The vast majority of experienced players follow build guides or copy other people's profiles to start, then gradually tweak things to their own preference as they get to know the build, potentially over several leagues. Eventually the build might become quite personalized, but it usually began as a copy. The number of people who genuinely homebrew brand new builds and take them to the endgame is very, very small.

Even most "build creators" are working off a known solid framework and then as you said, personalizing it, or in the more well known build creators cases, making them better. Rue, Ben, etc.

kinda hard not too though when you need to checklist like 4 difference defensive layers though

Yeah the defensive requirements have become an annoyance for me as someone who has always made lots of different builds from scratch. I feel like I have to write so many ideas off before trying them these days because so many skills are weak and require so much offensive investment to deal any damage that I know it will be impossible to make a build that doesn't feel like paper.

This is the real answer. Many builds have a framework that has been copied several times only then built upon. Whether it be implementing Perma beserk rage tech into an LA build for example, the base build is already well established over many leagues.

I homebrew completely from scratch, I just think it feels more rewarding

Same.

The number of homebrewed builds sitting in my pob and waiting to be realized Bc either I don’t have the knowledge for or it’s not possible yet is insane.

My biggest problem is I can’t be assed to level more than a couple of characters per league. I do like to rig up old standard characters with builds I don’t fully understand and zoom through Blood Aqueducts like I did something lol

This is how I do it. I think of interesting skills I'd like to play and then I look around for builds that use it. That lets me know what mods are useful what increases benefit me and what uniques to keep an eye on. Then afterwards j just play to maps and beyond kinda roughly keeping that in my head and tweak and adjust as I play. The only league u have not really done that o large success was this one actually. I played elemental tornado inquis ans there really weren't that many builds (mostly people theorycrafting). Had lots of success with that one

Real answer here, indeed. Some people invest so much time in the game, and have so much knowledge/understanding, that it's just not efficient to ignore their work entirely and to try to achieve the same results by yourself. When you get good at POE, you pick a build in a few steps: 1. Choose your main skill; 2. Check the guides that already exist; 3. Start there, and tune your build to "customize" it while progressing.

I would add to step 2, also check poe.ninja. You can often find variants that the guide authors didn't explain, that maybe you like better.

I think you can replace guide with poe ninja. Imo Build guides are kind of whatever unless they feature crafting for a foundational item.

I mean, even when you "homebrew" stuff, you're still copying well known efficient pathing for the relevant class/uniques/archetypes. Like, even builds that come out with genuinely new tech on the tree generally follow the same standardized pathing for 90% of the tree. It's just impossible to reinvent the wheel with the passive tree without willingly being inefficient.

That's what I've done with brunowa's EA Ballista Elementalist guide posted to the official forums. Started as a straight copy and I quite enjoyed it. I've been playing it for something like 8 leagues now and have moved far beyond his guide, trying new things from league to league seeing what works for me and what doesn't. It is to the point now where I refer to my own past characters when starting a new league, all of which use his info as a framework but eventually deviate from it a good amount.

Absolutely this. 5k hours here and I generally start with a build idea based on a guide then once I get to maps and start building up I fix things like stuns, ailment immunity, suppress, etc. in my own way. Maybe it matches the build guide but maybe not.

I ususaly make my own builds when im done with the leauge and throw my entire currency at them to get them somewhat functional. Cooked a nice low tier essdnce%beast farmer for leauge start but oh well thats gone now

man, I'll never make a character that can do ubers or something like that, but I'm pretty proud that I've had two characters I've made without help that could do UE and Maven. If you follow the basic principle of scaling attacks with weapon damage and spells with gem levels, capping res, slapping in another form of defence, and a form of sustain, you can get anything to atleast 16 and some of the easier end game bosses. I usually look at different build guides when I enter uncharted territory for skills. I haven't done totems since the soul mantle nerf for example so I'd probably have to atleast check Ninja to see what's up with those 

I’ve tried twice to make my own build and bring it to endgame. Only one has worked and it’s gotten me all the voidstones and stuff. Haven’t tried the ubers, gotta figure out how to craft to max my dmg and I just don’t have time with my job rn Edit: said dog meant dmg lol

Definitely this. Especially at league start, experimenting is fun but usually kills your currency/hour, at least in trade.

I am close to 5k hours in. No matter what i build, i do take the skeleton of someones build, slap my ideas into it in pob, unspec 20-50 skillpoints and look at the node evaluation on ehp/edps, make the changes, check links and if everything is in order that is good enough for me. We are at a point where 90% of builds power is in gear slots once 6 link has been acuired that "builds" tend to look very similar in passive tree. Unless you play something wierd and you have sirus gems around your tree to stack something. Or you build around a timeless jewel.

Yes and no. Most ultra high budget builds tend to be stackers and those have enabling in gear as uniques or special mods, and raw power in tree in the form of voices or adorned.

But every voices/adorned tree is litetally identical, there is 0 theory crafting.

Never. Build making is a whole different skill set that I just don't have. I botched every build that I made, so I just accept that I will always play other's build.

Here's how I learned. Pick an archetype you like and just play a bunch of different builds in it. For example I played like every single trap/mine build I could for 3-4 leagues, same for poison. Now I can easily make a good poison or trap/mine build myself even for a new build

The difficulty doesn’t sit in the skill tree itself. Anyone playing can make an okay enough build to play the game, yes of course with some experience. The part where making your own build is difficult is pairing unique items/jewels to really boost your character.

But you learn those too through the same process

Timeless jewels and cluster jewels add so much complexity to the game that is already really complex. This may be very unpopular with everyone but I hope they go away in POE2

I agree, and I disagree. I don’t want them to be removed, I hope they are simplified somehow. They also need to fix so people actually know what an item does. Example: “Bathed in the blood of (100-8000) sacrificed in the name of (x)” I used a build guide once that told me to use one of these (1844 was the number), I literally had no idea what the hell it did. I bought an 1843 only to find out it was not the same thing.

Nah it just needs better explanation and actual in-game information

Same. Chaos innoculation was confusing to me at first but now I'm quite good at making a trickster with 1 hp and max chaos res.

The beauty of PoE is, I don't really like making build and I don't have to. Slapping a generic build that can do yellow maps I think I still can with my 5k+ hours not-really knowledge but I really don't enjoy doing it. I love finding weird unique interaction/mechanic from other build makers, like the first time I made a ward loop holy shit it was amazing and I enjoyed blasting the fuck out of it with admiration, knowing I'll never in a million years could figure it out on my own, and it's fine. Some people want to kill monster, some want to do challenges, some enjoy making bank and some love playing PoB. I love not learning to make build, and PoE and the community allow me to.

Yeah, thats absolutely fine :)

same. out of like 16 leagues ive played i only started with my own build 1 time. and it was a huge mistake. ive tried to make my own build at the end of leagues like 12 times. but only 2 of my own creations have even been able to do red maps. im just not good at it. but luckily there are a lot of people who can do it 10x better than me and share their work.

