It is an extremely grindy and complex game. Over many years of playing in leagues, I have 2,500 hours played.

Any long term player ends up downloading an external program called Path of Building Community Fork. Which is used for managing, creating, and downloading class builds.

Not sure if you have opened up the passive skill tree yet. Most would call it a map of the universe after their first time seeing it.

The game is a bit slow to start. Most players don’t really become hooked until they finish all the acts in the game and unlock mapping. As a long-term player myself mapping and whatever the new league brings is what I look forward to the most.

If grinding is not something you want I would not recommend this game. You can spend weeks farming for currency and drops to trade with other players for what you want. There are still drops to this day that is so rare I have never gotten them myself.

I do have quite the extensive amount of content on Path of Exile in my ARPGs And RPGs index if you want to poke around a bit to see what the game is about.

We use to have a hardcore race at the start of every league here on Hive. However, with the price and lack of those entering it was discontinued for now.

Next year Path of Exile 2 is expected to come out. It is expected to be a major overhaul of the core game itself. Some see it more as just a massive expansion changing the core game with more in-depth fights and deeper mechanics.