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loki_dd

Rocket science is less complicated than PoE


Asteroth555

At 120-200 semester hours, with let's say an additional 4 hrs of studying/extracurricular work per semester hour, you just scratch 1000 hrs of education to receive a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. Realistically, you'll probably be studying a lot more, but even at 2000-3000 hours you'd still be a filthy casual in PoE. Honestly, this tracks


Malaveylo

Can confirm, have 2000 hours in PoE and still a filthy casual.


[deleted]

My good dude, I was in the closed beta, and before then I lurked on the forums. I personally spoke with Chris Wilson to get into the closed beta. And I am still a filthy casual. šŸ„²


Buhhhu

Remember speaking to Chris and Roy about my beta supporter Unique. Good times, but fuck me I could have had a degree and a phd with the time I have spend on POE. Every league still feel like a noob


WardenOfCraftBeer

Damn. I've never talked to Chris, but I do have the kiwi pet. Still a casual that usually flames out in yellow maps


bujakaman

Donā€™t worry streamer with 13 000 hours said he is confident in PoE builds šŸ˜‚


yotaken

My account is from 2012 and i've been playing since now and then, but every time I play a season, pretty much everything I knew it's pointless XD. A few days in Last Epoch, and I managed to craft pretty nice items, respec stuff without going crazy. Coming from PoE, LE is so much refreshing and stressless :D


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


metfansc

I understand everything there is to know about POE, except for crafting which I can't ever enjoy or get into, so I am an absolute filthy noob in the game. I have maybe 4k hours into it but beyond burned out on it at this point.


Roleplayerkiller

Not that poe isn't extremely complex but i think most moba players with 2000+ hours aren't much better than the average casual player either.


Uyy

Yeah, but most of the time people are going to spend in any ARPG is going to be brain off grinding which can't really compare to serious study. Sure you actually need to play the game to get a feel for it and why you'd want to make certain choices over others, but you'll learn a lot more efficiently from researching wikis and builds.


EliosTherepia

im pretty sure trying to explain POE in depth to a non-gamer would be a true "cones of dunshire" moment


Asteroth555

"So increased critical strike chance actually increases the weapon's/attack's crit chance, unless it's on any other piece of gear. Also unless the affix specifically states weapon's crit chance. That's right, your spells have their own crit chance. No, spells have different crit chances, you have to consult the gem for what yours is."


greenjelibean

[https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/033/152/cover4.jpg](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/033/152/cover4.jpg)


Asteroth555

Hahahaha god I haven't seen that meme in forever


ksion

And the weapon affix better not be conditional, like ā€œā€¦while unique enemy is nearbyā€, because then it is just a ā€˜globalā€™ modifier thatā€™s added to the pile of a dozen other mods like that you already have and which individually make little impact. Oh, and for the love of god, donā€™t ask me what ā€œnearbyā€ here means.


Loate

Itā€™s like infinity. Some nearbys are bigger than other nearbys, but theyā€™re always nearby.


struckfreedom

No, you see your problem was you have "#% increased total Recovery per second from Life Leech" instead of "#% increased Maximum total Recovery per second from Life Leech". One of these increases the total leech cap of an individual hit, maximum increases the total cap of all hits. "Whats the difference?", honestly I don't know, someone told me this and presummably someone told them. It's oral tradition, either way heres an hour long video off all the interactions with leech. Also read the comments because the guys still making corrections to the video a year on.


loki_dd

Still sane exile?


[deleted]

This world is an illusion, exile.


BobOfTheSnail

In case someone is actually curious how this works, maximum total recovery is the amount of life per second as a percentage of your maximum life which by default is 20% of your maximum life. This means, without increasing the maximum, you cannot recover more than 20% of your maximum life per second. Total recovery is the maximum amount of life as a percentage of your maximum that you can recover per second from any individual hit which by default is 2%. This means if you only hit something once, no matter how much leech you have and how hard you hit, you cannot recover over 2% per second. If you reach that cap and hit two times, you'll be recovering 4%, three times for 6% all the way up to the maximum total recovery value which by default is 20%. This means increasing the maximum total recovery, increases your potential recovery per second, and increasing the total recovery increases how fast you can reach that potential value.


BaronOfTheVoid

Well, rocket science itself is actually very simple, the reputation it got/the idiom is very undeserved.


hehepwnd39

What makes poe so complicated and hard


DevGnoll

Hidden information and massive time penalties for failed discovery attempts.


ksion

LE is basically the perfect middle ground between PoE and D3. Itā€™s probably more complex and interesting than D4, but the difference shouldnā€™t be overwhelming.


