Incline Path of Exile II - early access begins December 6th

[frajaq]

I cant wait to try out new weird builds, that new passive tree looks way more travel friendly

 

[Lyric Suite]

Question, I never dove into PoE, and I happened to blunder into this blind like an idiot on the street.

Usual negativity and blah-blah aside, what the fuck are "points?"

https://pathofexile2.com/buy-packs

They want me to buy a supporter pack that comes with points. What is this? Is this F2P, P2W shit? What are these points for and why should I care?

"These packs provide you with access to the early access release as well as many exclusive microtransactions and even physical goods. "

Exclusive microtransactions, exciting! Is this just the usual cosmetic weeb garbage or actually substantive shit that you need to play the game, or nobody knows yet, but stay away until after the dust settles? It looks like they're selling armor packs, are these skins or actual full endgame beatstick suits premade for day 1 whales? They already have a $500 whale pack, lmfao. The gameplay looked fun but this page is so radioactive it might as well be Chernobyl.

Is this some kind of a skinner box grind hellscape like Diablo 3 endgame turned into after Reaper?

The game (PoE1) is completely free but realistically you'll want to buy stash space at one point. The rest is just cosmetics.

No idea about PoE2. Hope the doomers are wrong we'll see.

 

[Israfael]

Is this some kind of a skinner box grind hellscape like Diablo 3 endgame turned into after Reaper?

PoE1 no, what happens in PoE Souls remains to be seen. After some of their Asmongoloid-crowd-catering "innovations" fail (i.e. for some reason "flask piano" is le bad, while skill button spam is for some reason good despite the fact that it's technically the same - for example, if I have dying sun or bottled faith, I'm typically using them very strategically especiially with dot /totem/mine classes that don't get crit procs to restore flask charges), they'd probably revert to what they've already done in POE1.

 

[tritosine2k]

dying sun

When PoE1 kinda sorta worked you'd get "shards" of such valuable unique as div card at league start and by selling it you made your much less sought after magic find starter build comfy.

Then it was deleted along with blank card outcomes. These guys are so heavy-handed it's ridiculous. So I'd expect nothing.

 

[TedNugent]

Fuck it, I guess I'll throw down on the early access, then. I'll admit, my greatest annoyance with playing Diabloesque dungeon crawlers is that the click to move seems to make melee PvP more or less impossible, and the shield seems like a pretty crisp implementation. I'm not sure how deep I can tolerate going down into the grognard rabbit hole, and I actually loathe weapon swapping, but this does seem kinda fun.

I'm not pleased with the weapon type restrictions, this is really shit and I don't understand why a game with such a humongous skill tree and so many build options would be restraining your build options before you even allocate the first skill point, but I digress. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of class style templates, especially modern Blizzard-esque ones. It looks like they're leaning hard into the "class fantasy" mythos that they became obsessive about around MoP. Not what I expected from PoE but I really have never even touched it before. I hope there's more latitude for building than it appears. I.e., I really like the shield mechanics of warrior, but I don't want to be bound to a mace and "stomps."

Is this some kind of a skinner box grind hellscape like Diablo 3 endgame turned into after Reaper?

PoE1 no, what happens in PoE Souls remains to be seen. After some of their Asmongoloid-crowd-catering "innovations" fail (i.e. for some reason "flask piano" is le bad, while skill button spam is for some reason good despite the fact that it's technically the same - for example, if I have dying sun or bottled faith, I'm typically using them very strategically especiially with dot /totem/mine classes that don't get crit procs to restore flask charges), they'd probably revert to what they've already done in POE1.

I don't really have much context to this, but they had said during their last video (I can't remember the time stamp, and it's an hour long, sorry), that the flask refills after kills, I believe.



If this helps backup my claim from memory:

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/news/path-of-exile-2-reveal-megapost

"In Path of Exile 2 you have 1 Life Flask and 1 Mana Flask. This offers you a way to recover your precious resources during combat. To power these flasks, you need to kill monsters. "

It seems to me this would be rather awkward to work around during, say, a boss encounter. Adds and trash mobs would need to be rather carefully paced and controlled - hence why I despise on kill mechanics in general. It's really a stupid mechanic IMHO. It could either make an encounter impossible or trivial depending on the amount of trash available for refills.

