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Key · 04-17-2023, 08:40 PM

My Journey With Path of Exile [pt.1]

I'll be the first to admit that it took me quite a while to really convince myself that Path of Exile was worth playing. I would always enjoy watching people stream it since it seemed really fun but then I always told myself that it wasn't worthwhile since I had games like Diablo III and Torchlight II to play. And, while both of those games respectively are great on their own, I am now sort of kicking myself because my god, Path of Exile is an amazing time, and I certainly wish I could go back and tell myself to pick it up a lot sooner. I'm not entirely sure what it is about it to be honest that I love so much, but with this genre in general, I feel like it took me a little while to warm up to it, but once I got the gist of it and started playing more games like Grim Dawn, Diablo II and even Pillars of Eternity to an extent. All these games did one important thing, and it taught me that there is a lot more underneath the surface of these kinds of games and it's worth trying your hand it at to see how deep it can get. Hell even Divinity Original Sin 2 did it well, but there's something else that grabs me about games like Diablo II, Grim Dawn, and Path of Exile. And I think it's partly due to the fact that I just love the endless grind. I come from Runescape times so I have always loved the grind. But on top of that, it's the feeling of taking down mobs of enemies in seconds with the abilities you can acquire in these games, again respectively. However, we're not here to talk about all those games collectively, I'm just here to talk about Path of Exile. So let's get into that shall we.

Like I mentioned before, Path of Exile was certainly not my first choice of game, for quite a while. And while I did attempt several different characters across multiple platforms, once I got my Xbox, I finally decided that I wanted a dedicated account where I will always go back to it, and thus my three characters (currently) were born. Two rangers and a witch. And while I do enjoy both of my ranger characters, I want to focus on the witch. I've posted below a little preview of what my current witch looks like and what they're equipped with:

Spoiler for image:

The reason behind why I enjoy playing as the witch more than the other two currently is simply because I think it's really gratifying to shoot multiple shots of electricity towards mobs of enemies and seeing them just fall before literally within seconds. Of course, that could simply be due to the fact that my character is pretty strong due to the combination of wands and armor that I have her equipped with. Which again, that aspect of it on top of the skill tree aspect took me a little while to understand, but once I got it, I really enjoyed going deeper into it and seeing what little more I could squeeze out of the percentages to give me just a little more of an edge. And currently, I am running around with a combination of several passive effects going on that gives me a couple different creatures that fight alongside me, but I also simply have a lot of electricity abilities which is really fun to use like I mentioned before. But where I think it really shines (no pun intended) is when you are in a dark dungeon and you can just see how much detail went into the coloring of the spells. Just makes the game that much more enjoyable.

And honestly, I'll again be the first to say it; Path of Exile is certainly one of those games where I can sort of enjoy it more due to its ability to let me zone out. And I don't mean that in a mean way either. It's a reason why I have always loved grinding in games, and it's that feeling of being able to just submerse yourself into the gameplay to the point that you're sort of just chillin and having a good time. Not a whole lot of thinking going on. And while there are a lot of complexities with Path of Exile, with its economy and weapons and armor etc, it does also meet that aspect where once you get strong enough, you can definitely spend hours just sort of grinding away and not even realizing it.

I think I've put about 60 hours into the characters that I have on Xbox right now, and that's a testament to how quickly you can get a pretty strong build. Games like this do a really good job at making you want to continuously play because the rewards from leveling up can be quite good. Whether it's trying to get a certain build on your skill tree in Path of Exile or it's trying to find the right set of skills to put into your slots in Diablo III. It all offers that feeling of completion on top of still managing to make the player wanting more. Hell, this genre in general does a really good job at keeping me entertained even after many hours of doing the same thing or the same spell over and over again. Because it's just a nice combination of complexity mixed with being able to just sit back and enjoy it.

04-17-2023, 08:40 PM	#106 (permalink)
Key . Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 13,153	My Journey With Path of Exile [pt.1] My Journey With Path of Exile [pt.1] I'll be the first to admit that it took me quite a while to really convince myself that Path of Exile was worth playing. I would always enjoy watching people stream it since it seemed really fun but then I always told myself that it wasn't worthwhile since I had games like Diablo III and Torchlight II to play. And, while both of those games respectively are great on their own, I am now sort of kicking myself because my god, Path of Exile is an amazing time, and I certainly wish I could go back and tell myself to pick it up a lot sooner. I'm not entirely sure what it is about it to be honest that I love so much, but with this genre in general, I feel like it took me a little while to warm up to it, but once I got the gist of it and started playing more games like Grim Dawn, Diablo II and even Pillars of Eternity to an extent. All these games did one important thing, and it taught me that there is a lot more underneath the surface of these kinds of games and it's worth trying your hand it at to see how deep it can get. Hell even Divinity Original Sin 2 did it well, but there's something else that grabs me about games like Diablo II, Grim Dawn, and Path of Exile. And I think it's partly due to the fact that I just love the endless grind. I come from Runescape times so I have always loved the grind. But on top of that, it's the feeling of taking down mobs of enemies in seconds with the abilities you can acquire in these games, again respectively. However, we're not here to talk about all those games collectively, I'm just here to talk about Path of Exile. So let's get into that shall we. Like I mentioned before, Path of Exile was certainly not my first choice of game, for quite a while. And while I did attempt several different characters across multiple platforms, once I got my Xbox, I finally decided that I wanted a dedicated account where I will always go back to it, and thus my three characters (currently) were born. Two rangers and a witch. And while I do enjoy both of my ranger characters, I want to focus on the witch. I've posted below a little preview of what my current witch looks like and what they're equipped with: Spoiler for image: The reason behind why I enjoy playing as the witch more than the other two currently is simply because I think it's really gratifying to shoot multiple shots of electricity towards mobs of enemies and seeing them just fall before literally within seconds. Of course, that could simply be due to the fact that my character is pretty strong due to the combination of wands and armor that I have her equipped with. Which again, that aspect of it on top of the skill tree aspect took me a little while to understand, but once I got it, I really enjoyed going deeper into it and seeing what little more I could squeeze out of the percentages to give me just a little more of an edge. And currently, I am running around with a combination of several passive effects going on that gives me a couple different creatures that fight alongside me, but I also simply have a lot of electricity abilities which is really fun to use like I mentioned before. But where I think it really shines (no pun intended) is when you are in a dark dungeon and you can just see how much detail went into the coloring of the spells. Just makes the game that much more enjoyable. And honestly, I'll again be the first to say it; Path of Exile is certainly one of those games where I can sort of enjoy it more due to its ability to let me zone out. And I don't mean that in a mean way either. It's a reason why I have always loved grinding in games, and it's that feeling of being able to just submerse yourself into the gameplay to the point that you're sort of just chillin and having a good time. Not a whole lot of thinking going on. And while there are a lot of complexities with Path of Exile, with its economy and weapons and armor etc, it does also meet that aspect where once you get strong enough, you can definitely spend hours just sort of grinding away and not even realizing it. I think I've put about 60 hours into the characters that I have on Xbox right now, and that's a testament to how quickly you can get a pretty strong build. Games like this do a really good job at making you want to continuously play because the rewards from leveling up can be quite good. Whether it's trying to get a certain build on your skill tree in Path of Exile or it's trying to find the right set of skills to put into your slots in Diablo III. It all offers that feeling of completion on top of still managing to make the player wanting more. Hell, this genre in general does a really good job at keeping me entertained even after many hours of doing the same thing or the same spell over and over again. Because it's just a nice combination of complexity mixed with being able to just sit back and enjoy it.