Which Should You Play Torchlight Infinite or Path of Exile?

2022 and 2023 are looking like great years for the ARPG genre, but with so many choices what should you play?
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Ultimately, I think playing one season of one and one league of another could be a great way to approach things, or play the new content for a week or two and then switch to the other. Who knows when D4 is added to the mix that might be an option too.
#torchlightinfinite #pathofexile #arpg

[@ozbezarius922]

Torchlight Infinity is PoE for casuals, almost in every way. I loved so many things that TI had that PoE lacking. Some to say - FREE respec till lvl 80 ( this thing made me happy for days, because how great this idea is ) , very comfortable campaign , main currency very comfortable to farm and etc. A lot of people dont like TI for graphics or maybe pet system, but game actually dope and can became very good in future. Glad i found it and started playing.

[@notsonice5426]

Played POE since 2015. Almost always active every first month of the league. However, with age comes maturity hence only able to play casually now. Torchlight Infinite has the appeal for casual players with heavy backgrounds on ARPGs. This is where TI may "steal" POE's player base wherein older people with little time to play would be wiling to pay for quality of life stuff that TI offers.

[@Tenkiei]

Yeah, I can definitely see that. I think TLI is very appealing if you have limited playtime. But I also think PoE still holds long term appeal, and many people will want to do both.

[@BartoszBielecki]

About crafting. In PoE it's like 4h sitting in front of craft of exile, checking all the league mechanics, blocking tags, lowering ilvl, imprinting, praying to rnjesus, farming mats for 1 week straight... In TI it's: find a 85 ilvl base, check for correct implicit, add affixes one by one progressively. Done. Also keep in mind that TI have a lot of leagues coming so it will ramp the complexity alright.

[@a3ug3n1o]

For me what is great in TI is the crafting and sense of gear progression. We don't have this in PoE... you just need to farm currency and use the horrendous trade system.

[@bewarned8236]

In regards to Seasons in this game, i think it would be REALLY cool if each prior season mechanic turned into a Card that you could make a deck out of, if you really liked that mechanic. That also makes it where you can keep your base hame how you (the devs) like it, but also give agency in how the player players it.

[@JohnPhillipJunior]

Torchlight is a fun game the only problem i have is the prices for end game items is ridiculous

[@Tenkiei]

Given that there's an AH and auto-loot that type of price inflation is inevitable. This is part of why PoE does not use an AH.

[@Al_Does_Stuff]

I really love Poe's art style tbh and while I enjoy the gameplay the darker tone of poe just so much more appealing to me. Probably consumed too much 40k content when I was younger XD

[@Tenkiei]

That is one regard where the two differ. Overall I prefer PoE's art style and darker tone as well. I do think Torchlight Infinite fits the look of torchlight based on my experience playing a bit of TL2.

[@Uberjager]

Having played both, theorycrafted for both and enjoyed both. I find Torchlight Infinite currently a more visceral ARPG experience. You spend more time playing the game, tinkering around with ideas and discovering a way forward. All key elements of a more fun ARPG experience. POE on the other hand is starting to feel more and more like a table top RPG. Alot of your time is spent planning, figuring out what to do, making decisions, and figuring out to execute a strategy for the league before you actually start playing the game and less of experimentation as you go. As an older player with limited time it is pretty clear what game I'm more likely to play. Although TLI's monetization strategy seems pretty reasonable so far, there's no guarantees it will continue to be fair for players who don't want to spend on the game, that would probably be my only concern. My vote's for Torchlight Infinite right now and here's to hoping GGG actually understands that this game is actually decent competition to POE and start making POE a better ARPG experience for players.

[@jablanchard81]

They won’t. I agree with you. Poe has felt like a job when I have played seasons over the last couple of years.

[@Swaidtube]

