Path of Exile 2’s new dodge roll made me a believer

polygon.com:

Who would’ve thought a dodge roll would finally convert me to the church of Path of Exile?

I’ve always fallen on the Diablo 3 side of the great war between ARPG fans.Path of Exile was fun enough when I’d dip a toe in, but I just wasn’t that interested in its Diablo 2 feel. And so I logged my ARPG hours in Blizzard’s fast-paced Diablo 3 instead.

But after ExileCon 2023, where Grinding Gear Games debuted new footage for Path of Exile 2and revealed that it will be a stand-alone game rather than an expansion, I got interested in giving the series another shot. And so when the studio offered me a chance to play the same demo that ExileCon attendees played, I dove in with the hope that the series would finally click for me.

At the outset, the Path of Exile 2 demo felt like the Path of ExileI was already vaguely familiar with — albeit much prettier. I moved through the environment with the game’s characteristically slight, purposeful lag on my movement. I inserted skill gems so my character could bash some baddies with new and more interesting abilities. And I decked out my Monk in the goofy, early-game leveling gear that all of us have come to expect in RPGs.

It wasn’t until the demo’s second boss — a massive, underground worm — that Path of Exile 2 finally gripped me. The creature knocked me on my ass in an instant during my first few attempts. Then I realized I’d been using the game’s new dodge roll solely as a repositioning tool rather than an actual dodge. On a whim, I tried rolling through one of the worm’s minor attacks — which typically did enough damage to nearly halve my health — and to my surprise, my character phased right through.

And thus did man discover iframes.

So I began to analyze the worm’s attack