~New to Path of Exile? Super Beginner's Guide~

Welcome to Wraeclast exiles, the journey you have ahead of yourself will prove more challenging than any you have embarked on before. My name is @TiznaraN I was exiled long before you and as such I have a few pieces of information that may prove useful to you, so listen carefully.

Contents:

-Character Selection
-Entering Wraeclast
-Notable Hot-keys
-Using Chat
-Ding!
-Gems
-Flasks
-Currency

Picking your character

This is a generalization to give you any idea of what starting areas in the tree have to offer, it by no means...means you are restricted to this type of build/game-play but most likely if it's your first character you probably will want to stick closely to them.

Templar(Hybrid Strength/Intelligence) Spell Dmg/Physical Dmg/Elemental Dmg
Marauder(Strength) Physical Dmg/High Life
Duelist(Hybrid Evasion/Strength) Physical Dmg/Critical Strike
Ranger(Evasion) Physical Dmg/Ranged
Shadow(Hybrid Intelligence/Evasion) Spell Dmg/Physical Dmg/Critical Strike
Witch(Intelligence) Spell Dmg/Summons/High ES
Scion(Pure Hybrid) Don't worry about this character yet you'll first need to beat the game in normal to unlock her

There are currently three types of defense in the game. Energy Shield a buffer to life which recharges quickly after not taking damage for a small amount of time, Evasion(Chance to Dodge) and Armor(%Physical Reduction).

Entering Wraeclast:

A good amount of exiles are confused within the first 5 seconds of the game, in Path of Exile the source of your characters abilities come from virtue gems created by thaumaturgists thousands of years ago. After slaying the first monster you encounter you will receive your first "skill" gem. To make use of this gem hit Z to open up your character screen and click the gem in your inventory. Simply place it in the corresponding colored socket which matches the gem you've found. At anytime right clicking these socketed gems will remove them for you to do with as you wish.

As you travel throughout Wraeclast some zones will hold way-points. Way-points make it easy for you to travel between areas simply by clicking on them and then clicking where you would like to go. Bring up the map/quest screen (U) to see which zones have them (represented with a small dot inside a circle, when you have discovered the way-point (wp) the circle will fill).

Notable Hot-keys

P: Passive Web
U: Map/Quests
C: Character Info
M: In game store
I: Inventory
Tab: Mini Map
O: Options
S: Social/Friends/Public Groups

Using Chat

Anytime I mention opening the chat box this is done simply by hitting enter...

First you'll hit enter to bring up a dialogue box, at the top left and right you will see Global Chat and Trade Chat respectively, you can check or uncheck to leave the channels at anytime.

Alternatively you can type /global 1 /trade 1 with any number to enter respective channel. On top of that typing # will put you into a global or allow you to type if you're already in one, and $ same for trade channels.

To chat locally (in town/zone with people also in the same zone) simply open chat and remove any $ or # or ^ symbol that may be there.

Party chat is % followed by message.

-Whispering in this game is accomplished by typing @Characters Name followed by the message you wish to send. Or opening chat and right clicking the
characters name, friending, inviting, ignoring can all also be found by the same method.

-Quick reply to a whisper sent to you is Ctrl-Enter

-To link an item CTRL-ALT and click said item.

Ding! You've leveled up:

Generally, as with other previous arpgs your first build might feel very strong early on only to result in you getting dispatched handily in the later zones/difficulties. This trial and error is a necessary to develop a complex long lasting game so as to not trivialize everything (don't be discouraged if you end up having to create a 2nd character, hell that's one of the best parts of the game but, can be frustrating for a brand new player). A few tips I can lend here, you can get away with for the most part speccing pretty much all damage up until mid to late act 2, at which point you're going to want to start grabbing some life/resistance nodes as you need them. There are currently three difficulties in the game, Normal, Cruel, and Merciless. As you progress to each new difficulty your resistances will drop by 20 into cruel, and another 40 into merciless. It's not a bad idea to keep a few, two or three skill points, available if you start struggling. Also as you progress you will receive "Books of Regret" which will allot one or two passive refund points, you will receive 18 by the time you have full beat the game (maybe more with introductions of new quests in release) and there are also regret orbs a one time usable currency which grants 1 passive re-spec point!

The passive web (tree does not do it justice) can be brought up by pressing "P" or clicking the "+" icon that comes up as you level your character.

It can also be found here for planning purposes http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree hit F to make it larger.

OVERWHELMING doesn't even start to describe this thing the first time you gaze upon it. However, it's actually not that confusing at all, and by level 20 or so you will have a fair understanding of how it works and where you want to go. Basically you're trying to get to the larger nodes "Keystones", medium nodes "Notable Passives" and finding the best route to them is what you want to focus on.

Gems:

Skill Gems
Most will be rewarded after quests (which class you pick determines which gem rewards you will receive, not all classes get all gems from rewards, however you will receive duplicates and most can be traded for gems from another class). They can also drop within the game (some are drop only). There are Green Blue and Red and will only slot into their appropriate socket colors. Green gems require Dex, Red Str, Blue Int, and some have a requirement of two stats. The ability to level a gem or to keep it at it's current level. This was asked thousands of times a day probably the only reason leveling a gem would be a bad idea is if the new requirements of the gem are too high for your character. Gem requirements include the stats listed previously, mana cost, and character level, every level the gem increases, these increase as well. Most gems you will want to level all the way but there are a few that you may not need for the damage (leap slam) and just use for the mobility so keep at level 1, one example.

