I Followed a Guide - And It Changed My Life! | New Players vs Path of Exile

Or one could play Last Epoch and they can figure out guides on their own and play the endgame. That said, I do wish there was more varied endgame in LE.

I played my first 80 hours without a build guide and never made it into yellow maps because of it. I wasn't able to get resources to craft or trade because i wasn't able to farm and thua couldn't really improve. I am now just following an srs guardian build and just got into red maps. I now have resources to craft items that are beneficial to my build and its so much more fun figuring all this stuff out. Tweaking the the build in PoB(Path of Building) and seeing how it affects the numbers is so valuable in learning how to build and how to tweak builds. I am 150 hours in and I feel like i could spend thousands more on the game.

I don't see the point of playing a game by following a guide; it's like playing as another person. How can you find joy in an RPG if you aren't doing something as basic as building your character yourself?

You touched on exactly why Zizaran is an atrocious content creator...he never explains WHY you are doing things in his "guides". Still have no idea how that guy is the #1 PoE creator.

Nah I am fine! I like journey. Not slaving myself to other people. Call me foolish, but I like it!

Im on ps4 but where do i go for good build guides? i cant find anything

Im playing hexblast mines right now and toxic rain. Figure im not going to push any real end game content this season. I came back mid season after trying and quitting 3 times with no guide ingot a guide this time LOL i restarted a week ago and am just trying to find what i find fun and both of those have been fun so far

following a guide is what drives me off from enjoying PoE, I want a game where I can make interesting choices and not be punished by following a strict figured out path. Not only that but these paths and also because of the game is designed, you end up having a 1 skill does all. You are basically a zombie that presses 1 button over and over watching explosions and shit die everywhere. Snoozefest! It's a shame because i LOVE the atmosphere, artwork and game systems but the gameplay loop is very boring and repetitive.

dont follow a guide

It's fun to see different perspective, and one is not inherently better or worse, but it's interesting how much I disagree at every turn.

Build creators have played every class, skill, spell, passive , weapon, armor, gem, modifier etc. In order to save you years of trial and error. Plus they are really intelligent. So take their advice. You can focus on having fun until you memorize enough to make an original exile. You're welcome.

Is POE too Difficult For New Players? As a new player yes absolutely. I highly enjoyed my act 1 to 10 play very much. So much so that I bought a bunch of stash tabs. Then to find out that the way I progress in this is not really by monster drops anymore after hitting maps. What do I mean by that? While yes monsters and doing maps will drop you items to progress your character its not intuitive or fun after hitting maps. Why? Because now I no longer get my best drops by random drops that are gloves,boots,body armor ect ect. While yes they drop decent base gear and upgrade materials. Its no longer "ooooh snap this is a great piece of gear". Now its "emmmm yeah this has decent base stats now let me go through 100+ upgrade materials and sit in the crafting bench to make this piece of gear viable". In the end game of this ARPG I just dont feel any satisfaction from drops at all. I love looters like Borderlands,Diablo 2,Destiny 2(until it turned to trash) because I got good drops and thats it! I didnt have to go through 50 spreadsheets and videos on how to make my gear good. I just got an OP weapon or gear and I go about my day and have fun. This game is making me work too hard and go through too many hoops to get to the fun. I honestly just run lower tier maps cuz I really get tired of getting wiped cuz my gear sucks. This game isnt hard mechanically its hard because your gear sucks and thats just not fun.

problem with the most guides right now is ,there are very less ,for complete new players, every build is like ,if you played it for thousand hours ,everythink is fine...as a complete newbie you cant even follow the build ... cause there are often zero steps how to level , what to look for... most builds are and than you buy all those items for a huge amount of currency you want have as a new players , or and than your forge this and that ,without even showing those steps (ever tried to craft something as a new dude xD ) ... so it is not easy at all ...is it easier to try follow instead of yourself ,sure ...but you still get burnt out and stressed by so many systems and thinks you should know , but although need hundred off hours to learn....and even as a high end char , you still getting randomly one shoted over and over again xD..and for the record ,you are not a new player ...according to hundreds of hours of playing ^^

I played PoE years ago, got to lvl 30 and got bored.
Now i returned to PoE and wanted to do my own build. I focused on witch with ice only and got to 82 lvl, doing yellow / red maps. Sadly im to squishy so i die too easy sometimes, but in the end im happy i built it myself without a guide. Currently i have 140h on record.

Im not against guide's, they sound like time savers, also i admit that poe knowledge is overwhelming and there were times when i had no idea what i was doing. But in the same time playing without guide is not bad either.

