Newbie Guide to Improving your gear

This is a work in progress. It will be edited so that it doesn't look so much like a solid wall of text. If any of the veterans see anything that's wrong or could be added let me know and I'll consider it. i would like it to be as simple as possible foe people who are just starting.





There are a lot of people like myself who want to or need to improve their gear but don't trade. This guide is for you. Understand though, doing it this way you probably won't get the best of gear but you can improve it slowly through a pattern of farming and vendoring.

I do want to state this is how I play. By playing this way I've been able to grind my way to a lv79 duelist. At one point I couldn't run a lv66 map without dying, now I'm up to a lv68. My gear is not the best but it's slowly getting better. Everything I have, with the exception of my mace which was given to me, I got on my own. it gives more a feeling of accomplishment doing this way. The purpose of the guide is to help people who are just starting who running with poor gear and feel they can't improve because; 1. They don't know how, 2. They don't have the currency to try to craft their own, 3. They don't have anything to trade. If you decide to do this you can keep the gear for yourself or maybe it'll give you something you can trade or sell. The goal is to make the game enjoyable for everyone.

If you only trade for one thing it should be a Portal gem. This will allow you to farm as much as you want and you won't have to worry about running out of portal scrolls. It can be done without out one but it involves a lot of back and forth to the vendor. You may have to buy one because in my almost 1200 hours of playing my main character, I've found only one. The going rate for one is about 7-10 chaos orbs, so it's not cheap. If you want to buy one you can spam trade chat, though a lot of people use http://poe.xyz.is/ It will pay for itself over time because you will find doing the recipes a lot easier when you can pick up all the drops you want.

You may also want to consider buying stash tabs. I'm a hoarder anyway, but in order to do the recipes you may have items sit in your stash a long time when it comes to doing the higher end recipes.


1. BECOME FAMILIAR WITH VENDOR RECIPES


Before you start farming you have to become familiar with the vendor recipes. There is a really good thread here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/15223 that helped me A LOT when it came to learning the recipes. The ones you need to know for this guide are

1. Wisdom Scroll Scrap - sell one white item to vendor
2. Transmutation Shard - sell one unidentified blue or magic item to vendor
3. Alteration Shard - sell identified blue or magic item to vendor. The number of shards vary based on the mods on the item. For simplicity's sake that won't be explained here, but the better the mods on the item the more shards you get.
4. Armourer's Scrap - Sell a combination of armor items with a total of 40% quality to the vendor. This can be chest piece, gloves, helmet or boots. It doesn't matter if they're identified or not, but if you're going to sell them it's a waste of ID scrolls. I tend to leave them unidentified.
5. Blacksmith's Whetstone - Sell a combination of weapons with a total of 40% quality to the vendor. Again, any type applies and they don't have to identified.
5. Orb of Alchemy - Sell three items of the same base type with 20% quality each to the vendor. If they are identified you get one orb, unidentified and you get two. I normally leave them unidentified.

The reason you need the Portal gem is, the way I play is I pick up EVERYTHING out of a level. The reason is, of course, to accumulate as many orbs as soon as possible. It takes a lot of time, but I feel this is one of the things I need to do in order to play self-found.


2. LOOK FOR ITEMS WITH LINKED SOCKETS


As you're picking up items keep your eyes open for items with linked sockets. That way you can use gems more efficiently when they're linked with support gems. Up until Act 3 you will only find items with 3 links at the most. Later you will find 4 links commonly or if you're really lucky a 5 link or a 6 link. I usually pick up most linked items and save them. The reason is a lot of times they have different color socket combinations. I may want to use a combination of gems and then I won't have to worry about
changing the socket colors.

As you're picking up items concentrate on what can help you. Are you concentrating on armor, energy shield or evasion? What type of weapon are you going play with, a mace, a bow, a dagger, etc. if it has linked sockets pick it up and save it, even if you already one of the same thing. You'll find out later why you want to have multiples.

