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Howdy.

I am looking at coming back to POE after a significant absence -- something close to two years. I left before Ascendancy classes existed. I have a lvl 38 Ranger, which was using some kind of a Exploding Arrow build. And frankly, looking around the wiki and forums I am a bit over whelmed by all the changes. I'm an experienced gamer, but not an overly competitive one. Although I was in the top guild on my server in World of Warcraft for almost two years. I currently have plenty of free time and I'm looking for a bit of a time sink.

Given that I have a couple of questions:

1) Do you think I'd be better off starting from scratch than trying to start up on my lvl 38 ranger? While I have the time to start over, I'm looking for opinion on if the effort would be worth it or if I'm better off re-starting where I am, late in Act 3.

2) The Lord's Labyrinth -- how exactly is this started? I found the statue and I have the quest, but when selecting the quest I don't see a path to follow. Clicking on the buttons on the statue didn't seem to do anything -- would my not having a passive skill set selected or equipment equipped keep me from getting "there"? Perhaps I need to complete Act 3 first?

3) I looked through some of the Ranger builds in the forum, but I'd appreciate a suggestion for one (currently I'm leaning towards what I had before, an Exploding Arrow build). Frankly, at first I barely understood the information. I had to look up a lot of acronyms I'm just looking for something which at least qualifies as a middle of the road, get things done, build. I'm not looking to be at the top of any particular league. Just something the will get me through the game.

4) Any general suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

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Mr_Tact wrote:

1) Do you think I'd be better off starting from scratch than trying to start up on my lvl 38 ranger? While I have the time to start over, I'm looking for opinion on if the effort would be worth it or if I'm better off re-starting where I am, late in Act 3.

it doesn't make too much of a difference, i believe the most experienced players can consistently reach Act 3 in under an hour

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2) The Lord's Labyrinth -- how exactly is this started? I found the statue and I have the quest, but when selecting the quest I don't see a path to follow. Clicking on the buttons on the statue didn't seem to do anything -- would my not having a passive skill set selected or equipment equipped keep me from getting "there"? Perhaps I need to complete Act 3 first?

For the next three months at least, you'll need to complete the six Trials of Ascendancy scattered through Acts 1 through 3. The buttons on the statue should give you hints on where to go.

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3) I looked through some of the Ranger builds in the forum, but I'd appreciate a suggestion for one (currently I'm leaning towards what I had before, an Exploding Arrow build). Frankly, at first I barely understood the information. I had to look up a lot of acronyms I'm just looking for something which at least qualifies as a middle of the road, get things done, build. I'm not looking to be at the top of any particular league. Just something the will get me through the game.

4) Any general suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

Grab Life and Resistances. Make sure all or almost all bonuses you get apply to your main damage skill (Explosive Arrow is a bit of an oddball, as the explosion is Secondary Projectile Fire Damage). If you follow those two principles, you should be set to make it at least to Merciless Dried Lake (Act 4). (For advanced players, of course, ES and Resistances works in endgame as another option.) Using poe.trade to buy items will allow you to power up very fast compared to solo self found when you reach the endgame.

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adghar wrote:

it doesn't make too much of a difference, i believe the most experienced players can consistently reach Act 3 in under an hour

Wow, really? Sure seems like it took me a lot longer than that to make it to lvl 38 the first time around. Did they make leveling significantly easier?

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Mr_Tact wrote:

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adghar wrote:

it doesn't make too much of a difference, i believe the most experienced players can consistently reach Act 3 in under an hour

Wow, really? Sure seems like it took me a lot longer than that to make it to lvl 38 the first time around. Did they make leveling significantly easier?

kind of, yes, but the biggest difference still makes the fact that veteran players/racers know very well what they are doing.

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Mr_Tact wrote:

Wow, really? Sure seems like it took me a lot longer than that to make it to lvl 38 the first time around. Did they make leveling significantly easier?

A little bit, 3-links can drop from level 1 now, so you can play with multiple Support gems quite early. There are also more sources of loot (Tormented Spirits, Strongboxes if they weren't there when you started, etc.) so you can get stronger gear sooner.

If you like to take your own pace, it may take more like 2-3 hours to reach level 38. However, second, third, fourth, fifty-sixth, etc. playthroughs tend to be faster for a couple of reasons. For me, the first playthrough was really slow because I was paying attention to the story. Once you get the gist of the story and can skip dialogue, it cuts out a lot of time.

Also, general area layouts are the same even though they're randomly generated. For example, in the Submerged Passage, The Flooded Depths are nearly always to the lower left, and the exit to The Ledge is almost always in the upper right.

Also, and this may contradict the "take your own pace" thing - skipping scattered monsters and only killing the really dense packs speeds you up a LOT. It'll make you lower level for the area you're in, but you'll get to higher level areas much faster, which contain monsters that yield much more xp. Hopefully you're not full clearing all areas - that would slow you down a ton.

Also, the more you play, the more you recognize which quests are optional sidequests that can be safely skipped (I've done Yeena's cave bear thing quest like maybe twice over the past 3 years, and I've made about 30 characters).

I decided to start over, figured it would just be easier than jumping in the middle after being gone so long. And I'm going with an Ice Shot build.

I don't doubt there are some people who can level to 38 in an hour, but I doubt there are many. I blew through all the conversations and did my best to "not slow down" did no "full clears" except as required for a quest and after approximately two hours I'm at level 20.

I do have another question -- Is the poe.trade thing as simple as it seems? Just a third-party site to find someone to trade with? Are there any "issues" with it?