Tips and reviews for a newbie Templar please...

Hello, I'm currently playing with a Templar in Harbinger, it's not my first character but it's been almost 2 years since the last time I played POE so I decided to start a new one...

My goal was to build a balanced aoe-based mage, with cool flashy spells and crowd-controlling skills, I wanted to exploit fire, cold, and lightning so I wouldn't have problems against monsters with one or two elemental immunities... but slightly focused on cold and lightning.

Also, I wanted to avoid those 'one spell builds' since I'd like to swap my attacks once they get boring and repetitive...


I could say I know nothing about PoE, but my main problem is that I'm on lvl 18 and the passive skill tree simply stuns me...
This is the build I'm currently planning on my Templar;
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.0.2/AAAABAUBAAKWBAcEswVCCGcI9AmqC2EMUgxfES0RUBVQFbgW8xg8GF0ZLho-G_EcpxzcHwIi9CY8J-0o-ikuKU8snC-dMtE8BT1fQYdBlkVHRZ1JT1JTU1JTpVXGVw1XlFugXsBfP2jyakNsC20Zdqx8DnxLfIN8uH31fseBr4KbgseD24P3hTKIWouMjHaSbpMnkzqWMpZ0ly2XlZf0mjua4Jx7na6ePJ_fogCnCKcrp1Woua2NrfGus69ssQW2hrc-uJO40LxWvKq86r0nwGbAmsQVxPbGrshbz37Q9dJ81abYvdlh2fzaOtrd4XPli-vu7SDtPO1h73zxrPIv-dv53fno_go=


So, let's start with my questions.
1 - Do we really depend that much on passive skills tree? I mean... If I screw it up, would my character be officially useless?
2 - My planned passives... Are they OK? Is it viable? Is it weak? Any tips on what to avoid, or what to go for?
3 - Are there some kind of bonuses that I can ignore for my build? Are there bonuses easily or preferably to obtain trough equipment? Like maybe mana or life regen, armor, dexterity, elemental resistance, etc...
4 - Since some of the builds I've seen posted on this forum are ONE-element, or ONE-spell focused, should I forget the 'multielementalist' idea?
5 - Should I go for those OP builds like 'one billion minions witch' if I want to be competitive at higher lvl in hardcore areas?
6 - Any tips on what to go for when refering to equipment?
7 - Does someone have any general tips for beginners in PoE?


Thank you!!!

1. Yes, we depend on the passive tree. If you mess up the tree. Your character will become useless. Luckily, we get refund points from quests, to redo mistakes we've made.

2. It's super weak skill-tree. You should really avoid the increased area of effect as it really doesn't matter because there is a skill-gem for that. You should also just avoid anything that doesn't either increase your health or improve your damage.

Your skill tree is also in one big loop, one big circle. Ideally, a good skill tree should be one straight line where you want all your skills nodes, like an arrow shooting through your skill tree pointing a clear direction of which nodes you want.

As a general idea, you want at least a 400hp increase per act.

Act 1 - 400 HP
Act 2 - 800 HP
Act 3 - 1200 HP
Act 4 - 1600 HP
Act 5 - 2000 HP
Act 6 - 2400 HP
Act 7 - 2800 HP
Act 8 - 3200 HP
Act 9 - 3600 HP
Act 10 - 4000 HP

Once you get enough HP, then you should work on damage nodes, but damage from nodes doesn't really become important until way later in your character's lvling. Like, I'm talking about lvl 75, it becomes important to have good damage.

Most damage at low levels will come from gear and your skills gems being properly linked.

3. There isn't anything you can really ignore, unless your build doesn't care about it, but elemental resistance is gained mostly through your equipment. The same is for Energy Shield and Life. Again, this doesn't mean you ignore it any of these on your skill tree. It's just a lot of it will come from your gear.

4. It's very difficult to do a mult-elemental/skill character. It's not impossible, but I would not do one unless your very familiar with how to calculate damage. Start off with something simple before doing something complicated like a 5-ele skill build.

5. Depends on what you find fun. You'll be playing your build for a long time. So, just make sure it's something you like playing. You only need 200k DPS to finish all the content. So anything over that is just being fancy.

6.Depends on your build. Some equipment most people find useless is a gold mine for other characters. Like my character stacks Strength and turns it into life. So, most ppl see a ring and since there isn't a +maximum life on it, they toss it like garbage. But I see +50 strength on it. And I'll dump lots of cash into buying it cuz 50 strength = 200 health for me.

In general though, any item with +maximum health and +resistance is something you'd look for, in the average build.

7. Don't be afraid to mess-up and start over as a new character. A lot of new people have 4-5 failed characters before they know enough about the game to get to end-game. Also, don't be afraid to ask for advice on the forums or on global if there isn't something you understand. There are a lot of mechanics/things in Path of Exile you won't know until you get killed by them.

So, just keep at it till you succeed.