Category: Action RPG

Path of Exile Class Spotlight: Templar

Path of Exile Templar

The last dual hybrid class in Path of Exile is the Templar. He looks like a fragile old man, but don’t let that fool you. Behind that façade lies a cunning character! Being the perfect balance of brains (Intelligence) and brawn (Strength), he knows multiple ways to prove he’s anything but fragile. In fact, he can use most weapons, from swords to staves. However, he won’t use bows or daggers. He’s garbed in chainmail coifs, helmets, chainmail or ringmail, mesh or chain gloves and boots, and kite shields.

His Ascendancy Classes are Inquisitor, Hierophant, and Guardian.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Like the other hybrid classes, the Templar shares the strengths and weaknesses of his neighboring classes. He has the brute strength of the Marauder as well as the magical aptitude of the Witch. The combination of stats also makes him the best at deftly dealing with swarms and hordes of enemies. The strength side of his tree boosts his defense and vitality, letting him wade into a crowd of hostiles. Equipped with sweeping or slamming attacks as well as a myriad of elemental spells, he can clear out waves of attackers with but a few gestures.

His big weakness, however, is his low dexterity. As he starts on the opposite side of the Ranger, he doesn’t have access to many dexterity nodes. Sure, he can deal with many enemies at once, but he’ll have difficulty trying to hit a specific one. Using spells can mitigate this weakness, although it might be inefficient. Consider saving up PoE Orbs to compensate for this somehow.

Ascendancy Classes

His first Ascendancy Class, Inquisitor, enables him to manipulate the elements. The class grants skills that increase elemental damage or resistance, critical strikes, or buffs. Inquisitors can also have the ability to create the unique ground effect ‘Consecrated Ground’. It confers various beneficial effects, depending on the skills acquired. Augury of Penitence and Inevitable Judgement are some of his notable skills.

Augury of Penitence makes nearby enemies take both 16% more elemental damage and deal 8% less elemental damage. Inevitable Judgement improves the Inquisitor’s critical and normal strikes. It makes normal strikes penetrate 10% of the enemy’s elemental resistances. Critical strikes ignore those resistances completely.

His second Ascendancy Class, Hierophant, deals with unconventional sources of damage and defense. His skills also increase totem and spell utility. He’s more of a magic-oriented class. His skills bolster spellcasting more than physical prowess. Also, he has skills that make use of his large mana pool, either by converting it to defensive bonuses, or conserving and regenerating it. Notable Hierophant skills include Arcane Blessing and Divine Guidance.

The first skill activates Arcane Surge when he or his totem attacks an enemy with a spell. As an added effect, while he has Arcane Surge, he’s immune to elemental ailments. The second skill adds 150 to his total mana, and 10% of damage gets taken from mana first before life.

His third and final Ascendancy Class is Guardian. As the name suggests, he’s a class for tanking and support. His skills put an emphasis on the defense and support of a party. What’s more, even summoned minions can benefit from his skills as well. His notable skills are Radiant Faith and Prayer of Glory.

The former grants an energy shield equal to 15% of the Guardian’s mana to himself and his allies. It also grants armor that’s 160% of his reserved life to himself and his allies. The latter skill makes using warcries instant without costing any mana. It also grants 15% increased attack, cast speed, and movement speed if he used a warcry recently.

The Conclusion

The Templar is a solid choice for anyone who wants a more survivable magic user. He’s in a very beneficial position. That is, most of the Marauder’s strengths cover the Witch’s weaknesses and vice versa. His only real flaw is his general lack of accuracy to deal with single enemies in an efficient manner. Other than that, he’s a good all-rounder who’s tough & reliable. While he’s not very flashy, he certainly gets the job done.

***7 Best Path of Exile Character classes***

Templar Build Guides for Delve – Starter and Non-Starters

Smite Summoner Build – Guardian Templar

Critical Arc Build – Inquisitor Templar

Magma Orb Build – Inquisitor Templar

Low Life Righteous Fire Build – Guardian Templar

Path of Exile Class Spotlight: Ranger

The Ranger is another ‘pure’ class in Path of Exile. Being attuned to dexterity means that she focuses on evasion as a defense. She is also very proficient with bows as her main weapon, but she’s no slouch with swords either. Claws, axes, wands, shields, and daggers are alright with her as well, but blunt weapons are not her forte. The equipment associated with her are caps or hoods, armor made of leather, garbs, tunics, hide gloves and boots, and bucklers. She starts at the southeastern area of the skill tree, between the Duelist to the left, and the Shadow on the right. Her skills focus on increasing ranged damage output, as well as increasing evasion.

