Basic Tips new players might not know...

With the influx of new players and all their questions, I think it's time to bump up that old thread. Please add your tips (post em here or PM).

MAPS

- Use the Map transparency settings in Options to make the The area map (tab) more readable.
- You can toggle a D2 like Minimap in settings.
- Move the area map with your keyboard arrow keys.
- World map (u on keyboard) has 3 types of 'nodes': Black (no portal), node with a small blue dot (portal present in area but not yet discovered) and large blue dot (area portal already found)
- Switch Acts and Difficulty (you need to unlock them) with the World map.
- Use the World map to show sub areas you can visit. Such as Fetid pools close to mud flats.
- click on a quest Icon and it will show you which area you need to head to in the world map.
- To create a new instance for an area, ctrl+click the area on the choose waypoint screen. You will be given the option to either start a new instance, or continue your current instance if you have recently been to that area.For areas with no waypoints, simply ctrl+click the entrance to the area to bring up the instance management screen.[Hojirozame]

Skills & Gems

- Unsocket gems by right clicking.
- Gems only level up if they are socketed in your current equipment. You don't need to use them.
- Gem skills are affected by Level and Quality.
- If your want to know if a support gem will work with a skill gem, socket both and make sure they are linked together. Check your quick skills in the GUI, it will have a small letter on the given skill. Example a Flicker Strike with Health on hit support will have a small 'h' on Flicker Strike icon.
- Some skills reserve a percentage of Mana. If you have blood magic, it will reserve a percentage of your health instead. Be very careful with that combination. Blood magic with some auras will reserve a lot of your health pool, or even outright kill you.
- Some skills have a timer. You cant spam traps or Flicker Strike.
- Be sure to read the description of Skill gems. Some only work with certain weapon types.


Equipment

- Your Stash is shared amongst your characters.
- Socket weapons in your secondary weapon slots to quick level gems.
- Flasks can have any number of charges. They are filled by killing monsters.
- In boss encounters, you can immediately refill all your flasks by jumping in and out of a town portal.
- Orbs have different trade values. Gem cutters Prisms, Exalted Orbs etc are very valuable and rare.
- Use Orbs of regret to respect (refund) skill points in the passive tree.
- Use Orbs of Scouring to convert a magic item to a normal item. Then you can freely use any orbs to upgrade it to magic, rare or unique.
- Make sure to check the Exile sale Recipe (http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/15223) before vendoring your items. An item with red blue and green linked slots will yield a Chromatic Orb! It works a bit like the Horadric cube of D2
-You can spend currency items while they're in your stash so only keep TPs and IDs in your inv for quick access to them and to keep inv clear for all the goodies you loot. [GodlyMe]
- You can CTRL+Click items into vendor windows for quicker selling. (No ability to get things in and out of stash quickly just yet, though. :( ) [GodlyMe]
- White items may seem like junk, but providing they have a desirable socket roll on them, you can roll them into magic (Orb of alteration or Orb of Chance) or rare items (Orb of Alchemy or Orb of CHance), maybe even a unique (Orb of Chance) [GodlyMe]



Quests and progress
!!!SPOILERS!!!



Trading

- There's no trade window or auction house.
- Be very careful of scammers.


General Chat

- Click on Global chat or put a # before your comments to speak globally.
- Local chat are only seen by people in the same area as you.
- Whisper to someone by using the @ followed by the charname.
- You can hide the chat box by clicking on 'hide global chat' in the chatbox.
- mouse over items in (active)chatbox to see their full stats.
- Ctrl+ Click an item to display it in the chatbox.
- BE POLITE! This community (so far) is nothing like the douchefacedly douchey D2 community, and being nice will get you very far as far as making friends and learning the game/progressing goes... Currently, the community is very mature, helpful and respectful, let's keep it that way! [GodlyMe]

Some Abbreviations

- Alcs, Alchs = Orb of Alchemy
- GCP = Gem Cutters Prism
- Exalts = Exalted Orbs


That's all beginner hints I can think of right now. Thanks to all those who contributed with their starting tips. Happy Gaming :)

You can now jump to Advanced tips created by Jobo. It contains even more strategies to maximize experience and fun: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/44461

Good tips for starters. Glad to bump it

General Chat

- Click on Global chat or put a # before your comments to speak globally.
- Local chat are only seen by people in the same area as you.
- Whisper to someone by using the @ followed by the charname.
- You can hide the chat box by clicking on 'hide global chat' in the chatbox.
- mouse over items in chatbox to see their full stats.
- Ctrl+ Click an item to display it in the chatbox.

"

goldenjoe wrote:

Good tips for starters. Glad to bump it

This. =^[.]^=

where you have mouseover items in chat box to see the stats should have press enter first then mouseover

"

Hogowner wrote:

where you have mouseover items in chat box to see the stats should have press enter first then mouseover

Or you can click the chatbox and mouse over the items. Yes it will only show when chatbox is active.

"

KhelThuzad wrote:

General Chat

- Click on Global chat or put a # before your comments to speak globally.
- Local chat are only seen by people in the same area as you.
- Whisper to someone by using the @ followed by the charname.
- You can hide the chat box by clicking on 'hide global chat' in the chatbox.
- mouse over items in chatbox to see their full stats.
- Ctrl+ Click an item to display it in the chatbox.

Another way to do this:
When you hit "enter" to open chat, click on the small box just to the left of the dialog box; it will give you the following four options:

Local
Global
Party
Whisper

You can also right clock on a player's portrait in the "party" screen for "whisper" and a couple other options.

- Some nice work here; Thanks!

- Gem skills are affected by Level and Quality.




Do you mean Quality of the Armor/Weapon piece it is in?


Edit: nvm forgot about Gemcutters prisme

;)

"

xreasonz wrote:

- Gem skills are affected by Level and Quality.




Do you mean Quality of the Armor/Weapon piece it is in?


Edit: nvm forgot about Gemcutters prisme

;)

You can also find quality gems as random drops ;)

"

Sony_Black wrote:

You can also find quality gems as random drops ;)

ah For instance a 15% increased quality Gem can drop?? i have not yet had 1 drop for me :)