About

Path of Exile, also known as PoE, is an action RPG/Hack and slash video game developed by Grinding Gear Games. The game follows the rise of power of an exile trying to survive in the fictional land of Wraeclast.

History

The game began as a passion project of a small group of ARPG fans that were dissatisfied with the lack of new games of the genre.^[1] In June 2010, the game's alpha began, running through August 2011, when a closed beta started. On October 23rd, 2013, the 1.0 version was released as a standalone client and on Steam.

After the initial release of the game, multiple expansions and temporal leagues, bringing new mechanics, skills, enemies, NPC's, etc, launched. One of the most noteworthy expansions, the _ Fall of Oriath_ was released on August 4th, 2017, adding six new chapters to the game's initial three, plus the one added on the "Awakening" expansion (shown below).

Gameplay

In the game, users choose from seven different starting classes (Witch, Templar, Marauder, Duelist, Ranger, Shadow and Scion), each with their own three subclasses, except Scion, who only has one. The game takes influence from Diablo 2 and has a similar playing style, where players mainly control one character with the mouse and use skills with the keyboard. One of the key features of the game includes the ability to use any skill with any character class, allowing a great variation of builds on its massive skill tree.

Reception

The game has a 86 and 83 score on the review site Metacritic for its PC and Xbox releases, respectively; a 9.0 on Gamespot; an 8.8 on IGN and a bery possitive (92%) on the Steam store. Path of Exile was named 2013 PC Game of the Year by GameSpot and best PC role-playing game of 2013 by IGN.^[1]

Fandom

On April 8th, 2011, Redditor ^[3] chris_wilson launched the /r/pathofexile subreddit. Two years later, Redditor^[4] Freakindon launched the /r/PathOfExilBuilds launched.

On Twitch, ^[5] the game has 880,000 subscribers and multiple streamers like Zizaran, Ziggyd, Mathil, kripparrian and more play the game on daily basis.

Related Memes

Le Toucan

Le Toucan is an ASCII art of a Toucan with the message “le toucan has arrived” that is commonly spammed on the global chat of the game, the message is usually followed by other users responding with the word "PRAISE" flooding the chat.

Fishing

Fishing is a running gag on the game. In the game multiple easter eggs exist like fishing poles, equipment modifiers and NPC named Krillson, based on and voiced by Chris Wilson, the game's producer, exist. It has become a joke in the community to say that disclosing the secrets of fishing will result in a ban.

Einhar Frey

Einhar Frey is the name on an NPC added during the Bestiary temporal league. He teaches you how ta capture beast and craft gear using them. The character became popular in the game thanks to his hatred for the beast and his quotes especially the "HA HA, you are captured, STUPID BEAST!" one (shown below).

Diablo Immortal and Diablo Refugees

Diablo Refugees refers to Diablo players that joined the Path of Exile community, after the poor reception of the Diablo Immortal announcement at Blizzcon 2018. Many fans, particularly on Reddit boards /r/diablo and r/pathofexile, turned their attention to Path of Exile for its more consistent updates, involved developers and closer community. Given the games' status as competitors, the title of "refugees" is also a further jab at the Diablo community's turbulent state. This was escalated by the proceeding Path of Exile expansion, Betrayal League, which unveiled a new enemy faction called the Immortal Syndicate, leading many to believe Grinding Gear Games was intentionally preying on Diablo Immortal's bad press to sway new players.

Important Community Members

Bex

Community Director and Producer at Grinding Gear Games^[2], Bex is known for shitposting.

Mathil

Mathilification is a Twitch streamer who has gotten famous for creating extremely popular character builds for the game to the point the items used for them get a massive rise on their prices or the builds end being nerfed, this has lead to the creation of the popular joke of "Nerf Mathil" that has been used multiple times on the subreddit, on Twitch and by the GGG Staff (shown below).

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References