Path of Exile is an online action role playing game (ARPG) that is developed by Grinding Gear Games. It is completely free to play and is found on the Steam network. Released in October of 2013, Path of Exile was a huge success from the beginning. It was a game to rival the likes of other popular ARPGs of the time, and did so very well.
I was raiding 20-25 hours per week during MoP progression before I quit to come back for RoS, where I continued playing non-casually (Can you believe that?).I like grinds. I like to be rewarded for grinds. And I like competing in PvE content (Raids in WoW). When they added GR's, D3 checked all those boxes. The RNG issues that most people complain about don't bother me at all, and I like Ancient items, too.I can play D3 as much as I want; in WoW I was restricted to my guild's raiding schedule, the rest of my time was spent farming mats, which is not fun. I can log into D3 whenever I feel like grinding.
I can find 3 other people to play with pretty easily and do GR's if I want to, or I can just play alone.And the combat itself is more enjoyable. And there's no monthly fee. Of course, I do play Hardcore for the extra 'oompf'.
I played WoW from 2004 to around Mid Cataclysm, raiding 3-4 days a week with the same guild the entire time. I think it was around 7 years. Since finally breaking out of WoW, i've really, really, really enjoyed games that feel rewarding, and that I can enjoy playing for 15 minutes to hours on end. I like being able to stop playing if/when I want/need to. I've really enjoyed D3, Battlefields, CoD's, Hearthstone and even Shadows of Mordor and Dragon Age.Edit: Just looked, Cata released in 2010, so that is 04 to summer 2010. I played WoW religiously from Vanilla to Cataclysm and quit WoW shortly after I got my beta invite to Diablo 3. I went back briefly for MoP but really did not enjoy the game anymore so I ended up getting to max level and quitting.
I mainly focused on Heroic raiding 3-4 days per week.The reason I prefer D3 over WoW is because, at the high-end, the time investment and rigid schedule starts sucking the fun out of the game. Even if you are someone who enjoys pushing your gear and skills as high as possible, burnout due to those two aspects is very real.
You get to the point where you only do it because your raid team need you to be there and you are in the habit of it.Another very big difference is that you do not need multiple other people to progress in D3. You can play solo, or in a group, and still reach the same point of character progression within the same time-frame.
Anyone who has pushed Heroic progression in WoW can tell you that failing because of other people's mistakes is not very enjoyable.There are other reasons I enjoy D3 more as well, like the combat system and fluidity of gameplay, but that's just piling on. I played WoW on and off from open beta to MoP. The time I played the most by far was Wotlk-Cata where I actually raided frequently. The thing I didn't like about WoW was the dailies. I don't mind a grind, but WoW made me feel like if I didn't have time to log in one day or felt like playing something else, that I was falling behind from my guild or that it then meant it would be that much longer til I got all my reps to exalted, etc. D3 is much more relaxing. Sure it's a grind but it doesn't have the same connotation that missing once daily quests/dungeons or a raid has, you can sort of 'make up' missed time much easier.Also not having a sub fee is nice.
Sure $16/month isn't do or die, but still, if you decide not to play for few days, that's just wasted money.Being able to pause the game is huge for me. I have a daughter now and I always felt really guilty saying 'Hold on, let me get somewhere safe' to her every time she wanted to show me something.Not needing to rely on my core friends to have fun while progressing. If my friends weren't on, in order to get gear I would have to PuG a heroic.
At best it was a quick, painless, run where no one ever said a word. But usually they were full of trolls who would pull every mob in a room them bubble hearth. With diablo, if my friends aren't around I can still run single player and have a chance for gear.Like others have said the quick turn around. If I have a half hour or so before work I can hop on and run a quick rift and it's fun.
The only thing I could do in WoW that took that little time was garrison chores.