Here's When Path of Exile's New Expansion Launches

@linkblade91: I was a die-hard Diablo 2 fan...for many years I played the original Diablo upon its release (1996) when I was in early high school...at friends house (the guy who introduced Diablo to me passed away in high school/car accident senior year in 1999) - but at the time in 1996 he had (the first custom PC I ever saw in his parents basement) and got me into rpgs a few years earlier (early to mid 90s) and in 1996 I loved Diablo instantly...then came Diablo 2 in 1999...I had it about a month after release...and then 2001 (post-high school days) for the LoD expansion...I spent the next 9 years playing Diablo 2...of course / naturally taking breaks (a few months here, few months there a year or so break in between several times) but overall I spent many years...making chars, muling gear, lvling up to 98/99 in softcore...I was always on US-east both ladder and NL...I remember running with friends from working months on-end doing Diablo-talk at work..it was a lifestyle not just a game LOL. We experienced nearly everything you could (like the big 1.3 patch, long-awaited what was it ? 1.07? everyone was worried about loosing tons of gear and all the exploited content including bugged BOTD's and all that...apologies alot of my memory is gone from those days...hard to remember specifics) ...I remember hell-cows...Baal runs...Uber Diablo...I remember Uber D spawned in my game after X amount of SOJ's were sold on server lol...and I exited by accident closing out that room (couldn't re-log) I must of spent literally 1,000's of hours, upon 1,000's of hours on that game no joke. Late night 3-4am with blood-shot eyes on phone w/ friends while muling gear, logging in/out back and fowarth - going from 1 account to the next (I used to have paper notes with all my accounts and the login/PWS info cause I had so many accounts full of lvl 90+ chars and tons of gear...) ...I spent a decent amount of time playing other Blizzard games too (a bit off-topic) but I played 2-3 years of World of Warcraft...first 2 major expansions...I got the game upon its initial release Nov. 2004. I played alittle bit of Starcraft as well in the early years...and growing up every 1 of the 3 main Warcraft titles..but Diablo was always my favorite and had this cult-follwing...I remember spending years wondering if they were ever going to release a new Diablo...of course we got that news as early as 2010...2 1/2 years before its actual release...and I remember reading all the news I could...every few months I'd check on up what was going on in the Diablo world..eventually it came out I had just bought a new PC...which had a few compatibility issues (go figure the 1 PC I buy despite being brand new had a video card that wasn't supported on the list of accepted vid-cards, such as my luck..but things were ironed out in early-on patches...mainly graphical glitches...but I spent about a year on Diablo 3...atleast the first year, back when the RMAH was still in-game...back before the days of Paragon lvling and way before the Cube even then in those early days pre-RoS I enjoyed it despite its flaws...it was almost super rare to have a legendary in the Auction House and even rarer to have one equipped minus a few easy-to-find Leg's..but I ran with friends, made new friends - had an active friends list...spent X amount of hours per day/week playing it and like the previous 2 Diablo titles it grew on me...then I quit for awhile...just you know had other stuff I wanted to do - other games I wanted to play on console/handheld...I bounce back n fowarth depending on how I feel/mood I'm in...I can be dedicated for a period of time (months even years) but eventually I like to freshen it up a bit...when I finally did come back to Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls was out...I went out bought expansion...never turned back for the next year (2014>2015) did alot of stuff, leveled numerous char's, new builds, tried out new builds...had a group/clan to run with bounced from one clan to another - had a group of friends (that I had previously before I quit the game the first time..that I reunited with) and we spent alot of time playing...all the way up to basically the end of last year (holiday 2015)...I have since quit and I tried PoE cause mainly I heard so much about it...and even though I've spent "alittle" time playing it...I haven't been even remotely dedicated...like a level 27 ___whatever he is lol...it's not a bad game but I don't think its something I'd dedicate any serious time towards, if I were to go back to any ARPG...considering the options out there it would be without question Diablo 3...I quit about a month or so after the cube got big...post-patch...and I was still pretty active in the game...but was loosing interesting...once you get up to the 800-paragon level (847 to be exact and that was last year) + 2 seasons and 1,000s of hours...

I just wanted (once again) something fresh...maybe I'll end up going back to Diablo 3...I have spent collectively 20 years across 3 main game, and 3 expansions (if you consider the original Diablo's "hellfire' a full expansion) ...I've enjoyed them all and I'd have to agree Diablo 3 has come along way...far better now then it was in the beginning...but even in the beginning it had some redeeming qualities...as a game its grown to become what it is, many people that bashed the game only played it early-on (2012) it's become if you ask me another classic in the a long history of classic titles in this franchise. I hope we see a few more big patches, and maybe at the very least 1 more major expansion to keep the game running (I mean look at how long Diablo 2 was in circulation and hell its still being played to this day, but of course that community has died down to a minimum 2012 > onward - the last 4 years I think its safe to say that D3 put a hamper on D2's would-be-community...I know I'm ranting and its a big run-on paragraph for that my apologies...I hope (my point to all this was) I hope "we" get atleast 1 more major expansion for D3 (it would be a first to have a 2nd major expansions for the Diablo franchise) and some say the dev's have scaled down to a skeleton crew for the game...but I read an article somewhere recently that said surprisingly Diablo 3 is still a big game in terms of ratings/critical standing for Blizz...and there is more people surprisingly that are interested in a 2nd expansion and every year talk about it being a reality (so much so) that Blizz has stood up and taken notice - it's the 1 game out of their library of games that many say they are still enjoying and surprisingly it has a big thriving community at the moment...(the article was saying something like "in a time where WoW's community is dying off and the account - creation is at an all-time low, and SC2 is struggling in sales since 2014 to stay afloat, D3 is surprisingly a free-to-play game the one that gets the most attention from fans/critics and it would be a shame to not see future content to extend the life of this game by the very least several more years") something along those lines...and I agree...be the first to make a 2nd expansion...maybe an increase to level cap 80 w/ a new act (or 2) a few dozen new areas to explore and increase in gear-options, and expanding on the cube (maybe like some sort of "word art" something similar to the Stones n Words in D2...so one can only hope for the future of D3...as the timeline suggests there will be no Diablo 4 ( if anytime soon ) or maybe the argument is they won't release a full large 2nd expansion but instead release a steady string of large patches/content updates (just the last few patches including 2.3 n 2.4 - and areas like Ruins of Sesecheron (butchered spelling) and the others new areas included in the last several months of D3 life. I will probably get back into the game at some point...no interest at the moment, but I still have a fondness for the game...and again the entire franchise as awhole...I've been a gamer for almost 30 years (since the late 80s as a child) and from console and PC to handheld and everything in between I've put alot of time into alot of games and Diablo franchise probably remains in my top 5 easily in terms of fondness/nostalgia and overall enjoyment over the years + time invested. But every now and then I need a break as you could imagine...I can only go hardcore for so long lol...just hope to see more content and even more areas to explore...expanded on an already good game.

@linkblade91: Labs and trials are still as awful as always, to the point that I don't even bother to go get the Offering whenever I find a trial in a map, even if it takes 1 min to do so. But this looks promising IMO, because the most annoying thing (and probably what makes me quit a league half way through everytime) is that you end up running the same 4-5 maps over and over again and it gets boring. Sure, you can do lots of other things like prophecy chains, master rotations, Atziri, challenges and what not, but mapping is the most important thing in the game and it needs to be fun/varied.