Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[T. Reich]

Play SSF mode - the only ethical way, to avoid the temptations of the trade league.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I don't plan to play with a party anyway, so I might. Although I do have this friend with more than 700 hours in the game...

 

[not an artichoke]

Don't play SSF unless you're into a very specific sort of masochism. You will almost certainly not get the specific items you want for whatever build you decide on. If that doesn't bother you, go for it, but your character will be far less powerful than is possible with trading. (Yes, there are people with great SSF characters. They also know how the game works and how to farm effectively.)

You can play solo in trade leagues but still take advantage of the fact that you can... trade.

Best advice for noobs is to go on the PoE forums and check out some of the guides there. Find something with "budget" in the title. Don't be afraid to follow the crowd of whatever's currently overpowered for your first character, but don't get sucked into making a FOTM build that relies on anything fancy.

 

[Sharpedge]

Is trading an indispensible thing in this game? I'd rather just play with whatever I find and upgrade on my own.

There is nothing indispensable in the game, but it certainly makes upgrades a lot less tedious. If you value your time and want to see all the content, play on a trade league. The name of the company is Grinding Gear Games for a reason and the game is designed with gear drops balanced around having the ability to trade. If you decide to absolve yourself from trading, you will have to grind, a lot in order to build up a character capable of doing the hardest maps. Also, if you intend to play using specific unique items, it can be exceedingly difficult to acquire them on a league where trade is disabled. Basically, being on solo self found is just limiting the builds you can play. If you want to make the game more challenging, it is the way to go, but if you don't have the time to grind the items you need, then don't go that route.

Best advice for noobs is to go on the PoE forums and check out some of the guides there. Find something with "budget" in the title. Don't be afraid to follow the crowd of whatever's currently overpowered for your first character, but don't get sucked into making a FOTM build that relies on anything fancy.

This is good advice, but I think looking at PoE Ninja and then stalking the profiles of the top 0.1% will yield better results. The players that are at the absolute pinnacle generally don't take the time to write guides, but their profiles are public and indexed.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Don't play SSF unless you're into a very specific sort of masochism. You will almost certainly not get the specific items you want for whatever build you decide on. If that doesn't bother you, go for it, but your character will be far less powerful than is possible with trading. (Yes, there are people with great SSF characters. They also know how the game works and how to farm effectively.)

You can play solo in trade leagues but still take advantage of the fact that you can... trade.

Best advice for noobs is to go on the PoE forums and check out some of the guides there. Find something with "budget" in the title. Don't be afraid to follow the crowd of whatever's currently overpowered for your first character, but don't get sucked into making a FOTM build that relies on anything fancy.

Jeez, I wanted a game, not work :D

 

[Zdzisiu]

Don't play SSF unless you're into a very specific sort of masochism. You will almost certainly not get the specific items you want for whatever build you decide on. If that doesn't bother you, go for it, but your character will be far less powerful than is possible with trading. (Yes, there are people with great SSF characters. They also know how the game works and how to farm effectively.)

You can play solo in trade leagues but still take advantage of the fact that you can... trade.

Best advice for noobs is to go on the PoE forums and check out some of the guides there. Find something with "budget" in the title. Don't be afraid to follow the crowd of whatever's currently overpowered for your first character, but don't get sucked into making a FOTM build that relies on anything fancy.

Jeez, I wanted a game, not work :D

Then play the game and give zero fucks about whatever people are recommending, praising, bashing, complaining about. I did just that for my first 1000 or so hours of PoE.

 

[Angthoron]

I'd say it's better to play in normal Betrayal league. That way you can just do your thing, but that moment you realize you REALLY WANT THAT FUCKING PROPHECY THAT WILL UPGRADE YOUR FUCKING HRIMNOR'S FUCK YOU RNG, it won't be about ragequitting over being fucked by RNG over and over but more like opening a website and poking a couple of people to exchange one orb for that thing you might end up wasting hours to get.

So you can get back to farming mobs for great justice with a big fucking upgraded maul.

P.S: This is a game and you're wasting your life.

 

[AwesomeButton]

So, I reached the encampment in Act 2. I'm lvl 18 now, and I'm slighly overleved - the monkeys I was killing in the first area were around lvl 13. I found a unique spiked club which I'm enjoying a lot: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Sigudr

P.S: This is a game and you're wasting your life.

