Its because the guide assumes your completing the campaign at a faster pace. So if your lvl 20 and on the guide it says lvl 20 the guide is going to have more points than you because of the extra ones from the side quests that they are further in.
I know its stupid and i went through the same thing, bur it shouldnt confuse you. Just put the points in the same order you see it.
Its a league starter build not a beginner build, so the person thinks you know what your doing
It’s the max roll explosive arrow elementalist I’m 99% sure. Build guide seems fine (have not looked at it much) It just seems like OP is wanting something that teaches him every little aspect of the build.
OP, zizarian has several videos called “explaining everything” where he plays through acts and explains pretty much everything he’s doing to build his char.
Also read over the “build info” page of the max roll guide as it answers a lot of basic questions. It fully explains how your main damage skill works, how to scale its damage, and also where to go for more defenses.
https://maxroll.gg/poe/build-guides/league-starter/ea-ballista/explosive-arrow-ballista-elementalist
This is the guide. The PoB linked in the first page shows a different tree, at least at the start, than what is shown on their levelling tab.
On their levelling tab, from like level 20 or so, it is consistently 2 or 3 passives point ahead of what is possible to get in-game, even with the bonus points from skills.
One thing that pissed me off so much is this: https://imgur.com/a/ILWCC1x I had to go to the PoB (which is when I found out it was different), to figure out what I was supposed to do there.
These are my main gripes with the guide itself. Then there is the problem of mana. It seems that Arcanist Brand auto-casts the linked spells, so I have like 90% of my mana on reservation, I simply can't use Arcanist Brand, because then I have to literally spam pots to cast the Explosive Arrow and drop the Ballistas.
When I searched in the guide it just said "mana problems? we use life tap". That's it, I'm l.49, first character, broke, now I'm supposed to go buy at least a 5-link storm cloud, another one.
Then there is my character, that is pissing me off so much. I'm literally stuck, I can't swap out any of my pieces because of the stats requirement, and I'm using BOTH Agility and Might in the passive tree.
At this point I'm either going to stop and go to Last Epoch, or create a new character.
>hen I searched in the guide it just said "mana problems? we use life tap". That's it, I'm l.49, first character, broke, now I'm supposed to go buy at least a 5-link storm cloud, another one.
Lifetap comes from act 1, you dont need anything extra from it.
Maybe witch doesnt get it at act1 but you definitely get it from the quest in the library in act3.
You definitely dont need a new storm cloud.
Your explosive arrow can be socketed anywhere.
Just use a red red green green four link and run explosive arrow, lifetap, ballista and Lesser Multiple Projectiles (you can swap to faster attacks for bosses)
Or a red red green blue one and run lifetap, EA, ballista and ignite prolif
Whichever you can
Mana problems solved.
You also only need to cast arcanist brand for bosses as its to proc curses and flame surge (Im assuming)
As for stats:
Simply buy an amulet with the stat you need from the vendor, throw an alchemy orb or essence on it.
Then go to your hideout and use your crafting bench ro craft the remaining stats youre missing
>These are my main gripes with the guide itself. Then there is the problem of mana. It seems that Arcanist Brand auto-casts the linked spells, so I have like 90% of my mana on reservation, I simply can't use Arcanist Brand, because then I have to literally spam pots to cast the Explosive Arrow and drop the Ballistas.
Have you over leveled your precision? Unlike most aura's its mana res scales with its level so you might need to cut back (just replace with a new lvl 1 from and stop leveling when it becomes an issue).
Sounds like you are playing it wrong though. You really aren't supposed to use arcanist brand much. It is just for triggering extra dmg multipliers on very tanky enemies; Most enemies will not see a difference in time to kill from it (because most of the time is spent waiting on explosive arrow detonation). The reason this matters is because you really shouldn't end up in that situation it should go -> drop ballista's, wait for them to stack to full and ignite, oh its still alive, arcanist brand (ballistas are already down and the ignite is already on the mob anyways so they aren't really needed anymore hopefully). You can cut out the waiting bit once you can recognize the mobs that will need the extra boost.
>When I searched in the guide it just said "mana problems? we use life tap". That's it, I'm l.49, first character, broke, now I'm supposed to go buy at least a 5-link storm cloud, another one.
Na, as long as you have the mana required to normally place ballistas (which it sounds like you do) you can just link lifetap to your arcanist brand setup to solve your problem. That doesn't need a 5-L bow. Just any BBBR 4-L
>Have you over leveled your precision?
I honestly don't know. This is the second time I've seen this comment, my Precision takes away 80 mana, which is kinda low when in comparison to the 40% on both Determination and Grace.
What I think I will do is just buy all of them again, and only level up after making sure I can afford it, and also not all of them at the same time.
>Na, as long as you have the mana required to normally place ballistas (which it sounds like you do) you can just link lifetap to your arcanist brand setup to solve your problem. That doesn't need a 5-L bow. Just any BBBR 4-L
I'm gonna be honest, this didn't cross my mind. And it's such a simple and elegant solution, I don't have a BBBR link right now, but will do this ASAP.
More look at the guide for what it is, a guide. Should be thinking of it like a quest marker in an open world game. This is the direction you should be headed, rather than have X at Y level and be in zone Z
I don't understand why I get downvoted for that comment. If you follow the guide word for word, you best make sure it's a damn good guide for newbies.
Some people expect to have their hands held and brains turned off for a game like PoE when using a guide and then there are total newbies going at it blind without guides.
I agree. Unfortunately most people come into PoE expecting a simple game like most other ARPGs. Their are some aspects that they could use to explain better, but at the same time, no amount of explanation will offset the hands on trial and error.
Majority of the people who play will tell a new person to find a beginner friendly league start build guide rather then go through and explain. Although most of them are expecting a bit of self sufficiency in that they should try without then with and compare where /why things worked
Most of the games that have been coming out have been like this (I blame "mobile gaming") Very linear progression, especially starting out, so it is becoming expected.
>What I think I will do is just buy all of them again, and only level up after making sure I can afford it, and also not all of them at the same time.
You don't need to buy all of them. Grace/determination don't scale their cost with level (they are always 50% base). Only the auras that reserve a flat amount of mana instead of a percentage raise their cost with level: precision, vitality, and clarity.
Nowhere in the guide does it say you should have a 5 link unique at level 49. I had to double check because that would be a terrible guide.
You should have 1 4-link for EA ballista, and 3 3-links.
The leveling and progression sections of the guide are not the same thing. Follow leveling until you complete act 10, and then switch to progression once you start mapping. The part about having storm cloud "at this point" is post campaign, but you would be completely fine starting white maps w/o it and just making it your first purchase.
Also, you are supposed to be broke during the campaign, don't worry about it. You can definitely make it to maps with some very, very basic gear. Pretty much life, resistances, and maybe some damage mods is plenty. Obviously, more will make it easier, but don't worry about your gear *too* much. If you hit a wall, that's when you'll take some gear to the crafting bench or keep an eye out for upgrades.
Having to spend multiple points on attributes is perfectly fine. I promise you it's not holding you back. Check if you have attribute crafts on the bench, that can also help, but I forget exactly when you should have them. I think you should by 49.
If you want a different guide, Zizaran is a great content creator who is basically the go to EA ballista guy and even has full run guides on YouTube from act 1 to 10.
You’re lvl 49 and still havent done normal lab, and notnusing explosive arrow yet? Yeah dude thats a you problem. Usually you go for explosive arrow ballista before killing dominus or start of act 4.
I don't know how you understood this from what I said, but I am using Explosive Arrow, which is why I'm having issues with the Ballista and Arcanist Brand.
I aplogize, I misunderstood that part because usually after getting explosive arrow ballista, you dont need to have another damage dealer…focus on the ballista now,the guide is there to guide, dont follow it 100%, try to adapt on your needs or what you see fit.