I think that best advice is to focus build on one thing and remember about defences. Everything else can be deduced during gameplay. People like me enjoy and take pride with overcomming some obstacles themselves. With guide it would feel like cheating a little. But in the same time, now when i did quite a lot alone, i will probably make guide character to compare my knowledge to someone elses. And thats ok too.

Pretty sad you have to follow a guide that someone else made to enjoy the game after campaign. I might as well replica my whole life on that premise, drive the same car as everyone everyone else, reconstruct my house and yard to look just like my neighbors etc. What happened to self uniqueness? Hack, even in the dark souls games can beat the game all the way through with ANY build that I created myself.

Such a great game, I can see why there only a select number that stick around long term.

Maybe this is fixed in PoE2 for casuals, but probably unlikely. Just sucks cuz after really diving into the game, I saw all the great things it had to offer, which are way more than any ARPG I've played, but then the follow a guide for end game was a game over for me.

I think it depends on the person, I for one tried playing Poe many times of the years and never could get into it, ive other arpg’s like diablo but the content in this game far exceeds anything I’ve played before. I recently came back and followed a guide which helped massively, in the guide it gave the basics but also helpful tools. A loot filter is very important also, the guide has its for the build I was running in campaign and beyond. I’m currently level 38 and really enjoying it. This game doesn’t feel like a grind like Diablo 4 does.

One idea would be if the developers would incorporate a way to add these "guides by the community" directly into the game itself (as kind of an optional replacement to the actual tutorial). So that the player can choose the "build guide" directly inside the game and it will direct and help the player within the game itself. Would make a more immersive (and potential fun) experience for a new player, because you don't have to constantly keep a second window open with a wiki page, a forum entry, path of building etc etc...A huge challenge for a new player nowadays is to grasp the amount of pages, forums, wikis, and tools available.

I have tried looking up "Beginner builds" online. Why do the supposed BEGINNER builds all use abbreviations and acronyms for items, skills and other mechanics that "beginners" have no way of knowing what they mean? They assume that their target beginner audience knows the hundreds of acronyms that veterans of the game know? They also show in their videos all the gear that you end up having, but not what to start with. For a melee character, one handed/shield vs two handed or sword vs club would be more helpful than showing what weapon you are using at level 80. Sometimes "beginner" means just that. A person who has opened the game for the very first time.

From an outsider's view, this video does nothing but make PoE look like a miserable experience. You need to follow a build to "play correctly". You learn nothing of most basic info about the game by actually playing it. It takes hundreds of hours and reaching level 80 to "start playing the actual game". Making a character on the fly as a new player is basically a waste of time.

I have tried to play the game several times and could never get into it. I have a level 28 of one class and a few more in their teens. I think more than anything else, the main thing that keeps me from enjoying the game is the way the "economy" is set up. No money. Just bartering 3 of one thing plus 2 of another to get 1 other thing to finally trade for the one item I wanted in the first place. It's tedious and completely overcomplicated for the sole purpose to be "different".

That and the stiff, robotic way the characters move. It's just unnerving.

BUT... I will find a build online and follow it. I'm not capping on the game just because I'm typing online and it's the thing to do. I really hope thirls turns me around on the game.

Lol except guides barely help. And you need a guide to understand the guides.

This is just sad, so sad, about Path of Exile 😔

the game is fun, story is interesting, & i dont mind playing complicated games but if the game itself isn't teaching me it's complicated mechanics then it's not a me problem it's a game problem.

imma just play it however & quit whenever, the game is free so i can't really complain too much

it is what it is

Well said good sir!

Agreed. PoE is so complex, there is infinite ways to screw up a character, and as an inexperienced player you probably don't have the currency to fix your character, even if you have the knowledge where you went wrong.
So you give up and start a new char...which is draining.

Build guides help you avoid all those frustrations and ideally you'll learn more about the game.
Now I have a good set of builds and experience what was great/not so great about them and can make my own, which are at the very least red map viable.

Tbf if you actually play a league to min max stuff (about 150h with 2/3 characters) the campaign (10h) is only about 5% of the playtime, therefore not following guides really limits your experience evn more thank what would you think.

All of these issues could be resolved if they just made one thing available. FREE INFINITE RESPECS. 10/10 game then.

if you play a guide you don't play the game, you play another's game and character, what is worst? that the game force you to it, sorry but that is the perfect description of a trash game, nothing justify such stupid advice at the very start, if you planning on playing poe follow a guide, don't waist your time on comments, bellow this, is just a fact, is a trash game.

See I tried following a build guide, but I was confused even trying to understand the guide itself. I made to the beginning of Act 4 of the campaign then quit.

I'm the opposite. I like figuring it all out on my own.

