Diablo 3 VS Path of Exile: Which ARPG is Better?

There are numerous Action Role Playing ARPGs out there that people love to play. Very few ARPGs not only give you enjoyment while playing but also give you complex challenges to test your skills of thinking and taking action. Out of many popular ARPGs, the two well-known games pop up in every gamer’s mind and have cemented themselves as the biggest names in this genre. Diablo 3 and Path of Exile are these two games well-known and almost played and praised by players. Let’s talk about which of these is better and why. Before you read on, learn how to earn good currency to have the best start in PoE.

Comparison Between Diablo VS Path of Exile

While in most scenarios, gamers might compare games in terms of their storyline line and character build, still, there is much more to be undiscovered, shared, and discussed. According to our judgment, Diablo 3 seems to be a little more arcade and user-friendly than to be pure ARPG. Comparing Diablo 3 with its previous parts, Diablo 1 & 2, even these iterations were more like arcades and contained a small portion of being APPG. Diablo 3 is not a much more complex game compared to Path of Exile or other ARPGs. If you want to relax and chill out after 9 hours of work, then Diablo 3 should be your 1st preference. On the other hand, if you seek something challenging and more complex than Diablo 3, Path of Exile is the best and the only option for testing real challenges and skills. Path of Exile is not a game that you can finish easily. Many players even have to watch YouTube videos to build their character, seek gems, and acquire skills. More precisely, Path of Exile is not for those players who want to get engaged with their enemies and have fun in the meantime. Path of Exile is considered the game to have more ARPG elements, like a quest, choosing the league, and character build.

Main Differences Between Diablo 3 vs. Path of Exile

• Diablo 3 is for those gamers who love to pay close attention to the loot drops and the mechanic that plays around with gear sets, giving you immense power when the build is complete. Path of Exile is for players who seek depth in the skill tree and want to choose whatever skill gem suits their build.
• Diablo 3 is more fun to play as every season. You get set pieces as rewards after you have completed specific quests. All you need is to be patient to complete the tasks, and you get a power boost from these gifted gear set pieces. You buy the game only once with no microtransactions.
• Path of Exile, on the other hand, is free to play, but microtransactions are expensive even though they are only just cosmetics. The fun element in the Path of Exile is their extensive skill tree and skill gems making it more challenging and fun to explore different combinations of passive tree options and skill gems.

Character Progression In Diablo 3 and Path of Exile

Diablo 3

As with other normal ARPGs, you can easily customize your character. Get abilities as you progress in the game and modify them with the allowed choice of runes. These runes change how you can cast an ability, their element, or how it relates to the set gear mechanics.

Path of Exile

In Path of Exile, things are different as you choose skill gems that give you specific skills. You can add linked gems to add unique attributes to each primary skill, plus having different gem skills that provide you with a defensive ability or an aura.

With each level, you are awarded Passive Tree points, which you spend on nodes in the tree to add more passive power to your build. You can move in any direction of the tree to enhance your character.

Best Campaign and Storyline in Path of Exile & Diablo 3

Diablo 3

The main storyline and campaigns are the heart of any RPG, and Diablo 3 is the perfect game if you are looking for a smooth storyline that is fun to play and entertaining. The main storyline of Diablo 3 will take 9-10 hours to complete.

Path of Exile

Path of Exile is a pure skilled base and a great RPG but speaking of its central storyline or quest. It is a little complicated. You can’t find the main storyline in one row one after another because the main quest of PoE is scattered around, and you have to use a guide to start them plus, PoE has an extended storyline that eventually takes at least 30 hours to be completed.

Graphics and Gameplay Comparison Between PoE & Diablo 3

Path of Exile

Path of Exile is now a hundred times better in graphics than it was from their initial version. Path of Exile feels more entertaining and fascinating as they allow deep character customization. The gameplay of Path of Exile is enhanced than Diablo 3 because Every class in PoE has a unique playable character with a signature ability and combat system. In short, PoE is good at graphics, but the gameplay is a little complex significantly for the new players.

Diablo 3

Diablo 3 also has admirable graphics and solid gameplay. But it’s been a long since the dev of Diablo 3 came up with something new or any enhancement. Diablo 3 seems outdated game, but Diablo 3 stands out due to feature animation and cut scenes because we don’t see cut scenes in Path of Exile, even during the main quest.

Best Loot & Builds In Path of Exile and Diablo 3

Loot, treasure, and legendary items are the primary aspect of any RPG. Without them, the game is not fun as you don’t feel progression. It doesn’t matter how good the storyline is or how fascinating the graphics game have. And unfortunately, both games, Path of Exile and Diablo 3, miss the feature.

Path of Exile endows a massive skill tree and build but fails to provide better loot. Thus, on the other hand, Diablo 3 provides great loot but offers very few builds as most players play meta builds to conquer end-game Rifts.

