The Dink Network

I know there are a few A-RPG fans here who have enjoyed games such as Diablo, Torchlight and Titans Quest and are looking forward to Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, and Grim Dawn respectively. Well, there's a less known free to play ARPG that just hit closed beta today called Path of Exile.

I've not gotten an invite yet, but I've been stalking their forums since they went public almost a year ago and it looks pretty dang good so far. A few twists it adds to the genre are its itemized skill system (skills are given through gems, are inserted in items, and can be altered with support gems), potion system (flasks with charges and their own mods), and a leagues system for different play-styles.

It will be 100% free to play. There will be a cash shop, but it will only sell aesthetic non game-play impacting items. There are also expansions planned and they will also be free.

The site is www.PathofExile.com
When you register, you are entered in their lottery type beta key give-away.
You can check out their development diaries on their main page, a summary of information pertaining to the game, and their youtube channel.

I hope to see some of you guys there

Edit:
Open beta is right around the corner launching Jan. 23. There is a countdown on the main page and you can pre-download it right now from there as well.

The official Open Beta trailer has also just been released and you can find that right here.

I signed up when MsDinky showed me.

Just signed up, thanks for posting this.

May 8th is when I signed up. Just checked to make sure I verified or not which I already had also.

"Krxons"

That's funny because I told her about it the 7th

I wonder how many other Dinkers are lurking there. I swear I saw 'sparrowhawk' on the forums. Maybe he's our guy?

Heh, that'd be awesome. Rabid, post your account.

Duh

It's also worth noting they've posted some beta keys on their facebook and twitter.

Meh, I'll just wait to see if I get one at random. I'm not fast enough to copypasta codes that people are most likely waiting for all day to copypasta themselves.

But it seems to have forgotten me - hmm well I did change my email address so I suppose........
Still it has my original login but wint let me use it grrr - so I signed up again lol
and yep Rabid did tell me about this and it looked really awesome

That does look pretty impressive... Their website looks more professional than Diablo 3's too, haha.

I'll definitely check this out if I get a beta key/when it's released, thanks for sharing.

Just wait, MsDink, your old account will get a beta key.

yeah but I cant access that email any more so bum bum bum) made it way back then too grr

Sounds interesting.

I actually found out about this game only last week. There's a cool beta timer at the main page, addiciting to watch who's next

No thanks. I might create an account and check it out after they're done with everything that's beta.

Well I think in the case of free to play multiplayer games beta = full game with less polished content. Not so different from playing a just released MMO versus the same MMO 3 months later.

No thanks, I'm not into MMO's. They really are the paths to exile from the outside world.

This one isn't an MMO though It's just a Diablo clone that's played online.

Ok, I'm not into playing games in general that much nowadays.

Sounds fun. Might try it later.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
ahahHaha..ha eehhhhh....

The logo looks exactly like the old point and click adventure game Exile (The third installment in the famous myst series)

Anyway, It looks fun, I'll try it.

Haha, well spotted! The logo is, without a doubt, cop... er, inspired!

Diablo + Myst: Exile + Telenet's Exile = Path of Exile?

Waiting...

Waiting...

WAITING

WAITING!!

Come on, you stupid game! I wanna play! Gimme beta status, NOW!

Well the good news is they just added an addition to the timer for vets, so maybe I'll get in soon

There are some live streams for anyone interested, but from some I've seen they've been using the same skills over and over since it's all act 1.

You know what Rabid, you can have my code if I get it I really feel bad for people who have been following a game since forever and then see a noob coincidental dude get it instead.

Nice gesture, but I'd rather have you guys play. I'll get mine eventually, I have no problem waiting my turn. Heck the longer I wait the better balanced, less bugged the game will be when I do get in.

Btw a podcast by DiabloIncgamers interviewing the lead designer, Chris Wilson, has come to light for those interested.

I got in the beta today and let me tell you, and after just playing 3 hours I can tell you this is an awesome game. It's got the right ARPG feel and presses all those right buttons. Ooh yeah

I have a few questions Rabid

How are the skills? Is it just two active skills that you equip? Or are there more skills available to use? Like on number hotkeys or something. In other words, is it like Diablo 2 where I thought it was kinda lame how you'd just only use 2-3 skills out of a potential 9-10 because the interface and game systems made it much more optimal for that playstyle?

How are the animations for the fighting moves? They looked a little stiff in the videos I've seen.

What's the difficulty like? For me, an ARPG's quality is at least 50% determined by how challenging it is. If I can brainlessly steamroll through it takes out the fun of having to strategically approach combat and actually benefiting from min/maxing my gear and skills.

Anything else you want to add that jumped out? I'm interested in as much opinions as I can get^^

I have a sinking feeling Diablo 3 will break my heart...is this a good substitute?

@Pill, it could be when it's finished, it's too early to tell right now. The gameplay is definitely there, but they haven't really done a whole lot to the story yet.

There's a big lack in questing, but I'm sure story elements are coming in later. There's enough to get you through act 1, but most the time you're just venturing forward and you want a little more.. Like D3's random encounters

The animations didn't bother me one bit. They work, and they aren't distracting. I didn't really notice much with the animations, but I guess that's a good thing. I've been really bugged about other games using say only the characters upper body to attack, so the fact that POE's aren't sticking out to me is a good thing.

Skills- you have qwert and 3 mouse buttons (the MMB is used) You just press the button and it fires toward your cursor. As far as slots go, I don't know yet. IIRC they said big 2 hand weapons could hold 6 and armors can hold up to 6. Only the belt and jewelry can't have sockets. Keep in mind you'll want to use some of those for support gems. It's not an extensive amount, but it's more than enough IMO. The good news is that items will always have at least one slot.

It hasn't been very difficult so far. I just beat act 1 on the normal hardcore difficulty without dying. Not to say the act boss didn't almost get me, but still it's act one of the 3 initial planned

The item system is a little restricting. Obviously you'll need a certain number of specific slots on your equipped items to be able to equip them. This can make you pass over equipment that might have been good. And if you're changing your big sword that holds your 3 strength gem slots, you may have to rearrange some other gear.

Also, items are stat aligned (str, dex, int - and hybrids) by type. This further adds to the pile of stuff you can't use on your current character. Well you could, but you get more benefit to your characters stat. Couple that with certain skills needing certain items to work -eg: cleave needing a sharp weapon, sweep needing a big axe, mace, or staff. I don't weapon specific skills are very common though.

