What's everyone's in game name? I just restarted my ranger - WhackemStackem. Feel freed to add me.

feel free to add me as well, I'm a fresh duelist Sigri_D

Damn, this game is really fun. The randomness is no joke. I just finished A2 and then went back to a previous area I've been because I wanted to explore a zone that I didn't see.

The map was entirely different. Even the exit point of the outdoor map was on the polar opposite of where it was before. It didn't even make sense when compared to the world map (which is great). Basically this means it's not like D3 where everything is always in the same general direction.

I think I'm hitting a wall with my melee Shadow. Act 3 has way too many mobs to be effective on my own. It seems at level 30 that there really isn't a good place to farm without an xp penalty, or is there? Where should I go? I need to increase my armor quite a bit, but I haven't seen the certain gear drop that I'm looking for...or it's just a white item.

game looks interesting

i downloaded it earlier - so far it seems ok except for the skill tree - its a bit too open-ended - having to plan passives rigorously from a low level seems to be asking a bit much without having an idea of what skills/weapons will be good end-game

level 10 shadow

I already told you...

poison arrow and firetrap aswell maybe. You need a ranged AOE skill. Dual strike is just for focusing down the champions/ easy fights

Farm [yramid/vaal with gold and rarity items until you get a strong armour. vaal is easily killed with poison arrow. IMO a dual wield needs a bow aswell unless you really pump into tank stats. BUt if oyu are going ot takn you might aswell be a marauder with a big two hander with a red skill.

I dual wield, when there is a mob I just throw a trap, fire a multishot posion arrow, kite and do it again if the mob is particularly big then just finish off the stragglers.

Whirling blades should ensure escape if a mob ever gets you in a bad spot.

Level 30 is overkill for act 3. It's more about the gear and skills to how well you do opposed to level. I have level 2 items which can easily clear merivil.

Does this game have story? I thought d2's story was pretty awesome; if this game's gonna be the true successor it should fill that gap as well. I've only put in 1-2 hours earlier today and only got to level 4 or whatever, but I haven't seen any hint of decent story yet.

Noob question here, started playing yesterday:

I dont quite get how linked gems work. I am still sub level 10 and havent got any support gems yet. Are linked-gem-items of any use before you find support gems at all? Because I got a bow with two linked green gems for example but I dont see any difference to using a bow with the same gems which are not linked.

links are purely for support, you can put a normal gem in there but there won't be any additional benefit to that

It depends on how you want to play this game Id say. If you just want some fun and dont plan on playing hardcore or the highest difficulty then it doesnt really matter if you took some nodes in the wrong direction. If you play hardcore or are a theorycrafter then yes you have to rigorously plan each and every single node for your build.

there be demon nipples on the main webpage

x.x

I rerolled a Witch last night. After seeing more of the game it seems that ranged AOE is probably where to be right now. I sort of plan on doing mainly Cold spells.

I screwed up my initial build though. I put 3 points into +cast speed instead of +spell crit. I then used 2 of my refunds on other skills. So now I'm effectively 3 behind where I want to be and have to either wait for orbs of regret or getting free refunds.

Should I just start over? I'm only level 14 at this point. I don't want to get caught into rerunning the game and never getting anywhere, but I also don't want to gimp myself later on.

No, you should be ok IFX. The difference between cast speed and spell crit isn't much. I will try to find the link that talks about the difference. Also, you will find orbs of regret that will allow you to pull those back as you progress through the game. Then you can use those to correct any mistakes.

Alright. I moved on and will correct it as I go on. I feel like I have to make it right all the way through. haha I should also say that I took 3 and put them into spell crit so now have have spell crit and cast speed. So while I have want I want, I am still 3 behind where I should be. I know at some point I'll be getting 2 more free refunds so I'll just wait for them.

I have a question that nobody in the global chat would answer.

Does physical damage with wands apply to spells if I want to get Breath of Rime on the passive tree?

I didn't want to make another mistake so I am working towards another node that I want to pick up. I'm not even sure which keystone on the outside to go after. So many hard decisions.

Damn you IFX, you made me read stuff for about an hour trying to figure it out. Here is a thread on how wands work.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/70537

Basically, if it is an attack, it uses the physical damage. If it is a spell, it uses the skill gems damage. It is a very hard concept for me to understand, but there's a chance that I am too stupid to really understand it.
/self loathing

Trying to make a strong lightning witch who uses a staff...

It's hard..

Is there an alternative to getting life nodes for survivabliilty?

I mainly use my spells...seriously, who would use a wand and use their wand attack by itself unless you're out of mana?

So I guess I either have to backdoor Breath of Rime or not get it at all. I guess at this point I'll go after something else.

I don't even know what to do anymore. haha I feel so lost sometimes, but yet I keep playing. I realized earlier I have 0 armor on my witch EDIT: Derp, I guess I need +Energy Shields. I think I'm conditioned by D3 to not even look at white or blue items.

In the hours and hours that I've played my melee Shadow I am level 31. Since rerolling my Witch I am level 23 and much further ahead quest-wise. Huge difference in leveling being able to blast through packs of mobs all at once.

yes, definitely get energy shields and get as much as you possibly can as a witch. I don't get any life nodes on my witch, I use all energy shields

btw, I'm VernoInferno on PoE if anyone wants to play together. Usually 8 pm or later PST

man, why wasn't d3 as interesting as this game?

eta

I'm not sure I understand, what is the point of waiting to spend skill points or upgrade your gems? Is there one?

Upgrading your gems requires you to have higher attributes of the specific stat. For example if it starts off requiring 20 int and on the next upgrade it is 24 but you only have 22 you can not use it. From what I saw you are not even allowed to upgrade it if you don't have the required attribute level. However if you have an item that gives +10 int you can upgrade it. The problem with that is if you switch items you will have a gem that is no longer usable (although I think there is a way to downgrade the gem).

I don't see why anyone would save skill points besides maybe hoping for certain items such as a good 1h or 2h due to some skills giving +% to only one of them. You should probably have some general direction of what you want to accomplish.

my dual wield swords duelist build

based build off getting iron reflexes + unwavering stance, blood magic, and resolute technique. I try to hit as many health nodes as I can, since with resolute technique all I really need is tankiness and I'm able to grind down anything.

It's probably a very inefficient and wasteful build since I'm literally taking points on the far left and far right side. And it's hugely lacking until I hit around lvl 50, but I'm new at this game. I also have a 50 point build based off this one, so I know which skills to hit first.

I'm only lvl 20 right now. Only play with 2 other friends, so we don't get all that much done when we have the chance to play together.

Whew, made it to cruel I think on HC. Server seems to be having trouble, so I got disconnected and now the site is timing out.

Solo'd the whole way except for the boss of A3. I can't believe how hard that boss countered my character. I tried her 3 times and it was close to impossible to get him/her under 95% HP with the gear I had even at level 40.

Game is so much harder than D3 and D2 but in the best way ever.

I was unable to add you last night, you sure it's correct? we played a bit with ItalianFX and had a blast.

I just downloaded this last night and I made a ranger. Got to about level 12 before I went to bed.

I think I messed up my skill tree already -- put my first 3-4 skill points into flat +dex instead of the +% for bows (I plan to use bows). Is it actually necessary to pump +dex? Like right now my char has like 80 base dex and the items I'm finding only require ~20 and dex doesn't seem to increase damage directly (adds accuracy which I assume is like attack rating from D2). There are some +dex skills later in the tree that are mandatory to pick up the key skills near the outskirts of the tree so I figure those will probably be enough. I am skilling up to access the bottom right of the tree since those skills seem most optimal.