When I unlocked the Bone Prison

When I unlocked the Bone Prison specialization for my Mark for Death spell, I forgot to read the fine print. Though a wall of bones now encircled my enemies, my once insta-cast spell now had a nasty side effect: a 20-second cooldown. But I was delighted to find that I could now cast another spell on each individual bone piece, turning my new bone prison into a cascading wall of death. Any trade-off that ends with a cascading wall of death is a good one POE currency trade .

Last Epoch's skill system is a brilliant evolution of Path of Exile’s labyrinthine web of upgrades and Diablo 3’s rune modifications.

Last Epoch hit Steam Early Access on April 30 after six months in closed alpha, adding a proper prologue and extending the campaign to four chapters. Although it’s a traditional hack and slash action-RPG, the world and story structure are clearly inspired by Chrono Trigger. I zip around to different eras that eventually lead to an apocalyptic future I need to prevent. It’s a neat idea but the writing isn’t really what's keeping me playing. Take your stupid ledger and give me my skill point, Elder Erza.

The early game is primarily played in the future Ruined Era, which features a bunch of brown and black caves and ruins with the same endless parade of blobby purple enemies. Limited and boring enemy variety frustrated me in the early game. It didn’t help that Last Epoch, like most ARPGs, is mind-numbingly easy for the first few hours, and there seems to be no penalty for dying. It wasn't until I dug further into its skill system that I found what separates Last Epoch from Diablo and Path of Exile.

In the alpha I played a primalist, a combination barbarian and druid ripped straight out of the 1982 film The Beastmaster. The primalist can summon wolves, saber-tooth cats, a bear, and even a giant scorpion once I unlock the Beastmaster mastery tree (sadly no ferret friends).

Each of the five classes (four are currently playable in the beta) has three mastery trees that operate much like Diablo 2’s skill trees, pumping earned skill points to increase my stats, grant new bonuses, and occasionally unlock a new mastery-specific skill. I could've taken my primalist in the direction of a lightning-flinging shaman or a shape-changing druid instead. Having a giant scorpion alongside my wolf pack was neat at first POE currency buy , but the pet-heavy melee build grew boring to control quickly.