simple game with simple mechanic, and it's not that much hard to make interactive tutorial. But do you think they should make a tutorial to the game that is in closed beta and that doesn't have over 35% content yet implemented, including skill, monster, items? They said tutorial will come when the game is released, because it useless to take time and make a tutorial when there are more important things to do. Almost all negative points in your post are things that they are aware about and will be implemented in the finished game. When you give feedback about real beta, you should look what is planned to be done in release, so people don't get a feeling this is what a finished game will be. The game needs a lot of work, but it potencial is really huge.

[EdgeDamodred]

Are you people even reading what I'm saying!?!?!? It's minor adjustments to tool tips stuff that teaches you about the game while you play it. This stuff should be hammered down long before you develop ANY content! If your beta testers do not know the rules of the game and there's nothing the game is doing to inform them in any matter then there's no point for them to test for bugs because they cannot distinguish between a bug and how the rules of the game are supposed to work! How am I supposed to know if there's a bug in the loot being traded at the vendor when the game doesn't even give me a hint or even an easily recognized pattern about what loot vendors for what? How do I know if there's a bug with the game not letting me use a skill when it doesn't inform me of ALL the conditions to use the skill? Again, the game does NOTHING to teach a lot of its core rules about how it works. And it doesn't even need a tutorial for the most part, just a bit of slightly expanded tool tips. Instead of "This skill doesn't work with this weapon", say "This skill requires weapon x". When you put your cursor over an item and get its tool tip bar, put a row of icons about what type of item this may trade for at the vendors. When you first bring up the passive skill tree menu bring up a tool-tip that says "Placing points in this grid can lead you into areas that are generally considered the primary domain of another class". When you start in the first shipwrecked area a small tool tip should passively pop up stating the basic rules about whether a level is supposed to remain or be redone each session or each time I enter it. Just some very simple expanding of tool tips they already have implemented. With just those tidbits of knowledge have a better chance at reasonably determining if something is a bug and I can gather as much relevant information on how to replicate it consistently so the developers can track down the bug and squash it.

Don't say the game is in beta if you're still developing how it works and have not implemented ways of informing your player about how things work. That's what the alpha phase is for. Beta is for bug fixing and stress testing. Your mechanics, UI and release content should be solidly defined before you enter into beta. Else your game will suffer the never ending series of redesign changes leading to constant nerfs and over adjustments that plague games after launch. They're not the only ones guilty of this but if you're saying your game is in beta you better damn well have this ironed out before you enter into the beta phase.

[Ragnar119]

Are you people even reading what I'm saying!?!?!? It's minor adjustments to tool tips stuff that teaches you about the game while you play it. This stuff should be hammered down long before you develop ANY content! If your beta testers do not know the rules of the game and there's nothing the game is doing to inform them in any matter then there's no point for them to test for bugs because they cannot distinguish between a bug and how the rules of the game are supposed to work! How am I supposed to know if there's a bug in the loot being traded at the vendor when the game doesn't even give me a hint or even an easily recognized pattern about what loot vendors for what? How do I know if there's a bug with the game not letting me use a skill when it doesn't inform me of ALL the conditions to use the skill? Again, the game does NOTHING to teach a lot of its core rules about how it works. And it doesn't even need a tutorial for the most part, just a bit of slightly expanded tool tips. Instead of "This skill doesn't work with this weapon", say "This skill requires weapon x". When you put your cursor over an item and get its tool tip bar, put a row of icons about what type of item this may trade for at the vendors. When you first bring up the passive skill tree menu bring up a tool-tip that says "Placing points in this grid can lead you into areas that are generally considered the primary domain of another class". When you start in the first shipwrecked area a small tool tip should passively pop up stating the basic rules about whether a level is supposed to remain or be redone each session or each time I enter it. Just some very simple expanding of tool tips they already have implemented. With just those tidbits of knowledge have a better chance at reasonably determining if something is a bug and I can gather as much relevant information on how to replicate it consistently so the developers can track down the bug and squash it.

