Been a long time! Help me outtttt!

Hey guys, I haven't played in quite some time... years almost now. I'm sure a lot has changed and I know the game league is more or less done but I want to play from start to finish at least once before the new league so that I Can get in to it next league. Presently what's a good character to run through the game with and test drive all the new content? What's a good end game lower gear requirement hero? Summoner? Maurauder?

Also, is there a place with a list of changes that matter without digging through loads and loads of patch notes? Or just a few good folk that could fill me in. :)

you probably should be fine with any class if you have some base game knowledge from the past. the biggest change is existence of The Labyrinth and its related sub-classes, and act 4..

at he patch notes for the changes. it would be enough if you went to patch notes page on wiki, look for major patches and read the main feature summary on top of the notes.

Hey there!

Welcome back! I'd say to a certain extent if you want to read about some of the biggest changes then your best bet would be to check out what expansions have added to the game.

Sacrifice of the Vaal added Queen Atziri, an optional boss encounter with some cool loot. Vaal Skill Gems which are very powerful, but instead of a mana cost and cooldown they get powered by killing enemies - a bit like the flask system, but they start with 0 charges.

Forsaken Masters added Masters whom you'll encounter out in the wild. After you help one a few times you'll have the option of creating a hideout, which you can invite other masters to, use as a crafting hub and expand over time. As with most things, hideouts are league-specific.

The Awakening's crown jewel was Act IV. It also introduced a new networking mode known as Lockstep, which prevents the desync issues the game used to be plagued with. Also, a new item type called Jewels were added. They can be placed in sockets in the passive tree.

Ascendancy is probably the biggest of the lot. It added new content called The Labyrinth. When you complete it for the first time, your character can ascend to another class. The Scion becomes the Ascendant, every other class chooses between three options. For example, a Witch can become an Elementalist, an Occultist or a Necromancer. You gain more benefits through the Ascendancy class the first time you complete the Labyrinth on Cruel, Merciless & through the end-game map system. It's massive power creep, so choosing to ignore it will set you back a lot.

Atlas of Worlds brought a bunch of performance improvements such as multithreading, DirectX 11 support and a 64-bit client. It added and revamped a bunch of map bosses, added some structure to the map system in the form of the atlas, and added some big bads at the end in the form of The Shaper and his Guardians. It's mostly end-game focused, so don't worry about it for now.

So... what to play? There's a few options. I'd probably recommend an archer as melee have quite a few problems, summoners have a few niggling QoL issues and casters are fine but can be squishy if you're not used to things. If you're just interested in the current flavour of the month, a new channelling skill called Blade Flurry is the current "lolOP" option.

I'd recommend just browsing the build sections of the forum, picking something you like the look of and getting back into the game. Between levelling your Masters, ascending to a new class, getting acquainted with Act IV and fishing there's quite a lot going on in PoE at the moment.

After Breach League ends we'll get another league, and three months after that we'll get another expansion which will add Act V and kill off one of the three difficulty levels. The game's performing better than ever and is very enjoyable (if a tad easy). Welcome home, Exile!


Edit: Oh, and they added loot filters! The game tends to drown you in an ocean of loot, the overwhelming majority of which isn't worth bothering with. Loot filters allow people to set rules for what the game client shows, and how those items are shown (e.g. text & background colours). I personally use the loot filter by ZiggyD. The most popular one is probably the Neversink filter, so I'm sure we won't have to wait long before someone tells me my preference is wrong. I would say that Ziggy makes an effort to base his on the default item labels, so it's very intuitive for new & returning players. But in the end it's up to you - check 'em out, see what ya like.

I appreicate all the feedback. :)

Do you think my BOOMPAWPA hero could keep the train going or would you recommend a level 1 fresh? I like the loot filters, thank you for pointing that out!

"

Disposition96 wrote:

Do you think my BOOMPAWPA hero could keep the train going

I'm not sure what you're referring to.

If it's the name of a build I'm not familiar with it. If it's the name of one of your characters then you'll need to set you characters tab to public for us to be able to see them.

"

Sarno wrote:

"

Disposition96 wrote:

Do you think my BOOMPAWPA hero could keep the train going

I'm not sure what you're referring to.

If it's the name of a build I'm not familiar with it. If it's the name of one of your characters then you'll need to set you characters tab to public for us to be able to see them.

I have allowed public viewing :D

Didn't know that was a thing!

I have decided to make a new ranger, why not. I've ran in to a black/blue portal thing in each area I've come to, the first one almost killed me with teleporting things, the second one I was ready I Feel and it dropped me a nice rare ring.

"Properties are double while in a breach" what is that?

+10% rarity, +evasion and + life on kill

It's also corrupted (what does that mean)

Edit : I can't remember but is it worth doing all quests on your playthrough?

Edit 2 : I also can't remember, should I pick up and ID all rares or no?

Edit 3 : Prophecy's, should you unlock as many of them as you can?

>"Properties are double while in a breach" what is that?
"breach" is that "black/blue portal thing". While you are in it, all ring properties are doubled.

>It's also corrupted (what does that mean)
Read about Vaal expansion. In short, you can't apply currency to corrupted items.

>I can't remember but is it worth doing all quests on your playthrough?
Only the ones that give you skill points. Look up wiki for the list.

>I also can't remember, should I pick up and ID all rares or no?
Your choice. 99% of them are vendor food anyway but if your stuff is bad then why not, maybe you'll find an upgrade. Or you can buy stuff on poe.trade (it's search site for poe item trading). It all depends on what you prefer - play selffound or not.

>Prophecy's, should you unlock as many of them as you can?
Save silver coins until Merciless, then go for it.

"

silumit wrote:

>"Properties are double while in a breach" what is that?
"breach" is that "black/blue portal thing". While you are in it, all ring properties are doubled.

Are breaches worth doing or are they more for an added challenge?

"

silumit wrote:

>It's also corrupted (what does that mean)
Read about Vaal expansion. In short, you can't apply currency to corrupted items.

Thanks.

"

silumit wrote:

>I can't remember but is it worth doing all quests on your playthrough?
Only the ones that give you skill points. Look up wiki for the list.

Sounds good, thanks.

"

silumit wrote:

>I also can't remember, should I pick up and ID all rares or no?
Your choice. 99% of them are vendor food anyway but if your stuff is bad then why not, maybe you'll find an upgrade. Or you can buy stuff on poe.trade (it's search site for poe item trading). It all depends on what you prefer - play selffound or not.

Probably not in the end but on this play through I will, I don't know what's worth anything.

"

silumit wrote:

>Prophecy's, should you unlock as many of them as you can?
Save silver coins until Merciless, then go for it.

Is there a benefit to using them in Merciless?

>Are breaches worth doing or are they more for an added challenge?
If you can handle them, do them. They drop breach splinters which can be combined into breachstones which in turn can be used to open breach domains - they are kind of like very hard maps. But I suggest you read about domains before trying them, they are practically impossible to complete for non-optimized builds.

>Is there a benefit to using them in Merciless?
In addition to all other prophecies, in Merciless you can get ones that apply to maps. Also, prophecies that add more monsters to kill (like plague of frogs) or give you guaranteed Vaal area will obviously give better results in merciless (xp- and drop-wise)