The Best Resource Guide For Path of Exile Player!
Posted by Richard Betts on February 3rd, 2018
This game is not very friendly to casual players, beginners will have a relatively hard time grasping the game's multiple mechanics that have never been in an ARPG previously. However those who put in the time to learn the game's basics will be rewarded with a tremendously addictive game with nearly infinite ways to play.
Some of the first struggles a new player will face when first starting this game will be:
Learning what is good and what isn't for their character.
Learning to plan their character before even making it. PoE is all about planning, and building your character as you go is rarely a good idea. This is something that players learn over time, and meanwhile a good way to decide what to play is to find a fun skill in-game, and then look up a build for it on the forums.
The economy
PoE's economy is based on trading. There is no universal poe currency such as gold. There are, in it's place, currency items. Path of Exile items are the items that are used for buying and selling in PoE, but they have an added value in the effects that they can have when used on items.
The gem system
Going back to the subject of "noob traps", the gem system has many of them. In PoE, skill gems can level like your character, however there are reasons to consider not leveling them. For example, the "Cast when damage taken" gem, which, causes skills linked to it to be automatically casted when you take a specific amount of damage, sometimes should not be leveled, because leveling it increases the amount of damage you need to take in order for the skills to trigger, which can lead to skills not triggering as often as you'd like.
The gear system
From mods to sockets, gear in Path of Exile will rarely be equippable as soon as you get it: Those gloves you just got have amazing stats, but the sockets aren't the right color, or aren't linked! Which means you have to craft on them (crafting is the act of spending currency to modify an item, such as linking sockets with orb of fusing). Many times as a new player have I gotten an upgrade, but screwed myself over by spending all my currency trying to craft on it, or on something else, and not ending up with the result I desired, resulting in the item being put in the stash until I had more currency to use on the item. Some management is required.
The list will be updated if I am reminded of new things to add to it.
All in all, PoE is a great game, one of my favorite games, and once you get into it, you can expect to be playing it for a really long time. The relatively high barrier of entry might intimidate you as a new player, but if you don't mind doing some research of game mechanics, few games will provide the gameplay that PoE provides.
