{
"post": {
"title": "My thoughts upon first seeing \"Path of Exile\" skill trees",
"selftext": "",
"url": "http://imgur.com/0hrZfFy"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm sure that's exactly where it came from.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Although they might share a visual resemblance, they are actually completely different when it comes to the actual number of different choices you can make. The Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X is actually extremely linear. See: http://media.gameinternals.com/ffx-sphere-grid/straightened-sphere-grid.png",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Unless you played the other version of the grid where you had more choices.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I ran kimari down lulus path, teaching him black magic rather than his own skills x.x after a while i was like \"wtf did I do\"",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Well Kimahri doesn't have any skills. He knows Lancet by default, and Ultima isn't really \"his.\"\n\nEdit: He may have scan. Not sure.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "And this right here is the fate of your first 1-5 characters in PoE.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Does it not have a respec option?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ish. You can get Orbs of Regret and use them for individual respec points. \n\nOr you can squeeze them for their juice. Delicious!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "'Squeezing Orbs of Regret' kinda sounds like how I normally spend my Friday night.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Ha. Relevant username.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I was beginning to wonder if I'd gone too subtle. "
}
]
},
{
"body": "Tastes like the sweet sweet regret of your enemies."
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "And this is exactly why this massive forest of skills is almost no different than a game with a few talents.\n\nThere are builds you have to follow, otherwise you're a broken character. You can't respec, you have to restart. \n\nOnce you learn this by fucking up a few characters, you look online for a build, and follow it.\n\nThere's really not as much customization as people want you to think.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Yes, you get respec points from quests, like 18 total after beating the game. There is also a currency in the game that gives you 1 respec point each, but they aren't cheap and don't drop too often, but you will see them every now and then. However you can buy regrets from vendor store from orbs of scouring and chances you find. However I recommend finding a build on the forums and sticking to it. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That sounds so shitty it's not even funny.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The game has no actual currency. It uses several utility items. Things that upgrade the rarity of weapons, things that let you respec, things that let you identify items, etc, as various currencies. You can basically use them as they are or use them as currencies.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Its because the game is supposed to be unforgiving, its a classic style arpg where your choices actually matter.. If you aren't into making a character from scratch, and having all your choices actually effect your survival then I wouldn't recommend it for you. However if you are into theorycrafting and making a character that actually feels unique I would recommend it.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "not really, it gave me enough to correct any chances i needed to my build. I think it suits the game 18 respec points and any that come regrets have been more then enough. I don't agree with the notion that you should be able to respec willy nilly it takes away meaning from spending a lot of time and thinking out builds. ",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Nope, the idea is if you could respec nobody would bother making more than one character. ",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{}
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},
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},
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}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Yet, if you're careful, it grants you access to a world of silly shit. Working on a Dominating Blow Marauder build, because fuck it. ",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "This is what keeps me from playing games like this.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "This is an accurate description. I'll also add that these keystones can make things really interesting, or in some cases, simpler.\n\nI'm using Blood Magic on my Marauder right now and it's great not having to worry about mana; instead I just pile on the life regen/life gain on hit/ life leech.",
"replies": [
{}
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},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "International version is still linear with an additional few branches.\n\nThe primary skill progression is still A->B->C."
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "ugh, this makes me mad about Kimahri all over again",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's been a while; what was so bad?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "IIRC he started off amazing, then his grid started turning into a jack of all trades shitty at everything type of deal. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Kimahri's lifespan for me was letting him rush steal on Rikku's grid and then benching him until I needed Ultima."
}
]
},
{
"body": "IMHO his tree is redundant, after a few levels he's essentially stuck imitating other characters. really cool character that too often got relegated to my bench bc he just wasn't worth it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Auron was better burly sidekick at higher levels, once kimarhi side of the tree died down"
}
]
},
{
"body": "His tree starts behind every other character. While he starts out strong, he'll never catch up to any other character.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "And his tree was SHORT. I remember maxing him out in 'his' area of the grid pretty quickly, then it's just a matter of which character's early tree he jumps into. Good if there's a character you don't use often, I guess, but...",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The whole point was to give you a choice of who you wanted him to imitate (in case you wanted a second thief for some reason, for example), or to give him a little of everything. It obviously was flawed, since by the time he finishes his own stuff, whoever you choose to follow down their path is miles ahead.\n\nConceptually, I think maybe the devs thought this fit his role as FFX's \"blue mage\" character (having him learn the abilities of others). Extra points for actually making him blue."