And The Winner Is?

Path of Exile! According to our conclusion and judgment, Path of Exile is considered better than Diablo 3. Although Diablo 3 stands out in most aspects compared to Path of Exile, and the game is outdated, no new content or update has decreased the community of Diablo 3.

Path of Exile wins because the game still has many active players. However, PoE has been out for many years still. To this day, devs release new content to keep the community active.

Path of Exile Vs. Diablo 3 (The Ultimate Comparison)

On the surface, Path of Exile and Diablo 3 are synonymously designed, but their respective communities would rip you to shreds by the mere mention of this. Some would even go as far as to say that these games are completely different and shouldn’t be compared. Let us see why the players even think like that.

Compared to Path of Exile’s insanely deep systems, Diablo 3 can be considered baby’s first ARPG. They do have similar systems in place, but the implementation is vastly diverse. The biggest difference between the two lies in their skill trees, loot rollout, and endgame amongst other things.

Let us take an in-depth look at all of the key differences between Path of Exile and Diablo 3, and try to understand what these games have in common.

Free-to-Play vs Pay-to-Play

Path of Exile is a free-to-play game, and it is considered to be the best example of it. It’s not pay-to-win; not a lot of money needs to be spent to enjoy the game.

You can play the game without having to even spend a single dime if you really want, and that is an exceptional feature and very rare in free-to-play games.

The game costs you nothing to try. It might not be the perfect game for you, but you don’t have to spend anything to find out.

The only instances where you might have to spend money is either on cosmetics, which is completely optional, or you spend it on storage space which too depends on your commitment to the game. If you are a hardcore player, then buying storage won’t feel forced.

Diablo is a pay-to-play experience. With this model, there is a certain expectation of higher quality that players will be looking for when spending their hard-earned money outright.

If the game doesn’t satisfy your expectations, then there will be more disappointment. Although the good part is, Diablo 3 will most likely be available at a much-discounted price now.

The enjoyment of a pay-to-play experience comes down to the players’ subjectivity. There is a ton of content in the game, but the price tag of the game will impact the scrutiny it has to go through.

Content Update

Path of Exile has these things called Leagues. Essentially what Leagues are is every three months the game adds a new league that has its own set of rules.

It is on its own server that, you know, has the same rules as the game but with added rules on top that sort of change the experience of the game. It’s a really clever way to keep things fresh.

Leagues also add new items to the game, and new build variety by making things possible that weren’t possible before, and it somewhat forces players to play in a different way.

The best thing about League is when they end, the character that you’re playing with just gets supported over to the standard server or the standard league so that that character never gets deleted.

Once that league ends, you know you’re going to move on to the next league with a fresh character. The pros of this are that the game gets frequent updates, and you can always expect new stuff to come with these updates; it keeps fresh all the time.

The downside here is for players who like to play only one or two characters, have them maxed out, or try new things with them only. If you keep this mentality, then you won’t be able to experience the Leagues.

You have to start new characters every time you’re playing those leagues which you may not want to do if that’s not your cup of tea.

The Diablo franchise historically adds major expansions later down the release. It usually includes a whole new class or classes to the game and a new act, extending the game’s life with more content.

Leveling

Leveling is a big part of all ARPGs; these two games are no exception.

In Diablo 3, the leveling process is generally pretty easy and straightforward. You have several different difficulties scaling from Normal all the way up to Hell. As you get higher up and level, it even has bonus Torment levels one through six.

So while you’re leveling, you have a lot of different difficulties to play around with. You can make it really hard, or you can make it easy.

Your experience is going to go up or down based on how low you have the difficulty level, so you’ll want to do an appropriate level where you’re getting a decent amount of experience but also not too hard that it takes you forever to complete.

On the other hand, in Path of Exile, you essentially have one difficulty level, and it seems to get progressively harder as the game goes on and significantly more gear dependent. In this game, you also have to rely on your various types of damage resistance levels, which you don’t really have to worry about too much in Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 gives you more control over choosing difficulty, while in Path of Exile, you are in for whatever ride the game takes you on. You will be dying a lot in PoE until you get the hang of the game.

Diablo’s control lets you level up your other character easily, as you can tweak the difficulty according to your needs. The difficulty grind of PoE can get frustrating and annoying.

Co-Op

Both these games have co-op play however, they have their own unique take on the implementation. The game that is good for co-op play is Diablo 3. In this game, you get bonuses, extra experience, other currencies, and extra loot for being in a group together.

In Path of Exile, you get no such advantages of being in a group, and it’s not that easier. Path of Exile has a lot to be desired in terms of the co-op. It feels like a less consistent experience and you’re being sort of punished for doing so.

