Path of Exile Launches Oct. 23rd, Adds Husband-Killer Class

[IanDavis]

Path of Exile Launches Oct. 23rd, Adds Husband-Killer Class

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The action RPG gets a dose of fresh content and an official release date.

There's something existentially jarring about seeing a game that's been freely available for a long time announce a launch date. It's as if the world that you knew isn't as solid as you once thought. The latest game to exit open beta is [a href=https://www.pathofexile.com/]Path of Exile[/a], a F2P action RPG from Grinding Gears Games, which officially launches October 23rd. Not only does it feel that the violent hack'n'slasher is ready for a 1.0 release, but it's also adding an equally dark prestige class into the mix as well.

Path of Exile aims to be a hardcore action RPG from fans of the genre. Perhaps the most interesting additions to the classic formula are skill gems. Here, skills are functionally similar to the materia in Final Fantasy 7. Each ability levels up independently and can be socketed into equipment, and can be combined with other gems to create new effects. There's also a single, huge, passive skill tree that's shared by all classes, adding a massive amount of customization to the players who want it.

If this is all old news to you, then you'll get a kick out of the new Scion class. To match the brooding darkness of the rest of the game, she's a noble-born who earns her exile by slaying her husband. She's complex enough that she won't be selectable until players get a playthrough under their belt. "She's actually more complicated to play than a normal character," lead designer Chris Wilson [a href=http://www.shacknews.com/article/81433/path-of-exiles-full-release-coming-october-23-scion-prestige]told Shacknews[/a], "so we don't want beginner players to immediately choose her." To complete the update, Grinding Gears is also adding new gems and high-level areas, which should wipe out even veteran players. Better do your finger stretches, there's a lot of clicking to be done.

Source: [a href=http://www.shacknews.com/article/81433/path-of-exiles-full-release-coming-october-23-scion-prestige]Shacknews[/a]

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[synobal]

By Husband killer class you mean "Scion" who has as part of her back story, the murder of her husband.

 

[piinyouri]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

Have you played it? I'm asking because the game is very similar to Diablo 2 in that, if you build a class the wrong way, you can be screwed in certain areas/parts of the game.

So I can see the possibility for this new class being advanced, in that she may be hard enough to use that they want to ensure someone has shown a decent knowledge of the inner mechanics of the game by beating it once to ensure (or at least reduce the likelihood of) people getting stuck.

This is just my own opinion formed from the time I have spent with the game. I could be completely wrong.

 

[Xeorm]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

Have you played it? I'm asking because the game is very similar to Diablo 2 in that, if you build a class the wrong way, you can be screwed in certain areas/parts of the game.

So I can see the possibility for this new class being advanced, in that she may be hard enough to use that they want to ensure someone has shown a decent knowledge of the inner mechanics of the game by beating it once to ensure (or at least reduce the likelihood of) people getting stuck.

This is just my own opinion formed from the time I have spent with the game. I could be completely wrong.

Eh, from what I heard of the game and my brief time playing the game you'll run into the same problem with any other class. As similar to D2, you needed to stack stamina or else you'd be dying all the time.

But I also have little experience with the game. Played months back for a week or two and found it to be incredibly boring.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

So did the devs have a brain fart and forgot that the word "widowmaker" existed, or did they think that word was too cliche and went with something less... cliche, I guess?

 

[Vaccine]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

As someone who did high end maps before I quit because the game offered nothing else for me, so so so very wrong.

If you screw up your build by say 40-50 skill points back in the tree, the only way to fix it is to invest 40-50 orbs of regret to trace the line back, which is a lot of currency for an average player, most builds flesh out around 100 skill points, or level 80-85.
If you don't get the balance of offense and defense your character is basically useless in high end maps because you either die from the burst or you can't do enough damage to tackle certain monster mods.

 

[james.sponge]

So did the devs have a brain fart and forgot that the word "widowmaker" existed, or did they think that word was too cliche and went with something less... cliche, I guess?

'spouse slayer' would be cool . That reminds me I once played on pk Ragnarok Online server where you could meet a guy named 'girls slayer' who was hunting only female characters. ahhh gender wars....

 

[Smertnik]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

Yeah, it's total bollocks. Complex or not, the choice should be the player's. It's not like you can't screw up the rest of the characters. Just put a note in the vein of "Recommended for advanced players only" in the description.

 

[Hagi]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

As someone who did high end maps before I quit because the game offered nothing else for me, so so so very wrong.

