How Long Did it Take to Understand This Game?

I've been playing casually for a few months. I've got the basics down (I think) but I'm still feel very lost when it comes to the complexities of the game.

My question as the title states, is how long did it take you to fully understand the game?

I'm talking about really knowing all the skills, passive tree slots, all of the prefix, suffix type stuff, what equipment is really valuable, and so on and so on.

Second part:

What's the best way to learn? How did you learn?

I've been using pre-designed builds (or I'd be really lost). Should I venture out and just start creating new characters and experimenting, or stick to pre-designed proven builds to learn?

Thanks!

"

CaseyHicks wrote:

I've been playing casually for a few months. I've got the basics down (I think) but I'm still feel very lost when it comes to the complexities of the game.

My question as the title states, is how long did it take you to fully understand the game?

I'm talking about really knowing all the skills, passive tree slots, all of the prefix, suffix type stuff, what equipment is really valuable, and so on and so on.

Second part:

What's the best way to learn? How did you learn?

I've been using pre-designed builds (or I'd be really lost). Should I venture out and just start creating new characters and experimenting, or stick to pre-designed proven builds to learn?

Thanks!

There is nothing wrong with following guides, they exist because optimal builds tend to converge to a certain point. At the very highest tier of play, only a few builds are actually viable but slightly under and there is an ocean of choices.

What long times players often forget, is that this game was WAY more easy to learn back in the days. We all had the basic understandings of the game, when the following addition came along:

- Corrupted areas
- Map Device (non-map) areas like Atziri and The Pale Court
- Lootboxes
- Masters
- Essences
- Bigger Passive Tree
- Ascendancy classes
- The Lab
- Enchantments
- Vaal implicit mods (and how it can affect gear)
- Jewels

And I could go on. Long time players learned all those things when they already had a good, basic understanding of the game, which makes learning new things pretty easy.

New players have to learn all this from the get-go. And it IS a clusterfuck of information thrown in your face. It is not comparable with learning the game 3-4 years ago. At all. And I think that a lot of long time players forget this... Or just doesn't realize it.

But more on topic:

In closed beta, I was hellbent on learning everything by myself. I designed my own builds, never read anything. And... I failed. And quit. Came back, followed a guide, and learned a lot. Never followed a guide since.

What do you mean by "fully understand"? With my background in Diablo 2, Diablo 3 and Sacred I had a general idea of what I was doing from the word go and reached act 3 merciless with my first character during open beta. Then IRL happened and I stopped playing for a few years. I continued just after the ascendancy release and easily got into maps.

I've since played four other characters to the endgame and my builds have improved a lot. However I'm still unable to come up with totally broken builds without copying someone else, so in that sense I guess I still don't fully understand the game.

Understand the basics:
1) if this is your first Hack & Slay ... maybe 2-3 days
2) if you are an Hack & Slay vet 10-20 minutes

Master it:
Never ;)

To fully understand the game: 1 League.

"

Phrazz wrote:

Came back, followed a guide, and learned a lot. Never followed a guide since.

This. Created my own build, didn't really worked. I followed a guide similar to a build I had in mind, tweaked it a bit to fit the items I have and possibly can acquire and to fit my play style. Yup, learned a lot this way. Learned the game's nuances build by build. How long? I can't say really, I also play casually and there's still mechanical details that surprises me. If you go into the gritty math of min-maxing mechanics, attributes and skill synergies, then my head hurts, I'll leave it to the experts.

A Month for the very basics.
(That includes the rarity of orbs, and how to use them efficient. Character stats you should aim for to feel good in endgame. The value of most items (especailly unqiues) and also the potential in rare items.)

for me it took 3 characters getting up to 70ish before i felt comfortable with skills, supports, knowing what to use with what and optimal gear etc.
at that point i started making my own builds and never went back. things like crafting took me a lot longer to know how to do effectively and efficiently. once masters came along its a whole other ball game as well, so i imagine it would take a long while to really be proficient at it.

passive tree really isn't as hard as it looks. it is massive but its not difficult to start calculating which routes would be best and points to gain ratios etc.

following guides is great in order to figure out what you like and want to do. ranged vs melee, certain skills, certain playstyles etc. once you figure that out i highly suggest looking to making builds on your own.

best way to learn is to google and wiki. even today i usually have 3-4 tabs of the wiki up while playing at all times. looking up skills, supports, auras, gear. trying to get all the stats and such for how to make a build really optimized

I was still learning after the beta wipe and on for 2 years u til I read ALL gems and supports on the wiki, making a map what can affect gems and what not (yeah A3 size mess with all gems) but this made me understand it sooooo much better, curses, minions, zombies, mines, traps... Then I realized melee is just nuked from there on out... I made a melee toon this league and could do t15 without crazy
Mods as well as atziri (non uber). So I was quite surprised but still nothing compared to ed or bf mines :-/