Don't say the game is in beta if you're still developing how it works and have not implemented ways of informing your player about how things work. That's what the alpha phase is for. Beta is for bug fixing and stress testing. Your mechanics, UI and release content should be solidly defined before you enter into beta. Else your game will suffer the never ending series of redesign changes leading to constant nerfs and over adjustments that plague games after launch. They're not the only ones guilty of this but if you're saying your game is in beta you better damn well have this ironed out before you enter into the beta phase.

All this thing you can learn in beta forum, they are not in game. Also the game is in 3 stages, beta, alpha, and their inner build for developer testing, in same time. Beta means different for different developers. By your standard, this is not a beta, but an alpha, becouse a lot of things are changing in game, and are not implemented yet.

[adoomgod]

Right... So I've found the 2 major flaws in PoE.

2h marauders are OP when built well. I built one and its slow to start but quickly becomes better at killing than the witch (mage class). 2h marauders are life leech tanks with huge damage...

I mean seriously? He has like 7% of his damage leeched back as life because of my items. He has like 45% more armor because of my passives. I added a support mod "gain life on hit" on my cleave spell: he gains 10 life for each enemy I hit with cleave, plus the life leech mentioned above. Oh and he has some mana leech.

My magically crafted health potions? I have a health flask that adds another 2% life leech while its in effect, aka healing me. When active I can't die basically. I have a mana potion with 2% life leech as well, they stack. I have a second mana potion with 2% mana leech, and since melee spells are vert cheap manawise and I hit very hard, unlimited mana.

Oh and I have a passive that makes me regen 2% of my hp per second. Passively, with no cost. I'm considering adding another 2.5% to this in later levels.

Marauders should not kill better than ice witches. Don't even get me started on mark of the warlord.

Second----- AND THIS IS HUGE.
Multiplayer is imba and suck.

Multiplayer is set up so xp is split with is a slight bonus. Yes... It is divided by the amount of players, than multiplied by a bonus so that they can claim that you get "more xp" from partying. You level slower by partying, its so stupid I can't bring myself to mention it on their forum. Beyond the fact that you would level slower from less xp, you also level slower because some enemies come nigh unkillable. I mean I exaggerate but yes, as a group you kill slower. The more people in your party the slower you kill. Playing with 3 other people we came across two "elite rare" monster bears. One had energyshield aura the other had life regen aura. We couldn't even dent one's hp psast 2 milimeters in 8 minutes. Upon this I quit partying.

There is one incentive: the more people in your group the better the drops... Barely, but in a full party its very noticeable. But this is stupid because since all of the above, the only time to actually party is in the end game, to farm end game rares.

The end.

*edit* Not the end:

Marauders eventually can get the passive that let's them never miss again at the cost of never critical striking either. this is a god send since max accuracy caps out around 88% it seems, or atleast an axe wielding marauder is never likely to get around that kind of chance to hit. 100% chance to hit = 100% chance to leech life.

Then I get immeasurable will passive, makes it so I never flinch when hit by monsters. In game there is a damage threshold, if you take more than that amount you have a chance to flinch, which is like being stunned when mobbed in Chaos. No stun, no death.

There is also a passive that removes all your mana and makes your skills cost life instead. Well with your life leech so high and your regen so high and your armor so high, and melee mana costs so low, this is just another term for "infinite mana."

[Ragnar119]

........

About balance, you should post it on there forum.
Two things i wanted to say.
First: when every party member joins, monster health is increased by 50% (and numbers I think). That means that you will 50% faster kill monsters, if the player that joined has similar dmg like you. Experience is lowered because in group you kill much faster. I dont know how you killed slower, maybe your party members didn't do that much dmg like you.
Second: while i agree a little about blood magic, if you use it, using some of auras (like the aura with 40% mana reservation) will be almost impossible.And some auras are really powerful.

