As many ARPG fans wait for the long awaited Diablo 4 release, many are looking for alternative options or fillers to fulfill their hack, slash, and looting itch until then. Some may be looking for other options than Diablo 4 altogether. While Path of Exile has solidified itself as the strongest alternative to Diablo in the ARPG genre, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem presents itself as a new contender which is quickly gaining a unique foothold in the ARPG community.
For fans who may be eyeing both Path of Exile and Wolcen and wondering which one to pick, there are some key differences to consider, beyond the gorgeous visuals of Wolcen or the massive amount of content Path of Exile offers at face-value.
Path of Exile is a much more complicated game than Wolcen, with an enormous skill tree and various systems to learn and become familiar with. Many describe Wolcen as a hybrid of Diablo and Path of Exile, or even "Path of Exile Lite." Path of Exile and Wolcen share a similar skill tree that is node-based and non-linear. However, Path of Exile's is much more intimidating for newcomers or casual players, whereas Wolcen's skill tree is more streamlined. They are generally similar, but the key difference is that Wolcen's increments are greater between skill levels, especially passive skills, whereas Path of Exile's offer more branches, yet smaller increments in scale of stats between each one.
Basically, the difference comes down to player preference. If one prefers a slower and more long and drawn out simmer in developing a nuanced character over a period of time, Path of Exile scratches this itch. Wolcen will provide a much faster progression in feeling one's character grow stronger and develop their skills at a faster rate, especially during the mid-game when Path of Exile takes its time.
Wolcen has a quicker learning curve, especially for players who are familiar with ARPGs in general. In addition to differences in skill increments between the skill trees in Path of Exile and Wolcen's, the latter also resembles Diablo more so, especially in Wolcen's ability to modify each skill while leveling.
Besides technical glitches and bugs in Wolcen, it also struggles with end-game content. It should be considered that given the other games have had more time over the years to develop their end-game content as such, Wolcen can still potentially resolve these issues as it heads into the future, and if it can manage to hold onto its current player-base.
Currently, Wolcen's end-game content consists of the Champion of Stormfall mode, which enables players to complete city management initiatives and expeditions, which sounds as if it has a lot of depth. But in order to gain these resources, which require a lot, it mostly entails running through the same missions and landscapes countless times repetitively, without much variation in content or difficulty, if any.
Also, the loot pool does not change much at the end-game, and can sometimes even provide high-level rare items with low-level stats due to some issues with the way in which the developers scaled items in Wolcen. Furthermore, even if one successfully obtains items with enticingly high stats, there is a lack of unique loot which helps define particular character builds a player is working on. This is especially true in the lack of loot offering meaningful bonuses for a particular build-type, even if the rest of the stats scale well for the character.
This all currently makes it hard to continue to drastically evolve the build of the character at Wolcen's end-game and continue onward in the long run, even if one is willing to repeat much of the same content and missions countless times over. It also means there is less incentive to endure the repetitive content over again, while waiting for the developers to create new content.
For some players, the best choice may be to wait on Wolcen, or to play through the main game and take a break at the end-game to allow for developers to flesh out its issues and add more content in Wolcen or enjoy some of Wolcen's mods. While Wolcen certainly has potential and has achieved much praise, its biggest mistake may have been in leaving Early Access too early, as players are more willing to show forgiveness for many of these issues when the game has not fully released.
The need for the player-base to stay in place will be the biggest factor in whether the game makes or breaks itself, as the developers need its base to continue development of new content and balancing out current issues. For some players, Path of Exile offers a more complete package, with a passive skill tree so massive in size that players can continue to accumulate power and higher stats even if they feel they have fully developed their key abilities and skills sets.
Another key difference in choosing between Wolcen and Path of Exile is whether one wishes to focus on one character or create multiple characters, and this can be fairly crucial for many, depending on play style. In Wolcen, a player can essentially accumulate many different skills, as well as equip whatever items they wish. In the long run, a player can essentially create one character only to invest their time into, and use it to play many different build types for the same character.
Also, the way the skill tree is organized in Wolcen, one has to follow certain paths which go through vastly different class-architecture types in order to reach another area of nodes which provide skills specifically for the type of build the player is looking for. In other words, even if one is not interested in creating a diverse character, over the course of the game, the player will naturally encounter other skill-types in order to reach and unlock all the skills for a particular build-type. Many of these may be nearing the outer edges of the node-tree from the center, the latter of which is the starting point.
This can be good or bad, depending on play style. On one hand, it provides less incentive to create other characters in Wolcen, but provides tons of flexibility in a single character. It may also suit players well who have limited time, but wish to have diverse gameplay experiences on different occasions in Wolcen by switching.
Some fans of ARPGs have already written off Diablo 4 as an option for themselves. And for those fans anxiously waiting for Diablo 4, there is a good chance it is probably over two years away still, and certainly they will be looking for alternative options in the meantime.
While Path of Exile has stood the test of time as a solid and well polished alternative, or even a filler as many wait for Diablo 4's release, other players have differing views on the game. And for them, Wolcen may be just the game that offers slightly more complexity, but is less overbearing than Path of Exile, despite its need for further polish and end-game content.
For others, sticking with Diablo 3 and even Grim Dawn are still solid and well established options in the ARPG genre. And merely waiting for the eventual release of Path of Exile 2 is another option, if one is confident in their preference for Path of Exile.
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is available now on PC.