Path of Exile just had a bunch of announcements about Path of Exile 2 and the new Path of Exile 1 League. The beta is coming in about a year for Path of Exile 2, so the game will follow shortly after. And what has happened all over the Internet is there's comparisons all the time in Path of Exile 2 vs. Diablo 4 and who's going to win. Everybody is asking in the community all the time. In today’s article, we look at new Diablo 4 gameplay and how it compares to new Path of Exile 2 gameplay in this battle of titans that is D4 vs. PoE 2.

Comparison Between POE Vs D3, POE 2 Vs D4 - Which Makes You More Excited

We are entering a very interesting time for Diablo 4. A few days ago we got a new look at proper gameplay of Path of Exile 2. Its predecessor Path of Exile is extremely successful and even managed to overtake the Diablo series for a number of years in active player base which should be enough to tell you even if you've never looked into Path of Exile yourself, that it is absolutely a very big contender in the ARPG genre. Some would say it even more specific than that as POE was essentially originally created with the idea of being a spiritual successor to Diablo 2. Starting off much more similar to that game, giving it the title of a Diablo like at the time. Then over the course of the last 10 years, the game has changed and evolved in so many ways and at this point you can't even really call it that anymore. It still has a very similar set of bones to Diablo games, it still functions similarly at its core. But this game has received such a mammoth amount of content that is completely unique to its existence that if anything, it should be considered a diverge evolution of a Diablo game, becoming its entirely owned thing even from similar roots.

POE Vs Diablo 3

The better The Path of Exile is, the more the Diablo devs have to work to make their games even better than that and vice versa. These games are essentially each other's main competition just as a whole, you can check out this graph that shows the popularity of Path of Exile compared to Diablo 3 from 2016 to the start of 2023. As you can clearly see, players in Diablo 3 dropped quite hard and players in Path of Exile is kept pretty steady for that entire 7 year span. What's the main reason for this, then seasons or leagues as they're called in Path of Exile. While the concept of seasons and ARPGs began in Diablo 2 way back in the day, Diablo 3 didn't really capitalize on that idea for over 2 years after its launch and nearly a year after the reaper of seoul's expansion which did do a lot of good for the game. 

Around the same time, Path of Exile came out, it had a beta that even had leagues in the beta itself and they didn't shy away from doing leagues quickly in the main game release either. One of the biggest things that has kept Path of Exile going and has made it what it is is that the leagues in the game, their season's equivalent are really quite sizable, they're chunky, they always come with new bosses, new gear, new proper mechanics to engage in. And if we compare that to Diablo 3 Seasons, that was something that that game ever really got. The result of this is the graph that we just talked about. Over the years since the release of both games, Diablo 3's players declined Path of Exile just didn't really, that said Diablo 4 has learned this lesson quite clearly, they've given us a season pretty much right off the bat, 60 days after release. It looks closer to an early Path of Exile League than it does to a season in a previous Diablo game. it's still quite content light but it is still arguably more than a Diablo season has ever done for us in the past and it shows attention to not only match but also aspirations to do even better than leagues and Path of Exile with future Diablo 4 Seasons.

POE 2 Vs D4

So they've seen what has been working for the genre and they want to improve it for their own system. In return, with the upcoming release of Path of Exile 2, they are watching Diablo 4, they're looking to see what they can improve on as well, some ideas that they would like to have involved in their game, but take it in a different direction. Competition is good, it is what will make both of these games much better than they ever would have been without each other, but a big thing to keep in mind is that especially with this league and season system, games in this genre get better over time, Path of Exile at release wasn't that crazy, but these days are so much going on in that game, it's breathtaking. Diablo 4’s launch has been rocky. The way that the game is updated over time, the way that the seasons go that will come cause Diablo 4 to truly flourish or to die, all that said this was just to give a basic comparison between the two games. 

What we really want to talk about is the brand new gameplay that we got of Path of Exile 2 and some of the new features or improvements that Path of Exile 2 will introduce. They talked about 6 new classes, their 6 act campaign and a big bright spot. The campaign itself has over a hundred bosses which in theory expands through the entire game past the campaign itself. These specific types of arpgs being known for getting better over time rather than launching with everything in them. Let's just say that 100 bosses at launch is a really genuinely, very solid starting point to work from. On top of this, every player melee attack seems to have some movement attached to it, giving you great dodging and GAP clearing ability which is really great especially for the melee classes. Having a dodge roll on every class that does not have a cooldown, that can also cancel you out of your own ability animation, so you don't get stuck in a bad place with a long casting time.