Her Ascendancy Classes are Deadeye, Raider, and Pathfinder.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The Ranger has the astounding ability to avoid most of the damage coming to her. Since attacks aren’t hitting, the negative status effects that go with them also won’t stick. However, as no defense is truly perfect, once she gets hit it could be the end.

Movement and attack speed boosters are also available to her very early, making up for the relatively smaller damage output she deals. The movement speed boosts are even almost exclusive to her. Other classes would have to go through many points to get there, and Rangers can access those practically right off the bat.

Because of her high dexterity and precision, her attacks will rarely miss. It’s especially good for active skills, as there will be less wasted mana.

However, she can’t use the heavy hitting weapons, preferring agility and accuracy over brute force. Besides that, any kind of minion she may have from necromancy or a pet will be weaker than usual. It’s a result of the good passive skills for it being a little far from her starting point.

Ascendancy Classes

The Deadeye is the most offensive-oriented of the three. Her passives increase projectile damage and area of effect. Even better, it works on all kinds of projectiles, even those from wands and some spells.

That gives a bit more versatility to the class. Two of her more notable skills are Endless Munitions and Ricochet.

Endless Munitions adds 200 to accuracy, increases area of effect of skills by 50%. Also, it makes skills fire an extra projectile. for more damage and an added chance for any additional effects. Ricochet makes skills chain to one more target, as well as adding 10% more damage for each remaining chain.

The Raider focuses on buff maintenance as well as conferring bonuses through kills. She can specialize in one of the following: Frenzy Charges, Onslaught, or Phasing buffs, enhancing its effects. Her skills seem to come in pairs, evidenced by Quartz Infusion and Avatar of the Veil.

The first raises the chance to dodge by 6%, and grants Phasing at maximum Frenzy Charges or while you have Onslaught. It also provides Phasing for 3 seconds after a successful kill. The second grants a 40% increase in elemental damage, as well as a 10% increase in movement speed, and a 10% chance to dodge spells. It also gives immunity to elemental status ailments while Phasing.

Finally, the Pathfinder specializes in flasks. She can improve her flasks to boost offensive or defensive abilities. It gives her flexibility to use spells and attacks whether elemental, physical, or chaos effectively. Some notable skills are Master Alchemist and Nature’s Adrenaline.

Master Alchemist makes the Pathfinder immune to elemental status ailments, gives a 40% increase in elemental damage, and a 20% chance for elemental statues to afflict an enemy during flask effects. With Nature’s Adrenaline, there’s even a 15% increase in movement speed and a 20% increase to attack speed while using a flask.

The Conclusion

The Ranger is a good choice for those who prefer finesse and elegance rather than brute force. There are Ranger builds for those who prefer ranged or melee combat, so that’s not something to consider. Take note that while Rangers are good at dodging, they can’t dodge everything. You’d better invest those PoE orbs on something that can help your Ranger survive getting hit.

***7 Best Path of Exile Character classes***

Ranger Build Guides for Delve – Starter and Non-Starters

Ice Shot Build – Deadeye Ranger

Tornado Shot Build – Deadeye Ranger

Caustic Arrow Build – Pathfinder Ranger

Fire Elemental Hit Build – Deadeye Ranger

Toxic Rain Build – Pathfinder Ranger

Cold Spectral Throw Build – Raider Ranger

Path of Exile Class Spotlight: Duelist

A hybrid Path of Exile class, the Duelist, takes advantage of strength and dexterity. He has good defenses from strength, augmented by the evasion boosts dexterity gives. Whether by bow or sword, enemies fall at his hand. He can use PoE items such as swords, axes, maces, and bows. He wears helmets, scale/brigandines/doublets/lamellar, scale gauntlets and boots, and round shields. His skills are a balance between his two primary stats. Strength for armor and damage. Dexterity for attack speed and evasion.

His Ascendancy Classes are Slayer, Gladiator, and Champion.