The passive tree is shared and huge, branching off many times and reconnecting. This is also divided into stats. You need to watch out because stats are distributed by which passives you take. You also need to really get in there and look toward a path to get to your most wanted passives. There are multiple clusters of passives that benefit a certain thing. If you don't plan in advance you could really mess it up.

One of the things that was pleasant to see throughout my play is aggressive AI. They aren't just sitting around until they come on screen. They are targeting you and coming from multiple directions before you see them. That's a really nice change. Another testament to their aggressive AI (although sometimes annoying) is sometimes if you're just standing there, a monster or two might stumble upon you.

Well, anyways, still beta, still got a ways to go, but the item slot machine aspect is definitely there and monsters are fun to kill. There is a lot more, but it would just take too long to go over all the systems.

Sorry to necro, but for those still interested this game is coming along with a recent big rebalance patch, enemies with auras, ramped up beta invites, and more awesomeness. I do play it almost every day now and I must say that it has gotten more challenging and fun.

Anyways the main reason I post this is because of the new official video of the lead producer, Chris Wilson, playing the first hour of the game with the lead programmer Jonathan. It's a good video with interesting commentary and it's always nice to see the developers themselves enjoying their creation.

I had pretty much forgotten about this, until I suddenly received a beta invite. I was disappointed by the game at first, but after levelling up somewhat and getting funner gem things, it's starting to get more enjoyable. Also noticed someone calling himself DinkSmallwood raving about ducks in the game chat. I wisely remained silent. (actually, a little bit of stalking on the POE website reveals just who that was.... )

I never got a beta invite even though I signed up from the very beginning, so thus, I don't even care anymore.

Ninny you shoulda said i was looking for someone to give a key to a while ago didnt think anyone here wanted it *sighs*

Grats on the invite, hope you enjoy the game

I can't help myself sometimes. I haven't gotten a bite yet though. I guess everyone who's heard of Dink hides their shame

The game should be going open within the next few months. Early 2012 was the established timeframe for open beta. I wouldn't expect January though since they will probably want a lot more polish in the game and more content (act 3, new class, new skills, voice acting for NPCs) before open beta happens.

What the heck is this? It kinda turns my stomach. But aside from all the blood, the graphics look nice.

That's not actually in the game, but in the Templar trailer. If you look closely you can see the person bathing in it

But what's more disturbing...

You can never tell when one of those will be a threat. Best to get rid of 'em all.

Edit: Key given away

It'll still be a couple months before the beta goes public and I have a spare key, so I thought one of you guys might like it. I'm willing to give it away to someone who thinks that they will enjoy the game.

I'll wait a few days for responses and if more than one person wants it I'll flip a coin or something.

Ooooh! I would love to play it

Wouldn't mind giving this game a spin after all this time xD Guess the beta giveaway timer on their site doesn't like me I did read somewhere you're supposed to be an active member of the forum to increase your chances, but I find it hard to contribute anything useful to a game forum without having played the game.

Kyle wins the coin toss. I will PM that key right away.

Sumurai8, if I get any more keys I'll be sure to get you in.

----

It is true that posting (once I think) gets you a higher chance to get a key, however your chances are still slim because of the large pool of accounts. I've also seen people just give their extra keys out to random people on the forum when they don't have any friends to invite. It's also worth noting that any members with an account made in 2010 will get beta access on the spot now.

dang

That about posting on their forums; I kept track of the accounts getting a beta key on the homepage. Most of them registered long ago, did never log in after that and never posted anything. If posting something on the forums would increase your chance, it's a ridiculous small chance.

Thanks Rabid

Sumurai, when I get a key to invite a friend later on, it's yours Always nice to have more Dinkers join in on activities together

I have never posted anything on their forums..I've just been given access to the beta literally 3 minutes ago.. lol.
(At least that's when the email was received).

Congrats on winning the timer. Quite a feat indeed. Will we be seeing you in Hardcore too?

Grats on winning that indeed! Had an account since August and never got it, so it's just up to serious luck.

I'm level 25 so far, playing a Duelist, but not in hardcore Maybe my next character

On a related note, 0.9.7 is coming out next week with a bunch of skills. See the beta status sub-forum (beta members only- rest of you have to wait) for a sneak peek of some of the new stuff.

Going a little off topic, Diablo 3 now has a release date: May 15, 2012.
I personally won't be buying it until they actually finish it. Cutting out features and selling incomplete products really irks me. I'm not so sure about the design changes they've made anyways so no guarantee I'll buy it in the long run either.

Well Rabid, I have the Diablo 3 beta and it's still a good game. Yes, they've removed features but I can't say I "notice" them while playing, it still feels complete.

And yet, sometimes, especially after a level up, I yearn for the passive skill tree in PoE

I'm sure it will be a great game and will sell very well. However, it's not the sequel I wanted or the sequel it appeared to be in 2008 and the competition wins imho. It's big greedy company vs small fan-friendly companies. PoE is shaping to be everything I want out of an ARPG and I guarantee everything in D3 will be modded into TL2, so I can skip D3 without regrets and save a lot of money while I'm at it

Fair enough I think PoE definitely has a much larger variety in customization, which is just so important for the genre in my opinion. I'll probably end up playing PoE, D3 and TL2 anyway though, no reason why one has to be chosen over the other

They've posted 2 new screenshots showing some of the new player auras and skills to the general public. Check out the main page to see them.

Player auras will grant a passive bonus to your party and yourself, reserving a portion of your mana while active. According to the beta manifesto they may also have buffs that reserve mana the same way in the future.

I don't see myself giving up a skill slot for an aura at this point, but you never know. I hope they do more than just a passive bonus to a stat, but we'll see. Perhaps it will be possible to cast an aura and replace it with another skill on the skill bar though If that's not considered exploiting.

Well Sumi - I just got offered another key to give away
Come see me if you want your own access - but - if you are happy playing as you are now -let me know because I have 3 others that want that key.

Edit: Patch is out!! Woop woop its huge 1.22 gig this time Made it harder too - Me likey - act two was so much easier than act one I thought and cruel was pretty easy with the exception of one guy!! OMG Rabid have u seen the new purdy pics on the forum as well Gaps soooooooo awesome, all shiney and new!!

