PLEASE READ: Helpful tips for those that are struggling with the new patch

I culled this from my response to a thread in suggestions.

I agree there are certain things that need revisiting/revising (attacks from off-screen mobs; mob skill spamming; drop rates from Rare/Boss mobs). But on the whole, I am very impressed by version 0.9.9 BETA. Great work GGG!

It's a beta people. PoE is still going through a toothing process. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater by demanding changes or crying bloody murder about how difficult it is now.

Instead, I hope you take the time to read the following points so that you too can become comfortable playing in the world that is Path of Exile.

Fundamental concepts that every good ARPG player should know:

1. Always maintain gear progression so that your damage is scaling with increases in monster level. You do NOT require a fantablasticorgasmic rare weapon to knock off mobs. Learn the itemlevels of your preferred weapon type and find/purchase one as soon as you can equip it.

2. Use your orbs. A current level blue weapon that you roll using common orbs like:are going to serve you way better than that lucky itemlevel=4 yellow that dropped for you on Mud Flats...

3. Pull mobs, don't rush into zones blindly. If you know you are undergeared and/or underlevelled, don't go charging into the middle of the zone and start crying because you get mobbed.

4. Patience.

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Suntzu wrote:

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.

Believe it or not, sometimes it's going to take more than a couple of presses of your favorite spam skill to kill things now. OMG?!?!? You mean I have to actually adopt some sort of strategy so I don't die over and over and it will actually take me longer than three days to hit level 70?

Read some 'Art of War' by Sun Tzu. Learn a little. Enjoy your game.

TL;DR = LRN2PLAY NOOBS.

I just posted this in another thread:

The smaller side-quest bosses, they are all skipable (apart from the first on the beach).

I usually go straight to prison, before going back and clearing the 'side-areas'. The waypoint shows the map and where you can go.

This way you outlevel those side areas by a few levels, and the bosses don't pose a very hard challenge. Hellrake (on Tidal Island) is still dangerous if you don't have cold resist though. Avoid him and Merveil until you at least have 50 cold res. Pick some up on your trips to town.

Check in every level, so you don't miss any trade recipes. There is a forum thread for those, the most obvious one being the three color linked item which gives chromatic orbs.

Also spend your alteration orbs rerolling a large health flask until you get 'Dispells frozen and chilled' mod.
It will last you a while.


Keep in mind that you can make your own cold res rings by selling iron rings along with blue skill gems, should you have a spare. It is a good investment. You can also try different gems and iron rings to get the best possible result.

If you are very lucky or don't want to waste any higher level quest rewards/drops, you can do the beach with two other characters to get gems for ring transmutions. (This should not really be necessary, and much more work than it's worth. But it is possible.)

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jawsofhana wrote:

{smart and practical information}

All very useful tips. Thanks for contributing!

Recipes can be found in The Exiled Sale Recipe Book (spoilers)

Item levels and requirements can be found in Item Data

This thread may also help you.

If you haven't read through the Mechanics thread yet, I urge you to do so.

"

Emerson wrote:

There is no knowledge that is not power.

If you found any of this information the least bit helpful, please bump so we can keep it in front of people reading the forum, and if you can add another helpful tip, please do so!

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Garr0t wrote:

1. Always maintain gear progression so that your damage is scaling with increases in monster level. You do NOT require a fantablasticorgasmic rare weapon to knock off mobs. Learn the itemlevels of your preferred weapon type and find/purchase one as soon as you can equip it.
TL;DR = LRN2PLAY NOOBS.

More importantly than damage, get some hp early on. Two coral rings almost doubles your early-game HP, and leather belts also contribute a lot.


But, as for how to get damage -

For attack-based characters, you want your weapon to have the big damage bonuses, because it's the easiest to get them there.

For spell-based characters, there's a bit of a trick. Get a multiple projectiles support gem, it more than doubles the damage output of most spells. Just get better mana potions if you are having trouble with the increased mana cost.