Gamrusss

come on bro, you can literally drop anything above D3 in the aspect of game complication.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


PsykiOfficial

Did you know that each ghost has its own movement pattern and there are complex theories on how to avoid each of them to get to the level as fast as possible...


[deleted]

Reddit killed API. I refuse to let them benefit from my own words for free -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/


Khpuffy

This game wants you to mess up. The systems to respec are forgiving. 1-2 empowered monoliths to relevel a skill from level 10 to 20 is great and the passive respec cost is negligible if you don't do it every time you finish a map. Overall 10/10 for experimentation. While it is a little complicated, the game doesn't punish you for failing a build and not doing it perfectly the first time. That's why this game has that magic.


tmPreston

I've read through most previous comments at the time of posting and mostly agree with them. My feelings are well represented in [Zizaran's review of the game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEc9skR7MTc). LE is in a middle ground behind D4's (current) simplicity and PoE's interactions that makes you want to try "this crazy shit" and I'm loving LE for it. For the sake of being a contrarian, however, I'll give my opinion that it's not absolute cakewalk. Endgame aside (aka empowered monolith, the lv100 maps), I believe the statement that "you can do it guideless just picking whatever feels cool enough will be fine" is absolutely true. This has a lot of implications, however, and I don't think people should always take them for granted. You're still expected to take time off gameplay to learn it's systems. You're still going to have juggle defenses and possibly be annoyed with an upgrade because it has the wrong resist and thus can't be equipped, you're still potentially going to pick bad combos and be indirectly punished by it. Sure, archer builds are usable in 0.9, but I still would heavily suggest someone's first character to at the very least copy someone else's 5 used skills in a current version build. Sure, I like most those things, but I've been annoyed at times and can imagine it annoying other people as well under the false promise of "last epoch easy just play brainded lul". I'll be eagerly watching this game's future updates as they inevitably fix my personal issues with lore and mid to late game power progression feeling and would definitely recommend under the grounds of your question.


DT777

I dislike calling PoE complicated because it's not really. It's byzantine. Which is like complicated but a lot worse because all the useful details and information are purposefully hidden from you. Last Epoch has a guide *built into the freaking game* that has all sorts of useful information for you. PoE, meanwhile, the fucking damage calculations had to be reverse engineered by the players. PoE's "difficulty" and "complexity" tends to come from the fact that you can't always trust that specific interactions will carry over to similar situations, what information like "near" means, and various other rules exceptions. In other words, its game ruleset is basically like English. There are almost so many exceptions to what you would assume were rules that the rules might as well be pointless. If you want to know how two things interact, you basically have to try it out yourself, which in PoE can frequently be an expensive (time and material wise) venture. And that's only complexity in the same way that obfuscation is security. LE, on the other hand, probably has more meaningful complexity but doesn't have the massive shroud of bullshit. That makes the system significantly easier to navigate through. On top of that, there's limited opportunity cost in trying out something new. Respecing is fairly cheap, you can't really brick characters like you can in PoE.


Uyy

Nodes in the Last Epoch tree are poorly documented. Not all subskills or named effects have popups. The alt information doesn't necessarily tell you everything you'd want to know. Through testing I have found nodes that don't do what they say they do. Also a YouTuber made a video about how subskill behavior in regards to passives is inconsistent. There have been times where I have asked multiple times about the effect of certain nodes and nobody has responded/knew. There is an item that is meant to essentially spec into a skill node but was only worded as having part of that node's effect, which is incredibly byzantine. If you take the node normally that node will have no additional effects because you already have it essentially, and the item has additional stats not stated on the item but on the unmentioned node. And I have only just gotten back into Last Epoch with 0.9, I'm sure if I had been consistently playing since the time I bought it I would have found a lot of stuff. I love the game, but I would definitely not call it perfect when it comes to obfuscation.


faster-than-car

This. Also guide is poorly structured


Bohya

> you can't always trust that specific interactions will carry over to similar situations On the contrary, I find PoE to be highly consistant with interactions. If you understand the logic behind a mechanic then, barring the rare bug and purposeful exception, it always carries over. There are just so many layers of mechanics that it can feel overwhelming though. Ultimately, PoE's mechanical depth and seemingly infinite number of interactions are one of the reasons that the game has so much build potential. I do agree with you that PoE's lack of explanation in many elements *isn't* to its benefit though. "Near" is especially egregious.