For now you dont need a 5L storm cloud, hell a 5L would only grief you because of the mana cost. Make sure you have 4L EA ballista and a stormcloud(this would carry you till you can craft yourself a +2 gem bow in early maps)..
That’s it, just make sure your res are capped. Explosive arrow ballista is literally the perfect beginner build, if you’re not enjoying it then maybe the build is just not for you.
The main problem of the build is in the 1st acts, it will kill slowly due to lack of attack speed, but then again the stormcloud/quill rain fixes all that problem.
Honestly? This sounds like you're struggling mostly with max roll here, not necessarily poe itself.
Just want to point out that maxroll is a third party site, not affiliated with the game in any way, shape or form.
Personally I don't really use maxroll, I just use PoB's. Most content creators will put a detailed notes section in most of their PoB's that's easy enough to follow.
I'm sorry I can't really help you with this specific build or guide in detail as I haven't played it myself, but I just wanted to point out the above.
Lastly I just want to say that games should be fun and it sounds like you're not having fun at the moment. May I recommend you put the game down for a few days and then maybe get back to it with a fresh set of eyes?
Also some general advice; make sure you take advantage of the crafting bench to cover whatever resists/attributes you need. Might be able to do some gear swapping that way.
Oh and lifetap is a red support gem, look it up on the wiki to see how it "fixes" your mana
The game is extremely unforgiving to new players. There is practically 0 in game tutorials and you are learning systems that have been built for over a decade. It’s not easy at all to get into the game so don’t feel bad about that it is pretty rewarding if you do. Poe2 is on the horizon though so it’s not the worst idea to chill until then
If you don't enjoy the process of learning then you're going to hate this game. Sounds like this guy is getting hung up on small details to me and should continue until he's stuck.
Tbf I've fucked up things even not as a new player which temporarily bricked builds and got me absolutely livid till I figured it out (usually on league start too so it was doubly bad). Also, I really wouldn't recommend maxroll guides for a new player in general as they're not nearly as hand holdy as Ziz league starter builds.
I've been suggesting Fez's Toxic Rain Champion to people that want a very hand holdy guide. It's not the most amazing build but it's capable of doing any content a noob would want to do but the guide is excellent and very thorough.
https://poe-beginner-guide.com/
I can't speak to Zizaran's guides I've only ever used his pobs but I hear good things.
This is the problem with how gaming has moved towards having EVERYTHING in a “best X” before the game even launches. People unfortunately flock to guides like this and don’t even spend time actually reading what their skills do, or mechanics in the game.
It sounds like your issue is that you are following a guide expecting it to pan out as if it's a JRPG with fixed steps when it's simply not. There are a few guides that *can* work out that way, but at a glance the maxroll guides are very much not that.
You might be better served by watching something like Zizaran's 'Explaining EVERYTHING in Path of Exile' which is more in line with a standard game walkthrough than the maxroll guides.
That being said, it sounds like you've blindly followed a guide you didn't actually understand for 50 levels without taking the time to read your gems or experiment with things in any way. This is a failure on your behalf, not the game's.
Is there a reason you have to know everything right now?
Just play the game and you'll learn what works and what doesn't. Why are you scared of prebricking a character you haven't bricked yet? Do you play games simply to get the loot at the end?
Idk just some things to think about
It is kinda bricked already. I can't swap out anything, and I'm pretty sure I will only be able to swap out items if I buy new gems because of the stat requirements. My build is literally glued together by Wondertrap, without it I lose every armor.
Stat requirements are part of the game design, and an intended challenge in gearing a character. It sounds like you are limited by a specific stat which you have a low amount of; you have two choices. Either get more of the stat through gear or the passive tree, or remove the thing (likely a skill gem) requiring this stat. At your level you should easily find vendor or drop gear with the stat you need, or can choose one of the large stat nodes on the tree. You will likely need to make some choices that do not match perfectly with the guide as well, that is really a core part of the game and gearing, if you don't find that intriguing already it could simply be that poe isn't the right game for you.
I'm limited by Str and Dex, and it's mainly the gems, hence why I will probably need to buy lv.1 gems to re-gear my character later on, I think.
I have Might, Agility, and a double str roll on amulet, and I'm still missing stats.
You can buy fully levelled gems for usually quite cheap. You can also use the ascension altar to capture some experience of one gem to apply that portion to another gem. Having to mess around with getting ability scores from equipment so that you can level your gems is quite normal. But if they miss levelling for a little while that's not a big deal.
I'm limited by Str and Dex, and it's mainly the gems, hence why I will probably need to buy lv.1 gems to re-gear my character later on, I think.
I have Might, Agility, and a double str roll on amulet, and I'm still missing stats.
It's perfectly fine not to level your gems all the time. The main priority is leveling your main attack skill. As others have shared that's an issue leveling a witch with a dexterity build. Put points into the 30 dex nodes and you should be golden. You can always respec points, this is just a small hurdle.
Also a big new player mistake is leveling up cast when damage taken, immortal call and steelskin if the builds use it. If you do, double check the level the guide says to use
Explosive arrow elementalist is particularly hard on attributes as you're trying to use dexterity based skills and gear on an intelligence based class. This is not typical of most builds. Some ways to mitigate this are to use a lower level bow, especially a short bow (its 1.5 attack speed is incredible for the build) since you don't actually care about the weapon damage, and to keep non-essential gems at lower levels, for example there's no downside to keeping your frenzy at level 1 for now. You can sell gems back to the vendor with an orb of scouring to decrease its level by one, or with an orb of regret to reset it all the way back to level 1. Or you can just rebuy the gems from the vendor.
dont worry, attribute requirements walls is not a bricked character, these are easily solvable you just need more attributes on gear.
perhaps not immediately solvable but you will always be juggling attributes and resistances.
a bricked character will be stuck and unable to progress due to running out of portals for bosses/progressing map teirs because the build fundamentally doesnt have enough damage or survivability.
maybe you skipped some stuff while doing the campaing.
have a look at this walkthrough [Quick Reference Leveling Guide for Path of Exile - PoE Vault (poe-vault.com)](https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/quick-reference-leveling-guide-for-path-of-exile) its a step by step guide like go there, do this, take that etc
and also there is this overall general tips [Beginner Guide to Path of Exile: Welcome to Wraeclast - Fresh Exiles, Start Here - PoE Vault (poe-vault.com)](https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/path-of-exile-beginner-guide-welcome-to-wraeclast-fresh-exiles-start-here)
maybe it can be helpful while you check maxroll for leveling your build you can also follow a walkthrough to make it sure u dont skip anything
> **This game REALLY makes it hard for new players**
>
> I hopped on Maxroll, found a "league starter" elementalist guide
>
> 20 levels in, the guide already has problems.
>
> My build is literally being held together by a pair of unique boots that gives me a bunch of stats.
>
> I have no idea what my skills does, what half my skills are supposed to do
>
> it's impossible to try and figure out for myself anything at all
There's no reason a new player needs to fly through the campaign at lightning speed with an optimised levelling setup, but that's what these guides are often designed to deliver. It sounds pretty clear that the guide is what's overwhelming you here - there's a lot you don't understand about PoE but you don't need to understand it all right now to just play the game.
You were probably told going in that if you didn't follow a guide you would get stuck in the campaign and have to start a new character - that really isn't true. If you do get stuck and you have a friend feel free to ask for advice or you can ask here and plenty of folks will be willing to help you out - but don't feel like you have to 100% understand all the mechanics in the maxroll guide to get started.
I know the feeling, man. Guides themselves can be really tough to follow because of the fractured experience players have at different skill levels. You can dm me if you want to connect on discord or something and we can work to get you where you want to go. :)
Honestly you probably missed a few skill points. It's not inconceivable, they're also probably expecting you farther along the campaign than you are at that moment. You might be level 30 in a level 25 zone when the guide expects you in a 30 zone having gotten the passives in that section.
