PoE for casual players

My account is 9 years old this month.
I still play nearly every day, and yes I have a job and spouse and 2 teenagers.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

Or, yknow. Just click shit until it dies, pick up shit, kill harder shit, repeat. It can be that simple too.

this is pretty much how I play.

When I first played the game after it launched, I tried to not look at any guides and just do my own thing. It was fun, but I quickly lost interest in the game. Came back to PoE years later because a friend of mine was interested in it. I had burned out on Diablo III and Guild Wars 2, and thought; "what the heck, I'll give PoE another try. I mean, it is FREE."

Yeah, now I am hooked. The biggest difference for me was to use a build guide. I had discovered that I liked Chaos magic, which lead me to Furty's Soulrend Trickster build. It was not a meta build or anything, but people said that they really enjoyed playing it, so I gave it a try.

I think what helped was seeing how the character could progress and how important HP nodes were in the skill tree. Plus, having some gear to be on the lookout for made me have to learn about the loot drop system. I was very much used to the old systems of other games and did not realize how intricate PoE got with being able to craft gear or enhance your gear, like sockets and links and quality.

I think the problem with PoE for new players is their preconceptions of what can happen. If they are more familiar with playing Diablo or Dungeon Siege or Titan Quest, it really is a learning barrier when first starting PoE that you can alter and craft gear. There is so much in PoE that just comes at you as you play and isn't explained. There are no linear skill trees and nothing is preconceived in terms of how a character should end up, like being a mage or a fighter.

Also, there are so many avenues of play. If a person has played PoE over the course of time and has been able to watch the changes and additions to the game, things make sense. But, as a new player, it just seems like some stuff just shows up and it is like, "how does this relate to the game or interact with it on the whole?". Like Einhar showing up. A new player will not immediately grasp the full extent of what beast capturing can do and be used for. Then, other features of the game show up. There ends up being quite a bit to learn about and keep track of if it is your first play through.

What some have experienced as incremental gains and additions to the game, others are experiencing as fresh and new and may even expect that it should all fit together as one. New players will have a hard time comprehending how the game has evolved and been added onto over time. They are possibly trying to understand how Alva fits in with Einhar and how they fit in with Rituals and Heists and what delving has to do with anything.

To me, the game used to be an intimidating beast. Now, it is just 10 acts that have to be grinded through so that I can get to the game's different choices of running the same thing over and over again. Instead of having to run story content repeatedly, there are these other options to grind so that things don't get stale and monotonous. Is there a true story point to any of the end-game content? No; at least, I personally don't feel there is. After defeating story mode and then playing maps and other end game content, I don't get to a point where I go, "hey, I beat the game, again!". To me, the end game content is there so you don't have to Save and Exit and reload your map over and over again like in Diablo II.

It gives the feeling of progression, because there is so much to do and find. But, ultimately, it is just running a map and killing enemies over and over again for random loot drops and currency. The magic is in the options, which allow you to play how you have the most fun. Otherwise, it is nothing more than infinite Baal runs and such.

It really depends on your expectations and how you want to play/how much time you can invest.

This game has a lot of content and even more mechanics. Really mastering every aspect of it requires knowledge amounts similar to a university degree. So if you expect to master every aspect of the game within a few weeks while playing only an hour a day then this game is probably not for you.

That said, you don't need all this knowledge and especially not from the get go. Just "clicking on monsters until they die and picking up the stuff they drop" is a viable way of playing and can get you into red maps easily.

Just be prepared that it's going to take time and you'll probably have to make a few different characters before you finally manage to create one that can keep up. Unless you blindly follow guides it's pretty much a given that your first characters will fall apart at some point. Probably even before you finish the campaign. If you get easily frustrated or want to get into endgame as fast as possible you'll have to study a lot first, follow a build and stick to the meta.

It really comes down to what you want, you can follow the "learning by doing" approach or you can study outside sources and follow guides. One takes a lot longer than the other though.

As far as time is concerned. You can start during a league, see how far you get and then after league end stay in standard on progress further taking all the time you need. It took me over a year to get my first Shaper kill and there is nothing wrong with that. The game gives you all the options to play at your own pace. Just don't make the mistake to compare your own accomplishments to streamers if you have little time available.

the casual experience is similar to any other game like this imo. If youre not in trade you dont need to buy bank tabs. just play the game and stop when you are bored. its free to play which is most relevant to those that play the least and interact w/ others lease.

Hey guys, im lookin to play sims 3 but im afraid that my 0 investment will be a waste. what should I do.

Been in exile since 2011, and never killed any of the "special" bosses. I can get through the ten act campaign, diddle around in maps, mebbe Delve when the mood takes me, run some Heists. My knowledge base is sub-par (https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/Path_of_Exile_Wiki is your friend!), and my skills only adequate to what I play. And I have fun doing it.