I see it more as a way to clear my mind - clicking on things and watching them explode with funny sounds. But I guess it's too early for me to be looking to get really hardcore at this.

Also, I have a healthy skepticism towards grind-based games - raging over what RNG gave you is like going at the roulette and expecting a return of your invested hours playing...

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[not an artichoke]

This is good advice, but I think looking at PoE Ninja and then stalking the profiles of the top 0.1% will yield better results. The players that are at the absolute pinnacle generally don't take the time to write guides, but their profiles are public and indexed.

Yes, but that assumes he knows what he's looking at and can easily reproduce it. You're thinking like a player with advanced knowledge, not a relative noob. This is a great recommendation... after he levels his first character to 70+. For now, reading a couple good guides will help him on the journey and give him some ideas about how to make it more fun and less painful that first time.

 

[Angthoron]

So, I reached the encampment in Act 2. I'm lvl 18 now, and I'm slighly overleved - the monkeys I was killing in the first area were around lvl 13. I found a unique spiked club which I'm enjoying a lot: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Sigudr

P.S: This is a game and you're wasting your life.

I see it more as a way to clear my mind - clicking on things and watching them explode with funny sounds. But I guess it's too early for me to be looking to get really hardcore at this.

Also, I have a healthy skepticism towards grind-based games - raging over what RNG gave you is like going at the roulette and expecting a return of your invested hours playing...

Yeah, that's how I treat this too.

Btw, I think I have a bunch of surplus uniques I'll never use that are clogging up my chest, if you want, I can share a bit. It won't make you insanely powerful or anything (I just want to get rid of crap but it's too cheap to bother trading and too orange to just vendor)

 

[Jason Liang]

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

 

[Gerrard]

Fuck incursion and fuck GGG for this garbage implementation.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[T. Reich]

So, I reached the encampment in Act 2. I'm lvl 18 now, and I'm slighly overleved - the monkeys I was killing in the first area were around lvl 13. I found a unique spiked club which I'm enjoying a lot: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Sigudr

P.S: This is a game and you're wasting your life.

I see it more as a way to clear my mind - clicking on things and watching them explode with funny sounds. But I guess it's too early for me to be looking to get really hardcore at this.

Also, I have a healthy skepticism towards grind-based games - raging over what RNG gave you is like going at the roulette and expecting a return of your invested hours playing...

Just to make sure - PoE is not a happy-go-lucky kind of game. It's EVE Online of ARPGs, with an emphasis on PvE instead of PvP.
You can only get so far with the "I just wanna see things splode" attitude. After that, you'll have to learn, a lot, or it's you who will be sploding.
On the other hand, if you foolishly devote entirely too much of your time to PoE and git gud, you can achieve a whole new level of sploding. And it's fun.

 

[Zurat-Yarkuch]

So I'm playing solo self found and just got started on running maps. Recently while running a Research safehouse I got a second Tabula Rasa.
Is there any kind of build it would be good for, like a caster or something? It seems kind of useless having no stats.

Edit: Okay I'm just seeing the image tag on my post. How do you post images? I copied the link to image url, is it showing up for you guys?

Edit 2: Dammit. I'll keep trying.

 

[Reinhardt]

It seems kind of useless having no stats.

Bring it to incursion and it will get stats.

 

[ArchAngel]

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

In the current state of the game I agree.
SSF is a waste because it is too hard to get even simpler stuff. For most things you cannot really do a targeted grind. Many items drop from wherever. At best they might be something you get from a div card but then you need to have enough of maps that this div card drops from and that means you still depend too much on RNG.
On the other hand a group SSF would be fun where you only trade with a few people and nobody else. EDIT: lets call it SGF (small group find).

HC is a waste because of the whole server/client process. It is just too unstable. Losing a HC character to your own stupidity or mistakes is OK. Losing it to server/client issues, internet connection farting at the wrong moment or bugs is NOT OK.
Also it does not help that game is based around one shots too often or massive amounts of damage coming in suddenly. And it does not help that every new league usually has new enemies that can randomly murder most HC designed characters.
Playing HC in standard with guaranteed 100% uptime and no bugs would be only fair way to play HC.

