Last Epoch vs. Path of Exile: Which Game Is Better?

Whenever a new game gains attention, we tend to compare it to similar titles. In this article, we’ll explore the differences and similarities between Last Epoch and Path of Exile, including their class systems, crafting, end-game activities, and more.

We’ve designed our comparison of Last Epoch vs Path of Exile with a user-friendly structure in mind, ensuring it’s easy to follow and navigate.

Now, let’s explore these two games, starting with the campaign.

Last Epoch vs Path of Exile Campaign

Last Epoch distinguishes itself with its outstanding campaign and storytelling in the ARPG genre. The game is composed of nine chapters divided into four eras: Ancient, Divine, Imperial, and Ruined. Players can explore each era, unravel the narrative, and face unique adversaries related to that particular era, such as The Void, The Immortal Empire, and the Rahyeh factions.

On the other hand, Path of Exile has a basic campaign built around ten acts. The player will explore the Wraeclast continent, unveil the story, and team up with other characters to vanquish the evil adversaries. The primary objective is to successfully complete all ten acts and ultimately defeat Kitava, the Insatiable. This achievement unlocks the end-game phase, where players can join forces with Zana and Kirac to confront the most formidable bosses.

Achieving your dream items and builds can require advanced game knowledge and many hours griding the same Map or Timeline. Thankfully, Kboosting offers services for Path of Exile and Last Epoch that can assist you in completing your builds, farming your desired uniques, and completing many more end-game activities in both games.

Below, we’ll take a look at the classes found within these two games.

Classes in Last Epoch & Path of Exile

When speaking about classes, both games excel in this category, with a very unique class system. PoE first implemented the Ascendancies back in 2016 and remained the same to this day. LE is inspired by the Ascendency class system, and the developers crafted three unique Masteries for every character, achieving a unique system that fits the game perfectly.

Last Epoch Classes

Last Epoch presents five classes: Acolyte, Primalist, Sentinel, Rogue, and Mage, each divided into three masteries, providing players with ample room for experimentation. A notable advantage of this class system, in contrast to the one seen in Path of Exile, is the ability to choose multiple masteries and combine them.

Path of Exile Classes

In Path of Exile, players can select from seven classes, including the Marauder, Ranger, Witch, Duelist, Templar, Shadow, and Scion. All of these classes, except for the Scion, are further divided into three Ascendancies. This setup provides extensive room for experimentation and builds theory, resulting in hundreds of possible builds.

Moving on, let’s check out the skills system in these two games.

Last Epoch vs Path of Exile Skills

When speaking about the skill system, Path of Exile is superior in this ARPG genre, offering almost 300 skills, aura, and effects and almost 200 support gems that can modify the basic skill in every way possible. If we include the Awakened and the Alternate Quality gems, we can talk about 1000+ more things that can enhance your character’s power.

In Last Epoch, you’ll find a total of 100 skills that can be customized through their skill tree. This allows for various changes in core damage and the introduction of different mechanics, providing ample room for experimentation and creativity. It’s highly encouraged to explore these options.

Going forward, let’s dive into the gear system.

Path of Exile vs Last Epoch Gear

When it comes to basic gear, both games are somewhat on par. However, in terms of modifying your gear, Path of Exile stands out significantly due to the wide array of boss-influenced modifiers it offers.

Path of Exile Gear

Path of Exile typically includes four rarity levels, starting with Normal, Magic, Rare, and Unique. The weapon types in this game are Swords, Axes, and Maces, both for One and Two-handed styles, Wands, Scepters, Bows, Quivers, Shields, Daggers, and Claws. The Warstaffs and Staffs are only for Two-Handed weapons.

Last Epoch Gear

Last Epoch incorporates seven distinct gear rarities: Common, Magic, Rare, Exalted, Unique, Set, and Legendary. The weapon types are similar to any other ARPG, including Swords, Axes, Maces, Spears, Staffs, with both One-Handed and Two-Handed variations, Daggers, Scepters, Wands, Bows, Quivers, Shields, and Off-Hand Catalysts.

Down below, we’ll explore the crafting system in these games.

Crafting Systems in Last Epoch & Path of Exile

Path of Exile boasts one of the most intricate and rich crafting systems, but also very complicated. Crafting in PoE often relies heavily on RNG, and mastering the art of crafting best-in-slot items can demand thousands of hours of gameplay.

In contrast, Last Epoch’s crafting system is more user-friendly and not very complicated. After a few crafting attempts, you’ll become familiar with the system, reducing the need to consult YouTube videos, guides, or third-party websites to optimize your items, which is a common practice in Path of Exile.

Last Epoch Crafting

Last Epoch offers a crafting system that may seem a bit intricate initially. Items in the game possess a “Forging Potential” stat along with four Affixes that can be modified, removed, or upgraded using Runes, Glyphs, and Shards currency. However, it’s important to note that crafting can only be performed as long as the item’s Forging Potential is not depleted. When it reaches zero, the item can no longer be crafted.

Path of Exile Crafting

If Last Epoch’s crafting system seems complicated, oh boy, you don’t want to see what’s hiding here. Path of Exile features the most complex crafting system ever seen. You are presented with endless possibilities from Exalted Slam to Harvest, Bestiary, Bench Crafting, and a lot more systems. Oh, I almost forgot, you rely 95% of the time on RNG, so pray to Chris Wilson.

Moving to a crucial topic, let’s talk about the endgame in these two games.

Path of Exile vs Last Epoch End-game

Both titles offer an enjoyable and engaging end-game experience. LE and PoE share similar end-game mechanics, with one incorporating a mapping system and the other featuring timelines that contain echoes waiting to be completed.