My advice? Find a friendly guild (The Wizard's Tower is full of old friends of mine who would make you right welcome; tell ArchWizard Raycheetah sent you), and they can give you tips and advice, or even support on tougher runs, and guilds are also good places to gear up, with generous folks filling the guild stash with items you might not easily acquire on your own.

Play PoE to the level you're comfortable at, push your boundaries, but don't push so hard you become frustrated, and just have a good time. No reason not to try any league that comes up which interests you; there's no cost to it, and characters and gear there will eventually revert to Standard at league's end.

If you want to buy stash tabs or even just shiny microtransactions, be aware that GGG offers a once-per-account beginners pack deal, so look into that first.

Seeya 'round the shores of sunny Wraeclast, Exile! =^[.]^=

You _can_ reach pretty far but following ideas/guides of some kind just to have a core understanding of the game is very much recommended. It doesn't take away much from the feeling of achievement tbh.

I am very much prevented from playing a lot due to illness in RL so I usually only play 30m sessions before needing a break unless I am having a really good day. That has still enabled me to experience the end game of PoE in challenge leagues almost every time(to the point where I get some tries at the end bosses but nowhere close to grind them regularly). I would however not have done so without learning from past characters where I followed a few guides to get an idea of how to scale things/build defenses.

The great thing about PoE is that nomatter what amount you play you always can learn something new but at the same time the lack of knowledge will only hinder you so and so much as long as you understand the core ideas.

The most important thing you can do is setting achievable goals for yourself. Don't try to be like the top streamer. You will have a miserable time trying that unless you can nolife to the max.

First goal can be something like "get through the acts".
Next could be "get through the acts with less than 20 deaths"
Then after a while you can start making goals of unlocking atlas etc.

If your playtime is already extremely limited standard is often a good alternative. Then your character will stay as is unless major changes are done to the skill tree resulting in you getting a free respect to put points back in.

Good luck exile :)

You simply need to manage expectations with PoE.

Several factors have a huge impact on your experience:

1) Get used to failing at times and you have to "really enjoy" learning via trial and error if you don't want to check/double check or triple check information regarding mechanics/items/skills and enemies...

2) Be prepared to use "creative alternative routes" if/when you get "stuck" - as you might need to overlevel your char to better tackle the difficult encounters

3) Use logic and common sense, and while a previous experience with ARPGs is welcomed, you might still need some time to get your bearings and find comfortable avenues regarding playstyles

4) Never lose focus if you hit difficult content - if you enjoy solo exploration you might need help at times, and thankfully most players do give proper advice and/or help

5)Manage expectations - as long as you set proper goals for yourself like finishing acts, then managing Atlas and/or Delve and/or Heist on an increasingly difficulty level, you will do great

6) Not every build and playstyle is equal. Skillplay tends to help in alleviating that, but some builds will certainly lack "impact" either early game and/or late game...

7) Never underestimate your opponents as they might surprise you, and mod scaling is a PITA in PoE, you should always keep that in mind...

Never disregard Standard as a viable option to continue progress if you enjoy playing a character and for any reason league playtime proved insufficient, carry on and play Standard, as you might enjoy it way more than the "rat race" of a new economy every 3 months...

As your friendly neighborhood casual n00b hoarder that reached level 100 with his OWN BUILD & GAMEPLAY LIMITATIONS perfected from the very beginning in 1.2.0, and a /played time of 4.475 hours on my main character (from the total of >10K hours on Steam and >2K on the dedicated client so more than 12K hours TOTAL), you can reach EVERY & ANY GOAL YOU IMAGINE, YOU JUST HAVE TO INVEST THE REQUIRED TIME AND/OR SKILLPLAY...

And yes, I still consider myself a "casual n00b hoarder" and will forever remain one, as I DESPISE trading, metas, and easier than normal gameplay. My played content tends to be harsh enough even at modded T16 regular maps with Aw8/9, everything above might be manageable at times, but would force me to either min-max above my regular comfort level, or concede and "go with the pack" and play meta and tune PoE to "EASY MODE ON"... Which I won't do yet... ^^

Just play standard and just have fun, eventually look into following a guide.

The game is what you make it, just aim to have fun and when you hit a wall its up to you to figure out how to get past it.

Have fun!

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R_E_D_R_U_M wrote:

Just play standard and just have fun, eventually look into following a guide.

The game is what you make it, just aim to have fun and when you hit a wall its up to you to figure out how to get past it.

Have fun!

Why not do league character will end up in standard anyways, standard is a cesspool of all the items from past leagues anyways.

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xPiranha wrote:

Why not do league character will end up in standard anyways, standard is a cesspool of all the items from past leagues anyways.

Well, that kinda depends if you playing solo, say i dropped whole guakamole one arakaali's fang over 2 years of ssf, and doing say golem summoners over one league was next to impossible in ssf before that "primordial" card being introduced (unless nolifing it really hard of course).