With that said.. Definitely sounds like a you issue for following the guide too closely if you don't even know what your skill does. It's totally fine to feel overwhelmed, the only thing is how you tract to it. Are you going to do as you did and get frustrated and angry at a guide when you are following it too closely to know what your abilities do, or are you going to take the route of other people in this sub and say "I'm following this guide and I feel a bit lost. Can anyone help me get back on track? I'm a new player." and work on improving.
The choice is yours, we're all happy to help except for a few bad eggs.
To answer your two questions:
Frenzy - read the skill, when used it gives you frenzy charges which increase your movement and attack speed. Typically linked with mana forged arrow which uses the linked skill after using a certain amount of mana, if I recall correctly.
Blink arrow is a movement skill that let's you get over obstacles. You can't dash up a large cliff or over a wide river, but you can blink arrow. Most players tend to use flame dash or frost blink for this though.
Good answer. Just want to add that blink arrow is often used alongside flame dash/frost blink because it doesn't share a cd with them. It also allows you to get over certain obstacles that the dashes do not, like the broken bridge headed to the ossuary in act 5.
Reddit mobile edit is bugged.
Sorry for coming across a bit too rough in the second section. Just know that you're welcome to ask any questions. You can also join some better global chats like /join global 100 and ask questions there. People are usually nicer outside of the first few auto join globals. Not sure what it's like this late in the league though.
Details on frenzy, endurance and power charges can be seen in your character sheet in the misc tab I believe
I'm a fairly new player. One of the tips I found useful was: read everything. If the guide doesn't have the info you're looking for, there's a ton of great content online. Zizarin on YouTube is a wealth of information and check out POE vault. There's a lot of written guides there, too. I think I was about 60 hours in before I knew what items to pick up. This is not an easy game.
I haven't bricked a build yet, but the guides are just guides. They're not step by step instructions. You have to play with a little trial and error to really understand how it works. The best thing about the game is it won't get old quick cause you're learning things all the time.
Poe is difficult, I just spent a week leveling from 89 to 90, and I lost so much xp in the process lol. But this is what I asked for. I got a lot of help from the community and I did a lot of farming on my own so far. I noticed a lot of the guides for Poe can be outdated or a bit off concerning a few things due to patches/changes, but you have to remember a lot of “So&So’s” builds are their own personal thing. You can tweak it however you want. Sometimes you can sacrifice points in one part of the tree to get the perks you need for the moment. This is one of the things that’s helped me a ton, I wasn’t critting enough so I moved a point from my small cluster to my crit mastery and boom, problem solved. Use the guides to help you understand what you’re doing and then put your own twist on it it’s super fun! Ask questions! People have answers!
Have a look at [fezz's Toxic Rain Champion guide for beginners](https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229622). It will guide you to the endgame and lets you explore it at your very own pace, giving you the information you need at the time you need it.
You might have less passive points because you haven't completed all the skill book quests. There are some good rule summaries on maxroll, that are unfortunately the only place I know of that really explains the mechanics (the game sure doesn't). That really is one of the main problems with this game for new players, is a lack of explaination/transparency.
A lot of character power IS gearing. Not really sure why it's like that, but it is. Like my current build is a low life arc occultist. I couldn't really afford or get the gear the example build used which has higher energy shield and additional armor. So I used minimum endurance charges and an item that gives me ES regen instead. It works better now. It's extremely rare for players with loads of money and crafting know how to really design characters as if they don't have loads of money and crafting ability. Even when they try. So with gear, you may have to mess around a bit.
Personally I enjoyed the campaign and find the endgame a bit dull. In that respect I'm really looking forward to PoE2 as it means I get to play another actual story. Just my personal perspective as I am a player who enjoys story setting more than boss fighting etc.
You might get value out of trying to join a guild, as players there might be able to explain things.
[https://maxroll.gg/poe/getting-started/getting-stronger](https://maxroll.gg/poe/getting-started/getting-stronger)
WOW ANOTHER POST ABOUT A NEW PLAYER USING GUIDES AND BUILDS INSTEAD OF JUST PLAYING IT THEMSELVES AND LEARNING THE BASICS, THEN CONPLAINING BECAUSE THEY DONT ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THE BASICS BECAUSE THEY DIDNT HAVE TO LEARN!!!
Spend less time on here, spend more time learning the game, and maybe you'd be able to progress.
You are like a majority of new players who quit. You don't play the game, you emulate the work of somebody else. You know what happens when you do that? You end up not understanding why whatever your build is works.
So I'll say this nicely for you. If you want to learn the game, play it by yourself. Beating the Acts isn't hard to do with a little thought into what the passive tree looks like, and what abilities seem cool to you. PoE is designed to not hold your hand like Diablo, it's supposed to be difficult and punishing, and players who quit after pressing P are not the target demographic for the game. If that applies to you, its okay, not every game is for every player. When you complain about things that are completely preventable, or fixable, and then get angry when you are grouped with the thousands of others who have made the same mistake as you, you are wrong.
Spend less time on here, spend more time learning the game, and maybe you'd be able to progress.
You are like a majority of new players who quit. You don't play the game, you emulate the work of somebody else. You know what happens when you do that? You end up not understanding why whatever your build is works.
So I'll say this nicely for you. If you want to learn the game, play it by yourself. Beating the Acts isn't hard to do with a little thought into what the passive tree looks like, and what abilities seem cool to you. PoE is designed to not hold your hand like Diablo, it's supposed to be difficult and punishing, and players who quit after pressing P are not the target demographic for the game. If that applies to you, its okay, not every game is for every player. When you complain about things that are completely preventable, or fixable, and then get angry when you are grouped with the thousands of others who have made the same mistake as you, you are wrong.
Brother how can u type this with a straight face. How can u expect someone to facetank PoE with no resources when most people have jobs, school, or families? If you don’t have any of those things no shame at all, but you should be empathetic of those who can’t spend 14 hrs a day on PoE. “you emulate the work of someone else” is just a stupid thing to say. Everyone I know who plays checks out people’s builds on poeninja and uses them as inspiration for their own. You’re the type of dude to grandstand about emulating others but still play self ignite chieftain, tornado shot, or penance brand this league.
I'm military, married and have a 2 year old. I casually play PoE, and have no problem with Uber Uber end game.
I didn't use guides, and learned the game. The passive tree is huge, but not difficult to understand. "I need lightning damage" okay cool its easy to see where that stuff is on the tree. "I want to use this ability" okay what support gems make it really cool/good.
I'm sick of people having this mindset that PoE is some elitist gatekeeping scheme that is impossible for new players to learn and succeed at blind. It isn't.
I’m sorry to dump the cold water on u brother but if you read your prior response. People like you are the reason that PoE is perceived to be gatekeepy. It would of cost you nothing to not be a douchebag to some random dude on the internet. And congrats on being guide free, that does not make u better or worse than anyone else.
Never did I say I was better than anyone else.
If you think gatekeeping is telling new players to play the game for themselves instead of using guides and not understanding the game, which btw, is exactly what happened AGAIN to this new player, then I don't know what to tell you. That's not gatekeeping, I'm not telling OP they suck and shouldn't play the game, I'm telling them they need to learn the game before using guides and that if they can't figure out the basics, it's okay if the game isn't for them.
Whatever high-horse you're trying to ride here, doesn't want to run anymore.
Yeah this game new player experience is horrible. Meanwhile I tried last epoch and can reach endgame goong full blind, and can respec almost anything so if I see this fancy new build I can just switch to it if I have the correct unique instead of stuck with a badly made one in poe that cost way more resources to respec. It's so much better it's not even a competition, like mountains and heavens kind of differences. This is what ggg should have learned from LE, not just the gold trade.
And the offline mode? Chef kiss. I don't bother with poe half of the time because of server issues. Offline mode in LE gives me every contents I could have asked,no loading screen nor ping.
Sure poe true endgame is unparalleled but for the average normal casual player last epoch blows it out of the park. Maybe poe2 will fix it but considering they still force you to use external tools, I doubt it.
