Diablo 4 Player Tries Path of Exile For The First Time - Act 2

Welcome to the second episode in my journey to finishing the campaign of Path of Exile! I'm not using guides and just going with whatever the game puts in from of me. This game is so different from Diablo 4 that it might as well be it's on genre. Thanks again for hanging out! :)
Support me on KZbin ► / @nyxvellum
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#diablo4 #Diablo4SeasonOfBlood #pathofexile
Disclaimer: All the insights and theories presented in this video are based on my personal interpretations and may not reflect the official lore or views of the developers.
Background Music: Path of Exile
This video presents subjective commentary. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, fair use allows the inclusion of copyrighted material for purposes such as critique and analysis. All materials used here, including images and audio, are credited to their rightful creators, excluding the original commentary and licensed background music.

[@tinydancerr9211]

I have been waiting a week for the second episode, let's goo!

[@NyxVellum]

I hope you'll stick with me!

[@tinydancerr9211]

@@NyxVellum You bet, you're the third person I've subscribed to after 30 odd years of being on this planet.

[@aeristheangelk2556]

same as soon as i saw this pop-up i had to watch it fully :)

[@gibahcanada4494]

Yeah. Was great watching his view on the game. Glad to see he is planning to keep the series up for a bit longer. Maps soon?!👀👀👀👀👀

[@zelloxy]

Me too

[@NyxVellum]

Hi folks, thanks for stopping by once again. I'm recording episode 3 as we speak and I'm happy to report that the game really opened up to me in Act 3, I'm having a fantastic time. Thumbs up for algorithm and all that. 👋

[@pilongaracing8902]

This is a series that im gonna definetly see. Loving this.

[@DasHeino2010]

It is not closing... it just opens up. ^^ On top of that all 3/4 months a season...

[@bob-qt3bd]

I'm so happy 8)

[@aeristheangelk2556]

Hopefully the video's will keep coming and please i wanna watch it now :)

[@BrandonRaper85]

Loving this series insta-subscribe!

[@rxt1366]

About the gems: There is a vendor in every act that sells gems from that act. Nessa in act 1 for example, look for the page 2 of her vendor screen. Loving the series!

[@louissamson4609]

Yes, and a Tip that will change your life. If you check closely to the skill gem you want support gems for, you will see things like "Bow, Projectile, Chaos, Poison" etc. If you want a support that affect that skill, your support need to also have that key word. It also works with the passive tree. As for the skill gem, on your quickbar and on the description of the skill, you will have support icon upon the skill icon and it will also change the description of the skill when you hoover over it. Actually Hoovering over a skill will gives you a kind of breakdown of what the skill does with the active support on them.

[@atava85]

Back in the days when most gems were drop-only... that was painful.

[@MrRumbiS]

@@atava85 Ruthless mode have gem vendors disabled. Or to be a bit more precise- you only get 1 gem of choice in Act3 from Siossa, nothing more.

[@atava85]

@@MrRumbiS As a matter of fact Ruthless brings back some of those gameplay feelings.

[@syntiadersoir973]

​​@@MrRumbiSyou get many skill gems with quests, aura/support gems vendors/rewards are disabled.

[@changing_thoughts80]

As a veteran PoE player it's so fun to watch someone totally new to the game dying to all the stuff I died to the first time; the exploding lockbox, the overpowered mod, the slam and laser from the Act 2 boss. All gold! Keep up the playthough, I'm loving it.

[@NyxVellum]

Thank you!

[@zh3nox]

Damn, my essence hurts when i watch him, it's a torture for me.

[@norokelt]

yeah, exactly! :D I am really enjoying to watch those kind of vids for PoE :D

[@ultimaone3189]

Ya I was laughing when he got slammed and killed instantly.

[@denixfyon]

Quick non-spoilery non-invasive tips: Left click mouse - bind it to move (foot icon), you will never use the normal attack so no reason to have it on that button, also, many times you need to dodge something and end up attacking with normal attack cuz of that bind. To know what gems work with what gems, you can check the gem tags, every gem has a tag under its name, same tags usually work together. The masteries on the skill tree are VERY game-changing, keep an eye on them whenever you reach one on the tree. Spells are different from Attacks, keep an eye for what you choose, increased spell damage dont affect bow attacks, for exemple. Basically, if you read everything, you will be fine, try all spells and attacks out, build what you like to play, and have fun. You can check builds online but imo that takes away the fun of the learning and experimenting.

[@NyxVellum]

This is great advice, thank you.