Strengths and Weaknesses

He shares many of the strengths and weaknesses of his neighboring classes, the Marauder and Ranger. Because of his affinity for strength, he can deal powerful blows and tank damage. His other affinity, dexterity, grants him increased dodge and movement speed. It also grants increased accuracy, making more of his hits land on enemies. He gets the best of both worlds. Dual wielding is also his forte, and he starts out quite near the needed nodes for that.

As the intelligence skill nodes are on the opposite side of where he starts, he has a limited mana pool. Any spell he casts will also be weak, as he cannot reach the spell modifiers. To keep on using skills, he must rely on mana leech and conservative magic. While not as fragile as a Ranger, he can’t tank at the level of Marauders either.

Ascendancy Classes

The Slayer specializes in two-handed weapons, such as bows and greatswords. His skills revolve around power and sustaining it. They also boost life leech and stun, with some passives boosting damage against tougher monsters. Some notable skills are Headsman and Endless Hunger.

Headsman activates when you’ve killed recently. It increases damage and radius of area skills by 20%. As a bonus effect reflected physical damage doesn’t hurt him. Endless hunger makes 20% of overkill damage turn into leeched life and gives immunity to bleeding while leeching.

The Gladiator maximizes the Duelist’s hybrid nature. His skills synergize well with dual wielding or one-handed weapon and shield combinations. He can then improve on that by applying bleed, improving blocking, or enhancing Endurance and Frenzy Charges. His notable skills are Outmatch and Outlast and Blood in the Eyes.

The former provides a 25% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on kill with the main hand. It also provides the same opportunities to obtain an Endurance Charge on kill with the off-hand. Then, at max Frenzy Charges, he deals 10% more physical damage. At max Endurance Charges, he takes 10% less physical damage. The latter provides a 25% chance to make enemies bleed. Upon hitting a bleeding enemy, his attacks maim and has a 10% chance to blind. Lastly, maimed enemies take 10% more damage.

The Champion supports his allies through taunts, buffs, and de-buffs. He can even boost their already high defense or gain a burst of adrenaline. His skills all focus on increasing his survivability. Notable skills of his are Worthy Foe, Fortitude, and Unstoppable Hero.

Worthy Foe makes enemies he taunts take 20% more damage. It has the added effect of making taunted enemies unable to evade attacks. Fortitude grants permanent Fortify. Then, it activates the effects of Unstoppable Hero. That skill allows a 10% increase in attack speed and a 30% increase in armor and evasion. What’s more, it adds 1000 to his armor and evasion, and he cannot be stunned. He becomes genuinely unstoppable at that point.

The Conclusion

The perfect balance between brute force and finesse, the Duelist, is an excellent physical all-rounder. He has enough power and defense to defeat his enemies, helped by his natural agility and grace. Take note that due to his positioning on the skill tree, he’ll never be good at slinging spells. He’s a good choice for those preferring physical damage to spells, but not the brute strength of the Marauder nor the fragility of the Ranger.

***7 Best Path of Exile Character classes***

Duelist Build Guides for Delve – Starter and Non-Starters

Vaal Double Strike Build – Champion Duelist

Sword Cyclone Build – Slayer Duelist

Flicker Strike Build – Slayer Duelist

Bloodseeker Frost Blades Build – Champion Duelist

Blade Flurry Block Gladiator – A Great League Starter – Build Guide

One Punch Build (Infernal Blow) – Slayer Duelist

Path of Exile Class Spotlight: Marauder

The Marauder is a purely strength-based character focused on dealing damage. He uses swords, maces, axes, and staves. The PoE items you can equip related to this class aside from the weapons are casques, plate mail, gauntlets, greaves, and tower shields. His node starts out in the lower left area of the skill tree, between the Templar and Duelist classes. The skills he learns revolve around increasing damage output, as well as durability. That means either leeching off enemies or increasing his maximum life.

His Ascendancy Classes are Juggernaut, Berserker, and Chieftain.

Strengths and Weaknesses

He deals devastating blows boosted by his high strength but mostly restricted to melee. His natural enemies are those who rely on avoiding damage. Hit-and-run tactics will frustrate Marauders, as his blows are useless if they don’t hit. Also, he has a slower attack and movement speed compared to other classes. Unless players figure out a strategy, those hit-and-run tactics will annoy you.

