I think he’s talking about the two factions (or at least the Merchant’s Guild) rather than as a reply to you prior post.
So I need to also download the game from steam or add the stand alone to the steam library ?
You need to download the LE client via steam.
If you used the standalone before, you can redeem the game for steam via your last epoch profile pages.
There is a button to get the steam version
I can only say I´m looking forward to play in both Solo and MP Mode when we hit the 9th.
And even with Brand new Companions as well. Yeah, and new Titles.
Thank you 
Great News that Multiplayer is finally here. It’s been a very, very long wait. I’ve come back to LE multiple times on false hopes and promises from your development team, only to be disappointed but still enjoy creating and progressing an SSF character through the endgame.
As an extremely casual gamer, I still hold 54th on the SSF Arena ladder from 8 months ago.
This is worrying. It seems like the playerbase is very, very small. A multiplayer game needs a large playerbase to successfully enable meaningful co-op experiences on PC. If there isn’t a robust playerbase looking for groups to play with, and a meaningful incentive to group up, then multiplayer will flounder and you’ll see more steam refunds.
You guys need to figure something out between now and the launch of Diablo 4. Get creative and add features to the game that truly differentiate the experience from something like Diablo 4 or PoE. Something meaningful and gratifying.
You had a good idea with the bazaar, to keep the inevitable streamlining of trade inside the game rather than leaving this process to players and third parties who will setup secret communities on the internet where the average player is left out on the street and with an overall diminished experience. It’s sad that you guys decided to ditch the idea, and eliminate trading entirely. In one fell swoop, you’ve moved your game from upholding what players want from the days of yore (D2 style trading, but with an in-game data source, rather than a 3rd party website a la PoE), to being the next iteration of Diablo 3.
The only difference between Solo Self Found and Regular ladder is going to be a shared stash. If your ladder seasons are any meaningful duration and level of competition, then Solo Self Found and the regular ladder will have no discernable difference. Ladder races are always about your first character and the initial push, and sharing loot among your characters is negligible. Building an alt in a ladder season never results in anything competitive in a saturated player-base.
I’m more inclined to believe that the networking and design teams were incapable of finishing the intended product design on time and you rushed to get multiplayer out during the interrim for D4 Beta → D4 launch, to try and scrap together a small playerbase while they can’t play the new competing title as a last-ditch effort before highly-funded competitors show up to the race after you’ve been working on multiplayer for 2+ years.
I saw an interview from LE a year or two ago where you were asked how you view PoE 2 and D4, and the interviewee (can’t remember if it was your CEO or the Lead Designer, or both) claimed that LE would have such a massive differentiation from those two games that it would absolutely crush them. So far, it seems like those two games have every system in LE and then some.
I don’t expect LE to have the resources to be able to compete with those two companies/franchises. However, you do have the ability to get creative and differentiate your game in a way that appeals to what fans of ARPG’s want and aren’t getting from those titles. To that end…this is a massive blow to LE. You’ve stripped away one of the key promises that LE was supposed to deliver on in order to differentiate itself from PoE and Diablo 4. LE doesn’t have the insanely complex character building and classless system of PoE, it has class identity that we know and love, and it has a great story and world, and promised to deliver on key components of ARPG’s from our past that fans love and long for. This is one of those components, and you’re missing the mark by removing it from the game. I don’t enjoy finding item ultra-rare items that don’t work for my build, and won’t work for a build that I enjoy–and then stuffing them in my stash to never use it. You’re creating a system like Diablo 3’s where players will routinely scoff at an excellent, rare, valuable item–versus one where they can get value from a rare find and turn it into something useful for themself.
SSF covers the applications you mentioned in your disclaimer. Non-SSF modes are for trading and people are aware of that.
All that being said, it’s extremely impressive how well your team has been able to string along hopeful fans for this long with such a low rate of delivery on your promises.
They didn’t decide to get rid of trade entirely, they just scrapped the (initial view of the) Bazaar, then the gifitng, then they decided to add trade.
Quite a lot has happened in the last 8 months.
Apart from the D2jsp & similar sites.
That has also changed. SSF is going to be the same as PoE’s SSF (ie, account wide), so the only difference is going to be that the regular ladder means people can have partied up at some point.
I’d be surprised if they said that, but LE’s implementations of the various systems are different.
PoE has classes & it’s not been “classless” since at least Ascendancies were introduced.
Not sure which component they’ve removed? Trade? No (see above).
Ah, you mean trade, fair enough, good thing they’re going to be adding trade then (or not if you don’t want it).
The last patch 0.8.5 before EHG gone on a hiatus with patches was not super popular and didn’t bring back a lot of people.
On top of that the ladder you are talking about is jsut one part of the game, that a big portion of the communtiy doesn’t even play.
Even in the future there will probably be a huge chunk of the community that doesn’t even bother with arena.
I personally don’t play any arena at all. And I know there are more people like that, not sure how much of the entire playerbase that is, but I guess its impactful.
A few patches before 0.8.5 the ladder was much more active even months after a patch release.
So when 0.9 and future patches are drawing in more players again I wouldn’t worry that much about it.