Question about mind-set for new players
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For the record, I only plan on playing this game Hardcore (so, Nemesis league currently) - for my softcore needs I just play Diablo 3 (shaaaaaaame).
Just a quick couple questions about what I should be looking at as a relatively new player to PoE. I've had a couple characters, but never really pre-made my Passive skills or what actives/gear I wanted before going in. So my question is, is this the right way for new players to go about it? I feel like stealing builds from the forums is uninspired, and most of the builds seem to require at least some gear/skill gems/knowledge before even thinking about creating the character. But I also feel like not knowing diddly-squat about the game, and not pre-planning anything as I level, hinders me in a huge way. Just curious what you guys did with your first few characters, how you learned and built upon your knowledge base (and skill gem/gear base for other builds). There's just so much to learn about this game, feels like it would take hours of poring over the wiki before I even had a small grasp, and I kind of want to just play - but just playing, I feel like I'm not learning anything about how the game works (as I mostly just play solo, for fear of getting raged at for my noobness in build etc.). Hopefully you guys have a bit of insight into this/understand what I'm asking. P.S. As an example of a build I found that would require already owning the gems, totem builds sound interesting . . . however, it feels like you'd need to have the totem gems (and some support gems/auras) by the time you get to AB in the passive tree, or shortly after otherwise you miss a lot of leveling and the gem (and any support skill gems) would be massively underleveled for end-game. Correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like having high-leveled skill gems is extremely important. Maybe it's just me, never really researched how people deal with that issue either (if they find the skill gem they want too late in the character's life-span). |
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The first character I played was a templar, and I had no idea about what I was doing. I picked up some claws at the beginning of the game and liked the survivability they offered. I started looking around for nodes to help me, but they weren't on that side of the tree at all. I then switched to using a shield and a sword (which eventually became a mace) and the tempest shield skill, because I thought it was cool. I eventually became frustrated with the character in cruel difficulty because it took me forever to kill things and I seemed to die really easily.
In general, when I started the game, I picked skill gems from rewards I thought would help me with my current situation, without too much planning ahead. I had no idea of where different things in the skill tree were, and focused on nearby nodes when leveling. My second char, which I made as a shadow, due to the fact he was near the claw nodes, which I intially liked, is currently my highest level character. I would recommend just playing a class (I would recommend Templar, because they get a lot of the useful auras and aura related support gems) and finding what you like, then cannibalize the old characters gems when you make a new one that follows a style you enjoyed while playing. Of course, I would recommend a softcore league for your learning char so you can get the gist of things without making a whole bunch of characters that keep dying, but the best way to learn the game is by playing it. Important note: defense is just as important as if not more important than offense in this game. If all else fails, more hit points never hurt anyone! Theorycrafter/Build Creator for PORTAL guild
@BlightScourge -> guide @ view-thread/1382667 (Retired till Mjolner is fixed) Lvl 94 Crit Mjolner Marauder twitch.tv/savagewolves | |
" My advice is: trade! This game revolves very much about trading. Beginners often want to play self-found; I did the same when I started, but PoE is a lot more fun once you get rid of your overvalued "trade virginity". The game difficulty and the drops are balanced around trading; your character will be much less powerful if you just rely on what you find yourself, and this makes the game boring and/or frustrating. As a rule of thumb, never pay more than 1 chaos for an item until you know the economy a little better; if you follow this rule, it's difficult to get ripped off. A crappy 1-chaos weapon or unique can make your levelling much easier. If you need a specific gem, people will be more than happy to throw it at you for 1 chaos. 1 chaos=13-20 alterations, which are easy enough to obtain: just play the game, collect currency, and vendor the rares you don't need. Only buy upgrades that you need though, and save some currency for later. I'd recommend starting from any build labeled as "for beginners" on the forum. It's easier to learn by playing the game rather than theorycrafting and trying to learn everything by yourself; if later you're not satisfied, you can always start a new character. Levelling the second one will be easier, since you already have useful gear in your stash. Shower thought: no two rares are the same. So rares are unique, while uniques are not. On the other hand, uniques are rare, while rares are not. Last edited by fph on Apr 19, 2014, 12:20:41 PM
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Don't bother planning out a build until you have already made a few and have some sense of what works and what doesn't. Your first few builds, just experiment and learn. Your only other option is to copy someone else's build, which is fine but IMO not as fun.