They wiped our passives again and I was just telling Sumi last night I liked where mine were and did not want a refund lol dang nabbit! Still downloading da patch - but hope he's finally moved the stash in act 1 for me lol

They messed with my minions as well wonder if they realise you can make heaps by getting out of the screen and making more then leading them back to the pack hehe *smirks* but we have 3 types now (added skeletons)

Brutus explodes after you kill him lolol awesome

New skills added

oh there's so much changed.... I was gunna not play that game today wrings hands and dribles... I think I need to get me to Wraeclast... heh

I would've stayed up if I had been expecting it this early in the week

I won't be able to try it until I get home from work, but until then, maybe someone else can enjoy it for me

CW59V-NDPVQ-TMW55-HMSL5

I've got 2 more from Chris. I'm reserving one for Sumurai8. So he can PM me if he still needs it and I'll throw another one out at a later time.

I've been playing a bit on someone else's account that quit the game being lvl 2 Used the key given to that account to activate my own account, so you are free to give your key(s) to someone else. Thanks anyway

He moved the stash oh those guys are so awesome hehe

Yay new patch

Why didn't I get a key to give away? Too new to the game? I wanted to be the one to give on to Sumurai for obvious reasons Important thing is that we're all playing it now though^^

I'm gonna start a Templar tonight, probably try a tankish build. I found a unique staff that I'd like to use though, but it requires a fire build. I'll see what I can make work.

Keys are given out randomly to beta testers and some for contests too I think. I personally asked Chris for some keys for the DN and he was cool about it and gave me 3.

CW9BZ-Y4T8K-TCHQK-93ZSV

I got one more left. Would be nice if someone would let me know if they get it or if it's been taken.

I strongly advise against posting them here just like that :/ Someone unrelated to the DN could easily come and grab it

In other news, I miss my frenzy mods on the passive tree

Great! I actually just got a key on my own account too I would say "pm me" if someone here wants it, but I would probably miss that, so emailing me would be a better option. It's a great game tho. We should sometime try to get a big DN-party going on PoE If no-one emails me for the key, I'll probably look around on their forums to find someone that wants the key badly ^_^

Last key went to magicman in the chat.

Was testing what kyle said and it does look like you can activate an aura and then change the hotkey to something else. You need to recast it when you enter a new level or go back to town though.

I must say that so far, this game is pretty neat.

To be completely fair, so far I've only been a clueless noob, derping around a bit, bashing things with a club, and getting killed when trying to shoot things with my bow. Still, pretty neat.

I suggest really not spending points on anything weapon specific any time soon. There's always better nodes around that have one or two handed specific bonuses and those apply to all the weapons in that category. I learned the hard way when I put points in sword stuff and then found a really awesome axe xD

I love the minions mine are so tough they kick sand in their own faces Got the new skeleton gem yesterday so gunna try those out - don't sound as good as my "bloodied babies" are tho

Get ye lot to hardcore and man up! If I can do it and have never played a game like this before you 'girls' should manage too

Sorry, I'm not awesome enough to be a girl

aww magic - I am sure if you tried weally weally hard you could be anything you wanted to be.

Third update in 3 days guys ... only 212 meg this time ..... waitsssssssssss

I die too much to play hardcore I'd do it on the full version but I'd rather test more stuff than replay the first parts on early difficulties a lot of times because I keep losing my character xD

but then we can all team up and help eachother

Edit now that I think about it - you lot want any gear or gems? I just kill my default characters when they go to the big beach in the sky but unload them fully before I do - I hate waste heh - so if you want to try same out yell ...
usuals to choose from
firestorm, glacial hammer, fireball, zombie, burning arrow,cleave, ice nova, infernal blow, molten shell, freezing pulse, etc etc etc and support gems like *cries* 2 minion damage - increased crit, lifegain on hit, added fire and another cold damage etc. They're no use to my characters now so :I (gave the portal gem away already heh). Umm some jewellery, few weapons/armour (depends on your level I guess) Fair few sizes of the life/mana bottles and so on.

That's real friendly of you to offer I have most of what I need already though. My Duelist is almost at the end of the third difficulty, but I hear it's going to get a lot harder after that... And I already die occassionally so it's gonna get ugly. Me like!

I don't get what's so special about that portal skill anyway. Isn't it just a replacement for the portal scrolls? It's not like they're wasted anyway, because they turn into wisdom scrolls at the vendor when I'm ever in need... Which is practically only for new characters so far

Heh wont be much use to you if you have been playing a while, this lot only got to around level 32 before they bit the bullet so its not high end gear - was thinking more along the lines of the new fellas like magic and pilly may like to try out the range of skills available - help them get a feel for the game - see what they like best

That's a good idea I always play with a friend who recently also got into the beta, so we already have the benefit of more and better drops to share between the two of us. If you're playing completely solo and are newer to the game, I think especially those skill gems you mentioned will be of use to them. Of course, many still have a minimum required level that's kinda "high" and at that point a quest will likely offer one up.

It's been a while since I played, but Hardcore isn't (or at least wasn't a while ago) really all that hardcore; if you die, you won't lose the character, it merely gets moved into the normal league. Hence, there isn't really any reason *not* to start in hardcore, though I guess it won't be for very long if you die a lot. Still, it does make you try that much harder to avoid the first death, and make the first death somewhat more impactful when you do die.

Oh, I didn't know that I'll create a hardcore character next then!

Nice new patch this time guys - number of changes - wiped our passives again (phew from me for that lol I messed up bad reallocating them last time) killed one of my higher lev characters first hit - ouchee!

Looks like witch gets some action this time around too Must re-try her again...

Adjusted the Goat Shaman's Molten Shell.

I hope this means the buggers can't one shot me anymore

I normally lead with ground slam to get rid of that asap. Those things wiped out my minions though causing my 9 zombies to explode themselves at the same time.

oh man rabid that would have been awesome lolol I had 4 out of 6 explode last night and almost wet myself laffin it was hilarious The coverage they get is awesome too lol

Theyre talking about trying to get out 0.9.8 already and are wiping characters (moving to legacy) so use your bits up cause you loose your stash as well. (Chris says) Going good with their bot stress testing

At this rate they wont need to kill off mine - this patch has taken out all my higher characters in one or two hits and is now working on the lower ones like around 20's (

This game sounds so fun. A game where you die all the time.

its beta testing - you expect to die heh you are helping test their stuff for release so they change things up so nothing is expected and its always new - what worked in the past wont work with new updates if they changed those bits. It really is an amazing game dinkyone - you should have a go If an old wrinkley like me can play it an old wrinkley like you can too Have noticed it isnt condusive to dmodding tho.....