So co-op is a pretty easy choice as to which one is better out of those two; it’s definitely Diablo 3. Diablo 3 even has the option to couch co-op.

Loot

In Diablo, the only things that are worthy at the end game are Legendaries and set items; everything else is complete trash unless you need crafting materials. In Path of Exile, the best items in the game are usually the uncommon type items.

The yellow items that you pick up with just basic stats on them and no special abilities are the ones that generally are sought after, and it’s the complete opposite of Diablo 3.

In Diablo 3, if you don’t have a full set with all the set bonuses, then you’re at a huge disadvantage for the most part. There are very few advantages to not having a set, and if you are trying to craft a different build, then you’re going to have a bit of a hard time.

Especially in Path of Exile, there are different kinds of currencies that will change different stats on your items, whether implicit or explicit. It is highly customizable, but it’s usually pretty random.

In Diablo 3, you can reroll stats on gear, but it’s just basic stats. You’re not going to re-rolling any game-changing stats or anything that makes too much of a difference. However, there are tons of fun gear in Diablo owing to the Legendaries, and set items are much more important than the unique items in PoE.

As far as ease of gearing goes, PoE has a clear path where you just have to keep adjusting your stats upward, getting better pieces of gear with better stats, much like a traditional MMORPG.

Whereas in Diablo 3, you want better stats, but you also at the same time want to make sure you’re hitting those set bonuses, or else you’re going to be at a major disadvantage.

End Game

In terms of endgame content, in Diablo 3, you have Rifts and some bounties, but that’s just about it. Rift levels can go upwards to around 150. It’s incredibly difficult to reach this level, but it’s the same thing over and over. The end game in Diablo 3, while fun, is pretty limited.

In Path of Exile, there are so many different activities that you can keep yourself occupied for a long time. Whether it’s going into maps which is very common, and it’s what most people do at the end game, and the map levels go from 1 to 16, and there are even some Uber maps in there.

There are a bunch of different bosses, Delve, and tons of different activities in-game.

The end game for Path of Exile takes the cake through and through. There’s so much to do once you finish up that you’ll probably never actually get done with it unless you’re a hardcore player.

Graphics

Now you might look at both these games and like the different aesthetics they bring to the table, but overall the graphical advantage would go to Path of Exile. If you zoom in enough in Diablo 3, it starts to look pretty bad. It is good at the mid or completely zoomed-out level.

Both of these games are quite old now, and if I’m not mistaken then, Path of Exile is the only one that provides updates to the engine. Overall, the graphics, various effects, and stuff are much prettier in Path of Exile.

The dark theme and art style of Diablo 3 might attract some. Path of Exile is the clear winner here; however, there is a point of contention here which we will cover in the next section.

System Requirements

This is hands-down a win for Diablo 3. You can comfortably run this game at just about the best graphics on even a potato PC. Path of Exile does require better hardware to run smoothly at higher graphical settings. It takes forever to load into the game.

The devs are always working on optimizations. If you’re looking for something with lower system requirements out of the two, Diablo 3 is definitely your best bet. You can lower the graphics in PoE but it would look like you’re playing a potato on your potato.

Skill System

In Diablo 3, your skills are acquired as you level up; at the endgame, you’ll have several different skills that you can choose from, and you’ll also have several passive skills that you can choose from, so it’s not really a very complicated system.

You pick the skills that you want usually based on what kind of set pieces you have or other gear that you’ve acquired along the way; you plug them in, or you look up a build online, and off you go.

On the other hand, Path of Exile has some of the most complicated and interesting skill systems you will ever witness in an ARPG, without a doubt. There is a giant skill tree with loads of nodes, and if you’re new to an ARPG, it will probably be incredibly intimidating to get started.

The skills themselves come from gems that you socket inside your gear. Each piece of gear will have sockets, which can be attached to other sockets, so you might have a certain gem in one, and then a support gem in the next socket, and a lot of them can have up to six of those linked.

So potentially, you can have one uber-powerful skill based on all the gems that you have socketed plus the skills that you have in the tree.

Diablo’s system is more towards simplicity, easy to understand, and interact with. While PoE’s skill system is amazing if you’re into something that’s very deep and complicated or you are a veteran of such games.

The sheer customization of the skill tree definitely lies with Path of Exile, but if you’re a new player, you’ll probably disagree with this.

Conclusion

Although both these games seem like two peas in a pod, there are huge dissimilarities between the two, and we have tried to highlight those in this article.

Path of Exile has a crazy learning curve to adjust to and attracts only the staunchest of ARPG fans, if you want to start from the deep end of the pool, then this is your goto game. Comparatively, Diablo 3 is very streamlined and much more accessible, and if you are new to this genre, then this should be your first pick to learn the ropes of this game style.