Depends on what you want to do in-game.
If you start now you will be a legacy character on Tuesday and not a cycle character. In practice this isn't too impactful, but you'll probably have a harder time getting items if you go Merchants Guild (Faction that lets you trade with other players in the same faction). Less people play Legacy and therefore less people to trade with.
You also won't be able to face the new pinnacle boss Aberroth (Uber Boss), until it has been killed by a cycle only character.
Since you're quite new to the game I don't think you need to worry about the boss. So you should ask yourself, what faction you want to play. Do you want to trade with other players? Then wait till Tuesday and join the Merchant Guild (MG). Do you want to find your own loot with boosts to drop rates, but no access to trading with others (besides friends in your party), then just go Circle of Fortune (CoF) now, since there are no downsides besides not being able to kill Aberroth until he has been killed by a cycle character.
Hope this helps!
This is very helpful. Thank you! I wasn't sure if there was just a balance patch or a "season" coming up. I'll just wait until the season to get going. Thanks again!
Good to hear! I forgot to add that you could go CoF now if you wanted with no downsides (besides the not being able to kill Aberroth until he has been killed by a cycle character).
What factions are you leaning towards?
(You can switch factions at any time, but be careful, since switching faction can lock your gear to that specific faction you gained it from/with).
I know very little about the game other than it is an ARPG, and people say it is between diablo 4 and POE for complication. I haven't looked into guides, builds, or reviews yet because I try to do everything fresh myself and get the full experience. I just saw on Steam that there was an update in a couple of days, which I didn't know if it was going to be a fundamental change to the game, or a season. Sounds like the it is both a "cycle" and a balance/quality of life type update. So I think I'd rather start then so I won't have a different mechanical experience.
Night and day difference between your friendly response and the first person who responded as if I was asking some incredibly offensive or naive question. Such is Reddit I guess though, but thanks for being friendly/curious.
the update include new item,new bosses,balance patch , etc.
It is better to wait 2 day before start to get the full changes the game had.
the major decision is
either starting as a cycle(leage/season) char or legacy char(everything else/from last cycle chars). --> better play in cycle anyways
Also there is a hardcore mode if you prefer (death result in turning that char into normal mode)
or if you somehow decide to go full solo there is a offline option as well
---> online chars can convert to offine chars later but the the other way.
--> in offline can't select merchant guild(MG)\[trade with other\] so you better pick circle of fortune(CoF) for self loot related quest & buff.
Welp such is reddit and the internet in general, just do you and have fun with LE!
And you're right, I would categorize the game as an in-between D4 and POE. The great thing about LE is also that you don't have to look up a guide. You can easily beat the game and experience the end game with your own build. Ofcourse if you want to play meta you can look up guides and such, but you really don't have to.
Another thing LE does so well is that you can respec easily, so if you fucked up somewhere or you just want to play something else within that mastery, you just respec. Makes experimentation fun and you won't be punished for doing so.
Only thing you can't respec is your mastery choice. So if you play mage and go the Sorcerer mastery you can't switch to lets say Spellblade. But that's honestly totally fine and a non issue in my opinion.
wait, so if I kill it with a league character the new boss gets added to legacy too?
I was a bit bummed out that I started an ssf character yesterday, but if I can unlock the new boss for legacy too then there's no problem at all
I assume you mean cycle character?
Anyhow, Aberroth unlocks 1 business day after he has been killed by a cycle character or if no one has killed him, he unlocks after 1 week. To specify you don't have to kill him yourself, it's global.
So just play normally till someone kills him and you should be totally fine.
Personally I’d wait. (I’ve played for 2 years though) But you could start up some characters to see which ones you might enjoy playing when the new cycle drops on the 9th.
I recommend waiting. The game's balance is going to be pretty heavily adjusted and they're adding/reworking a lot of skills and passives. Even if you don't play a seasonal (cycle) character, you might run into the issue of your character suddenly changing/not working as well.
I always recommend starting a "learner" character to get a feel for the game's systems -- some of which are pretty complex, like skill interactions, crafting and loot filters.
Then restart in the new cycle. You'll be better prepared to choose a class and make build decisions. It's something I do anyway for pretty much all RPGs, whether traditional like BG3, MMO like ESO, or ARPG like Last Epoch. These games all have a structure where choices you make at character creation or soon after can have consequences you can't anticipate till you've played a bit.
