u/Ok-Bedroom-4261

So, I have a couple questions for you veterans out there.

First, I love the Destiny series especially D2, RIP.

Why is the gunplay so similar? Same devs or something?

Also, why isn't this game huge? Meaning, why did I stumble across this by accident.

It's absolutely amazing. Anytime I attempt to play something else, all I do is think about this game.

So now I'm in what I assume is near the end of the game cause the difficulty has skyrocketed.

I went Butcher. What are the best weapon/gear combos for the end game bosses?

That's where I'm stuck. They are bullet sponges.

Any help is appreaciated.

I have a closed loop geothermal heating and cooling system in my home. In the summer, the AC usually keeps my home ice cold but yesterday, it started blowing just cool air like a fan. I reset the breakers. I checked for any puddles or ice in and around the unit. Nothing. I tried resetting the thermostat and I noticed that the until would push cold air out for a little while after the reset. Not sure what this means. Please help if you can.

Briefly, here is my history with World Of Warcraft.

Early 2005, I was working at Taco Bell and most of the employees would all talk together about a new MMORPG called World Of Warcraft and how amazing it was.

Being a gamer myself, I immediately went to the mall to grab a copy of the game as well as the giant players guide to go with it.

From that moment, I was hooked.

Warlock was my first class. Alliance.

I played WOW hardcore until the end of Cataclysm.

I decided it was taking up to much time and I didn't think I was going to like Mists of Pandaria so I quit.

Fast forward to 2020 and I hear about Shadowlands being the next expansion and how it was a great place for new or returning players to start.

Once again, the game consumed me and I played the hell out of Shadowlands.

I continued into DragonFlight and after experiencing everything that expansion had to give, I haven't touched the game since.

I've been keeping tabs with the development and from what I understand, they already announced a bunch of expansions with the most recent one releasing a few months ago.

It's the middle of summer and there isn't much going on the gaming world so I was thinking about jumping back in but I'm wondering if I should wait until the next expansion to do so.

Have I missed too much? What is it like for a returning player? How much has the game changed since Dragonflight?

Any help is appreciated.

I’m running the lightning storm build which is doing very well for me.

You essentially press 2 buttons to activate the storm and hurricane and you just walk around killing everything.

Damage is good. Especially AOE. You’re quite tanky from all the resolve plus the barrier. Speed is also good because you never stop walking. You clear each map at the speed you can walk.

I’m at the point now where I can only get stronger if I get mythics or greater affixes so I was thinking about playing around with another build until I get what I need.

What are you guys using? Is it better or worse than lightning storm?

Before everyone grabs their pitchforks, this is not a “Diablo 4 sucks” post and it is not a “POE 2 is too complicated” post. I play both. I like both. I also get frustrated with both for completely different reasons.

And honestly, I think that is what makes the comparison interesting.

Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 are both ARPGs, but they are not trying to give players the same experience. They overlap in the obvious ways: kill monsters, get loot, improve your build, push harder content, repeat until your eyes hurt. But the actual fantasy each game sells is very different.

Diablo 4 wants you to feel powerful quickly. It wants the combat to feel smooth, the world to feel expensive, the classes to feel readable, and the gameplay loop to be something you can jump into without needing a spreadsheet open on a second monitor.

POE 2 wants you to feel like every system has another layer underneath it. It wants the build, the items, the economy, the Atlas, the bosses, the crafting, and even the mistakes you make to matter. It is not just asking, “Can your build kill this?” It is asking, “Do you understand why your build can or cannot kill this?”

That is why the debate gets so heated. A lot of people are not just defending a game. They are defending the type of ARPG they want to exist.

What Diablo 4 does better

The biggest strength of Diablo 4 is feel.

I don’t care how many problems people have with the game, moment-to-moment combat in D4 is still one of the best-feeling experiences in the genre. The animations are clean. The hits have weight. The skills are easy to understand. The game looks incredible. The sound design is satisfying. Even when the endgame loop starts feeling repetitive, actually pressing buttons and deleting packs still feels good.

That matters more than some people want to admit.

There is a reason casual players, console players, couch co-op players, and people who only have a few hours a week can still have a great time with Diablo 4. You can log in, pick a class, follow a basic build, get stronger, kill bosses, upgrade gear, and feel progression without needing to study the game like a college course.

That is not a weakness. That is a design philosophy.