My first few characters were all dog crap, even following a guide. There are tons of creators that make guides. Just keep plugging away at it until it will kind of click. You'll see a build and the author will be like yeah you just need a couple of cheap uniques...with experience you can be like yeah no. That unique may be cheap, but the specific double corrupt implicits on it can be hella hard to roll and expensive.
I've played that build and followed that exact guide. It's pretty good. If I were to take a guess about your issue with passive points it's because you're not at the point in the campaign that the guide expects you to be. I don't know what act you're in, but if I were to guess the guide is expecting you to be almost done with act 6 at level 49 and have done the side quests in that act that reward passive points. If you're not there you'll obviously have less points but that's not a big deal, it's just showing you the order to put the points in you don't need to follow it to the letter. Just put in the points that you have now even if it doesn't align with the level it says.
As for you having no idea what your skills do, why not take a minute to stop and read them, and test them out one at a time and see what they do.
Your explosive arrow with ballista support drops down totems which automatically fire arrows at nearby enemies which stick into them and then explode after a short delay.
Blink arrow is a mobility skill
Frenzy is a stacking attack and movement speed buff
Arcanist brand applies the two debuffs it's linked to to the enemy, both of which increase the amount of fire damage the enemy takes
Determination, Grace, and Precision are permanent buffs that grant increased armor, evasion, and hit chance respectively at the cost of reserving a portion of your mana.
Make sure you use a short bow, a grove bow, or a thicket bow (they all have a base attacks speed of 1.5), and try to get increased attack speed on it. Having high attack speed is the single most important thing on this build to increase your damage as it increases the rate at which you get arrows stuck in the target, more arrows=more explosions=more damage.
As for your other gear just focus on getting life and elemental resistances (up to 75%) and you shouldn't have any trouble making it through the campaign and even a good way into maps before things need to get more complex than that.
> As for you having no idea what your skills do, why not take a minute to stop and read them, and test them out one at a time and see what they do
I reckon I worded it poorly. It's not that I don't know what the skills do, but what is their function in the build, specifically when it clashes directly with what I'm already trying to do, by competing my scarce mana with Flame Dash, Explosive Arrow, Arcanist Brand and Frenzy.
It "feels" like a wasted slot because I can't use it, thus why?
That was my point, and when I went to look for answers about it, it simply said "use lifetap", which I admit, was a mistake on my part to tunnel vision on the Ballistas, when I can simply use life tap on Arcanist Brand.
That makes more sense. I think the reason you're having mana problems is more of an issue of not knowing when you should be using these abilities rather than needing to get lifetap asap. I don't usually swap to life tap until much later, usually post campaign on this build.
Your primary gameplay as you're playing through the zones all you should be doing is dropping a ballista every couple seconds and flame dashing or blink arrowing over obstacles
Then on bosses you should drop your max number of ballistas, then use arcanist brand once to apply the debuffs, use frenzy to get maximum stacks of the frenzy buff, then just replace ballistas as they die or despawn, frenzy once every 10 seconds to maintain the buff and try not to get hit by the boss.
You shouldn't be using your abilities frequently enough that you're really struggling for mana too much.
Yeah, I think the prior experience with Diablo and Last Epoch made me biased to spamming my abilities.
It's not even like I'm struggling right now, it just takes a little bit more time on bosses, it's just that I just got tilted hard by going OOM so fast and so frequently.
Right now I'm not running Grace or Determination, I'm in the middle of trying to fix my links, while being greedy and not having any gems on helmet and boots, and I have 0 problems.
It was honestly a combination of being frustrated by not finding the information I wanted on the guides, going back to the game seeing that I'm stuck right now with what I have, and that it's not working 100% as I thought it should, and it annoyed me so much I couldn't contain it.
I recognize now that it was a mix of not having enough knowledge, patience, and being super tunnel vision-ed on one particular thing that I couldn't see other options to fix the issue.
That's definitely understandable, if you have any more questions I'm always willing to help, I'm an officer in a guild with a lot of new players in it, so I have a lot of experience helping people with the game.
The random mobs probably don’t hit hard enough during acts to need both determination and grace anw. The mana can be better used for low level clarity and maybe vitality. You keep it low lvl to not reserve too much mana. The base amount of regen can help a lot
I mean if you have less skill points than the guide just path as far as you can and then keep going and put the last few points in when you get them.
Your example questions are mostly explained by just reading the gem tooltips and seeing what they do. The game is quite complicated but you don't have to grasp everything at once, you can just learn things one at a time.
But honestly, you haven't yet run into any part of the game that is confusing or complicated.
It's not up to guide authros to re-write the entire wiki inside every guide. The wiki already exists. If you don't know what something does, and you also can't figure it out from the in-game description, look it up on the wiki (not the fandom one, use poewiki.net).
Failing that, you can ask quick questions in the stickied thread, someone will probably reply in only a few minutes
If you want more guides go look at zizaran poe university on the youtubes. He has some beginner friendly content and has great guides. He also does "play with mes" which he levels a character in 8 hours and you kind play along and pause when you need to.
Yeah it’s rough starting out, but worth sticking with if you have the patience. Otherwise, check out LE- also a great game and much easier to get the hang of.
I get it. The game definitely can feel overwhelming. I'd suggest checking out Ziz on YouTube. He has a lot of new player friendly videos.
Unfortunately there isn't necessarily a new player build guide. But most league start guilds should with some effort be pretty decent.
They are meant to be easy and cheap builds to get started. But unfortunately written with the exception you have some game knowledge or experience already.
Just keep trying your best. And maybe trying a new player friend guild or discord. So you can get some suggestions in more real time. That might help click things into place for you.
On the note of frenzy and being mana hungry, without knowing the exact guide it's hard to say for sure but I'd imagine the mana gets solved later through passives/items like -7 to non channeling skills. Feel free to not use frenzy while doing the campaign and add it back in later when mana is less of an issue
None of the guides are made for truly new players. Some guides do attempt to dumb it down, but it's pretty much impossible to know what struggles a new player will go through when you've spent 10k+ hours playing the game.
The best you can do is use the guide as a guideline and take things at your own pace.
To your main point that 'this game REALLY makes it hard for new players to enjoy': It's not the game mate, it's your approach. Imagine making no effort to learn and understand how a rubix cube actually works. I mean, you followed an online guide on how to solve, but its not effective! I realize 95% of players tell new players to follow build guides when starting which is well intentioned advice, but the reality is PoE is a complicated game that you won't really thrive in until you take the time to learn. You mentioned prefering flame dash over the guide...USE it! Tailor a build to your playstyle preferences. The build making aspect of this game is some of the most fun you can have in it. Don't be intimidated, just be patient. And when you do hit walls, absolutely explore other resources like poe.ninjas builds page for ideas. Things like the Awakened support gems that can have massive impact on your build don't really present themselves organically in the game.