If you screw up your build by say 40-50 skill points back in the tree, the only way to fix it is to invest 40-50 orbs of regret to trace the line back, which is a lot of currency for an average player, most builds flesh out around 100 skill points, or level 80-85.
If you don't get the balance of offense and defense your character is basically useless in high end maps because you either die from the burst or you can't do enough damage to tackle certain monster mods.

On the other hand if you don't screw up your build you're basically spamming the same skill over and over again, with a curse, buff and movement skill thrown in for some variety. And the skill that you will be spamming will be one out of a very small sub-set of all possible skills because the vast majority simply don't qualify as quite good enough for those high-end maps if you want to run them comfortably.

Or you could do totems of course, in which case you don't even have to spam a single skill. You just have your totem do it for you while you hide in a corner somewhere.

It's a fun game. It's even challenging and takes a bit to learn the skill tree. But it's simply very true that it's not that complex.

 

[Sandjube]

In all honesty, I don't really get the 'you must finish the game for the scion' stuff. She's not really any harder or anything, she just starts in a completely neutral part of the skill tree and is therefore more customisable. I'd prefer it if GGG just had a warning pop up or something when you click her, saying 'This class is more suited to advanced players', or something.

 

[Lieju]

By Husband killer class you mean "Scion" who has as part of her back story, the murder of her husband.

Nope it's a class specially designed for the murder of male spouses. That's why they don't let you play as her until you've gone through the story and know which of the enemies are married.

So do you have to marry the enemy and then knife them in the ear on the wedding night?

 

[Vaccine]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

As someone who did high end maps before I quit because the game offered nothing else for me, so so so very wrong.

If you screw up your build by say 40-50 skill points back in the tree, the only way to fix it is to invest 40-50 orbs of regret to trace the line back, which is a lot of currency for an average player, most builds flesh out around 100 skill points, or level 80-85.
If you don't get the balance of offense and defense your character is basically useless in high end maps because you either die from the burst or you can't do enough damage to tackle certain monster mods.

On the other hand if you don't screw up your build you're basically spamming the same skill over and over again, with a curse, buff and movement skill thrown in for some variety. And the skill that you will be spamming will be one out of a very small sub-set of all possible skills because the vast majority simply don't qualify as quite good enough for those high-end maps if you want to run them comfortably.

Or you could do totems of course, in which case you don't even have to spam a single skill. You just have your totem do it for you while you hide in a corner somewhere.

It's a fun game. It's even challenging and takes a bit to learn the skill tree. But it's simply very true that it's not that complex.

Game is complex, mechanically speaking, gameplay is not at all.

 

[DanielBrown]

Huh. Time to try it again soon then!
Played a bit in the open beta and had a blast, but after beating the game once on my templar I quit caring. Had leveled some skills too far to be efficient and it got tiresome having to follow a guide for the build just so I wouldn't mess up.

 

[Louzerman102]

It kinda screams of elitism when a class isn't usuable "until you're ready". Like the developers think the class is to complex for "simple" players. The game isn't that complex.

You are forgetting that people are very stupid.

The number of people that screw up the current six characters are fairly high. With chat on, "how do i re-spec?" and "I need help killing boss (insert name here)" are common.

 

[VanQ]

Path of Exile Launches Oct. 23rd, Adds Husband-Killer Class

Congratulations! You have earned the coveted award of Most Sensationalist Headline ever posted on The Escapist which by proxy earns you the award for Most Sensationalist Headline ever posted on The Internet.

On topic: I've been meaning to get back into this game and this might be a good reason. None of the four classes I played in beta really spoke to me so maybe this character will. I'll have to grab the Steam version when I see it.

 

[loa]

That skill gem system really holds it back imo.

All characters have the same move pool, leveling up some gems makes them worse/unusable because for some reason the developers thought they need absurd, scaling level requirements, early game is misery where you have very little strategies at your disposal, there are multiple duplicates of "normal attack that does element X damage" skills and the skills you get depend on random drops (!) unless you have been grinding for dozens of hours already.

The "combination" of skill gems is also not nearly as deep as it should be to justify those sacrifices.
You get multishots, bouncing shots, and a sentry gun firing the shots for you and that's it.
Everything else is just a numbers game.

A classic unique skilltree for each character instead of that complex looking but ultimately meaningless sphere grid would have made the game a lot more varied and interesting.

This game embodies quantity over quality imo.