What do you get when you cross-breed Final Fantasy VII's materia system with Diablo 2? You get Path of Exile, a game which demands a great deal of theorycrafting and immense build diversity the likes of which you will never see in many ARPGs.

Pros:
+ Free to play
+ No pay-to-win, all microtransactions are aesthetic.
+ Vast build diversity
+ All skills are available to use by any class
+ Helpful, active community
+ New take on currency and how it affects trading
+ Massive, comprehensive skill tree.
+ (Personal interest) Competant summoning and minion features

Cons:
- Always online
- Trade chat is poorly implemented
- Game has terrible problems with desync
- Standard league economy is horribly inflated
- Not for casual gaming, requires a great deal of time and effort to get to the real fun parts of the game

Pros explained:
The first thing that attracted me to this game the most was the summoning system. Diablo 2 had spoiled me rotten with the necromancer, nothing was more fun for me than running around with a large army of skeletons at my back, ready to charge forward to engage the enemy. Not many ARPGs can pull off a good summoning mechanic, but when they do, its always amazing. Path of Exile not only lets you raise hordes of zombies that fight until they die, but also allows you to summon skeletons that offer support and come in larger numbers. The best part of summoning, however, comes in the form of raising spectres. Imagine fighting a monster that is very proficient at wiping out your minions, and then turning that monster into your own minion to fight for you! And there's more, from summoning flaming skulls that bypass enemies and small obstacles to animating weapons to animating a full-blown suit of armor!

The next big feature I loved about this game is how they handle currency. Most games just give you basic currency like gold which you use to buy or sell things. Not in this game! Currency comes in the form of special orbs which also provide useful functions. One orb can be used to give you respecs to your passive tree for example, another can be used to turn a mundane (white) item into a rare quality item. There's lots of orbs and each orb is valued differently between each other based on rarity on usefulness. If you can find the 'mirror of kalandra', you've officially become a rich player, but good luck finding it!

There are no direct skills to speak of when leveling up, but they are passive improvements. When it comes to Path of Exile, it doesn't give you a skill tree, it gives you a passive skill jungle! Those who have played Final Fantasy X will know what I'm talking about. The passive skill tree is what allows for such an amazing build diversity. Its very complicating for new players, but thankfully the forum has many build guides you can use to teach you how to build yourself. I highly recommend you try and make your own build first to understand the passive skill tree before reading a build guide.

Ah, but the greatest feature of all about this game lies in the actual skills themselves. This game offers a myriad of abilities that are accessible to every player, so long as they can meet the stat requirements for them. Want to throw a fireball? Sure. How about raining fire on the enemy? Why not! Want to throw a spectral copy of your weapon at an enemy and watch it fly back to you? You can get it. The fun doesn't stop there, no. You can also augment your abilities with support gems to make them more powerful! Want to shoot more fireballs at once, or to make them split on impact? There's support gems for that! Want your arrows to bounce between multiple enemies or pierce right through them? That's possible. Want your melee attacks to attack multiple times in one cast, or to make your melee do AoE damage? You can do that. There's infinite possibilities when using skills, you just need to know what works best!

Cons explained:
However, this game does have some downsides you will have to deal with. The first and perhaps biggest issue this game suffers from is desync. For those who don't know what desync is, the simplest way to describe it is that the client isn't in sync with the server. For instance, you're trying to escape from some enemies in a hall and while you think you have escaped, you're still taking damage and when you die, you wind up back where the enemies were. Rubberbanding is the best way to describe desync and you will be experiencing this a lot. If you play on the hardcore leagues, its IMPORTANT that you play carefully and utilize the '/oos' command in chat to resync.

This game is also not friendly to the more casual of gamers. Between build diversity, a complicated skill tree and a heavily inflated economy in the parent standard and hardcore leagues, this game demands a great deal of time and effort be invest before the game gets any fun. If you're not prepared to really sink your teeth into this game and hang on for dear life, you might want to consider playing something else.

But hey, this game is free. Free, and without pay-to-win microtransactions. There are microtransactions in this game, but they are all cosmetic and designed purely to make your character stand out from the rest. There are also pets you can buy as a microtransaction, but they are also purely for visual appeal and will not give you an advantage to combat. You will never have to worry about other players buying their way to greatness, everyone is on even ground here!

I really suggest you give this game a try, especially if you were a fan of Diablo 2!

Helpful resources:

http://poe.trade
This site is great if you're looking to find an item in the game that you need. The site pulls information from the trade forum and their trading stash tabs and if it finds a match, it will list all the items that meet your criteria. Clicking the item's name will take you straight to the player's trade thread on the forum!

http://www.pathofexile.gamepedia.com
This is the wiki for Path of Exile. Everything you will ever need to know about the game can be found here. This site is very active and updates immediately when new content is released. If you ever need to know what certain skills do or what uniques do, this is the place to go.