"

Silty wrote:

{tips on how to get damage}

Thanks for your contribution, Silty!

n00bie Tips:

Path of Exile rewards thinking and planning and punishes brute force playstyles. This is something that trickles down into some of the core aspects of how the game is designed. Here are a few things that many people can sometimes forget:

The weapon you equip is only limited by your Stat points. In other words, even if in your "mind" you set out to make a Dagger character, or a Sword character, or an Axe character, blah blah... All of these characters can still equip ANY weapon or use ANY skill that their stat points allow them to.

So a great example is for people complaining that their melee character cannot overcome a specific obstacle of Act 1 Normal. Okay. So what? The brute force player continues at that obstacle with a losing strategy, dying over and over. Path of Exile rewards thinking and adapting. Just go to Tarkleigh and buy a Level 1 or level 5 Bow if you absolutely feel you cannot melee through something. Keep this in your pack throughout Act 1 Normal to help you get through things if the going gets tough.

The point is, just because you decided your guy was going to use swords DOES NOT MEAN HE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE! In fact, in Act 1 Normal you have so little passive skill points assigned that it really doesn't matter WHAT weapons you use! Or skills!

Once you reach Cruel difficulty level and have gotten a ton more skills and passive points to really mold your character, well by then none of these "problems" should be issues anyway.

TL;DR - Use all tools at your disposal to make Act 1 Normal a breeze-- not JUST the tools that you "want" your character to have endgame.

And I had to remind myself of the above after learning the hard way-- I ended up taking like 10 minutes to kill Brutus with Fire Traps only, since I could only take 1 hit before getting KO'd at melee range. Had I remembered to bring a Bow, I would have killed him twice as fast by using both the bow and the traps. Why was I so stuck in thinking "daggers only!" ? It's easy to get into that mode of thinking once you have had a level 30+ character.

Helpful tips for the new patch:

1. Wait until they fix disconnect issues.
2. See 1.

"

Silty wrote:

"

Garr0t wrote:

1. Always maintain gear progression so that your damage is scaling with increases in monster level. You do NOT require a fantablasticorgasmic rare weapon to knock off mobs. Learn the itemlevels of your preferred weapon type and find/purchase one as soon as you can equip it.
TL;DR = LRN2PLAY NOOBS.

More importantly than damage, get some hp early on. Two coral rings almost doubles your early-game HP, and leather belts also contribute a lot.


But, as for how to get damage -

For attack-based characters, you want your weapon to have the big damage bonuses, because it's the easiest to get them there.

For spell-based characters, there's a bit of a trick. Get a multiple projectiles support gem, it more than doubles the damage output of most spells. Just get better mana potions if you are having trouble with the increased mana cost.

Even better for casters, get a +1 skill level wand. The damage from +1 gem level is usually a lot more. Nessa Sells them. Not so much for attacks.

For low melee/rangers, + elemental damage mods are usually more beneficial than %IPD.

When i run rushes or post wipes, I spend my alts/chances on +30 coral rings as those tend to be useful for more levels and are tend to be harder to find. Nessa Sells whites for scrolls. You can always trade for/farm more later.

Keep your potions up to level. Sometimes you just don't find any and have to buy them. It's easy to get behind.

For witches having trouble with the new necromancer style mobs:

Do not leave corpses. If you are frost then hopefully you are killing many while frozen. If not, summon your zombies first. Another option is Corpse Explosion (that is still in, right?) but it is a dex gem.



Merveil: Get cold resist. With 75% and a marauder tanking (I took most of the ice hits) she was easy. Trying to solo her with ~10% cold resist was a pain.



Shoot and scoot. Mostly for cold witches again. If you are soloing a boss or any other hard monster, try hitting it once or twice and them move. If you've ever watched SC2 matches... think Marine micro but with just your toon. Cruel Brutus was pretty easy with that.

If mobs are hitting you off screen, you can return the favor with Ice Spear. Shift click it and it will hit those guys.

One more for newbie witches. Not everyone has to go wand. If you want a crit strike build, try daggers.