Path of Exile

Regrets are basically for standard players who want to respec a lvl 90+ char. The refund passives are really there for people who have to start a build one way to level and than switch later on, like leveling as life and than switching to CI. Your only other option for rerolling is to start a new alt (one of the few games that I actually did this, so its not too bad) or wait for a major patch that makes passive tree changes, since these they give free respecs with.

Deathwing said:

Maybe a Frost Blade Ranger is not a good first character, but I thought with some twink gear from the guild stash, it would be ok. Currently stuck in Act 4 Cruel where I can machine gun down most packs but bosses take some zerging.

I'm experiencing a few problems:

1. Too fragile. I haven't been neglecting life% nodes, my end game build is supposed to be around 5k and I'm at 1.6k now. I even tried respeccing into Vaal Pact and bumped my leech up to 2%, but I can't regain enough health before the bosses hit me again.
2. Unavoidable damage. This game is really shit at actually letting you avoid damage. Attack animations take too long and are uninterruptible or something breathes on you and your stun locked to death.
3. Movement skills are pretty poor. I bitched about Whirling Blades earlier and have since then gotten a ton of attack speed and supported with FA. Maybe this is more to do with #2, but relying on movement skills to get your ass out of the fire seems like a bad idea. I'm not even sure why I have it on my bar, movement speed from gear + quicksilver flask gets me to where I need to go faster and generally work more reliably.

Both are compounded by how hard they make it to upgrade any gear. It's not apparent at first, but tieing skill gems to gear was really fucking stupid. So on top of prefixes that somewhat important for defense, suffixes that are really important for defense(resists), you now also have to care about how many gem slots and their color and linkage. This make any surface upgrade a downgrade in reality because you likely have to drop a support gem. How are you supposed to progress when it's so hard to get clean upgrades?

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not sure I quite understand, most people find a piece of gear say gloves that have the stats they want. then they 4 socket, link and roll the sockets they want. Vorici Chromatic Calculator helps alot in determine how to best roll. Also they say to make sure the piece of gear is 20% quality before you start to roll it.

I wouldn't burn jewelers/fusers/chromes on a minor upgrade rare. Like you should probably have a leveling helmet or gloves that you'd want to 4 sock and get the colors right. Don't blow fuse on a minor upgrade. To avoid this many people just have a Goldrim sitting in their stash that is 4 socket and just roll colors based upon their toon. Alteratively you could get a Tabula Rasa which is 6 linked and all white sockets. But that'll run you like 15 chaos which you won't have.

I don't disagree with you either, Deathwing. It took me at least 3 toons until I learned how to actually level quickly in this game. Its a major pain in the ass. Especially if you don't know some of the vendor recipies to make your life easier like physical% weapon recipe.

yeah, leveling, especially when playing solo self, is all about juggling life, resists, and skill slots. I very much think that is one of the games big successes. it IS very hard to get a BIS item. and what is BIS for one build is NOT for another.

1.6k sounds a bit low for act4 cruel. But, I don't really pay close attention to that. could be remembering wrong.
Skill is a big deal. most of who have played over and over, really can zzzzz through alot of those early fights. dodging stuff becoming second nature.

I stacked a ton of defense on my frostblades. Fortify on FB itself, high priority. Frostblades-Multis-WED-Fortify. (added cold, inc crit)
+enfeeble/blashphemy. high priority.
+enduring cry. high priority.
+immortalcall/cwdt/frostbomb. low priority. frostbomb very low priority.
+decoy totem. Broken op vs some bosses.

FA+whirlingblades+ancestral protector. ancestral protector is high dps. when you don't need decoy.
+dual heralds ice/thunder and ice golem of course.

I also was pathfinder, so that Elem DR, immunity to status effects. And flask priority was granite/jade/sulfer/silver, and 1 life flask. I do NOT run acrobatics. Flask effect on granites or rumis is better imho. Also, this thing, Perseverance - Official Path of Exile Wiki dont have one admittedly.. but, yeah. would be GG for my frostblades build.

Forum - Development Manifesto - 2.6.0 Area of Effect Changes - Path of Exile

Aoe changes seem odd. just nerfs, nerfs, nerfs. all skills, all levels nerf.

EQ nerf :O

Guess Lightning Arrow/Ethereal Knives might be good this league, we'll see.

Caliane said:

Regret orbs are quite pricey. and, the game is built on making alts.

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Eh, how do you figure. Aren't regrets typically 1:1 with chaos?

Regardless -- you don't have to reroll. Just slaughtering shit in m.dried lake will gives you plenty of currency per hour.

Deathwing said:

Maybe a Frost Blade Ranger is not a good first character, but I thought with some twink gear from the guild stash, it would be ok. Currently stuck in Act 4 Cruel where I can machine gun down most packs but bosses take some zerging.

I'm experiencing a few problems:

1. Too fragile. I haven't been neglecting life% nodes, my end game build is supposed to be around 5k and I'm at 1.6k now. I even tried respeccing into Vaal Pact and bumped my leech up to 2%, but I can't regain enough health before the bosses hit me again.
2. Unavoidable damage. This game is really shit at actually letting you avoid damage. Attack animations take too long and are uninterruptible or something breathes on you and your stun locked to death.
3. Movement skills are pretty poor. I bitched about Whirling Blades earlier and have since then gotten a ton of attack speed and supported with FA. Maybe this is more to do with #2, but relying on movement skills to get your ass out of the fire seems like a bad idea. I'm not even sure why I have it on my bar, movement speed from gear + quicksilver flask gets me to where I need to go faster and generally work more reliably.

