Struggling to progress in act 3 normal

I've never had an ARPG where I've struggled on the initial difficulty at any point, so forgive my ignorance if this is common for this game. Both my marauder and witch are struggling in act 3, my witch more than my marauder but even my marauder is dying fairly quickly in the lunaris temple.

I followed http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/73072 which seems like a very reputable guide for a beginner to the game but with my self-found loot I'm having a lot of trouble. I only have 450 armour, 178 aoe (ground slam) dps and 346 single target dps. My health is 1022 my resists are 75% across the board (except chaos) and I'm having to run away from groups especially ones that are ranged heavy, even casters are hurting me significantly at times which is ludicrous with max resists (not cursed).

What is suggested that I do? Perhaps farm for some gear? What should I be aiming for? Usually people don't hit walls in arpgs until the second difficulty level this is kind of ridiculous.

I used the same guide and was taking INSANE damage from everything after killing Piety. I died on Dominus when he was at about 60% health, I could have played the fight better though.

Had max resists except chaos, 1.2k life, and just felt helpless. Died at 35

Made another marauder died to a random berserker champion in act 3 that shot 3 fireballs on top of each other. Died at level 29.


I feel like normal is harder for me than for the average player, I'm interested in this topic as well.

It would help allot if you posted your gear. I could see what you are lacking and recommend some easy crafting/trading to possibly help you out here.

In the meantime I do have some general gameplay tips. You may have discovered that unlike many other action rpgs, in PoE you can avoid most attacks by simply moving, including melee attacks.
Ground slam is a ranged skill and you should be taking advantage of this by kiting mobs. Leading mobs into narrow spaces is also very good so you don't get surrounded.

"

Spyfire wrote:

It would help allot if you posted your gear. I could see what you are lacking and recommend some easy crafting/trading to possibly help you out here.

Is there an easy way to do so?

Edit: I shouldn't have to trade to beat normal.

click on your character portrait while you are reply mode, you should see your inventory and clicking on items creates a link in the post.



"Edit: I shouldn't have to trade to beat normal." True, but you shouldn't be apposed to the idea.

"

Spyfire wrote:

click on your character portrait while you are in rep"Edit: I shouldn't have to trade to beat normally, you should see your inventory and clicking on items creates a link in the post.



"Edit: I shouldn't have to trade to beat normal." True, but you shouldn't be apposed to the idea.

I'm not opposed to it, it's just an observation.

Okay the first thing that stands out is your boots definitely need an upgrade, if you cant find a good rare pair the best thing you can do is check the venders for level appropriate boots and craft them with trans/alt shards. You are looking for life(always) and movement speed on boots specifically.

The next thing you are going to want to look at is your jewelery. Not a single life roll on any of them and that is a problem. Of course you do have your resists to consider but the marauder tree alone can carry you on resists into cruel, assuming you go for those passives.

You need flat life to take advantage of all the %life nodes you get, looking at that guide.

Your weapon is good but slow. This is just a personal preference but I would trade it out for a fast attacking 1h mace and pair it with a tower shield or all resist shield. The frequency of your attacks is whats going to keep you alive with life gain on hit.

As soon as you can, craft yourself a flask with either "bubbling" or "seething." prefix, these instant heals will save you time and time again.

Don't be afraid to craft and wear blues. 2 really great rolls is better than 4-6 bad ones on a rare, although rares are ideal.

Overall I think whats going to benefit you the most is increasing your attack speed by allot. Either with a 1h/shield or just using a faster 2h/getting attack speed passives.

Edit: If you still have trouble a good place to farm is docks, you can stay there for a long time and still get good experience and people are always running it.

Much of your gear is garbage...not to be mean, it's just true.

There is any easy fix to this however. Use your currency! Alchs, augments etc. Buy 3-4 linked gear from vendors (your boots and gloves for instance) and craft away! Trust me, it'll help a ton. NO trading necessary (I play self found btw).