Diablo 4 is also much better at presentation. The campaign, the cinematics, the art direction, the world, the enemy design, the overall polish — Blizzard is still Blizzard in that department. Sanctuary feels like a real place. The classes feel iconic. The game is accessible without looking cheap or shallow on the surface.

And when D4 works, it really works. There is something extremely satisfying about taking a build from weak to broken over a season. Finding the right Unique, finally getting the right Greater Affixes, masterworking the piece correctly, and watching your damage spike is still addicting. Diablo 4 understands the simple joy of becoming overpowered.

D4 also deserves credit for being more approachable socially. Playing with friends is easier. Grouping is easier. Crossplay is easier. The barrier to entry is lower. If someone has never played an ARPG before, I would probably still tell them to try Diablo 4 before POE 2.

Not because it is “better,” but because it is easier to understand why ARPGs are fun.

What Diablo 4 needs to improve

The problem is that Diablo 4 sometimes feels like an amazing combat engine searching for a deeper long-term purpose.

The foundation is good. The feel is good. The visuals are good. The accessibility is good. But once you reach the point where your build is online, the question becomes: now what?

Yes, there are bosses, Pits, Helltides, seasonal mechanics, Nightmare Dungeons, Infernal Hordes, Ruptures, leaderboards, and gear chasing. But the issue is not always the number of activities. The issue is whether those activities feel meaningfully different after dozens or hundreds of hours.

D4 often feels like it is close to greatness but afraid to fully commit to deep systems. It wants itemization to be more interesting, but not too complicated. It wants crafting to matter, but not become POE. It wants chase items, but then has to constantly rebalance them. It wants build freedom, but the strongest builds often become obvious very quickly.

The Unique and Mythic discussions show the problem perfectly. Some players want more customization and more viable items. Others feel that too much randomness makes Uniques lose their identity. Both sides have a point.

A Unique should feel unique. A Mythic should feel mythic. But if the same handful of items dominate every build, that is also bad. Diablo 4 has to find a middle ground where items are exciting because they change how you play, not just because they rolled higher numbers.

The other issue is seasonal ambition. D4 seasons can be fun, but sometimes they feel too temporary or too safe. A season should make you say, “I need to try this.” Not just, “Okay, I guess I’ll level another character and see what changed.”

D4 does not need to become POE. That would be a mistake. But it does need more long-term build discovery, more permanent endgame variety, more meaningful loot identity, and more reasons to keep playing after your build is already destroying everything.

What POE 2 does better

POE 2’s biggest strength is depth.

Not fake depth. Not “here are 400 stats and only 12 matter” depth. Actual depth, where choices can change how a build functions, how you approach bosses, how you value items, how you trade, how you path your passive tree, and how you interact with endgame systems.

POE 2 gives players the feeling that there is always something else to learn. That is extremely powerful.

You can play for 100 hours and still discover a mechanic you misunderstood. You can find an item that suddenly makes you rethink an entire build. You can look at a passive interaction, support gem, weapon swap setup, or crafting option and realize there is a completely different direction you could take.

That kind of discovery is what POE fans love.

POE 2 also has a much stronger sense of item value. In Diablo 4, a lot of loot becomes “is this my same item, but with better rolls?” In POE 2, an item can matter because of the base, the affixes, the sockets, the economy, the crafting potential, or how it fits into a build someone else might be playing.

That makes loot feel more alive.

The economy also gives POE 2 a kind of endgame that Diablo 4 does not really have. Even when you are not directly upgrading your own character, you can be farming, trading, flipping, crafting, gambling, or hunting for something valuable. A great drop does not have to be for your build to be exciting. It can still mean currency. It can still mean opportunity.

Boss design and combat pacing are another strength. POE 2 feels more deliberate. You are not always just face-tanking explosions and watching cooldowns. Positioning matters. Dodging matters. Boss mechanics matter. The game can be punishing, but when it is working, victories feel earned.

And for players who love long-term mastery, POE 2 is probably the more exciting game. It feels like a game built for people who want to be consumed by an ARPG. Not just play it. Learn it. Break it. Optimize it. Argue about it. Come back next league and do it all again.

What POE 2 needs to improve

The problem with POE 2 is that depth can become friction very quickly.

There is a fine line between “this game rewards knowledge” and “this game wastes my time until I acquire enough knowledge.” POE 2 sometimes crosses that line.

