As a senior player, funkyfritter said like this: P2W stands for "pay to win,". Many people generalize it into a term for any game that provides an advantage to paying players, though you won't find much consensus on where the line should be drawn.

 

Path of exile makes trading and storing items more convenient via stash tabs that can only be purchased with real money. That doesn't change the accessibility of content, but it does make things more efficient and provide an economic edge when trading.

EzalorDescendant expressed his opinion regarding funkyfritter's point: To be honest, this is the most accurate response I ever read about the stash tab situation and their effects in the game. However, I kind of annoyed by what GGG(Grinding Gear Games) stated to promote their cash shop as a place to get cosmetics only. This is not true, you can pay to get a lot of convenience from the cash shop. You can start trading without third party tools and you can loot as many items as you want for sale so long you buy enough stash tabs. The misleading statement of the cash shop can be found and read at the introduction page at the official website.

All in all, it doesn't change the fact that PoE(Path of exile) is an ARPG(Action role-playing game)-hack and slash game that is the least "pay to win" that I ever know.

 

As a professional player, Icarium__ said like this: First you need to to actually define what "winning" in path of exile actually is. If you mean simply being able to beat all end game content then no, there is no P2W, all you need is knowledge of the game mechanics and a good build (which can be done without extremely expensive items). If however, by winning you mean accumulating huge amounts of poe currency and thus "beating" other players, then it is definitely P2W, and you are at a very big disadvantage with just 4 non premium stash tabs.

 

Scol91 and Astealoth also said their ideas:

Scol91: Having more stash tabs let's you list more items. When I was 4 stash tab F2P player I used to underprice items to make them sell faster making room for new items and I never listed okeyish items I thought I couldn't sell for at least chaos. Now I can list items at higher prices as I'm not bound by stash space that much and I can just put okeyish items in 1c tab and some of them will be sold. I'd call that "an economic edge".

 

Astealoth: Path of Exile is pay to trade better. You virtually need to buy at least 1 premium tab to be fully effective in late game. If you get to late game in (Path of exile)PoE you should be willing to put up your $5 trade tax. There's some work arounds if you're totally off the grid with no bank account or debit card, you can give a friend a little cash and have them buy you a $6 DOTA cosmetic and send it to you to list on the market to get some cash in your wallet.

 

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