About PoE and going solo

Hello,

I've been playing Path of Exile for about two or three months, and I really love the game.
Played, of course, the Beta, and now the release, and I think it is a great game, very complex and entertaining.

I am just a beginner, and I am just learning all the stuff I need to build a good character, but I have some concerns about playing the game solo.

I like to go solo, for now, because I want to learn about its mechanics first, but what I have encountered so far is that it is pretty hard to beat the bosses going solo.

I tried to kill Vaal like 5 times and I couldnt (I have a level 33 Shadow), so I had to create a party just to find people help me kill it.

I don't know if the problem is that my character is not powerfull enough (or maybe it is just a terrible build), or if the problem is that, in fact, PoE is very not well designed for solo players (I am playing in normal difficulty)

So, I wanted to know what are your thoughts about that.

Should I party more often? Should I farm a lot and get more experience before going for the bosses?


Thanks!

P.S. to GGG: Great game, really. It has been a long time since I don´t get excited this much about a game.

I always solo everything up to lvl 70 ... then I start grouping for maps. You don't need groups to beat bosses but it helps ofc. to be honest you only need a good build ... even with almost no gear most bosses are easy if you are a mechanically good player and know about the mechanics in PoE. Knowledge = everything in PoE ... Only Dominus in Cruel with selffound gear seemed etremely strong to me in Nemesis. Was the hardest challenge i ever had and even with a good build and knowledge about almost everything in the game you will have problems there. Took me like 15 minutes just to kill him ... if you have have problems at a particular boss go to ledge / docks / Fellshrine and farm some lvls

Since your shadow is level 33, you're of course on normal. On normal, you can very much solo and kill every boss. You can solo the entire game. At least I do, anyway.

Gear is very important, including gems, more so than your passive tree. The passive tree of course needs to be good enough also, but with good gear you can make sacrifices. Very good gear is hard to get and requires trading, but even self found gear can be maximized by knowing what to use (resist, life, movement speed, high armor/evade/ES, linked sockets, etc are all good).

There are cheap "twink" uniques you can buy that are very effective, but it's hard to say which ones you could use for your build without knowing it.

You need to maximize life nodes (if you want ES later, you can respec) and survivability. Life and resist need to come first, always. You also need to consider what damage Vaal does. Vaal does physical, fire, and lightning damage; so, you should max out those resists for the fight.

Aside from that, learn the mechanics of fighting Vaal. Stay far away, and run in circles while attacking when you get the chance. Avoid the lightning beams, and the rock attacks as best you can. Do not get hit by the melee slam attack (that is the one that does fire, as well as physical, and lots of both).

Use enduring cry to get endurance charges, and if you can, try using traps or some ranged attack for Vaal (if you can't, that's ok too, it can be with any skill). Either way, yes you can solo the entire game including high level maps. If you have trouble, then sure, join a party. That will always make bosses easier.

If this is your first time through, then partying just for a boss is pretty standard (for a character that can't quite make it alone).

Now, if you had a twink character that still needed to party just to finish a boss, that would be a bit much.

I also have a Shadow and it hurt because 1 - the drop rate suffers when you get some much higher than the content. 2 - I was facing crafting low level gear just to get ahead.

If you want to stay solo, create some alts, have them farm better gear for your main, then try again.

I play about 98% solo.

I have two level 80+ characters, who have of course beaten pre-1.0.0 merciless and "beaten" 1.0.0 merciless (zerging the boss to death without caring about my own character dying)

Some builds are late bloomers and need to party up in order to kill some early/mid-game bosses. The best builds, in my opinion, however, should be able to go through early game through end game solo.

Many times, going to the gameplay help forums or asking global chat in game for advice can help. However, you are more likely to encounter helpful people in the gameplay help forums rather than in global chat.

Path of Exile is a game of multiple problems, and the ability to solve those problems comes with time, experience, and a bit of critical thinking.

It may help to post your build tree and gear so we can help you.

Some general tips:
-Resistances are really, really important. Your ultimate goal should be to be soft-capped (75%) on all elemental resists at any given time.
-Life and energy shield (ES) on gear is quite heavily valued.
-+8 life per level is not that much, and on most builds it is mandatory to spec fairly heavily into life or ES nodes.
-The number one rule about making builds is that you should have as little go to waste as possible. For example, if you spec into both bows and daggers, but only use bows to kill things anyways, then the points you specced into daggers are wasted and weaken your character relative to other characters.

Act II cruel is definitely a progress stopper. You need to really ramp it up to get through. But once you get it, it's not so bad. Spend some time running the dread thicket. Use some alchs to get rares with as high a level req as you can master. 33 is way too low to progress, but you'll level up quickly running the thicket.

Soloing the game gives you a whole new experience. While in grps you often just faceroll down some bosses but if you´re alone, you need to learn the movement and the skills of your enemy.

Thanks for your tips!

One question: how can I post my gear and skill tree so you can see it the way I see in other posts? (I mean, where you can see the picture with the stats and gems and everything)

Thanks!

The problem with solo play isn't the difficulty.

If you play a lot, you learn how to beat the bosses in no time. Solo play isn't hard when you learn the mechanics.

What solo play lacks, is magic find.

I'll be sincere: if you're lvl 33 and can't solo Vaal, than you're the problem

I just soloed till act2 merciless in Nemesis without trading and i'm atm at lvl59. Link your equip and build and maybe we can help more