Damn, so true. Now I'm a bit conflicted. I was just thinking that if they are fixing a bunch of issues players had with the game, I could wait and avoid those issues. I think I will still wait and just go with the flow, even if I don't fully understand systems until I am already a cycle character.
They fix issues with every patch. They also introduce new issues with every patch ;)
There are no current issues that would impact you in the first few hours of play, but hey, it's your call :) Some people hate restarting, and I get that. Personally I LOVE restarting ;) Blank slate!
Launch is not even two days away, and the servers will go down for 24 hours before it. There really is no point in making a character just for a day's worth of gameplay, and if even if there was more time, the game is not complicated enough that you'd need to make a "learner" character for it.
All that you can get stuck with will be the class and the mastery (subclass), but all of them are valid, and it's not like you'll be able to try more than one class and mastery with this one character anyway, you'd have to try them all to be able to be sure what to pick. Skills and passives can be respecced at pretty much no cost anytime, so there really is no need to worry about bricking your first character like how it may happen in PoE. Definitely just wait for the cycle to launch and make your first character then.
There really isn't any point in playing for 1 day just to have to make a new character when the servers come back. The game isn't so complicated that they can't just learn how it works as they go with their definitive character. It's not like they'll be able to participate in racing anyway.
It's personal preference, but I did list a couple of points. You disagree with their merit...fair enough. But for many people there's value in getting familiar with a game's systems.
I guess I should've been more explicit and specified that I meant those points aren't really worth it in comparison to my other points. The game is not complicated enough so that learning the UI and basic gameplay, which you would get accustomed to already in the first couple hours, would be worth sacrificing that whole day's worth of progress right immediately afterwards in the upcoming patch.
Anyways, if the OP knows they need that kinda pre-learning process, sure. But I gave my reasons why it's not worth it for this particular game. No need to go back and forth just stating that "some people see value in doing that", they'll know already after reading both opinions. Beating a dead horse here lol
You can start a character now that you're not sure about to test the gameplay have fun, but I would want 2 days with your real characters to play the cycle.
Not that you would have to trash your old character, but it could even be an offline character you can play if the internet is down, or it will be instantly legacy.
I will still play my legacy characters eventually anyways.
You can start today, in the end the 1.1 changes are global through all game modes so if you want you can keep playing the same character on legacy.
Otherwise you can use it to get the grasp of the game and then start a new one when cycle starts.
Get the game, start a toon, figure out whether you like what you're doing. When next season drops you get the (forced) opportunity to either tweak your build or try something completely different.
Or just spend the two days making different toons to see what you want to run on Tuesday.
I say start today get a feel of the game an maybe see if you like the character you wanna play then on Tuesday you make a new character for the season.
That way you have your head around all the Mechanics or partially so makes for a breezier season start
I saw that the servers are down all day tomorrow though. The way I have time to play is to blast relentlessly on my day off, so I will be big sad when I get into it tonight and then can't play all day tomorrow. I am "forced" to then wait, and I'll just start fresh on tuesday. Thank you for your input though, I appreciate it very much!
I mean who cares? Get a feel for it then start over in two days if you wanna make a cycle character. There’s literally zero downside lol I don’t understand why ppl keep asking this 😂
Maybe because we've never played, so asking the community who knows what is going on is the easiest solution to the question. If there are going to be substantial changes to the game that will completely change the experience, I would wait for 2 days. I don't know if it is just a patch, or a season that is coming. So there might be a possible downside to investing 20 hours into a game over my days off if everything changes in two days.
You’ve never played you have 2 days to get a feel for different classes and figure out what you wanna play when the new cycle comes out. There’s 15 different masteries, plenty to test out while you wait.
You’ll want to create a new cycle character after it releases though since everybody is going be doing that. Nobody plays non seasonal characters
Oh should I go grocery shopping tomorrow or wait until Tuesday when they restock? What if all the products on the shelves are different? What if the milk is a different brand? Oh no what the fuck will I do please Reddit make my decisions for me!!