[@redfish337]

@@NyxVellum Related and don't know if you saw it yet or not, but on each skill in your skill bar, if you click on it there's another button that toggles using the skill without moving. In almost every case, this is better. Both of these tips are just about making the game do what you tell it to.

[@roebie7621]

Watching guides also saves you hours and your sanity, but to each their own

[@kobold_ts]

Adding a few more of the basic QoL tips, plus some comments: - when you press Ctrl key, you get another skill bar - it's a good place for all the "passive" skills like Vitality aura or Herald of Agony - when you want to see if a support skill gem will work with your active skill, just hover the mouse arrow over the support gem - it will display a small window with all your current skills and whether the support skill does or doesn't work with each of them - on the passive skill tree, the icon in the center of skill group gives you a selection of "mastery" skills, don't omit those :) - full respec during the PoE campaign is quite difficult to do, we all agree it's a bummer - as much as I appreciate the idea of learning the game by playing it, and I agree the PoE tutorial could be MUCH better - the content creators are a common thing for every popular game and majority of your WTF moments can be solved with a single Zizarian video :)

[@PsychoMachado]

@@roebie7621 But you lose on the discovery and it becomes a game of catching up. For the first playthrough, although it's confusing, it's also rewarding to understand what you just did and planning ahead on your own. I didn't look up any guides until lvl 60 and although it is a bit frustrating knowing I didn't do some optimal choices, it's nice knowing my suboptimal choice is still working good.Also I can respect it and train later for the endgame content.

[@mauriciobuitrago7853]

Pro tip: when selling to a vendor, hold the ctrl key and then click on the items you want to move to the vendor interface. This will avoid the drag-and-drop annoyance and make selling stuff to vendor a breeze.

[@dmitrynutels9340]

And this is true for moving items in and out of your stash and other things.

[@emilm8603]

Shhh! He has to "discover" it himself.

[@NyxVellum]

Legend. Thank you.

[@MrD4rK]

He's already using it in the vid when he first fills his stash.

[@Sometuy11A]

I can get behind making this a series honestly.

[@NyxVellum]

It would be rude not to at this point.

[@lolimmune]

​@@NyxVellumI subbed just for this

[@Sometuy11A]

@@NyxVellumWill we also be getting a video about Adyr?

[@NyxVellum]

@@Sometuy11A I've just finished the video on Harkyn. It's going out next Tuesday :) Then I'll probably cover Pieta.

[@Sometuy11A]

@@NyxVellum Awesome! Lords of the fallen lore sure is a treat to experience.

[@severhappiness5301]

I can only recommend making it easier on yourself by going through the options once, i would recommend turning on sockets all the time, as well as health bars. No idea why those are hidden by default and they make the game so much harder...

[@Mac12366]

I have played PoE since 2013 and still have never turned on health bars. I dont like adding more clutter to my screen. Most enemies die before a health bar is needed anyway.

[@Djent_Lover]

​@@Mac12366seriously health bars help in every situation... you ain't farmed my friend lol

[@raulalbanil1984]

​@@Mac12366health bar is good to indicate where enemies are. It is a lot safer that way and also you do not miss enemies to kill

[@Gtoast]

@@Mac12366 health bars aren't clutter, everything else is. Even loot is clutter; it's why we have filters.

[@NyxVellum]

I've actually gone through the settings in Act 3 and enabled a few things that have helped. Thank you for the advice!

[@tinydancerr9211]

Very fun episode, I think it's the first time I've heard anyone express concern for their NPCs placement, "where would Einhar wanna be? Behind a tree", made me laugh out loud.

[@danielalexandru6904]

I thought we lost him there, I thought he will start to do this for hours as I did at first

[@NyxVellum]

I would die for him.

[@maxxxxiors]

@@NyxVellum Einhar is the best NPC! "haha, you are captured, StUpID BeAsT!"

[@davyjones4314]

Einhar is doing Einhar business over there..

[@taylon5200]

The "behind a tree?" Line took me the hell out haha.

[@Augmentx]

If you hover over the support gem, a green checkmark list appears, green means you can use it, a red one means it wouldn't affect it. Some gem combinations will have better effects though.

[@NyxVellum]

Thank you for the tip

[@larsg.2492]

Episode 1: I'm gonna make a glass cannon! Episode 2: Everything hits like a truck! I died instantly! 😂 Good job all around, PoE has always been to overwhelming to me. Torchlight II and Grim Dawn is more up my alley. 😅

[@Kratos263]

"Here it is, 100% critical strike" Big oof

[@danielalexandru6904]

100% beeing in reality another 5-7%

[@NyxVellum]

They lied to me!

