Pre-endgame; Picking "better" items to use

I'm a fairly new player (in terms of the learning curve, etc). I've been playing and I'm on act 10 with my blight character. It is going well enough.

That said, I'm having a lot of trouble determining what item is "better" vs another. I understand the difference between normal, magic and rare items (as well as unique). I also understand that Gem Sockets and Links can make a big difference in determining if something is better to use.

But when swapping out (for example) my belt, they seem so similar despite the newer item being 10 levels higher (or whatever it is).
Or, as another example what +10 level higher item do I spend currency on modifying to get the Gem Sockets and links that I want.

I'm looking for tips or ideas on how you glance at a given item vs what you are using and determine whether it's "better". Or, how you pick items to invest currency on. (I have watched a few YouTube videos and that has helped a bit but overall, I still struggle to pick items.)

My question is from a "pre-endgame" perspective.

Generally, the first priority on your gear is to get resistances capped.

After that, to have as much +life attributes as possible.

Finally, any offensive bonuses you might be able to get.

So, if a belt gives you more +life and allows you to still have maxed resists, it's better.

One way that I've found to approach this is after finishing Act 10, you get the final resistance penalty before entering the endgame. That's a good time to evaluate all your gear, decide if some pieces are bad and you should trade for upgrades, etc. Then you can progress into maps and continue looking for upgrades along the way.

It's generally not a good idea to invest a bunch of currency into gear too early (unless you are playing SSF) because you can usually trade for item upgrades cheaper than you can craft them.

Also, as you enter maps you're likely to find stuff better than whatever you could get in Acts 1-10, so no sense investing too early when you might be replacing items soon anyways.

Hope that is helpful!

Good basics from MoLo

Are you using a guide? That's usually the first place to look for what is best in a given build beyond health and resists. If you want to really learn the game, Path of Building is pretty much a necessity in terms of seeing what impact things have.

But before you start working on your equipment, your build really needs some work. Your gems are not optimal, and some of your supports won't even work with the gems they are linked to. This is normal for a new player BTW.

I don't have time to look at it in detail right now, but someone probably will.

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GreyLensman wrote:

...

Are you using a guide? That's usually the first place to look for what is best in a given build beyond health and resists.

...

Yes, I am using a build guide. This is the one I'm following and I've followed it to a tee so far. https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/storm-brand-elementalist-build-guide-blight-38

It does give some tips on what stats prioritize and such but that takes a deep amount of comparing and checking the guide (time per gear tweak).

I'm looking for broader type info.

Oh, and thank you for the brief look at my build. I'll go through and double-check that. I thought I was careful about pairing things but I did some experimenting yesterday and probably made mistakes.

"

After that, to have as much +life attributes as possible.

His/her character is elementalist. So i doubt first made ele is health-based. And it seems sticking to "casual" upper part of skill tree, thus much easier to be focused on energy shield only.

I would only add that meta-minimum for endgame considered to be 4k. Either health only, or health+shield. But more is always better (as long as you don't creep only on it and no offence)

I would generally ignore item level completely (unless crafting).

There are level 35 rings that can carry you to uber elder, and also odd items like tabula you can wear at level 1 (yes 1, Ive had it drop in the strand) that you can wear till uber elder.

As stated before, resists then life are the priority, then movement speed on boots, and any offensive stats (and + mana +mana regen if using Mind over Matter).

Regarding gems, in your main hand, you have Curse on Hit linked with Herald of Thunder but no curse in the third socket.
Take Conductivity out of your chest and swap it for the crit damage in your main hand.
Your resistances are
Fire 75 (24 over cap)
Cold 68
Lightning 43

Yikes, resistances need to be 75 across the board for maps at a bare minimum.
What skill is your main skill?
You have Arc, Stormburst, Ball Lightning, Storm Brand, Lightning Strike and Storm Call
Your necklace is junk, use an alchemy orb on a white necklace (or Essence) and roll anything, Essences are nice as you can target a specific resist for example.

"

JawzX01 wrote:

Yes, I am using a build guide. This is the one I'm following and I've followed it to a tee so far.

... I'll go through and double-check that. I thought I was careful about pairing things but I did some experimenting yesterday and probably made mistakes.

The tree is close, although you went off guide in some areas that are hurting you, like taking Precision but not taking Runebinder.

Your gems don't look much at all like what's in the guide. It's a Storm Brand build but you have SB in a 2L, no Brand Recall, and maybe 4 other primary lightning skills in 3-4 L groups. One of them is not Lightning Spire Trap, which is what the build recommends as the secondary damage skill for single target.

With your current gem set-up, you are going to crash and burn in maps no matter what you do for gear.

There is no judgment intended here. The mistakes you're making are very common for a new player. Go back to the guide and when you have questions about why he's doing something a certain way, go ahead and ask. It's a complicated game, but that's what makes it fun.

Cheers

required item level doesnt mean SHIT in this game.

My character is 94. i am wearing these:



Yes, that is a 'level 48' necklace. Yes, it is my endgame necklace.

most of my other gear requires level 70 because of the level 20 gems in them. without the gems, they would be even lower required level.


ITEM level is different, and is not displayed unless you turn on advanced options and hold alt. My boots are ilvl 86, which is required for the 35% movespeed roll. They still only require level 70 to wear.

First of all, the learning curve in POE is huge in the beginning so don't give up - the game is damn difficult. But when you have learned the basics you will probably never stop playing the game :-)

Too make the whole game easier, you really want too install addons. Here is a Youtube video, that shows you the most common ones (minimum lootfilter and Trade Macro):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPwbeLZNLxA


General basics for gear i use after finishing acts and before endgame (you want too cap out your resist - 75% - you do not care about chaos resist):

Gloves, Helmet, Belt, rings: life, resist
Boots: You probably want some movement speed ((+20%), life, resist)
Amulet: versatile and should not be used for resist, probably more dps or mods you need for char.

You really want a 6-link item as soon as possible, so invest in that asap. body armor is usually very cheap, so go for that with a lot of life (If you cant afford it, you don't care about resist here, as you easily can cap out resist on other items).

Rings are the cheapest too cap out resist, very cheap with +100 resist and +50 life, so equip other items first and cap out resist with rings for what ever you need.