Which one should I get first?

I would get both but I would try Path of Exile first since its totally free.

path of exile first
after that you wont wanna play another arpg

its the best arpg ive played and ive played them all
im not saying tl2 isnt good, i have over 100 hours logged its well worth getting and a lot of fun to play, very fast paced

but path of exile is just epic is so many ways
it IS diablo 3

it is not a super polished game its an indie developer so you are not gonna get cut scenes or anything like that
you just get a really solid game with amazing mechanics and INSANE customization INSANE

poe is an overrated game. the pacing is much slower than d2 or tl2. the animations are bad, especially character animations. the number of 'viable' skills in the game are actually very limited, as are builds in general. but whatever it's "still in beta". you'll hit walls later on especially if you're not using one of the 2 or 3? proven builds. you'll also find yourself using the same 1 or 2 skills over and over through your character's entire play-through. the game is extremely monotonous and tedious overall. I was midway through merciless and just stopped because it felt like such a chore to play. The art direction, music, and voice work however are great and it's only through extended play do you realize the latent problems of the game. Ironically these problems stem from what at first seemed like the game's strongest features, the gem skill system and passive node tree.

not sure if srs or troll

Didn't play Torchlight.
PoE is fine you should definitely try it out.
PvP is still primitive but the game overall offers a nice deal of customization and a good atmosphere.
The levels are monotonous but it's more about the item farming and later on about PvP.

What is pretty unique about this game , besides the huge passive skill tree, is that there are races like 1 week or 3 hours.

The game is getting huge attention because guys like Kripparian play it.
What I don't like about it is that melee is not deversified enough and compared to range attacks it's simply superior.
There are still bugs (for such a big beta only few). What got me upset sometimes was the number of desynch however.

The trade system itself is also primitive and I prefer trading on d2jsp.
If you want to make some fg prices on d2jsp are good (although they went down shortly) and you can find currency on any level.

So far so good it's a game to try out and definitely a competitor to other RPGs out there.

poe has a lot of issues i wont deny that

but as far as mechanics and item and skill systems it beats out every other ARPG by leaps and bounds

TL2 is fun but the item system is boring as fuck and the skill system is just a D2 style system with no synergies

poe did a lot of innovation and has made teh agme a lot more interesting because of it

both i perfer

if TL2 ever got private servers, we could talk about this comparison and it would be a very hard comparison.

but poe is really the closest thing you'll get to diablo series right now. Yes it is slower.