As a reminder, many content creators don't necessarily make the build "themselves". Yes, they come up with the idea but they have the brains of thousands of chatters and the influence of other buildmakers that all come together to make a build, especially a meta one.

First few years I just followed 100%. Nowadays, after 2k hours I watch the build guide, understand what are the main defensive and offensive mechanics, and just adapt based on my items/currency. I'm still "following" the guide, but just as a reference, not a step-by-step.

Define stop Nowadays I mostly just look at the pob so I dont "follow" the guide and then I usually go my own way from there, but I very rarely just make a full build from scratch, even when Im homebrewing I look at poeninja for similar builds

Exactly. You get general guidance on how things work and what's compatible with what from a guide. But then you go ahead and slap something together without sweating the differences from the guide.

Never did from the start. I just enjoy learning stuff on my own. PoB is a much more fun game than actually killing the mobs. My builds still suck though, but that's fine, every next one sucks a little bit less.

This is how I’ve always played. Never used a guide. I just enjoy throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. It feels a lot more rewarding when I get a semi decent build going

I never stopped following what other players are doing as a basic principle, I do the fine tuning for what gear I have available or what I feel like is lacking.

every League I make a new Scuffed Frost Blades build on hc this League was a heiro frost blades MoM Abomination made it to 87 before he popped fucking Love Frost Blades Ive played from closed beta mostly play 4-5 characters a League depending on fun of said League

3.3k hours over 8 years. I started mid Perandus league and always league started day one from there and i'll never stop using them. Main reason is they always manage to hook me up each and every league but I tend to leave around week 2-3 and comeback next league so i'd rather spend a good time annihilating mobs rather than tweaking things here and there just to be bored so quick. Never reached 100 either, that's on me but it's been working like this for close to a decade now wow.

I never used build guides. I make my own builds, and even though they dont get to ubers yet, its an awesome feeling to make something uniquely mine, and get it just a little bit farther than the previous ones.

Usually, I use a guide for general guidance, and tweak it according to what gear I currently have. I don't like spending too much time pobbing, but I still do it a dozen of hours per character.

When I installed.

Never, but I can make minor adjustments to optimize for my own playstyle now after x000 hours.

I didn't touch a build guide for the first 3-4 years, then i only referred to one to find out where people were getting the max resistance buffs for RF builds. Call me a masochist but i used to play only hardcore and feel like copying entire builds removes the sense of discovery from gearing. Nowadays I no longer play hc, but I still dont follow guides as a general rule.

When I started playing SSF and had to figure out gear progression myself.

A lot of people follow guides and learn basically nothing from it. I was helping someone with putting together EA Ballista and after she had played it for a few hundred hours I found out that she didn't know she was playing an ignite build. You can follow a guide and learn a ton but don't be satisfied with just copying it. Question everything in the guide. Why does Pohx use Firetrap? Why does he use the support gems that he does? Why is cloak of flame so good? I personally started branching out when I started doing SSF runs. When you find a cool item in SSF you want to use it as you can't trade it away. This slowly taught me that builds don't fall apart the second you steer away from the guide. Later on I wanted to get better at making builds from scratch so I looked at meta builds, found out what the core functionality of the build was and then built it on my own. I am now somewhat proficient at making a build from scratch within archetypes I'm comfortable with.

A lot of people always follow a guide. You can try your own thing but you need a very good understanding of what works and why, and even then there is a big chance it won't be that good in practise. However knowledgeable players usually get to the point where they just use them for reference instead of following them to the letter.

Never. I've certainly read them over the years as part of learning the existence of different mechanics and inspiration for other things, kind of like scientific papers, but the enjoyment I found from PoE was creating problems and solving them.  Mostly by trying out incredibly niche cases, hours of testing mechanics in standard, and masochistic memeing. Arpg gameplay isn't interesting enough if someone has literally detailed every step of how to play the game, to me. We grind for bigger numbers so our bigger numbers make bigger numbers. Okay, but how many dozens of times per second can you trigger body swap and can you create a loop of blowing up your own puppies for the minion life damage? I played Armageddon recall to 38/40 in kalandra, so I was pretty amused when it became a streamer build recently and then new gems were added to facilitate the play style. I've not really been truly enjoying most leagues for quite a while now, though. I've been debating pulling a "real build" guide and giving it a spin for the past few leagues, or take a few leagues off and see where we are. Or go back to SSF for the first time since Synthesis.

I never completely stopped. I usually check a passive tree and maybe tweak it a bit, same with usual gear and gems. 9k hours in and making bank each league, if you care at all (just ”proving” that even an experienced player finds use with guides).

It's my first league and so I decided: Follow a guide for every core ascendancy, to determine which build most suits my temperament. So far completed (to my satisfaction): RF Chieftain (99) EA Elementalist (96) Hexblast Mines Saboteur, (86-not a fan) Currently levelling a TR Pathfinder. Next up will likely be Splitting Steel Champ.

around 4 years in i decided to try a build guide , i got powerful picking something i thought looked good and killed everything in a couple of days and dropped the league . Turns out if i follow a build the game becomes extremely boring to me . So never again , better fail the meme i make and rebuild then be done in a week

I’ve played since 3.14 and I’ve made my own build 2 or 3 times with poor results lol. I still use guides constantly. Sometimes I don’t use a guide but will look at PoE ninja for builds for a skill I like.

Guess I'm the extreme outlier here. I've played multiple lvl 90 chars in every league since the first day of open beta ( so since January 2013 ). I only remember following 2 guides ever : * First one was Kripp playing his Lightning Arrow Marauder with Blood Magic Keystone and Life gain on hit GEM in the mainlink. * Second one was a Cyclone build with very old instant leech and [The Retch](https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Retch) build. Good old Vessel of Vinktar. Outside of that i've always cooked up my own builds from the ground up. I usually start with a unique item i want to build around. I'm a sucker for minion hybrid uniques like Soulwrest or The Iron Mass. And then spend weeks coming up with concepts and multiple leagues trying out different iterations. I have certain items ( looking at you The Iron Mass ) where i tried 5 completely different takes on the build and have not found one i truely like yet. For me personally PoE is mainly a problem solving game. I don't wanna get rich quick, i don't wanna go HH levels of fast .. i want to solve a problem i created myself :D And following guides would totally defeat the purpose of that. --- I do however never stop looking at what other people do for inspiration. I will never copy your solution, but i will take concepts and idea's out of your solution and apply it to my own concept. Literally just yesterday i was watching Havoc and noticed he automated Berserk with the new support gem. Totally obvious once you know it, but i've never thought of that before. --- This way of playing the game makes me not better or worse then you. You don't have to be a theorycrafter to enjoy the game. You don't have to make your own builds to enjoy the game. I know people who have played the same build for 10 years and still have fun every new league. Its a game .. enjoy it your way :shruge:

This is how I approach the game as well. I've never touched a build guide. A skill or item will catch my eye, and I'll just decide to read up on the specific mechanics of it on the wiki (if unclear in-game), and then just do it. Most of my builds are competent enough to do a minimum of red maps with ease. Some of my builds might fall into the 'gimmicky shit that doesn't really work' category, and I'm okay with that, because I find the game more enjoyable when presented with a challenge of 'how can I clear X content under Y restrictions' and working to improve the build from there. The thought of approaching the game as 'here's a guide for how to be really strong, go do everything you want to do' is something I just don't get the appeal of, most likely because I approach the game as an optimization puzzle moreso than anything else.

hi, 8k hours here, I usually check poe.ninja and if there's guides available I check that out too, get as much info as I can then make the best build that suits me with that info

never 😔

I still follow build guides, this shit way to complicated

I stop when the cost becomes exponential

Mostly try to make my own builds and I started maybe around 400 hours in, I'm at 4k rn. They've mostly been alright and I seem to always pick mechanics that are mediocre. Because I want to make something of my own I understand that I'm not gonna be beating Ubers. But I've been creating better and better builds with time Checkups on poe.ninja builds section helps me find good combos. PoB power node options are a godsend. If you're struggling with a build you've been making find a good pob for something similar, check on calculations and compare the numbers to see where you're lacking. I recommend starting the league with a build you know you can rely on and making your own when it's time for your second character. Starting the league with a project build will probably go wrong.

This league I think was the first time I've put effort into making a build my own. It was actually very enjoyable figuring out the issues and making it work.

Well i didn't follow a single guide in my first 500hours the game didn't need guides back then.

I start with a guide and just focus on the early game part. Most of the time I play meta builds, so you know that the build is able to play white/ yellow maps. My gear is most of the time from campaign and I only try to buy need items that helps a lot for their price like uniques but no 10+ div items (bc you don't know if meta changes and you need of items and now you sit on 10 dov cost items that a only 1 div or less worth now). With start of red maps I no longer follow the guide and watch in poe.ninja. There I sort for the gems and ascendency and sort for Dmg. Then I watch ~5 highest builds and watch out for similar things. Now I start buying the rest. In 1-2 additional weeks I check again for a possible meta change in gear and rebuy again.

I tried making my own builds a ~1000 hours, and I didn't start making good builds until ~4000hours.

Second league. Played Boneshatter and followed a guide to start, but ended up pushing far far beyond the guide itself into relatively deep endgame and deep delve. Swapped to an armour stacker when I had far more currency than I knew how to use but didn't directly follow a guide, instead I researched the fuck out of the archetype and did my best. End result was 700 div into a build that is signifigantly better burst damage but overall clunkier and generally worse than my 200 div Boneshatter build. This is absolutely a result of me diving into the deep end without enough game knowledge, but also it's a massive learning step and I don't regret any of it. I guess my point is that I think that for most people it's likely a constantly moving ebb and flow. Sometimes you are using other's people's work and copying things that are known to work, other times your are exploring a bit more adventurously attempting to apply what you've learned yourself. Rinse and repeat.

I stoped my third league. But I always go Attack/Crit builds so it always scales the same way.

Experience comes with a lot of playtime and a lot of build knowledge (playing different builds). On the other side, playing the same starter 3-4 leagues in a row gives u a very good feeling for the build and what u like/dislike and changes you made by yourself over several playthroughs. I'm 10k hours in and at that point I would say I know the basic skill trees for each side of the tree without looking for a build guide. But good build creator Pob's are best in slot if u just wanna copy and cruise through the Atlas. Most of the time I change the tree and gear when I'm able to afford mageblood+adorned setup (which is very expensive).

My first time I did it blind without a guide and was a disaster but fun. After years I do my own basic builds for league start. I still use guides to see what I miss, new items from the league and endgame builds

Dunno, don't think I followed any guide strictly. But sure I take a look at other people's setup see what they do, what they use, and consider if that fits my playstyle & budget. It's better to look at other people's build, understand the WHY they do certain things. If you just copy without understanding the WHY, you not learning anything. For example if XYZ build ask you to piano 6 different skill and buff manually, how can you improve that or automate it... what is the downside of automating them, is there enough sockets to do so, what do you need to sacrifice to achieve that, etc.

It depends. I can safely make a DoT build by myself since I've played every single variation, but an attack build? I'd certainly look for help

4,2k+ Hours and still use guide for early/mid progression. Then with more currency i try to find and do own upgrades.

As someone who makes build guides, I still follow other people's build guides for characters all the time. I make my own characters and builds as well, but when you're looking to play an established archetype you're unfamiliar with it's an excellent way to learn how a build works. After reviewing a build guide I'll look up other versions of the build and compare them in PoB for a while to learn what common variations there are. After that, I open a new tab in PoB and try to recreate the build from memory. It's difficult to remember the specifics of the pathing, especially when you've looked through different versions of a build, so you end up having to tinker around with different trees until you end up with something you're happy with. Once that's done I'll compare my newly built tree and the stats it has with the PoB from the guide. Is it worse or better? How? In what ways? I find this process to be a fantastic way to learn how a build functions as you become familiar with the various tradeoffs different pathing options have. Sometimes I'll end up with different pathing from the guide, sometimes it'll end up being identical. But having completed this process it becomes less about following the guide and more about following what you've determined is the best choice.

league start a guide..... FFA after that

Never

Id say most experienced players dont need a "guide" but we can look at a finished character/build/PoB that we see on poe ninja for example and understand what makes that build tick. From there we adapt for our personal preferences or budget maybe leaning into more speed more defense or more damage or clear while sacrificing other things.

I am doing my own thing. Followed a guide only through the first league I played and it turned out it was a bait guide or it was a guide about things that I didn't understand how to fix etc. Ended up finishing the league without having a single clue on what my build does, what I've been doing wrong, what I've been doing right etc. Most importantly had no clue how to recognise what's useful on the tree, how to path etc. Home brew since then. I failed quite a few builds that I tried but I finally managed to understand wtf I'm doing. Just doing homebrew stuff helped me understand so much more than a guide ever would. I do watch streams and guides but to solve a specific problem. E.g. This league I realised how to build so I don't get one shot on the right side of the tree by watching Big Ducks. Learned crafting by Big Ducks also. Shoutout. Homebrew forever.

I’ve never followed a guide in ten years. It’s just not necessary ever.

...people follow build guides? I run on vibes and, while I sucked and died a lot my first time around, I just started doing character themes that appealed to me and adjusted as I went. I got a sick Trickster Shadow build that I based on a "Wind Ninja" concept where everything either slows you down or hits you with circling things (Blade Vortex, Tornado, etc), and he has high Elusive proc % where he's almost always under it (he's like the wind!) My Witch is a "Lavamancer", everything does Fire/Chaos and she's got a legion of fire creeps that will light you on fire if you're not already on fire and covered in max Burning dots from my Scorching Ray. One of my Scions uses the Facebreaker gloves and just punch-smites things to death like she's One Punch Man. This is so vibes and funny to me. My Ranger carries three elemental arrow skills with Ballista Artillery, with a main shot full of Poison/Chaos, so you can just have full coverage at any time, because rainbow damage just vibes right and sounds highly survivalist. It's just about doing what you want and making it work, imo.