},
{
"body": "I generally sent him into Rikku's area of the grid immediately since I am typically at that point looong before Rikku actually rejoins the party for good."
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "The cool thing about the sphere grid is how you can tear it apart and rebuild it with different nodes to get the stats you want.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Maxing Luck and Magic was such a pain in the ass, though. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I put about 160 hours in that game, and maxed everything except those 2 stats for my mains. Some things just aren't worth it lol\n",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Maxing Luck at least was pretty much necessary if you wanted to ever hit the Dark Aeons. It was also kinda funny how it made both accuracy and evade irrelevant.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Unfortunately, I never had the international version... that shit stung for a long time... (Wow! maxed stats! too bad my version of the game doesn't have a pretty critical amount of content!) Also, that would be hilarious, just some super lucky, clumsy people dodging fireballs and shit, and hitting by pure chance.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Pick up the HD remake that's coming out shortly - it IS the International version!",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "IIRC, because of the way critical hits were calculated Luck only needed to be raised to 128 to get the maximum effect. Anything above that was wasted nodes. "
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Towards the mid/late game, though, you had stuff like friend and teleport spheres, which allowed you to jump to different parts of the tree. \n\nYou can also completely remake the grid by changing all the stat spheres, although that is only really necessary if you plan to take on the stronger Monster Arena creations or the Dark Aeons. "
},
{
"body": "Hm, I don't think it's possible to really flatten out the PoE grid like this. There seems to be too much interconnectedness for it to make much of a difference visually.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's also actually completely circular, you can go all the way around the grid and find your way back to the same spot.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "So is the POEs node farm (what I call it). It is deceptively simple; which is its genius. There are only a few things you can go for that change your character significantly. Along the way to getting those abilities only certain things make any sense. Sure there are 300 things for me to choose from but I use swords (out go axes, fist weapnos, etc) and Im 2 handed (shields, one hand bonuses). So once you pick the main idea for your character and the one or 2 possible big node abilites, thats it; its linear. \n\nEDIT: Its good. Just not as impressive as it looks, even after your first char you start to see the irrelevance of most of the tree. \n\n\n\n "
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "It is, the devs have stated as much.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I literally got a reply from someone else saying the *exact* opposite.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I know you don't know me from Adam, but I've been playing since beta began. \n\nChris Wilson, Grinding Gear's lead dev, has been pretty open about his love of the FF franchise. Hell, the passive tree isn't even the only way the game can be tied to Final Fantasy.\n\nSkills in the game are equippable gems - all of them. Sound familiar? Like, say, materia? \n\nPoE = Diablo x Final Fantasy.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Don't get me wrong, if they take inspiration from a great game to make another great game - then I am all for it."
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Also the skill system is sort of like FFVII materia system. I really enjoy this game. The guys at Grinding Gear Games are actually really cool devs. PoE is constantly updating, so whenever new items and skills get released it opens up new builds. \n\n\nLike a lot of arpg/mmos, it's probably best to make a cookie cutter build that gets you to endgame and allows you to farm efficiently. Although when you build enough currency and collected a bunch of good armor, then you can start theory crafting crazy and fun builds. You can do that from the beginning, it'll just be harder without the funding to do so.\n\nI believe they got their inspiration from Magic the Gathering. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "is there an option to respec, I kinda want to play the game just picking whatever I want but I also don't want to hit a brick wall 10 or so hours in and have to restart",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You can get some items to remove a talent point, but no re-spec option is available. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Clarifying for newbies- someone could fully respec if they really wanted to by using lots of regret orbs, it's just done one point at a time.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It can also be quite expensive, because you get what? 120 or 160 skill points at max level and all the quests complete? That many orbs can be expensive if you're not lucky as hell.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "For high level players getting a full respec is trivial. Any level 90+ can easily afford it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "but for new people trying to just mess around it's expensive.\n",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah well if you are just messing around at lower levels then just reroll. If you're putting in the effort to get to 90 you should be amassing some wealth. I respecced my last level 90 after buying kaoms heart. If I had got it at level 60 in the new league I would reroll. You can get to 70 in 2-3 days easily."