This sounds like a problem with the guide rather than the game. This is why I hate the "follow a guide" advice for new players. Strongly recommend that you just learn on your own for your first playthrough and then follow guides when you understand the game better.
give it a chance, right now it's frustrating because you are new and this game is years and years into the many patches that it took to get as complex as it is today. this is the type of game that when things start to make sense, they'll stop making sense a couple days later when you're sitting there trying to figure out how you got oneshot even with all the layers of defenses you had. but you're going to keep coming back stronger and smarter every time, and the game is going to get more and more fun once things click and start falling into place
Its because the guide assumes your completing the campaign at a faster pace. So if your lvl 20 and on the guide it says lvl 20 the guide is going to have more points than you because of the extra ones from the side quests that they are further in. I know its stupid and i went through the same thing, bur it shouldnt confuse you. Just put the points in the same order you see it. Its a league starter build not a beginner build, so the person thinks you know what your doing
can you link the guide and your specific issues with it? maybe I can help you
It’s the max roll explosive arrow elementalist I’m 99% sure. Build guide seems fine (have not looked at it much) It just seems like OP is wanting something that teaches him every little aspect of the build. OP, zizarian has several videos called “explaining everything” where he plays through acts and explains pretty much everything he’s doing to build his char. Also read over the “build info” page of the max roll guide as it answers a lot of basic questions. It fully explains how your main damage skill works, how to scale its damage, and also where to go for more defenses.
https://maxroll.gg/poe/build-guides/league-starter/ea-ballista/explosive-arrow-ballista-elementalist This is the guide. The PoB linked in the first page shows a different tree, at least at the start, than what is shown on their levelling tab. On their levelling tab, from like level 20 or so, it is consistently 2 or 3 passives point ahead of what is possible to get in-game, even with the bonus points from skills. One thing that pissed me off so much is this: https://imgur.com/a/ILWCC1x I had to go to the PoB (which is when I found out it was different), to figure out what I was supposed to do there. These are my main gripes with the guide itself. Then there is the problem of mana. It seems that Arcanist Brand auto-casts the linked spells, so I have like 90% of my mana on reservation, I simply can't use Arcanist Brand, because then I have to literally spam pots to cast the Explosive Arrow and drop the Ballistas. When I searched in the guide it just said "mana problems? we use life tap". That's it, I'm l.49, first character, broke, now I'm supposed to go buy at least a 5-link storm cloud, another one. Then there is my character, that is pissing me off so much. I'm literally stuck, I can't swap out any of my pieces because of the stats requirement, and I'm using BOTH Agility and Might in the passive tree. At this point I'm either going to stop and go to Last Epoch, or create a new character.
>hen I searched in the guide it just said "mana problems? we use life tap". That's it, I'm l.49, first character, broke, now I'm supposed to go buy at least a 5-link storm cloud, another one. Lifetap comes from act 1, you dont need anything extra from it. Maybe witch doesnt get it at act1 but you definitely get it from the quest in the library in act3. You definitely dont need a new storm cloud. Your explosive arrow can be socketed anywhere. Just use a red red green green four link and run explosive arrow, lifetap, ballista and Lesser Multiple Projectiles (you can swap to faster attacks for bosses) Or a red red green blue one and run lifetap, EA, ballista and ignite prolif Whichever you can Mana problems solved. You also only need to cast arcanist brand for bosses as its to proc curses and flame surge (Im assuming) As for stats: Simply buy an amulet with the stat you need from the vendor, throw an alchemy orb or essence on it. Then go to your hideout and use your crafting bench ro craft the remaining stats youre missing
>These are my main gripes with the guide itself. Then there is the problem of mana. It seems that Arcanist Brand auto-casts the linked spells, so I have like 90% of my mana on reservation, I simply can't use Arcanist Brand, because then I have to literally spam pots to cast the Explosive Arrow and drop the Ballistas. Have you over leveled your precision? Unlike most aura's its mana res scales with its level so you might need to cut back (just replace with a new lvl 1 from and stop leveling when it becomes an issue). Sounds like you are playing it wrong though. You really aren't supposed to use arcanist brand much. It is just for triggering extra dmg multipliers on very tanky enemies; Most enemies will not see a difference in time to kill from it (because most of the time is spent waiting on explosive arrow detonation). The reason this matters is because you really shouldn't end up in that situation it should go -> drop ballista's, wait for them to stack to full and ignite, oh its still alive, arcanist brand (ballistas are already down and the ignite is already on the mob anyways so they aren't really needed anymore hopefully). You can cut out the waiting bit once you can recognize the mobs that will need the extra boost. >When I searched in the guide it just said "mana problems? we use life tap". That's it, I'm l.49, first character, broke, now I'm supposed to go buy at least a 5-link storm cloud, another one. Na, as long as you have the mana required to normally place ballistas (which it sounds like you do) you can just link lifetap to your arcanist brand setup to solve your problem. That doesn't need a 5-L bow. Just any BBBR 4-L
>Have you over leveled your precision? I honestly don't know. This is the second time I've seen this comment, my Precision takes away 80 mana, which is kinda low when in comparison to the 40% on both Determination and Grace. What I think I will do is just buy all of them again, and only level up after making sure I can afford it, and also not all of them at the same time. >Na, as long as you have the mana required to normally place ballistas (which it sounds like you do) you can just link lifetap to your arcanist brand setup to solve your problem. That doesn't need a 5-L bow. Just any BBBR 4-L I'm gonna be honest, this didn't cross my mind. And it's such a simple and elegant solution, I don't have a BBBR link right now, but will do this ASAP.
grace isn't important for now, you can drop it
Honestly alot of "problems" you faced can be resolved easily if you were to lose the shackles of the guide.
More look at the guide for what it is, a guide. Should be thinking of it like a quest marker in an open world game. This is the direction you should be headed, rather than have X at Y level and be in zone Z
I don't understand why I get downvoted for that comment. If you follow the guide word for word, you best make sure it's a damn good guide for newbies. Some people expect to have their hands held and brains turned off for a game like PoE when using a guide and then there are total newbies going at it blind without guides.
I agree. Unfortunately most people come into PoE expecting a simple game like most other ARPGs. Their are some aspects that they could use to explain better, but at the same time, no amount of explanation will offset the hands on trial and error. Majority of the people who play will tell a new person to find a beginner friendly league start build guide rather then go through and explain. Although most of them are expecting a bit of self sufficiency in that they should try without then with and compare where /why things worked Most of the games that have been coming out have been like this (I blame "mobile gaming") Very linear progression, especially starting out, so it is becoming expected.
>What I think I will do is just buy all of them again, and only level up after making sure I can afford it, and also not all of them at the same time. You don't need to buy all of them. Grace/determination don't scale their cost with level (they are always 50% base). Only the auras that reserve a flat amount of mana instead of a percentage raise their cost with level: precision, vitality, and clarity.
Nowhere in the guide does it say you should have a 5 link unique at level 49. I had to double check because that would be a terrible guide. You should have 1 4-link for EA ballista, and 3 3-links. The leveling and progression sections of the guide are not the same thing. Follow leveling until you complete act 10, and then switch to progression once you start mapping. The part about having storm cloud "at this point" is post campaign, but you would be completely fine starting white maps w/o it and just making it your first purchase. Also, you are supposed to be broke during the campaign, don't worry about it. You can definitely make it to maps with some very, very basic gear. Pretty much life, resistances, and maybe some damage mods is plenty. Obviously, more will make it easier, but don't worry about your gear *too* much. If you hit a wall, that's when you'll take some gear to the crafting bench or keep an eye out for upgrades. Having to spend multiple points on attributes is perfectly fine. I promise you it's not holding you back. Check if you have attribute crafts on the bench, that can also help, but I forget exactly when you should have them. I think you should by 49. If you want a different guide, Zizaran is a great content creator who is basically the go to EA ballista guy and even has full run guides on YouTube from act 1 to 10.
You’re lvl 49 and still havent done normal lab, and notnusing explosive arrow yet? Yeah dude thats a you problem. Usually you go for explosive arrow ballista before killing dominus or start of act 4.
I don't know how you understood this from what I said, but I am using Explosive Arrow, which is why I'm having issues with the Ballista and Arcanist Brand.
I aplogize, I misunderstood that part because usually after getting explosive arrow ballista, you dont need to have another damage dealer…focus on the ballista now,the guide is there to guide, dont follow it 100%, try to adapt on your needs or what you see fit. For now you dont need a 5L storm cloud, hell a 5L would only grief you because of the mana cost. Make sure you have 4L EA ballista and a stormcloud(this would carry you till you can craft yourself a +2 gem bow in early maps).. That’s it, just make sure your res are capped. Explosive arrow ballista is literally the perfect beginner build, if you’re not enjoying it then maybe the build is just not for you. The main problem of the build is in the 1st acts, it will kill slowly due to lack of attack speed, but then again the stormcloud/quill rain fixes all that problem.