 

[Israfael]

I'm not pleased with the weapon type restrictions, this is really shit and I don't understand why a game with such a humongous skill tree and so many build options would be restraining your build options before you even allocate the first skill point, but I digress.

It's the same as POE1, you can't use certain skills (i.e. Whirling Blades with something apart from claws or daggers, Frost Blades with non-blade weaponry etc) without proper weapons, also you can't dual wield wands and 1h scepters, so nothing changed in that department qualitatively.

I don't really have much context to this, but they had said during their last video (I can't remember the time stamp, and it's an hour long, sorry), that the flask refills after kills, I believe.

That's why before some point bosses always had some trash mobs interphase so that you can fill up your flasks, after Sirus it's changed which places certain builds (that can't crit and therefore refill flasks with procs) at a distinct disadvantage (so you are forced to teleport or waste points on flask refiill / pay through the nose for MB)

loathe weapon swapping, but this does seem kinda fun.

Lets say I'm quite sceptical of utility of this, although it'd make it easier to swap setups for bossing and clear if it is not clunky.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

I'm not pleased with the weapon type restrictions, this is really shit and I don't understand why a game with such a humongous skill tree and so many build options would be restraining your build options before you even allocate the first skill point, but I digress. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of class style templates, especially modern Blizzard-esque ones. It looks like they're leaning hard into the "class fantasy" mythos that they became obsessive about around MoP. Not what I expected from PoE but I really have never even touched it before. I hope there's more latitude for building than it appears. I.e., I really like the shield mechanics of warrior, but I don't want to be bound to a mace and "stomps."

There are no weapon restrictions. You can use any weapon with any class. Only weapon restrictions are on some skills that can be used only with certain weapon types like here:

 

[ArchAngel]

Flask mechanics can easily be changed to also give you flask charges per every 10% of life that boss loses or something like that.
As for weapon restrictions, this is early access with only maces and quarterstaff available. Other weapons will be coming later with updates as we get closer to full release. There should also be spears, axes, swords and claws and daggers.

 

[TedNugent]

I'm not pleased with the weapon type restrictions, this is really shit and I don't understand why a game with such a humongous skill tree and so many build options would be restraining your build options before you even allocate the first skill point, but I digress. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of class style templates, especially modern Blizzard-esque ones. It looks like they're leaning hard into the "class fantasy" mythos that they became obsessive about around MoP. Not what I expected from PoE but I really have never even touched it before. I hope there's more latitude for building than it appears. I.e., I really like the shield mechanics of warrior, but I don't want to be bound to a mace and "stomps."

There are no weapon restrictions. You can use any weapon with any class. Only weapon restrictions are on some skills that can be used only with certain weapon types like here:

View attachment 58006

It's literally every single warrior skill that requires a mace, e.g. you can use something else but it would be strictly autoattacks and a couple of shield spells. Unplayable.

That skill is a lot more open ended compared to literally just mace.

That's lame, bro


I'll have to see if there's a sword and board spec or see what Marauder's about. Wiki says axes. Duelist is usually a finesse or duel wielding type class. I would dig a stabby-stab spear and shield, Roman scutum/Gladius or just a classic arming sword and heater/kite shield.

Seems like Warrior is quite slow and stompy. I hope there's an in between or more sprinkled in shield spells in other classes. I have to admit that I don't really dig the lightning bolts/stompy shockwave animu stuff that has become common in modern ARPGs. Dark Souls was imperfect but was a pretty good model at least for a wide latitude in terms of weapon mechanics and no restrictions on class/weapon builds.

Side note, not pleased in the slightest to see i-frame dodges. I really fucking hate this garbage. It's everywhere now, and it's stupid mechanically and from an RP standpoint. I frames are shit.

 

[Perkel]

Is this some kind of a skinner box grind hellscape like Diablo 3 endgame turned into after Reaper?

PoE1 no, what happens in PoE Souls remains to be seen. After some of their Asmongoloid-crowd-catering "innovations" fail (i.e. for some reason "flask piano" is le bad, while skill button spam is for some reason good despite the fact that it's technically the same - for example, if I have dying sun or bottled faith, I'm typically using them very strategically especiially with dot /totem/mine classes that don't get crit procs to restore flask charges), they'd probably revert to what they've already done in POE1.