Plus... I still have a key *hint hint hint*

There's a wipe to legacy coming with 0.9.8? I haven't heard anything on that.
That normally only happens when there are big changes and items with an old balance need to be purged from the main testing leagues.

Perhaps it's a sign that big things are coming very soon.
Cutthroat league? The 6th class? Act 3? Pvp? The trading system? Summons overhaul?

If they're still on track for opening up the beta in April (the most recent estimate to my knowledge), we should expect these things to be coming within the next month.

yes he said they're racing to get the next patch out He was on chat yesterday answering all our questions

What is the "cutthroat league"?

The cutthroat league is where you can invade other peoples instances and kill them. When you die you drop all of your equipped gear. Should be an interesting ladder for that league with everyone killing each other for the top spot.

This will also have it's own hardcore and default versions.

Usually I am not that interested in PvP, but I certainly want to try it out on PoE

Wait so is this league a place where if you enter an instance, it is shared by all others inside that instance at the time? Or of random persons? I hope they actually make sure levels are somewhat equal for the invader and the potential victim

The league is a game of its own. It's like HC and default. They are separate and you need to make a new character in that league.

As far as the specifics of that league, we don't know much. One would assume you would be able to make your own instances normally, or you could join in someone else's. The reverse being that at any time, anyone can join your instance and help or harm you.

Playing in a group would be a good idea for this one, and I predict that fights for the top ladder positions could result in big battles between two different groups.

Of course you always run the risk of being invaded by a high level, but as in D2 you should be able to make a TP and just make a new instance if you have to. I'm not sure if there's going to be anything in place to prevent bullying behaviors such as stalking an individual and killing them over and over. That could also lead to a D2 behavior where when you get griefed by a higher level, you then bring in your best character to get them back. Having high level escorts could pop up in guilds and perhaps you could do a little on the side for some sort of compensation.

It's like the Hunger Games!

That league sounds so nasty I can see the appeal it might have for some, but I can see more frustration than fun coming out of it for me personally

I'm not really a Pvp guy, but I'd like to give it a try. It most likely will not be my 'main' league, but it should be good for kicks. It's gonna be really harsh dying there since all your skills will be dropped alongside your gear

I'm taking a small break from PoE to catch up on some of the earlier A-RPGs I missed out on. I still have Titan's Quest to finish (started 2 times and haven't beat it yet) and I recently bought the Dungeon Siege trilogy for $10 on steam. Should keep me busy until the next big patch.

I heard the 3rd Dungeon Siege was bad character wise due to being solo, lol. I enjoyed One and Two though, including expansions.
Correct me if I'm mistaken.

I personally didn't like any of the Dungeon Siege games very much, though the second game is the best by far. Try playing it co-op with friends, it makes it a LOT more fun.

As for Titan Quest, I played that game to death. Definitely over 300 hours clocked on that one across all characters and even played a lot of the mods for it. If I can make a suggestion, use the x3 mod if you think the game is too easy (it is), which duplicates the amount of monsters (and bosses!) by 3. Note that that means that you will outlevel content quickly :/ On the positive side, you get three times the drops

Just looked on my facebook and was surprised to see this.

Path of exile will be open to the public for the weekend

Apparently it's for stress testing purposes and it may happen again in the future. I've changed the title of the thread to reflect this. There's also a big countdown on the main page for people who like staring at those

Edit:
Some new info that 0.9.8 will be deployed before the public weekend. It won't be big content-wise, but will have the friends list. There will also be a move of all existing characters to the legacy leagues to purge the economy of items that will no longer be able to drop. You can still play those characters if you want. Legacy leagues are pretty much ghost towns though.

They say they will have a few new skills in that patch though.

Anyway, I think everyone in this community who's even remotely interested in Hack & Slash games should try this one out. It might not be as popular in the mainstream's eyes as the heavyhitters Diablo and Torchlight, but it definitely stands its own ground among them if you give it a chance.

It's not worth being able to play for one weekend. <_<

Aww don't you ever try something for less time than a weekend and decide if you like it or not? Get yourself a character and come play with Em or else

I think it's worth it to play it for a weekend to see what the game is all about They said they will release beta keys soon-ish again too, so -if- you like it, I am sure one of us can give you a key when one of us recieves one.

A weekend will tell you all there is to tell about the game. You don't need more time to figure out if you like it or not.

If you mean that it's useless to play a character that will be deleted anyway, then that's a valid concern for long term commitment, but surely not for a weekend.

they're not deleting those characters they're left on their accounts like ours are - they just cant access them till they get a key or it becomes open. Wipe to legacy is expected for a game thats not really open yet - at least if you really wanna play them theyre still there.

Edit: they wiped our skills again dang it

Edit edit - well they didn't wipe mine - thats weird cause my friend got hers wiped - interesting huh....

I say go for it. Completing the first difficulty would be very feasible within the timeframe and you should get to experience a decent portion of the mechanics. Who knows, you could make friends with someone and end up with a key in the end.

I don't have keys any atm, but if I get another you can use it.

yeah me too Abs -I keep's ya a key if I get one

Another update b4 the weekend fells 'Oh joy' and a reset to 9.06 defence from yer armour (after they killed all my high lev chars - cries - to quote ...
Returned the defensive properties off armour pieces (that add Armour, Evasion or Energy Shield) to 0.9.6 values. We consider the 0.9.7 armour changes a failed experiment.

Chris was on again and says the new gems will drop in the world YAY no more waiting (if u are lucky)

Fail indeed - alas too late for a number of my precious Templars, one meat head (er marauder) and a few wenchy witches - R.I.P.
*bows head for a min of silence to all those who have passed*
Ok -carry on!

Added Pillbug and MsDink to my shiny new friends list. Looks like you add by using any of the persons' character names and it friends the account. After the migration to legacy league, I'l probably be rebuilding my charactes Bohunk and Hoard so you guys can add me through one of those.

