POE not new player friendly

This is not a new-player-friendly-game. And it shouldn't be. Were there tutorials and walkthroughs in Diablo 2? Were mechanics explained in that? Nope. This is a game for those that want to have to figure it out. If you want a hand holder, this is not the game for you. We like it this way.

The majority of the knowledge and game mechanics are not overly complicated and the information is widely available. There was no tutorial for the Diablo II skill tree and you couldn't even respec that one like you can in PoE (Not until much later in the game's life, anyway). If you broke your tree in DII, you had to create a new character.

Also, what stuff is so complicated you would benefit from an in-game guide/tutorial? You equip items, you kill stuff. You take quests, you kill stuff. At it's core, this game is very simplistic.

I think the biggest benefit to a new player would be to see a simple glossary of terms used in the game. Increased/Reduced vs More/Less. X Damage Converted vs X Damage added as Extra.

Other simple things like how Life/ES/Armor/Evasion/Dodge etc all work and function would be helpful. The game already highlights which support gems affect an active skill. The passive tree is daunting at a first glance, and creating a build from scratch without looking at the whole tree can be difficult, but it's something that comes with practice and playing time.

The wiki is a great resource and will tell you 90% of what you need to know. The rest of the info you need can be found on the forums, or in reddit, or elsewhere. It may take some digging and deductive reasoning, but it can be found.

But overall, it's really just experience that sets it apart. It's definitely not beginner friendly, but it does reward continued investment for those who stick with it.

The wiki has a comprehensive FAQ as well as a guide for D2 players. At a quick glance those contain everything needed for a new player to get started. I can understand why GGG doesn't want to link to specific pages in the wiki though, since the content is out of their control.

I don't remember Diablo 1 or 2 having much of a tutorial either. Diablo 3 explains some basics like choosing your skills but that's about it. I think Sacred also only explained the very basics.

Finally, googling path of exile tutorial gives several explanations of the base game mechanics, in both text and video forms. Just how much handholding do today's players need?

Man we get it. You guys are badass and new players should go scour forums and wikis until our eyes bleed or just go play hello kitty.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Also, what stuff is so complicated you would benefit from an in-game guide/tutorial?

You actually answered this with a few things that would be a huge benefit. At least, from the struggles I've had.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

I think the biggest benefit to a new player would be to see a simple glossary of terms used in the game. Increased/Reduced vs More/Less. X Damage Converted vs X Damage added as Extra.

This is a big one for me. Half of the builds posted here might as well be in Latin for a new player.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Other simple things like how Life/ES/Armor/Evasion/Dodge etc all work and function would be helpful.

Another nice idea that could benefit from a simple in-game description.

What do you need a tutorial for? Game is not rocket science. Point click monsters die. Done.

I came straight from D3 another point click and monsters die game to here and made 78 in HC with my first toon. If you want to get more involved there is http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/

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frenzul wrote:

Man we get it. You guys are badass and new players should go scour forums and wikis until our eyes bleed or just go play hello kitty.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Also, what stuff is so complicated you would benefit from an in-game guide/tutorial?

You actually answered this with a few things that would be a huge benefit. At least, from the struggles I've had.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

I think the biggest benefit to a new player would be to see a simple glossary of terms used in the game. Increased/Reduced vs More/Less. X Damage Converted vs X Damage added as Extra.

This is a big one for me. Half of the builds posted here might as well be in Latin for a new player.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

Other simple things like how Life/ES/Armor/Evasion/Dodge etc all work and function would be helpful.

Another nice idea that could benefit from a simple in-game description.

This issue with all of this is there isn't really much that could be done in-game to make this simple. When you equip armor gear, the character sheet tells you the estimated physical damage reduction. You increase the armor, the number goes up. You equip evasion gear, your chance to evade gets bigger.

Same with the nomenclature used for the item tooltips. You're going to have overly complicated screens if you have to explain how more/less is multiplicative bonus, and what multiplicative bonus means, versus increased/decreased being additive, and how that effects everything else. The skill tooltips could maybe be a little more comprehensive, but how many players are really going to look at a long and complicated damage formula, and make sense of it all?

The two links databeaver posted above are amazing resources. I absolutely read the Diablo Player's Guide when I came over to PoE and it was incredibly helpful. Every game these days has a wiki page, and every gamer know how to use google and type "<game> wiki". I get that reading a wiki may not be as immersive as something in-game as you're playing, but the information is all there.

I don't feel like you need to scour forums or wikis either to enjoy the game. My first character was a disaster. I was still able to play through the story content and get more involved with the game. I feel there's plenty of draw without intense knowledge of the game mechanics. They absolute enhance the experience of the game tenfold, but that's something you can get more involved in once you're ready.

My biggest issue to overcome is the glacial pace in the early stages of the game. You really need to get to the 30s and 40s so you can begin equipping more support gems and get decent gear.

I'll give you that trading is still a nightmare to learn for a new player.

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nEgativezEro89 wrote:

My biggest issue to overcome is the glacial pace in the early stages of the game. You really need to get to the 30s and 40s so you can begin equipping more support gems and get decent gear.

I'll give you that trading is still a nightmare to learn for a new player.

I hear ya man. I just get frustrated here because I want to talk to good players and chat about their experience and constantly get railed with the "LAWL I R FROM D2" cool - good talk.

Just don't get a lot of time to play, so I try to learn all I can offline. Then if I funk it up, it feels all was wasted. That's all. Little things. Learning. It's all fun. Friendly or not.

ed: With that being said, I absolutely avoid trading because of most experiences I've had trying to talk to people here and in game.

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SilentStorm625 wrote:

Another thread from me; I promise it is the last for this month

Have been playing for 8 months or so (feel free to check my history) and thought it would be a good idea to introduce the game to 11 new players total; all fans of this type of games, age 22-35, with jobs and stuff, gamers at their core.

All of them, literally all of them complained about 1 core thing: there are no in game guides, demos, videos, information about how to do stuff. You have to google stuff, check youtube, ask other ppl, etc.

GGG, what is your view on this?

When i started, there wasn't even any indication of what to do, they hadn't even added the tutorial they have now.

And tbh, it wasn't hard to get into or figure out for the most part...it's basic stuff mostly lifted form typical RPG's up to the point where it gets into the nitty gritty where a tutorial is pretty useless and would still require a lot of reading to understand

I agree with the OP. While I don't need a tutorial or any such thing anymore, having something to get you started would be nice.
Explain about vendor recipes, item filters, different types of currency, terminology like "less", "increased", "evasion", "dodge" etc.

You can find it all in the wiki, but without knowing what to look for in the first place, it's of limited use to new players.

It's a good thing this isn't new player friendly too, games go downhill when they turn super casual and have ridiculous amounts of "how to play" guides instead of letting you figure out the learning curve for yourself. If you don't like that you can always play WoW