They changed that. In POE2 almost all melee skills are tied to weapon type. (which is imho good)
I hope that with this change they will bring back stat sticks they murdered years ago.

It's literally every single warrior skill that requires a mace, e.g. you can use something else but it would be strictly autoattacks and a couple of shield spells. Unplayable.

Each class has their own skills, warrior is mace heavy. Duelist is sword based etc. You can mix and match them you want it though. So you can go full warrior and use swords.

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm not pleased with the weapon type restrictions, this is really shit and I don't understand why a game with such a humongous skill tree and so many build options would be restraining your build options before you even allocate the first skill point, but I digress. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of class style templates, especially modern Blizzard-esque ones. It looks like they're leaning hard into the "class fantasy" mythos that they became obsessive about around MoP. Not what I expected from PoE but I really have never even touched it before. I hope there's more latitude for building than it appears. I.e., I really like the shield mechanics of warrior, but I don't want to be bound to a mace and "stomps."

There are no weapon restrictions. You can use any weapon with any class. Only weapon restrictions are on some skills that can be used only with certain weapon types like here:

View attachment 58006

It's literally every single warrior skill that requires a mace, e.g. you can use something else but it would be strictly autoattacks and a couple of shield spells. Unplayable.

That skill is a lot more open ended compared to literally just mace.

That's lame, bro


I'll have to see if there's a sword and board spec or see what Marauder's about. Wiki says axes. Duelist is usually a finesse or duel wielding type class. I would dig a stabby-stab spear and shield, Roman scutum/Gladius or just a classic arming sword and heater/kite shield.

Seems like Warrior is quite slow and stompy. I hope there's an in between or more sprinkled in shield spells in other classes. I have to admit that I don't really dig the lightning bolts/stompy shockwave animu stuff that has become common in modern ARPGs. Dark Souls was imperfect but was a pretty good model at least for a wide latitude in terms of weapon mechanics and no restrictions on class/weapon builds.

Side note, not pleased in the slightest to see i-frame dodges. I really fucking hate this garbage. It's everywhere now, and it's stupid mechanically and from an RP standpoint. I frames are shit.

In Early Access you only get maces and quarterstaves. They will release other weapons as they finish all the skills for those weapons. Huntress that uses spears should be one of the first coming. Once game is fully released you will be able to access and use any weapon with any class.

 

[Jaedar]

Is this some kind of a skinner box grind hellscape like Diablo 3 endgame turned into after Reaper?

PoE1 no, what happens in PoE Souls remains to be seen. After some of their Asmongoloid-crowd-catering "innovations" fail (i.e. for some reason "flask piano" is le bad, while skill button spam is for some reason good despite the fact that it's technically the same - for example, if I have dying sun or bottled faith, I'm typically using them very strategically especiially with dot /totem/mine classes that don't get crit procs to restore flask charges), they'd probably revert to what they've already done in POE1.

There is a big difference between multiple skills and flask piano. Flasks have no mutual tradeoffs, it's just as easy to run a ruby flask as it is to run ruby+diamond, the only drawback to the latter is that it takes more slots and requires more clicks.

With skills, you can usually only use one at a time.

So if I have 10 flasks, that just means I have to hit 10 buttons every 3s to keep them all active. If I have 10 skills, then twice every second or so I have to decide which of those 10 buttons to hit. Multiple flasks adds actions/s, multiple skills add decisions.

Assuming of course the whole thing doesn't collapse into spamming one skill for clear and a second for single targets.

 

[Israfael]

. If I have 10 skills, then twice every second or so I have to decide which of those 10 buttons to hit. Multiple flasks adds actions/s, multiple skills add decisions

If you mindlessly spam flasks and play dot build, you won't have flask when needed (or won't have it at all, because no charges, lol). Also, you can press many skills at the same time, I constantly pressed golem/rune buttons whiile using other skills which resulted in those rune/golems on cd for the next 5 / 20 seconds and naturally no new golem or rune spawned

Assuming of course the whole thing doesn't collapse into spamming one skill for clear and a second for single targets.