[amb2010]

-snip-

Beta's are incomplete games. A lot of the fine tuned "this skill does this" or "this mechanic works this way" are not complete or final. Therefore thoroughly fleshing them out and explaining them is a waste of time. Rangar said it, the players should be aware that it's a beta and features aren't final and they should take it into consideration when playing it and before nitpicking about such "trivial" things. The vendors don't have rep therefore they don't need to tell you. I made it quite clear they planned to add it. Pay attention. You also don't need to worry about what a vendor trades with because it doesn't matter. You collect loot and sell it. You save the stuff you get and you're good to go. It's a place holder until a final feature is in place, you are over-thinking it.

Lightning arrow doesn't need a tooltip that specifically says "Requires X weapon" because it is quite obvious. If it isn't then I urge you to go find where ever it is you stored your common sense and take it back. It fires an arrow imbued with lightning. What shoots an arrow? A bow! Doesn't work with a bow? Then you my friend have run into a bug and should tell someone about it so they can tell you how to fix it or fix it in the next patch. Still doubting though? Take the 2 seconds to ask someone ingame. Of course that's hoping for too much so perhaps they should make it painfully obvious it needs a bow.

Beta's exist for the sole purpose of getting player feedback and getting bug reports. Developers do not sit there all day playing their video games. They are busy programming them and making assets. Sure they occasionally sit down and play it somewhat thoroughly in their spare time to make sure it's working but they do miss bugs. This is why it's important for people in a beta to tell them they ran into a bug, even if it's something small or even if it's something they probably already know about. If you think anything else then you need to go educate yourself about game development.

And look at that, a wall of text all nicely formatted. Enter is your friend Edge and Ragnar.

[EdgeDamodred]

First off betas should not be incomplete games, the core content and features should be implemented by then and basically bug and stress testing should be done at this stage. What you describe is an alpha, where this stuff is still in development. These terms are used for a specific reason, to put testers in the correct mindset so they can do their jobs more effectively by providing them with the correct state of development the game is in so they know what they should be looking for to provide more relevant feedback to the developers.

Putting a place-holder in there and not advertising it as such is almost disingenuous to your tester because they will spend time trying to gain relevant information about said system only to find out long after they've done such collecting information, that it is now all useless. In which time they could have been spending actually looking for defects in actual relevant areas.

I was simply using Lightning Arrow as an example. The idea being that other games of similar style use the name with different contexts. For instance D&D has a spell call Acid Arrow, which is quite a well known spell, yet it does not require a bow and is used primarily by casters. Since lightning is also used by witches in the game and as the first character I rolled being a witch, with nothing in the game advertising to any real degree that skills are not class specific, it is logical to come to the conclusion that Lightning Arrow could be the name of witch skill. As such I would expect a bolt of lightning to fire straight across the screen at a high rate of velocity like an arrow. Now obviously that proved incorrect, which leads to the second conclusion that a bow is required to use the skill.

Bad designers and developers do not play their own game. They easily lose sight of how their current developments affect the overall game. They become oblivious to the feature creep and things that sounded good on paper but in implementation turned out to be horrid. Runic right now is going through their second pass of each act to make sure everything makes sense. Relying on player feedback to design your game leads to absolute messes as some players want it one way, others want it another way, another set want it something no where near what the first two sets of players want. WoW is a perfect example of a game that originally was designed with a set of well thought out corrections to Everquest, and then expansion after expansion has let its audience design it, causing the game to get worse and worse.

And yes I can use the enter key where appropriate, sorry I use the more literary version of a paragraph that puts all related expressions in the same paragraph, using a new paragraph to change the focus.

[DarkTails]

The bickering makes me think some people don't play this beta/alpha/whatever for fun but rather to make super powerful characters and are upset when something goes wrong. In other words, taking the [uncompleted] game (and possibly semantics), too seriously. And if that isn't it then maybe you love the game so much that you don't like seeing it in a state of uncompleted-ness? I don't know what other reason there could be.

I learned a lot about the game just from reading the global chat and a lot of stuff was pretty obvious with a little sensible thinking. You don't really need the devs holding your hand through anything since you can figure out almost anything on your own (and forums too), even how to use the crazy huge skill/passives tree effectively.