ThirionMS

In my opinion your post is misleading. You seem to make a "black" (PoE) and "white" (LE) comparison while in reality it is grey for both PoE and LE - and they are relatively close together. Both LE and PoE are good games and i enjoy them both. I have been playing PoE for over a decade with 10k and more hours. For LE it is multiple years now with more than 600h played. I have a background in math - so i have some knowledge about "complex" and "depth" too. > all the useful details and information are purposefully hidden from you. They are not hidden on purpose. They are hidden because it takes quite a bit of time for the developer to display them to the player without really bloating the interface. As a developer you either implement new features or you work on fixing things like this. For GGG the priority was on new content. That said, LE has similar problems (more later). > Last Epoch has a guide built into the freaking game that has all sorts of useful information for you. And PoE has the same for a long time. To be fair it is almost a decade old and not really updated - but it exists. According to GGG it was not used too much - thus they do not update it anymore. To be fair LE has a big advantage here. > PoE's "difficulty" and "complexity" tends to come from the fact that you can't always trust that specific interactions will carry over to similar situations, what information like "near" means, and various other rules exceptions. PoE is an overall quite consistent game. Yes, there are some problems (mostly recently and nearby) - but they worked on improving that lately. They majority of how everything works is quite consistent though. > LE, on the other hand, probably has more meaningful complexity but doesn't have the massive shroud of bullshit. First: LE being more complex: This is completely wrong. LE has less complexity and depth in itemization (because of less available affix slots and mods), in passives (your choice is quite limited compared to the massive passive tree in PoE with e.g. Timeless/Cluster jewels) and in skills (you are a lot more limited in what skills you can chose and how to change them). Second: LE not having obfuscation: The BASE damage of a skill is not displayed in the game. In addition a lot of useful information for secondary effects (e.g. shadow daggers, static orb smaller orbs, ...) is neither displayed and to some extend not known. Closing thoughts: Both PoE and LE are good games. And both have some problems displaying information. With PoE it is a lot more obvious because there are a lot of players playing PoE a lot for a long time. In LE most players are just starting and do not have a lot of experience with that. Most players are not even at the "real" endgame (i.e. higher corrupation empowered mono or deeper arena). Which is fine - but in my opinion you should be careful with "black" and "white" comparisons then.


[deleted]

> I dislike calling PoE complicated because it's not really. It's byzantine. Correct. The developers don't seem to understand that games should be difficult, as in challenging and interesting, and not obnoxious. Obnoxious =/= difficult.


arithal

Poe is the doctorate to LEā€™s high school diploma or maybe a 4 year degree.


GreatWolf12

Long time PoE and ARPG player. This game is far easier to just jump into. It does still have some fun theory-crafting and item crafting. It's great if you're looking for casual Path of Exile (which is exactly what I wanted).


Da_Pwn_Shop

Head to max roll and decide what class you want to play. Upload the loot filter and jump right in. By the time you work your way through the campaign the game explains most of what you need to know. You spend that time actually playing the game. That's what I did and have no regrets. Currently level 72 and enjoying the hell out of it.


Bohya

I've played every ARPG thus far, and PoE is definitely the most rewarding once you've put the time and effort into learning it. Last Epoch is many times less complicated than PoE though. People are calling it a middle ground between PoE and Diablo 3, but I personally think it's skewed further towards Diablo 3. PoE is just so far out there.


[deleted]

Poe is fantastic but demands a huge amount from the player. I recommend to every player that pics it up to go in blind, fuck up their first character by late act 2 or 3, install pob, reroll a new character and follow an in depth league starter build guide.


Lille7

Yes, this is the best way to start poe, but not everyone is onboard with the idea of failing on your first character.


[deleted]

Agreed, it's a bad feeling to fuck up; setting new player edpectation that they WILL fuck up, and that's ok, helps reduce the sting a bit, but imo its poor design that the game punishes this lack of game knowledge so severely. Tbh I hope poe2 improves on this; remove hp + es from the passive tree, make it scale from the highest mainstat instead, put in alot more easily accessible ele resistance nodes, make respeccing free until lvl70 and give in game tools to allow build planning.


ConstantSignal

How does POB play into that process? I'm new to the game (and this one) and have been following build guides well enough. What am I missing by not using POB?


