[nissyack]

I've always been interested in getting into an ARPG game like Diablo or Path of Exile. PoE is highly recommended by people, but it just seems like you run through a map and wreck everything at a million miles per hour.

Are PoE or Diablo worth trying, or are they just too grindy?

[that1guyno1knows]

ARPGs are pretty solid games but as I've gotten older and have less time to devote to grinding over and over I haven't played them as much. PoE is all fine and good but if you're looking to try it I'd wait until they release the whole PoE 2 thing that they have had in the works for quite some time now. I personally stopped playing PoE a few years back because I didn't really approve of programing bad experiences in order to make good experiences better (such as getting a good event to happen in the corner of the map where it proceeds to have essentially no monsters spawn, among other things.) Also the top end of PoE involves a lot of trading and understanding the market for items and currency which can be overwhelming if you're just trying to have a good time and get super strong. (Yes you can get really strong without investing too heavily into the trading aspect but if you want to get as strong as possible as quick as possible trading a must.) There are Solo-Self Found modes where there is no trading but you also cannot play with friends in that mode.

Diablo is completely different due to the way items and trading works in it. With Diablo you can only trade items with people who were there when the item dropped (group members). Otherwise everything you use is going to be what you have found. This makes it a lot easier for the game to drop you specific items that will always be good for your class. Also they have milestones/quests (for the season play, once per season and account) once you get towards the end game that will reward you with a particular set for completing them and completing 3 will net you the whole set which gives you fairly strong power level and lets you try out some cool interactions said set has with your class. They always let you know ahead of time which set each class will get for that season so you can check online what the sets do in order to decide if you want to go for that set or not.

All in all I'd say that PoE is for the more dedicated player who doesn't mind getting into the nitty gritty and likes to theory craft builds and go as specialized as they want (although a TON of players will just go onto reddit or forums or their favorite twitch streamer and just copy a build from there instead of making their own.) And Diablo is for the more casual guy who just wants some ARPG fun and to generally be getting solid upgrades at regular intervals and have a clear cut way to become fairly strong (get your first set from the season rewards) and then decide from there if they want to keep grinding to get a different set or various other uniques in order to try other builds.

[dailovin]

All ARPGs are grindy.
Diablo 3 is definitely more suited toward the casual player. Its easier to gear your character and your end game is more of trying to get as high on the season's leader board. in D3 you can get carried to max level and really start the "end game"

POE is alot more involved as there are more classes you can play, infinite skill trees to use, and then there is gearing. Trying to get the best gear is an endless quest as you can always try to craft/recraft certain items to get the max DPS. POE does not allow your character to be carried to max level, you have to replay the entire story for each character you make.

POE2 is coming soon so you might want to wait for that instead of picking up POE now. POE is also free to play.