Prophecy was my first league. Tips going into Essence?

I first played PoE back during beta and for whatever reason, I was immediately turned off by it. I only recently came back to the game a few weeks ago and holy shit, what fun it was. I like to think I've learned a fair bit from these few weeks but I'd love some actual tips on how best to approach a new league instead of going in completely blind like I did with Prophecy.

Part of my problem I think is that I have a hard time determining what drops to pick up and what to leave on the ground. I'm using NeverSink's loot filter so that helps but there's still a TON of gear to sift through, especially early on. I never really had an issue with running low on scrolls but I felt I played way, way too slow. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all of it, but this time I'd like to play a bit more efficiently.

I have a build in mind that I'm gonna focus on so that's not an issue.

Thanks and btw, this community rocks! I made more friends in these few weeks of League than I have in YEARS of playing d3. Still like that game btw, I just really enjoy PoE a lot more at this point.

some quality tips here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1667889

You enjoyed yourself going in 'completely blind'. Why do you want to change that? Keep playing for the fun of it and don't buy into the idea that you have to emulate the no-lifers.

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ShowUs wrote:

some quality tips here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1667889

Haha, unless I missed something, that thread seemed to be more joking about how the new league will affect your life rather than actually offering game-playing tips. I read through the entire first post and skimmed the rest in hopes of seeing actual tips and didn't really run across any. Gonna go skim through it again.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

You enjoyed yourself going in 'completely blind'. Why do you want to change that? Keep playing for the fun of it and don't buy into the idea that you have to emulate the no-lifers.

That's a fair point. I'm not really interested in making the game more serious and less fun compared to what I found with Prophecy, just looking for maybe some tips on ways to play more efficiently. Just because I enjoyed looking at new drops and finding some stuff useful, I think I spent too much time doing it. I just wonder if people go into leagues and don't amass too much early on because they know it'll be quickly replaced, etc.

I guess I'm just after the frame of mind of some of the longtime players that learned how to make their fresh starts even more fun by doing less micromanagement work... if that's possible.

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kadin wrote:

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ShowUs wrote:

some quality tips here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1667889

Haha, unless I missed something, that thread seemed to be more joking about how the new league will affect your life rather than actually offering game-playing tips. I read through the entire first post and skimmed the rest in hopes of seeing actual tips and didn't really run across any. Gonna go skim through it again.

Hi Kadin i created this trap thread and glad that it worked as intended :D

To answer your first post about tips for new leagues i would recommend few things.

Approaching a new league:

First of all be sure to read official news ( and community ones ) about content added to the game from a league to another it's crucial to know the most possible informations about that.

Depending of your goals:

For example if your goal is to complete challenge the faster possible you may want to read fully the challenge list putting it on a table and study it a bit to determine how you are going to do them what are the troubles you might have with them what is the most efficient way to do them what build(s) can help you for x or y part etc ...

Same for any others goals - Knowing what the league has to offer before it start will save you a lot of time to achieve anything you want.

As soon you decided what you are going to play when starting you should always study what gears it require / wich mods on items / uniques that could fit well with it eventualy / what content will be really hard to do with it and more than all what it's designed for.
A spreadsheet is always useful :)

The more builds you are playing the more you are going to get knowledges for both economy and theory.

Talking about selling you can take some notes about most wanted and popular builds and wich gears they are requiring. It's a good start :)

Play in the way you want to play but if you are looking for something efficient then just pick good item base ( highlighted by NVS lootfilter already ) and currencies / maps.

I would recommend to search for the most advices and tips you can over this forum ( google will help a lot ) way more experienced players than me already talked about this subject each years as far i remember and you may find some quality threads :)

Short version:

How you are picking gears will differ a lot depending of how you are enjoying the game and what is your goal :)

Hope it helped a bit ! Have a great day

Edit: Do you have troubles with pricing / selling items or just what to pick for your character and what to keep for furthers ones ?

There are a lot of ways to approach the game, I always play self found. I actually enjoy looking at every yellow that drops, that drives some people nuts.

Efficiency is tough to gauge for someone else, this game runs the gambit between self found, and hardcore mat farming and buying best in slot items for min/max end game builds. You have to decide where on that scale you fit in.

Boots are probably the one item I pick up the most early in a
league that I don't later on.

Pretty much everyone's gear is terrible for at least a few days.
Even poorly rolled boots with movespeed sell for a few chaos orbs.

Also my trick for gaining some extra chaos at the start of leagues is to
alch orb every 4 link gloves helm boots that drops in hopes of good rolls.

Lots of people will search for gear that's already linked I'v found.
Can't say I blame them considering linking your own can cost tons if unlucky.

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Heli0nix wrote:

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kadin wrote:

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ShowUs wrote:

some quality tips here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1667889

Haha, unless I missed something, that thread seemed to be more joking about how the new league will affect your life rather than actually offering game-playing tips. I read through the entire first post and skimmed the rest in hopes of seeing actual tips and didn't really run across any. Gonna go skim through it again.

*snipped*

It was a great thread for sure, I got quite a few laughs from the various things listed there. I'm starting to see why the list is so long and honestly very true it seems from my short time with the game.

And thanks for the suggestions. It's a tough line to walk between playing for pure fun but also trying to maximize your time in an efficient manner. I've read through the Challenges so I have a good idea on how I think I'll approach things, but it's still pretty overwhelming.

In the end I know it's a game and I play it for entertainment so I don't want to get too involved with busy work (spreadsheets, etc.) but if I find it might be helpful, I might consider it.

Regarding your edit, all through this past league I picked up literally every rare and mostly magic jewelry and flasks. Also gems were something that very, very quickly kinda became a pain. Not sure if I had specific ones and so I just picked them all up.

Then when it came time to get rid of stuff, I just vendored everything I couldn't immediately use or looked good for alts (which never happened btw, lol). I know there are recipes for certain things but I was of the understanding this wouldn't probably be beneficial until late game and I only got towards the end of Merc at level 65.

Just promise me that if you use all these "tips" you get, and you come back in six months complaining that the game isn't fun anymore... post a thread called "Shags was right".

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Shagsbeard wrote:

Just promise me that if you use all these "tips" you get, and you come back in six months complaining that the game isn't fun anymore... post a thread called "Shags was right".

Hahaha! I promise I will...