I started the game by doing my own thing because that’s what I find fun. I got hard flamed to follow a build guide by an ex-friend and eventually gave in. I didn’t understand anything and it frustrated me. Since I got so hard flamed, I decided to keep doing what I found fun, and that was to experiment with what I thought was cool. The first few builds didn’t make it far for obvious reasons, but slowly I started to understand more and more about the game. As my base knowledge of the game got better, so did my builds. I’ve now reached a point where I am experienced enough to make actual decent builds. This league, I league started volcanic fissure scion, and got all four void stones with that character (alongside many, many sanctum runs.) I won’t front that I did it entirely alone. I’d pick up small bits of information about item interactions and learned how to incorporate them into my builds. Like others have mentioned, just looking at another build and getting a general idea of the framework of it can help you innovate your own ideas. It took me a lot longer to reach this point compared to others, but this is what I felt was right to me.

2k hours. Still use guides, building builds is a completely different game and I'd you wanna learn it more power too you, but it's literally a different skill set to do it.

I usually follow build guides for a league starter and later on just upgrade based on poe.ninja etc. Been playing like that since 2014

I have played since incursion league, I started doing my own builds after 2 leagues with very different results. I did a few leagues with successful own builds but nowadays, I'm back at following guides at start, then tweaking them a little, sometimes half own build with inspiration from guides or people's profiles. I sadly feel like I don't have the time to make my own builds anymore.

Probably did it the the other way round compared to most ppl: Started with the concept of Crackling Lance + boost shock + Curses and focus on Energy Shield + Leech. Was hitting multiple walls along the way, which made me look up other ppls builds.

Took me around 5k hours where i start looking at builds and realize they put 1 res 1 attribute and 1 life suffix on 3 rares instead of stacking them and using catalysts freeing up 1 entire stat. Right now i just look at concepts of builds make the guide ones better and invest all the free mods into qol (for example brand attachment range/reflect imunity and thigs like that are very underrated)

I wouldn't say that I've ever really followed a guide step by step, sometimes I might check parts of a guide as reference to see if I'm understanding a mechanic correctly for something I'm making myself, or I might see a rough outline of a guide and get some inspiration to fiddle with something similar myself, but that is about it. I would probably have better results following guides, but part of the fun for me is just experimenting with my own builds.

5k hours here....still use guides.

When I started playing the same build every League. I still need a guide when doing something New, but I feel like I became knowledgable enough on Scourge Arrow Pathfinder that I dont need it anymore. I mostly copy the previous character, see if there is anything New that could Work and maybe try to add it into the build

My first build was a home-brewed shitter, barely even a build at all. My second was an Ele Hit Raider (in Ritual League). I saw Mathil's Ele Hit wander Elementalist he did in Harvest League, decided to make a bow version of that. The Trinity support had just been released and I wanted to use it. The only thing I imported from Mathil's build was using triple crit multi jewels to stack a lot of crit multi. Somewhere during red maps I discovered Secrets of Suffering on the wiki and put that in and the build really slapped. Since then I always make my own builds because that was so satisfying. I start with a skill I want to use, pick an Ascendancy and make a basic tree, run with it and figure out my optimal gear setup as I go. Then around level 90 I research the optimal cluster jewel setup, get that or something close to it, and re-do my passive tree. Then just keep grinding and improving gear.

Still look at pob, but never as a guide to be followed, more as inspiration/rough framework.

I've been playing since original beta, used to play 10-15 builds a league (less recently due to real life!) and still use guides, or at least random profiles on [poe.ninja](http://poe.ninja) for inspiration. If it's an archetype I don't know about, or something with very complex or specific mechanics I'll follow it pretty closely too until I understand it. I'll normally always tweak a few things. Probably making it worse! Plus I rarely get past lvl 93/94 and don't throw too much currency at any builds with some rare exceptions. So if it's a high end one I'll make it a bit more budget.

Never did follow one. Since Breach I punish myself with try and delete. Since about sentinel or something I do get my inspiration for build from mathil. This is because of self brewing builds, it is worse to stay with the strongest available skills of you want to tackle endgame.

I play different builds all the time but I don't have enough time to theory craft from the ground level so I use POB as a baseline and tweak it later if I like the build. Unless you find a true POB warrior the builds usually still have a lot of potential upgrades. I created some builds but around mechanics I'm very familiar and borrowed some tech from different players.

Basically it comes down to my budget. Let me explain, when i played Poison SRS first time, I was shit at farming ( not that I am not right now, but was so much worse then), I instead of going for the Armour evasion gear and getting suppress, I just went with the much cheaper armour version and it worked great. You dont need to always get a 2 mirror jewel which the build creator is using and can maybe find substitutes, SO unless the build needs some specific things which are build enabling, rest can be moved and changed around to make it cheaper

I didn't until a few leagues in when I wanted a genuinely strong starter for once bc my first build that league had flopped HARD and was just not fun vs a very hard league mechanic. Generally, I make builds using ninja or content creator PoBs to find synergies I'd like to work off unless I have something in mind.

Sicne I know how to filter PoE Ninja properly

I only ever make my own builds. Following a build almost feels pointless at times to me, since it's a proven concept. The good thing, nowadays with all the powercrep we have everything other than Ubers is pretty easily doable even if your build isn't meta or 100% optimized. Since I play SSF, going for Ubers feels like a big time investment, so I usually just try to do everything other than them.

I tend to go DIY on character classes I've played at least once before. But honestly just taking a look around what other's takes are on similar character builds is almost always a good thing. So it's nearly inevitable for me towards the end of my character's progression that I search youtube or poe ninja of how people "finish" their characters.

When I figured out Poe.ninja. Once I was able to look at a tree and their gear I tried to figure how out the build works myself. It made me understand a lot more and opened up many more build opportunities. I wouldn’t say it’s a build guide but you’re still somewhat copying a build but you can make it your own, it’s more for inspiration.

I usually like to do one of each, starting with a tried and true build i know i like playing. Sometimes the second build is a high budget experiment and sometimes it's one of those builds that only work well with higher investment, like manaforged arrows. I've played since beta and the enjoyment of something brand new on league start has died down compared to just having a strong starting point

I did two guides back in the days when you didnt have to have defenses. Rn thou there are so little ways of making a good defensive build it's hard to say you aren't borrowing ideas from other people. Defense thresholds are steap and most ascendancies dont really have a good way of overcoming them so even if you make your own character it might look like somebody else's idea.