Marauders also have a large life pool. It enables them to receive the heaviest hits without breaking a sweat. However, without raising evasion or using energy shields, he will take all the hits aimed at him. Every point of that huge life pool is necessary for survival.

Lastly, many of his early skills increase the chance to stun enemies or the duration they stay stunned. Adding those to his mastery over all kinds of assault skills makes him a good crowd controller.

Ascendancy Classes

The Juggernaut focuses on defense and durability. His skills boost physical damage reduction, life regeneration, and prevention of de-buffs. Some of his more notable skills are Unstoppable and Unbreakable.

The first gives a 10% increase in movement speed, immunity to stun, and resistance to slow. It only means Juggernauts can’t be slower than his base movement speed. The second provides a 2% per second life regeneration, 5% damage reduction. It also doubles the armor received from equipment. Its last effect takes 1.5% of the total damage prevented through the reduction in the last 10 seconds. Then, it converts that damage to life regen per second.

The Berserker takes giving back a step further. Most of his skills revolve around killing something or being hit. They also have access to the Rage counter. It provides bonuses in attack damage, speed, and movement speed. It has a downside of increasing those bonuses as life decreases.

Some of the Berserker’s notable skills are Aspect of Carnage and Pain Reaver. The first is a simple 10% increase in damage taken along with a 40% increase in damage dealt. The second provides a 1% life and mana leech, which increases to 2% when there’s a recent kill.

The Chieftain will burn up the battlefield. His skills revolve around fire damage, whether through attacks or totems. Other skills boost his totems. Some of those boosts include increasing their resilience or giving them the ability to direct enemies’ attention. His notable skills include Ramako, Sun’s Light and Ngamahu, Flame’s Advance.

The former doubles your fire resistance and provides a 1% life regen per second (increased to 2% when fire damage was taken recently). Then, it also turns 10% of physical damage taken into fire damage. Its last effect makes the character unaffected by ignite. The latter converts half of your physical damage into fire damage. It also makes your fire damage penetrate 10% of the target’s fire resistance. Then it provides an additional effect every 10 seconds. That effect makes 70% of your physical damage to extra fire damage for 3 seconds.

The Conclusion

The Marauder is a solid choice for anyone who likes a straightforward and simple answer to battles (namely ‘Attack! Attack! Attack!’). There will still be times where strategy will be required. However, with the character’s high damage output and HP reserves, brute force is the Marauder’s main weapon. Also, it’s a good idea to choose an Ascendancy class beforehand. You’ll be able to choose those passives and skill gems that have good synergy with the chosen specialization.

***7 Best Path of Exile Character classes***

Marauder Build Guides for Delve – Starter and Non-Starters

Fire Cyclone Build – Chieftain Marauder

Consecrated Path Build – Chieftain Marauder

Heavy Sunder Build – Berserker Marauder

Vaal Ancestral Warchief Build – Chieftain Marauder

Molten Strike Build – Berserker Marauder

Molten Strike Juggernaut: Uber Elder Farmer – Build Guide

Path of Exile Class Spotlight: Witch

The Witch is the third pure class in Path of Exile. Her intelligence makes all her spells powerful and devastating. She can sling curses and diseases as well, increasing the ways she can destroy her enemies. Her weapons are wands, daggers, and staves. She might pick up a mace or claw, but she cannot dual-wield swords and axes. She wears circlets and other light armor. Examples include gloves, slippers or boots, and spirit shields.

Her Ascendancy Classes are the Necromancer, Elementalist, and Occultist.

Strengths and Weaknesses

She has access to passives that boost spell range, duration, and damage right off the bat. Any spell she uses becomes a force of nature. In addition to that, her high intelligence means she has a large mana pool to draw from. It enables her to sling spells one after another without worrying about mana. She also has easy access to the passive skills that improve her undead army’s size, durability, and lethality.

She excels in burst damage or debilitating curses. However, if those don’t work or the opponent finds an opening to counterattack, her shields won’t last long. That energy shield is her main source of defense. If it falls, she will follow soon after. It also has the drawback of allowing poison or chaos damage to bypass it. Foes who use those as their primary element can very easily dispatch a Witch. She also can’t deal much physical damage by melee.