If any of you are going to keep playing your characters when they are put in legacy, I have a lot of shiny things I can give you since I won't be playing on that league.

Actually Abs, you could make a character in legacy league and I could load you up on skill gems and stuff so you have more to play around with during the weekend.

Hoooooooly! Those gems dude xD

Nice unique you got there too, would be nice for an energy shield build, although I'm not sure how that will fare at the higher difficulty levels. You could also use that unique together with the keystone that converts your energy shield to mana for a large boost. Not sure if it would be an effective build either though.

How did you get that many Chromatic Orbs?

Chromatics are easy to obtain if you know the vendor recipe. Any item with red-blue-green sockets all linked together will give you one. A six socket item (doesn't need to be linked) will get you 7 jeweler's orbs (used to be 10.) Those don't pop up until the 50's though.

I'm fairly certain the +100% es is local to the item. Otherwise it would say '100% increased maximum Energy Shield' like passives do. Still, the movement speed it always a good mod to have and nearly 40% mana regen is a lot for an item I believe. Cannot be frozen is great, but not as overpowered as it would seem. You can still be chilled and that can slow you down a lot. Being frozen solid and not having a flask to unfreeze you can certainly spell doom for your character. I lost my lvl ~62 ranger with 3 or so monsters on the screen due to being frozen for an extended period of time.

I get what you're saying about the maximum energy shield. I think it's ridiculous that it has that local mod then though, bringing 4 energy shield to a whopping 8 xD

Retail Therapy Shopping on Exile enjoy

I might be making a fool out of myself here, but I posted something on the GGG forums about the new "Melee Damage when on full life" gem.
This post

Just wanted you PoE vets to check out if I'm missing something serious in my argument, so I can maybe, erm, hehe, correct myself before I get flamed Though it looks like the community in general is nice enough. I just have bad experiences with saying anything wrong on game forums (not TDN of course ).

I think the intended use would be to use alongside added melee damage, not as a replacement. Since you can't outright stack multiple supports of extra melee damage, this is a new way to boost that extra physical damage even further.

Well this is kind of binary. Either you have full health and it duplicates the regular gem or it does nothing. Kinda boring if it's meant to be used as an extra boost on top of the regular melee gem But I see now how that could have been the intent, even though I feel the gem has more potential.

Donations page is up and I am drooling

https://www.pathofexile.com/purchase/

You get the normal amount of cash shop points, plus bonuses. Pretty sweet.
It's also noted that open beta is now expected in June.

Now I have some keys to give away - please pm me and lemme know if you want one

Well I noticed someone here is a supporter of the same color as his Dink avatar background

have to hang on with those keys sorry - I am in the wrong category of support so will give them out when they change me to the correct one - sorry - may be after Easter they're really busy!! They have 5 $1k supporters already awesome huh

Apparently I already got an account there so I can play the game, also, it must be the most extensive talent tree I've ever seen.

Gold is the only way to go
Got my fancy golden kiwi and will enjoy all the signed merchandise when it comes my way. These guys are awesome and they deserve the support.

I also have some more keys, so if anyone wants to try the game and can't donate for whatever reason hit me up via reply or PM.

Just from tracking the devs' posts it seems that Totems will be in 0.9.9 and Act 3 will be released alongside open beta. So Act 3 is a few months away, but totems are coming soon and are something I've been excited about for a long time.

From my understanding from discussions past, totems are stationary, have a life pool, and can do interesting things like act as a turret or buff/debuff allies/enemies witin a radius. Also, awhile back there was talk of a 'totemify' support gem. Of course this is mostly from memory and there are some unknowns like is it casted at the players feet or at a target location.

So what awaits us in 0.9.9? Totems with auras? Totem ice spear turrets? Frost nova totem? Curse totem? Detonate dead totem?? We shall find out soon

What about the final class? Any rumors/news about that? I've got a dagger build ready to try but it's really only supereffective from the starting point of the int/dex class

This is really all we know.

He's coming before open beta and there are animations and new skills that need to be finished for him including traps.

I've never tried daggers (or claws) simply because of the lack of AoE skills that are there for it. You could always go with generic damage/attack speed passives and it would probably turn out fine.

*grumbles*...nerds...*grumbles*

Why don't you try it out Skull? Doesn't hurt to play it, if you don't like it, it takes only a click to uninstall

The lack of AoE skills for daggers is indeed a turn off. But, Flicker Strike makes up for it. Just the idea of a claw/dagger "rogue" kind of character always appeals to me, so I wanna make it work somehow. I don't feel like waiting for traps to try it out though, since I've never been a trap fan in any ARPG.

Whats traps Rabid? Some fancy thing I dun know about or just what it says - a trap?

Just a trap. You lay it on the ground and it activates when an enemy walks over it.

I guess the usefulness depends on the situation. In most cases you are better off directly attacking an enemy, but if you are weary about upsetting a strong mob, a trap can be handy to get that extra hit or possible snare in before they get to you.

I have an account but I realize I won't be able to play much, and last time I tried it froze three times. But that was last weekend when there was an open beta.

ahh ok

@Leprochaun: You're welcome to have a key and try it again in your free time. It doesn't seem like anyone else wants one. I'll PM one key to you and that'll leave me with 3 others.

So moving on, does anyone who's already in need another key for a friend/family member?

leppy has a key - its just not working on his computer :*(

So I was playing this earlier...and by that I mean, 2 minutes ago...and is it normal for two enemies in a row to drop a thousand items each?

Nope u are lucky - some bosses drops aren't even worth looking at
You must have a multiplier for drops on

If you're comparing this to the drop rate of Diablo 2, then yes there is a significantly larger amount of loot drops. This was also the case in Titan Quest and Torchlight, two ARPGs considered to be worthy successors to Diablo 2 in their own way. I like the loot drop amount so much more than the ancient design in Diablo 2, which has also been carried on to Diablo 3 unfortunately. While playing the D3 beta, I found exactly 1 rare item in the field over 10-12 hours of playing. The end boss of the beta did always drop a rare though and I believe this is set in stone. Even magic items were very uncommon, you needed a champion pack for those basically. I can see how some people regard this as giving more value to items, but believe me when I say that in Path of Exile, while you may get more item drops, it definitely doesn't mean you get that perfect one you're looking for any sooner And don't get me started on uniques. Found only two uniques in all of my playtime

In case you guys missed it on the PoE forums, there was a livestream/ Q&A with Chris Wilson last night. It runs a bit long at an hour and 20 minutes, but it has quite a bit of new and interesting information. Definitely worth the watch if you have the time.