Try to remember that you will only find a certain number of sockets on an item, depending on the level of the item. This is different from the level requirement of the item. You find out the level of an item by clicking on it and typing /itemlevel in the chat box. You won't be able to get 3 sockets on an item until it's level 15, 4 sockets until it's level 28, 5 sockets until it's level 35, and 6 sockets until it's level 50. You can get more info from the wiki here: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Sockets#Sockets

3. HAVE FARMING GOALS IN MIND

You can pick up everything as you play but what I do is have have days where I farm for specific things. On some days I will farm for Wisdom scrolls. On those days I pick up every white and sell them. I also pick up every blue item and sell them unidentified. This allows me to accumulate transmutation shards that will eventually give me Orbs of Transmutation. Transmutation orbs will turn one of the linked white items you found into a magic item. You've just improved your gear.

After I've accumulated a lot of Wisdom scrolls I will farm for Alteration shards. I pick up every blue item and sell it. This will eventually get me Orbs of Alteration. The benefit of these are; for example if one of the magic items you created didn't have the stats you wanted you can change them by using an Orb of Alteration. This may or may not improve the stats, but can keep using orbs until you get something you like.

4. GRAB ALL ITEMS WITH QUALITY

As you're playing you want to pick up EVERY item that is of superior quality. There is more than one reason for this. if you notice a item that has quality will always have stats that are improved. It may have more armor, energy shield, physical damage, etc. Converting one of these to a magic item is better than using a basic non-quality. You can convert it right away to a magic item or you can improve it even more by adding quality all the way up to 20%

Another reason you pick up a items of quality is they can be used in another vendor recipe. If you sell items that have a total of 40% or more of quality you can get either a Armourer's Scrap or a Blacksmith's Whetstone. This will allow you add quality to any item up to 20%. In order to get an Armourer's Scrap they must all be armor pieces, in order to get a Blacksmith's Whetstone they must all be weapons; they cannot be mixed. You may want to have a tab of quality items for both types so you don't get them mixed up. This also allows you to sell in batches of 40% easier. These two recipes you want to be aware of all the time because you will use these orbs to improve your gear later using my favorite recipe.

5. ORB OF ALCHEMY: MY FAVORITE RECIPE

Items of quality can also be used in some of the higher end recipes. The easiest one to use is the Orb of Alchemy recipe. As you're playing you will find white, blue and yellow items with quality. Most of the time the tendency is to identify and use or vendor the item. Sometimes you may want to save items with quality to use in this recipe. To get 2 orbs of Alchemy you have to sell 3 unidentified items with the same base type all with 20% quality. If the items are identified you will only get one. I choose not to indemnity items I know I won't use. With my main character I don't use any armor that is evasion or energy shield based. I don't use one handed weapons or bows. These will sometimes be saved to be use for this recipe. If the rare already has a high quality roll and it doesn't take up too much space in my stash I will save it for the recipe. The reason for this is you have to add less quality to get to 20% and that saves orbs. You can also identify rares and vendor for more transmutation shards if you have to.

5. HOW TO USE YOUR ORBS

Now you've saved a few orbs, this is how you really improve your gear. There are commands you can use in the chat box that you may find helpful. Type in/help to see the list of commands, but the one we're going to be concerned with is /itemlevel. This will allow you to see the actual level of an item. All items have a character level requirement but some have an actual level. For example, if you're in a level with monsters that are level 10, they will normally drop item with a level of 10. The level requirements may be lower but the level of the item will be either level 10 or higher. It will be one level higher if it's a blue or magic monster or two levels if it a yellow or rare monster. The reason you want to know the level of an item is, the higher the level of an item the better the stats will usually be if you convert it into a magic or rare item.

Now go to your stash and find the piece that you want to upgrade. If you have several of the same type check the level by clicking on the item and keeping your cursor on it and typing /level in the chat box. You want to take the one with the highest level and apply quality to it if it doesn't have it already. You already add quality before turning the item into a rare or magic item because it only takes 4 armourers scraps or whetstones to get to 20% when the item is white, It takes 10 if it's magic or 20 if it's a rare. After you have applied the quality apply an Orb of alchemy and if all goes well you've just improved your gear. If you didn't you can always try again with one of the other white items you have or if you have a chaos orb you can re-roll the stats on a rare. There is also a recipe for chaos orbs that involves selling a complete set of gear all with 20% quality but I won't go into to that one now to keep this guide somewhat short.