20 hours in 2 days is crazy Jesus fuck lol
What an insane comparison you just made. You clearly are triggered easily by anyone asking an existing community for input, which is exactly what Reddit is best for. My first contact with Last Epoch community is you, a troll moron who can't fathom a world where people share their opinion with others. Clown.
You csn simply start now and getting used with all the mechanics of the game ( time depending) and then create a new character on Tuesday. Especially the loot system is worth to explore before the new cycle
There's absolutely no reason to go for Cycle character. There is nothing cycle-specific and since you are new you won't be done gearing up to kill the pinnacle boss faster than its expected to come to legacy. Start now and if you decide to go for a cycle character for whatever reason later you can do that as well.
It is the same as seasons, but this cycle (season) is not adding anything that isn't also going to Legacy (Core). So if you don't plan to trade and want to play entirely SSF, it doesn't really matter.
Oh, damn if that's the case and the experience and content won't be really too different, than I don't think there is a strong reason to wait. Other than I saw someone mention trading? As in you can only trade with others that are not in the cycle if youre not, right? I know trading isn't a big part of Diablo, so that wouldn't really make a difference in that game, but I don't know how big a part of the game that is in LE.
Yeah if you plan on any online interactions you want a cycle character. It's worth just waiting now since servers will be down for updates tomorrow anyway.
That's how ARPGs work for the most part. Most people play on new seasonal characters until they burn out, then you wait for a new season and start all over. Not many people end up playing on legacy/standard realms. Generally the resets help give everyone a new grind, and if you're playing merchants then the reset in economy is important.
Looking up past Path of Exile data, only around 6% of players were playing non-league. That's likely a similar metrics across any ARPG, though last epoch may have a larger percentage of CoF characters in standard.
Depends on what you want to do in-game. If you start now you will be a legacy character on Tuesday and not a cycle character. In practice this isn't too impactful, but you'll probably have a harder time getting items if you go Merchants Guild (Faction that lets you trade with other players in the same faction). Less people play Legacy and therefore less people to trade with. You also won't be able to face the new pinnacle boss Aberroth (Uber Boss), until it has been killed by a cycle only character. Since you're quite new to the game I don't think you need to worry about the boss. So you should ask yourself, what faction you want to play. Do you want to trade with other players? Then wait till Tuesday and join the Merchant Guild (MG). Do you want to find your own loot with boosts to drop rates, but no access to trading with others (besides friends in your party), then just go Circle of Fortune (CoF) now, since there are no downsides besides not being able to kill Aberroth until he has been killed by a cycle character. Hope this helps!
This is very helpful. Thank you! I wasn't sure if there was just a balance patch or a "season" coming up. I'll just wait until the season to get going. Thanks again!
Good to hear! I forgot to add that you could go CoF now if you wanted with no downsides (besides the not being able to kill Aberroth until he has been killed by a cycle character). What factions are you leaning towards? (You can switch factions at any time, but be careful, since switching faction can lock your gear to that specific faction you gained it from/with).
I know very little about the game other than it is an ARPG, and people say it is between diablo 4 and POE for complication. I haven't looked into guides, builds, or reviews yet because I try to do everything fresh myself and get the full experience. I just saw on Steam that there was an update in a couple of days, which I didn't know if it was going to be a fundamental change to the game, or a season. Sounds like the it is both a "cycle" and a balance/quality of life type update. So I think I'd rather start then so I won't have a different mechanical experience. Night and day difference between your friendly response and the first person who responded as if I was asking some incredibly offensive or naive question. Such is Reddit I guess though, but thanks for being friendly/curious.
the update include new item,new bosses,balance patch , etc. It is better to wait 2 day before start to get the full changes the game had. the major decision is either starting as a cycle(leage/season) char or legacy char(everything else/from last cycle chars). --> better play in cycle anyways Also there is a hardcore mode if you prefer (death result in turning that char into normal mode) or if you somehow decide to go full solo there is a offline option as well ---> online chars can convert to offine chars later but the the other way. --> in offline can't select merchant guild(MG)\[trade with other\] so you better pick circle of fortune(CoF) for self loot related quest & buff.