The campaign is a good example. The first time through, it can be incredible. The atmosphere is great. The bosses are memorable. The combat feels dangerous. The world feels hostile in a way Diablo 4 often does not.

But in a league-based ARPG, players are not just asking whether the campaign is good once. They are asking whether they want to do it again. And again. And again. And again.

That is where fatigue sets in.

Some players like having the campaign as a mandatory foundation. Others want an alternate leveling path after beating it once. Both arguments are valid. A campaign gives structure and progression. But if your endgame is the real game for long-term players, forcing everyone through the same long road every league can feel like a tax.

The Atlas and endgame also have this problem. POE 2 has a lot of ambition, but ambition is not the same thing as smoothness. The infinite Atlas, towers, tablets, setup time, navigation, and farming preparation can be interesting, but they can also make players feel like they are spending too much time preparing to play instead of actually playing.

That is the part POE 2 needs to clean up. Not remove the depth. Just reduce the unnecessary friction around the depth.

Performance and bugs are another obvious issue. POE 2 is still evolving, and the amount of content being added is impressive, but players will only tolerate crashes, progression blockers, and rough systems for so long. “It’s early access” is a fair explanation, but it cannot be the permanent answer.

POE 2 also needs better onboarding. The game does not need to become easy, but it does need to become clearer. There is a difference between a game being complex and a game being vague. Complexity is good. Confusion is not.

If Diablo 4’s danger is becoming too simple, POE 2’s danger is becoming too exhausting.

The real difference

To me, Diablo 4 is the better game when I want to relax and feel powerful.

POE 2 is the better game when I want to think, plan, struggle, and feel like I am still learning after hundreds of hours.

Diablo 4 respects your time more in the short term.

POE 2 rewards your time more in the long term.

Diablo 4 is better at letting you jump in and have fun.

POE 2 is better at giving you a mountain to climb.

Diablo 4 makes power feel smooth.

POE 2 makes power feel earned.

Diablo 4 is the game I would recommend to someone who wants an ARPG that feels great immediately.

POE 2 is the game I would recommend to someone who wants an ARPG they can obsess over.

And that is why I do not think there needs to be a clear winner.

If you love Diablo 4, you are not wrong. D4 has incredible combat, polish, accessibility, atmosphere, and the best pick-up-and-play feel in the genre. It just needs deeper long-term systems and more exciting reasons to keep grinding once your build is online.

If you love POE 2, you are not wrong either. POE 2 has deeper itemization, better long-term discovery, a stronger economy, more meaningful build planning, and a much higher ceiling. It just needs to smooth out the friction, improve performance, reduce campaign fatigue, and make its complexity easier to approach.

The best version of Diablo 4 should not be POE 2.

The best version of POE 2 should not be Diablo 4.

The best outcome is that both games push each other.

Diablo 4 should look at POE 2 and say, “We need more depth, more chase, more build discovery, and more endgame variety.”

POE 2 should look at Diablo 4 and say, “We need smoother onboarding, better co-op, less unnecessary friction, and more respect for players who do not want every system to feel like homework.”

That is how ARPG fans win.

Not by one game killing the other.

But by Diablo 4 becoming the best version of Diablo 4, and POE 2 becoming the best version of POE 2.

So the money for the business would be wired from Spain. They aren't giving me any tax paperwork or anything like that so how would I file? I read something about a Form 8594 but I wanted to see what people here thought. And yes, I will be hiring a CPA I just want to understand beforehand.

So the money for the business would be wired from Spain. They aren't giving me any tax paperwork or anything like that so how would I file? I read something about a Form 8594 but I wanted to see what people here thought. And yes, I will be hiring a CPA I just want to understand beforehand.

I loved Returnal.

A game that requires you to sit up in your chair and think about what you are doing.

In a world where developers make games that play themselves to cater to a larger audience, a game like Saros is exactly what real gamers are looking for.

I just hit the credits so I wanted to share my experience.

I was so sad the game was finished but then I realized it keeps going. For how long? I hope forever.

I hope they make another one similar to Saros and Returnal.

I was gonna say so much more cause I thought the game was over but now that I see there is more gameplay, im gonna get back to it.

If you’re on the fence about this game, hop over. I promise you won’t regret it.

I'm currently running Dance of Knives. I have everything mythic that a rogue would use. I haven't invested too much time into this build so I can easily switch to another one. What is the best highest dps build currently and can you provide a link?