Hot take from someone who played poe for 2500+ hours since picking up poe in 3.13 starting from never playing an ARPG to going 40/40 every league and making well over 1k divines mapping each of the last couple leagues: Just going to pick some Random categories that I’m going to state why I like one game’s way of implementation over the other: Crafting: The crafting in TI is WAY better than POE’s current 3.19 state. Depth wise obviously POE has a ton of different mechanics but the save states you have to confirm to change your item and the ramping cost feels way more fair and despite it still being rng it just feels better. Mapping loops: I like POE’s atlas system more overall because you have more control over what you are running and can force Mechanics and invest a lot more into customizing and optimizing. With that being said TI’s mapping is still super fun and the fact that you don’t have to trade to map non TM8 infinitely is awesome and the outcome Is playing the game a lot more and trading a lot less. Boss designs: TI bosses have very telegraphed mechanics and therefore feel less complicated. Nothing comparable to something like Uber Bosses or Height of Hubris feared. I think the boss loot is TI is nice because you’re guaranteed certain things every time with watcher’s eye type items with massive variance that have a low drop chance which is nice considering a lot of bossing in POE can be pretty feast or famine with few exceptions Build Customization: Feels like POE has more choices but less diversity because of how rippy Archnem is. I hope this gets addressed in 3.20 because a lot of people are sick of having to have such beefy characters to just not die to random 1 shots while mapping. Monetization: The TI pets are such a bad optic and big negative for community perception, but it really isn’t that much of a percentage of player power. I just bought the pass and Used the currency to roll pets for free and use the blue/rare drop pets and I imagine the difference between my setup and the legendaries is within a couple percentage points. The difference between the bis pets and “free” pets I have is massively smaller than playing POe without stash tabs vs not having any bought tabs at all. I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions on your definition of pay to win! Overall: Both games are incredibly fun and it’s awesome there’s competition in the space of ARPGs we all find so fun. My hope is to keep playing both games and bounce back and fourth at the start of each season and to have them both receive positive changes so they both keep getting better over time!

[@Monkey-fv2km]

For me PoE has become too complex and punishing for the amount of time I have to play, and TI fills my needs nicely, although the aesthetic isn't appealing at all. I suspect that GGG might lose a chunk of their more casual gamers to XD.

[@MrMetFanSC]

I just wish XD didn't go down the Gacha route with pets, if they didn't have that I think they would have taken a huge pool of people and had a fantastic playerbase to build. So many people just won't touch this game because of the pets. The half stance they have taken where the pets are p2w, but aren't really powerful enough for you to be able to pay2win could be a huge mistake for them. I hope not though because I really enjoyed playing this league.

[@respectedmastermind]

@@MrMetFanSC the monetization is okish

[@Freedom-kl8rt]

poe is a game for people who don't have work, obligations and have time to play for six hours every day

[@respectedmastermind]

@@Freedom-kl8rt i work 53 hours a week lvl 97 in softcore fight me xd (played a lot during christmas)

[@MrMetFanSC]

Really loved playing TLI this league, what I am most impressed with is how they clearly built their systems around expanding the game, so many of the systems in TLI are designed to grow over time. Just a few examples: The end game card system is VERY expandable over time and I would be surprised if they don't add new card types every league. The trait systems is extremely expandable breathing new life into builds by giving new options to achieve them and rethink the way things work Skill system is obviously very expandable POE style they can add new skills and supports just like POE can and they still have lots of room to grow there. However, I think the biggest one is that they can add new god/goddesses to their system, I am hopeful that every year or so they add entirely new passive trees to the system, the amount they can increase build diversity there is just tremendous and very interchangeable. Overall I really hope TLI takes off, I really enjoyed the league and plan on playing next league, it might not be an "every" league game for me, but being able to play it a couple times a year for a couple hundred hours I could easily see myself doing and is a great addition to the genre overall.

[@stans3622]

Your point about passive trees is huge. If they want to do something similar in POE it's much more difficult which can be seen in their recent update to the skill tree. Takes a lot of effort for minimum amount of change.

[@ukantos1186]

I am level 85 in TL I. The BIGGEST worry i have with the game is the gacha mechanic. Characters with exclusive traits that arent attainable in the game without spending money don't sit well with me

[@frati80]

Love TI, I could never have time for PoE but now it I can enjoy a proper arpg again even with a few hours per day. Also love that it is on mobile, can play it during breaks and whatnot. It feels like a proper game finally on mobile.

[@setcamper]

First off, you're killing it with TL content and so appreciative of your coverage. At first I assumed this game was an Diablo Immortal cash grab and wanted nothing to do with it, so I largely ignored it. Seeing your updates continual flow into my subscription feed told me a different story. Followed your beginner guide and I've thrown 50 hours at TI and it's easily the best ARPG I've played in a long time. I appreciate everything PoE represents for its dedicated fan base, but that's never been me, as much as I've tried. It's too big, too complex, too many changes to adapt league to league and even week to week with the way the builds, economy, and farming strategies work. TI on the other hand, besides being a Mobile game port and all the restrictions that brings, has nothing I don't like that cant be easily fixed/expanded if the game takes off. I thought Last Epoch did a wonderful job of creating an accessible ARPG that walks the line between casual and complex, but it's just not fun to play. TI has hit that bullseye perfectly for me- taking everything I love about PoE and finding a way to rework everything I hate. I hope you continue making great TI content- at least until D4 becomes the new 500lb ARPG Gorilla or inevitably lets us down one last time.

[@chodenode]

Honestly, was really sad about the monetization of Undecember. Would have preferred that over Torchlight based on gameplay mechanics.

