D4 made me a fan of the ARPG genre, but POE is incredible.

I'm still getting to grips with what's a community to my main instance (lemmy.world). I think this is on L.W?!

Anyways, I've never been hooked by an ARPG. I enjoyed D2R with a buddy last year, but I absolutely hated the baked in lack of QoL things, and I never knew where to go. Mostly I was trailing behind my sorc friend who would be zipping off, grabbing objectives, progressing the 'quests'. It was a bit of a whirlwind, and it didn't really sink in at all.

I loved the loot and the sheer randomness of stuff, but having to make a set build was kind of shit. Not being able to re-roll freely.......the hell man?

#Diablo 4

Fast forward to recently, man D4 really added some cool stuff. Infinite potions more or less. It was a great time doing the story and hopping in with friends and enjoying the improvements over D2. But sadly the cracks began to show when we got to the post-campaign 'content'.

Spongy level scaled enemies, no power fantasy; and playing druid was painful. 'I neeeed more spirit' as I bash enemies with my basic attack. There's no reason minions should be so strong dammit lol.

Overall D4 was very good, and I think it'll get to a good place eventually, especially with the open world. I kinda hate the reliance of aspects and having that anxiety of not having a replacement standing by for the next weapon/armor. The town layouts of services too really grinded on me in the end. Shoutout to Cerrigar being the best town.

We got bored of just doing dungeons for the sake of it, but I still wanted some more ARPG goodness. And yep, meta builds or bust AGAIN just like D2, argh!

#Enter POE...

I have actually dabbled a bit in POE before, but not a lot. This time, I was ready to learn and absorb. It's got me hook line and sinker this time around. I am blown away by the sheer content, and build freedom. Somehow...I think I've done a good witch build so far! Most of my shit is spells, so they scale up, provided I keep up my spell damage % on gear, and casting speed passives/supports.

My lightning tendrils in Act 6 do like...30,000 or so damage and i'm largely one tapping with bursts of Arc and Tendrils, it's an amazing power fantasy and it's satisfying to screen clear coming from Diablo 4 where every engagement is a BORING slog, honestly. It's the opposite effect, and I fucking love it :)

I've always liked lightning builds, so i've not really struggled with the passive tree yet, everything makes sense and I haven't encountered any major problems. I'm making my character how I want and it's amazing I have that ability to do so.

These HEISTS?! The mining thing, what the hell? So cool. Not quite sure what these expedition things are with the TNT placing, and detonating is. But I love the drip fed random content along the way as I'm doing the story.

I know POE's had 10 years of content, but what a massive shock to experience this stuff for the first time. I thought the people with multi-thousand hours were just running the same campaign maps and bosses like D2. I was very wrong.

Just gushing, and enjoying Lemmy in the post reddit world. Loving the game, and hope to see this community start firing off.

Cheers.