How do you play this game again?

Hey there, I played necromancer back when the mini-map was a wireframe, and it was a blast, especially with friends. And I'm planning on playing the new league but I want to try something new that's outside my comfort zone.

I'm leaning towards playing as a Scion this time because of her versatility – she seems like a jack of all trades, which seemed useful as I could opportunistically specialize into anything.
However, after trying out the current league, I found myself in a bit of a bind. I didn't know how to invest skill points into the passive tree as I had no end goal in mind.

I'm wondering if there's a established methodology to build creation. Something along the lines of:

"

- Research skill gems and their interactions that catch my interest/ are fun.
- Explore other passive skills and support gems that complement the chosen skill gem.
- Sketch out the potential investment-to-enjoyment ratio using tools like the POE planner to assess its viability.

Having said that, is there a well thought out general guide that that considers more edge cases & tips & tricks, made by experienced players made for new-ish players?
Note: I'm not aiming for a optimal build, just for fun.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This is a tough question to answer, because 'build creation' is a very wide term. For someone who is quite new to the game (as you seem to be), it may be something as simple as choosing a skill gem, looking at vendors to see what support gems could fit, and having a look around the tree to find interesting nodes to spend your passives on. You point out some potential pitfalls with this strategy, but that is the fun of PoE - to discover things about the game and (eventually) become more powerful.

The majority of players will simply find a build guide and follow it. Note that this is not required to have fun - if you don't want to just follow something that someone else has made, then don't.

More experienced players will generally draw inspiration from multiple sources including build guides and the indispensable https://poe.ninja/builds/crucible. This website collates many thousands of player builds and allows you to search through them and inspect them. You would look through these resources and plan the character out in Path of Building (PoB), another utterly necessary resource for most if not all experienced players.

When I plan a build in this way, I look at gear that is achievable on a low budget, and gear that I can reasonably work towards over a given time frame. I will flesh out my gem links (main skill, supporting skills, auras, buffs, movement abilities). I will construct a passive tree based on other people's builds and my own preferences. Sometimes I will need to create the tree from scratch but this is a rare occurence.

There is another level of build creation, which fully details every single step of the process from waking up on the beach in act 1 to endgame blaster. Levelling guides, gem progession, multiple levels of tree and gear progression. Usually you would only do this for a high-quality guide.


That's how I would break down how people do build creation. It took me a long time to gain the knowledge of where to look and what to look for; and the experience to know what will and won't work, and what the most efficient ways of scaling damage and defences.

"

AceWing wrote:

Having said that, is there a well thought out general guide that that considers more edge cases & tips & tricks, made by experienced players made for new-ish players?
Note: I'm not aiming for a optimal build, just for fun.

Do you mean a guide on how to make builds? There isn't really a single guide (it would be 10 hours long anyway), but people have attempted to make guides on this. I would check out Zizaran's videos if this is what you mean.

If you mean detailed guides on specific builds, I have two recommendations. The first is Enki's Lightning Conduit Elementalist https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3410006. Enki's Arc Witch is an absolute classic build, this is the current evolution.

The other is Pohx's Righteous Fire Juggernaut or Inquisitor https://www.pohx.net/. This is an insanely detailed and very popular build guide.

Thanks, I did some digging with the given information, and I still want to roll with my own build (and probably make some mistakes along the way), but I've found another build (https://pobb.in/tfy4fhRk5-gn) with the same theme I'm now aiming for (mines/traps) which I can take inspiration from. So at the very least I know where to invest in the passive tree.

I started 3 years ago & never have used a build guide, just lots of google reddit questions I've searched.

You can msg me for all your build questions, that's one topic I don't mind answering repeated questions. Just the " PM " button near everyones forum name.


If not, here's some general rules.

You don't want to build for lvl 100, you build for lvl 94, seeing as the last 6 to 8 lvls it too much a grind for even many vets. Before either getting bored and wanting to reroll or something. Sure theirs some who hit 100, tho I still find 94 a safe lvl. I would say 92 tho usually I want to spend 2 more points so ye. 94 it is.

Lots of " starter vids " have sometimes huge gaps in their defense game, they make up for with items & aura's. Tho when you're starting to build I wouldn't compensate for items & try to get everything stable averaged with just the tree alone at first.