[@jobalfredotan3239]

i love poe but i dont like the high spike of latency and lag but torchlite infinite is better right now for me with no problem with lags

[@rylok]

Enjoyed the video. I am a long time PoE player who has kind of gotten sick of leveling every league. I'm trying out TL and - even if they have the same issue, it's all new, so it's much more fresh and easy to do.

[@Tanisaykut]

I plan to play both at every season launch for a month or so. I hope they try to avoid launching seasons at the same time in future. My concern is after playing torchlight inf how am i gonna get used to back to poe after all the quality of life Torchlight inf have lol.

[@ryanwilliams7842]

Great in depth video. Just clicked bc I'm curious and I think I might play torchlight on my phone. I thought the only mobile option was dioblo immortal. Cool vid

[@1Crazyguitarist1]

I think most people are like me when it comes to which game they play out of these 2 , I'm done with the current 3.19 league so I'm playing TI until mid December when 3.20 comes out , I'll probably play that for 1 and a half to 2 months , by then the new TI league will be out, so I'll play that until the next PoE league . So yea, PoE will always have priority ,but only because I've been playing it for years .

[@danielwandawn3070]

I quit PoE few years back. After they destroy my 2 fav build. Self Curse and FRite Totems. Since then nothing interest me. I put like 10 hours a day for a month. to farm currency to gear up those two. I will come back for Poe2. Then torchlight infinite release. With perfect timing.:)

[@haroldoduarte1393]

PoE was surely one of the best games I've ever played. Torchlight is interesting but it doesn't come even close to PoE. I've been playing torchlight for a while now and it gets boring kinda quickly, especially for me cause I really don't like the game aesthetic. It's a great game for people with little free time to play, that's the reason I'm still playing a few mins/day.

[@oryanch._8635]

What I love about Torchlight Infinite is how I can invite my friends to play and they've actually picked it up.

[@tfmulla]

healthy to take breaks, POE: 6 hours in time for a stretch.

[@Matok1]

PoE feels like you can't experiment. The meta builds have been discovered by someone else who has a lot more time to sink into the game than you, and if you're not following their PoB build guide you're gonna have a bad time. Unique builds that don't follow the meta can only do so because they overpower everything with mirror tier gear. With TLI, first character I ever made was perfectly functional. Not top tier stuff for sure because I was just putting points where it sounded good to put them, but it worked without too much difficulty. If you did that in PoE, you'd be lucky to ever reach end game. And the free respec up to lvl 80 + target dummy is huge for letting people mess around to discover new things. Curious if a build or weapon is really going to make you better in TLI? Put it on and go hit the dummy, if number bigger, yes, its better. Curious if a build or weapon is really going to make you better in PoE? Well... first import your character data into an outside 3rd party tool, make sure you have all the correct boxes checked and stuff because it may be lying to you if you don't, and then see if the reported dps number is bigger than what it was with the other talent points or gear. And keep in mind, it's a simulation, your experience with it in the actual game may be different. The situation with crafting is similar. If you want to understand how PoE crafting works, use a 3rd party website. TLI explains exactly what you can expect within the game. Curious about what killed you? TLI tells you what kind of damage you took when you died, and how much. PoE... 🤣guess. PoE is 'hard' in ways that are not necessarily good, mostly by just hiding information from you and making you go outside the game to get it if you can at all. I hold out some hope that TLI can present a bit of a challenge to GGG here and maybe they'll move a bit more toward being less cryptic on everything as they move on to PoE 2, but I seriously doubt that is going to happen.

[@toadtube]

both

[@pedropadre4137]

Right now torchlight probably

[@gazettex8852]

Hey can you make a video and explain it to us newbies how seasons works ? Read the new dev notes it says there that after a season our progress will be transfered to the permanent server ? And if thats the case , do we have to create a new character? Or can i use my s1 char to play the new season ?

[@Tenkiei]

Until the second season happens there's a lot of unknowns, but I would assume yes you need to make a new character.

[@TheSheptys]

I personally don't like the art style of torchlight and that's enough for me not to bother.

[@aroace7913]

Same, it is very generic.

[@TheSkyCaLL]

going mobile is already another level of mass

[@kevinperalta6721]

reaaaally weird that you didn't mention paid hero traits when talking about monetization

[@Tenkiei]

I cover the monetization in more depth in the video in the card.

[@pifftystan2813]

Gonna go PoE every new league and stay for 4-8 weeks if league is good then head to torchlight.

[@Tenkiei]

Sounds like a good plan.

[@rouvenbose5831]

Cant wait to see where TLI will go in the future. more seasons with more new mechanics. more items, more acts more all of it. This Season just started and we got like 4 new characters/classes (if you count herotraits as such)

[@Tenkiei]

Yeah it's going to be interesting to see where they take things with Season 2 and beyond.

