New to PoE

thanks

1.) All.
2.) Hard enough that you might want to remake your first character instead of hoping to do a full respec.
3.) Endgame, the game is openended, it is somewhat all about the endgame.
4.) really depends on the amount of time put in and how you feel about being selffound. Personally I trade a little and I've found some gear worth using.
5.)Don't pass by a 8% life node without taking it.
First character is a trial run.
If melee, layer your defences.
If dualwield or critbased, know what you are doing.

you learn while playing, so dont expect your first character to reach engame. This is an aRPG anyways, rolling new characters is an important part. New leagues start in three weeks so it is a good time now to try (and learn) the game to be ready to make a good character in new league

If are you looking for some begginers guide, I suggest the one on top of this section, it is very well written and detailed (link)

1) Save chaos and exalted orbs for trading, those are the main currency. Save alch orbs for high level white gear and maps and save chance orbs for base items of uniques you're interested in, save gemcutter prisms for 20% quality gem recipe. Sell identified rare items for alteration shards and use most alteration orbs to buy jeweler and fusing orbs. You'll mostly be using small amounts of jewelers, fusing and some chromatic orbs to get useful levelling gear but they should also be saved for something worthwhile.

2) It's easy enough to fix smaller mistakes, but if you screw it up completely it's faster and cheaper to reroll unless you got a 90 level char, in that case you wait for a free full respec we get every 4 months.

3) As they say, the real game starts in maps, once you clear all three difficulties.

4) If you need something specific you should buy it, chance to drop exactly what you need is abysmally low, the game wasn't really designed to be played 100% self-found, it can be done but it takes much, much longer. Use PoEXYZ indexer to find what you need, trade chat is useless.

5) Defenses, defenses, defenses. In other ARPGs 25-30% is an average investment in defense, 50% makes you a full tank. In PoE it's the norm to invest 80-90%, and making a full tank involves much more than just stacking stats.

Alright thanks :)

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Cephii wrote:

are melee chars viable end game?

Perfectly viable, as long as you keep in mind that a reasonable investment in life and your primary defense will not allow you to just stand in the thick of it and take hits, it requires multiple layers of defense and building a tank requires significantly more effort, knowledge and experience.

Well, as long as you know that 'melee' doesn't necessarily equal 'tank', and also that 'caster' doesn't mean you have to kite. Also, at least try planning what you want to do in advance because 'ad hoc' playing doesn't fly, and don't expect much of your first few chars even if you follow a premade build.

You found 3 exalted orbs by level 15? I've got 10 characters over level 60 (2 over 80) and iv'e found 2 lol.