My First Shadow...Please help me!!! What to do?

Well I need help with my character...I have stop playing this game due to the fact that I feel extremely lost but I still want to beat the game..I am on the last Act after Imperial Garden going up stares where their are tons of Lightning and Fire, and even though my character is level 42 and my gear is sub par I feel like I shouldn't be dying this much...My damage also feels very low.

Your passive build is rather unusual. You have a bunch of energy shield nodes but you are wearing mostly evasion gear. You also have Arcing blows but you don't have any lightning damage to increase (It does not give you bonus lightning damage, it only increases the lightning damage you already have).

I'm not certain how many passive respec points you have but something like this would be better:

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgYAMFQeGv-TmVcoKrVIrs_rju1BsbNVS217jDaH26Z_YeIWv_PqcFJw1cBR44SnNA5IJpWZmutjtvcRL9adYqydqud03vbo1iLqRNLyWiW1AhE=

It has more life, less energy shield, some evasion boosts, and more sword damage.

In terms of equipment you should at least be using swords with around 25-73 damage, preferably better. One thing you can do if look for some Dusk Blades (which drop in any 32+ zone) and then sell them plus a blacksmiths wetstone and a rare Rustic Sash (use an orb of alchemy if you have to) to get a weapon with +70-89% increased physical damage. Then use an orb of augmentation to give it a secondary property.

You can read about vender recipes here:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vendor_recipes#Crafting

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RagnarLoftbrook wrote:

Well I need help with my character...I have stop playing this game due to the fact that I feel extremely lost but I still want to beat the game..I am on the last Act after Imperial Garden going up stares where their are tons of Lightning and Fire, and even though my character is level 42 and my gear is sub par I feel like I shouldn't be dying this much...My damage also feels very low.

First of all. You have chosen glass cannon status several times over. On the passive tree, gear-wise and gem-wise.
Before the reset of the passive tree you'll get in just about a week you can patch up your defences and with the reset you can eventually cure them completely.

With your gear. Path of exile requires you to get several layers of defences to work together in order for you not to get oneshot. Without a shield and dualwielding as a melee you should take the dervish node down by the dualist area or be able to argue why not. It gives + 10% block and is flanked by several very sweet nodes. You need to get a shield or that node.
The passives, you need to focus. Life for people without the gear to choose ES. Always take a node that you pass that gives 8% life or more and consider all + life% nodes.
With the gems. Choose a skill. Specialise or die. Get it linked to good support gems and get to know how to boost it.

Alright Everyone so I am feeling a little better about this game from all the help you guys provided...

I am seeking more guidance...I am working on an EK Critcal Shadow Build with MoM from ZiggyD and I am trying to get the most out of my character.

So I built this on PofBuilder...So you could You ALL Please help suggest what I should be doing...my gear is sub par but I am working through Cruel now.

::My Build::

https://www.poebuilder.com/builds/sandman423-ragnarloftbrook

I have Grace on my character but I can't use it yet...I am strictly leveling it. Hatred is Awesome with EK.

Generaly speaking, every first character is a fail even following advices & popular guides since your experience with those builds, game mechanics and gear stats is always a work in progress (remember Hack & Slash games are all about feeling the fights).

Also, beginners should stick to Life Builds and focus steadily on simple things such as life/minimal resists and at least average weapons.

To make it easily understable :
*You should watch the damage shown for the weapon and not its mod (37-89, ...)
*Get basic gear (remember to keep them then!) with some HP (a fine number should be your level, for example you are level 41, 30-50 HP on a gear piece is good) and some resist(s), a single one is good enough to keep you alive.
*Regarding your passive tree, being full glass canon is not (somewhat) an issue, you should always take some HP nodes (2 cluster at your level is way enough to keep you alive) and whatever the damage nodes you want (testing them is fine to learn basics).
*Links are good, but you don't need much of them to complete normal & cruel difficulty, get straigth for popular increasing damage support gems such as "Melee Physical Damage", "Added Fire Damage" or "Faster Attack" and the job would get done. Merciless requires more experience to get threw it.