In Path of Exile 1, there are tons of bosses that just had freeze or stun immunity, because the abilities that applied freezer stun would either apply the status or they wouldn't, it was a fairly guaranteed thing. So obviously, it would trivialize a boss fight if that was okay away that it worked. Now in Path of Exile 2, instead they have a bar that slowly builds up as you apply more of that status and then it goes off, which sounds unfamiliar. There are also permanent stat bonuses that you can find by killing optional bosses and that is a miles better idea than tying stat bonuses to alters of love, nobody wanted to go around the map collecting all these altars, those are a thing that should just be an optional collectible for the people that  like grabbing all the collectibles in the game. Not something that is forced for player power, so re-tying that system to being tied to optional bosses in the game is something that we really like, it ties it to proper gameplay rather than walking around the map and clicking on stuff. They've mostly cut out cooldowns on skills from the game as a whole. There are various things that cost or generate resources but cooldowns are very rare in Path of Exile 2. One of the worst feelings in an action RPG is just standing, waiting around before going into a fight because you've got a timer slowly ticking down that you have to wait for. There is also a weapon swapping mechanic to make it make sense to use multiple elements of spell, and the way that they've done this is really cool and reminds us of The Barbarians Arsenal system in Diablo 4 where it allows you to choose which spells will be cast with which of your stabs for a sorcerer letting you always cast the right ability with the right weapon and letting you make more interesting and intentional builds as a result. 

Which Game is Better, POE 2 or Diablo 4? 

- It's no secret that some of the things that POE 2 announced sound a lot more attractive than Diablo 4. And maybe this is going to light a fire under the Diablo 4 developments team be like we better step up our game, we got a year to make our game better and this is going to be our competitor.  The POE 2 announcement was very strong, looked very good. 

- All this to say, Path of Exile 2 looks far more methodical and even harder than Diablo 4 in its current states. But also far less restricting as far as movement goes and they've even said that they've never really want a moment to exist where it feels like you've lost control of your character. The classes that we have seen so far in the game look quite engaging and the game itself looks visually quite nice as well. The boss fight seemed more than decent enough for the mid game portion that they said it was and seemed to be challenging as far as taking a while to kill lots of attacks to dodge, not just instigating you. This game is really fun. 

- Many people both can and will play both Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2. These games don't hurt each other, they don't eat away at each other, they genuinely help each other, innovate by providing strong and healthy competition in the same genre. Coming up with mechanics or ways of handling things that players really like, then the competitor is incentivized to try and create new beloved systems as well to match that. One of these games being good makes a higher chance of both of them being good, they will learn from each other and adjust and the better Path of Exile 2 looks, the more that Diablo 4 will likely try to add these types of things into its Seasons. Seasons with more things to do will be better Seasons long term and already it looks like we are surpassing what we were being given back in Diablo 3 as far as Seasons. So this could only be a good thing right Diablo 4 is enjoyable as hell even through all of its issues. 

- Path of Exile 2 is looking fantastic at least from the perspective of only watching hand-picked gameplay and that simply means that we are entering a good time for arpg fans. 

- Diablo 4 should theoretically only improve with time and Path of Exile 2 isn't even out until the summer of next year unless it gets pushed back for some reason. The near future of the genre of game is looking strong. Throw away the concept of being a Diablo Fanboy and just be someone who enjoys this genre as a whole, same with being a Path of Exile Fanboy. The arpg genre is going through a really strong period of growth over the next year in a bit, the money going into these games from players has gone up and that usually means that the money going into developing the games will go up too and that should mean that we get better games as people who play them and there's nothing negative about that.

Difference Between Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 - How to Compare POE  & D4

• Path of Exile 2 is a major expansion and overhaul of the existing Path of Exile, building on the same core ARPG systems and mechanics. Diablo 4 is a ground-up remake of Diablo 3 with significant changes to how the game works.

• Path of Exile's customization and character building remains incredibly deep and complex with thousands of passive skill tree nodes, dozens of abilities per class, and massive itemization. Diablo 4 is aiming for a more streamlined and accessible loot and skill system.

• Path of Exile remains free-to-play and exclusively focused on PC. Diablo 4 will be a premium PC and console game with optional microtransactions. This gives Diablo 4 a significantly higher development and marketing budget.

• Path of Exile 2 will feature a full visual and engine overhaul as well as a revised act 1 experience and new endgame. Diablo 4 is introducing an open world system with dynamic events in addition to its campaign and endgame.

• Both games are targeting improvements to combat feel, animations and visual effects to make moment-to-moment gameplay more visceral and satisfying. But their overall approaches to character progression differ.