Joe Ziegler Says Path of Exile's Build Freedom Keeps Him Coming Back After 3,400 Hours

For action RPG fans, the appeal of a game can come from many places: the atmosphere of a familiar world, the rush of finding better loot, the satisfaction of clearing a difficult dungeon, or simply having something relaxing to play while listening to a podcast. For Joe Ziegler, the former lead behind Valorant who later worked as game director on Marathon, the defining attraction is buildcrafting. And that focus has kept him invested in the original Path of Exile for an extraordinary amount of time.

Ziegler says he has accumulated 3,437 logged hours in Grinding Gear Games' long-running free-to-play ARPG. His reason is straightforward: he considers Path of Exile the most flexible and open-ended expression of the buildcrafting fantasy that makes the genre compelling in the first place.

"ARPGs to me are [about the] buildcrafting and the cleverness of putting things together," Ziegler said. "And I think Path of Exile is the most freeform version of that."

That is a significant endorsement from a developer whose career has included competitive shooters built around deep mechanical systems, team roles, player mastery, and constant strategic adaptation. Although the fundamentals of an ARPG differ considerably from games such as Valorant, the appreciation makes sense. Both genres can reward players who learn how interconnected systems function, identify unusual combinations, and execute on a plan better than expected.

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A Game Built Around Possibility

Path of Exile has long occupied a distinctive spot in the action RPG landscape. Blizzard's Diablo series remains the name many people immediately associate with the genre, particularly because of its foundational influence and broad mainstream audience. But Path of Exile, which was explicitly influenced by Diablo 2, developed an enormous community of its own by embracing density, complexity, and repeatable experimentation.

The game's systems encourage players to view a character not merely as a class with a short list of preset abilities, but as a sprawling collection of potential interactions. Passive skill choices, gear affixes, support gems, active skill setups, damage conversions, defensive layers, items, and countless other variables can shape a build's purpose. That depth can be intimidating for newcomers, but it is also the very feature that turns theorycrafting into a major part of the experience for dedicated players.

Ziegler described the scale of that experimentation as remarkably broad. Rather than committing to one preferred archetype, he said he plays a range of builds. Still, he has some clear favorites. Totem-focused characters are especially appealing to him, while simpler "one-button" approaches become attractive when he wants something more relaxed. He specifically pointed to Whirlwind-style builds as an example of that lower-effort appeal.

The contrast captures one of the enduring strengths of the ARPG format. Players can approach the same game with radically different priorities. One person may spend hours studying interactions in pursuit of the most efficient setup possible. Another may prioritize a durable, easy-to-use build that can handle content without requiring constant button presses. A third may chase a thematic character concept even if it is not considered optimal.

In Path of Exile, those motivations can often coexist. Its immense web of mechanics means a player can make decisions based on power, comfort, novelty, fantasy, or sheer curiosity. The answer to "what should I play?" is rarely limited to a small group of sanctioned options, even if seasonal metagames naturally push particularly strong strategies to the forefront.

The Rube Goldberg Appeal of ARPG Theorycrafting

Ziegler's description of Path of Exile compares the experience to a Rube Goldberg machine: a sprawling arrangement of effects, triggers, and relationships that players try to configure into a devastating final result. That is an apt way to frame the game's appeal.

At its best, buildcrafting produces a feeling that a player has discovered something rather than merely selected it. A passive node that initially appears unrelated may solve a key problem. An item modifier might transform the practical value of an otherwise overlooked skill. A support choice can alter how an ability behaves, changing its damage, area, cost, speed, targeting, or interaction with another part of the character. The final setup can be visually chaotic on screen, but every piece has a purpose.

The goal, as Ziegler puts it, is to determine how to deal the most damage and defeat enemies as quickly as possible. Yet the route toward that goal is where much of the game's identity lives. There is a substantial difference between following a proven guide and understanding why its components fit together. Both are valid ways to play, but the latter is where games with elaborate systems can become long-term hobbies.

For a player with more than 3,400 hours logged, it is easy to see why the cycle remains compelling. A new build is not just another character. It is an experiment. Did a strange interaction work the way it seemed it might? Can an old favorite be adapted around a new item or mechanic? Is there a way to make a comfortable playstyle significantly stronger without giving up what makes it enjoyable?

Those questions help explain why ARPG communities frequently extend well beyond the act of playing. Planning tools, build discussions, databases, patch analysis, videos, guides, and community theorycrafting are all part of the larger pastime. For some enthusiasts, researching a character is nearly as entertaining as taking that character into combat.

Why Path of Exile 1 Still Fits Ziegler Best

Despite the attention and positive response surrounding Path of Exile 2 in Early Access, Ziegler remains more attached to the original game. He said the first Path of Exile has changed what he expects from ARPGs, making its particular flavor of freedom difficult to replace.

He has played the sequel, but sees it as more constrained than its predecessor. That is not necessarily meant as a condemnation. Ziegler acknowledged that the difference makes sense because Path of Exile 2 is structured around a more action-oriented environment. A game seeking a more deliberate combat feel, where moment-to-moment positioning and encounters have increased weight, may naturally need to place more boundaries around certain systems.

That design direction can be beneficial for players who want greater immediacy, more readable combat, or fewer layers to parse before they can make meaningful progress. But it may be less ideal for someone drawn specifically to the original game's maximalist construction kit. Ziegler's preference comes down to fit: Path of Exile 1 feels as though it was made for the way he wants to engage with an ARPG.

It is also a useful reminder that a sequel does not always replace an earlier game for every member of its audience. Even when a newer entry improves presentation, onboarding, combat responsiveness, or accessibility, the previous installment can retain qualities that certain players value more. In this case, the original game's breadth and accumulated complexity remain central to its appeal.

There Is No Single Reason to Love an ARPG

The discussion around Ziegler's playtime underscores how personal action RPG preferences can be. Some players still return most often to the original Diablo and Diablo 2, not because those games offer the newest features or the largest pools of possible builds, but because they are familiar, comfortable places. Their simpler rhythms can make them ideal for low-pressure sessions and repeat visits.

Others find that exact simplicity limiting and want an almost endless catalogue of systems to investigate. For those players, the demand to think, plan, revise, and optimize is not a barrier standing in front of the fun. It is the fun.

Neither approach is more legitimate than the other. The action RPG genre has room for comfort games, competitive number-crunching, atmospheric adventures, loot-driven marathons, hardcore challenges, and highly technical theorycrafting sandboxes. The strongest games tend to understand what kind of player experience they want to offer rather than trying to satisfy every preference at once.

For Ziegler, Path of Exile remains exceptional because it gives players room to assemble complicated machines out of skills, modifiers, and ideas. After 3,437 hours, that sense of possibility evidently has not worn thin. It has instead become the standard by which he measures the genre's capacity for creative character building.

That is perhaps the clearest explanation for Path of Exile's enduring reputation. Its systems can appear overwhelming from the outside, and they will not suit everyone. But for players who enjoy finding order in intricate rulesets and turning unlikely combinations into powerful characters, that complexity is not clutter. It is freedom.