How to Learn Build Making - 5 Steps for How to Start Making Your Own Builds in Path of Exile

I’ve never really played PoE.. but if I had to, I would like to make my own builds. Maybe it’s not gonna be top notch competitive, but if I can get the knowledge on how to create a playstyle that’s compatible with my own style, that’s an immense freedom and fun to have. And the prolonged fun is to optimize and refine it.

I have the reverse problem. I feel like I am not having fun if I don’t get to make all the choices myself. I’m still on act 5 on my first playthrough but I have not followed any actual guides. I understand that maybe I will at some point hit a wall, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Making the choices is the actual fun part of the gameplay. I don’t want to take that away from myself.

I have a very strong problem in blindly following a build guide in this game.
If i wanna just copy paste something that someone else has worked out - why bother with PoE? Why not play Diablo 3, haveing a far less complex game wich has been perfectly balanced for the predefined builds everyone uses?
On the other hand i totaly get why it makes sense to first properly learn for someone that went all the way, before choosing your own path. But i dont think that i wanna invest a whole year or two playing this game without actualy having fun of its unique selling point: Its complexity. Wich is kind of a circle that stops me from playing it at the moment.

So the guide to making your own build starts with follow someone else's build.

how to start making your own build
step 1: Follow a build

Thumbs down! Fake! Not an actual guide on how to build. It's a guide that tells you to look at a guide. Which is a total contradiction. Then says use it and test it on your own. Which anybody can do without needing any guide. So wtf?

OK so let's say rather than look up a guide to learn to build. Which is the whole point. You instead look up a guide on a completed build and how it works. You're still just taking longer to learn something. Than just a legitimate guide on how to build from scratch.

Like a general advice for current Standard HC for point distribution. How much to put into defense vs offense points.

I made a crappy build once, bleed bow deadeye. It was fun to mess with it even though it was horrible haha. With the right now, it would only have a puncture bleed of 2.1 mil shaper dps (not sure if that’s Mac stacks or per stack, not sure how bleed works in POB.) and 700k split arrow dps at level 90 it only had 4.7k life but had amazing evade and dodge %. Alas it was only theory crafted and I never had guts to try it. I may try on standard to check it out sometime

Step 6, if you dont plan to play 4000 hours, dont even try

this is super helpful @itsyoji, thank you so much for sharing your experience!!

PoE noob here and can say I built the most brick wall of a character. The ONLY reason i made it past piety and first 5 acts is vitality. Without that skill, impossible. So ive kinda given up on ot due to it being all over the place. And vitality possibly getting nerfed hard. Its a set and forget skill that has no risk reward or niche. Currently trying the toxic rain+caustic arrow ranger and loving it. But rng is not allowing me to progress with that as of right now. So im possibly gonna just start from scratch again and the ranger build opened my eyes as to what i was lacking with my first build. I can mob clear with the first one, easily but bosses not at all. I love the game and i enjoy it even though i have a LOT of progress to make. Cant wait to get a pc. Its kimda bad on console.

Tbh I play a lot more PoB than PoE

I like your videos but your mic is like too close to your mouth or something.

I think i skipped Phase one completely in my years playing, i never liked copying builds, even when i play MTG, i hate netdecking, but i get what you mean.
a long time ago i copied this one build, burning spectres, melted all content, only build i ever built myself that came close was a Rain of Arrows Bleed Gladiator, using crimson storm

Sorry for correcting you , but there aren't 21 ascendancies to choose from but rather 19.
Three from each basic six classes and only one for the Scion ; (3x6)+1 =19
The rest or your presentation is mostly about having realistic goals and what can be a reasonable timeline on which we can expect to reach those goals , and on this point i agree.


BUT ... their is a huge point you are avoiding here , which is the ingame currency cost involved in gearing a build so that it is able to reach the latest parts of the atlas. Fact of the matter is that acquiring wealth ingame can be tedious at times and some people just don't want to put the time and effort to do the leg work and may resort to use RMT. Some claims have been made that GGG bans those using these , but mind me pointing out that Tencent literally owns GGG at this point ? Which is why i say build guides are noob traps. I often suggest to watch 3-4 different videos about the same archetype and to make our own from there on , which is something i still do from time to time.

I'm a bit disappointed that Engineered Eternity gave up on making his build guides cause he had a very we thought out way of explaining most of the ingame mechanics , but i understand the time requirement and the low returns that these may have.

None the less , thanks for sharing and keep up the good work :-)

Or you can do it like a real man and make around 10 failed builds to understand the game

i recently changed my build style after 1700 hours of playing cyclone till it go nerfed, now over 200 hours into a ele witch phys impale carrion golem build and loving every second, the only boss i havent beaten yet is sirus A8 and it was a close call

Been playing since synthesis got introduced to ps4 which is also how I play the game . Following builds is great, especially when you find one that really pops for you, but the satisfaction of a build idea you created going to red maps and above is bar none a great feeling to strive for in PoE . I'm currently working on a spellslinger project with my son using arc/WoC/ storm brand and so far we're having a great time and the build feels punchy on ps4 =)

ive been playing summoners now for about 4 years, this time round i finally made a skelly build and its single target is actually a joke. 1 Phase of A8 sirus can sometimes take 5 seconds. However, im now sick of summoners but cannot find anything with the same sustain and single target DPS. I likes a CoC cyclone ice nova clear speed but nothing else. I dont know what to do and am really struggling with burnout now too :( really sad stuff

So basically you're telling me now is not the time for frostblink brands?

I've been making my own build since day one. Everytime i tried someone else's build, i found myself giving up the char too early. Only the builds I made have made it to end-game