Thank you very much for sharing this, I totally missed it.

How do you guys get all the dev info though? Mostly through IRC? Cause I read the forum daily but seem to be out of the loop a lot.

Edit: After listening to the whole thing, one thing struck me senseless... How do people get to level 30 in 3 hours? That takes me many, MANY more hours to achieve. I would love to hear some "powerlevel" techniques, because for me the real fun usually starts when I get closer to finishing out the core passive points that establish the build I'm aiming for. Coincidently, that is often around level 30-35.

I frequently check on the devs' posts via profiles (Mainly Chris, Mark_GGG, and Rory) that's where most of my info comes from. Occasionally they will be in game and answer questions. I've even seen a dev in game asking to party up which was cool.

I can't really say for lvl 30 in 3 hours but in the 2 hour competition I made it to level 20 with a party member. It heavily involved running past most monsters, only killing large groups, and consistently staying 3-4 levels below the content. It's not something I regularly practice in HC because it can be risky, but then again if you have good twink gear, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

When you say killing large groups, do you mean you run past them until there's a bunch following you, then round them up and kill them? I also play with a friend most of the time, so it could be doable I guess. Don't have any twink gear however. I'll try staying below the enemy level, but that has proven hard xD I'm usually 2-3 levels above it if I clear out the zones... Until later difficulties of course.

lol I think "run past them" means DONT LOOK BACK dont round them up dont kill them just pass em by unless there is so many you have to stop and take some out.

Re the drops Abs, I said to Rory on chat there was just junk from bosses and nothing worth stopping for - he told me there is not gunna be good drops till they create a way to stop the players farming bosses - dang it. Not something I ever did cause of the dross - geesh its just beta theyre gunna wipe it anyways in July heh why are they worried about what orbs / gems good stuff we get.

See there is another patch - watch out they haven't slammed that act 2 boss in without telling us eek i am just heading there shortly - will let u know if they put him in as a surprise!!

Careful not to go there on a valuable hardcore character Who knows what the boss will do. Maybe stack explosive arrow charges on you and BOOM

I'm not really sure why they are handling boss loot the way they are atm. It's understandable that they would want you to have to complete the whole dungeon in order to farm bosses for good drops, but then they stuck the large chests in the rooms with them so you can effectively skip the crappy boss drops and loot the chest for good drops. I'm sure all of this is subject to change though.

I got into the cutthroat test league last night (lasted over an hour) and it was a blast. If it makes it to this weekend race I urge you guys to give it a try.

Its beta kyle - I dont care about my character when I know they will kill him off to the legacy slot in the sky in a little while This part is for fun and trying things - not worrying about dying. Plus I have this awesome flask that protects my chicken legged templars bum with +10,000 armour - saved my wee bacon many a time it has

Alas no boss tho - passed thru to cruel uneventfully again dag nabbit!

They were testing it again tonight rabid Hearing good things

So I thought: let's see how it goes if I try to powerlevel a ranger following this really popular build! Ran past the enemies until I was 2 levels below (didn't go for 3 because I didn't have a partner), went fine until I came to The Ledge I died. On my first hardcore character! I was only level 7. Either I just suck or I shouldn't do this powerleveling on a HC character on my first try xD

I have one of those Diamond Flasks too, it's way overpowered seriously. I hope they nerf that flask so you don't HAVE to have one to survive.

Don't think I'll participate in Cutthroat. I'll die at level 1, over and over and over I'm 100% sure

Also, I realize it's beta and that these characters are throw-away stuff

Next cutthroat test is 2 hours from now, check this thread for details.
(edit: And it's over now)

This weekend's Cut-throat Event will be 10am Sunday April 22 NZ time. Give it a try, die a few times, Pk some noobs and have fun doing it.

My flask is granite not diamond
And if i was "encouraged" to try it Kyle you better join us I will give u a race to see which of us dies the most and the fastest - see I am distraction for you lot so they come after me and take me out while you two sneak up on them and take them out and stash the goodies

Oops, I meant Granite, not Diamond Though I have one of both now. Yeye, you two probably have 10 of each across your characters, I'm just slow
Enjoying my Molten Shell tank a lot now, almost at the last difficulty... A little scared about my survivability, but I have ways to quickly improve that with 2-3 passive points.
Didn't do cutthroat, but I might be interested in trying this out together with the two of you sometime later if they do an event like it again Three is harder to kill than 1 right?

Three is harder to kill than 1 right?

Well that was my thoughts up until last night. There was an organized group going around killing everyone (even other groups) which of course rendered the chaotic pub group I was in helpless. I did manage to evade them thanks to a lot of run speed and phase run though

I expect there to be higher level characters and more Pking next time as it's a longer league with prizes to most kills

I'm not sure which class I'm going with next time. I set my ranger up with strength armors and still got killed really fast vs melee, but the first time around I took a melee guy and couldn't finish people off because they just ourtran me when I got them down to a low life. It would also be neat to see if one could get minion instability over the course of the league (only take 10 points via the shortest route) and how that would play out. We should start to see supports coming into play this time around also.

So with people getting crazy stats like 50k dps, doesn't that mean everyone will oneshot everyone soon? ...

dang dang dang I got visitors and missed it BIGGEST SAD FACE EVA, aw man I was seriously looking forward to that
Theyre gunna do it again you say Rabid? I really want to have a go at this - sounds so nasty heh, maybe we can have a few test runs and builds and see what is the most efficient killing machine we can make heh. Is it your entire stash they take or just what you are carrying? Can you have gear in your stash ready for when u hit whatever level?

