Path of Exile 2 hit early access over a week ago now and because I have absolutely no self control... I bought the supporter pack to gain early access entry for both myself and my partner. xD
Then a few of our friends did too. Now we're all playing!
Consequently, all my free time has been spent playing a brand new super fiery sorceress! 😁🔥
88 hours. I've played 88 hours of it since it launched, and considering I now actually have a 34-hour-a-week job... I can safely say that all of my spare time has been spent in-game. XD
So. LET'S BABBLE.
As usual you pick a class and away into the world you go. In this case we escape a death by hanging. Welp.
There are more classes to choose from in this sequel, and being early access there are a couple more on the way. Each class has its own ascendancies, as per usual, has its own location on the passive skill tree, and you can mix and match to your heart's content.
HOWEVER. It's not quite as obvious in this sequel. Whichhhh, honestly, isn't entirely a bad thing.
So this time around different weapons have skills attached to them. If you find gear with sockets, it's not for gems; it's for runes. Skill gems have their own equip menu where you can attach support gems and increase their support capacity.
If you find a gem, you choose what ability you'd like it to be, dependent on level. And, depending on your chosen class, you'll get recommended spells and recommended supports for said spells.
Which is great for a new player to the Path of Exile world! The freedom of choice can get quite overwhelming, after all, unless you're a seasoned player. So there's an obvious linear progression choice for newer players, and older players can ignore the suggestions and just get what they want anyway.
There are so many Quality Of Life upgrades in this sequel! For instance, in the passive tree, you can choose which main attribute stat you'd like as you progress through the tree.
You're a witch and you want to dive into strength straight away? SURE! Go for it!
THERE IS A PAAAAAAUSE!!!
If you're like me and get easily distracted... just press 'esc' to pause the game before you get up and run away, or alt-tab and forget the game is even open. You'll never have an unexpected, untimely death again.
AND. If you do die. There are checkpoints in each region now. AND. If you get disconnected or the game crashes, when you open the game back up it's like it knows what's happened and has paused it for you to recommence where you were and what you were doing in safety.
AND. If you log out of the game for the night, go to bed, whatever; when you start it up again the next day... you'll be at your last checkpoint! As opposed to in some random town and having to do a whole map all over again.
So good.
VENDORS!
So, we have a vendor we can use to identify all items in our inventory without using Scrolls of Wisdom. We can REARRANGE OUR INVENTORY AND EQUIPMENT while a vendor menu is open.
Seriously.
That pissed me off so much in the first Path of Exile. I'd open up a vendor, realise I wanted to move something around, and I couldn't, because the vendor window was open.
Loot, however, is admittedly lacking.
I'm not sure if this is a design choice or something that'll be tweaked in the future, but I'm finding that if I want to succeed in this sequel I am required to craft. I need to use those currency orbs. Thankfully they have a much better drop rate in this!
I'm using regal orbs, divine orbs, chaos orbs, alchemy orbs... I'm not just hoarding them. Feels weird to actually USE the damned things, but at the same time it feels good to actually use them and not just stash them away to trade with others.
You find 'gold' with which you use at vendors or to re-spec... and there is a Mystery RNG Vendor in every town. I throw all my gold at them hoping that something decent will pop up, or something I can use as a crafting base.
Bosses are plentiful and actually have decent mechanics... I will say that a couple of them feel a bit over-tuned though. It's early days, you know, so I'm expecting lots of things to change before early access is over... including boss tuning.
Get used to seeing the 'You Have Died!' message because you'll be seeing it a lot.
I would not dare play hardcore mode in this sequel, not for a long time anyway to get used to everything. 😬
Some people are saying that this feels like Path of Exile But Souls-like, and honestly, they're not wrong.
Once you hit 'End-game,' you get an all new mapping system. I think it's pretty cool!! You start off at the Vaal Ziggurat in the centre and then slowly make your way across Wraeclast.
Instead of finding maps as loot, you find waystones instead. The maps are set and you use the waystones to activate them. Some maps will say that they have an Expedition in them, a Ritual, a Map Boss, etc. Some maps are hideouts and you need to complete them to unlock them.
Occasionally you'll make your way to a tower and once you activate the beacon at the top of the tower, more of the world opens up. The total map looks pretty damned huge at the moment!
However, I am a little disappointed in a couple of things: you only have one chance. If you die, that's it, your attempt is over and you need to reactivate the map with another waystone. AND. If that map had something like a Ritual or whatever on it, it's now gone forever.
Disappointing. Very disappointing. I hope they tweak that.
Overall through, I really like how they've started the end-game and I hope they improve upon it!
ASCENSION!
Instead of a Labyrinth with which empowers your character to ascend to greater heights, we complete Trials.
There is the Trial of the Sehkema which is basically Ritual from the first Path of Exile. And there is the Trial of Chaos, which is basically a better version of Ultimatum from the first Path of Exile. I hated the Trialmaster in the first game. If I ever saw him in my map, I just ignored him. I can actually tolerate him in this sequel.
I find that I miss the Labyrinth though. While these Trials are all well and good... they feel more like something random to do rather than something that will allow your character Ascension skills. Just a bit lacklustre, I guess, when compared to the Labyrinth.
All in all though, Path of Exile 2 is very promising and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
At this point in time, I can even say that I prefer it over the first Path of Exile. It just feels more modern, has heaps of Quality of Life, things seem more streamlined, and I really like a lot of the changes they're making.
They're planning on running both games simultaneously and having alternating Leagues for both games... but honestly, I'm unsure I'll ever touch the first one again.
It's fantastic so far, and I'm glad I yielded and bought that Supporter Pack. 😅
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 