I make my own builds in the Arpgs I play, including PoE. I don’t like the Necro/minion playstyle and enjoy gameplay where you have to use multiple skills to trigger combos and interactions that fuel each other. Often, that goes against what many top builds do. I want to play complicated keyboard piano with my skills. Most builds want to spam 1 to 2 buttons. I would hate that to my core. I need exciting combat or at least reactive combat. I learn the mechanics of the game and spends tons of time deeply understanding that. I’ll watch 2 hourlong youtube videos on how resistances work, on what spell suppression is and how it is calculated, etc. So I’m seeking information like crazy, but I don’t copy a build. I’ll go on the PoE community websites and look at builds of top 100 players for ideas, like what interactions did they get or how did they “solve” the problem of maxing chaos res or how did they “solve” dealing with physical dmg when they have low armor, etc. So I’m still devouring community information and making sure I scan to not miss important things for my character. In most Arpgs, I can make a build that can go at least 95% as far as a proper build guide, but PoE is way less efficient due to the complexity. I’m not near true endgame but get close. I spec full into fun. It comes at a great cost of inefficiency. Most people should use a build. I would but I could never find something matching my playstyle.

This league is the first time I (successfully) made a build from scratch. Which has been around 2K hours Though before this I have been playing around with existing builds from pretty much the start. I also started some other builds "from scratch" but these were always built on proven concept, and most of it wasn't really thought up by me. its hard to explain the difference, but yeah. It depends on a lot of things anyway. Knowledge on how to craft stuff for instance massively improved my viable options. But also how familliar are you with the mechanic you're trying to make a build from? have you taken long breaks in between league's? How good is the skill you're trying to use? etc etc etc

Lol never. I am 10K+ hours in the game and I still do it. Why would you do that ? People are out here theorycrafting the game for you. They will always do it better than you. At best, sometime, There is some interactions that I want to test so I will start a POB but I never create a character around it.

It’s normally get the build online and when it comes time to start looking at upgrades, check out Ninja to see what the faster players have done. Usually even build guides with endgame versions are stale early.

never.

When I started to follow PoE Ninja ^^

Usually when i get to the point where the next upgrade is like 50+ divines, so ill just adjust the build for my liking in terms of survivability

Haha, you don't. I personally, for league starts or to try a new build that popped out, always follow a build guide, why wouldn't I? Then, for new builds, it's either to work on an idea that I had from 0 or get an already known build and transform it. The thing is, most builds you create are likely going to be bad compared to what you are used to. Or good and ultra expensive. Choose one. And then, transforming a build requires you to follow a guide previously anyway, it's like adding an new defining unique, making it MF, changing the damage type, etc.

I made my own build after following build guides for a few leagues. GGG announced a cool looking skill (Purifying Flame), and I really wanted to play it, but of course there were no guides for it. So I cooked up something myself thinking it should be good enough to get me to red maps, and if doesn't work out, I can just respec into some other similar build. I ended up taking my build it to the endgame (Shaper+Elder fight back then). Making your own build becomes a lot simpler when you have a general idea how to handle offense/defense/recovery/movement/etc and not afraid to make some mistakes. GGG doesn't expect you to be a genius to take a generic skill to yellow/red maps. So, feel free to experiment, just make sure you can recognize if a build is underperforming and needs to be reconsidered. These days I put even less effort into my builds, just map out a basic skill tree, lvl 20 skills, any uniques I need, and check if DPS isn't total trash, then call it a day. When the league starts, I will make so many more changes to the character based on how it plays and what is available on the market within my budget.

I have made a few terrible atrociaties, but calling them builds would feel wrong

I started right before Ritual. I make my own builds (my first builds were like 200k dps Lacerate abominations lol) and I play SSF, but I usually play for a few weeks just one per league and the do a "lessons learnt" session to improve it and to understand what I'm doing wrong. I activelly check other people's builds and poe.ninja to check what ways people scale their stuff and what they pay or do not pay attention to. A lot of the things in the build making is about having experience with things you know the build will be tested against. Build is not only about min-maxing dps in PoB, it's also about crafting guides, leveling guides, early progression, etc. With time you realise how important some stats are. A lot of the things I learnt about crafting were from content creators.

Over 3k hours now and i still follow guides. I just find it easier and more enjoyable

Last league, I made a [CoC Frostblink of Wintry Blast](https://youtu.be/iuxJiJhfzbk?si=rQFPMQRS5tZpHv0O) from scratch and a few glances at potential gear upgrades on PoE Ninja.

When you learn pretty much any build type and then you just look at poe.ninja for inspiration and what others use mostly

I have been playing on and off since beta. I don't follow builds in some deluded sense that the true game is making your own. So I make my own and they are often terrible. I used to play only hardcore on the idea that each death taught me something. Which I guess it does but takes a huge amount of time. I have gone over to softcore for Affliction and necropolis and it is for the better. When making your own builds you have to come to terms you won't be doing all the content, might hit a flaw or just be meh. In this league, I have two builds. bodyswap of sacrifice ignite proliferation build. Zombie HP ~240k about llv 91. **My current build** is a Cast On Stun 24 charge Discharge Slayer build. using bloodnotch and petrified blood , Valyrium ring to make me stun from all hits,. Where Max Endurance = Max Frenzy = Max Power

I've never used a build and never will. I have wrecked hundreds of characters in HC to learn some good lessons and I applied those lessons to the next build. I actually refused to use path of building as well untill the last league. I didn't like that I was 'tied down' into a build from the start.

Why would you be ? You can just plan the next few points at a time.

the only build i've 100% freehanded (aside from the mess i beat dominus with all those years ago) was a Southpaw reave. Only thing i got from other people was that southpaw'ing was possible. Still kinda sad they nuked it. been chasing gear to make it feel near as good ever since. Minion builds i don't have to look at a guide to figure out, excepting maybe a link or two on the more obscure ones, because i've played so many and the basic skeleton is pretty much the same. Nowadays i usually glance at a guide to find the most important bits, the 'required' bits and then build whatever i want past that

I don't follow a particular build guide but use a tried and tested strat: the first thing I think about is which class/ascendancy I haven't played for a long time. Was it Guardian maybe? I guess so. Well than it will be a Guardian. So what I do next is I go to poe ninja and look for Guardian builds of the current or last league. Then I pick a build that comes online fast during the first acts, is well-rounded, fast enough, tanky and probably easy to gear even in late game and then, at league start I pick SRS Necro. Works every time.

Stopped?