Ascendancy Classes

The Necromancer, as her name suggests, uses zombies, skeletons, and spectres to deal her dirty work. With a good base in minion boosting passives as well as the class’s own, she might not have to lift a finger to defeat all her enemies. Two of her more notable skills are Invoker and Mistress of Sacrifice.

The former increases the maximum life and damage of minions by 20%. It also lets them regenerate 2% of their life per second and decrease convocation cooldown speed by 50%. The second increases skill effect duration by 20%. Also, it makes your Offering Skills affect yourself but only at 50% effectivity. It boosts damage by 40% after eating a corpse, too. Its last effect is to increase attack and cast speed by 2% for every corpse consumed recently.

The Elementalist is master of the elements. Their skills increase elemental damage bonuses but are conditional. They may specialize in ailments, Heralds, or elemental golems. Some of her skills even allow for combinations of multiple damage types! Some of her notable skills are Pendulum of Destruction and Paragon of Calamity.

The skill Pendulum of Destruction grants 75% increased area of effect or 75% increased elemental damage. It alternates between these two effects, each one ending after 5 seconds. Paragon of Calamity leeched 0.5 of elemental damage taken as life. Then it boosts specific elemental damage by 40% and elemental resistance by 8% when damaged by that element. And its last effect is to render her immune to reflected elemental damage.

The Occultist focuses on chaos damage or curses. They’re the class that relies on and maximizes the energy shield the most. They’re also a generic way to generate Power Charges in builds that lack other means to do the same. Her notable skills are Profane Bloom and Void Beacon.

The first makes your curses affect all enemies, even Hexproof ones. Once they’re cursed, killing them will trigger a 25% chance to explode. Exploding creatures will deal a quarter of their maximum life as chaos damage. The second reduces nearby enemies’ chaos resistance by 20% as well as negating their life regeneration.

The Conclusion

The Witch is a trickier class to play. They’re more fragile and vulnerable when compared to Rangers. However, this is mitigated by their more powerful minions and an energy shield. Playing this character will require a bit more thinking and careful observation of shield and life amounts. Investing PoE currency to increase her durability would be good too. Of the three pure classes, the Witch is the most challenging to play.

***7 Best Path of Exile Character classes***

Witch Build Guides for Delve – Starter and Non-Starters

Explosive Arc Build – Elementalist Witch

Mage Skeleton Build – Necromancer Witch

Herald of Blade-Vortex Build – Elementalist Witch

Low Life Incinerate Occultist – Build Guide

PlayerAuctions is the Top Player-to-Player Trade Marketplace

You don’t have to go far for proof of this fact. We’ve got state of the art security, a welcoming community, and provides 24/7 customer support. We have been running without a hitch since 1999, and our trading community is constantly growing. While we can’t really eliminate any unsavory elements, we try our best to keep damage at a minimum. Any dispute between buyer and seller is also met with a thorough investigation to find the best solution.

With a New Feature: the Market Price Tracker

Now, we have a new service, and it’s the PlayerAuctions Market Price Tracker. It’s a concept mainly for tracking stock prices, but here it is applied to player-to-player trading. It tracks the price of a game currency in a span of time (from a week to almost a year). A chart represents and shows the rise and fall of the game’s currency’s price to make it easier to see.

While that’s the main purpose of the tool, there are a few other information to take note of on the page. The first is the varying prices of the currency in different servers (if applicable). That table shows the average price and whether it has risen or dropped in seven days. Next is the chart that shows the best-rated sellers there are for the currency. There’s space for only seven, but rest assured, there are more trustworthy sellers than those seven. Last but definitely not the least, there’s another graph that shows the most expensive item sold for that game.

Why Should You Care?

Well, the first reason is to maximize your profits. Sure, you could be drowning in dough by just selling the most expensive item you can think of. But what if you can make that dough even larger?

The first way is by learning the patterns of the game economy. That can be aided by the chart that maps the rise and fall of the currency’s price. By looking at the dates when the price rises and checking what event or update happened, you can predict when the next spike will be. Then you can sell your item or currency for more than usual. You can even track it per server if you wish.

The second is by showing who the reliable sellers are. PlayerAuctions has a system where former buyers of a seller can leave a comment on the currency, service, or item they bought. As those accumulate, the next buyers of that same service/item/currency can be sure that the seller will deliver. On the market tracker page, you can see the highest-rated ones. You’ll be able to buy their wares without worry.