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "How do you lose days of work when dieing in the higher levels, if levelling is fast int he gsme and youcan reach 80 in 2days?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The Experience Points required to level up becomes progressively higher. The later levels take a looong time to level up through. Max level is 100.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ooh i see, thanks for clearing that up"
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "It's really easy to run up new characters once you know what you're doing. I was really in that bandwagon when I started playing, but just prepare to learn the game with your first couple characters and start being serious once you know what you're actually going to want to do.\n"
},
{
"body": "I know it might be unintuitive but PoE is a game where you make LOTS of characters. This is due in part to the large number of short-term ladders. Don't be afraid to create \"bad\" builds because you will no matter what. \n\nThe game is very deep and takes a long time to learn. Just start learning by doing and have fun. You have like 25 character slots and all new accounts are free."
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "And ff7s materia system"
}
]
},
{
"body": "The only thing that mattered to me when I first played that is where Ultima is and how many steps it will take to get everyone there.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I just downloaded this game 3 hours ago. What have I gotten myself into??",
"replies": [
{
"body": "1) Almost all of the bubbles are actually just stats. In Diablo you'd get 5 points and invest it among Strength, Dexterity, etc. Here you invest them in this nebula towards what you want/need; strength? Mana regeneration? Dual-wielding attack speed? etc.\n\n2) Amongst those bubbles, usually at the far edges, are special passives that can affect how you play. As an example, one of them gives you a 0% critical rate but gives you 100% hit rate in return. Another Converts all your evasion into armor points so you dodge less but reduce physical damage drastically. Most \"builds\" online will incorporate 2 or 3 of these special passives into them.\n\n3) Your skill come from gems that you socket (and can *freely unsocket at any time*) into your weapons and armor. This means the only thing that matters about a skill are the stat or weapon requirements. Your Barbarian can use frost skills if he has the intelligence. Your Witch can use a two-handed mace if she has the strength.\n\n4) Your first character is going to end up feeling very crappy the later you play. This is normal. Starting from scratch and having all these options can be difficult and confusing, but you will quickly learn what works for you and what doesn't. You can put all those skill gems, armor, and currencies you picked up, and put them in your stash for your next character! You have a ton of character slots and they can all use the same stash! (Note: Unless you're in different leagues. Can't farm for gear in Normal and then hand it off to a character in Hardcore)\n\nEDIT: One quick last thing, because I see this misjudgement a lot: your starting class dictates where you start on the stat tree, and which skill gems you are rewarded for quest completions. It does not restrict your skill choices. A Barbarian starts in the section that gives him easy access to a lot of melee and health nodes, but given enough time he can work over to summoning nodes or bow nodes. *It just takes longer and costs more points to reach it, than say a Witch or Ranger*",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "like people have said, its really not as complex as it appears. It mostly boils down to, what do i either need immediately, or what major skill do i want to work towards.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Pick something on the outer edges that sounds cool and work towards it! ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "from what I remember as a noob Blood Magic is also dangerous to go for if you don't know what you're doing.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I've seen people using blood magic not paying attention and they take themselves right down to the barest sliver of health, and the next AoE attack from the boss is going to slap their shit because they're not watching their hea- Oh... they're dead.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Most people die once or twice to puncture or similar degen/DoT abilities. Also caustic manaflask CI epic facepalms.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Heh I remember one of my buddies bitching that his health potion was hurting him. Guy used gems to upgrade his health potion and he ended up getting a really bad roll where the potion did more damage than it healed. . I've had that happen with a mana potion, but it was a small thing like + -30 to mana regenerated or something stupid like that."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Yup. Before release when they standardized most auras to reserve 60% or your mana the Blood Magic node wasn't that bad, I would take it in a lot of my characters rather than use the support gem. Now it kind of sucks because if you want to use an aura (or auras), whoops there goes 60% of your life. If whatever character you plan doesn't need auras (not many of those are around) then Blood Magic isn't bad.",
"replies": [
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]
},
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]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "No! You're no longer anonymous!"