In the few hours I have left I'm going to make a lightning/mace Ranger and run around yelling "Hawkgirl SMASH!" at everything, and of course report any bugs, not indirectly question the developers' work ethic.

Instead of "This skill doesn't work with this weapon", say "This skill requires weapon x". When you put your cursor over an item and get its tool tip bar, put a row of icons about what type of item this may trade for at the vendors.

That sounds like a cool idea, I think everyone would benefit from that.

When you first bring up the passive skill tree menu bring up a tool-tip that says "Placing points in this grid can lead you into areas that are generally considered the primary domain of another class".

When you start in the first shipwrecked area a small tool tip should passively pop up stating the basic rules about whether a level is supposed to remain or be redone each session or each time I enter it.

On the other hand these are unnecessary. What issue is the first one supposed to correct? Who determines what the "primary domain of another class" is when any character can play as any class? Maybe I see what you mean, like if I use a Ranger and have it use nothing but magic. Would I then have to see the annoying tooltip every time I add more Int to the Ranger? It just feels like nannying.

I don't even know what the second one means, you want them to tell you whether you have to kill all the monsters in an area? Have to kill them every time you enter? Whether you can skip an area altogether? If you're so concerned about avoiding more battles and not having to do things... then I don't know what to tell you, what did you expect form a game like this?

I don't particularly love this game, it got boring pretty quick since there isn't much stuff to do except keep replaying the 2 acts, but I hope everyone keeps playing and keeps making suggestions so it'll keep on improving.

[Edit]

they will spend time trying to gain relevant information about said system only to find out long after they've done such collecting information, that it is now all useless.

So what? You're playing the game to help the developers and have some fun. It's not like you had to sacrifice anything, you had time to kill and you spent it playing this game, good for everyone

[hawkn]

I think that you don't understand the purpose of a beta. It's not for the players. It's for the developers. Whether or not you could figure out how to use an ability shouldn't be the developer's job when they are busy making a game, and using placeholders. It's up to the player to (hopefully) figure it out. If you can't, well then maybe you shouldn't be playing it.

Also, there is a major difference in alpha and beta. While it differs from studio to studio, typically alpha is something that is very raw, and just barely playable. Beta usually has the core mechanics and assets down, but has a lot of room for bugs, balance fixes, and polish (not to mention placeholders, and lack of mechanics or items).

There's no reason PoE should make their mechanics more understandable for DnD players. If you had a hard time playing a beta, maybe you should just wait until release. Or even better, I hear WoW holds your hand rather well. Sounds perfect for you.

While you may think highly of your literary capabilities, there's this crazy thing that happens with digital writing, typically refereed to with the term "Wall-o-text". There's a major difference in reading a paragraph in a 4-5" wide book, when the paragraph only covers a vertical space of maybe 2-3", and reading a "paragraph" on a 20" wide screen, when it still covers the same amount of vertical space. This is why it's a good idea to space stuff out. A lot of people lack patience in today's world, and if you want to keep a person's attention, keep your points short and to the point.

TL:DR - Derp let's all argue.

[DarkTails]

TL:DR - Derp.

Excellent point, I hadn't thought about that.

[Brixtan]

Sigh - these forums just go to show that you leave a topic up long enough, people will find something stupid to argue about within it.

[EdgeDamodred]

The insulting tone is completely uncalled for hawkn.

I was giving an impression of the game in its current state. However the developers communicated incorrectly the game is in one state(final bug fixing and deployment by stating it is in beta), when it clearly is in another state(design and development which is alpha). Redefining the terms internally and then using them publicly leads to confusion. Irregardless of what state it currently is in, the points about the lack of information and communication about the games rules within the game is valid as those should be addressed immediately and not passed off as an after thought. Passing it off and simply saying the game is in whatever stage of development hurts the developers and the game itself.