And nah I only had the one granite Kyle had being the operative word as it was sent from cruel to default with a double whammy in the coves last night - all that was left of me (in light speed and no time to react) was a blackened spot on the ground heh and although it looked impressive, I was not however amused and actually missed it when I blinked - Sumi had to tell me what happened lol. I did wonder if that strange noise I heard as I died was Sumi laffin his butt of somewhere in the distance through the still of the night as shock hit me and the song "another one bites the dust" played thru my head, just because he was smart enough to stay back a bit heh *sigh*

Ah well - he was stripped of his stuff, killed and resurrected as a bow templar (my first time with a bow) and wow they're awesome - trying new things this time and maybe the same fate will avoid me. I always used a bow if I found one on the beach to kill Hillock then tossed it at the encampment- this time I thought I would see how it went for a little longer so he has some close attack gems as well as bow and ranged ones... not too bad and is already back up to Fairgraves. Sad I gave away all my arrow gems and my awesome bows I saved heh ah well.

I found that unique Crude Bow... Is it any good for any build? xD I kinda feel like I should use the one unique I have But the damage is extremely low, almost making it look like it's a unique built just for level 1-8... But they wouldn't make a unique for that would they?

yup

So with people getting crazy stats like 50k dps, doesn't that mean everyone will oneshot everyone soon? ...

There has been 1 shotting already with the low levels. Of course pvp is largely unbalanced though. You are warranted all your flask charges per battle so that may be a sign they don't want battles to last 1 or 2 hits and be over that fast.

I found that unique Crude Bow... Is it any good for any build? xD I kinda feel like I should use the one unique I have But the damage is extremely low, almost making it look like it's a unique built just for level 1-8... But they wouldn't make a unique for that would they?

The way uniques are being designed is that generally a very nice rare will be best most of the time. Some uniques will be good for twinking or low-mid level dueling and that's it. Other uniques will be designed to suit special builds or have special mods you can't get anywhere else. In your case, it's just an excellent bow for having a lvl 0 requirement, but won't be useful past level 8.

They had a dev diary on unique designs if you missed it.

Well it's a shame you guys didn't make this one. I don't know when the next one will be. I hit another pub group which was much more organized, but ended up falling apart after people left one by one. I ended up quitting early because my char was much too slow to pk solo and didn't feel like exp grinding on a char I won't be playing afterwards.

Well it looks like 0.9.9 hit the alpha realm earlier and should come to beta next week. No new details have yet been announced, but we should expect to see totems and the newly unveiled monster the Necromancer.

Interestingly enough, the necromancer was referred to in Brutus' lore page and are responsible for his mutant Frankenstein appearance.

Darnit one area I hate is now gunna be soooo much more prolonged and harder - sounds interesting that he can raise dead minions - maybe we need to taunt him away from the carcasses so he has nothing to raise lol looking forward to taking him out - he would be a good boss for the end of act two. Just went thru to cruel again and still no act 2 boss - bet they slam him in and catch us unawares when they drop this puppie in eep

They did joke about finding a way to sneak in the act 2 boss without it being in the patch notes. I wouldn't expect it this next patch though.

You can now pre-order Torchlight 2 on Steam and get Torchlight 1 as a bonus. There's still no solid release date on it, but the game itself is looking good.

I played it at Gamescom, it's really fun. It's not as serious about difficulty and item balance as PoE though and there are no closed servers, so for me it will mostly be about enjoying it for a while until I finish it with one or two characters and move on, just like I did with Torchlight 1.

Information on 0.9.9 has been posted. Looks like it's still over a week away.

In it are big balance changes, monster AI changes (even harder monsters ) , a new quest, skills, mini map, bigger boss loot, and a few other secret things.

Also, they've posted the weekend event. This time it's a HC cutthroat lasting 90 minutes. Since it's HC this time, when you die you are kicked from the league into default along with dropping everything (aside form gems and flasks) on your character.

I hope there won't be a wipe, still trying to make it to Chaos with at least one character. Almost there though.

How does it work rabid - do you have to get to town and wait for it to start? Guess that means you wanna kill everything on the strand on your way in and get as high a level as you can before hitting town and the terraces cause that will be the only time you get without being attacked? Or is it something else?

Ohh and you gotta take 'notsorry' out - hes too arrogant and needs taken down a peg or two lol see u made it to 9 last time - awesome job!!

Noooooooeeees! Died in ruthless on level 43 (personal best anyway ^_^).

That means my unique is now on normal (and I don't play there), so anyone that wants my "Sundance Clasped Boots"?

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9534/sundanceclaspedboots.png
("Blazing body, shining bold. Dance beneath the orb of gold!")

Y U NO PLAY ON NORMAL? It's my home

I wouldn't mind taking those pretty boots for a spin sometime. Will probably be wiped soon anyway, but I'm thinking of trying a dagger Flicker Strike build and those would be nice for that. You can add me ingame as Aeram for example

I have some good items on normal from a recent templar loss as well (including some unique gloves and a quality hatred gem.) He kicked the bucket during a power outage on the ledge on Ruthless.

Don't remember the name of the gloves. The level was low but they had a nice 25% physical damage converted to cold damage mod on them.

....and i died last night as well (lev41) whilst talking on global (yeah yeah ) my stash was open and a spider a MISERABLE spider in the second to last area before ruthless chewed away at me till I realised i was getting low - I clicked my flask as I had heaps of health and my guy was going so well i wasnt panicked and apparently threw the flask at him heh... so, no life bottle therefore i karked it (most embarrassing). Can I take the prize for most pathetic reason to die so - long story short - lots of goodies and gems if anyone wants those as well.

That IS painful xD You know how dangerous a single spider can be

hehe thats what i get for gass bagging i was talking to someone hehe and wasnt watchigng but yeah theyre lethal

Just like pillbugs! *shudder*

You *clicked* a flask...

look, there is the problem...

you should use the number keys

Go on rub it in

There will be another open weekend (you guessed it) this weekend. What could be better than that? How about the 6th character class being announced and enabled for it

It also looks like 0.9.9 has been moved back a day and there are still no signs of official patch notes at this moment. We do have this lovely screenshot of a 0.9.9 mini-boss though.

Oh dear... I don't like the look of it

It is rather an odd looking thing? Its in the middle of "Lhe Ledge"?

Lets hope all u lot who haven't had a go at this get into the open weekend and enjoy it its - NZ made guys come on its as good as the movie LOTR we make good stuff here haha so start with making an account and download your wee hearts away

To quote Chris (on 4chan) "it's a unique boss Totem. It casts Shock Nova and Spark at you (using the new monster AI system to pick the right skill in the right situation)"

No actual telling where it is. Could be the ledge, rocky climb, or prison gate since the tiles all look the same. Actually, upon closer look, I think you may be right with the ledge judging by the types of enemies present in the shot.

