PAY TO WIN OR NAH?

[Hokagefall]

Is this game pay to win on anything?

can i grind through the game without having to spend any money

[Pxxloo]

Money can´t buy you any buffs / stats etc.
It can buy you cosmetics and other little stuff but most importantly stash tabs.

In my opinion its hard to tell if its pay to win. If you want to play trade, you pretty much need to buy a premium stash tab to list stuff online. Its just how the game deals with player interaction. That means, you have to spend money to trade comfortably. Of course, you could do it without it, but its way more stressful.

Grinding through the game is possible without spending any money though

[Calamity Heart]

You can, yeah. There's no direct player power tied behind spending real money. GGG will not sell you powerful gear, or in-game currency, or anything of that nature, and you can comfortably get through the campaign without spending a cent.

However, what you can buy for a small price are specialized storage tabs for various things in game that make collecting currency and special items much more easy and comfortable. These stash tabs also allow you to list your own items on Path of Exile's marketplace for trading, instead of needing to sift through the hell that is the in-game trade channel if you're looking to sell your own stuff. (This is only for selling; buying things from the official trade website doesn't have any limitation like this).

Stash tabs are the only things in the shop that are like this; everything else is purely cosmetic. Stash tabs are also a one-time buy. Once you buy stash tabs, they're yours forever. You don't need to rebuy them every season or some predatory stuff like that.

So basically, if you're looking to get super serious about playing deeply into the endgame economy or making trading and storing stuff from the multitudes of mechanics with special drops much less of a hassle, then paid stash tabs (a couple of types, at least) are pretty much essential.

But if you're a new player who's just getting into it for the first time, and learning your way through the campaign, then no, you don't really need to worry about it, and there's nothing pay-to-win that's standing in your way of learning the game and doing the story.

[სულიკო]

yes if you dont want to suffer having a cluttered stash

[Atomsk]

Objectively it's pay2win. You cannot succeed without buying a premium stash or currency tab.

[Thornburst]

you can accomplish campaign without buying something, then you will need to buy stash tab to sell items to other people if you want to/ if not - you can continue play without

[The_Driver]

You can also list items for trade via the official forums and be listed just the same, but the setup is a significant bit more tedious than using the paid premium tabs from within the game.

You are allowed to mule items to secondary accounts, so you also don't need to pay for stash tabs for mere storage size.

(Note that there are private leagues in which you have no access to stash whatsoever, so wouldn't benefit in those at all.)

You might however see the amount of time those workarounds cost you as enough to call it pay to win, depending on your definition.

[Illumina]

You can't pay to get stronger but if you don't spend about $30 dollars on some critical storage upgrades you're going to absolutely hate yourself.

The upshot is you can just treat PoE like the most generous demo you've ever played and then choose if you want to "pay" for it to fix your storage.

[Operation40]

pay-to-stash
i'd say if you make through the campaign, consider throwing them $20 for the "first blood" starter pack (if they still offer it)

[Nebucadneza]

Originally posted by Atomsk:

Objectively it's pay2win. You cannot succeed without buying a premium stash or currency tab.

you can absolutly succeed. have you ever tried?
if you play SSF or dont care about trade you absolutly dont need stashtabs.

if you want to buy tabs, you gotta spend like 50ish dollar and you have everything you need for the price of a regular game. and more stashtabs wont give you any advantage. it just makes you more of a hoarder

[Shoobflops]

Originally posted by Atomsk:

Objectively it's pay2win. You cannot succeed without buying a premium stash or currency tab.

You don't need a premium stash tab to "succeed" you just want one really really bad and couldn't be arsed to buy one.

[Scarsick]

Originally posted by Atomsk:

Objectively it's pay2win. You cannot succeed without buying a premium stash or currency tab.

Objectively you don't know what pay2win is.

[madnagash]

This game is not pay-2-win, it's pay-2-progress. You cannot buy any real advantage over other players. HOWEVER, if you plan on playing more than 1 character over level 50 you need the extra storage space. I spent 50 dollars on the game when it was in the beta and got the credits in the game for this once the store was live. However it can still be too space for me, even though I rarely progress above 60. There is an article if you're willing to google where a guy calculates that if you want to play the game optimally with no obstruction you need to spend 75 dollars (or whatever currency youre using). I doubt however many people play on such a level;)

[JoePrime]

Its not pay to win, everyone saying stash etc. But doesnt have anythign to do with pay2win.

[Sidian]

Originally posted by Atomsk:

Objectively it's pay2win. You cannot succeed without buying a premium stash or currency tab.

Objectively it's pay2lose. During racing events (where you can actually win), players keep their items on their character as using the stash is too slow and will make them lose (aka not win) the event.

[Rogue]

it's pay to win. You'll need some storage...