Help a noob?

Okay, I've gotten a few characters to level 59-65 where I start to run into issues and have just started looking at strategies or whatever instead of just picking whatever feels right. I've been successful at those levels but it starts to be less fun than rerolling... lol.

Anyway, my few stash tabs are starting to get full of stuff and I hate just vendoring things plus it'd be great to get my hands on some slick upgraded gear instead of praying something will drop for the character but I can't make heads or tails of the merchant boards, etc. Chaos/Exalted orb prices in the dozens? I think I've found about 1 exalted orb so far. Is the only way to get that many to sell off some of my uniques or 5L (if even worth anything) and save up for something slick?

Any rough guide on which rares to bother keeping and which to toss?

My 12yo son plays also and I've done some multiplayer with him and it's fun. I pretty much ignore the public groups and chat because chat was horribly rude people so am I wrong in assuming that the higher level areas and group areas are the same way?

Is the only way to participate in some of that high stuff to have those crazy builds I see on youtube, etc doing one shot kills to everything and gearing up via merchant house? I've kind of just ignorantly cruised through to 65 with 8 zombies 2 spectres and arc'ing everything in sight. I also have two marauders @59 and one can't stay alive and the other takes forever to kill anything.

Most of the builds/advice seem geared to get the guy with 90% knowledge to 95%. I just want to know some basic advice on being skilled enough to clear some maps.

You should just vendor all items that doesn't give hp + 2 resists imo. Jewelry can be an exception, doesn't take much space and it's good to fill in the gaps, should you find better gloves for example.

http://poe.trade/ this website is your friend for trading, can find everything what you need.

some basic things for mapping:

- All resist maxed(75%), chaos can be -60, you should be aware when mapping who chaos damage does.

- 3k life(I'd go 3.5k, but i only play hc, can prolly be a bit less in standard).

- You should be able to clear (low) lvl maps with a 4 link. Don't be blind thinking you NEED a 5-6l.

- As a new player, you will often die. Learn from it.

I might have some gear in standard if you want, just lemem know then.

English is not my native language, but I will try to give some ideas.
I'm not pro, but have some understanding about this game. My main char is sweep marauder - it's not popular choice, but I really like it and I didn't have any problems surviving/killing whole leveling time. So here is something I have learned during playing.

1. Blood magic is bad idea - if you have mana problems, just get some items with mana leech and you are good to go. For example
2. If you are melee, all damage comes from your weapon - try to get better one. You can search in poe.trade for cheap prices and nice damage boost.
3. Get gear with life (try to aim for 70+ life on each item) and resists - to go to lategame you will need 75% resists.
4. Get more life nodes from passive tree - damage mostly will come from weapon. For your shield guy I think 10 life nodes will give you much more then those shield block nodes, but I might be wrong.
5. Try to get some 5L items - you can check my shop, there is decent items (items with life, mana leech, resists, 5L) for cheap prices. If you take more then one, can give you discount.http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1174565

I just checked your Equipment and i think i have some upgrades that i can give you for free.
Just add me ingame if interested and I'll msg when i see you online.

I also checked some of your builds and you are very not doing good with that tbh.. :p Don't take it as an insult tho, we all made mistakes with our first characters!!!

-Your witch has both minion & ligning points, that's no bueno. Choose one( and summoners are weak to lvl in general, they shine at mapping).

-the Marauder with all the axe passives should get resolute technique.

-The other (lvl 59) maurader needs lots more life, looooooots.

No, that's why I bothered coming here to ask! :)

The first one I made was horrid and I realized I needed more defense and made the shield guy, better but I realized I don't have enough life. The axe guy does okay still but by that time it was my 3rd marauder and I just got sick of him.

That site for gear searching makes zero sense on the surface.. heh. I'll figure it out when I get something in the 60s that I want to keep playing I guess. No point in tracking people down and such when I'd be a couple levels higher up until that point anyway. Is it updated or if someone posts something on it a year ago and quits playing will it still be there without anyone to respond to PMs, etc?

By default there is a last seen option enabled on poe.trade, which prevents shops to show up where the owner hasn't been online for a while.

Just to comment on the whole high-end players are rude:

Most of them kinda are, but mostly because they talk business. Serious Business. Internet Orb currency is srs bsns. (Whoever can get the reference gets a cookie)

Also most of them are experienced veterans trying to get the good stuffs (Shav's, Kaom's Heart, etc). A lot of them tend to be sour towards newbros because OMG I DON'T WANT TO TEACH THIS NUB, IT HINDERS MY EXALTS PER HOUR. But other than that, most players are usually neutral or okay to interact with.

In terms of rares, Anything with 2 different resistances and HP are usually worth keeping. Anything with movement speed and % defenses are a plus. Something like this:



(This is just an example, the gloves are actually okay, but they're not the best. I found these off the floor during my mapping sessions)

The reason I use these is because I get life, mana (for arctic armour and base mana regen), and three different resistances. Here's another example:



Once again, another thing I found off the floor. It's not the best rolls, but they're a step in the right direction.

A few more examples, if you want to see more (ignore the brighter coloured mods, those I crafted on the item using master crafting):


I JUST FIND THIS STUFF OKAY? And usually only one of them at a time during like 2 hour sessions or during random maps I do once in a while.

Thanks for the advice on what to keep.

By rude I mostly meant the constant general chat scrolling of immature cussing, etc. I think after about 2 min of POE I quickly disabled chat and haven't looked back since. People not wanting to explain stuff IG is perfectly understandable and not what I was referring to.