},
{
"body": "How does it compare to Torchlight 2?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "FAR more depth, but I think torchlight is more... fun... I guess. I don't mean that as an insult to PoE and I don't even really think it's the right word. \n\nTry it out, it's free, what do you have to lose (other than maybe some time)?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Oh, I had already begun downloading it when I posted that comment haha",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
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]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
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{
"body": "It's got classic ARPG gameplay & a very well thought out passive tree and gem (skill) system. \n\n\nBroken horribly by an inability to make netcode/servers & a treadmill approach to balancing. \n\n\n__What do I mean by these claims.__\n\nThe game has had problems with De-sync since beta, it has barely improved since then if you use a skill with random chance to stun occasionally you will have unkillable mobs running around since the server didn't update your client with the successfull stun roll fast enough. If you pass through a door with mobs nearby you will often find yourself taking damage from invisible mobs (because you're trapped back behind the doorway with mobs). These kinds of desyncs can often kill you, but still hardcore league is apparently the 'real' way to play the game. \n\n\nBalance, the game has gone through several different phases of nerfs / buffs which make it clear that the devs are not interested in keeping a static balance where the goal is to have lots of different options similarly viable all with different weaknesses / strengths (X class cannot do elemental reflect, Y class cannot do chaos dmg).\n\n\nNope, the devs are fully focused on the mission of keeping the game playable for the hardcore and thus expect you to re-roll repeatedly. Any too popular build will get nerfed into non-op-ness but at the same time a new build will be given a chance at massive OP-ness. Those with the time and in game currency to invest will get to reap the items. \n\n\nOh and you probably can't get very far without trading but trading is _incredibly painful_ and feels more like work than gaming. \n\n\nThis is why PoE is the game I want to love but can't. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Oh and you probably can't get very far without trading but trading is incredibly painful and feels more like work than gaming. \n\nThat's my experience as well. Trading for items you need becomes essential at some point, but it's a massive chore.",
"replies": [
{}
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},
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},
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},
{
"body": "*5 minutes later* \"Oh wait, 90% are just passive stat boosts.\"",
"replies": [
{
"body": "it´s a passive tree so yeah 100% of the stuff is passive and over 90% of it is stat boosts, skills have a different mechanic in PoE (gems that can be leveled along your char)",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "There's so much min-maxing to do about which key nodes your end-game tree should include, then how to reach them using the best paths, then how while leveling you want to get there (in which order to you pick the key nodes? should you use faster paths to good mid-game nodes that you will have to respec later? when do you respec, for instance at which level do you expect to find the gems that will require you to get that keynode?). So fucking cool.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "PoE took the best aspects of several of my favourite games to make a sinister free game worthwhile\n\nDiablo gameplay + FFX sphere grid + FF7 materia/materia slots + randomly generated levels etc etc",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "these are not skill trees, they are passive stat boosts\n\nNothing here provides a character with more skills they are all +hp +str +dex +int +crit chance etc.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "They very outer edges have things that change the way the game is played, but yes the vast majority are just regular stat bumps.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Even those are passives. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yes but having your minions exlplode or being able to lay 2 totems at a time feels more like a new skill than a passive. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Hey! I assume your name is an Alk3 reference. happy to see a fan. THERES LITERALLY DOZENS OF US.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Hey I've heard of this band. But I wouldn't recognize one of their songs"
},
{
"body": "Their cover of moving right along is awesome. And the song Armageddon that I know from THPS!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah, I heard about them from THPS too, been my favorite band since that game came out. I remember turning off every song except that and Rise Against's song.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I wasn't arguing that they weren't passives. I was saying they aren't all simply +hp/str/dex/int/crit .",
"replies": [
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},
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}
]
},
{
"body": "But it is a skill tree. It's literally called the passive skill tree... And there are skills that will change your character in a more unique way. For example, the Blood magic skill gets rid of all mana and you now use life for your skills. There are actually a lot of skills on the tree that aren't +hp, str, des, int, crit. The bigger nodes around the edges often give unique abilities."