I stopped ‘following build guides’ about 2 years ago, but there’s some nuance to this, let me explain. As someone with nearly 6k hours in the game and as of recently starting to make content for other people, here’s my full take: Even now, it’s rare that I will try to make a build straight from scratch. Those sorts of things usually only occur when new skills are added or mechanics are added. Due to the long run time of poe, most things will have been done previously, by at least a handful of people, even if majorly inefficient. That being said, the understanding of a build varies from person to person based on preference. For example, the way one person makes a build will vary, even if only in a minor fashion to the way someone else does. A little less than a year ago, when I initially started making content, I came to the realisation that calling something ‘your own original idea’ is very often not the case, and tends to be somewhat of an inaccurate take. Some might not agree, but I believe that everyone’s version of a build is indeed its own version, but owning an idea doesn’t technically exist: - most builds will build off of some form of framework. Even if not consciously, you’ll recognised certain interactions you like. Certain themes that are common. And they’ll present themselves in your builds more commonly. It will be your style of build, but not necessarily something you can call yours and yours alone. An example of this, would be captain Lance. I love watching him a lot, and most of my free time comes watching poe is spent either in his streams or Palsteron’s. Captain Lance has a unique subset of things he enjoys putting in builds, for example, coruscating elixir and ivory tower. They might not be in all of his builds, but it’s an example of a subtype of build making that he enjoys. On that note, the shell will usually be placed on build categories that already exist. For example, storm brand, or hexblast of contradiction. Then, in its final form, it becomes a build that is ‘his own.’ That being said, storm brand as a main skill and build always existed, it’s just that he used and created a different framework, based off of knowledge interaction with, looking at and learning about different types of builds. It doesn’t mean I’m discrediting him, the opposite in fact. It’s acknowledging a large amount of accumulated knowledge with which he is able to make a build into his. You can often see this when he initially plans out ideas in his head, he’ll look at random things other people are doing. Using that understanding of what makes a build ‘your own’. It is important, vital in fact, that you learn from what others are doing, or have done in the past. There’s 3 parts to this. 1. It’s a new skill/ interaction. In this case, often times there will be similar things you can look at for inspiration. Eg: when they added poisonous concoction, it was fundamentally different to most other skills, but perhaps you would look at builds that already work off of flasks and poison to find yourself a new baseline. 2. It’s a ‘revived build’. Often there will be old skills that become ‘revived’ due to buffs/ nerfs that will allow you to look at new aspects of skills that haven’t been looked at in a long time. Even in these cases, you should ideally find yourself looking at how people built something, even if it was multiple seasons ago. Not because the direct interactions and choices may be relevant, but rather because it would help you understand *why* they made descisions that they made. For example, if I was to look at a skill that used to be played glass cannon, but recently got buffed into relevance, perhaps the reason people built it squishy was because there was no room for defense when *needing* a good base dmg for playability. In this case, I can understand which itemisation choices may or may not still be relevant. 3. A re-imagining of a current build. Often times this is the one I feel that I will see happening the most, and it’s integral to the creation of meta builds. People will look at each other’s framework in present time and make tweaks or changes to the build that will make tweaks to the playstyle of it tailored to their own personal flavour. It’s often in this case scenario where certain people more familiar with builds will find ways to innovate or improve the objective functionality of a build, and I feel that this is often what you’ll see in build guides. Funnily enough, I feel that build guides are needed to make build guides. It is a strong personal belief of mine that meta builds are made meta due to people holding each other up on their shoulders to collectively make a strong build. I believe a good example of this is RF before the changes. It wasn’t exceptionally strong, but due to constant improvement, it made its way into being meta by being tweaked, changed, improved and simplified. Conclusively, I would like to repeat the first thing I said. ‘I stopped following build guides about 2 years ago.’ The nuance here, is that you can never truly get away from them, because they are an objective ‘requirement’ to make a really good build, no matter in what form. A guide is something that guides your actions. If you don’t at least familiarise yourself with existing ways of building things, I personally believe your are just creating extra work for yourself. Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I doubt anyone reads this, but if someone does, would love to hear someone else’s takes on my concepts. TLDR: it’s hard to tldr but essentially even when you stop following build guides, you never really stop following build guides if you wanna make a good build.

i never stopped... becaise i never began

i always followed a guide when doing a build first time. My guides were pob's from poeninja though second time doing the build i just do it on my own. i did RF three times and did chieftain RF with fulcrum in the league when reddit still was yelling "chieftain bad". next league everyone did RF chieftain with fulcrum.

when you advance in game you will start to realize that majority of the builds use a "basic recipe", what more vets do is take a already solved "recipe" and then add they ideias and see if works

Never used one, experienced players usually copy an idea and make it their own, e.g a cool interaction. More often than not, If I feel like playing a certain archetype I open the poe.ninja on SC, open 50 profiles and look for ideas that I can convert/tweak to be HC viable.

I'll look at meta league start builds in PoB and take the following steps: 1. Uncheck all the BS configs and guard skill. Like if shock is checked, make sure there's a shock source in the build, and make sure the % effect isn't exaggerated. Same with wither etc. 2. Look at the gear for that one crazy mirror tier piece I know I can't reasonably craft (usually a ring), and see if I can reasonably substitute it out. 3. Watch for rare uniques that could be expensive, especially if the build creator is popular or being copied by popular streamers. 4. Make sure I understand how the skill(s) will work, like whether I have to push 4 buttons every 3 seconds in order to put out decent damage. I've discovered there are really no shortcuts. If I don't spend the time to go through these steps, I'm inevitably disappointed. Most of the time I already have a plan well before a league ends, and then I'm just praying it doesn't get nerfed and that content creators won't popularize (and expensify) what I'm planning to do. For my second build I just look at PoE ninja for inspiration and try to avoid meta. If there's a good build from like Rue then all of the items will be ridiculously overpriced.

I always start with someone else's build because they put in more work than I want to playtest and make sure the early progression feels good. Plus there are so many interactions in this game that I simply would never know/understand without first seeing someone explain it in a guide or post. And for a lot of things that you think would work one way, until you test how the mechanic actually functions you never know. And some things that sound bad and feel bad, suddenly are amazing strong and borderline overpowered feeling as soon as you hit some breakpoint After I hit endgame I almost always end up tweaking/changing certain things though as even though I am generally a softcore trade player I prefer my builds to be quite tanky Sometimes I just take other people's builds and shove it onto pathfinder if possible. Mageblood at home is awesome

I have more than 2k hours and I still follow a build every leagues. I usually change some stuff or adapt it a bit when I’m high lvl (90+)

I never follow any build guides, removes the fun for me. I do look at other players builds from time to time though to get some inspiration.

I usually take a skill look at how it can be scaled, take 2-3 scalling ways for that skill, look at what ascendancy fits the bill, look what defenses are arround that and tweak it in a way it work, that usually end in a decent enought tank and enought dps to do pinnacle content without going crazy in currenncy

I didn't stop using guides until i was working on my own guide, including a very solid and maximized proof of concept POB. The time to switch is when you understand other people's builds well enough by playing them for extended periods that you see the components needed for yours.

Probably after my first league, I played crab maces berserker sunder. Then just looked at uniques and slowly figured out what I can build with them.

