Path of Exile is one of the biggest competitors of Diablo 4. In April, the A-RPG will receive a new update that allows players to give their weapons their own skill trees.
Which Diablo competitor is it about? Path of Exile (PoE) is a popular action RPG and one of the biggest competitors of Diablo. For nearly 10 years, this hack’n’slay has been available and is characterized, among other things, on Steam by an enormous and extremely complex skill tree.
In April, Path of Exile will receive the new “Crucible” update – it will be released on PC on the 7th, followed by consoles on the 12th. With the update, players will have the chance to assign new skill trees to their weapons.
We are embedding the trailer for Path of Exile: Crucible here:
Weapons with their own abilities
What is the deal with skill trees for weapons? To give your weapons their own skill tree, you channel one of your equipped weapons in a “Crucible Forge” that is added to PoE with the “Crucible” update and upgrade it.
By upgrading, the selected weapon receives a new skill tree along with new talents to unlock. However, you will only gain the new abilities when you succeed in a battle against numerous opponents, as channeling the weapon summons monsters.
The number of opponents that come and how strong they are is supposed to depend on the time it takes to craft the new abilities. The longer the channeling takes, the “more dangerous and rewarding” the encounter will be.
If you summon additional monsters during the process, they merge into even larger opponents and provide even more experience for the new skill tree of your weapon.
Additionally, you can visit the “Titan Forge” in the endgame of the update and, if you make it to the forge, merge two weapons there and combine the skill trees of the two items to create even stronger weapons.
“Like working on a 20-piece puzzle”
What are Diablo players afraid of? Path of Exile is known for its complex skill tree. Diablo, on the other hand, takes a simpler approach. However, some fans of the series find it too easy.
On Reddit, some players describe the various skill trees as unimpressive and fear for the variety they have in creating different builds.
- PhotonDecay: “Does anyone else find the skill tree unimpressive? PoE may be too much for most players, but the tree in D4 is like working on a 20-piece puzzle. It feels like your decision doesn’t really matter.”
- Gasparde: “Having now played all 5 classes, I am severely disappointed with the skill tree as a whole and the lack of synergy it seems to offer.”
- Timooooo: “During those 2 weekends, I felt that more than half of each skill tree isn’t worth investing points in. […] Some skills are just useless and many passive points have little impact. Surprisingly, I only had to think a lot about the Barbarian.”
The last comment refers to the weakness of the Barbarian. Many players consider it not strong enough. It requires some thought to find a good build for the Barbarian.
An example of a strong Barbarian is the bleeding build by MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider:
Diablo 4: Barbar Build tears apart whole groups of enemies, focusing on bleeding and self-healing