},
{
"body": "+X to number of minions is a pretty significant difference",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "not true, there are pick ups that vastly change your character.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yes but they aren't skills, it's just passives. That's why it is called a Passive Tree.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's actually called a [Passive Skill Tree](http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree) <-- see link\n\nSome points are stats, some points are skills. All points are passive.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Come visit /r/pathofexile if you're needing help. People are pretty noob friendly there.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I just grabbed it yesterday and I've put 8 hours into it. I don't fully grasp the currency system and upgrading weapons, but I am getting it. This game is ten times better than Diablo 3, and it's free. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "For the most part, don't worry about using currency items on gear you get when you are under level 40 or 50.\n\nUnless you are like me and want to blow a couple alchemy and chaos orbs at level 20 just to make your friend's head explode.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Meh I'd say that using orbs of transmutation or alteration are pretty nice at low levels. "
},
{
"body": "What are those?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Just to add, until you are experienced, DO NOT USE OR TRADE: \n\nEternal Orbs\nExalted Orbs\nDivine Orbs\nBlessed Orbs\nMirror of Kalandria\n\nYou will get ripped off or waste these items until you get experience.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Save your chaos orbs, too. They're quite useful."
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "\"free.\" Wait till you got 40 stash tabs."
},
{
"body": "I started playing about 2 weeks ago. So far I have put about 50 hours in it and I don't regret it at all. However, the difficulty can smack you in the face pretty hard, especially the final boss which forced me to start a new char."
},
{
"body": "yeah.. I got an archer to around lv48 in hc mode, and another to 30 after dying, and a couple other chars under 20. \n\nI still didn't understand the currency system much nor the value of items. Pretty sure I got ripped off multiple times - probably shouldn't have bought anything from anyone until I'd played a bunch of chars / was 100% sure of the build I wanted to go and understood teh game better.\n\nthere's a lot to learn in the game, I pretty much just kept all the items I found until I was certain they weren't worth much. Still have a bunch of +quality stones in my bank and all my currency.. but haven't played in over 5 months."
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I just wish that there was a way in-game to highlight similar nodes.\n\nI've spent a lot of time with inner thoughts of \"I wonder if there are any +crit chance nodes I haven't hit yet....\", deciding I got them all, then finding out after looking online / after I stopped playing that there's a cluster of three of them elsewhere.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You can't do it in game unfortunately, but you can do it from the website."
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> They're very receptive to input from their players.\n\nReally?\n\nI suppose I'll sketch what I had in mind and pass it on to them.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "no need to sketch it, their passive builder on the POE site does exactly what you're talking about. They just need to make it available in game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "While that would be an improvement , it's not very robust and difficult to use when you can't zoom out to 100%."
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I know you want an in-game solution, but best bet is to just download the [Offline Skill Tree](http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/19723/) and that allows you to search nodes and save your builds, etc."
}
]
},
{
"body": "It's not that bad all the classes are on the same skill map so you really only need to worry about 1/4 to 1/3 of the map. Also there is A LOT of repetition (you might see +2 percent crit to ranged attacks 5 times over the course of 10 levels), also the layout is just set up to look pretty making it look more complex than it really is.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Path of Exile is a surprisingly good game. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Is it out on steam and if it how much ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "its on steam and its free ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Thanks"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Yes and free. "
},
{
"body": "Yes, and Free."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "[Classic](http://i.imgur.com/gVPu3ax.png)"
},
{
"body": "holy shit thank you for showing me this game it looks awesome",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It is awesome. Best f2p out right now.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Best arpg right now - free or not",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Man this is so true I'm adding another line to it.\n\nBest arpg out right now even if it's not that good in your eyes. \n\nSad but true. The online arpg market since Diablo 2 has been pretty terrible until PoE. "
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I think there's a point where skill trees cease to be skill trees and become skill forests."
