Path of Exile is an amazing action-RPG that has nudged out Diablo 3 and Torchlight II to earn the majority of my playtime. After fumbling through a few sessions with friends, however, I’ve discovered that the game can be intimidating to players who are new to unforgiving, old-school titles. PoE is a game with limited re-spec options, a bewildering skill tree, and boss monsters that hit like a dump truck even on normal difficulty. Anyone who leaps to it from Diablo 3, a game that practically plays itself in normal mode, may be frustrated in short order.
There are some steps new players can take to improve their chances, however. Most of them are not obvious at first glance, and in some cases they require un-learning bad habits ingrained by the genre’s easiest entries. In this video I explain five tips that absolutely anyone, even a complete action-RPG newbie, can follow to become better at PoE. No previously acquired in-game items or wealth are required to use these tips to their fullest; you can follow all of them from the moment you load the game.
I mention two websites in the video, the links are as follows: the official forums and PoE Builder. Both are valuable resources that will help you learn the game and plan the character. I also suggest you check out Path Of Trading, which will help you get a handle on item value, and Path of POE, a site where community members can submit their builds, which are then voted on by other players.
