Open or closed beta?

[krischan]

It seems that open beta has started yesterday, so I ask myself if I should try it or better invest $10 and go for closed beta right away.

How crowded is open beta?
What does closed beta offer which open beta doesn't?

[IncubatorJones]

I think you have a misunderstanding here. It was closed beta, now it got converted to open beta. The difference is that now anyone can join, whereas before you needed a key in order to play. As for how crowded the beta is atm, the download servers seem to be under a lot of stress, prepare for a lengthy wait.

Edit: Well, it has taken me atleast 6 hours to download 700mb. Someone apparently made a torrent which contains 3/4ths of the game, so you'd be left with only ~1.5gb to download. http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/70385

[krischan]

Whoops, I already read that in the afternoon, but I completely forgot to start downloading. I'm doing that right now. Thanks for the information!

[spiffymcbang]

Eh, On Thursday Night I downloaded the 5 gbs in short order, maybe 40-50 minutes. Took about 10 minutes to the first gb then I went off to do something else and when I came back it was done.

Liking the game so far.