And yeah.... you'd better be prepared to trade. A lot. The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard | |
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My first character was a freezing pulse/ice spear witch that barely made it to Cruel and then I gave up on her. I had no idea what I was doing, I wrongly assumed offense is more important than defense, which is absolutely not the case in PoE. I didn't bother to get resists or enough life/energy shield and started getting absolutely wrecked by Act 2.
However, the one thing that was no problem whatsoever was getting the skill gems I need. Freezing pulse is literally the first skill gem you get as a witch. Later on I got Ice Spear, Determination, some curses as quest rewards so I was pretty much set. I just really sucked at the game. So my suggestion for you is: choose a main skill gem you want to center your character around. Check out the Quest Rewards in the wiki, and pick the class that receives this gem as a quest reward (preferably as early on as possible). Oh, and make a softcore character first, really. | |
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My first build was a long time ago in closed beta and I can't remember what it was exactly, but I'm sure it was a melee build. I pretty much jump jumped in and tried to figure out things on my own. I'm sure I screwed up the build because i continue to screw up builds but not nearly as much. Regardless of what happened and will happen I've enjoyed the Hell out of every last second. There are times where desync puts it's foot up my butt. There are times where RNGesus points at me and laughs in my face when I ask him to please let me get a 6L or a decent roll when I use an Alchemy; but mainly the ride has been a really good one.
How did I learn? I played a lot and died a lot. I read questions others asked in the forum because I'm sure someone else was having the same problems. I looked at others skill trees to see what they were doing. I looked others gear to see how they linked their gems. I watched a few streamers to see how they played. I read a lot and continue to read a lot. Mainly I'm still figuring it out as I go. I don't trade so getting what I need takes a little more time and effort, But I'm still having fun. This is my guide for non-trading, slow paced playing solo players like me.
Newbie Guide to Improving your gear
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/646392
Arguing on the Internet: What's the point when you can't punch them in the face when they really piss you off?
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" You're overthinking it. PoE isn't brain surgery. An average IQ would know the basics of gameplay just by reading the available info on the game. The rest is skill and time. Basically the skill tree allows for a little bit of fudging your points and RNG for gear is a matter of time. Life, Resists, DPS and some kind of damage mitigation is like the breakfast of champions. |
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Most times I decide on the class beforehand and then consider what sort of character I'll make.
I tend to look around the starting area of a class, figure out the beginning half-dozen points when I first level and think about what I need. For my two-handed melee duelist I ended up focusing on damage passives until I reached a certain goal, then switching to life nodes, then switching back once I'd attained a bit more survivability. The main thing that determines a character's build for me is the quest rewards table from the Path of Exile wiki. I look at the table, see what looks interesting or fun and aim for that. My very first character for example was a templar, I got the glacial hammer as my first item and decided to stick with the ice damage theme, picking up Ice Nova as my next reward and taking elemental damage passives from the tree, later working towards armour/energy shield and shield block passives for the survivability. Eventually I deleted that character, as trying to use both cold spells and cold attacks didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. Another character was a duelist, and I thought that double strike would work great with a strong, two-handed weapon and noticed that Sweep required a two-handed axe or mace, so I went with that theme. It might also be you'll hear about something on the forums like a Cast-on-Crit build and decide to give that a try, or have a good quality gem drop for you and decide to make a character based around that. Short version is: I just look at the quest rewards, the passive tree and figure out what I want to do from there, and then work out a decent path to those goals that provides enough survivability and damage. "Let those with infinite free time pave the road with their corpses." - reboticon
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just experiment
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Quite a number of new players have poor attitudes towards this game.
Not to generalise, this is what I see in quite a few 1. Feel cool about joining this game. 2. Stubborn about thinking how to make a good build until level 60. 3. Refuse to trade yet interested in getting 6L-.- 4. Spends all the shit earned on fusings. 5. Finally accepts it is almost impossible to get 6L. 6. Ragequit. |
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