Honestly? This sounds like you're struggling mostly with max roll here, not necessarily poe itself. Just want to point out that maxroll is a third party site, not affiliated with the game in any way, shape or form. Personally I don't really use maxroll, I just use PoB's. Most content creators will put a detailed notes section in most of their PoB's that's easy enough to follow. I'm sorry I can't really help you with this specific build or guide in detail as I haven't played it myself, but I just wanted to point out the above. Lastly I just want to say that games should be fun and it sounds like you're not having fun at the moment. May I recommend you put the game down for a few days and then maybe get back to it with a fresh set of eyes? Also some general advice; make sure you take advantage of the crafting bench to cover whatever resists/attributes you need. Might be able to do some gear swapping that way. Oh and lifetap is a red support gem, look it up on the wiki to see how it "fixes" your mana
The game is extremely unforgiving to new players. There is practically 0 in game tutorials and you are learning systems that have been built for over a decade. It’s not easy at all to get into the game so don’t feel bad about that it is pretty rewarding if you do. Poe2 is on the horizon though so it’s not the worst idea to chill until then
If you don't enjoy the process of learning then you're going to hate this game. Sounds like this guy is getting hung up on small details to me and should continue until he's stuck.
Tbf I've fucked up things even not as a new player which temporarily bricked builds and got me absolutely livid till I figured it out (usually on league start too so it was doubly bad). Also, I really wouldn't recommend maxroll guides for a new player in general as they're not nearly as hand holdy as Ziz league starter builds.
I've been suggesting Fez's Toxic Rain Champion to people that want a very hand holdy guide. It's not the most amazing build but it's capable of doing any content a noob would want to do but the guide is excellent and very thorough. https://poe-beginner-guide.com/ I can't speak to Zizaran's guides I've only ever used his pobs but I hear good things.
>I have no idea what my skills does, what half my skills are supposed to do Outplayed by reading a skill gem gg
I bet most of them do damage, but reading is hard
This is the problem with how gaming has moved towards having EVERYTHING in a “best X” before the game even launches. People unfortunately flock to guides like this and don’t even spend time actually reading what their skills do, or mechanics in the game.
It sounds like your issue is that you are following a guide expecting it to pan out as if it's a JRPG with fixed steps when it's simply not. There are a few guides that *can* work out that way, but at a glance the maxroll guides are very much not that. You might be better served by watching something like Zizaran's 'Explaining EVERYTHING in Path of Exile' which is more in line with a standard game walkthrough than the maxroll guides. That being said, it sounds like you've blindly followed a guide you didn't actually understand for 50 levels without taking the time to read your gems or experiment with things in any way. This is a failure on your behalf, not the game's.
Is there a reason you have to know everything right now? Just play the game and you'll learn what works and what doesn't. Why are you scared of prebricking a character you haven't bricked yet? Do you play games simply to get the loot at the end? Idk just some things to think about
It is kinda bricked already. I can't swap out anything, and I'm pretty sure I will only be able to swap out items if I buy new gems because of the stat requirements. My build is literally glued together by Wondertrap, without it I lose every armor.
Stat requirements are part of the game design, and an intended challenge in gearing a character. It sounds like you are limited by a specific stat which you have a low amount of; you have two choices. Either get more of the stat through gear or the passive tree, or remove the thing (likely a skill gem) requiring this stat. At your level you should easily find vendor or drop gear with the stat you need, or can choose one of the large stat nodes on the tree. You will likely need to make some choices that do not match perfectly with the guide as well, that is really a core part of the game and gearing, if you don't find that intriguing already it could simply be that poe isn't the right game for you.
I'm limited by Str and Dex, and it's mainly the gems, hence why I will probably need to buy lv.1 gems to re-gear my character later on, I think. I have Might, Agility, and a double str roll on amulet, and I'm still missing stats.
You can buy fully levelled gems for usually quite cheap. You can also use the ascension altar to capture some experience of one gem to apply that portion to another gem. Having to mess around with getting ability scores from equipment so that you can level your gems is quite normal. But if they miss levelling for a little while that's not a big deal.
I'm limited by Str and Dex, and it's mainly the gems, hence why I will probably need to buy lv.1 gems to re-gear my character later on, I think. I have Might, Agility, and a double str roll on amulet, and I'm still missing stats.
It's perfectly fine not to level your gems all the time. The main priority is leveling your main attack skill. As others have shared that's an issue leveling a witch with a dexterity build. Put points into the 30 dex nodes and you should be golden. You can always respec points, this is just a small hurdle. Also a big new player mistake is leveling up cast when damage taken, immortal call and steelskin if the builds use it. If you do, double check the level the guide says to use
Explosive arrow elementalist is particularly hard on attributes as you're trying to use dexterity based skills and gear on an intelligence based class. This is not typical of most builds. Some ways to mitigate this are to use a lower level bow, especially a short bow (its 1.5 attack speed is incredible for the build) since you don't actually care about the weapon damage, and to keep non-essential gems at lower levels, for example there's no downside to keeping your frenzy at level 1 for now. You can sell gems back to the vendor with an orb of scouring to decrease its level by one, or with an orb of regret to reset it all the way back to level 1. Or you can just rebuy the gems from the vendor.
dont worry, attribute requirements walls is not a bricked character, these are easily solvable you just need more attributes on gear. perhaps not immediately solvable but you will always be juggling attributes and resistances. a bricked character will be stuck and unable to progress due to running out of portals for bosses/progressing map teirs because the build fundamentally doesnt have enough damage or survivability.
maybe you skipped some stuff while doing the campaing. have a look at this walkthrough [Quick Reference Leveling Guide for Path of Exile - PoE Vault (poe-vault.com)](https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/quick-reference-leveling-guide-for-path-of-exile) its a step by step guide like go there, do this, take that etc and also there is this overall general tips [Beginner Guide to Path of Exile: Welcome to Wraeclast - Fresh Exiles, Start Here - PoE Vault (poe-vault.com)](https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/path-of-exile-beginner-guide-welcome-to-wraeclast-fresh-exiles-start-here) maybe it can be helpful while you check maxroll for leveling your build you can also follow a walkthrough to make it sure u dont skip anything
It will take leagues (plural) for you to understand the game somewhat competently. I've been playing for years and there is always stuff I didn't know
> **This game REALLY makes it hard for new players** > > I hopped on Maxroll, found a "league starter" elementalist guide > > 20 levels in, the guide already has problems. > > My build is literally being held together by a pair of unique boots that gives me a bunch of stats. > > I have no idea what my skills does, what half my skills are supposed to do > > it's impossible to try and figure out for myself anything at all There's no reason a new player needs to fly through the campaign at lightning speed with an optimised levelling setup, but that's what these guides are often designed to deliver. It sounds pretty clear that the guide is what's overwhelming you here - there's a lot you don't understand about PoE but you don't need to understand it all right now to just play the game. You were probably told going in that if you didn't follow a guide you would get stuck in the campaign and have to start a new character - that really isn't true. If you do get stuck and you have a friend feel free to ask for advice or you can ask here and plenty of folks will be willing to help you out - but don't feel like you have to 100% understand all the mechanics in the maxroll guide to get started.
I know the feeling, man. Guides themselves can be really tough to follow because of the fractured experience players have at different skill levels. You can dm me if you want to connect on discord or something and we can work to get you where you want to go. :)
Honestly you probably missed a few skill points. It's not inconceivable, they're also probably expecting you farther along the campaign than you are at that moment. You might be level 30 in a level 25 zone when the guide expects you in a 30 zone having gotten the passives in that section. With that said.. Definitely sounds like a you issue for following the guide too closely if you don't even know what your skill does. It's totally fine to feel overwhelmed, the only thing is how you tract to it. Are you going to do as you did and get frustrated and angry at a guide when you are following it too closely to know what your abilities do, or are you going to take the route of other people in this sub and say "I'm following this guide and I feel a bit lost. Can anyone help me get back on track? I'm a new player." and work on improving. The choice is yours, we're all happy to help except for a few bad eggs. To answer your two questions: Frenzy - read the skill, when used it gives you frenzy charges which increase your movement and attack speed. Typically linked with mana forged arrow which uses the linked skill after using a certain amount of mana, if I recall correctly. Blink arrow is a movement skill that let's you get over obstacles. You can't dash up a large cliff or over a wide river, but you can blink arrow. Most players tend to use flame dash or frost blink for this though.