6. FARMING TIPS

1. Pick up small white items you can vendor for scraps when you first start playing. The reason for this is you will need wisdom scrolls to ID blues and rares.
2. Use your waypoints to farm. For example, The waypoint for Mud Flats is right at the beginning of the map. Use this to farm the Coast, which is the previous map. Whenever there is a waypoint at the beginning of a map use that waypoint to farm the previous map. Pick up all the drops even if you don't think you'll use them. You can sell them for shards which add up to orbs. Especially pick up all the blues. You want use portal scrolls only if you have to.
3. Don't ID all blues unless you think you can use it. If you know you are going to be using a 2H mace it makes no sense to ID bows, 1H weapons,etc. This is a waste of ID scrolls. Selling blues unidentified will get your shards which will eventually get you Tranmutation orbs. You can also sell transmutes for ID scrolls in a pinch
4. Don't transmute a white unless it has linked sockets. Your transmutes will be in short supply so don't waste them on whites without linked sockets unless you absolutely have to.
5. If you're in an area that has a waypoint open a portal in the middle of the level after you've cleared it. Pick up all the drops and leave through the portal but enter through the waypoint. Your portal will never expire so you can sell all of the drops for shards and scraps. Eventually you'll begin to accumulate some basic currency, but mainly you won't have to waste portal scrolls when you see drops that you may want to pick up and save for later.

bumping for the newbs

bump +1

well deserved bump - a great guide and something that was really needed !

"

fazlez1 wrote:

This is a work in progress. It will be edited so that it doesn't look so much like a solid wall of text. If any of the veterans see anything that's wrong or could be added let me know and I'll consider it. i would like it to be as simple as possible foe people who are just starting.

When UPD?

"

TreeOfDead wrote:

"

fazlez1 wrote:

This is a work in progress. It will be edited so that it doesn't look so much like a solid wall of text. If any of the veterans see anything that's wrong or could be added let me know and I'll consider it. i would like it to be as simple as possible foe people who are just starting.

When UPD?

I have to make myself stop playing the game, which isn't easy :). I've got some things in my head and now that people are noticing this I'll try to get to it soon.

Bumping because I added section six.

Should I still pick up items with 5/6 links even if they aren't suited for my build? (evasion chest with 5 link when I'm playing an armour build) If so, what should I do with it?

"

Tormenx wrote:

Should I still pick up items with 5/6 links even if they aren't suited for my build? (evasion chest with 5 link when I'm playing an armour build) If so, what should I do with it?

Sorry it took so long to respond. Any item with 5 or 6 links is valuable. I have a couple of evasion and energy chests with 5L even though I'm a pure armor build myself. One day I might use them in a new build, trade them or more than likely give them away to help someone who I feel is worthy of the help. That's how I got my main build's mace Someone gave me this. I can't remember if I linked it or not, but that it beside the point when you consider the roll on this and it was a gift.

Sounds like a waste of time to me to go for the Wisdom Scroll, Armorer Scrap and Blacksmiths Whetstone recipes.
If you just pick up any Orbs on the ground and don't identify every blue, don't 20q every levelling item, you never run out of those three.

Recipes I consider useful (to build up currency):
*Chromatic Orb - 3+ linked diff color sockets
*Alchemy Orb(s) - 3 20q items in white, blue, yellow same base type
*Chaos Orb(s) - full set of ilvl60+ rares
*7 Jewellers - 6S stuff
*Cartographers Chisel - 20%Stonehammer+Map
*Alteration/Transmutation/Augmentation - basically just "selling stuff"
*GCP - useless or very low quality gems of 40% combined

I don't even farm until I reach an itemlevel 60 zone.
And I wouldn't recommend it.

"Pick up every white item"? Really?