Essentially you want 140% to 160% of life nodes from the tree alone, by lvl 94 pob tree. Even tho " mbXtreme " last starter only had 122% life at lvl 100, he probably is gonna make up for that low life with items later, tho as I said I wouldn't compensate for items till you're a vet. So yes my last build by lvl 94 has 140% life, tho 150% to 160% is safer from 1 shots.

If you're a tanky life based build with guardian "regain 100% life every 4 seconds" or Inquisiter's " Regen ES / Life " you may want more than that. Tho ye the Average is 140% to 160% from the tree alone. Tho yes you get the mastery "15% to life if no life mods on armour".

Less you're going for ES AND Life, than you don't need 140%+ life from the tree since ES is a 2ndary life. Tho if you go ES at all, you need to study ES based nodes, since something like melee ES for example may need Wicked Ward.

Armour ratios from tree, are 130% to 180% is good enough. I personally wouldn't go for anything less than 130% armour by lvl 94. Some have zero, since they use determination and other ways to gain phys damage defense.

Yet for now ye dont' rely on aura's or max block & just try for 130%+ Armour or 160%+ Evasion.

Some vets don't take armour and rely just on 60% to 100% Spell Suppression ( if you're on the right side of the tree ) & maybe a few +1 to max resists if you're on the left side. Seeing as the left side of the tree deals with spell defense, different than the right side. <---- Left tree is +1 to max ele resists / spell block if you use shield, ----> right tree is " Spell Suppression ".

Do you have to have spell defenses? yes & no, most build say yes, 1/4th builds don't take any at all & just have to max their normal ele resists with ring mods and other mods on items for resists & hope for the best.

Do you have to have phys defense AND spell defense for every build? Well you don't always have enough points for both, so if you don't, then you make up for one with items, aura's, banners, shields. Tho generally yes you have to have a game plan to deal with both.

Evasion / Spell suppress or Armour / +1 to max ele resists is the general way. If you're gonna watch one and only video on yt, should be a POE university video speaking of defensive layers.

Do you have to have normal ele resists? Ye by act 6 the mages start to 1 shot you. so you at least need a ele resist helmet, called " Goldrim " by then, via " Poe Trade " site. & maybe Ele resist aura too. Just to lvl.

Damage nodes, how many to take, at least 20% of your tree is damage nodes at the least. Tho defense is always more important, since not dying is a issue more than not doing enough dmg is. Tho their are many vet builds that go full glass cannon too, tho they know what to get to avoid 1 shots & also those builds are usually range & rarely melee. Melee for sure needs defense layers lots of it.

The main new player friendly jewels to use are " Thread of Hope " & " Forbidden Flesh / Flame " . As well as " Energised Armour Crimson Jewel ". Forbidden Flame / Flesh to gain a skill from your neighboring Ascendaries, if you want. & Thread of hope to reach passives to save points to some passives to not pave there. & Energised Armour if you're at the top left of the tree or middle of the tree, to transform ES nodes to Armour if you don't want to reach South West for Armour passives.

" Glancing Blows " if you want to double your shield block.

Str / Dex / Int you don't want anything under 100 of each by lvl 94, and you try to aim for 150 of every stat, so you may equip all gems / equipment late game. Tho if ones at 100 only, that's fine you can get items that give +20 to that stat, tho you def don't want any stat under 100 by lvl 94 tree.

Vets base builds around items often, tho you don't have to, just base it around the skill you use for starters. Figure items out while playing.

For POB " click items " then top right says " craft item " and you can build large cluster jewels & medium cluster jewels there. " Add to build " button ".

That's pretty much everything, just find the quickest paving path, that uses the less points to get somewhere. Google the rest of your questions for what items work best with the skill.

Lastly Mana %, If you're build is mana based " Mind Over Matter " then you may want 100%+ Mana. Else some skill or item that boosts your damage based on your mana amounts. Else need many Aura's to reserve.

If you're build isn't mana based as most builds won't be then you only need 28% to 44% mana, just for some extra mana reservation room.

May any new players learn to build better, so bump.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/7ygns5/the_importance_of_maximum_resistance/

If you want a breakdown of how +1 to max resists helps.

Yet that's only for the left side of the tree, the right side has spell suppress that's different and doesn't require a formula to figure it's just flat out useful.