What do you wish you had known as a new player?

Char1983: The last time this was discussed, I think the final word was that that was datamined from poedb.tw and didn't really have any bearing on actual game mechanics (the real game world, if you will). As far as I can tell people have been dropping Exalteds 34 and under plenty of the time.

On topic: I have no idea. It's been so long since I've been a new player, there isn't really anything that I feel I wish I knew.

"

Cipp wrote:

- You will find an exalt orb in average of about 100-150h of playtime. Valuable.

Hope this helps.

:D

Please, don't troll newcomers.
Thanks.

People are really doing players a dis-service when they advise a new player how to pretend not to be by following these 7-10 basic rules. People learn from their mistakes. You learned from your mistakes. You can't expect a collection of rules to replace that experience.

This thread is about specifics. Specific mechanics or facts about the game that you were ignorant of at the beginning. That helps people. But saying that you need to plan your build is really more harmful than helpful.

Never ever play a life or melee charackter. The worst choice would be to do both at once. Melee on ES or life/ranged is okish.

that you can level more skill gems by putting them in the second weapon swap

that the attribute nodes on the skill tree actually aren't bad just because they're not flashy and you in fact need them

that "increased" and "more", "decreased" and "less" are totally different things

when i learned there were trading recipes with the npc vendors i used to collect white superior weapons and armor for scraps and whetstones because i thought whetstones/scraps were rare lol

that losing the ability to crit isnt anywhere near as much of a downside as i thought it was when i was a noob

that i dont need 4 different attacks on my quickbar lol

that you cant afk anywhere safely except in town

i thought that multi proj fork and chain were bad because they made you do less damage and that evasion was useless because "its a dice roll"

"

Arrowneous wrote:

Now you know from a CB starting time player...

What's CB again? Cry-Baby? Oh, never mind I remember now...

Anyway, consider this post somewhat of a counter to that^ one.

--------==----------==----------==--------==-------

I started in open beta. The game was appealing but definitely had its rough edges, such that I didn't stick with it in the intervening years, and I wish I had. Why?

In short: I wish I had known what a fantastic game PoE would one day become.

Cuz I'd be "better" at it -- more knowledgeable, more skilled, and richer. ;)

A few standout developments...

I) I wish I had known that GGG would eventually cave on their bad design decision to force SA loot on everyone. I'm glad they finally got with the combined program of 1) popular opinion and 2) modern game design and implemented PA loot.

Obviously most other players agree as PA is now the de facto standard.

In ways, at times, I miss SA. Straight up: I miss snatching your loot! Of course I don't miss getting mine snatched, but hey, it's a double-edged sword. My feeling as a new player back then was that the game is too brutal in other ways for players to have to give up loot to their competitors, or even friends. It was yet another way that newbs were being stomped by pros. (Game still has plenty of that, so .. no big loss.) Plus PA got rid of douchey behaviors like running ahead to the end of a "map" and killing the boss/popping a chest or whatever, and stealing everybody's loot. So uncool...

This was basically a deal-killer for me. Open beta was "cool, but not that cool", and I opted to spend my time playing other games instead of learning PoE hard-core.

This change was even bigger in a symbolic way, though, because it proved that GGG had the sensibility to deviate from their hardline internal/personal "standards" to make the game better and more popular. Before this happened, all indications were that they were merely afflicted with one of the worst combinations of traits of software developers: misguided and stubborn (...with just a tantalizing bit of "visionary" and "talented" thrown in to annoy.)


II) I wish I had known that they would (/could?) fix desync. Sorry, but when I first came to the game, desync did give it an underlying feel of being "low quality".

But, recently have played some D2LoD and D3, and guess what! "Desync" is relatively common in these games as well! And PoE basically doesn't desync, any more. So, yes, PoE has managed to outdo both its #1 inspiration, and its arch-nemesis, in this regard. GJ!


III) I wish I had known that through a combination of third-party tools/sites and some slight improvements by the GGG team, trading wasn't always going to suck the original balls that it used to. Another absolute deal-killer. Being asked to trade using a web forum was, and is, insulting.

Lord, it was terrible! Post on a fricking website, what?! But Procurement etc. improved on that. I didn't play when those apps first hit, but I'll still give credit: it was something, at least. Then poe.trade came along and blew the old "read the forum" method away. Public stash tabs were a step in the right direction, too (making trading more accessible to average players).

I gotta state it again, though: there is NO way I would be playing this game right now if trading was still based on "manually" creating/consuming trade-forum content. NO way.

So, the situation overall is far more acceptable now, as the laughable technology that originally was "The System" is now just the infrastructure for the system.

But unfortunately, GGG still overall fails both the tests of popular opinion and modern game design, with the pitiful amount of attention they've paid to improving trading on the whole.

Remember Point I, above, though; there still may be hope.


IV) I wish I had known the depth of growth and expansion they were going to add to the game. When I left after OB, Piety was the end boss. Sacrifice of the Vaal, I was nowhere around for this. I was really surprised and impressed when I came back, around Ambush league, to find not only a bunch of new skills, new areas, new mobs, etc., but rogues, shrines, and strongboxes as well. The game was really starting to shape up with some depth and variety.

Obviously it's improved even more since then. I still would like to see more of the challenge league content get folded into the base game. I think they are a little bit stingy with it.

Atlas is pretty cool but it does have issues which I hope will be addressed.

Miracles don't (always) happen overnight, but, based on the improvements that GGG has made, over the years: I do have faith.

Maybe one day we'll even have auto-arrange inventory. ;P (Not even auto-sort, ppl... Just compact the empty slots, plz!)



V) One final tip I'd like to give to the newbs... not so much a "I wish I had known" but more like just a warning: "This Will Happen....!"

The first time I actually paid money to the game, I bought a few sets of stash tabs, and I was like "This is it. I'm really fired up about PoE, now! Let's rock!" Then, soon after, the next season/patch or whatever, they "nerfed my build". Ouch. I took a long break after that. Not so much a rage quit as just ... "you really took the fun out of this and I just don't feel like doing it any more, right now." But that feeling wore off, and I came back, and I love the game more than ever.

So, consider yourselves warned, and I'll warn myself while I'm at it: this will (probably) happen again! :|

-----=====------==========-----------=-=-=-====------

Oh, right ... one MORE thing, after skimming some of the cynical answers that have been posted in this thread: the fun of the game is in PLAYING it, not coming to this forum and listening to people who aren't having fun whine about it. It has literally happened to me -- having fun playing, then come to the forum for some reason, catch wind of some bitch-thread (some of which certainly can tempt you into a negative outlook by making valid-sounding points), then start having "doubts" about the game, and, sry to say, the devs. But plz, just remember: the fun is real! ;) If you are a new player, most of these "pro" complaints are so niche and beyond you at this point, that they don't even matter. And by the time they do matter, they might just be fixed. So: just get in the game and have fun playing it!

Thanks for the words of advice all! I've talked with my group, and we'll be partying together starting Monday next week. Looks like we'll have a summoner witch, a trapper shadow, an aura templar, a ranger of some stripe, and a fifth who isn't sure yet what they'll play. I've jumped in with a couple solo lowbies, pretty impressed with the game so far.

A few here in this thread have said that the party experience was disappointing. Was this as part of a regular group, or with pickup groups? Are there things we can do to make it more fun, such as skills that are better with a group than solo?

Also, a couple people mentioned that there's a difference between "more" and "increased" (and "less" and "decreased"). What's the difference?

Thanks again for your feedback.

community no different/better than any other online games

Wish I knew the value of a mirror

as i new player i wish i knew there were way pointers in the complicated areas