This is a Diablo clone that is getting released soon, it's pretty fun. They are currently running a stress test for the next 24 hours, it's been just the thing to get me warmed up for D3. POE is going to be free to play and completely online, mainly instanced but with public towns.

http://www.pathofexile.com/

Just played a Marauder to lvl 15, and I actually really enjoyed it!

Though I was kinda turned off by how much it looked like they copied diablo initially (do health squares or hectagons, but for christ sake dont do spheres ), it really grew on me pretty fast.

The game looks incredible and I was able to run it all maxed out @ 1900*1200 with 40 FPS on a laptop (GT 550 GPU) - which is pretty sick when you see how good it looks. Other than being surprisingly beautiful/efficient, it also really had that dark oldschool diablo feel to it which is awesome.

I really like how they did their potion system and the passive skill tree is a awesome aswell (could've been a bit less crazy tho). But I really like the fact that you use all your skill poins on passive while leveling your abilities by themselves.

The best thing about the game tho is that the developers are listening, responding to the players. There was pretty much constantly an employee in the general chat responding to the players questions/suggestions. And it seemed like they were working on pretty much all the major things I thought they could improve (voice dialogue, ability to zoom out further).

The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the classes and how they looked, but still it's definately something I'm gonna give a go when it comes to and see how the finished product fares against D3.

Is there any way to get a beta key for this ?

They will implement donation for closed beta key soon. Might get one depending on "price" and how close to D3 release it is.

yeah this was a fun way to kill a few hours today. thanks for the rec, OP

I really love this game! Anyone have an extra beta key?

Same here as my #2 post probably reveal.

You should obviously give the first key to Tony, but if someone else has one or someone has 2, I would love to get one aswell!

Would be nice with a small 2p2 community ingame, got a Marauder to lvl 21 and the other classes at low level during the open beta weekend.

i played the witch til lv 30 during the weekend. This game makes me hope diablo 3 is going to be epic because this game is very very good.

yup, I might even end up playing PoE instead of D3. I find myself constantly checking their homepage to see if I've won a beta key in their 4min random lottery (even tho I'd probably get an email, lol)

Sadly, it seems Blizzard steered D3 in a more newb friendly and cartoony direction to appeal to a bigger crowd. I really love the way PoE feels/looks in this regard.

I'll definately play both a fair amount but I don't know which I will stick with. I just hope PoE will be a commercial succes. I guess it has to be in order to keep running since it's F2P, I expect balancing will be the biggest obstacle the way the Passive tree/skills work.

Anyways the guys at GGG are awesome, and it seems like they genuinly love the genre and create the game for more than financial gains. The lead guy even said he was looking forward to playing some D3. And I really like how they aren't afraid to address the elephant in the room, being how much the were inspired by D1+2.

Gief beta key or fix the donation 4 key feature, wanna stop sitting on forums doing nothing and start playing!

lol i'm in the exat same boat as you!

Yeah I played a lot of this during the weekend stress testing, seems p good so far. Got a Templar to L30 and did the 2 hardcore race events too (#7 ranger and #4 Templar). So many levels of customization available, should end up being v cool. Plus reading the forums it sounds like they have a ton more skills they plan on adding.

For those who didn't play, it's got a really cool skill system. Active skills are all found on gems which you earn by questing or find as v rare loot drops. Those get socketed into items to make their skill useable, and will level up to become stronger versions of the skill as you 'wear' them. You can remove them from gear freely too to bring your skills with you as you find better loot. There are also support gems which boost or add effects of the active skills they are socketed alongside. On the other side, every time you level up you gain a point to spend in the immense passive skill tree, which will give you some small passive boost (base stats to wear better gear, or some small but more specific bonus). Planning your progression into different branches of the tree is p cool. Best of all, everything is technically accessible to every class, just takes some longer than others, so there is basically infinite customization - whatever you can dream up within the existence of the game, you can probably make work with enough passive points.

please someone help me out with a key. i have an addiction. I will pay if i have to.

Yea, although I do think they could simple down the passive tree just a bit (seems like alot of stuff is just there to make it massive (5*+6% sword dmg in a row could just be one with the ability to press it five times)) - but thats a small detail and nothing deal breaking

In regards to being able to do everything with every class, are the classes completely irrelevant or do they actually have + some skills from level one? (basically will a spell casting Maurader or a duel wielding witch be just as good as the other way around)?

will let you play on my steam account with dota 2 for a beta key. i'm jonesin to play!

will give a kidney for a beta key.

i'd take one in the mouth for a beta key. Plz?

I'd suck an ocean of dicks for the first digit of a beta key. Plz?

seems fun

I just got into the beta and played a few hours.
It doesn't feel like something I can play for hours on end like I did with for instance diablo 2 (maybe I'm just getting old) but so far I only played solo. It's great to pick up for like half an hour during my break though, I did like 2-3 half hour sessions each day so far. Just do one quest or get to a new waypoint or whatever and it's really easy to progress a bit.

I like the difference in the skill system with the gems and passive tree. However, I am level 17 now and not all that interested in any more of the big skills in the passive tree (I'm trying to make a summon witch, maybe not a great build). There just don't seem to be that many interesting things on it. However, the gems and how they drop and that you have to level them is a really fun and cool mechanic imo. That's a great innovative idea.

Donation to get a vanity item + beta key will go live in "Hopefully within an hour - maybe sooner". And that was 13 min ago via twitter..

WHY WANT U TAKE MY MONIES!111

Now they're saying 45 min, maybe more :O

Just checked it out after reading this here... looks really promising!! Want to play the beta, but I'm not ready to pay yet. Will there be any coming stress tests?? How long until the open beta?

I dropped 10 on the beta. I'll be in..BITCHES

My semi-qualified guess would be:

No more open stress tests.

2-3 months untill open beta.

The game's definately worth the $10, it's way closer to a finished game than a beta at this point. I do understand if you don't like the idea of paying for something that will be free (and better since it will be even more finished). It will probably be an overall better experience to play the complete game aswell since features like more voice acting, mini map and another act will be available.

After playing it in the open stress test weekend I couldn't wait tho

Oh, and if you haven't already, make an account and create one post on the forum - that way yo have like 0.5-1% of winning a free beta key every day.