Time Capsule from PoE Closed Beta -- a classic PoE vs D3 thread circa 2012

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Tagek wrote:

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

...My goodness, you're relentless. I found PoE much more challenging from the get-go than Diablo 3. That's all.

Haha, I'll take that as a compliment.

Perhaps, but do keep in mind that this (the beta) was a small part of the first act of the first difficulty level.

They have also stated that the difficulty will be going up as you progress through an act, not just as you get to higher difficulty levels.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

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Tagek wrote:

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

...My goodness, you're relentless. I found PoE much more challenging from the get-go than Diablo 3. That's all.

Haha, I'll take that as a compliment.

Perhaps, but do keep in mind that this (the beta) was a small part of the first act of the first difficulty level.

They have also stated that the difficulty will be going up as you progress through an act, not just as you get to higher difficulty levels.

Without knowing the full size of D3a1, we can't really put it beside PoEa1 and say how much of a percentage it might be. Is Leoric the equivalent of, say, Brutus, in terms of progress? Or The Dweller in the Deep? Like I said, we just can't say.

But even if it's just as far the Dweller, I still found PoE until then more challenging than the entirety of the D3 beta. But that's probably because the PoE beta allows for more suboptimal builds. When I faced Leoric for the umpteenth time, it was never as a character I was proud to have made or played. It was their version of the melee wizard (spectral blades are so cheap), or a cobbled-together melee Demon Hunter. Or just a plain, old boring Monk.

That's why when I say 'PoE is harder than D3' of course I am making all sorts of caveats.

Both games get harder within an act as well as within any one given difficulty level AS WELL AS between difficulty levels. There's no denying that. But I don't think PoE is relying on the difficulty of merciless in the same way that Blizzard seems to be banking on the replayability and challenge of Inferno. Then again, Blizzard is dealing with a *legion* of end-gamers.

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Sketchbag111 wrote:

While the OP is entitled to his opinion, implying this is a successor to Diablo kind of odd. First of all, Diablo 1 and 2 we're by today's standards horribly made. Just because you had the initial challenge and over came it by finding gear doesn't mean Diablo 2 was all great. It was pretty terrible. You essentially spammed 1 skill the entire game. It was fine the first bit but even the critics say the charm faded objectively.

Diablo 2 had you pump points into other skills then for 20 levels you put all your points into one skill.

The stat design was terribly done. Unless you went for max block you went standard strength to charm + item to bug and wear your items. Rest was all life. If you didn't do that you couldn't compete in Players versus Player (which is the reason it has such longevity).

The game was not balanced and so leveling was crippled. Diablo 2 LoD was supposed to be the first of 2 expansions. A second expansion was planned with higher monster level so you could reach level 99 in a timely manner. However, it was cancelled.

What I see in Path of Exile is a lot of ambition and terrible execution. That passive skill tree you're glorifying is probably the worst thing I've seen ever. It's all just +10% damage. As much fun as that is for min-maxers, it just leads to cookie cutter builds... something your OP really hates.

The game isn't challenging. As much as you want it to be it isn't. Monsters require the same strategy. There's no innovation in monster design so it really is gather and nuke.

Path of Exile doesn't raise the bar at all. It actually goes back in time and stays with the Diablo 2 bar. There's nothing new here. This is just an out dated beta that should have happened 10 years ago.

Diablo 3 -- to a lot of posters dismay -- is promising. Sure, it has it's controversy IE runes unlocked at certain levels, but that's just a strategy to get people to stay until Inferno. Which is reasonable. And from World of Warcraft you can tell they've learned if people are given their skills they won't try them all.

The combat's much better. More fluid and looks more fun.

This entire thread is really about comparing an outdated beta to a AAA title that is clearly better. There's no discussion here. Objectively, Diablo 3 raises the bar and is leaps and bounds better than Path of Exile. It's probably not want to hear but coming May 15, 2012, it will be the truth.

By the way, Diablo was a copy of Dragon Slayer series.