Support Gems
Here's where things start getting really interesting, say you make a witch your first gem will be fireball. A single fireball is shot that does moderate dmg and low aoe dmg in a very small area, by adding a support gem such as lesser multiple projectiles((lmp) turns one projectile into 3 and damage is reduced) well now you'll be shooting three and hitting more mobs than you were before, essentially doing more damage despite the lowered damage from the gem itself. Keep in mind to make use of a support gem the two or more sockets must be linked together. Simply putting a fireball gem and a LMP gem in one piece of gear will do nothing unless the two are linked together. And this applies to every support gem in the game, 1 skill can be supported multiple times (fireball + lmp + critical strike chance + faster casting) but keep in mind that ALL gems must be linked in this case and usually, any support added to a skill gem will increase it's casting cost.

Quality Gems
Any gem can be dropped with anywhere from 5%-20% quality, many gems qualities vary but all are useful in someway. The Gem Cutter's Prism will add a level of quality to any gem (GCP)

Flasks



These are your "potions". They can be crafted like every other item in the game and are very important late game. Flasks refill their charges when you kill enemies. They also refill fully on leveling up and going back to town.

Currency:

Some of these you won't use until high levels but having an idea of what's what is good so you don't rip yourself off.

(in order of rarity)


Each of these add quality to either an armor piece, a weapon, or a flask. 5% per on white items, 2% on blue, 1% on rares/uniques. These increase the base damage and armor of the item, would not increase spell damage if used on a wand for example but would increase wands physical attack.
(trans)Makes the item magical(blue).

(aug)Adds an affix to a blue item. So if an item only has one stat, aug will add another to it, blue items cannot have more than 2 mods.

(alt)Re-rolls a blue item with new properties.

(chrome)Randomizes the colors of the sockets on an item.

(Jew)Randomizes the number of sockets on an item. The maximum amount of sockets an item can have is based on it's item level.

(Chance, OoC)Makes the item magical rare or unique. Must be white item.

(Chisel, Chis, c)Adds quality to map in the same fashion as Armor/Whetstones/Baubbles do. You'll figure this out later on maps are endgame.

(Fuse)Randomizes the links on an item. Links between sockets, if an item has 6 sockets it can have 5 links in between them (extremely rare)

(Alch)Makes the item rare. Must be used on a white item. You will use a lot of these on your first character.

(Scour)Makes the item a white item. I don't think this works on uniques. Useful for crafting, also sell to vendor with skill gem to lower level by 1.

(Blessed)Re-rolls the inherent stats on an item. Ex. Leather belts have a base of life it's the first stat listed on the item. It ranges from 25-40 blessed will re-roll this value.

(Regret, OoR)Grants one passive skill re-spec point. If you've goofed something in your build eat one of these and you can redo one point per use.

(Chaos, C)Re-rolls a rare item, completely new item all randomized stats that meet the required items level.

(Regal)Adds a random affix to a blue item. Good for many reasons, even better opportunity to craft the perfect item right from a blue base, more expensive in the long run. Also used in rolling maps

(GCP)Adds 1% quality to a gem. Gems gain bonuses not only per lvl but also per quality, quality maxes at 20% and gems drop with anywhere from 5%-20%. Using a GCP on a non quality gem will give you just a 1% gem and is not advised. Leveling a gem to 20 (no quality) and selling it and a GCP at the vendor results in a level 1 20% quality gem. There are many more vendor recipes I will provide a link at the end.

(Ex, Exa, Exalt)Adds a random property to the item. Used to make the best items in the game, along with the Eternal Orb to get those perfect stats. Items can have 3 prefix and 3 suffix.

Divine Orb (Divine)Re-roll stats on the item. While rarer than Exalted Orb in terms of drops, still cheaper when it comes to trading. Item affixes are in groups ex. 1-4 fire damage 5-12 fire damage the higher level the item is dropped, the more pools it has to draw from. Divine will only re roll in the specified range, ex. +2 fire damage on an item if the mod is 1-4 fire this is all you have to work with, it won't go any higher. Poe Mods Here's a list of all of them (not 100% accurate but pretty close)

Eternal Orb Creates an imprint of an item to be restored later. Basically gives you the opportunity to revert an item to when you used the orb on it if a bad craft happens.

Mirror of Kilandra, creates a copy of a non unique item. If you find one of these you should have bought a lottery ticket cause it's about the same odds, rarest by far drop in the game.

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There is SO much more to learn about the game and I am by no means an expert, but if this is well received I can continue the guide if players need it :) <3 Well met!

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Resources for the future:
Just a link to this post on reddit for discussion!
Wiki, almost anything you need to know is here
PoEMods, lists all the mod pools per specific item
Be careful here, if you value your karma make a throwaway account, flipside, cool videos, "insider" information, and Chris and others are active here
Items Indexer
Everything you need to know about maps
Everything you need to know about crafting
Races
Detailed race information, and more
PoE Helper, sorts your stash for easy searching and vendor recipes, not sure if being maintained still but useful nonetheless.

If you have any questions @TiznaraN in game

Thanks for making this, will be helpful for new players.

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Sharuko wrote:

Thanks for making this, will be helpful for new players.

no problem :) I just tried to remember all the questions I had on day one and answer them here, if there's anything I should add let me know :)

Nice, should come in handy for the new players!

not bad, used it to refresh my memory :)

thanks, this will help me a lot.

"

stabbed wrote:

not bad, used it to refresh my memory :)

haha, thanks. was nostalgic thinking of my first day to write the guide ^^

.

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TiznaraN wrote:

.

"

Be careful here, if you value your karma make a throwaway account, flipside, cool videos, "insider" information, and Chris and others are active here

True. I think the Guild Wars 2 Reddit is the only one worse in terms of people being snarky and just downvoting out of a false sense of elitism. Seriously. It's pathetic.