I think you did it correctly imo, playing without a guide until you have enough and THEN following a guide on your next league start is to me the optimal way to get into this game. I followed a guide from the start and feel like I severely missed out on a ton of enjoyment and feeling of accomplishment, but on the plus side I saved time. Pros and cons as with everything, but you got to experience both sides and I think your bond with the game was stronger for it in the long term.

I feel like I’m not smart enough to play this game 😔

Im playing though PoE for the first time, without a guide, and im having a lot of fun. I went into the game after watching a few videos knowing i wanted to make a build that uses a sword, a shield, and bleed. I'm running Lacerate on Gladiator, so far I'm having tons of fun and i feel strong, but I'm only on act 6, do I'll see how far i can get.

after around 600h i cant say im "following" guides , i just open the build in path of building , check the most essential item stat that i need (besides life and res) and just follow the skill tree and aboom :D also in my opinion if u want to really make yourself a build you have to play this other game called Path of Building :D

This has been my problem with PoE for years
The absolute need to follow a guide or spend countless hours learning how to do the exact same thing instead of being able to freely go freestyle without having to worry about being unable to go through endgame is a huge turn-off for a lot of hardcore gamers including myself

People like this, we dont like following guides and we dont like getting assistance; the main fun is figuring things out, however when figuring things out becomes such a chore that it feels like a BDSM session thats when the fun ends and it becomes a problem

This is why im looking forward to PoE 2, im looking forward to see if they fix this problem and from what i have seen they might just have it fixed

Me watching this with 16 hours played.

Fantastic video, great storytelling and perspective. Thanks for sharing this.

Pohx RF is one of those builds that are so good, not due to the build itself necessarily, but for the fact that the guide is so well done and well documented

fk....following a guide requires patients....how many people do you think got that these days? Just look at the kind of games being released these days.

Did you trade?

poe1: "oh look a campaign." to maybe opening a wiki to you die in white maps
poe2: follow a guide
poe3: you play poe 2 a few more times but start getting into trade economy and maybe crafting. poe1 is now an unskippable tutorial you breeze through
poe4: be on pob and poeninja for dozens of hours and maybe not even open the game client
poe5: playing your own build like a leaf on the wind and then farming up for alts that just copy poeninja
poe6: poe2

I’m playing rn and having some issues. I don’t know what items to pick up or what gems to take. I’m following a guide but there’s so much that I’m 100% gonna miss a few gems.

I actually stumbled upon a decent build while leveling in story, but don't reallt want to out in the work to make it work.

My suggestion is Righteous Fire Jugg. It burns the corpses so less clutter to chug your cpu and if your computer freezes for a sec the RF is still killing the enemies reducing your odds of deaths

I would recommend any build that is designed as a league starter, it will require very minimal gear and usually works out of the box even if you fuck it up. Zizaran is the go-to creator for league starters as he has a dedicated team that collaborates with other content creators to make build guides, so they are top quality and also a decent variety to choose from since most creators usually put out 1-2 guides (Ziz puts out 5+ per league).

The gold standard for first time players is/was Enki's Arc witch as a guide to the game as a whole (masquerading as a build guide). The most popular build for new players these days is Pohx's Righteous Fire, he has been playing and iterating on this one skill build for at least 7/8 years iirc. However, it does come with a caveat that it will affect your experience of other builds going forwards, as most builds do not get as tanky as easily as RF, and most require more than 1 button.

and some idiots Compare this masterpiece with garbage that called diablo that u can Finish all content in 2 days lol

I am 54 years old. I've played POE for over 1400 hours now over the span of 6 years. Every league gets more challenging, and finding a build that will make through to end-game is daunting, to say the least. The highest level I have achieved is this 3.21 league where I finally hit level 100 thanks to a friend gifting me a 5way XP run. I've never made it beyond map level 12, and I've never fought an end-game boss, including Maven (but i've fought her arena challenges at 8 and 10, which was pretty easy). Your experience is very much like my own, so thank you for sharing. With Diablo IV coming out I will be taken away from POE because my son demands it :), but I'm sure I'll return to finish, to find that thing I can call my own, that build that has what I would put in it, and crafted using just MY knowledge of the game. That's the problem w/ build guides at the end of it, it isn't yours and it always leaves you wondering... could I do this on my own?

Ive been playing POE for about a week and a half in preperation for Diablo 4. I have a high dex/high evasion elemental Ranger that regenerates health with every creature killed along with poison arrows as well. Do i know what im doing? NOT REALLY...but im having a blast so far and am currently in Act 5 and Level 52. I will keep learning and if i have to follow a specific build to access end game maps then so be it!

im going in blind. i like complex games and figuring out a build that feels like my own. I think following a build guide for any game takes out all the fun

Wow so the best way to play the game is look up a guide and do exaclty that... Thats data entry. Thats not a game, holy shit.

this game is shit