},
{
"body": "[Meanwhile In Eve Online](http://www.eve-files.com/media/0802/skillchart.png)",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Man if only that was updated it would be great. The new mastery system i alright though.\n\nBeing the care-bear i am though i end up spending most of my time in both trading."
}
]
},
{
"body": "I liked going down the wizard path, grabbing a bunch of str and Dex and hp so I could wear heavy armor and use big 2h weapons, grabbing a bunch of skeleton summons and increased pet HP/DMG with pet explosion DMG."
},
{
"body": "This game kicks ass! Been playing it for a year now, still finding new items and making new builds. Love it!"
},
{
"body": "Good ol' Skilldrasil.\n\nI got my beta invite in 2011, and I've been playing off and on ever since. It's come a long, *long* way since then. I've taken probably a dozen different builds to level 70+, and no 2 builds were the same. \n\nWant to make a 2-hand melee Witch? Go for it. A dual-wand crit Marauder? Viable. My bow-wielding Templar using Avatar of Fire (pre-nerf) was massively overpowered. Just about anything you can think up can be done.\n\nFor anyone starting off, I'd highly recommend checking out various builds and guides on the PoE forums. Not necessarily to follow them to the letter, but to get an idea of how different notable and keystone passives interact and how different skill gems/weapons work together.\n\nI'd rather not make my IGN publicly known, but if any new players have any specific questions, feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to help."
},
{
"body": "I feel like if something is called a skill tree, it should include skills and not just bonuses to attributes."
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yep. I've been playing since pre shadow and its hilarious seeing some of these complaints. I can tell when someone stopped playing b/c of what they are bitching about. GGG is so on point and fixes any issue in a hurry ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yea like the desyncs totally fixed now O_o. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It's practically impossible to fix that, it's been explained many times as to why. I get practically no desynch when my ping is low.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I've always thought of it as more of a skill thicket than a skill tree."
},
{
"body": "This is one game I could promote all day. They do an excellent job with content, working on the skill sets, and creating fun items and monsters"
},
{
"body": "Thinking more of a stat tree rather then a skill tree. "
},
{
"body": "And people complained about the \"complexity\" of world of warcrafts previous skill tree..."
},
{
"body": "Final Fantasy X - nuff said"
},
{
"body": "Sum Ting Wong",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Wi Tu Lo",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ho Lee Fuk",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Bang Ding Ow"
},
{}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Whelp time to look for a longplay of this game."
},
{
"body": "Funny thing about this pic, it STILL doesn't show the entire tree."
},
{
"body": "I've never even heard of this. I think I just found a replacement for GW2. Good bye life."
},
{
"body": "\"skill trees\" i really hate that you have like 5 actual abilities and then 80 passives that increase attack speed. :S D2 clone that was better than d3 at least"
},
{
"body": "That sure is a lot of +X to stat! Holy shit!"
},
{
"body": "You could play a board game on that skill tree!"
},
{
"body": "You're kind of late to the party. Also, the grid has grown since beta. The addition of one new class has added like... 5-10% more nodes and shuffled a few around. Not saying you should expect it to happen again, but I wouldn't be surprised either."
},
{
"body": "Just got this game a few days ago, amazing"
},
{
"body": "Oh no! Final Fantasy X has come back for revenge!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "First thing i thought was sphere grid.."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Not enough choices."
},
{
"body": "Second time, actually looking at it, you realize no matter what you do, it's full of boring choices, focusing on health. "
},
{
"body": "It seems complex but it's not really hard to get into or make choices in.\n\nOne handed / Two handed ?\nHealth / Damage ?\nFire / Lightning / Cold ?\nArmor / Evade ?"
},
{
"body": "And then after playing it for a few days you realize it's a mini-game where the objective is to find all the life nodes is the lowest number of steps or you die!"
