Current Events > Grim Dawn is the best D2 successor tbqh.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Titan Quest was very good, but Grim Dawn improves on it almost across the board.

Torchlight was fun but not enough of an improvement.

D3 was fun, but has absolutely no staying power.

POE is extremely good, but just falls short in a couple areas in my mind.

Seriously, if you like ARPGs and haven't played Grim Dawn, get it on the sale, it's absolutely fantastic.

I'm excited for the expansion early next year

TheMarthKoopa posted...

I'm excited for the expansion early next year

Yeah, I just heard about it so I'm getting back into it again. It sounds fantastic.

Its been my favorite for sure. Im also hyped for the expac.
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Path of Exile.
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whitelytning posted...

Path of Exile.

Also very very good, but Grim Dawn is better imo. Both deserve your time though.

Bump!

I didn't think anyone was crazy enough to try and follow up Kenji Eno's D2.
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I'm hoping Lost Ark will get westernized.

That game looks awesome.
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Spooking posted...

A lot of great ARPGs: Chronicon (2D, sprite), Last Epoch (Kickstarter), and Grim Dawn. I'm a little iffy on Wolcen and Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, but I understand why people support them.

Wolcen is fun for what it is, but right now it's kind of just proof of concept. Which is a good thing for an early access game to be, but it remains to be seen how well they'll deliver the final game.

Haven't seen the other three yet, I'll put them on my list!

Up

It's too complicated for me. How do you know what to do? The fact that there is so many ways to play overwhelms me.
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I see dual wield pistols. I want. Im broke though. Im always broke during Steam sales. :(
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AdviceMan posted...

It's too complicated for me. How do you know what to do? The fact that there is so many ways to play overwhelms me.

Start out with what looks interesting to you. I dont think you can really know what you will like until you try it. Go as far as you can with one build you think will work well and then move on to another if you get bored or dont like the playstyle. You'll gradually get accustomed to all the skill trees as you play and know what would sync well together. I dont think i really stuck with a character until my fifth build or so. Then i got pretty far.

Theory crafting is a big part of beauty. Ive only gone max level with one build cus ive tried so many. Seeing what I can formulate to be viable enough to get going and be fun using is something i feel like d3 was lacking since it felt so streamlined. Having so many options helps keep things fresh.
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AdviceMan posted...

It's too complicated for me. How do you know what to do? The fact that there is so many ways to play overwhelms me.

As a general rule, go in and pick something cool to you. Every level, put two points in the mastery bar, and one in a skill. Maxing one skill is better than spreading points evenly. You get a second mastery at level 8,skip it until you finish the first one unless you really know what you want. Don't be afraid of mistakes - as long as you're picking up and selling all yellow or better items, it's super cheap to undo choices.

Don't fret about the Stat points per level. Usually it's bes to pick the Stat which helps your damage most and focus almost entirely on that, with some elsewhere as needed for equipment. And you can literally leave stats where they are until you know - I've put in one Stat point in 12 levels. This is because you get stats from your mastery, so you keep up well.

Do every shrine you see and don't be afraid to look up help there - undoing those is a bit more costly.

Also, the crucible dlc is amazing for leveling, and if you get sick of redoing the campaign mode.

Alright, gonna try again next year.
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AdviceMan posted...

Alright, gonna try again next year.

Have fun :)

Yeah Grim Dawn can seem pretty complex when you start. As for stats, most builds you can just put pretty much much every point in strength and just do enough dex/int for gear. Even for an archer/rogue type build you get all your damage from gear and abilities, not as much from stats.

Plus its cool because you can have any ability do any damage type you want. Want your explosive molten strike to do lightning or ice damage instead of fire? Completely viable
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Do a lot of ppl play or is it a ghost town
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I think you'd have to find people to play with you. I saw some open games with randoms but coordinating on the forums or friends irl would be better.
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I bought it and couldnt get into it. Barely gave it an hour though, gotta try again.
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You can respec in PoE you just have to use a bunch of orbs

the good thing about PoE is it's non-linear specs so you only ever have to change the point you want to change, no going backwards to remove prerequisites
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thronedfire2 posted...

You can respec in PoE you just have to use a bunch of orbs

You can, but it's so expensive you might as well reroll.

I have it and just haven't finished it. I ended up going back starting fresh single player D2. My goal is having a lvl 99 on all classes and self finding every item in the game. So I should have something to do until the day I die.
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OctilIery posted...

thronedfire2 posted...

You can respec in PoE you just have to use a bunch of orbs

You can, but it's so expensive you might as well reroll.

oh I didn't even know they're expensive, I'm only lvl 62
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thronedfire2 posted...

OctilIery posted...

thronedfire2 posted...

You can respec in PoE you just have to use a bunch of orbs

You can, but it's so expensive you might as well reroll.

oh I didn't even know they're expensive, I'm only lvl 62

Basically, one skill point respec(beyond the ones given by the campaign) is roughly worth a chaos orb. A full respec is roughly worth an exalt. In my ~300 hours playing I've seen one exalt drop. It's the second rarest currency in the game.

OctilIery posted...

In my ~300 hours playing I've seen one exalt drop. It's the second rarest currency in the game.

you might just be really unlucky, I feel like I tend to get one as a drop per league (so like maybe 40-50 hours?) . Granted I tend to play with a friend or two so that boosts drop rate but yeah. regrets are also like half a chaos, not a full chaos.

considering that you can also get the funding for it other ways, such as just selling items or finding other orbs or etc, I consider respeccing in that game more or less free unless you want to do basically your entire tree (unlikely) or are still earlygame and poor
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OctilIery posted...