I must admit, I'm not too fond of the concept art of the Shadow, but I think the in-game model pulls it together. He really looks like a serial killer. His wardrobe is a bit strange, but hey, at least he's wearing pants
The art with the blue ghost thing has been on facebook for a while now so it wasn't all that much of a surprise to anyone whose been following there. That skill with the green ribbon effects is looking pretty cool. The picture is small, but I think he is diving forward so maybe it'll be like charging.

I hope they put up a trailer video of him soon. The others have impressed me in the past and I want more

-----------
Edit: A newish quote regarding the use of totems, traps, and mines (first time I've heard of these)

tpapp157:
Totems can cast any spell (no melee attack skills) including auras. Traps can cast the majority of spells but not auras.

Totems are thrown and begin casting their skill repeatedly at enemies in range. They have both health and a time duration as well as a quantity limit.

Traps are thrown on the ground. They take a second or two to set up during which they can be attacked/destroyed. Once they're set they are invisible and invulnerable to enemies. They trigger on proximity, cast their spell once, and are destroyed.

Mines are laid at your feet. They are triggered manually by the player. A player triggers all of his mines at once. They cast their spell once and are destroyed.

-----------
Edit 2:

Total Biscuit shadow Preview
0.9.9 Patch notes (Wipe to legacy included)
0.9.9 Deployment (1.33 GB)
Skill tree changes

NICE!!

I tried the beta, and as a game... I liked it! The downside was, my poor laptop couldn't handle the graphical workload without terrible lag, making it pretty much unplayable. So I'll have to give this a miss even though it seems like a cool game.

you can turn those down and reduce shadows etc, try the other server if u logged on European try the American and vice versa - I had major issues till i did that now i am playing it heaps hehe addiction is a sorry state

Everyone on this site who I've talked to about PoE say it's not like any other MMO - not a generic RPG hack and slash with fetch quests or anything...

Wrong.

It is a generic RPG hack and slash and the quests are almost non existent. I uninstalled this after about a week or so of play.

Booooooorrriiinnnnng.

Did you really have to download it to figure that out?

"Everyone on this site who I've talked to about PoE say it's not like any other MMO - not a generic RPG hack and slash with fetch quests or anything..."

1) Nobody here ever said it was like an MMO. Ever.
2) It's not a generic Hack & Slash within its genre. Try playing some other hack & slashs to compare to.
3) Boring is your own opinion, just means you don't like that particular genre in general.

3) Boring is your own opinion, just means you don't like that particular genre in general.

Yeah, these "diablo clones" (isn't there a better term for these types of games? It's not like Diablo invented the genre) are essentially just a huge waste of time: Kill critters to get better items to be able to kill tougher critters, which give you better items, so that you can kill even tougher critters, which give you even better items... Repeat forever.

I'm not a big fan of the genre either, but it's fun for a while, usually until you beat the game once.

There's more to it in my opinion. A well designed A-RPG will have enough incentive to try the other classes or preferably other builds for the same class. PoE does this very well imo. Diablo 3 on the other hand... Not so much. I do indeed think that once I beat that on Inferno I'll quit and go back to PoE

This is a game genre about improving your character, learning how to play it well and then just getting the best gear possible for your exact class and build combination. It's really just a genre about setting a goal and reaching that eventually, then setting that character aside and setting a new goal Rinse repeat until you're sick of it

It looks nice, and I specially like that there is a duelist class, and an option to play with fencing swords.

Upcomming patch aptly named 0.9.12qq will implement resistance penalties for difficulties (at -20%/-40%/-60%). This patch will also include (surprise) a character wipe to legacy.

I may be taking a short break from the game with the Castle Story prototype just around the corner. As always, if anyone wants my legacy currency/uniques, just let me know.

For anyone who hasn't seen PoE in awhile, it's really come a long way with updates to the skill tree, new quests, new skills voice acting, end-game maps, and changed layouts/increased variety to many levels. Probably more. I need to finish my coffee.

Edit: PoE is still in closed beta with plans to enter open beta "later this year."

I have to say, I fell in love with Tochlight 2... I still like PoE, but I think it's not completely what I want out of an ARPG. Though of course the open nature of Torchlight is unfortunate...

Without a doubt Diablo 3 is the big loser of the ARPG war imo.

Updated Original post with the following information:

"Open beta is right around the corner launching Jan. 23. There is a countdown on the main page and you can pre-download it right now from there as well.

The official Open Beta trailer has also just been released and you can find that right here."

A lot has changed in the past few months and the open beta patch will add a new act to the game. Again, it's completely free to play so no excuses for not trying it out! There are also some streams going on you can see from the main page if you want to look into it more.

Lastly, the current supporter packages will no longer be available when Open Beta hits so if you want a supporter forum title or in-game kiwi pet you have to buy it before then. Note that each pack comes with the cash value of shop points + beta key (in case you can't wait a week to play ) + all the extras. You can buy them on this page.

I've been waiting for the final reset to get back into the game. In the rare case that you're in Alpha rabid, what kind of starter builds are still valid? I've heard a lot was nerfed (dual totem spark and such), but I'd like to at least make my first character on open beta not suck xD

They tell u on the forum what is being nerfed and yus some totems deep heavy sigh. That arc totem is the shizzle

No, not in the alpha. not really interested on testing on that level.

I have heard of some of the nerfs such as the ones to Chaos Innoculation and Dual Totems and have seen the whining on the forums. I'm not particularly worried about it though since the 'fixes' were already confirmed to be experimental. Some of those changes won't even make it to the beta and if something is nerfed too far they can always have a patch to boost it later. As Chris said it's okay to have something slightly overpowered, but when something goes overboard or isn't working as intended, it just needs to be reworked. I'm interested to see what final solutions they come up with.

In any case I think people are just too quick to start worrying over something they really don't know much about.

I'm probably going templar for my first build. Long range spells or wands, lots of life, something that doesn't rely too heavily on finding great gear or skill gems that aren't quest rewards. Once I get that done, I'm gonna try rushing other classes for their quest gems so I can do more interesting builds.

Edit:
New interview/gameplay video here. (Skip to 5:40)
Gamespot interviews Chris Wilson while he shows off some unseen parts of act 3.