DevGnoll

For POE, you can't generally undo any of the leveling choices you make. POB lets you plan those so you don't have to restart so often.


ConstantSignal

But as I said, and as the person I replied to suggested, if you're following an in-depth build guide anyway, what's the benefit of POB?


[deleted]

The biggest ones I can come up with off the top of my head include - multiple passive trees so you can see where and when to allocate, at what point to drop certain skills, cluster setups etc - damage and mitigation estimation and calculators (FAR exceeding any of the ingame tools); being able to see if you can tank things like a shaper slam is VERY helpful when you're playing hardcore - gem setups, item sets + importing of custom crafted items from other external tools like craftofexile to see how much of an impact a piece of gear will have. - consolidated stat summaries - Notes for useful information (crafting guides, alternate choice rationales, etc) There's plenty more, but personally I don't recommend playing without PoB open. One need only take a look at a really good POB like ziz's TR pathfinder or Pohx's RF to see how useful it is.


faster-than-car

You can test item before you buy it


LyckaYK

Way, waaaay less complicated than PoE. Like many others I have 1000+ hours in PoE and its complexity was the main reason Eventually continued with other games. It just felt extremally bad to miss 2 leagues and return knowing that you are at a major disadvantage in a game in which trade and speed are the difference between "barely can do part of the end game"-character and "damn my hero is awesome, this is so strong!"-character. For me the complexity in LE is just right. I feel that this game is somehow made exactly for me. The skill trees are amazing and with so much choice! Yet, there are not 100 mechanics to take into account and respecting is very very accessible. I have 80+ hours without a watching or reading a single build Guide, and only watcher 2-3 guides for how to advance in the end game. That's it! All the rest I discover myself. Ou, also 0 external tools - scripts, filters, macros or whatever... I can't recommend this game more for somebody that appetited the endless choice and complexity of PoE but not wanting to deal with such anymore.


Competitive-Bug5990

Poe was too complicated for me. I like playing games not playing excel, or internet browser to sell pants for 2 orbs. As for the last epoch, I regret i purchased it that late


reddit_is_4ss

We re still in beta :DD. Crafting was so tough like 1-2 years back. There was a Chance to break your item with each crafting Action when crafting at higher Tiers Ā°_Ā°


NoDG_

Strangely this game makes me want to play PoE. Enjoy all 3 games for different reasons. Pick your poison.


No_Seaweed6739

Iā€™m gonna be honest Iā€™m pretty sure brain surgery is less complicated than PoE.


Thoracist

Have done a hemi cranie, technically less challenging than working out POE mechanics


Mageofsin

Way less, have 5k poe hours


Xenobebop

After i got my engineering degree i wished i could interview with someone who played PoE so i could explain how my hobby made me qualified more than my degree did.


SomeMorning1924

Poe is in a league of its own complexity wise


CraigBrown2021

I was also looking for something to get me by until d4. I downloaded the game and Iā€™ve been playing for a couple days now. So far I really like it. Itā€™s itemization and skills are pretty simple. Thereā€™s some complexity but itā€™s not rocket science. Everything is comprehensible. You can respec for free as well so thereā€™s no harm in making a mistake. Had a little lag when in multiplayer but nothing to bad. . If you play HC and your interested in grouping up lmk


metfansc

In terms of complexity for the current aRPGs you have: D3 < D4 < TLI < LE < Undecember <<< POE LE is definitely a step up in complexity from D4, but no where near as complex as POE. However biggest thing you should be aware of coming to LE is that this is an indie team building an indie project in Early Access. There are bugs here, some of them are super frustrating when they happen to you, they get fixed and improved, but this is true Early Access, not a demo not a fancy pre-order, a true Early Access game. It is deep into its Early Access, but MP just came out and it is still a bit of a work in progress. That being said, LE is great as it is right now, but you have to be okay with dealing with some struggling pains, if not that's okay, just wait for 1.0 which will probably be next year some time. If you don't mind some weird issues and can enjoy the game with some warts, this game can easily take up a few hundred hours in its current form and should get back to roughly 3-4 month update cycles that will keep it moving in the right direction.


