Few questions and ideas

1. Depends, what weapons are you using? Ranged? Wands? Sword & Shield? Dual wield? 2 Handed?

2. Part of the challenge is learning what works best. This is the Beta, it's the perfect time to experiment with different builds. As you get further along you get equipment that can support a lot more gems so you can build up their level and try different combinations to determine which is most effective with your style of play.

3. If the dot is solid and flashes on the map, there's a port. If it's black, then there isn't an active portal at that location (there may be one, you just haven't found it yet).

4. It's intimidating at first, but it gets easier and makes much more sense after you've played PoE for awhile. Once you understand it you can plan out your build which can be very rewarding.

5. Yep, it’s safe to say they missed that 2011 date still listed on the main webpage. Open beta should starts in a few months though.

6. That information changes every time a gem levels up and this is still a beta so they are tweaking these settings. If they don’t put that information up once PoE is released I’m sure a fansite will. The best option would be to just look at your character screen, click on the tap that represents your current skills, and view the damage it does with your current weapon setup.

7. Nope.

I’ve mostly been playing a bow based Ranger lately so I’ll let someone else comment on a witch build. I’ve used the following skill combos to build my Ranger up to level 49 in hardcore mode and it’s been very effective so far. I’m sure there are better builds out there (many use Frenzy) but I’ve been having a lot of fun with these so that’s really all that matters. If I get the right gear I'll through frenzy in the mix in the future.

Primary Attack: Poison Arrow Skill gem with Added Cold Damage, Increased Critical damage, and life gain on hit suppot gems. This is effective both against bosses and groups. High DPS and a relatively low mana usage make it extremely effective.

Minions: Raise Zombies skill gem with minion life and minion damage for support gems. Minions are useful against groups, but very important against bosses. Use them as a barrier between your enemies and yourself and pick them off from a distance.

Group Attack #1 (Smaller groups or groups in a line): Split Arrow Skill gem with Added Cold Damage and Pierce support gems. I’ll fire a poison arrow or 2 into the group and 1 in front of them to walk into, then fire several split arrows into the group to thin them out with the projectile piercing. As they continue to walk through the poison clouds their numbers will rapidly fall.

Group Attack #2 (Larger groups): Rain of Arrow Skill gem with Added fire damage, faster attack, and weapon elemental damage. I’ll fire a few poison arrows into the group then spam them with Rain of Arrows.

My bow and rings add cold damage and the rest of my gear focus on mana leaching and faster mana regeneration so I can use Poison Arrows most of the time. Passive skills I’ve been focusing on added bow damage, attack speed, and movement speed so I can fire fast and move away fast. Slow the enemies down with cold, and move quickly away from them as needed.