<I've dealt with far noobier Shadow, Exile>

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RagnarLoftbrook wrote:

I am working on an EK Critcal Shadow Build with MoM from ZiggyD and I am trying to get the most out of my character.

Ok, yes, EK is a GREAT way to go, but might I suggest staying away from crit? The reason being that you can hit nice damage numbers (easily over 10k dps) with a non-crit build while maintaining better survivability than a crit build would allow on a budget.

I have a very thorough guide that elaborates on ZiggyD's original build here:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/885713

I kept being told ZiggyD's Original build was OK, but I heard EK Crit MoM Shadow Build is Much better so I am working towards his guide on MoM EK Shadow build that he is originally known for that he updated a few days ago.

I love EK...I have Discipline, Grace, and Hatred Gems in my armor but I notice Grace and Discipline are blanked out so I can't use it yet so I've been working towards Max Mana, ES, and Max Life mainly right now.

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RagnarLoftbrook wrote:

I kept being told ZiggyD's Original build was OK, but I heard EK Crit MoM Shadow Build is Much better so I am working towards his guide on MoM EK Shadow build that he is originally known for that he updated a few days ago.

ZiggyD's mana Scion was, uh, pretty weak, but I understand that he was catering to a newbie-ish hardcore crowd. Do you have a link to his crit build? I've never heard of it.

Anyway, I hope you give my build a look to get an idea of links, gear, etc. I deal over 16k dps with a 4L setup (not even a "+1 to Level of Gems" setup), which is kinda wild for a non-crit EK build. If I take off my Ming's Heart, which is something most people won't have, I still hit with over 15k dps.

So what do you recommend I should do with my build currently??

http://poeurl.com/yYw5XML

I am working on making him better

heres my advice after skimming through your post.

When i first started playing PoE (closed beta) i thought very much like you did, i made a shadow and got to act 2 normal (was the end act at the time) and my damage dropped off really really hard and I simply couldn't compete with the monsters nor could i get past vaal.

I had some weird notions about the game back then, having ARPG experience only from games like diablo and dungeon siege. In most ARPGs stats do more for you than they do in this game. They increase your damage and help you along. The thing you need to do first is to realize that the shadow is anything different than any other class. All a class is in PoE is a starting point on the passive skill tree, a cosmetic look and a few starting stat differences. Most builds can be made using different classes as starting points, once you fully can grasp this, you will want to start to pay attention to the skills. Each skill follows its own set of rules. Ethereal knives is a spell, while Dual strike is a melee attack. The difference between the two is rather large. While yes some of the passive nodes will buff both depending on the supports you use, for the most part they don't mix due to gear restrictions and passive changes and its less effective to use both skills for this reason (with some builds being exceptions to this rule.). Another fundamental thing you should get used to is this idea that creating a new character and leveling it back up to where you are now isn't so much of a problem when you learn to level more effectively. My first time through the game, it took me hours to get through act 1, now if i play a character it will take me less time to complete normal. Killing every mob in a zone isn't a good thing (at least not until end-game maps.).

When you set out to make a build in this game, the first thing you should do is choose a primary skill. Being new to the game, the only way to find out which skills you think you will enjoy is probably either to just play the game or to read about them through the Wiki and player made guides. once you've figured out which primary skill you wish to focus on, you then try to construct a passive tree around that skill. For example if i choose to play a crit freeze pulse character, I will construct a tree based around getting life nodes, crit and some elemental damage/cold damage nodes. Obviously again being new parts of this process wont be as optimal as a veteran player as you wont know all the mechanics you will encounter on your journey through the game nor will you know the most optimal routes through the tree (these things come through experience). The same goes for support gems, i know freeze pulse works well with LMP because i know that i can shotgun mobs with the three projectiles.

As a rule of thumb for all new players, at least this is what i tell them if they choose not to follow a guide and some times even if they do follow a guide, your first character will probably not make it through cruel. This is simply due to lack of experience more than anything. Once you learn the little nuances of the game you will be able to make any build you want just by thinking about it.

Anyhow, Good luck, and as always feel free to ask questions on these forums, people will help you out.