Newbies Blues - Whine and Complain

*sigh*


So, I've only been playing Path of Exile for ....maybe a month now. I started out with a Shadow but then I made a Ranger and passed all his stuff to her and deleted him. This game is very addictive. I'm not usually a mmorpg action combat gamer. That said, it is a very unique game. The passive skill tree makes it even more fascinating leading to different permutations of possibilities for a character build. yeah yeah.


That's the positive. The bad is leveling. I am stuck as a level 44 ranger. I can't get any good equipment anywhere. I am not familiar yet with how to trade on the trading websites or the trade chat, but I don't like the fact that the only real option for progressing my character is to trade. The ranger I made is straddling the line between being a melee dual wield evasion fast as lightning character or a archer with multiple arrow types, cast when damage taken, curse on hit ...fun stuff. That might be my mistake. Trying to make two builds in one.

My level is too high to get rare items because most areas have lower monsters and there is a penalty in rarity if you go in a easy level . My friend joined the game as a witch also and she seems to be finding a lot more gems than i am. I thinkt hat the ranger and duelist and melee character in general have far less gems for them as the spell casting classes.

Then there is the combinations that are hard to figure out. All these stats and learning how they work and what affects them and how they affect the game.....it is really confusing. Critical strike chance, physical damage, resistances, manna regen, no manna life builds, damage per second attack speed, .....variety is good but its unclear how these are all set up unless you spend forever reading about it.

Like this frenzy gem. It is supposed to help so many things, but it is freaking confusing as hell. I tried to link frenzy, flicker strike and melee splash, but i guess without extra charges from blood rage and multistrike it isn't that great. You can't get multistrike until merciless? bleh.

It took a long time just to figure out how to use the currency. How to craft. Vendor recipes. And it doesn't help that players all talk in a language of initials like "CI" and "DPS" and stuff.


Quite frankly at level 45 i am freaking bored as heck. 700k experience points away from leveling, which is the only way to influence the passive tree, which is the only way to get different gems to fall besides STUPID HEAVY STRIKE and crap that i never use. SO BORING. it would be cool if ewe had peer vs peer parties, but you can't do that until later too.

I'm getting bored of roaming around killing things hoping for currency and gems so i can make a difference in my gameplay. It's boring.


ok, now everyone that hates this post can write something below. lol. I think i already gave fair warning in the tle that it would be whiny.

I don't really want to have to trade to progress.


right now I just want to know if arrows count as physical damage , because i heard that rarity of items found is linked to physical damage inflicted. Probably not true, but I am looking for any edge I can get to find better stuff. They won't drop any good swords, and the jewel orbs wont let me have more than five sockets anyway. Heck the fusing orbs won't do more than three links on anything. It amazes me that people actually know all the prefixes and affixes of every item and what powers each brings. That's some intense devotion to POE.


anyway, more whing o to come later.

There is absolutely no need to trade at that low of a level. Having the best items in the game probably wouldn't even help you at this stage, because it sounds like you just plain don't know what you're doing in regards to making a proper build.

Instead of coming to whine on the forums at the first sign of difficulty, maybe you should ask around in the gameplay help section to see what you're doing wrong.

Yes, some minimal trading will probably help you a lot especially if your just looking for some specific gem. You either want to trade for gems or get them from quests, randomly hoping the proper gem drops is just an exercise in futility. Trying to scrape up some currency to trade for a decent cheap leveling weapon would also be a good idea.

That said playing self found at your level is totally doable, your bigger issue is probably lack of direction with your build and a poor skill tree.

Master are now a way to supplement your gear with the stats you need to progress. Also, gear does not suffer penalty. You can be level 100 and still get gear drops in a level 1 zone. This is why Ledge and Docks used to be such avid hangouts for high level people with support builds running mf. They weren't doing it for the XP. Experience, currency and even maps? Penalties. Gear? No. (The only exception being league-specific drops and the few ones that are locked to high tier loot tables, if those still are.)

Dude. Please no more whining.

That's the game. You find loot and progress. If you get hung up then you make a new character and level adding 1)more gear 2) more currency. That in turn leads to crafting. Ever use an alchemy orb?

There is a learning curve. You either accept it or find another game. Most of the players on this forum sat down, read about the game and played it to learn it. You on the other hand have two low level characters and cry because you haven't learned it yet? I've played for nearly 2 years and learn something about the game every day. It took me 4 builds too finally understand and get to end game. Since then I've jumped into harder builds and yet more learning.

Learn to play buddy. This game does not hand you everything on a silver platter. Get used to it.

You don't have to trade on a level of 45. All you need to do is learn how to make a proper build, learn the basics, learn the skills and support gems, learn defenses. IF you can't come up with your own build jump into Ranger subforum and choose a build guide.

Also, like it has been said already - you won't learn a game after 1 month. I've been playing for more than 2 years and I consider myself a fucking noob who can barely come up with the working and interesting build. That's the beauty of this game, you learn something new every time you play or theorycraft.

One more thing, I suggest you start a new character in Rampage league. It has a fresh economy and some new perks. This league will last for 3 months, after the league ends your character will be ported to Standard league.

If you spend 1 chaos and get a Death's Harp for your ranger, your troubles will evaporate for another 20 levels or so, if your character is built decently.

Trading is optional, but if you don't do it, it's like playing with a handicap. That's fine if you enjoy it, and are willing to invest the time, though it doesn't sound like you have much fun. Getting stuck at 44 already implies that the problem may be elsewhere, though (e.g. the build or the knowledge what to look for). You could post your tree and your gear in the Gameplay Help section, if you want some input from people.

If you deleted your other character because you wanted to recycle the name, you can email GGG and ask them to swap names between two characters, so there is usually no need to delete a character.

Trading is nominally optional, but the game is horrible and utterly unfun without it. And if you thought the wall at 44 was annoying, just wait until you hit 65 at the end of the base game.

Couple of pointers:
* Trying to do two completely different builds in one character is never going to work. That is clearly a major issue.
* Frenzy is not a support gem: it is an attack. You cannot link Frenzy and Flicker Strike. You use Frenzy to create Frenzy Charges and they are what Flicker Strike uses.

There are builds that work just fine self-found. Weapon-based ones, though, are less suited. A summoner or a flame totem build, though, they well take you well into mapping with entirely crappy gear.

I tried a self-found bow user in early Domination, last year, and it was very frustrating. I gave up on her in mid merciless. Now in Rampage, I spent 1c on a Death's Harp, then 7c on Mathil's old bow, and it's been a breeze so far (74). Totally different experience, because of two low-cost trades.

In Ambush I played my flame totem Scion to 87, and also traded for only two low cost items, both for less than 10c each, but up to 80 she was completely self-found). In Domination, I played a summoner to 83, entirely self-found, leveled as a summoner too (before all the buffs). But I'd not attempt a self-found ranger again, unless I had a good bow waiting.

It just depends on what you want to play.