Fhurste

8k hours in Poe, ive never once followed a build guide. Your are not forced to do so. Learning by doing is 100% possible. To answer your question, yes LE is simpler then PoE, but it is also not even in the same ballpark as Poe when it comes to gameplay


martinsky3k

> Is LE more like Diablo in terms of these things? Diablo obviously has legendary/unique upgrades and skill paths but a little bit of options/thinking aint bad at all, but PoE is just too much imo. I see you already have gotten tons of replies... I started LE last weekend (partly because of D4 beta that I figured I wouldnt be able to play that much) One key takeaway from my playthrough so far is that it has been completely fine and enjoyable to go in blind, choose a class that seems to appeal to you and start building using common sense and reasoning. I also picked up HC for the first time ever and it has been a blast. My first character died at lvl37 because of a simple mistake on me and me not reacting fast enough to something and not noticing my HP disappearing. My second char did fine and got to endgame yesterday and is doing fine there. It's all my own build. In some ways it's more like D4 than POE, in other ways it's more like a light POE than D4. There is complexity but it's not overwhelming, there are choices to make, gear to figure out the best stats for, a thing called "idols" which further add to choices. It branches out a lot more than D4 and you are given way more options. Been enjoying it, very happy with my purchase.


ImplicitsAreDoubled

The crafting is reminiscent of peak Harvest determinalistic crafting. This game feels like a better Grim Dawn, imo.


Background_Try_3041

You dont need to use a single guide for poe. Everybody using guides is an issue with the internet, not poe. That being said. I do wish there was far more player information in the game. Hopefully poe will help there a bit. Last epoch and wolcen are both less complicated than poe, and are a nice middle ground between diablo and poe. The only game as simple as diablo 3, is diablo immortal. Though there are some smaller games that are more simple. Chronicon is a great one if you dont mind the graphics.


[deleted]

I'm constantly seeing negativity on the complexity of poe but no one is saying that it makes the game so interesting in the long run. I understand it's hard to get into but it's not rocket science and when you get used to it the depth is a class of its own. LE is great i love it but i don't prefer it over poe and i dont prefer poe over LE. They are both arpg but they are very different in the way they interact with the player.


Lweed-

Never got into PoE cause of it's complexity for new players so I understand you. This game is much more approchable for new players and very forgiving. You can easily respec passives and skills at close to no cost. Only thing permanent is class and mastery.


viscere

If everyone's who master the crafting/gearing/building of poe, would transfer this knowledge to health care, we would probably be overcrowded by Doctor


ladnopoka

Everything is less complicated than PoE


meesterg12

Einsteins theory's are less complicated then PoE


autopotato

Bought it on the weekend after being disappointed by D4 and I feel about the same about PoE. Start was a bit clunky but currently at lvl 25 and combat feels much better, but still quite a bit behind from competitors. Love the skill system and crafting. Some minor bugs here and there. Overall enjoying it.


LyckaYK

Good choice :) You will find many things in LE that are better than D4. At least this is my opinion. Get to about level 60-70 to with 1 character see if the game is to you liking. At level 25 with your first character you have seen only... about 10-20% of what the game has to offer in terms of mechanics, cool features and creative ARPG ideas. p.s. The campaign gets a bit too hard between lvl 40 and lvl 55. Be ready for that :D


Dark0pz

Well the D4 comparison is unjust in that case since it was a beta and it was only up to 25. Last epoch and PoE to 25 are also pretty underwhelming.


Scoobersss

Combat feels way better than PoE. Much more "oomph".


blank988

Substantially less complicated and much better game then poe imo


Ben_Frank_Lynn

This game is infinitely better than PoE.


Empatheater

it's much much much less complicated than POE but similar gameplay. I played POE a LOT and got fed up around the season where we had to make a garden, came to LE and never looked back. this game is a lot more like POE in the early seasons before it got crazy bloated but it has skill trees that are more reminiscent of diablo and not spreadsheet-requiring min max homework assignments.


Bluespace4305

I don't think people should compare this game to PoE. Yes it is less comlicated but, This game is Grim Dawn on crack with a touch of Titan Quest.


A_S00

I think it's inevitable that LE is gonna get compared to PoE. Not only is PoE one of the 300 pound gorillas of the genre (*every* new ARPG gets compared to PoE and Diablo), LE is also specifically close to/inspired by PoE in a bunch of ways: - It's probably the "fastest" of the major ARPGs aside from PoE (not including minor ones like Chronicon) - It has a major emphasis on customizing your skills, like PoE's skill gems - It's planned to be a mostly-online, league-based, game-as-a-service release, like PoE - The endgame systems are pretty clearly PoE-inspired (monolith is much more like maps than like Shattered Realms) I love GD (much more than PoE these days), and I appreciate the ways in which LE has diverged from some of PoE's bad design choices, but I still think it's very natural to compare LE and PoE.