Welp such is reddit and the internet in general, just do you and have fun with LE! And you're right, I would categorize the game as an in-between D4 and POE. The great thing about LE is also that you don't have to look up a guide. You can easily beat the game and experience the end game with your own build. Ofcourse if you want to play meta you can look up guides and such, but you really don't have to. Another thing LE does so well is that you can respec easily, so if you fucked up somewhere or you just want to play something else within that mastery, you just respec. Makes experimentation fun and you won't be punished for doing so. Only thing you can't respec is your mastery choice. So if you play mage and go the Sorcerer mastery you can't switch to lets say Spellblade. But that's honestly totally fine and a non issue in my opinion.
great tips, thanks again!
One thing that I also like about cycle starts is the hype in ingame chat, people linking their first decent drop, stuff like that!
wait, so if I kill it with a league character the new boss gets added to legacy too? I was a bit bummed out that I started an ssf character yesterday, but if I can unlock the new boss for legacy too then there's no problem at all
I assume you mean cycle character? Anyhow, Aberroth unlocks 1 business day after he has been killed by a cycle character or if no one has killed him, he unlocks after 1 week. To specify you don't have to kill him yourself, it's global. So just play normally till someone kills him and you should be totally fine.
Personally I’d wait. (I’ve played for 2 years though) But you could start up some characters to see which ones you might enjoy playing when the new cycle drops on the 9th.
Thanks for your opinion! Appreciate it. I think I'll wait.
I recommend waiting. The game's balance is going to be pretty heavily adjusted and they're adding/reworking a lot of skills and passives. Even if you don't play a seasonal (cycle) character, you might run into the issue of your character suddenly changing/not working as well.
I always recommend starting a "learner" character to get a feel for the game's systems -- some of which are pretty complex, like skill interactions, crafting and loot filters. Then restart in the new cycle. You'll be better prepared to choose a class and make build decisions. It's something I do anyway for pretty much all RPGs, whether traditional like BG3, MMO like ESO, or ARPG like Last Epoch. These games all have a structure where choices you make at character creation or soon after can have consequences you can't anticipate till you've played a bit.
Damn, so true. Now I'm a bit conflicted. I was just thinking that if they are fixing a bunch of issues players had with the game, I could wait and avoid those issues. I think I will still wait and just go with the flow, even if I don't fully understand systems until I am already a cycle character.
Yeah, better to wait. Don't have to mind the systems since LE is very forgiving.
They fix issues with every patch. They also introduce new issues with every patch ;) There are no current issues that would impact you in the first few hours of play, but hey, it's your call :) Some people hate restarting, and I get that. Personally I LOVE restarting ;) Blank slate!
Launch is not even two days away, and the servers will go down for 24 hours before it. There really is no point in making a character just for a day's worth of gameplay, and if even if there was more time, the game is not complicated enough that you'd need to make a "learner" character for it. All that you can get stuck with will be the class and the mastery (subclass), but all of them are valid, and it's not like you'll be able to try more than one class and mastery with this one character anyway, you'd have to try them all to be able to be sure what to pick. Skills and passives can be respecced at pretty much no cost anytime, so there really is no need to worry about bricking your first character like how it may happen in PoE. Definitely just wait for the cycle to launch and make your first character then.
If a person has never played a game, then there is value in at least getting familiar with the UI and the basics of gameplay.
There really isn't any point in playing for 1 day just to have to make a new character when the servers come back. The game isn't so complicated that they can't just learn how it works as they go with their definitive character. It's not like they'll be able to participate in racing anyway.
It's personal preference, but I did list a couple of points. You disagree with their merit...fair enough. But for many people there's value in getting familiar with a game's systems.
I guess I should've been more explicit and specified that I meant those points aren't really worth it in comparison to my other points. The game is not complicated enough so that learning the UI and basic gameplay, which you would get accustomed to already in the first couple hours, would be worth sacrificing that whole day's worth of progress right immediately afterwards in the upcoming patch. Anyways, if the OP knows they need that kinda pre-learning process, sure. But I gave my reasons why it's not worth it for this particular game. No need to go back and forth just stating that "some people see value in doing that", they'll know already after reading both opinions. Beating a dead horse here lol
Wait.
You can start a character now that you're not sure about to test the gameplay have fun, but I would want 2 days with your real characters to play the cycle. Not that you would have to trash your old character, but it could even be an offline character you can play if the internet is down, or it will be instantly legacy. I will still play my legacy characters eventually anyways.