[@chrispierce1454]

I'm a farming addict. I have a few hundred hours in Infinite already. Usually 500+ hours a league in POE. I wish crafting was a little more like Infinite in POE

[@toukoenriaze9870]

Instead of cookie cutter legendaries that feel special when they drop you now have cookie cutter rares that you have to craft yourself that don't feel special because everyone NEEDS those crafts

[@garbol84]

I played both but much more i prefer poe

[@Freedom-kl8rt]

torchlight is more for casual players, path of exile is for people who have no life, job, obligations and have time to play every day for 6 hours..

[@voodoo1069]

Annoyance doesn't equal challenge which is the current feel of PoE as of late. Plan to check out torchlight but that art style really gives me the feel of those cheap mobile game adds which is really my only turn off.

[@caioteixeira1541]

Honestly, just play anything but PoE. POE was by far my favorite game. Played pretty much every league since the beta but since harvest league this game completely derailed. I'm not even exited for POE2 anymore to fair.

[@LittleRadicalThinker]

To me Poe is like you either have no life or make it your life. It’s a time sink to learn and it’s a time sink to play. TL is much better for most people. It’s still a time sink to play, but it’s a much shallower hole. You can enjoy as a casual player and still able to do decently, and on mobile too, everywhere. Poe is pure time sink and strictly for hardcore.

[@Dexthesaga]

Last epoch

[@69MadnezZ]

I've been doing PoE for four years. I miss PoE's past when there was a lot of diversity in the build. Sadly, PoE now has lost its build diversity and only a small category of skills is being chosen. The boring Act progression has become more boring than before. And league content is no longer interesting. PoE's quality of life (QoL) goes beyond disappointment and is at a very terrible level. I don't enjoy PoE anymore. There is now no trust or belief in the GGG, which continues to neglect the balance between seriously broken skills and Ascendency. Therefore, the TI experience where I can concentrate purely on fun gives me more pleasure now.

[@piotrcieslak261]

I'm playing TI for a month already and i dont find out any crisis for market, i have no idea what You talking about. Farminf FE is easy, my friend just start playing this game, and after he come;s to endgame, without any tutorial he make 20FE/H i can make like 50FE/H so i have no idea what's the problem is. Anyway if it's coming to craft, you caneasly burn this "thousands of FS" in one sitting, so i don't thing this will crush economy. I think, bigger problem is PoE lack of market, when hundreds in no thousands of bots flip currencies. It's not that easy on TI so PoE lose this round, sorry...

[@laszloneumann500]

"Liberal use of animation cancelling" describes like 90% of my TLI experience 🤣

[@aroace7913]

Personally the art style of torchlight turns me away from the game, looks to generic and comic like and also even if the pets are weak it still is something I would never accept even less so auto loot which seems like a huge advantage to free players. Also the game shows how an AH can ruin the economy and I hope this never gets to Poe because while it has some benefits the downsides is something people like to ignore and the people who scream the most for it would literally cry ´´ Why is everything so expensive ´´.

[@peterenis4426]

1:11 Sir please 1000 mirrors per league is unrealistic as fuck I mean if youre good you can make 10 mirrors a league and if youre fucking good you can maybe make close to 100 mirrors a league but 1000 is like more than all mirrors excisting in 1 league xD

[@Tenkiei]

I think you misheard that section a bit.

[@savygamer1231]

Path of Exile do predatory nerfs

[@kamex4k]

Man just play whatever you have the most fun with, what is wrong with people, Who gives a fuck about player retention, if you enjoy the game play It, as simple as that

[@xxCHAOTICKxx]

OMG are you using common sense on the internet!? You they will hang you for that in this place. We have to cry and compare games to make ourselves feel better that one game isnt doing what we want right now. Cmon man get with the program

[@mordekais3er]

TR;DL : Both

[@JohnDoe-bx1bw]

In short, tl is for normal people, poe is for nerds with no life, got it

[@andraskeresztes9561]

path of exile way better and bigger, wtf?

[@fabianmartinez4]

Lost ark ir far better of any of this games

[@Tenkiei]

That's really an apples to oranges comparison. Lost Ark is a good game for sure but it's not really a loot-based ARPG, it's a MMOARPG focused on long-term progression through raid tiers more similar to WoW or FFXIV.

[@slobrat3556]

D2r is good. Love the slower pacing. 😍

[@mr.nobody4994]

Project Diablo 2 is better. Look into it. New season starting on 25th of this month if you’re interested.

[@slobrat3556]

@@mr.nobody4994 yeah im playing that constantly. I love how druids have teleport now

[@mr.nobody4994]

@@slobrat3556 necro and paladins, too.

[@davisrider_46.]

POE 🤩