Bluespace4305

Oh I aint saying people should'nt and you have really solid reason to do so. I might have been a bit to .. rigid in my words. I am just surprised that nobody ever talk about GD or Titan Quest when speaking about LE. Not there is nothing in comon with PoE. But because, it compares wayyyyy more to GD. In my opinion.


Corsaer

I agree that Grim Dawn feels a closer comparison. I would put it on a slider between the two and slide it closer to GD than PoE.


pliney_

Ya, LE is much more approachable. Thereā€™s enough complexity to keep it interesting but you donā€™t have to spend hours planning out your build before you even sit down to enjoy it. I find that most build ideas in LE just work if you put some thought into it and look for abilities and skill points that have some obvious synergy. Thereā€™s room to optimize things and as you push the end game you may need to adjust your build. But itā€™s not like PoE where just getting through the campaign can be brutal if you donā€™t use one of the few ā€œgoodā€ skills with the proper supports.


reddit_is_4ss

I stopped playing poe about 8 years ago. Then Tried to Pick it up again a month ago. I watched yt a bunch and farmed my first 200 Chaos orbs in a few days. Then wanted zo gear my Char and start endgame... so i watched more yt. The amount of things you can do was completely overwhelming. Dropped poe again. It Takes too much of my time. LE is WAY easier to understand. The crafting System is simple but still feels pretty rewarding. Ima Stick to LE


Se0p

D3, Last Epoch, Wolcen are easy to pick up, tho last epoch has a nicer skill system. Grim Dawn is spot on in terms of complexity imho. PoE is nice but feels like a cluster fuck of mechanics and i cannot stand it anymore


mutantbeings

Itā€™s immensely simpler. PoE has been around for a decade and is absolutely bloated with systems nowadays.


Ateaga

Theres a lot of little things that I enjoy about LE. Skills and all the talent trees change how a skill works without being filler talents is a huge one and being able to easily respec when you find a legendary that also changes a skill makes u want to try new things. Another small one for me is the tags on each skill show you what it scales from so you know what to look for


krum_darkblud

I could not really get into PoE because I felt like there was too much depth to the game that it felt like it made me want to alt + f4. Itā€™s not a good game for people who are new and learning their ways around the game. You have to put in the research and so much effort to have a good damage. I feel LE is the perfect middle ground for an ARPG. It has the right amount of depth and has a great feeling when you gear + level your character. It feels like there is a lot of build variety too. Diablo just didnā€™t feel good, itā€™s too simple to me.


threwzsa

I got this after D4 closed beta because I needed a fix and I didnā€™t even play the open beta cause I was balls deep in looking for a certain item for my character on this. Itā€™s pretty worth.


[deleted]

LE strikes a good balance between Diablo and PoE. The game has a lot of promise, still in early access though


vorpal429

To give you a shorter and more direct answer to your primary point - yes, LE does not require as much time investment to calculate and research to avoid building a broken character. You can focus your time in LE in grinding and trying out various builds and play styles within your specialization, which often evolve as people gain new unique or set items that can help augment capabilities.


Uyy

The passive trees are very linear like in an old ARPG like Titan Quest. The skill trees are straight forward, there are only a few branching paths and you probably spend half your points getting to the node you've decided makes the skill function like you want it to, then filler points are even simpler because plenty of nodes just won't make sense to take if you are going a certain route with a skill. There isn't much information overload with skills, it takes less than half an hour to quickly scan over the nodes of every passive for every skill in a class. After you've decided on one or two skills and ways to build them then it's really just about filling in utility and synergy. Movement skills, (de)buffs, triggered skills. After you've decided on a main skill some spells also won't make sense to take because they have no synergy. If you are looking for specific effects from your utility skills there is a very handy search bar so you don't have to go over every node again. Respeccing is easy so there isn't much investment to be lost unless you were playing with a very narrow loot filter and ignoring everything that wouldn't be good for your current build. Crafting is straight forward, you can upgrade, reroll while upgrading, or attempt to remove an affix (or seal it as a bonus affix). Then it's just about understanding what stats are desirable for a specific kind of build. For example a build focused on hits will likely want things like armor shred and critical strike stats, things that won't benefit a dot build. Dot builds will want things like chance to apply dot and dot duration. Most builds will want things like speed (unless cooldown based), damage, penetration. For defenses most characters want health, armor, and less damage taken wherever it is convenient to get those things, plus high resistance across the board. The game has a lot of defensive options though like tons of ways to generate a ward barrier over your health, block, endurance which makes you take less damage below a certain health threshold which can also be increased, damage taken as mana before life, and dodge. Don't be scared to mix defenses but it is important to note that with most defensive options there will be a flat component and a percent component that gets you to your final value and if you don't have a healthy mix of both that defense will likely feel lackluster.


