New to POE, how should I start?

Hi guys, first time player here. I started today and got a Templar to level 12 in hardcore mode. I have not spent a single point in the huge node map yet though. I found some fine gear and now using double strike, and summon zombies to get through the content. I am leveling some gems too, but not much use for them at the moment.

The burning question in my mind is, how should I play this game? In other ARPG, Ill level a character as high as possible, stack magic find gear and grind for items for the rest of my characters. Is this going to be the same way here too, or should I level multiple classes at once to get their gems?

Is there a "best" class for starting players?

What items should I keep or "hoard". I have found some life regen items, so they naturally go into the stash. Are there other stats in gear I should look out for?

Many thanks, any tips will be greatly appreciated. Hope to have a good time here in POE, and maybe buy a pack or two shortly. Cheers!

- start the game open-minded, with a ton of patience

- check out some builds, a lot of things don't work well alter on, or require a lot of investment

- yes, that's the way it's most efficient to play if you want to amass some wealth, build a char that isn't too gear dependant (a summoner or something) and use it to farm piety and dominus in merciless. later use the stuff you farmed to play whatever you want to play

- difficulty ramps are severe, even if you think you're doing fine don't relax. game start is ridiculously easy, first big difficulty ramp is end act 3 in normal, second is act 3 in cruel, third is act 2 in merciless

- always think of defense first, resource management second, offense last

- try not to use any orbs until much later, chromatics and jewelers are fine in midgame if you find a nice piece of gear, maybe a fusing or two if the gear is especially nice

- about hoarding, if you aren't an altoholic keep only items that sell well, weapons with good damage rolls, armors with life and resists, stuff like that, generally don't try to sell stuff below level 50 or so in temporary leagues, don't even try to sell in permanent leagues unless you got something very, very, good

- check out vendor recipes on wiki, most popular are chaos orb recipe and gem quality recipe

- keep your eyes peeled at items with linked slots of all three colors, they sell for a chrome orb, check vendors for those too at every levelup. also keep an eye for items with 6 slots, they sell for 7 jewelers

- have a good supply of support gems for your alts, some gems sell too, stuff like multistrike, CoC or CwDT. keep in mind all gems with quality bonus are worth something and some are very valuable so a lot of players keep popular gems in secondary weapon set to level them up and use in 20Q recipe, those sell really well in all leagues

- and a crapload of other stuff you'd best learn by playing the game

Play for at least a week without a care in the world. Goof around. Make mistakes. Learn from them. You need to train reflexes in any game in order to play it well. Ask questions about what you don't understand.

What ever you do... don't read a build guide and just copy it and expect to play well.

Thanks a lot for the advice! I think the most difficult thing for me now is that I cannot see how I can progress in the character. Unlike other ARPG, I can open the skill trees and see what skills I like to use and start building towards those skills.

In POE, I open up the node map and while I know how I want to play, I may not get or find that skill to support my passives which will in turn force me to play another way. Which then makes me afraid of selecting my passives haha.

If you're going to MF then this is a link that may help you have an idea of what people value in gear
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/797699

If you're like me and like playing as a solo non-trader, at a slow, grinding pace: them maybe my guide might be helpful

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MochaFrappe wrote:

In POE, I open up the node map and while I know how I want to play, I may not get or find that skill to support my passives which will in turn force me to play another way. Which then makes me afraid of selecting my passives haha.

True, the theorycrafting part is kinda reversed, you generally don't want to start from passive tree

1) you decide which main skills you want to use and which supports
2) decide how will you stay alive
3) open up passive tree and pinpoint the section which will support 1) and 2)

Don't count on getting all skillgems and supports from quests and drops, you're supposed to trade for them. They aren't expensive, fortunately, active gems you can often get for free if you ask nicely or for chump change, low level supports are 1 alch orb, high level supports are mostly 1 chaos, except for the most popular ones like reduced mana or multistrike.

And last, you probably don't want to start on hardcore, staying alive here requires at least having the basic idea about the dangers you will face. Make a few test chars in softcore or just continue playing there when you die.

MF characters are usually summoner or totemancer. For a templar totemancer (just totems) build is the most efficient; to start a summoner you should play a witch. Look into those 2 boards on the forum to check out dedicated mf builds.

"

MochaFrappe wrote:

Thanks a lot for the advice! I think the most difficult thing for me now is that I cannot see how I can progress in the character. Unlike other ARPG, I can open the skill trees and see what skills I like to use and start building towards those skills.

In POE, I open up the node map and while I know how I want to play, I may not get or find that skill to support my passives which will in turn force me to play another way. Which then makes me afraid of selecting my passives haha.

yeah, the passive tree is probably a bit much for new players, but I'd say remember that a lot of those nodes are just redundant --- there are +life nodes scattered throughout the tree, for example, and bear in mind it's actually more organized than it might look.
it's kind of sectioned by stat - int, dex, str, so that forms the base of whatever char you like to play.
from that basic foundation I'd say to look at the fatter 'keystone' unique nodes and build kind of a framework, or skeleton, of those that you find interesting, filling in between with whatever various nodes you'll need to flesh the guy out.
you'll basically be wanting to stack either life or energy shield, and make a decision on evasion or armor -- you WILL need to pick from those options, so don't ignore that stuff.

unless you are strictly self found you can get any skill p easily from other players.
or if it's an early quest reward you can even just make a dummy char of that class and run it real quick.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/

Those are your best friends.

I'll reiterate the advice already given:
1. Use that wiki to look at all the skill gems you could get.
2. Decide which ones you think look cool enough to build a character around.
3. Explore the passive tree and find nodes that will support those skills, as well as a generous amount of defense. When you start the "endgame" maps you'll be in the 60's in level, but due to points from quests you'll have more like 80 points to put into the passive tree. But make sure you keep in mind what order you will take these points in, so that you don't have a painfully slow mid game.

This page tells you where to find most skill gems. If there's one you want from Normal Act 1 you'll probably just want to make another character and rush for that quest, but beyond that you might want to just trade for it.