It eventually will, as more spam and faster gameplay nets you more chaos/divs/ whatever dorito will be the main trading currency in poe2

 

[TedNugent]

I fucking hate dodge rolling and I frame mechanics god damn it all purge this shit into the 9th level of hell

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

It was mentioned in previous streams that dodge DOES NOT grant you any I-frames. It moves you out of the way so you can avoid heavy hits, projectiles and bad floor. But if you roll into something that's nasty, there won't be any invincibility for you.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

I'm not pleased with the weapon type restrictions, this is really shit and I don't understand why a game with such a humongous skill tree and so many build options would be restraining your build options before you even allocate the first skill point, but I digress. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of class style templates, especially modern Blizzard-esque ones. It looks like they're leaning hard into the "class fantasy" mythos that they became obsessive about around MoP. Not what I expected from PoE but I really have never even touched it before. I hope there's more latitude for building than it appears. I.e., I really like the shield mechanics of warrior, but I don't want to be bound to a mace and "stomps."

There are no weapon restrictions. You can use any weapon with any class. Only weapon restrictions are on some skills that can be used only with certain weapon types like here:

View attachment 58006

It's literally every single warrior skill that requires a mace, e.g. you can use something else but it would be strictly autoattacks and a couple of shield spells. Unplayable.

That skill is a lot more open ended compared to literally just mace.

That's lame, bro


I'll have to see if there's a sword and board spec or see what Marauder's about. Wiki says axes. Duelist is usually a finesse or duel wielding type class. I would dig a stabby-stab spear and shield, Roman scutum/Gladius or just a classic arming sword and heater/kite shield.

Seems like Warrior is quite slow and stompy. I hope there's an in between or more sprinkled in shield spells in other classes. I have to admit that I don't really dig the lightning bolts/stompy shockwave animu stuff that has become common in modern ARPGs. Dark Souls was imperfect but was a pretty good model at least for a wide latitude in terms of weapon mechanics and no restrictions on class/weapon builds.

Side note, not pleased in the slightest to see i-frame dodges. I really fucking hate this garbage. It's everywhere now, and it's stupid mechanically and from an RP standpoint. I frames are shit.

Yeah, I missed that attacks in PoE2 will be tied to single weapon type. That sounds awful.

 

[tritosine2k]

In Path of Exile 2 you have 1 Life Flask and 1 Mana Flask

Wolcen too but it's called life/stamina haha.
I'm super surprised there was no obvious show-off of mounts. That should make the big bux afterall?!?

 

[TedNugent]

It was mentioned in previous streams that dodge DOES NOT grant you any I-frames. It moves you out of the way so you can avoid heavy hits, projectiles and bad floor. But if you roll into something that's nasty, there won't be any invincibility for you.

I literally heard the guy say it gives I frames in the video I posted. Son of a bitch, now I've got to find the timestamp.

 

[ADL]

OK but is it true melee or just "melee" like in PoE1?
From the monk gameplay from previews from higher levels he seems to be casting ice spells and ice walls and ice teleport attacks. Does not really look like true melee

The abilities to freeze may not be melee but the skills you use to shatter the ice are. There's only so many "true melee" attacks like cleave and whirlwind you can do without going to elementals. That's just the setting/lore. If you're going into it expecting Examina you're gonna be disappointed.

 

[tritosine2k]

I fucking hate dodge rolling and I frame mechanics god damn it all purge this shit into the 9th level of hell

It works in 3rd person because the camera moves clumsy also to make up for 30fps so they wiggle the character. It definitely works* in Wolcen though.

*Also if they can't snap the camera in couch-coop to accomodate 2 players that's interesting because it might not work that well. Then the cam will be decoupled as in 3rd+wiggle and its different game (again).

 

[Damned Registrations]

There's only so many "true melee" attacks like cleave and whirlwind you can do without going to elementals.

Yeah, too bad you couldn't make attacks that leech life, have inherently higher crit rates, or increase any of the dozen+ stats that would be relevant to a melee character or decrease enemy stats, in a way that stacks with itself or as a powerful single effect. Or create attacks that scale damage based on how far you've walked since the last swing, or that gained or lost damage when you take a hit recently, or which did extra damage to enemies with large health pools, or which were already injured, or could inflict status ailments like bleed, blind, or stuns. Or any combination of the above.

Yep, all you can do is cleave and whirlwind. True melee is just doomed to be boring and lame forever.