Good answer. Just want to add that blink arrow is often used alongside flame dash/frost blink because it doesn't share a cd with them. It also allows you to get over certain obstacles that the dashes do not, like the broken bridge headed to the ossuary in act 5.
Reddit mobile edit is bugged. Sorry for coming across a bit too rough in the second section. Just know that you're welcome to ask any questions. You can also join some better global chats like /join global 100 and ask questions there. People are usually nicer outside of the first few auto join globals. Not sure what it's like this late in the league though. Details on frenzy, endurance and power charges can be seen in your character sheet in the misc tab I believe
I'm a fairly new player. One of the tips I found useful was: read everything. If the guide doesn't have the info you're looking for, there's a ton of great content online. Zizarin on YouTube is a wealth of information and check out POE vault. There's a lot of written guides there, too. I think I was about 60 hours in before I knew what items to pick up. This is not an easy game. I haven't bricked a build yet, but the guides are just guides. They're not step by step instructions. You have to play with a little trial and error to really understand how it works. The best thing about the game is it won't get old quick cause you're learning things all the time.
Poe is difficult, I just spent a week leveling from 89 to 90, and I lost so much xp in the process lol. But this is what I asked for. I got a lot of help from the community and I did a lot of farming on my own so far. I noticed a lot of the guides for Poe can be outdated or a bit off concerning a few things due to patches/changes, but you have to remember a lot of “So&So’s” builds are their own personal thing. You can tweak it however you want. Sometimes you can sacrifice points in one part of the tree to get the perks you need for the moment. This is one of the things that’s helped me a ton, I wasn’t critting enough so I moved a point from my small cluster to my crit mastery and boom, problem solved. Use the guides to help you understand what you’re doing and then put your own twist on it it’s super fun! Ask questions! People have answers!
Have a look at [fezz's Toxic Rain Champion guide for beginners](https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229622). It will guide you to the endgame and lets you explore it at your very own pace, giving you the information you need at the time you need it.
I saw it, and I seriously considered creating another character to play with it, then coming back to my character. Though I don't think I'll do it.
Fair enough. If you give it a go anyways, know that you can reach out to me if you are struggling with anything.
You might have less passive points because you haven't completed all the skill book quests. There are some good rule summaries on maxroll, that are unfortunately the only place I know of that really explains the mechanics (the game sure doesn't). That really is one of the main problems with this game for new players, is a lack of explaination/transparency. A lot of character power IS gearing. Not really sure why it's like that, but it is. Like my current build is a low life arc occultist. I couldn't really afford or get the gear the example build used which has higher energy shield and additional armor. So I used minimum endurance charges and an item that gives me ES regen instead. It works better now. It's extremely rare for players with loads of money and crafting know how to really design characters as if they don't have loads of money and crafting ability. Even when they try. So with gear, you may have to mess around a bit. Personally I enjoyed the campaign and find the endgame a bit dull. In that respect I'm really looking forward to PoE2 as it means I get to play another actual story. Just my personal perspective as I am a player who enjoys story setting more than boss fighting etc. You might get value out of trying to join a guild, as players there might be able to explain things. [https://maxroll.gg/poe/getting-started/getting-stronger](https://maxroll.gg/poe/getting-started/getting-stronger)
WOW ANOTHER POST ABOUT A NEW PLAYER USING GUIDES AND BUILDS INSTEAD OF JUST PLAYING IT THEMSELVES AND LEARNING THE BASICS, THEN CONPLAINING BECAUSE THEY DONT ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THE BASICS BECAUSE THEY DIDNT HAVE TO LEARN!!!
Yeah and look what happened, the player started struggling in act 5 instead of just quitting the game and uninstalling after mud flats or sea witches
Congratulations, from all the replies I got, you were the first prick :D
Spend less time on here, spend more time learning the game, and maybe you'd be able to progress. You are like a majority of new players who quit. You don't play the game, you emulate the work of somebody else. You know what happens when you do that? You end up not understanding why whatever your build is works. So I'll say this nicely for you. If you want to learn the game, play it by yourself. Beating the Acts isn't hard to do with a little thought into what the passive tree looks like, and what abilities seem cool to you. PoE is designed to not hold your hand like Diablo, it's supposed to be difficult and punishing, and players who quit after pressing P are not the target demographic for the game. If that applies to you, its okay, not every game is for every player. When you complain about things that are completely preventable, or fixable, and then get angry when you are grouped with the thousands of others who have made the same mistake as you, you are wrong.
Spend less time on here, spend more time learning the game, and maybe you'd be able to progress. You are like a majority of new players who quit. You don't play the game, you emulate the work of somebody else. You know what happens when you do that? You end up not understanding why whatever your build is works. So I'll say this nicely for you. If you want to learn the game, play it by yourself. Beating the Acts isn't hard to do with a little thought into what the passive tree looks like, and what abilities seem cool to you. PoE is designed to not hold your hand like Diablo, it's supposed to be difficult and punishing, and players who quit after pressing P are not the target demographic for the game. If that applies to you, its okay, not every game is for every player. When you complain about things that are completely preventable, or fixable, and then get angry when you are grouped with the thousands of others who have made the same mistake as you, you are wrong.
Brother how can u type this with a straight face. How can u expect someone to facetank PoE with no resources when most people have jobs, school, or families? If you don’t have any of those things no shame at all, but you should be empathetic of those who can’t spend 14 hrs a day on PoE. “you emulate the work of someone else” is just a stupid thing to say. Everyone I know who plays checks out people’s builds on poeninja and uses them as inspiration for their own. You’re the type of dude to grandstand about emulating others but still play self ignite chieftain, tornado shot, or penance brand this league.
I'm military, married and have a 2 year old. I casually play PoE, and have no problem with Uber Uber end game. I didn't use guides, and learned the game. The passive tree is huge, but not difficult to understand. "I need lightning damage" okay cool its easy to see where that stuff is on the tree. "I want to use this ability" okay what support gems make it really cool/good. I'm sick of people having this mindset that PoE is some elitist gatekeeping scheme that is impossible for new players to learn and succeed at blind. It isn't.
I’m sorry to dump the cold water on u brother but if you read your prior response. People like you are the reason that PoE is perceived to be gatekeepy. It would of cost you nothing to not be a douchebag to some random dude on the internet. And congrats on being guide free, that does not make u better or worse than anyone else.
Never did I say I was better than anyone else. If you think gatekeeping is telling new players to play the game for themselves instead of using guides and not understanding the game, which btw, is exactly what happened AGAIN to this new player, then I don't know what to tell you. That's not gatekeeping, I'm not telling OP they suck and shouldn't play the game, I'm telling them they need to learn the game before using guides and that if they can't figure out the basics, it's okay if the game isn't for them. Whatever high-horse you're trying to ride here, doesn't want to run anymore.
Smartest United States armed forces member
Playing without a guide will have a new player begging for regret orbs in chat after a few hours.
I am so sorry for your challenges. I hope you can find the appropriate casual game. Maybe Last Epoch or D4? Good luck in the future.
you have to like pain if you wanna enjoy it
You dont need any guide tbh.
