I'm Sorry, I'm a noob and overwhelmed

I started POE during Affliction and I really like the game. Did a lightning Deadeye build and finished the campaign.

I'm sure this has been said before but I just feel overwhelmed with information on what to do next. I have been trying to to fill in my maps to start with and that seems to be going ok. Then when I look up info on maps even beginner guides seem to talk about things I just don't get.

I'm just looking for someone to say, do this for a while and things will make sense because right now, nothing does. I feel like I can focus on 20 different things. I can do the mining, the syndicate stuff(which I still don't understand), the temple stuff, Affliction stuff.

I like the fact that this game is complex, but it seems like every guide I look it assumes I have been here for years. Even the Maxroll guides for currency are like "This guide assumes you know how to farm Harvest, Essence and Eldritch Altars" Then I read about those and I'm more confused.

Someone please tell me what to do. :)

Follow Zizaran on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@Zizaran, this guy is like he's on crack, he knows every detail to the game.

I haven't watched it but look at his beginners guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRy50Og8lDM, he explains things very well, better than any Poe Youtuber in my opinion.

It IS pretty overwhelming; that's a normal feeling. You can use your atlas passive tree to block most of the extra content and increase the odds that the content you want to focus on will appear more often.

Then just realize you're going to be able to play the game for a long time before it gets boring.

And, as you find content creators who do stuff you like, keep going back to them. There are definitely worse places to start than Ziz.

For a little more specific advice, I'd suggest starting with Essences. You can do them just fine in low tier maps, and they will start you on the path to crafting.

Maybe add in Betrayal, which you can do just to get the veiled mods for your crafting bench. You don't need to worry about optimizing the tableau for now; when you have an option, make a random choice and take note of what happens. If you happen to get a Safehouse run, that will be new information too. Don't worry about what happens.

Since both of those provide input to crafting, which is a really important element of the game, you might want to check out a crafting tutorial. Subtractem did one a couple years ago that went viral, and most of it is still valid. (He also has a full guide to Betrayal when you're ready for that.)

One more...since flasks are one of the strongest elements in your build, you ought to learn about flask crafting. This involves trans/alt spamming, but also requires Beast crafting for certain things. Thus Einhar is a little extra content that is well worth learning about and doing.

It takes a couple of years to master the game, so don't try to cram it in one league (3 months).

Just play for fun.

Another advice, play SSF (solo self found), it helps to learn the basics while keeping the things enjoyable.

Play several characters at once on SSF, start a new character when you find an interesting unique item and make a build for that character to use that unique.

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TheOzzmanDGP wrote:

I started POE during Affliction and I really like the game. Did a lightning Deadeye build and finished the campaign.

I'm sure this has been said before but I just feel overwhelmed with information on what to do next. I have been trying to to fill in my maps to start with and that seems to be going ok. Then when I look up info on maps even beginner guides seem to talk about things I just don't get.

I'm just looking for someone to say, do this for a while and things will make sense because right now, nothing does. I feel like I can focus on 20 different things. I can do the mining, the syndicate stuff(which I still don't understand), the temple stuff, Affliction stuff.

I like the fact that this game is complex, but it seems like every guide I look it assumes I have been here for years. Even the Maxroll guides for currency are like "This guide assumes you know how to farm Harvest, Essence and Eldritch Altars" Then I read about those and I'm more confused.

Someone please tell me what to do. :)

You don't need to know anything beyond do maps and engage in whatever mechanics appear. You aren't going to screw yourself by doing random stuff in maps for your first season, and chances are you aren't going to effectively use the currency you would get through a higher tier strategy for currency farming.

If you find a mechanic you like, find nodes for that mechanic on the tree and spec into them. You won't make currency like people doing maxed out, juiced maps using the most meta strategies, but you wouldn't be able to do those anyway, because generally speaking they also involve making the content a lot harder to improve the reward.

I've done the super juicing everything, maxing out strategies and I've done the just play what I feel like strategies, and there is a place for both. But largely speaking, I have the most fun just speccing something I feel like playing for a league, then doing something different next league.

This league I am fully specced into essence and blight, and having a blast. In theory those two mechanics don't have any particular synergy (essence rewards running lots of maps fast, blight is a mechanic that stops you for long periods at a time), but I'm still making plenty of currency and enjoying myself.

Following a guide for your character build is absolutely a plus and it sounds like you've done that, but you really don't need to do that for your atlas tree. You can ignore stuff in your maps, you can run everything in your maps, you can spec heavily into one specific mechanic or widely across many, and you will still be absolutely fine.