Been around, still know nothing

I bought into the game 4.5 years ago and never really got into it. My question is this: Is there any clear and easy to understand way to figure this game out? Just play?? I have a very real anxiety about trying because the skill tree is so massive. It stops me from even trying. I feel bad cause the games seems like something that begs to be loved.. i just feel i am not capable. It's on me. But any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I understand your views. The passive tree IS overwhelming. I struggled a long time to understand it, because I was stubborn. I wanted to do everything myself, build myself and figure things out myself. I more or less gave up, and "forgot" about the game. This was in closed beta.

Came back during open beta, and was told to follow a guide. I did, And it helped me a lot. Not just to make a build, but to understand the game - and all it has to offer. I learned a lot, and haven't read a single guide since.

So, my tip; follow a well-written, newbie-friendly, detailed guide of something you like to play. Learn from it. Follow it. And enjoy the fruits :P

There are also guides on Youtube, I know "ZiggyD" has some.

Maybe this game is not for you? Just saying, you dont have to play every game you hear about.

In regards to your question the best thing is to play by yourself like 2 characters until level 75 and try to figure it out while asking questions to people and googling.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You learn from them.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the replies. Imma give it a go again i think. Using the advice each of you has given:)

I will do the couple of characters on my own. i'll try to find a good guide. Definitely have that feeling that you wanna do it all yourself and not look for help. Gotta get over that. My biggest thing was the anxiety of making a mistake. I like arpgs. I wanna love this one. It deserves it. And GGG deserves it for having such a great model. Really thanks for the responses.

"

Phrazz wrote:

I struggled a long time to understand it, because I was stubborn. I wanted to do everything myself, build myself and figure things out myself. I more or less gave up, and "forgot" about the game. This was in closed beta. [...]

Same for me, even tried a bit of crafting not so long ago, but in that case please follow the same rule: don't try it yourself, some other person has probably already invented that wheel, or: better to sell to others what you don't need and buy from others what you will need. If it wasn't 100% true before, it has become with the public stash API.

@OP, regards to builds and skilltree, just checkout youtube for build guides published by the usual suspects, e.g. ZiggyD, Liftingnerdbro, Mathil, RaizQT, ProjectPT, etc. Many of the videos are quite beginner and novice friendly, and you can see stuff in action and get an impression of what to expect.
Another hop to start with is timtips build browser. There you can browse(ha!) by class and skill to find something interesting, and the links point to the subforums over here.
Depending on what you play, SC/HC, don't trust everything that says "viable", be it for HC or end-game in general, best prove for this are videos, because builds on paper, you know ...
(http://www.timtips.com/buildbrowser/#/list)

Usually you can find links to builds in video descriptions, and you can copypasta those links to websites like poebuilder (think they have some aura calculator, too,- helps in cases where you fancy some Enhance gem and stuff). Or software tools like poeskilltree. I can recommend the last one, because it offers an import feature (equipped items and jewels), and you can control changes with the summary that is a bit more detailed than displayed ingame figures, that you have to calculate manually sometimes, "How much %inc_life do I have???". You can also store your builds and organise them in a tree, add notes, etc. etc. etc.

Hope this helps!

"

lordcool wrote:

I will do the couple of characters on my own. i'll try to find a good guide. Definitely have that feeling that you wanna do it all yourself and not look for help. Gotta get over that. My biggest thing was the anxiety of making a mistake. I like arpgs. I wanna love this one. It deserves it. And GGG deserves it for having such a great model. Really thanks for the responses.

Your gonna make mistakes, period.

But guess what? We all made mistakes when we started. It's that sense of improving when you make mistakes that keeps the ball rolling.

Not a single person started PoE and figured "the game" out on his first try without making countless mistakes.

Peace,

-Boem-

Just play and figure it out on your way. The progression in your knowledge is part of the satisfaction. This is not a game where you create one character and play it till the end of time anyway. So even if your first character fails (and it will, trust me), you'll do better next time. I think I've created around 40-50 characters in those 4 years.
... or you just copy a fotm build.

There's a decent off-line skill tree you can find here.
It'll let you search the tree for keywords, check up total modifiers and plot things out without worrying about messing up a character.