Without educating your testers about how the game "should" work, they cannot do their jobs effectively and either submit an overflow of irrelevant feedback or no feedback at all as they believe bugs are simply the way the game is supposed to work. Making the developer's job more difficult, ultimately defeating the point of having testers in the first place. Yes it's fun to develop complex and intricate systems that can shape the progression of a character profoundly throughout his or her lifespan, but if your players are getting lost in some of the more basic fundamental parts of the game, you really need to address those first. And that's exactly what my feedback was, notifying them of a pitfall they really needed to address earlier on so they can get more and better feedback on those complex and intricate systems. It doesn't necessarily require a tutorial to explain this either,just easily recognized patterns and more detailed descriptors. I don't need the game to hold my hand and I find arguably the most complex thing about the game, the passive skill tree to be well designed and rather intuitive. What I was simply stating is that they currently have failed to communicate as clearly other aspects of their game. In some cases they do this very well, in others they still need some work.

The point about the name of the skill and it being used as the sole/key requirement descriptor was this. As the name implied it could refer to a spell that travels like an arrow but is made of lightning, and it is reasonable to come to that conclusion if the first time you see that name is when you play a caster character. In this case, the witch, which clearly states she places an emphasis on shooting things with lightning(among other elements). Now simply by expanding on the tool-tip they already have created by a small amount, the previously stated assertion would have easily been dismissed by a player. Instead they would have gone to the ultimately more correct assertion that the skill fires arrows made of lightning from a bow. Now if equipping the bow and the skill still doesn't allow access to the skill despite all requirements being met, we have indeed found a bug.

When I was talking about skills being the "primary-domain" I was referring to the fact that the path to travel to those skills is shorter from a certain class, hence those skills would be primarily associated with that class.

As I stated earlier about the level generating of the game, I logged off the game the previous night and when I logged on the next day I found the level still in the same state as when I logged off. However continuing to play in that same session each time I traveled back and forth between two different levels the levels were completely different. So I was fed conflicting information about level generation rules. Again with no idea how it should be(are levels supposed to change each time you enter them or is there supposed to be some level of persistence), I could not tell if this was a bug or how the game was designed. If some levels are constant for a certain period of time and some aren't, that's great, it would allow the opportunity for some serious challenges. But there needs to be a recognizable pattern as to which levels have some persistence and others auto-regenerate.

I am playing the game not to make an uber character as I find no real point in doing so with most games once I've beaten a final boss, but because I do enjoy the way the game plays and genuinely want to help it improve. But I cannot help that game if it cannot communicate its basic rules to me. Yes I can muddle through and eventually decipher the complete versions of those rules, but that means I've wasted my time trying to establish those rules in their complete form when I should have spent time actually looking for bugs. Saying go to the forums or ask in world chat about something that is basic part of the game is clearly saying there's a failure on the part of the developers.

Here's the thing though, there's absolutely nothing wrong with them failing, it is not an insult to them in any way. That's the whole point of the testing, to find their failures and help them correct them. They become better, more efficient developers doing so. In this particular case, they had made a failure about the game conveying its rules to the player, which has slowed down testing from the players, which has slowed down their feedback, which has slowed down their ability to be aware of problems and to address them.

I hope I have clarified all my points and demonstrated that I am not attacking the development team with insults. I actually got a much more respective response on my points on their boards than here. There they asked me to clarify and expound upon my points in a respectful manner and didn't throw up the "it's still being worked on" wall.

[wolfmane]

Well I played it over the weekend. I got to the second act and finished the quest for the Baleful Gem. I started out with a bow Duelist and leveled him to 13, then got bored and created another Duelist focusing on dual-wield. I leveled the second duelist to 20.

Technically I think the game is pretty solid. I had some issues with mob rubber banding due to some lag but it was minimal and to be expected when playing a server side game. There was also some graphical stuttering in the forest of the first part of Act II but it was minor. I was never disconnected and the game felt pretty smooth overall. I was pretty impressed that they were able to handle the increased traffic load so well. Saturday morning I had finished downloading the patches and I had to leave for my weekend bike ride but I fired up the game out of curiosity only to see that I was in a queue of about 500 people. I closed the game and left. When I got back later that afternoon I signed back in for real and didn't have any kind of wait, it shuttled me right into character creation.