D3 was fun, but has absolutely no staying power.

Uh... It's almost 5 years old and it's still the 2nd best selling game on the eShop right now.

OctilIery posted...

Basically, one skill point respec(beyond the ones given by the campaign) is roughly worth a chaos orb. A full respec is roughly worth an exalt. In my ~300 hours playing I've seen one exalt drop. It's the second rarest currency in the game.

Regret orbs drop fairly frequently, to be fair.
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Grim Dawn is a fun game, but it pales in comparison to PoE. The frequent content updates and unique league mechanics make PoE untouchable in the genre right now.
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Johnny_Nutcase posted...

I have it and just haven't finished it. I ended up going back starting fresh single player D2. My goal is having a lvl 99 on all classes and self finding every item in the game. So I should have something to do until the day I die.

And a legacy to pass down to the kids!
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Allanon23 posted...

Grim Dawn is a fun game, but it pales in comparison to PoE. The frequent content updates and unique league mechanics make PoE untouchable in the genre right now.

But some of the frustrating mechanics seriously hurt it, and their design focus means a lot of skills are just not that great. And the community is kind of toxic.

I'd rather just play Median XL instead of any of the "D2 successors"
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QueenCarly posted...

I'd rather just play Median XL instead of any of the "D2 successors"

It's better than median xl from all I've seen.

AdviceMan posted...

It's too complicated for me. How do you know what to do? The fact that there is so many ways to play overwhelms me.

This is how I start to feel every time Ive gone back to playing Path of Exile. Last I stopped playing was halfway through act 5.

I have the game installed, Ill notice every time its being automatically updated. Then Ill look at the icon on the desktop & question whether or not I want to go down that rabbit hole again.
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yeah I just started playing PoE again, last time I played there were only 2 acts. I got a ranger to lvl 51 then made a shadow instead because I was getting 1 shot by bosses and all the syndicate guys. Frost Blades spam is pretty OP against groups, and against bosses I just spam multistrike flicker strike if I can't stand around and spam frost blades safely.
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OctilIery posted...

But some of the frustrating mechanics seriously hurt it, and their design focus means a lot of skills are just not that great. And the community is kind of toxic.

Bestiary was the last league where the mechanics weren't that great. I only got two characters to mapping before I stopped. They re-introduced the catching aspect in this expansion, but they fixed all of the issues people had with it.

And while some skills are clearly better than others, they do a decent job balancing each patch. Even the "bad" skills are still completely viable in the end game.
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Allanon23 posted...

OctilIery posted...

But some of the frustrating mechanics seriously hurt it, and their design focus means a lot of skills are just not that great. And the community is kind of toxic.

Bestiary was the last league where the mechanics weren't that great. I only got two characters to mapping before I stopped. They re-introduced the catching aspect in this expansion, but they fixed all of the issues people had with it.

And while some skills are clearly better than others, they do a decent job balancing each patch. Even the "bad" skills are still completely viable in the end game.

They still have problems with some maps and monsters being either unkillable, or incredibly tedious, and it isn't a problem with build quality but strictly with mechanics. And they still have no full respec, though they fixed my two big issues (not being able to buy skill gems as any class, and not being able to search the skill tree).

And they should remove ascension from the labyrinth. It's just tedious to do as a required mechanic.

PoE is a fantastic game still mind you grim dawn just edges it out.

OctilIery posted...

They still have problems with some maps and monsters being either unkillable, or incredibly tedious, and it isn't a problem with build quality but strictly with mechanics. And they still have no full respec, though they fixed my two big issues (not being able to buy skill gems as any class, and not being able to search the skill tree).

Hmm, I've got about 2500 hours into the game since closed beta but I haven't run into any unkillable monsters except, like, a 5 ghosted unique mob. At that point you fucked up badly so you gotta take your lumps. With hard maps, you have full control over the mods on it so I don't really know what to tell you.

The respec thing isn't really an issue imo. Just playing the game gets you a lot of regret orbs and if you have any public stash tabs you'll make tons of chaos per hour simply by mapping. It's easy to convert currency with the bulk exchange tool on the website.

OctilIery posted...

And they should remove ascension from the labyrinth. It's just tedious to do as a required mechanic.

It takes like 10 minutes. I don't mind it much. What I do mind is the AWFUL Uber trial spawn rates in maps. I've levelled 3 builds above 86 in Hardcore Betrayal but still only have 5 of 6 trials completed. It's frustrating that unless you want to join global channel 820 where people sell spawns you're completely at the whim of RNG.

In my last league I had all 6 trials done by the time I hit 84. Annoying.

OctilIery posted...

PoE is a fantastic game still mind you grim dawn just edges it out.

I do like Grim Dawn a lot, but to me PoE is just much better. Grim Dawn has a very d2 feel to it, which I love, but it's incredibly easy to me. I just blindly picked skills and didn't have any troubles.
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I have Grim Dawn (I think), but I didn't like playing it because you had to do Mouse and Keyboard, which I f'n hate. If that's the case, then I got a refund for it and no longer have it

Nope, I still have it. Maybe you can use a controller? I have have 82min played

*Re-downloads to see why I stopped playing it*
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Just hit Level 3, but I don't see where I get more skills. I know this game has a Skill Tree

Never mind, I see it
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D? That Saturn game about the vampire or something....man that takes me back I was in awe of the graphics. I think I beat it it's been so long.
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