The third is by categorizing all the offers by the server they operate on, you don’t have to struggle with the filters and scouring through irrelevant offers. There’s even a link to the offers on the page so you can go directly to where you need to go.

We’re dedicated to giving the best trading platform we can. That means consistent, reliable service and constant upgrading and addition of features new and old. You can even help us improve by sending your suggestions by email.

So join the best gaming marketplace and reap the benefits now!

Classic PC Titles That Continue to Withstand the Test of Time

Timelessness is the one characteristic that separates a classic title from games that come a dime-a-dozen. For a game to truly stand the test of time, however, it needs constant innovation. Moreover, it needs to do so without compromising the core qualities that made it such a standout in the first place. It doesn’t matter if a game may seem dated because of grainy graphics or its mechanics are somewhat passé. It all boils down to the gaming experience that people can take from it. From niche crowds, right up to the mainstream, the world of gaming is strewn with titles that embody the word longevity.

Today, we’ll take a look at a few classic PC titles that continue to stand up to the test of time–80s and 90s PC games that embody versatility and longevity. While there are certainly others that fit the bill as well, we narrowed our choices down to the top three most relevant titles in terms of overall impact in gaming culture and current mainstream relevance.

Ultima Online

The Ultima series had already had numerous iterations—with each release proving to be more successful than its predecessor—under its belt before Origin Systems finally decided to hop on the online bandwagon. The result was Ultima Online which was rolled out way back in 1997 as one of the most highly-touted Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. To create a buzz, the game was kicked off with the assassination of (producer) Richard Garriot’s avatar during a stress test.

With multiple Guinness records and a rich history to boot, Ultima Online certainly fits the bill as a timeless masterpiece. While the initial subscriber expectation was set at a meager 15,000, it actually reached an excess of 120,000 subscribers after a year. With such numbers, it’s should come as no surprise that it still has steam.

Starcraft

Released all the way back in 1998, Starcraft is amazingly still being updated even two decades later. Though when you think about it, it really should come as no surprise. Gaining a solid fan base right from the get-go—to the tune of 1.5 million copies sold in 1998—it still rides high after 20 years. Starcraft’s appeal and cultural impact is undeniable as it is far-reaching.

A timeless game needs to change with the times while retaining the key components that made it appealing to the masses in the first place. With all the updates over the years, Blizzard Entertainment managed to make Starcraft as relevant today as it was back in the Nineties.

Genesis

Here’s the oldest of our trifecta of classics that refuse to succumb to Father Time: Genesis. In fact, Genesis is so old-school, it’s actually a text-based game! Back in 1989, very few people—if at all—knew about the internet. It was during such Jurassic conditions that a group of savvy Swedish students created the game. It didn’t stay a humble game, though. As the internet grew, so did the game. As a result, there are over 60 guilds for players to join, and a sprawling expanse of the world—including Middle Earth and the Forgotten Realms—to explore.

A great game can be found practically anywhere. You don’t even need to get in on the latest releases to enjoy a fully immersive experience. Do yourself a favor and indulge in these retro games before time finally catches up and snatches them away from us. Enjoy!

Higher Heights: Path of Exile’s Patch 3.2 Ascendancy Class Changes

PoE Orbs

Image Credit: Pixabay.com

Path of Exile Patch 3.2, War for the Atlas, has been one of the most exciting updates the game has ever received. Aside from offering new content such as PoE items and giving the players one of the most unique leagues, if not the most, it also tweaked the Ascendancy classes. These new classes added to the game two years ago provided further progression and specialization for the six main classes. It was a welcome feature, but it was not perfect, so GGG, true to the same level of commitment and quality they’ve consistently shown, has made some adjustments to make sure that each Ascendancy is unique, useful, and most importantly, enjoyable.

The Ascension of Ascendancy

GGG’s official forum post, entitled Development Manifesto: Ascendancy Changes, has expressed their desire to ensure that the power levels of Ascendancy Classes are consistent and that all 19 of them would be considered as good choices. A lot of players feel like a lot of these classes are “noob traps.” Thus, they decided to carefully evaluate the classes using two metrics: identity and power. While most of the classes were doing fine when judged according to those two criteria, others didn’t fare so well. With that in mind, GGG has decided to revamp all Ascendancy Classes for Patch 3.2.