You can start today, in the end the 1.1 changes are global through all game modes so if you want you can keep playing the same character on legacy. Otherwise you can use it to get the grasp of the game and then start a new one when cycle starts.
Get the game, start a toon, figure out whether you like what you're doing. When next season drops you get the (forced) opportunity to either tweak your build or try something completely different. Or just spend the two days making different toons to see what you want to run on Tuesday.
Nah bro. You start today believe it or not you go straight to jail
based.
If I were in your position I would at least start and do some of the campaign so you sort of know what to expect when it comes to how the game plays.
I say start today get a feel of the game an maybe see if you like the character you wanna play then on Tuesday you make a new character for the season. That way you have your head around all the Mechanics or partially so makes for a breezier season start
I saw that the servers are down all day tomorrow though. The way I have time to play is to blast relentlessly on my day off, so I will be big sad when I get into it tonight and then can't play all day tomorrow. I am "forced" to then wait, and I'll just start fresh on tuesday. Thank you for your input though, I appreciate it very much!
Oh didn't know the server would be down. yeap just wait for Tuesday. Enjoy
Game have offline mode too
Pretty sure you could still play the game in offline mode if that's something you're interested in
Worth just creating a legacy character to learn the mechanics and the classes.
I mean who cares? Get a feel for it then start over in two days if you wanna make a cycle character. There’s literally zero downside lol I don’t understand why ppl keep asking this 😂
Maybe because we've never played, so asking the community who knows what is going on is the easiest solution to the question. If there are going to be substantial changes to the game that will completely change the experience, I would wait for 2 days. I don't know if it is just a patch, or a season that is coming. So there might be a possible downside to investing 20 hours into a game over my days off if everything changes in two days.
I would personally just wait. It's a great game though!
You’ve never played you have 2 days to get a feel for different classes and figure out what you wanna play when the new cycle comes out. There’s 15 different masteries, plenty to test out while you wait. You’ll want to create a new cycle character after it releases though since everybody is going be doing that. Nobody plays non seasonal characters
Oh should I go grocery shopping tomorrow or wait until Tuesday when they restock? What if all the products on the shelves are different? What if the milk is a different brand? Oh no what the fuck will I do please Reddit make my decisions for me!! 20 hours in 2 days is crazy Jesus fuck lol
What an insane comparison you just made. You clearly are triggered easily by anyone asking an existing community for input, which is exactly what Reddit is best for. My first contact with Last Epoch community is you, a troll moron who can't fathom a world where people share their opinion with others. Clown.
You sound very entitled.
You csn simply start now and getting used with all the mechanics of the game ( time depending) and then create a new character on Tuesday. Especially the loot system is worth to explore before the new cycle
There's absolutely no reason to go for Cycle character. There is nothing cycle-specific and since you are new you won't be done gearing up to kill the pinnacle boss faster than its expected to come to legacy. Start now and if you decide to go for a cycle character for whatever reason later you can do that as well.
so cycle is not the same as seasons in other ARPGs? so there are no specific mechanics for only cycle characters, just a pinnacle boss?
It is the same as seasons, but this cycle (season) is not adding anything that isn't also going to Legacy (Core). So if you don't plan to trade and want to play entirely SSF, it doesn't really matter.
Oh, damn if that's the case and the experience and content won't be really too different, than I don't think there is a strong reason to wait. Other than I saw someone mention trading? As in you can only trade with others that are not in the cycle if youre not, right? I know trading isn't a big part of Diablo, so that wouldn't really make a difference in that game, but I don't know how big a part of the game that is in LE.
Yeah if you plan on any online interactions you want a cycle character. It's worth just waiting now since servers will be down for updates tomorrow anyway.
good call if servers are down.
LE can be played offline aswell. You can't trade with others of course, but the option is there.
that makes no sense. why would most people go cycle?
That's how ARPGs work for the most part. Most people play on new seasonal characters until they burn out, then you wait for a new season and start all over. Not many people end up playing on legacy/standard realms. Generally the resets help give everyone a new grind, and if you're playing merchants then the reset in economy is important. Looking up past Path of Exile data, only around 6% of players were playing non-league. That's likely a similar metrics across any ARPG, though last epoch may have a larger percentage of CoF characters in standard.