},
{
"body": "Its really not that impressive. If all of those nodes actually did something other than \"+1 str\" or some shit like that then yeah, it might be, but the vast majority of them are just minor stat increases and not really skills. Calling it a skill tree is an insult to games that actually have skill trees no matter how small they may be. \n\nThis is a \"stat bush\" that you try to cherry pick the best stats from. Big difference."
},
{
"body": "Again, these are NOT skills. They are perks that give you extra stats. Quit calling it a freaking skill tree to drum up interest."
},
{
"body": "Reminds me of FFX skill/stat tree"
},
{
"body": "Man, just imagine going down one path and realizing you like another better."
},
{
"body": "90% of it is +X or +X% to a stat or other ability. Not that mindblowing."
},
{
"body": "Glad you like it."
},
{
"body": "Inb4 you realise you have to take every HP node possible and will only use one active skill the entire game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Maybe if you lack any sort of creativity when making your build.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "\"creative\" builds that use more than one actives are niche as fuck and requires a decent amount of expensive uniques, or only viable in normal.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah, thats the problem with all of these ARPGs(and MMO talents, come to think of it). They're balanced and tweaked around the power gamers, so in order to reach the very high ends, all of the choice is almost completely illusory, and they may as well have made a game with strict, non customizable classes. \n\nI don't think I've ever played one of these where the character I *actually wanted to make* was effective.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Well, if I want to get through hardcore I can't make someone who gets oneshotted, therefore I either go shield or life. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Not everyone plays hardcore. Also, many that do play are crazy enough to try other types of builds anyway, and often are rather successful at it.\n\nThe Life + Regen and/or Shield builds are just the \"no thought required\" builds for hardcore. \n\nHeck, there are even people that run Chaos Inoculation in hardcore.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "So don't play hardcore? Are you really complaining that in a perma-death league you need to build defensively?",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "If you are only using a single active, then that's your choice. Nothing stops you from using more. ",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You are saying the viable builds(aka the ones that rarely die) need HP nodes, which is what I said."
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I wouldn't really call it a skill tree, more of a passives tree.\n\nAll the skills are tied to gems."
},
{
"body": "To me, the complexity of this passive skill tree isn't the problem. It's the fact that the developers think that you should start a new character if you want to radically change your build--so there is no way to reset your build completely. You can change a few points at a time, but can't build your skills from scratch after learning what they do without starting over with a new character. ",
"replies": [
{
"body": "They felt it was appropriate to follow suite of Diablo 2., where if you want to try a new build you start again. Many players did [and still do] like the forced decisions, the theorycrafting, and the beginning a new character to try something different. It was something I felt Diablo 3 greatly lacked with how they went about things.\n\nBut, to each their own.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "This is what I prefer. I'm still playing Diablo, recently tried a druid werewolf summoner, don't like it too much so for now I'm putting up with the werewolf skills and changing it on nightmare. But even then I could go to a completely new build as long as it's druid related. PoE makes it similar to that I suppose. Just the way it used to be. "
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "You get about 18 free passive respec points from quests, and after that you can use as many Orb of Regret as you wish(each one gives you 1 respec point). It's quite expensive, but if you have a very high level character and some spare currency, it might be worth it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "At the same time it's not likely that you're going to get a very high level character (85+) and hit a super dead end where you can't progress with your current build. Perhaps a couple of modifications are needed here and there, but if it got you to 85 it's probably gonna last you to 100 you know?",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "you know, there was a time when permanent choices were the norm. When the choices you made have actual impact on gameplay.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "They can make your choices impact gameplay without artificially inflating the game's playtime. D2 did respecs just fine.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "It really isn't that daunting once you actually play as those are pretty much all passives with minimal effect on your actual game. That said some do massively change your character."
},
{
"body": "I wish all rpg's had skill trees like this. Unfortunately paths of exile isn't all that great. "
},
{
"body": "you might think it's impressive, but in reality, there's like a maximum of 2 good choices per class",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
}