Diablo 4 Players Should Know These Tips Before Trying Path of Exile 2

While Path of Exile 2 might be in the same video game genre as Diablo 4, the difference between them is massive. This is because of the huge amount of content you have within the Path of Exile series. It is both a curse and a gift for Path of Exile, as it will repel players who refuse to read hundreds of pages of text to learn mechanics and builds. For those who leap through these hoops with gusto, they’ll experience a game like no other. In a way, this is the whole point of this article – to lessen the load for ARPG or Diablo 4 players fans who want to try Path of Exile 2 and stick through it.

Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 Similarities

Since its release, Diablo 4 has undergone many changes, especially the addition of several endgame pillars, such as the Pit, Infernal Hordes, and Tormented Bosses. When you are a newcomer to the ARPG genre, it is the best way to experience the journey as while you may get overwhelmed with the character-building while experiencing the story, it won’t be so bad that you get lost on what to do.

The same goes for Path of Exile 2 but on a different scale. If you go through the first Path of Exile game, there’s no handholding, and you’ll often have too much information dumped at you at once, and you’ll reach a point where you have to sit down and read instead of playing.

Path of Exile 2 aims to fix that problem by streamlining many of its features, like the loot system, which moves away from the item loot explosion and introduces gold instead—even though the game will also have another currency system in the form of Chaos Orbs, Divine Orbs, etc.

You can relate this system to Diablo 4’s economy, where gold is used for upgrades and buying items from trade chat while having materials like Obducite as another way of upgrades. You farm different types of content to get these materials along with gold.

If you dissect these systems even more, that’s where you’ll see the differences, as Path of Exile 2 offers an unmatched variety of content to get specific materials and resources to enhance your character or even just have fun.

The depth of each feature of Path of Exile’s deep customization system, like its famous passive skill tree or its currency system, enhances the character-building process, giving players almost an unlimited supply of choices to path to.

If you ask someone to simplify the game multiple times, you’ll eventually get Diablo 4, which is definitely way better as an entry for casual players in the genre.

Related: What Are the Path of Exile 2 Classes? – Answered

Path of Exile 2 Explained Through Diablo 4

When you look into Diablo 4’s character customization, you’ll see skills you can freely pick up as you level up. You’ll also look for gear that revolves around a few specific rolls like Maximum Life, Resistances, and Armor for defensive and Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, and Attack Speed for offensive stats.

In Path of Exile 2, you’ll look for the same stats at the “start” of the endgame. However, there are hundreds or even thousands of other stats you’ll look to get, but they are way harder to find. As for skills, you are also looking for these skills as gems instead of just getting them outright. There are “rarer” gems that alter certain skills in some way, and you actually choose the gems you want to use.

If you want some defensive skills for a Ranger, you have the option to use defensive skills – which you would normally see on a Barbarian or melee character. However, there are some restrictions, like you have to use a certain weapon to use a specific gem, but overall, they are quite lenient with their customizations.

To add more to the gear customization in Path of Exile 2, you are also looking for “unique” items, similar to unique and Mythic items in Diablo 4. However, there are hundreds more unique items aimed to revolve a whole build around on in Path of Exile 2. Diablo 4 does this, too, but they are mainly generally good gear like Tyrael’s Might and Harlequin Crest, where most builds, regardless of class, will use them in their endgame build.

In short, imagine you are playing Diablo 4, fighting through the Tormented Bosses, farming Torment IV difficulty content, and pushing through Pit 80+. When you are at this point in Diablo 4, you have just stepped into the midgame of Path of Exile 2, where you are exploring different ways to farm items and curating your build to farm specific content better and faster.

Related: How to Check if Your Account Has a Free Early Access Key in Path of Exile 2

What You Should Learn Before Playing Path of Exile 2

In Path of Exile 2, there is a big focus on finding the right build. However, this is a double-edged sword. If you look for the right build and follow a guide, you might not grasp the ideation of how the build was created and not understand the mechanics of Path of Exile 2 – mostly how your build scales damage.

Once you reach a certain point where you can’t get certain items with specific stats, you’ll get lost in finding upgrades for your build and struggle to look for a way to improve.

In another scenario, if you don’t look for a build to follow and you are reading and learning as you go along, you’ll surely struggle to grasp everything, especially if you haven’t played Path of Exile and even if you played Diablo 4. In the long run, this is better, but the first path is also “easier” as long as you just don’t blindly follow a guide.

The next step is to learn the gem or skill system in Path of Exile 2. This is one of the most crucial mechanics in the game, and it is what defines your build. Learning what gem works and figuring out the “best” support gem to pair with the build is usually the best course of action. It goes like this:

Main skill gem – support gem – support gem – support gem – support gem – support gem

You want to greatly enhance your main skill gem with multiple support gems to get the strongest version of that skill. The same goes for your utility skills, where you can also put support gems on them. Learning how to use these gems will be crucial to your character progression in Path of Exile 2.

The last tip is to always be thrifty with your currency. If you are trading items using the currencies you found in the game, it is always best to trade right away instead of finding a “cheaper” option because the time you spent thinking and waiting if you should buy it or not could’ve been spent farming with that “upgrade” already on your character. Of course, this is only applicable on non-luxury items, which are basically 90+% of the trades anyway. Once you get used to the game, you might want to even try hardcore or SSF (solo self-found) to test your skills and knowledge.