[@patrickbratton9343]

@@NyxVellum Nah they didn't lie to you, it just is worded badly when contextualized from other games. The way it works is your weapons (or spells) have a base critical strike chance, typically at the top near attack/cast speed stat. All your large % increases to critical strike chance increase THAT number. If you see an increase to critical strike chance less than around 5% then its probably a flat increase to the base rate, if its greater then its likely a % increase to the base. Short version, there is base crit chance and crit chance increase.

[@janilohtander5808]

it propably said 100% INCREASED critical strike chance, instead of "100% critical strike" in this game you have to read stuff if youi dont take tips and hints from anywhere :D

[@daibogzdoroviya]

​@@danielalexandru6904in reality it Doubles the WEAPON crit strike chance, but critical strike chance on weapon increases weapon base critical strike chance 😂

[@ZerriTheFox]

Only a few tips. 1. You have a bunch of completed quests from prior acts that you can turn in for some rewards and skill points. 2. There are skill vendors in towns that can sell you gems you didn't pick or some from that you've unlocked over time. 3. since you are not using a guide, you might want to use the search function on the skill tree to find buffs that work with your playstyle. Hope you have a good time, and enjoy getting new mechanics every act.

[@ultron663]

in every act town there is a vendor that sells all the gems that you have acces to at the time so might be worth checking that out if you want more skill variety :)

[@NyxVellum]

I need to check this out.

[@BleechedWombat]

@@NyxVellum Can only echo this, you are really sleeping on the town vendors. The NPC in each town that sells flasks/jewellery/wands will have all skill gems you have unlocked in the story in their second tab for sale (yeah, this should be highlighted more). This could solve all your issues with not feeling like you are able to change things up. When you get a choice between like 4 gems as a quest reward, no matter which you choose, all 4 will be added to the vendors as options to buy. Hovering a support gem will tell you which of the skill gems you have equipped it can support with a green checkmark/red cross thingy. Once you progress enough in the story to have all gems unlocked, you will get an NPC that sells them all. The second NPC you are neglecting is the one selling armor/weapons as they can solve all your color/links issues. You can walk around with a 3-linked white boot/glove/helmet if it makes you able to use a skill with 2 good support gems. That can be totally worth it, if even just to try out different combinations of gems.

[@cooper5602]

​@@NyxVellumto be clear, different vendors sell different gems. And their selection increases as you complete quests in that act.

[@nicoalecapunpon3761]

Aside from gems check armors and weapons that has 3 or 4 more links to it. That way, you can just do a simple craft like putting an orb of alchemy or essence to make it better. ( from normal item to rare item. just an example :) )

[@vincentcarrierthivierge9325]

I strongly suggest a blind first play trough. You will appreciate even more the second with a solid beginner friendly build afterward. Don't worry about making mistake in your talent trees, just remember to pick life node close to ehere you are because you will need them.

[@TimGlaser]

I sympathize with the frustration around respec points. I will say that at some point in the game it's trivial to have as many Orbs of Regret as you need, and you do get a decent amount of 'free respec' points from the game. The game definitely wants to make you feel like your choices are meaningful and have impact by not letting it be easy to respec early. Later, the cost is negligible and has no significant impact. I do recommend trying a loot filter. It massively will improve your quality of life.

[@NyxVellum]

So I've heard!

[@TimGlaser]

If you're in trade league I'm happy to give you some regrets so you can try something else. I would say though that picking ranger and then wanting to try melee is kind of a strange path. it's not impossible, but for your first time i wouldn't recommend it. I do think the game doesn't offer much in game assistance to new players, so you're doing a million sub-optimal things because you don't have any frame of reference, totally understandable. I think you can complete the campaign pretty easily just going solo with no guides, but even a small amount of assistance might go along way towards enjoying more of the game. @@NyxVellum

[@Fyrefrye]

@@NyxVellum As far as loot filters are concerned, there are a few built in to the game in the options menu if you don't want to risk spoilers looking things up online. If I recall, GGG have their own filter as well as the main one made by the community (Called the "neversink" filter or something like that). Once you have the filter turned on, you can let it show items by default and it will hide most drops and highlight the "better" drops. It marks things like items with lots of sockets or links or better base types.

[@Exocrime]

@@NyxVellumwithout lootfilter your screen will later explode with items. even with a lootfilter sorting out 99% of all items your screen can be full later, its amazing and scary.