Second and most importantly. PoE does require an understanding of the mechanics. For a new player, one of the more important mechanics is enemy AI. Every enemy (except mages, in the ebony barracks, with arc) can be dodged. It takes some timing and skill, but can easily be done with practice.

Running into a group and just slamming away until either they die or you do, isn't going to work in PoE (been there done that lol). Much of the time it'll be: run in get a couple of hits off, move/dodge, repeat. Even with high armor/resists, this is often a tactic that a player will use (even more so between levels 40-70).

Without actually "watching" you play, it's tough to really give advice...: Practice makes perfect... well maybe not perfect, but awfully close!

Best of luck :)

"

Josephoenix wrote:

Much of your gear is garbage...not to be mean, it's just true.

There is any easy fix to this however. Use your currency! Alchs, augments etc. Buy 3-4 linked gear from vendors (your boots and gloves for instance) and craft away! Trust me, it'll help a ton. NO trading necessary (I play self found btw).

Second and most importantly. PoE does require an understanding of the mechanics. For a new player, one of the more important mechanics is enemy AI. Every enemy (except mages, in the ebony barracks, with arc) can be dodged. It takes some timing and skill, but can easily be done with practice.

Running into a group and just slamming away until either they die or you do, isn't going to work in PoE (been there done that lol). Much of the time it'll be: run in get a couple of hits off, move/dodge, repeat. Even with high armor/resists, this is often a tactic that a player will use (even more so between levels 40-70).

Without actually "watching" you play, it's tough to really give advice...: Practice makes perfect... well maybe not perfect, but awfully close!

Best of luck :)

I've been playing arpgs for a long time. I'm pretty good. I don't typically engage packs head on rather I kite with ground slam unless it's single target in which case I'll heavy strike until something dangerous happens and leap out of the way.

Obviously my gear is garbage, I don't have a high level to twink my low level. I have been spending my currency, this gear is AFTER attempting to purchase gear and reroll it. I've long run out of transmutation orbs and quality increasing items/fusing orbs, and I'm down to my last few alterations. The only thing I have left in abundance is chromatics.

I'm certainly no expert in PoE (currently level 47 Templar in Cruel) but I am a verteran D3 player and I've just been using my D3 knowledge of what things do and reading the forums.

I agree that your gear is shite. You need a plan for gearing and what to wear/use and what not to wear/use.
I don't understand why you have so many blues in your gear. You should be using all yellows by now and even have found some uniques.

So some general gearing thoughts for you:

You are using one of the slowest weapons in the game. Slow is bad. Things hit you while you are swinging.

Pay attention to attack speed, crit damage, and DPS on weapons. Also look for life/mana leech on weapons and mana and life regen on all gear items which keeps you alive (and which I notice you have none of).

Gear that has all the sockets linked is what you want so you can use support gems. You can make more sockets and hook them together but that is expensive (materials wise).

I have also noticed that when I use a bow I get hit a lot less, so you might consider picking one up and having a go with it. Also I think that ground slam skill is shite and you would do better to toss it and go for a more reliable melee skill.

Don't forget you can have two sets of weapons, so a melee set in one and a bow in the other is what I suggest.

If you are stuck and want to continue your character then do some farming and start replacing those blues with yellows and uniques.

Edit: I think that build you are trying to run is shite. I haven't seen many of those gems he is talking about and I'm level 47. I don't know what he is trying to do or if it is even a real build for a beginning palyer. He doesn't seem too interested in helping anyone. (Well there are in fact a ton of posts in that thread and many different ideas are being kicked around.)

The problem is he has narrowed you into a very tight corner with few options. I guess you can't use a bow if you wanted to.

That Decoy Totem is also shite. All totems are decoy totems (crowd drawers) so you should use one that does damage too. I use the flame totem and it works very well in Cruel.

I guess I would at this point tell you to start over with a more balanced build because that build narrowed you into a very tight corner.