I'm not a fan of the game itself. There are definitely some beta-is-beta issues going on but the core of the game just isn't very compelling. I started to get a little bored playing it about Sunday evening when I finished the gem quest. It's also not a very good looking game either. Again, technically there's nothing wrong with it. I just don't like the color palette they used, the overly bright shine on everything and the zone layouts/environments.

Here's my list of negatives, in no particular order ranging from fundamental ideas to beta-is-beta:

• Gems don't auto-level.
• The inventory. There's not enough space and it's lootris without being nice enough to give you an auto-organize feature.
• The abilities aren't very exciting to use. Gems and gem levels just aren't very dynamic. +2% physical damage increase to Dual Strike on a level up, wooooo. Elemental attack modifiers are underwhelming. I thought fire damage should ignite my targets on fire more often then it does. I regularly utilized only two skills for the majority of my game play.
• There is very little mob variety.
• Unique mobs have too many modifiers without actually doing anything interesting.
• The combat doesn't feel right. It's heavily split between being too easy and being overwhelming. It lulled me into a false sense of security until I ran into something major at which point I would have to furiously kite and chug potions. I didn't take much in the way of damage from just rolling around the zones killing stuff until I hit a pack of unique or rare mob spawns at which point they'd usually take huge gobs of my life off very very quickly. I died twice. Once because I was doing a quest turn in and took my hands off the keyboard for a moment. Turns out the quest giver goes hostile on you and spawns a bunch of minions. I was dead before I realized I was in danger of needing to pot. The second time was because I was trying to push combat with a unique spawn without drinking a pot as an experiment.
• No passive life regeneration without an item or passive skill. The values of life regeneration on items felt excessive.
• Fixed zoom level.
• The zone map overlays the main screen and you can't change it to be a mini-map in a corner of the screen. In some of the dungeons the map representation is unnecessarily cluttered, giving it a fuzzy look.
• Not being able to use the Cleave skill with claw weapons.
• Requiring passive skill selections in flat stat increases in order to meet item requirements.
• Cramped town zones.
• Not being able to see the stash because of other players camped out on it.
• Objects and mobs being hidden behind non-transparent terrain.
• The passive skill system is just a bit too much. I'm interested in the big button passive skills and the rest is just grind-fest bulk filler that I have to wade through to get something cool. It's like having to eat peas before getting to the ice cream (I don't like peas).
• Targeting or mob selection is a little off. There were times using a bow where I had a target highlighted and a clear line of sight but I wouldn't be able to hit it. I would hit near it or right next to it but not actually on it.
• Requiring Intelligence to use claw weapons.
• Needs more particle effects. Not too much more, there's a fine balance in getting the right amount but I felt the game is under particle'd at the moment.

They have a very solid game, don't get me wrong. I just don't see myself playing it. It's a little too much Diablo and not enough Diablo II. I want something that looks and feels more evolved. Some of their ideas are really good, they just need some quality iterations to get them to a place that I think would be interesting. As it's an online game I expect that they'll continually grow in such a manner.

[DarkTails]

Gems don't auto-level.

They do that so your gem doesn't level beyond your ability to use it. It would suck to constantly have to check your inventory to see if the gem is about to level so you can unequip it.

Targeting or mob selection is a little off.

UGH. First I tried an Axe Duelist with Sweep as the main attack (didn't find any other useful skills), that was alright since Sweep automatically hits all/most of the monsters around the character.

But then I switched to a Mace Ranger and OH EM GEE. I didn't find Sweep so I had to attack all monsters individually, didn't realize how hard it was to target them, especially jumpy monkeys, quick snakes, and things that like to run away. Eventually I was able to use Shock Nova with a Cold Damage support gem to slow things down (aoe lightning + cold attack)

The combat doesn't feel right. It's heavily split between being too easy and being overwhelming.