 

[TedNugent]

One of my favorites from D2 was Berserk, which reduced your defenses down to zero in exchange for dealing pure magic damage, which was essential when dealing with physical immune foes, or the reverse, concentration, which gave you drastically increased defenses on swing, or frenzy, which built up a stacking attack speed buff on hit.

But those are retardo level. If you really wanted to make it action oriented, you could have parry, riposte, active blocks, the already demonstrated shield charge, leap/leap attack. You could also conceivably make different attack types depending on the encounter.

This is a fucking action game after all, there's no reason that mechanics need to be reducible down to clicking things and watching a swing animation. Does Dark Souls have retarded melee combat? What about Chivalry or Mordhau? How about Kingdom Come: Deliverance? I'd actually say that melee combat, done properly, should be more hectic, breakneck and involved than throwing fireballs or spell stacking. Honestly, I always thought the spells in Dark Souls were the most boring shit, and the exciting part is getting stuck in. Just because it's close up doesn't mean there isn't opportunities for gameplay involving timing, opportunities, counterplay, or feints. Jesus Christ, has no one else played Chivalry other than me on this god damn forum?

But strictly from an RP standpoint, I would absolutely love to see shit like parries, counters, blocks, perhaps even targeted strikes and feints, alternate mode attacks, block breaks, stamina and fatigue gauges, etc. Layers and layers of stat checks and opportunities. It is absolute horseshit that melee in so many RPGs is ug me swing axe, hit check, damage meter. Not even counting things like grappling which most bitch-ass CRPGs won't touch with a 50 foot pole. By the way, footwork exists. Do they not say in boxing that footwork is one of the most important aspects? Same with any of the close combat oriented action games that I mentioned. I absolutely used footwork, feints, attack angles and so on endlessly in those games.

 

[blessed king of longing]

One of my favorites from D2 was Berserk, which reduced your defenses down to zero in exchange for dealing pure magic damage, which was essential when dealing with physical immune foes, or the reverse, concentration, which gave you drastically increased defenses on swing, or frenzy, which built up a stacking attack speed buff on hit.

But those are retardo level. If you really wanted to make it action oriented, you could have parry, riposte, active blocks, the already demonstrated shield charge, leap/leap attack. You could also conceivably make different attack types depending on the encounter.

This is a fucking action game after all, there's no reason that mechanics need to be reducible down to clicking things and watching a swing animation. Does Dark Souls have retarded melee combat? What about Chivalry or Mordhau? How about Kingdom Come: Deliverance? I'd actually say that melee combat, done properly, should be more hectic, breakneck and involved than throwing fireballs or spell stacking. Honestly, I always thought the spells in Dark Souls were the most boring shit, and the exciting part is getting stuck in. Just because it's close up doesn't mean there isn't opportunities for gameplay involving timing, opportunities, counterplay, or feints. Jesus Christ, has no one else played Chivalry other than me on this god damn forum?

But strictly from an RP standpoint, I would absolutely love to see shit like parries, counters, blocks, perhaps even targeted strikes and feints, alternate mode attacks, block breaks, stamina and fatigue gauges, etc. Layers and layers of stat checks and opportunities. It is absolute horseshit that melee in so many RPGs is ug me swing axe, hit check, damage meter. Not even counting things like grappling which most bitch-ass CRPGs won't touch with a 50 foot pole. By the way, footwork exists. Do they not say in boxing that footwork is one of the most important aspects? Same with any of the close combat oriented action games that I mentioned. I absolutely used footwork, feints, attack angles and so on endlessly in those games.

nigger you're doing too much

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

PSA, https://www.poe2wiki.net is up and already has useful info in there, like how crafting is supposed to work or dodge roll mechanics.

So, TedNugent, based on that page

• The start of the roll animation avoids projectiles and non-AoE attacks, and can be used to cancel almost any animation except another roll.

• The Bulwark keystone removes the invincibility frames granted during a dodge roll, but grants damage reduction while dodge rolling.

It actually seems that the truth is somewhere in between. Not real i-frames since you're not protected from AoE, but still some protection. IMO, it's good it's only at the start making it possible to roll into some big crap.

 

[TedNugent]

Neat, it looks like all shields other than bucklers allow for the "raise shield" function.