All Ascendancy classes received changes. Some got substantial buffs, while some got what would be considered as mild or arguable buffs, or even mild or very mild nerfs that were most likely inadvertent. This is to ensure that all classes not only enjoy a sense of identity, as well as the same level of viability, and hopefully, love from the players.

A Creed to Assassins

The example GGG gave for the classes that were returned to its former glory and essence was the Assassin, one of the Shadow’s often overlooked Ascendancy classes. Following archetypal RPG class tradition, the Assassin, according to GGG, was a “’glass cannon’ critical strike chance character.” While “fragile speedster” may have been a more appropriate description for all Shadow Ascendancy classes, GGG isn’t wrong about bringing the Assassin back to what defined it as an Ascendancy class. As such, it became one of the most prominent “returning” classes for Patch 3.2.

Templar Changes

The other two Ascension classes that were given a spotlight in GGG’s post are the Guardian and the Hierophant classes, both from the Templar class. The former is the example of those classes that remained the same, save for particular skills that were given a considerable boost. It may not seem that much, but every Path of Exile player knows that one buffing a few skills, especially important ones, make a world of difference.

As for the Hierophant, it’s one of the most extensively buffed classes in War for the Atlas. While Totem Hierophants have been reliable go-to builds for quite some time now, Patch 3.2 makes them even more of a powerhouse than they’ve ever been before. It now has a strong tri and quad totem capabilities without any repercussions, plus it’d be able to sustain Arcane Surge, permanently if it must easily. The Hierophant’s other trees have also been buffed, making it one of the most dependable builds in the current league.

Lastly, GGG has clarified that they intentionally didn’t have overt nerfs. That will come later after they have evaluated which buffs they should keep and which ones they should tone down.

Tweaks in classes will always have a ripple effect in MMOs. Given how big or small and simple yet meaningful those Ascendancy class changes are in Patch 3.2,
Path of Exile has officially changed forever.

Path of Exile – A Challenger Appears to Diablo III

Path of Exile

Image Credit: Pixabay.com

Diablo III has accumulated plenty of sins since it was first released in 2012. From the Auction House debacle to the seasonal resets, there has been no end to the criticism leveled on Blizzard. Despite all that, Diablo III remains the king of the isometric ARPG loot grind and no others have even come close. Things are different now, however, since Path of Exile has come into the ring and is proving to be a tough and true contender for Diablo III’s crown.

The Classic System with Modern Roots

Path of Exile is not ashamed to say that it took its core gameplay from Diablo; naturally, there’s no way around the loot crawl without acknowledging the original. However, the Diablo franchise has seen better days in the heyday of Diablo II and the original, despite the arguable relative success of Diablo III today.

Path of Exile comes from the same family of games, but it does more to separate itself from its cousins and ancestry. For one, PoE manages to stand out by making some very unique classes and combat mechanics; these focus on gem equipment in order to determine skills in combat.

There are six basic classes in the game; Marauder, Ranger, Duelist, Shadow, Templar, and Witch. These all ultimately have an analogue in Diablo III save for some unique differences. Regardless, the game is easy enough to pick up by the Diablo veteran or the genre newbie since each class performs a specific role akin to the holy trinity found in ARPGs like these.

The one thing that PoE does well is its ability to imitate the tropes and trends of Diablo, without becoming too much like Diablo. Enemies of the same quality are there with blue-named enemies being a “rarer” genus than white ones. Gold would be the enemies that may or may not completely destroy you. From the basic shuffling demon to the irreverent demon, many of these enemies will be familiar to fans of the genre. This is a good thing. PoE manages to replicate the same things people enjoyed in Diablo and other isometric ARPGs, while being able to keep it unique with its Dark Souls-inspired aesthetic and feel. This way, PoE does not manage to alienate a whole player base who may think that the original did it better, and it manages to be intriguing enough to draw in the genre newbie.

Perhaps the only downside to PoE is its Xbox One port. It is not awful in any sense, but it certainly could be better. Diablo III’s console ports are very fleshed out and polished, but this is the first time Grinding Gear Games went for a port of their flagship game, thus this was expected. There is not any cross-platform play, but that is also expected. This is due to the different balancing of the peripheral differences for controller and mouse and keyboard. Being out on the Xbox One for only a year, PoE will still find plenty of improvements on a console and, if Grinding Gear Games finds enough reason, even cross-platform play.