The Duelist could jump into the fray right from the beginning so it was easy to use, but when I switched to the Ranger things were almost killing me in 2 to 3 hits, a crazy huge difference in how I had to play. Fun though, makes you think of ways to overcome the challenges. Eventually the Ranger was doing just fine, nothing felt like too much to handle.

Ok, the only thing that was a huge challenge is when I ran across mobs with a leader that prevented all the allies from dying! Those mobs looked cool and were fun to tackle. Hard for the Ranger though since she somehow had to get close to the pack leader.

Sigh - these forums just go to show that you leave a topic up long enough, people will find something stupid to argue about within it.

Yar, I'm going to have to leave this place for a while, I hate it when I get sucked into discussing video games with any kind of seriousness. I know no one is going to pay attention to it (my posts aren't that interesting obviously since I don't have any kind of passion) so it's just wasted time

[Brixtan]

@ Darktails - I hear ya

@ Wolfmane - you've summed a lot of the issues that I have with the beta, but you've also phrased them a lot more coherent than I think I could.

My biggest complaints with PoE is more of a general sense of 'blah' about it's overall design. Sure it's an ARPG, sure there's loot, but nothing in the game really compels me in any way to keep playing for any lengthy stretch of time. The story is absent or so poorly integrated into the user experience that I still have little to no idea what the hell I'm doing in wraeclast (again, hopefully this is a just a beta is beta issue). All of Act 2 just feels really bizarre to me - why am I killing bandit leaders anyway?

The color palette is also very, very drab - greens and browns and tans.

The passive skill tree, while overwhelming at first gives me a false sense of choice when making my characters. As others have pointed out, there really isn't a lot of variability in player builds once you hit end-game/Chaos difficulty. I would be more content with a clearly defined skill-tree system that has no filler and all bells/whistles. But that would take away one of the greatest design elements of PoE. The keystone skill passives are a step in the right direction, but none of them are all that interesting to me that I've felt so compelled to go out of my way to grab one.

The loot - it's all horrible looking. My lvl 50 ranger looks just as bland and remedial as a lvl 1 ranger. This is one aspect that any ARPG should nail on the head - visually stunning and compelling loot. I think it's hear that PoE fails the most. The gear aesthetics are abysmal in my opinion.

The combat lacks a certain 'oomph' to it - perhaps it's an audio thing where you don't really feel like you're damaging a monster when you hit it because the sounds just don't quite sound right to me (not impactful enough). This is more a gripe I have with their audio.

In any case, it's still in beta so I'm giving PoE the benefit of the doubt. I have high hopes for it once it's finished. But if the game remains more or less like it does right now, I doubt I'll play it in any sort of dedication fashion.

[kaosweilder]

I tried liking it, but no I'm done with this.

[globalist]

I too joined the beta weekend to experience PoE. Game felt really exciting but onlyt until the first encampement, then all sorts of issues started to become apparent (summarized very well by Wolfmane above).

After I'd hit lvl9 I was feeling quite bored with the game already. Felt like there was something missing and I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Then it hit me - where's the floating damage numbers? I wanna see my crits really CRIT! I wanna see my misses really MISS. I wanna see how powerful my dual-wield daggers and fists are.

Anyone else found this element sorely missing?

[Ragnar119]

I too joined the beta weekend to experience PoE. Game felt really exciting but onlyt until the first encampement, then all sorts of issues started to become apparent (summarized very well by Wolfmane above).

After I'd hit lvl9 I was feeling quite bored with the game already. Felt like there was something missing and I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Then it hit me - where's the floating damage numbers? I wanna see my crits really CRIT! I wanna see my misses really MISS. I wanna see how powerful my dual-wield daggers and fists are.

Anyone else found this element sorely missing?

They had that numbers already in game, but removed them =) They will implement it again when they fix it.
Personally, i hate to see numbers like its done in torchlight, that's why I always disable it in game.

[hawkn]

I tried PoE yet again last week. I still can't get into it. The mechanics obviously need work, but the most disappointing thing for me was how boring gear looks.