New player, should I begin now or wait until the next league begins?

Hello, I am going to start PoE, but I am a bit confused about the leagues.

When creating a new player right now there are 3 categories:
- Standard, being the default game mode.
- Ancestor, being the default PoE league (a text note as much).

And then the Ruthless and Hardcore modifiers, although being a new player I wouldn't go with either. What is the difference between the two "default"s?

Also, there seems to be a new expansion? league? coming in the following days, so I was wondering whether it would be a good idea to start to play now, or wait until the new one starts and create a player then?

For example, if I began now, and I chose Ancestor, what would happen once Affliction appears in 4 days?

Thank you.

new league starts in 4 days so...i would wait

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jrmoore wrote:

For example, if I began now, and I chose Ancestor, what would happen once Affliction appears in 4 days?

Your created characters and stash tab contents go to standard, before new league launch.

There is a new league every 3-4 months. 4 days before the new keagye begins the previous league ends. Everything in the previous league moves to Standard, but the new core changes in Standard do nit go into effect until the new league begins.

In Hardcore once you die everything is immediately moved to Standard Softcore.

Ruthless is a condensed version of PoE with its own balancing and mechanics.

Most players play League Softcore, and that is where I'd recommend any new player to start. The economy is better, and virtually all assistance people will give you online will be with League in mind. Furthermore, you gain access to exclusive league mechanics.

For right now that means either waiting, or trying something for the next few days and then restarting. It can easily take 40+ hours of play time to get through the campaign the first time, and you really want to take that time to learn the game. Don't get hung up on rushing through, and gear with defense in mind over killing quickly. Zizarian has several new player guides you could go through as well.

If you don't mind "losing your progress" (though you keep the character in Standard), it's not a bad idea to play around with it for the 4 days so you get a feel for things before starting over on the new league when it launches. As a first time player, you will make plenty of mistakes so this is a good time to shake some of that out.