I found the most fun way to approach it is to have an idea of how you want to play the game.

Do you want to be a caster who does a ton of aoe?
Do you want to dual wield fast weapons and slice and dice?
Do you want to pound the **** out of mobs and be tanky?
etc.

Then, look at the passive tree based on where your specific class will start and look at the bigger icons, called keystones, to see what those do and if you're interested in going that route.

Then sort of plan out the tree based on what you want your character to do.

I'm doing a dual-wield sabre/stilleto/dagger Shadow so I'm going after increased attack speed and crit. Sort of build that out right now, not sure where I'm going to end up.

Part of the fun I guess, but once you know how the passive tree is divided and how it works, it's not too bad.

Oh I know. I patched a couple weeks ago and it's still a 5.1 gb d/l to update? :|

life nodes and resistance are the important ones... if you play hardcore that is.

It is not so complicated as you usually don't have many choices. You can kind of just adapt your gear/playing style to the skill tree rather than the other way around. Then plan builds on other characters if you want to do it a bit more serious after learning the game. My first character I found some summon gems quite early and adopted that playstyle so I started going for the minion nodes. My later characters already had an assortment of gear and skill gems in the stash so I could be a bit more creative.

I do this with my shadow... need some AOE and mob control though if you want to be able to solo. A bow with poison arrow is pretty useful imo, (press X to switch if you didn't know). Then again a dualist can be pretty tanky with lots of dexterity/evasion/life and iron skin.

Pick the best armour you can wear obv... personally I like the armour/energy shield hybrids but I will wear a heavy armour if it has some sick mods like a huge + life roll some resistances and item rarirty.

I've never gone for evasion, they are gonna hit you eventually and it's gonna hurt when they do.

http://www.gamesradar.com/path-exile...always-wanted/

This link made me want to play this game - now.

So sick that it's a free-to-play without a pay-to-win option. Apparently all for-purchase items will be aesthetic? Somehow everything about this game, at least according that article, is basically a D2 fan's wet dream.

Game looks sick. IN.

(installation finishing any minute...)

My first impressions to like level 6 aren't great.

The skill tree seems interesting and original, but after that I'm not impressed with anything. The starting area is ugly and doesn't seem to have much character The combat with the archer class is just painful, it feels like you can only shoot in 45 degree arcs while shift shooting making it hard to hit mobs unless you click on them, and there's no immediacy or satisfaction in the animations - it feels stilted and slow. The quest system is annoying, you have to use your scroll wheel to fast forward through the dialogue, although the voice acting seems decent so far. It basically feels like a very budget D2.

Someone convince me to keep playing.

How is the quest system annoying? I haven't used the wheel once to skip through dialog, just click the quest and you're done. As soon as you walk away it stops and you get credit for picking up the quest.

I picked a templar (first time playing), not really sure what I'm doing but combat felt ok but I'm playing melee at the moment. I found the atmosphere to be pretty nice in A1. It's like you're this deserted peasant in a wasteland. It fits that pretty well.

Not really sure what to say about skills yet. I am only using 1 active skill, it's some 120ish degree aoe cone move. Getting item upgrades seemed to make a massive difference.

Just walked into A2 and I like it a lot so far. There's massive waves of monsters. I've ran into triple boss packs and there so many mobs, all that from A1 normal too. I like how the density is random too.

My only complaint is I do feel like the feedback is a little lagged. Not like any kind of connection/unintentional lag, I'm talking like the speed of the attack. Maybe it's just something I have to get used to. I'm a Marauder FWIW.

I played for way too long last night. I basically used 3 abilities as a Dual Wielding Melee Shadow.

I have a Wrath that gives me an aura that does +Lightning Dmg.
I have a Dual Strike that strikes both weapons at the same time.
And I have a Double Strike that swings both weapons one after another.

The "feedback" or delay is more or less just an attack animation. For example, when using a bow, you click the mouse to attack and then your character actually pulls back the string and lets go. It's reduced more by increasing attack speed.

In the beginning everything feels slow, so you just have to work around it. I didn't care for this game several months ago when I first tried the open beta.

The game isn't centered around quests. The quests are there mainly to progress you through the zones; you never feel like you're grinding - at least in the beginning. It's more about developing your character around the passive skill tree based on how you want to play, and picking up gear and fine-tuning the stats.

I was completely clueless about armor, but I started looking at Weapons, Armor, and Jewelry.

Look at what you need to upgrade based on your level and figure out what name it is. Every item is based off its name. The difference in this game compared to D3 is that you can actually find an upgrade or what you're looking for in a short period of time.

I actually started using Claws for the +Life on Hit and so the fastest speed Claw at my level was the Cat's Paw. I would go around killing mobs while playing until a Cat's Paw dropped. Same with armor. Look at the name you need to drop and look for it. As you level up the names change.

I'm definitely enjoying the game the more I play. It's a different game from D3, it just takes some time to get away from the muscle memory of D3 and realize that PoE is a very deep game.

just wanted to pop in and say hi so that this thread appears on my subbed thread

I'm planning to start either duelist on templar initially on SC as I have little closed beta experience, I'm very interested in switching over to HC asap as a duelist probably.

re post above: the input lag has been known to developers for quite some time but they also admitted they're not sure what causes it. It's just there and from what I know you can get used to it. They will probably fix it if they found the cause.

I made lvl 18 last night on HC (obviously). If your character dies in HC, it is moved to SC, so there is no reason not to play HC imo. The open beta game appears to be much harder than the closed beta. It looks like they retooled the difficulties when they eliminated the 4th level.