And of course there are no life PoE players that play both as it is because they got too much free time and no life.

 

[abija]

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

But what is PoE if not a colossal waste of time?

Anyway, I hate trading because 99% of your upgrades will NOT come from drops if you trade (and currency just isn't exciting).
From a SSF point of view, drop based progression through content is a lot bigger issue than build power. I'm fine with my build being 100 times weaker than it could be if I traded. Not fine with being blocked from even trying bosses without spending hundreds of hours in trivial content.

This league it was a lot easier to complete white and yellow maps in atlas and still after 80+ hours after reaching reds I was mostly playing t7-t9.

 

[ArchAngel]

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

But what is PoE if not a colossal waste of time?

Anyway, I hate trading because 99% of your upgrades will NOT come from drops if you trade (and currency just isn't exciting).
From a SSF point of view, drop based progression through content is a lot bigger issue than build power. I'm fine with my build being 100 times weaker than it could be if I traded. Not fine with being blocked from even trying bosses without spending hundreds of hours in trivial content.

Bosses are also mostly trivial content as they all use attacks that can be dodged by player skill. People did these bosses without being hit once and similar stuff.

 

[Sharpedge]

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

But what is PoE if not a colossal waste of time?

Anyway, I hate trading because 99% of your upgrades will NOT come from drops if you trade (and currency just isn't exciting).
From a SSF point of view, drop based progression through content is a lot bigger issue than build power. I'm fine with my build being 100 times weaker than it could be if I traded. Not fine with being blocked from even trying bosses without spending hundreds of hours in trivial content.

Bosses are also mostly trivial content as they all use attacks that can be dodged by player skill. People did these bosses without being hit once and similar stuff.

This is not entirely true. Some bosses are gear checks, for example, Lair of the Chimera, The trio on Vaal Temple or Malechai, but for the most part bosses are skill checks and not gear checks. Also, you get so much free power these days that it isn't too difficult to out gear them if you have the know how.

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

But what is PoE if not a colossal waste of time?

Anyway, I hate trading because 99% of your upgrades will NOT come from drops if you trade (and currency just isn't exciting).
From a SSF point of view, drop based progression through content is a lot bigger issue than build power. I'm fine with my build being 100 times weaker than it could be if I traded. Not fine with being blocked from even trying bosses without spending hundreds of hours in trivial content.

This league it was a lot easier to complete white and yellow maps in atlas and still after 80+ hours after reaching reds I was mostly playing t7-t9.

I am not really sure why you are struggling with maps, those are the 1 thing I do not trade for since I like to work my way through the content myself and not buy it. Using the simple approach of buying maps from Zana that I am missing, then when I unlock the Zana, "change a map to a random map of the same tier" mod using that was more then enough to get everything unlocked. I am only missing Hall of Grandmasters and Perandus Manor.

 

[ArchAngel]

I think it's a waste of time to make a SSF character

I also think it's a waste of time to make a HC character

All based on my experience with PoE

But what is PoE if not a colossal waste of time?

Anyway, I hate trading because 99% of your upgrades will NOT come from drops if you trade (and currency just isn't exciting).
From a SSF point of view, drop based progression through content is a lot bigger issue than build power. I'm fine with my build being 100 times weaker than it could be if I traded. Not fine with being blocked from even trying bosses without spending hundreds of hours in trivial content.

Bosses are also mostly trivial content as they all use attacks that can be dodged by player skill. People did these bosses without being hit once and similar stuff.

This is not entirely true. Some bosses are gear checks, for example, Lair of the Chimera, The trio on Vaal Temple or Malechai, but for the most part bosses are skill checks and not gear checks. Also, you get so much free power these days that it isn't too difficult to out gear them if you have the know how.

I agree with you, that is why I said mostly.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[AwesomeButton]

Ok. I reached lvl 24 today. Encountered actual shit-flinging monkeys. Adorable. BTW, this game has some of the greatest writing and voice acting I've heard recently. It's worthy of praise that they paid attention to such a thing which even "story-driven" single player RPGs tend to screw up nowadays.

 

[not an artichoke]

It's fun reading your reports playing through for the first time. I've been playing PoE for years and have run through the storyline so many times I don't even think about stuff like that any more. But you're right; it is well done.