Mapping in PoE

Path of Exile has a rich end-game featuring a mapping system in which players must complete 115 maps and confront the horrors that lurk deep within the atlas. There is so much to cover on this topic, but we’ll try to keep it short. You can enhance your maps with different league content to farm for your desired currencies. Additionally, there are so many bosses that drop special items that can cost many Divine Orbs.

Empowered Timelines

On the other hand, in Last Epoch, in terms of end-game content, the Empowered Timelines will become your primary focus for farming the desired gear or materials. The objective is to accumulate as much corruption as possible, thus enabling a better chance for the rarest items in the game that can be obtained only from Empowered Monoliths.

Going forward, let’s explore other end-game activities for both games.

Activities in Path of Exile & Last Epoch

When it comes to end-game activities, Path of Exile holds an advantage thanks to its numerous league contents that enable players to explore and complete various additional areas. We hope Last Epoch will receive some love as PoE did in this category.

Path of Exile end-game activities

• Delve – This activity involves exploring the Azurite Mine dungeon, which is characterized by its various biomes, fractured walls, hidden paths, rewarding encounters, and formidable bosses. It’s crucial to be mindful of the darkness within the mine, as prolonged exposure can prove fatal to your character.
• Bestiary – You team up with Einhar Frey to embark on hunting expeditions to track down and capture a variety of exotic beasts. These creatures can be either sold to other players in exchange for various in-game currencies or used as components for crafting.
• Betrayal – Jun Ortoi is a character involved in an investigation into a clandestine organization called the Immortal Syndicate. In the game, your objective is to manipulate the syndicate’s hierarchy, unveil the identities of its members, discover their hidden safehouses, and eliminate them.
• Incursion – In Path of Exile, you collaborate with Alva Valai to seek the ancient Vaal treasure hidden in the Temple of Atzoatl. Your primary objective is to journey back in time, unveil the temple’s location, and alter its historical fate to access the riches within.
• Heist – While Grand Theft Auto features heists where you can steal valuable jewelry, cars, and more, Path of Exile offers a similar concept. In PoE, you can assemble a crew and embark on grand heists to achieve valuable skill gems and items.
• Expedition – You’ll work with the Kalguuran expedition to recover their lost relics and engage in gambling with these valuable items. The group uses explosives to unearth their ancestors, and you may find logbooks that provide insights into the locations visited by the ancient Kalguur.
• Sanctum – It bears a similarity to Roguelike games such as Hades. Players delve into the Sanctum dungeon to confront evil and are presented with pacts and modifiers that can either help or hurt their progress. There’s a risk involved, as dying in this activity resets your progress.

There are so many activities found in the game, but the list will be too long. We tried to focus as much as possible on League mechanics that are not inside the map.

Last Epoch end-game activities

Last Epoch does not offer many end-game activities, but we can expect more content in the near future. Down below, we’ll explore all of these activities, starting with:

• Dungeons – Last Epoch introduces three distinctive Dungeons: Lightless Arbor, Soulfire Bastion, and Temporal Sanctum. Each of these Dungeons offers randomized rewards or gear that can only be obtained within their respective locations.
• Arena of Champions – The Arena operates on a wave-based system, requiring players to survive 40 waves and confront one of the three Arena Champion bosses.
• Endless Arena Leaderboard – To truly demonstrate your strength and power, you must step into the Endless Arena of Champions and strive to survive as long as you can. As the name suggests, the waves continue indefinitely as long as you stay alive.

Moving on, we’ll take a look at other in-game power features for these two games.

Secondary In-game Power Features in LE and PoE

Certainly, as in many other games, both titles feature various systems that allow you to boost your character’s power, improve defense, and enable special interactions with certain items. Let’s explore first Path of Exile Jewels and then Last Epoch Idols and Blessings.

Jewel Sockets

Jewels stand out as some of the most important items in the game, as they are essential in every build. Unique jewels, in particular, have the potential to significantly impact a build by offering special interactions, such as the Headhunter buff, the ability to allocate passive points without being connected to your tree, or providing essential stats like Maximum Life, Critical Hit Chance, Damage Over Time, and many more.

Idols & Blessings

When it comes to Blessings, Last Epoch has introduced a fantastic system that encourages players to explore different Timelines. Blessings are only obtainable once the Echo Quests in a Timeline have been successfully completed. These Blessings provide permanent increases to your character’s stats or a chance to find specific types of items.

Idols serve as a valuable system for enhancing your character’s damage and survivability in the game. They come in various sizes, ranging from 1×1 to a maximum of 4×1 and 1×4. These idols offer a wide range of stats, including resistances, health, crit damage, and even the ability to trigger certain skills when performing specific attacks.

Last Epoch vs Path of Exile Leagues

Path of Exile introduces a new League every three to four months, bringing fresh content, expanding the lore, introducing new items and skills, and occasionally revisiting outdated or underperforming classes and items.

Last Epoch is set to introduce Leagues with its 1.0 release on February 21, 2024. These Leagues will be known as “Cycles,” and it’s anticipated that developers will provide fresh content every three to four months, following a schedule similar to Path of Exile and Diablo’s.

We’re done with our list, and we’ve talked about all the topics. So, let’s finish off this article with a conclusion.

Conclusion

In this detailed article, we’ve talked about the key points comparing Last Epoch and Path of Exile, looked at what they have in common, and explored which one might be the right choice for you. So, let’s answer the ultimate question: “Which game is superior, or which one should you give a go?”

The superior choice here is Path of Exile, which has a track record of over a decade of consistent updates every few months, continuously adding new features, content, skills, items, and many more.

On the other hand, Last Epoch is still at the beginning and has more to uncover in the near future. The game is more friendly toward its audience and is the perfect game for you if PoE is too complicated and Diablo IV is too simple. Ultimately, it’s a good idea to try out both games since they offer a wide range of content and activities to enjoy.