My wizard summoner sucks at low levels, but once I hit level 30, things should pick up. I'm a big fan of this game, partly because there are so many different things to learn about in the game. I just learned that you can sell certain items to vendors and get really good items.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/15223

Now I have to be on the look out for some of these items. Damn them. For example:

2 rare rings, 1 rare amulet, 1 rare boots, 1 rare gloves, 1 rare belt, 1 rare armour, 1 rare headpiece + either 1 rare two-handed weapon or 1 rare one-handed weapon + 1 rare shield or 2 one-handed weapons, quivers do not seem to count in any of these recipes!

Reward: 1 Chaos Orb (2 if items are unidentified)

Yes, I am aware of that, I'm just sure I have no chance of surviving probably 20 levels without death.

It basically is D2 with updated graphics & skill system. At level 6 you don't have access to many gems so you don't really get a feel for how those bits work. I'd say play to lvl 25 or so min, then decide.

Really it becomes a lot more interesting when you start getting multiple support gems going and the gem slots available in gear become a serious concern. At the core, gear progression is more of what the game's about than, say, questing or whatever. It's very much in that old-school action RPG vein.

What does the end game look like ?

can you become overpowered because of gear like in d2 ?

are mf runs a thing in this game ?

I don't even really look at the gear all that much. It's probably bad, but I don't know. I just hit Act 3 in Normal and I'm pounding through everything. I'm still wearing my ilvl 5 unique boots.

I look at the armor link I posted and get an idea for what I'm looking for, but I don't feel like it hurts me if I bypass everything. I prefer rares, which don't seem to drop that often. Maybe I'm just conditioned to not want to go back to a Magic item after having a Rare in slot? Is that just the D3 way of thinking?

Also, ninjalooting is terrible in this game in parties. I don't have D2 experience so I don't know what it's like, but people start to snatch everything before I even get a chance to look at it. Also, the timer on some items needs to be a little slower. Sometimes I don't even have a chance to get my mouse on it before someone ends up taking it out from under me.

I started the same way, but am now comfortable about the game and am enjoying the thrill of hardcore.

There is no "Magic Find" in this game. Instead there is "Item Rarity" and "Item Quantity". There are so many different combinations of items in this game that it blows my mind. I am able to find an upgrade for one of my pieces quite often. Also, I am a sucker for crafting, so I burn through most of my orbs pretty quickly.

As far as endgame, once you defeat all three levels on all three difficulties, you can enter the Endgame area that uses maps that are found throughout the different areas. Here is a vid about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0RY2kQ3GM

thanks for the video, im gonna give this game a shot.

What I found during closed beta was that the game moved very slowly for the first 30 levels or so. After that, it picks up the pace. The type of build you use can decide if it is easy early game or late game.

Protip #1 Pickup all orbs/skill gems/legendaries/awesome rares and store them in your stash. If you die, your stash remains in HC and you use them on your next character.

Protip #2 Town portal is your friend. Pop one before any boss encounter. It refills your potions automatically.

Protip #3 Do not fight Mervial without 60%+ cold resist

Protip #4 Do not fight Vaal without 60%+ lightning resist

Protip #5 Watch you health bar at all times. Those damn bears in the closed beta had life leach and I would be near death before I realized it drank a potion.

Protip #6 Kill enemies with puncture ASAP. Those are the fastest life drainiers in the game.

Protip #7 Don't expect to level quickly once you hit 80. The amount of experience earned DECREASES at every level. I will never get a character to the cap of 100.

Protip #8 Don't farm areas that are more than 4 levels below your current character level. If I am level 11, I don't want to farm The Ledge if it is Level 6. There are experience penalties for farming areas more than 4 levels below your level.

Protip #9 Drink the potion before you absolutely need it. If I lose 25% of my health, I am drinking potions and looking for escape routes. Too many times I have been trapped and not drank a potion quick enough and end up dying.

Hope these help

how long does it take to get to lvl 30 ?

In the closed beta, guys during the race got there in under 3 hours. I have played for 3 hours and am at level 18. They run through a lot of areas, then farm in high density spots to get their levels up. I would say about 6 hours if you are killing most mobs and go through the game doing all the side quests.

I started using my old Shadow character so my character time isn't accurate.

But I just hit level 30 and I'd say I've played the recent open beta about 5-6 hours-ish? Maybe even 7 or 8. I don't know. I lost track of how long I played last night, and I probably should have just made a new character instead of using the old one.

I'm also in Act 3, which I have to say is really dense with mobs. To the point where I feel like it's too much. I end up just running past everything to try to find the portals because I'll end up spending hours just grinding mobs that seem to be coming from everywhere.

Seems like high damage AOE is the way to go.

I might even have to do some farming just to increase my gear that I think is severely lacking in armor. I feel like I'm kind of stuck right now. I've been dying way too much in Act 3 to think that it's just the game. It's probably mainly my gear.

There is no way I am going to try a melee build until I have played the game a lot. One of the things they are going to have to balance is Ranged >>>>>> Melee ainec.

I'm playing hardcore, level 26. I uncovered every nook and cranny along the way. I think it took about 9-10 hours total having no experience before hand. I stopped to level up a bit when I felt weak.

I'm somewhere in the middle of A2 I guess. Just unlocked the tree root but didn't go inside yet (doesn't spoil anything).

Some mobs just completely rip my face off though. I've been down to 10% HP or less probably 5 or 6 times now. I've also learned to associate the sound of flicker as the scariest sound imaginable.

Does anyone know if you are supposed to ID the blues before you vendor? I assume you are not supposed to since the ID scrolls seem a lot more limited than Diablo.

Someone said that you have a chance of getting extra/better mats if you ID it first but it's not guaranteed. I think most people just sell back the stuff unid.

IDs do add up though if you don't use them. I have like 30 of them and I've only been IDing things that I would consider to be potential upgrades (including blue items) and almost every rare in case I want to use it on a different character.