September 18, 2024 is “old shit”?

You do. they’re the only “pay to win” aspect of the game. You need premium stash tabs to use the trade site functionality and managing a lot of the drops really requires stash tabs. However, you can get what you need for $20-30. I actually ended up buying supporter pants in a “Take my money!” kind of way because of how much time and enjoyment I’ve gotten out of the game. You can absolutely get in and play without stash tabs, but if you want to get serious about the game they’re pretty much required.

I don’t disagree with you at all. I bounced off of PoE many times over the years because I just couldn’t wrap my brain around the depth of the game. Like I said, I still only play with build guide. I suppose there is build diversity in D3, maybe a better way to describe it is prescribed. I never really felt there was the ability to come up with wacky builds out of the available options. I think Last Epoch strikes the best balance there.

D3: Very little build diversity and endgame activity selection. Pretty much built around sets and the builds reflect that. Kinda fast but very repetitive

Grim Dawn: I didn’t play this a ton but it has a lot of depth in the campaign and lots of builds. I don’t know of much end game, though. It’s playing through the campaign at different difficulty levels as far as I can tell.

Last Epoch: Lots of build diversity and a lot of endgame activities for a pre-release game. Great loot filter and crafting. Not the fastest game but not the slowest.

PoE: The most complex, rich, and flexible of them all. I’ve got 1500+ hours in it and I still consider myself a noob. So many things to learn, so many things to do, so many builds. I still don’t play without a build guide because maximizing your potential is so deep. The blaster’s dream RPG. “Free” but you’ll want to buy some stash tabs if you play at all seriously.

D4: Better than at launch but still with some incredibly boneheaded design decisions.

I could be wrong about these but those are my impressions from the ones I played. Here is a hilariously sarcastic video about the differences between D4 and Last Epoch that explains some of the bad decisions in D4 and How LE fixed them.