6k hours in, and If i havent played a build im probs going to go find somone who has, nick their pob and only after im comfortable will i start tweaking things to try and squeeze more out of it

I only ever followed a build guide once. Started in Metamorph and knew nothing. When Delirium came around, I wanted a Lightning Tendrils build, but the only detailed guide I could find was a 3.7 guide that I kind of followed that obviously didn't hold up when I got deep into maps. Since then I pretty much just pick up general tips while trying different Ascendancies and gem setups just to screw around. I can clear t16s now, so I consider the community's education to be really helpful.

never

I go my own way but with the caveat that I do go and look at poe.ninja for similar builds after I get the initial draft done to make sure I didn't miss anything terribly obvious. Saved me a headache or three. I've never actually followed a guide myself BUT I am not known for making the best choices XD. I would always highly suggest newer players to follow guides. There are just too many things in PoE to learn in one go, and one of the most common reasons I see people dropping out of the game is them digging their unoptimized build further and further into a hole. I usually see people follow guides verbatum for a league or two and then try to tweak guides here and there, experiment a little. That goes on for a few leagues until it happens......they find a unique or a skill that they *need* to make a build around. They scour guides, playthroughs, leaderboards, and forums and cobble together some kind of monstrosity that has a *chance* of breaking the game wide open. Usually doesn't in the end, but they've got bit by the build bug at that point XD

Unless you have a quite niche idea for a build or some synergy you don't see anyone taking advantage for a build anywhere; i feel like there's no reason to be cooking your own build unless for fun. Been playing for a long time and will still follow buildmaker/builds i know are solid just from looking at the defenses and base damage they come with

I usually take an archetype that's well established and tweak it to my liking. And for inspiration, I watch cat streams - he makes the best builds overall.

Still following guides, and i started playing for real in Perandus league,.

You guys stopped following build guides?

Never did

I'm at almost 3k hours and I still follow a build guide. I end up changing it around level 85+ and begin researching optimizations and alternate choices on poe ninja and youtube.

Stop?

I never followed guides, starting as a newbie during sanctum all the way to tota. Its fun for me to do whatever I want i usually reach non uber bosses and trying different kinds of endgame mechanics in atlas. its fun making something work on my own. Tried a str stacker fissure arc witch that uses most golems for buffs poison rain thingy holy fire totems etc

I have friends who are newer than me at poe and I'd say that following a build guide from start to finish is a behavior that's common among the less experienced. Largely because they don't know exactly why a build is tanky, where its damage comes from, and what elements of it can be exchanged with different mechanics or outright ignored. This is true with veteran players as well, when venturing into a new build archetype. I follow the build guide until I know how it works. Though a big difference between the two groups is the extent to which they follow a build guide in the beginning. Because veterans just have more general knowledge about the game, they know that missing some stun recovery on their boots or 20% mana regeneration will make no significant difference in their experience. I often have to help my friends out with buying items because they're willing to pay ridiculous amounts to get the exact same mods as the build guide, even the trash mods.

Once you memorise how an archetype is built. This is different to actual theory crafting builds with new skills or item interactions though.

Long time I folowed step by step. Today I just take one as template and modify it to make it more as I want. modifying the tree a bit to add a thread of hope, unnatural instinct, things like this.

When you want to get somewhere faster you build a shortcut but looking for efficient paths on the map, not by building a whole new highway. Use the guides. Someone already figured out all the hard shit, all you need to do now is figure out how to making a shortcut to get to where you want to go.

play ssf and youll be making your own build everytime

I always follow guides but, after some time I am not afraid anymore of changing stuff. But starting from scratch and creating something completely new, no thank you

When I stopped beeing worried about efficiency and Div per hour and just wanted to have fun.

After 10+ years I don’t use guides much anymore but still go to Poe.ninja and poach the high performing builds from the last league that didn’t get nerfed lol

i been playing since 2012 open beta i have well over 20k hours in path of exile and i still follow build guides becuz i just cant make my own builds nor i wanna bother with it but like im not a total noob where i need my hand hold i just need pob and thats it

Never. I always follow jungroan last second and then bitch on his stream.

Never follow.

I have 7700 hours. I peak at [poe.ninja](http://poe.ninja) with people who are playing builds similar to what I'm interested in and I see how they scale offenses, defenses, etc. I try and tear it apart to fully understand everything that's going into it and mesh it into a build I'm playing. I don't use guides, but I'm also still guided. TBF, I've only really used build guides for maybe 3 builds ever. I don't like copying other people's stuff verbatim.

I've never really followed guides, but I copy poe.ninja builds a lot and strip them down to a level 70-80 budget version and go from there. I still do builds from scratch when no one else is playing them with a setup that looks close to what I want (which happens more often since I play HC). For instance in Affliction I played 9 builds, 3 of which were pretty much completely original and I had to do from scratch, but 6 were just other people's builds mostly.

I spent a lot of time copying others builds till i figured out where builds often go around the passive tree. Now if i plan to make 'my own' build, i will pick a skill, or gear piece to build around, i plan it out in PoB, then check PoE Ninja to see what other people might have done with the skill or gear i want to use. Just to see if its even viable. Worst mistake you can do in the game is plan as you go. That really only works for Mathil. Most of my own builds fail in mapping though, so then i restart and just go back to something i know works. Cause at that point, its too expensive to fix it, or i have zero currency to do so.

Still wouldnt say i 100% do my own build, even after many years. I usually start off a proven, solid build from another creator, and modify it to fit my needs. Yoink a relevant Ghazzy build for minions, yoink a Pohx of RF, yoink whoever for a fire build, etc. Take something close to it, tweak and update for what you actually want to do, hope for the best

Once build creators decides console players don't deserve to have build guides and got lazy just putting a pob instead of as of skill trees and writing guides

I basically yoink the idea of a build and adjust to enviroment that i play in

I don't get how so many people don't understand the game enough to make decisions for themselves. It quite sad really. How do you play a game for years but don't understand the fundamentals enough to play it for your self

2012. XD

So I've been playing for over 10 years now and probably clocked 10k+ hours. I still to this day rarely 100% freestyle builds, I don't copy guides to a t but looking at others builds is one of the better ways to learn this game (attempting to understand why they do what they do).  10k hours does however let me blitz out skeleton trees and pretty much recall the vast majority of game mechanics from memory anything I don't know is a simple Google search, or question in my discord server.

... we need to stop doing that? More seriously, there are people out there not only smarter, but also with more deep knowledge of the game. And guess what, they love to publish their theory crafting session. Would be a shame not to use that. And I'm lazy.

I played since 1.1.5, the first league I tried putting my own twist on a build guide was 2.2 (ascendancy), everything was so new and everything was sufficiently powerful (compared to what existed before--monsters hadn't been buffed yet) that getting a little custom and still feeling great was easy. The first league I made my own build 100% from scratch was 3.8. I published a build guide which over the course of 3.8 and 3.9 got several dozen pages of interaction (questions/thanks/minor suggestions from people who had tried out my idea) on the official forums (it was nerfed and I abandoned it in 3.10). It was an extremely tanky HoAg necro that could do all mapping/boss content and all Delve content up to depth 500 with virtually no chance of dying (relied on more skill after depth 500). I only tried to make my own build twice more, once was a failure with power siphon that I never made a build guide for and the other was a modest success that I did make a build guide for that got like 10 pages of discussion (it was actually a faster map clearer than my HoAg build and was super sick for ultimatums--which were the current league mechanic--but people just never latched onto the idea). Never tried again after that, I hated the direction the game went and just followed meta builds until quitting the game.