Both are compounded by how hard they make it to upgrade any gear. It's not apparent at first, but tieing skill gems to gear was really fucking stupid. So on top of prefixes that somewhat important for defense, suffixes that are really important for defense(resists), you now also have to care about how many gem slots and their color and linkage. This make any surface upgrade a downgrade in reality because you likely have to drop a support gem. How are you supposed to progress when it's so hard to get clean upgrades?

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edit: A4 cruel is substantially harder than A1 merc. Farm A4 dried lake until you are comfortable, then kill malachai. Once you do that, its easy sailing to maps.

I've been playing PoE off/on since 2012 so things I take for granted won't seem obvious to you:

A) Many vets play spell-based characters first to gear out their alt.

B) Survivability -- how are your flasks? Just going out on a limb here, but if you aren't using at least two utility flasks (quicksilver + granite, for example) then you're probably hurting yourself.

C) For softcore leagues, I don't bother buying gear until maps. I don't play any builds that can't function with just a 3L or 4L until level 70, and that's most builds.

D) Chromatics are cheap as shit -- use the chrome recipe while leveling and don't fret throwing 10-20 at a nice rare. No big deal.

E) If you're still getting fucked, just overlevel the zone by farming something easy. Every level makes an appreciable difference in gameplay and you'll likely get some nice currency/gear if you just farm for a few hours before progressing. I did that a lot while learning the game.

Caliane said:

Forum - Development Manifesto - 2.6.0 Area of Effect Changes - Path of Exile

Aoe changes seem odd. just nerfs, nerfs, nerfs. all skills, all levels nerf.

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It makes sense. PoE has been stuck in a clearspeed meta for a while now and the fact that you get so much AOE and just clear screens at a time makes it so there will never be a non-AOE build that really competes.

Ryanz said:

I always get baited (new FP jewel) into making a Freeze Pulse build and always regret my decision when I get higher level. Maybe with the new iceshot + leech changes I'll try it out again. Or maybe just play it safe and go firestorm for an easy first build. Hmmm decisions...decisions...

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go zombie army like always.

Deathwing said:

Stop and farm before reaching maps seems like a failure. Like if I got stuck at level 65 in diablo 3. But still, good advice, so thanks.

I think Frost Blades might be a bad first character. I'm giving Cyclone a try now. It's a decent skill but I don't know what it is about this game that I keep making comparisons to D3. Cyclone is like WW except with the glaring flaw that I can't stop on a dime. You're going to spin to that exact location you originally clicked and you're going to like it!

In the latter patches of 2.0, D3 received a lot of behind the scenes improvements to how soon you could interrupt the animations of many skills. I think PoE could benefit from the same thing. I think this is the source of "clunkyness" that many new players complain about.

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Most veterans level characters around 4 levels below the normal zone level, so it makes sense to stop and hit that keystone and so on. Alternatively you can finish a few skill point quests if you skipped them. I like to do lab around A4, since you get a huge bump in power from the ascendancy nodes, but it's not optimal if you care about speed. Running dried lake more than thrice in a row puts me to sleep.

Deathwing said:

Stop and farm before reaching maps seems like a failure. Like if I got stuck at level 65 in diablo 3.

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edit: it's been a while since I leveled in D3, but PoE leveling is more lethal than D3 leveling as I recall. I don't remember having to fux with gear really at all to level in D3. Apples to oranges.

Well, at the end of the day, it's about having fun. A vet PoE player isn't going to have to stop and farm on route to maps, but you're a novice. You're still practicing many core aspects of the game: flasking, threat perception, active dodging, recognizing status and ground effects... etc etc. It might just be more fun to smash mobs on The Ledge, Western Forest, Docks, or Dried Lake for a few hours -- get some currency, a level or two... then progress. As a newer player, you're not competitive with the upper class so why try to race them?

If a 4L white item drops that matches the colors you need, toss an Essence or Alchemy on it and see if it's an upgrade.

Btw, regarding dodging -- in D3, you can't manually sidestep a projectile. It gets to roll against you for defense regardless. In PoE, by moving, you minimize a tremendous amount of projectile damage -- in other words -- the arrow has to hit you before it gets to roll against your defenses. Group up mobs, attack, rotate around them, attack, rotate... works better with an AE attack.

a good tip for path of building, or other offlineplanners.
Install the offline planner into a folder, call it path of building 2.5. Update NOW, but do NOT update that install post 2.6
copy the folder, paste it, renaming to path of building 2.6 Update THAT one.

Allowing direct compare and contrast of stat/dps changes, passive trees, etc.

People are still going to be clearing entire screens at once, these tears are wild on their forums though.

Deathwing, a big part of you getting stuck is that PoE for a newcomer IS harder then D3. It's not quite the easy-mode it seems to be when looking at streams that come from people that a thousand hours in the game. I absolutely wrecked my first two characters by level 35 and 50ish respectively. That's something a mainstream game like D3 would never allow. For me that's a price worth paying since the payoff is a game with more depth towards the endgame.

Deathwing said:

How is that possible? I was skipping all side quests and zones except the ones that reward skill points. I was only getting waypoints for zones I knew I'd have to come back to later. I was still at least 4 level above the zone level for most of the game. I was at 58 by A4 cruel and the gap was closer because I was dieing so much.

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Once you know all the layouts, it becomes easy to skip huge parts of zones. Once you just beeline from enrance to exit, you can then skip mobs to speed it up, since below merciless they AI is borderline nonexistent, some mobs are a annoying to fight (Sceptre of God) others just take time (totem packs and snakes in Vaal pyramid). It's for example much easier to catch up on levels in A1 than A4 of higher difficulty, but for the first 10 characters or so, you will probably struggle as it is.

Oh and always have lvl appropriate hp flasks, easily the most underrated slot.