Long time ARPGer here… starting off when Diablo 1 released way back in 1996.
POE has been king for me since 2013 so I am well versed in that.
So I guess, I am here now wanting to see what all the hype is about with this game. I know I shouldn’t be expecting POE quality or anything considering it’s still in beta…
But are there any useful things you think a newbie like myself should be aware of?
Any tips that you wish you knew earlier?
Is there a meta build at the moment that I can start with and get to end-game comfortably on, so I can start to experience all the content?
Any help greatly appreciated… looking forward to venturing into this new world! (downloading as we speak).
Tip 1: when below level 35ish (roughly), try to apply Health gained on Hit (rather than damage leeched). When your health pool is low, that is more potent. Later, when your health pool goes up (and your damage goes up) swap to leeching % of your damage.
Tip 2: All attacks are essentially AoE if you aim at tightly packed monsters. It’s just that some are rather large AoE/specialized in an area effect and can be better for packs.
Tip 3: Resists are somewhat important, but not as much as you think. Other layers of defense (Armor, Block, Dodge, Ward, Glancing Blow, Endurance/End Threshold and general damage reduction from skill trees) are equally important.
Other than that, play the character and/or style you like, its all good here.
Generally speaking LE’s difficulty is on the more easy side of things, you can experience all content with basically any build.
There will definitely come a point, where you hit a brick wall, if your build is really bad, but this will come with the infinite scaling content most likely.
Don’t stress yourself out too much, respeccing and “fixing error” in your build are really easy.
The only thing you should really think about is your mastery choice, since this is literally the only thing, that is permanent and would require you to start a new character, if you wanna change that.
IMO balancing in LE is very good and you can make anything running decently, with enough thought put into it.
Don’t hesitate to experiement and test out things, swapping skill specs and skills back and forth is done within mere minutes.
Welcome to the forum and the game. I have only one tip so far:
Play the game and have fun!
Find out how stuff work on your own untill you have a basic idea of what you need and what you want and then ask for builds if you don’t find some on your own ;).
STart the campaign, don’t search for a build, try to do things by your own. The campaign is relatively easy and almost everything is viable till early endgame.
Important element: your Mastery choice is the only thing you can’t change. So decide carefully. All the rest (passive points, skill points and skill specialization) can be change at a very low cost (in gold or time).
Follow the campaign. Do the side quests, some will give you passive points, idol slots (idols are basically items that buff you), attribute points, gold and experience. All of them are relatively close to the main path, so side quests are really not a waste of time.
Make your own build, it’s more fun and more rewarding than following a pre-made build. Later you will probably sometimes follow builds, but making your own is the core of the game.
Don’t hesitate to ask for help in chat, it’s mostly very helpful. And of course, on the official Discord or here. All questions are welcome!