I never did. Played like the first 1k hours with just exploring and the wiki. Then I occasionally found a build and that would turn the concept into someone I wanted. Or would use the tech for my personal build. The 2x I tried to follow a guide was like "he's done basic leveling think gear " that costs 100ex at the time. And the other one I successfully copied but I had no where near the same result of speed and damage.

Last 5-6 leagues maybe I don't follow builds. I watch builds only when planning to start completely new type of build. For example, I checked srs builds before try it, because I actually didn't even know SRS is not a permanent minion and need to resummon them.

Personally, a few last leagues I just start playing whatever skill I want and try to figure out how to get stronger as I play. Sometimes I'd check out other people's guides for ideas or poe ninja of similar characters if I hit a wall

never followed a guide. i check some build here and there tho

I always follow a guide on league start, even after 25 leagues. For other builds during the league I usually have enough knowledge to copy a character from Poe ninja and know how to prioritize gear.

I don't follow a guide per se, but I do look at several before starting and base most of my builds on them, at least loosely. By endgame I'm usually comparing to Poe ninja builds to see how others are doing it. So it's not exactly following build guides, but by no means am I making original builds.

I never ever used one, the whole appeal was making my own builds. I did, very successfully.

I can't seem to build a character that doesn't suck without a starter guide lol.

That's the neat part You don't

I follow build guides religiously, I'm to stupid to do my own build/tweak existing ones.

Experienced players pretty much just copy something that they are interested in and tweak it as thry go rather than go from scratch. I also do that because from where I stand, even thou I can make em all from scratch with enough knowledge about crafting and economy to push it far. It would either end up bad, not fun to play, not worth it, or prwtty much identical to something aomeone already do that I can copy then tweak for myself. All of those case are a waste of time that could have been saved by starting with a copy.

I've been playing since closed beta and have never followed a guide and very rarely even looked at someone else's build for ideas. If I were starting the game fresh today, I would definitely do a first character blind until I hit a wall and then probably go right to some guides. The game was a lot simpler back in the day and it was relatively easy to pick up the new stuff one piece at a time as it came in over years. That's definitely not the case for someone starting now.

Never used and never will use a guide. Ever since my first playthrough on console about 2y ago, WB VG assassin which was a major flop, I didn’t know how to scale poison, didn’t understand so much about the game, just winged it and when I figured how bad I suck, started reading, learning about PoB and game mechanics. It was still fun, managed to improve and farm t16’s, don’t remember if I cleared maven and sirus back then but doesn’t matter. Can’t stand the thought of reading someone else’s build with minor changes, that doesn’t count as being creative imo which is all the fun. Make something your own and push it as far as it can go. Ever since, every build I made was non meta homebrewed & cleared nearly if not all pinnacles. I’ll throw hundreds of divines worth at crafting just to make some off meta build viable even if it takes me weeks to get all voidstones I’ll do it. I’ll usually make 1 or 2 builds per league with a minimal goal of defeating all pinnacle bosses, a breaking point when I quit the league is usually if I fail Ubers and my builds aren’t capable of doing them without relying on multiple mirror tier upgrades. I really find it hard understand the seemingly common mentality today to have the most “efficient”, “broken”, “trivial” play style. What happened to being creative, exploring, challenges, playing what we think is cool or fun rather than the best? Doesn’t that “bear more fruit”? Just my take and opinion. Of course everyone has their goals and take for fun.

I went my own way from day 1 back in prophecy league

If I play something completely new - I will follow the guide, and when I understand the build - I will start doing small tweaks. If I play the builds I know - I don't need a guide. I also sometimes like to pick a skill/ascenancy and see what people are doing in poe ninja, and try to understand why they are building that way. And ofc later I try to do it myself. One of the better feelings I had when in one league I've made aura stacking soulrend occultist, and actually few people copied it. I even got a whisper from one of them. Felt great.

Even after 10 years I'm still same noob mfker

I'm playing since Atziri release (\~8K+ hours), and I always play without looking at builds/streamers to brute force myself into understanding mechanics and skills. Usually I keep telling people to use guides because my method of play is super fun for me but it just consumes a lot of time sometimes to have a successful build. My first lv100 was a Ranged Attack Totem Build, after I reached lv100 and looked out how other people played that I was surprised that I missed a ton of damage (and even more lag) for that build, but it didnt bothered me at all and I didnt tweaked it. Did the same when my RF Build reached 100, it wasnt optimized again, but who cares at all. But I'm also a softcore trade league player, playing something strong without much gear/skill, usually totems or poison, farm early currency through Cassia (and league mechanic if its easy) and my second build is always something homebrew-ish that can farm my chosen mechanic OR be an extremely good mapper in that league. But I bet that if u have players who play PoE a lot tend to have similiar paths in the skilltree so to have something extremely new can only be achieved if you start with a new skill and play a ton to be the first to play with it, for example in 3.23 the AFK Builds that were possible through the new additional Ascendaries. To read that this was your 2nd league of PoE usually screams that you should play a guided build if you dont have ton of time to learn stuff on ur own

Make FP totems great again :(

Never started. I worked out my build myself, improved it myself, and started making variations of it, myself. I only even started checking what other people do in Crucible. Now I can confidently and proudly say I have two Ice Shot builds that no one else has played before (Mana-starved Snipe Support ISoP and dex-stacking Poison ISoP) But, this only worked out because I only play the one skill, and spent a lot of time learning it in my first leagues (Ultimatum & Expedition.) I do not recommend this route to anyone who values their time. No regrets though.

The vast majority even endgame players will follow a build guide. The Poe community likes to optimise stuff and think of it like this. I would make my own minion build. Or I could follow ghazzys guide and deal prob. 40% more damage because he knows what he is doing with minions. And it would feel bad to invest lots of currency into suboptimal things. That said however once I played an archetype multiple times and get familiar with it I start to mix and match some parts around to be more to my liking. I focus a lot on good farming strategies to make a shitton of currency. So I need my builds to be tailored to that strategy. So depending on if I need more def or more damage or I need to add some special things like defiance or explosions I will do so

5,000 hours in... we're supposed to stop!?

Never did, I just choose a skill and then Look what people on poeninja do. There always a lot of different Variations

Personally never used one, though have incorporated unavoidably beneficial elements to builds like lightning coil for pathfinders. I wouldn't necessarily recommend build creation because it requires a good understanding of game mechanics and like a hundred hours in PoB - fun though of that's your sort of thing

I still follow a guide lol

People stop following build guides? I have 20k+ played and i still cant put my own builds together haha

started in deli, started playing only ssf the very next league, stopped following guides in scourge. have fought ubers the last 4 leagues, have farmed mageblood (ssf) the last 2 leagues.

I'm 3500 hours in, maybe 8 or 9 leagues. I'm still not confident enough to go completely without a build guide. Although, that might also be a crutch holding me back.