How is POE better than the Diablo 4?

[caley]

I am not taking either side and would like to know what makes POE superior to the Diablo 4? I've not had much time playing POE and haven't played much of the Diablo 4, so I'm curious.

Thank you :D

[Mr charlie]

Path has real trading. If I find a good item that I don't plan on using I can trade it for currency. Then use that currency to improve my build. Also there are no bind on equip or bind on pickup items, excluding quest items. If I find a better item i can trade my old item to other players. In Path of exile players craft the some of the best items.

[Samseng Yik]

Gameplay wise,
Build variation. Better freedom. No hand holding.
Diablo 4 class design is cookie cutter, Limited freedom of build variation.

End game wise.
D4 end game content is like 10% of POE mapping content.
Basically just ask the player "find something to do and level up and gear up"

Depth characterization.
POE has much more "basic gameplay mechanic"
Even defense itself has Fortify, Armor, Evasion, Energy Shield, Suppression and Block
Diablo 4 has Fortify, Armor, Temp Barrier

[Endgunner]

I have played and enjoyed both to be honest :L

[City Builder]

i enjoy both, but Diablo 3 keeps me coming back, Poe kind of wears me down.

[CHAIN BREAKER]

It's a game, not a store.

[warthog]

one is free to play and the other cost mega bucks

[Sadistic Magician]

I love POE but personally the problem is the lack of art direction, the design of levels and monsters is good but it's just a game where to farm and grind, there is a story yes... But comparing other games, in POE you have just npc talking at you and you want to skip asap what they're telling you, no cinematics at all... It could have been managed better, while Diablo is cool for the atmosphere of the saga, the cinematics, the identities of the characters and npc...

[Dark Exile]

diablo is living on nostalgia and a decently told (even though at this point its crap) story.

Instead of targeting a very specific audience they threw a net trying to get as many people as possible, and it shows.
Compare d2 to d3/4 and you get the idea.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by caley:

I am not taking either side and would like to know what makes POE superior to the Diablo series? I've not had much time playing POE and haven't played much of the Diablo series, so I'm curious.

Thank you :D

"Better?"

It's a different game that focuses on very different sorts of gameplay.

PoE is designed to be much more of a long-play sort of game with much deeper ARPG mechanics than the typical "Diablo" game. The primary difference, in general, is that PoE branches wildly out into multiple gameplay paths so that you're doing something "different" than you've done before very frequently. It's purpose-built to not repeat the same content.

It also has a very weird, for PC games, but robust item trade, using out-of-game "matchmaking/filter" services. (Though, some versions have fully in-game trading/search)

Crafting is intrinsic to player progression in PoE. If not purposefully avoided, every player will engage with it and it's arguable that custom-crafted items are mandatory inclusions for many builds unless one got extremely lucky. For that reason, trading is heavily encouraged by design. (Outside of SSF mode)

Despite it's heavy support for trading and more complex itemization than a typical Diablo game, PoE is not as multiplayer friendly in terms of actual gameplay. While multiplayer is certainly drop-in/drop-out, the extra load on the engine is telling. While builds can most certainly support each other, different builds usually have very different sorts of movement abilities coupled. That, coupled with mob density, very different survival rates, and map/scene complexity means it is VERY difficult for multiple players to keep together on the same screen-and-a-half chunk in order to fully benefit. In terms of multiplayer gameplay in an ARPG, the Diablo series has always been top-notch.

PoE has years of quarterly-added content. No Diablo title has that degree of content.

[midori]

POE has depth, a bit too much depth. Diablo past 2 lacks depth to the point where I won't even touch them.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by caley:

I am not taking either side and would like to know what makes POE superior to the Diablo series? I've not had much time playing POE and haven't played much of the Diablo series, so I'm curious.

Thank you :D

1. Variety. In D4 there are a limited set of skills, limited to your class choice, and you are limited in which of those skills you can take, and then further limited by only 6 skill slots. In POE is mostly 'classless' (though your starting position does funnel you into gems and weapons) and you can fairly easily swap between stuff. D4 respeccing passives is easier than in POE but changing skills is harder.

2. Development. D4 has basically nothing to do once you've hit level 50 except grind the Paragon board in NMD. Its a little better with the most recent patch - mob density is high enough now that roaming the over-world killing things is fun - but once you hit level 75 you get marginal XP gains so either you're grinding NMD's over and over (and they're all the same dungeon layout and with maybe three unique objectives and 4 bosses) or you're just farting around in Helltides killing things for fun. But only fun.

Like, I've enjoyed D4 but there's just not a lot of there, there. Even the current season - the first season of a new game where you'd think they'd have spent a couple years working on it alongside finishing the main game is . . . underwhelming.

You get special gems which have special effects. And you'll find that there's only like a dozen of them, half of which are class-specific effects so you can't use them outside of that class. So there's like 2 general purpose gems you want and maybe 1-2 class specific ones you want and that's it.

[Valsacar]

Originally posted by Counter Life:

I love POE but personally the problem is the lack of art direction, the design of levels and monsters is good but it's just a game where to farm and grind, there is a story yes... But comparing other games, in POE you have just npc talking at you and you want to skip asap what they're telling you, no cinematics at all... It could have been managed better, while Diablo is cool for the atmosphere of the saga, the cinematics, the identities of the characters and npc...

No cinematics is a major plus. I want to play a game, not watch a movie.

[Shieda]

POE is free to play and if you want to spend money you be paying usually around 40-60 dollars for some stash tabs . Meanwhile D4 you gotta pay at least 70 dollars and you don't get much for what you paying for.

[GermanBarbarian]

Look at D4 then you know why

[toasted]

to say diablo series is not really a fair question because diablo 2 is a pretty good game, can't say the same about diablo 3 and 4 though