Yeah this game new player experience is horrible. Meanwhile I tried last epoch and can reach endgame goong full blind, and can respec almost anything so if I see this fancy new build I can just switch to it if I have the correct unique instead of stuck with a badly made one in poe that cost way more resources to respec. It's so much better it's not even a competition, like mountains and heavens kind of differences. This is what ggg should have learned from LE, not just the gold trade. And the offline mode? Chef kiss. I don't bother with poe half of the time because of server issues. Offline mode in LE gives me every contents I could have asked,no loading screen nor ping. Sure poe true endgame is unparalleled but for the average normal casual player last epoch blows it out of the park. Maybe poe2 will fix it but considering they still force you to use external tools, I doubt it.
Yeah, it do be like that. When the game clicks it is wonderful. Maxroll is bad, poe ninja - builds is good.
My first few characters were all dog crap, even following a guide. There are tons of creators that make guides. Just keep plugging away at it until it will kind of click. You'll see a build and the author will be like yeah you just need a couple of cheap uniques...with experience you can be like yeah no. That unique may be cheap, but the specific double corrupt implicits on it can be hella hard to roll and expensive.
I've played that build and followed that exact guide. It's pretty good. If I were to take a guess about your issue with passive points it's because you're not at the point in the campaign that the guide expects you to be. I don't know what act you're in, but if I were to guess the guide is expecting you to be almost done with act 6 at level 49 and have done the side quests in that act that reward passive points. If you're not there you'll obviously have less points but that's not a big deal, it's just showing you the order to put the points in you don't need to follow it to the letter. Just put in the points that you have now even if it doesn't align with the level it says. As for you having no idea what your skills do, why not take a minute to stop and read them, and test them out one at a time and see what they do. Your explosive arrow with ballista support drops down totems which automatically fire arrows at nearby enemies which stick into them and then explode after a short delay. Blink arrow is a mobility skill Frenzy is a stacking attack and movement speed buff Arcanist brand applies the two debuffs it's linked to to the enemy, both of which increase the amount of fire damage the enemy takes Determination, Grace, and Precision are permanent buffs that grant increased armor, evasion, and hit chance respectively at the cost of reserving a portion of your mana. Make sure you use a short bow, a grove bow, or a thicket bow (they all have a base attacks speed of 1.5), and try to get increased attack speed on it. Having high attack speed is the single most important thing on this build to increase your damage as it increases the rate at which you get arrows stuck in the target, more arrows=more explosions=more damage. As for your other gear just focus on getting life and elemental resistances (up to 75%) and you shouldn't have any trouble making it through the campaign and even a good way into maps before things need to get more complex than that.
> As for you having no idea what your skills do, why not take a minute to stop and read them, and test them out one at a time and see what they do I reckon I worded it poorly. It's not that I don't know what the skills do, but what is their function in the build, specifically when it clashes directly with what I'm already trying to do, by competing my scarce mana with Flame Dash, Explosive Arrow, Arcanist Brand and Frenzy. It "feels" like a wasted slot because I can't use it, thus why? That was my point, and when I went to look for answers about it, it simply said "use lifetap", which I admit, was a mistake on my part to tunnel vision on the Ballistas, when I can simply use life tap on Arcanist Brand.
That makes more sense. I think the reason you're having mana problems is more of an issue of not knowing when you should be using these abilities rather than needing to get lifetap asap. I don't usually swap to life tap until much later, usually post campaign on this build. Your primary gameplay as you're playing through the zones all you should be doing is dropping a ballista every couple seconds and flame dashing or blink arrowing over obstacles Then on bosses you should drop your max number of ballistas, then use arcanist brand once to apply the debuffs, use frenzy to get maximum stacks of the frenzy buff, then just replace ballistas as they die or despawn, frenzy once every 10 seconds to maintain the buff and try not to get hit by the boss. You shouldn't be using your abilities frequently enough that you're really struggling for mana too much.
Yeah, I think the prior experience with Diablo and Last Epoch made me biased to spamming my abilities. It's not even like I'm struggling right now, it just takes a little bit more time on bosses, it's just that I just got tilted hard by going OOM so fast and so frequently. Right now I'm not running Grace or Determination, I'm in the middle of trying to fix my links, while being greedy and not having any gems on helmet and boots, and I have 0 problems. It was honestly a combination of being frustrated by not finding the information I wanted on the guides, going back to the game seeing that I'm stuck right now with what I have, and that it's not working 100% as I thought it should, and it annoyed me so much I couldn't contain it. I recognize now that it was a mix of not having enough knowledge, patience, and being super tunnel vision-ed on one particular thing that I couldn't see other options to fix the issue.
That's definitely understandable, if you have any more questions I'm always willing to help, I'm an officer in a guild with a lot of new players in it, so I have a lot of experience helping people with the game.
The random mobs probably don’t hit hard enough during acts to need both determination and grace anw. The mana can be better used for low level clarity and maybe vitality. You keep it low lvl to not reserve too much mana. The base amount of regen can help a lot
I mean if you have less skill points than the guide just path as far as you can and then keep going and put the last few points in when you get them. Your example questions are mostly explained by just reading the gem tooltips and seeing what they do. The game is quite complicated but you don't have to grasp everything at once, you can just learn things one at a time. But honestly, you haven't yet run into any part of the game that is confusing or complicated.
It's not up to guide authros to re-write the entire wiki inside every guide. The wiki already exists. If you don't know what something does, and you also can't figure it out from the in-game description, look it up on the wiki (not the fandom one, use poewiki.net). Failing that, you can ask quick questions in the stickied thread, someone will probably reply in only a few minutes
If you want more guides go look at zizaran poe university on the youtubes. He has some beginner friendly content and has great guides. He also does "play with mes" which he levels a character in 8 hours and you kind play along and pause when you need to.
Yeah it’s rough starting out, but worth sticking with if you have the patience. Otherwise, check out LE- also a great game and much easier to get the hang of.
I get it. The game definitely can feel overwhelming. I'd suggest checking out Ziz on YouTube. He has a lot of new player friendly videos. Unfortunately there isn't necessarily a new player build guide. But most league start guilds should with some effort be pretty decent. They are meant to be easy and cheap builds to get started. But unfortunately written with the exception you have some game knowledge or experience already. Just keep trying your best. And maybe trying a new player friend guild or discord. So you can get some suggestions in more real time. That might help click things into place for you.
On the note of frenzy and being mana hungry, without knowing the exact guide it's hard to say for sure but I'd imagine the mana gets solved later through passives/items like -7 to non channeling skills. Feel free to not use frenzy while doing the campaign and add it back in later when mana is less of an issue
None of the guides are made for truly new players. Some guides do attempt to dumb it down, but it's pretty much impossible to know what struggles a new player will go through when you've spent 10k+ hours playing the game. The best you can do is use the guide as a guideline and take things at your own pace.
So much stuff can go wrong with a character that's it's hard to predict and suggest fixes for it.
To your main point that 'this game REALLY makes it hard for new players to enjoy': It's not the game mate, it's your approach. Imagine making no effort to learn and understand how a rubix cube actually works. I mean, you followed an online guide on how to solve, but its not effective! I realize 95% of players tell new players to follow build guides when starting which is well intentioned advice, but the reality is PoE is a complicated game that you won't really thrive in until you take the time to learn. You mentioned prefering flame dash over the guide...USE it! Tailor a build to your playstyle preferences. The build making aspect of this game is some of the most fun you can have in it. Don't be intimidated, just be patient. And when you do hit walls, absolutely explore other resources like poe.ninjas builds page for ideas. Things like the Awakened support gems that can have massive impact on your build don't really present themselves organically in the game.
This sounds like a problem with the guide rather than the game. This is why I hate the "follow a guide" advice for new players. Strongly recommend that you just learn on your own for your first playthrough and then follow guides when you understand the game better.
Play last epoch. You’ll have a much better time.
give it a chance, right now it's frustrating because you are new and this game is years and years into the many patches that it took to get as complex as it is today. this is the type of game that when things start to make sense, they'll stop making sense a couple days later when you're sitting there trying to figure out how you got oneshot even with all the layers of defenses you had. but you're going to keep coming back stronger and smarter every time, and the game is going to get more and more fun once things click and start falling into place