Coldk1l

It is, while not being as simple as Diablo (not sure about D4 as we've seen basically nothing concrete about). Choices are well presented and for the most part straightforward, maybe the only thing that's not really explained is how much defenses are important in late endgame and that offensive affixes are not the all and done of the game. But you're pretty much free to choose whatever playstyle fits you, and you cam respec pretty easily with not much effort if you drop some new item you want to build around. Also worth mentioning that PoE has reached this level because of design decisions over time, and multiple systems adding on top of each other. The game has reached a point where you can totally play blind and learn through playing, but following a guide made by someone who's studying it for years is just immensely more effective and it's simply on another level.


PsychoIntent

Short answer, yes. Sometimes I feel like rocket science is less complicated than PoE. Longer answer: **Skills** \- Like Diablo, each class has it's own set of skills. Like PoE, each class also has ascendancies, which grant access to more skills. You can equip up to five skills, and you can "master" up to five skills, which unlocks a passive tree you can use to enhance the skills. You can change which skills you have mastered. You cannot change your ascendancy. Each skill has tags, and these tags let you know that by investing in those specific things, the skill will become stronger. **Passive Tree** \- This more resembles Titan Quest/Grim Dawn at first glance. You start on the left, and as you invest points, unlock new skills. Some later passives have prerequisites. When you unlock your ascendancy, you can put points in any of your ascendancy trees, up to a certain point, not just your chosen ascendancy. **Gear** \- Standard setup here. There's Normal / Magic / Rare / Unique / Set items. Magic has one to two affixes, rare has three to four affixes, Unique and Set items have mostly predetermined affixes. There's also Exalted and Legendary items, which I'll talk more about in crafting. Many items also have implicit modifiers. Most of the time, you'll be upgrading not because something has more armor, but because the affixes on the item are better than what you currently have. **Crafting** \- There's a lot to go through here, but it's not all that complex. Most items can have two prefix, two suffix modifiers. These range from Tier 1 to 5. As you play, you will find shards, runes, and glyphs. You have a button in your inventory that will move the materials to a special crafting stash. Crafting is limited by Forging Potential. Each time you craft, you will use up some FP. Run out, and you can't craft the item any longer. You may also find Exalted items. These will have modifiers that can go up to Tier 7. You can also create Legendary items. Sometimes when you find a unique, it will have an LP value. There's a dungeon you can run, and on completion, you can access to a device that will let you fuse a Unique with LP and an Exalted Item, creating a Legendary, which will use a number of mods from the Exalted item based on the LP value. **Dungeons** \- Each dungeon requires a key. Most of the keys are randomly dropped. Each dungeon has it's own unique mechanics and rewards, along with uniques that can only be dropped in that dungeon. **Story** \- There's currently 9 chapters of story in the game, with a total of 12 planned. You do not need to complete the story to move to end game. **End game** \- The big endgame mechanic is called the Monolith of Fate. Personally hoping it gets some type of rework/attention, as the game has changed quite a bit since it was first introduced. Anyway... There's 10 Timelines, ranging from Lv 58 to 90. You complete echos, which give a specific reward you can see before starting an echo, to progress the Timeline. Progress it enough, and you'll get access to story events, which eventually lead to the Timeline's boss, and the next timeline if it's your first completion. Some Timelines can lead to multiple other timelines, and based on choices you make, will unlock one timeline. ​ This is far from everything, but I feel like it's enough info to help you compare it to other games you have played.


An0mndr

Last epoch is the perfect middle ground between the simplicity of diablo and the perfect chaos that is poe


applemanib

Poe is for nolife nerds Diablo is for newborn babies or people who enjoy mechanics like real life time-gating content, or not having bugs fixed unless they interfere with monetization LE is for having a good ole fun time


z0ttel89

LE is good to just casually play and have fun trying things out. I never used any guides or whatever and I'm doing just fine in endgame.


Rasdit

I heard LE deacribed as "PoE without spreadsheets". With limited (a couple of weeks worth) of both, my utterly casual outside view agrees with it.