The best thing about PoE, however, is that it is completely free-to-play along with all seven expansions currently released. You do not have to spend a single dollar to be able to experience the breadth of content it has. It does have a cash shop as is standard in F2P games, but everything that could be purchased there is mere vanity items that do nothing to improve your game. Grinding Gear Games is one of those developers that took an ethical stance with cash shops, by maintaining that there will never be an advantageous purchase over another player that does not want to spend a dime on PoE. Perhaps the only somewhat essential item on the cash shop is the extra bank space that would not normally be purchasable with in-game PoE currency. However, many players would find this forgivable as it is not a game-changing thing. It will make your dungeon crawling considerably easier though.

Just Like Diablo But More

It is very similar in scope and size to the Diablo franchise with its sprawling, loot-laden dungeons and drop-in/drop-out co-op where enemies scale according to the number of players. However, there is much more content in PoE due to Grinding Gear Games’ penchant for releasing updates and expansions on a regular basis. PoE is already up to its seventh expansion in the form of War for the Atlas. There is a whole slew of things to do and explore – much more than Diablo III’s meager vanilla game and its single expansion, Reaper of Souls.

With an interesting storyline and hours upon hours of fun, Path of Exile is proving to be a serious contender for Diablo III’s crown as the undisputed king of isometric ARPGs. It is a wonder how PoE does not have the same level of fame as its predecessor. Grinding Gear Games simply does not have the advertising power Blizzard has since it is an indie company. If you would like a break from Diablo III’s seasonal resets, you may want to give PoE a try for a fresh take on the ARPG genre.

The Hottest Games of 2017

Games

The year is coming to an end, which means that it is time to showcase the top three most popular games of 2017. The games that are mentioned below are proven as favorites of the year with the help of the number of sales, postings, inquiries, and traffic. So, without further ado, here are the hottest games of 2017!

PUBG – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

High traffic places PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as number one in the hottest games of 2017. Even without the PlayerAuctions stats, it is easy to see that PUBG has been extremely popular among gamers for this year.

Players were able to obtain early access to the game earlier this year, and December 12^th marked the official release for Xbox One and December 20^th for PC. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds really hit the ground running, with countless games consisting of 100 players each, constantly battling to become the victor. Steam has data showing that current PUBG players number anywhere from 10 million to as high as 16.8 million. PUBG had more players playing through Steam than other popular games like Dota 2, CS: GO, and GTA V. If that’s not popular, then I don’t know what is!

Rocket League

Rocket League is gradually and consistently increasing in popularity. How? Well, the Rocket League e-sports scene is flourishing with gaming tournaments being held all over the world. Every tournament has multiple companies that are sponsoring the events, which is huge because large companies will not advertise their products in tournaments or competitions if the number of viewers is low. Each year, the prize pool has been getting bigger and bigger for these tournaments as well.

In 2017, the number of Rocket League players was 33 million. Coincidentally, the same number of Rocket League copies were sold throughout the three platforms, with PS4 taking the highest portion of sales during the year. Psyonix’s stats show the number of players that are active on Rocket League each day is 1.6 million users. Each week, there are 3.3 million users, and each month has 6.1 million users respectively. With the vast amount of tradeable Rocket League items available, along with the number of players involved in the game, has garnered a lot of traffic, thus making it number two on the list of the hottest games of 2017.

Path of Exile

Path of Exile comes in at number three in the hottest games of 2017, however, it is nowhere near as popular as the other two previously mentioned. Believe it or not, PoE’s player base increased over 40%! The increase occurred after March 17, 2017, with the release of Patch 2.6.0. The game reached a peak of 113 thousand players. Steam Charts also show that Path of Exile reached a peak of 70 thousand players (150.46% in growth) in the last 30 days. Given this information, it must be noted that the game is not available in Steam in certain countries around the world, so it is a very respectable number!

Path of Exile is traded in quite often amongst the players involved in the game. Being a popular trading site has benefited from this and has seen a drastic increase in traffic with PoE related inquiries.

There you have it, the hottest games of 2017. Have you tried playing any of these games? Not yet? You should take part in all of the fun and excitement these games can bring this holiday season! You can expect these games to get more popular in the coming year, 2018!