What do you get when you cross-breed Final Fantasy VII's materia system with Diablo 2? You get Path of Exile, a game which demands a great deal of theorycrafting and immense build diversity the likes of which you will never see in many ARPGs. Pros: + Free to play + No pay-to-win, all microtransactions are aesthetic. + Vast build diversity + All skills are available to use by any class + Helpful, active community + New take on currency and how it affects trading + Massive, comprehensive skill tree. + (Personal interest) Competant summoning and minion features Cons: - Always online - Trade chat is poorly implemented - Game has terrible problems with desync - Standard league economy is horribly inflated - Not for casual gaming, requires a great deal of time and effort to get to the real fun parts of the game Pros explained: The first thing that attracted me to this game the most was the summoning system. Diablo 2 had spoiled me rotten with the necromancer, nothing was more fun for me than running around with a large army of skeletons at my back, ready to charge forward to engage the enemy. Not many ARPGs can pull off a good summoning mechanic, but when they do, its always amazing. Path of Exile not only lets you raise hordes of zombies that fight until they die, but also allows you to summon skeletons that offer support and come in larger numbers. The best part of summoning, however, comes in the form of raising spectres. Imagine fighting a monster that is very proficient at wiping out your minions, and then turning that monster into your own minion to fight for you! And there's more, from summoning flaming skulls that bypass enemies and small obstacles to animating weapons to animating a full-blown suit of armor! The next big feature I loved about this game is how they handle currency. Most games just give you basic currency like gold which you use to buy or sell things. Not in this game! Currency comes in the form of special orbs which also provide useful functions. One orb can be used to give you respecs to your passive tree for example, another can be used to turn a mundane (white) item into a rare quality item. There's lots of orbs and each orb is valued differently between each other based on rarity on usefulness. If you can find the 'mirror of kalandra', you've officially become a rich player, but good luck finding it! There are no direct skills to speak of when leveling up, but they are passive improvements. When it comes to Path of Exile, it doesn't give you a skill tree, it gives you a passive skill jungle! Those who have played Final Fantasy X will know what I'm talking about. The passive skill tree is what allows for such an amazing build diversity. Its very complicating for new players, but thankfully the forum has many build guides you can use to teach you how to build yourself. I highly recommend you try and make your own build first to understand the passive skill tree before reading a build guide. Ah, but the greatest feature of all about this game lies in the actual skills themselves. This game offers a myriad of abilities that are accessible to every player, so long as they can meet the stat requirements for them. Want to throw a fireball? Sure. How about raining fire on the enemy? Why not! Want to throw a spectral copy of your weapon at an enemy and watch it fly back to you? You can get it. The fun doesn't stop there, no. You can also augment your abilities with support gems to make them more powerful! Want to shoot more fireballs at once, or to make them split on impact? There's support gems for that! Want your arrows to bounce between multiple enemies or pierce right through them? That's possible. Want your melee attacks to attack multiple times in one cast, or to make your melee do AoE damage? You can do that. There's infinite possibilities when using skills, you just need to know what works best! Cons explained: However, this game does have some downsides you will have to deal with. The first and perhaps biggest issue this game suffers from is desync. For those who don't know what desync is, the simplest way to describe it is that the client isn't in sync with the server. For instance, you're trying to escape from some enemies in a hall and while you think you have escaped, you're still taking damage and when you die, you wind up back where the enemies were. Rubberbanding is the best way to describe desync and you will be experiencing this a lot. If you play on the hardcore leagues, its IMPORTANT that you play carefully and utilize the '/oos' command in chat to resync. This game is also not friendly to the more casual of gamers. Between build diversity, a complicated skill tree and a heavily inflated economy in the parent standard and hardcore leagues, this game demands a great deal of time and effort be invest before the game gets any fun. If you're not prepared to really sink your teeth into this game and hang on for dear life, you might want to consider playing something else. But hey, this game is free. Free, and without pay-to-win microtransactions. There are microtransactions in this game, but they are all cosmetic and designed purely to make your character stand out from the rest. There are also pets you can buy as a microtransaction, but they are also purely for visual appeal and will not give you an advantage to combat. You will never have to worry about other players buying their way to greatness, everyone is on even ground here! I really suggest you give this game a try, especially if you were a fan of Diablo 2! Helpful resources: http://poe.trade This site is great if you're looking to find an item in the game that you need. The site pulls information from the trade forum and their trading stash tabs and if it finds a match, it will list all the items that meet your criteria. Clicking the item's name will take you straight to the player's trade thread on the forum! http://www.pathofexile.gamepedia.com This is the wiki for Path of Exile. Everything you will ever need to know about the game can be found here. This site is very active and updates immediately when new content is released. If you ever need to know what certain skills do or what uniques do, this is the place to go.