[@diabetickevin]

@@NyxVellum Its important to note that on xbox or playstation they give you loot filters to choose from by default. Only on pc do you have to manually install them. That's why its something you can't really avoid even if you want to play without much knowledge

[@danielalexandru6904]

You know, is funny that at the beggining I was overwhelmed by this many mecanics and now after thousands of hours I think there are not enough mecanics

[@Allhavengames]

Its always fun watching people play for the first time, i forget some of things i do that seem like easy common sense are only because ive done them 1000 times lol. and its hard not to correct something you say or add something because I know you will find it over time. so all ill say is the game does get much better the farther you get

[@NyxVellum]

I'm on Act 3 and it's actually been a lot of fun.

[@Insane_Power]

"If we get you to maps we own your soul" -Chris Wilson

[@DJWolfBot]

Tip for support gem interactions: You can know if a support gem affects a main gem by checking the tooltip for explanation, or checking if the small skill icon receives the smaller red, blue or green icons to them, since they indicate if they are working or not.

[@Gnorz0815]

you have a great approach to the game as new player. Just as to mention: Everyone borks his skilltree in the first playtrough. It is made to hook people who like to experiment and are not afraid to sometimes have their character / build idea fail. In regards to "slow" combat :) lategame poe has (some of) the fastest playstyles possible if you build it that way. (and for me nearly 4 k hours noobed later i still go on a new discovery every league and every char)

[@NyxVellum]

Thank you for the kind words.

[@Rovokan]

What i find most interesting is that most of your cons get solved the more you progress in the game. At some point you get in the loop and the game does get easier. Cinematics do exist, though they are just a few. There is an absurd amount of unique gems and in trade league its quite easy to respec as soon as you gather some currency and trade it for regret orbs.

[@NyxVellum]

Thats good to know!

[@aeristheangelk2556]

@@NyxVellum Also, talk to your npc's in town, some of them sell new gems the more levels u get / gem quest you complete. You can buy those other gems from the vendor as long as u have the currency to buy them u can change it up.

[@kernoleary1394]

@@NyxVellum the game becomes very different once you start following a good build. I'm not even kidding beating the campaign (10 acts) is like maybe 5% of the game

[@OlivierCombe]

@@kernoleary1394 more like 0.1% once you've done it a bunch of times, just zoom zoom to the end of the acts so that you can start playing the game 😅

[@MidSpeck]

I can’t think of any cinematics besides a 2 second shot of Kitava’s statue rumbling.

[@DasHeino2010]

13:30 You can see it for your equipped skills while you hover over it. Also, the supported gems light up while linked. You put all in the sockets and if you hover over the support gem and if the skill gem doesnt light up it is not supported. 33:00 get some resistances on your gear. Press "C" then go to the tab "Defences" and in there you will find your resistances. Keep them in check is the most vital part alongside Armour/Evasion.

[@tearsofglass88]

Also one thing that may help is the search function on the skill tree. Say you want for life. Search for it and all the life nodes will flash so you can plan a general path to get more life on the skill tree. Also you can have more skills if you hold down ctrl. Some people like to put auras on the second bar so you’re not accidentally toggling them. Excited to follow your journey as you progress and the game starts to open up.

[@teroril]

About dying a lot: -The game has a resist system like the one in Diablo 2. -You can pick up HP nodes in the passive tree, which help your survivability. Consider getting the ones that are close to the path you're taking. -You can get hp on gear (you can also craft it on items in your hideout) -As a rule of thumb, consider getting 300hp times the act you're in. At the very least it's a good judge as to whether or not you're too squishy for how far you are into the game. -You had a bunch of quests you could just go hand in. Some of which gives you more passive points. Don't underestimate quest rewards! -About loot: Gear can have 6 affixes on them: 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. Some things you can only get as a prefix or a suffix (eg: Max HP is only available as a prefix). Crafting (using the currency orbs you drop, as well as other mechanics) is a bottomless hole of depth in PoE.

[@dimitaraleksiev2354]

I clicked so fast when I saw you uploaded this video haha :D I see a lot of people in the comments gave you quite a few tips, so I'm just going to say this - great video, loved your reactions, keep it up

[@NyxVellum]

You're awesome. Thank you

[@DaanClear]

Amazing to see you enjoy and explore! The more support gems u have linked to a skill gem, the better!

[@NyxVellum]

Thank you for the kind words and the advice!

[@АлексейКузнецов-ж4з]

@@NyxVellum keep in mind that will affect mana cost of the skill tho. As well with more attack speed u spend mana faster.

[@adydy_]

Pleeeease poe is so well in the pinnacle end game, so much interesting lore and fun bosses, i really hope you get deeper into the game beyond the acts! Great series 👌

[@bob-qt3bd]

I can't think about bosses in game because when I do I hear "Huuuungeeer" in my head, and this is fking Good

[@NyxVellum]

It's happening

[@adydy_]

Happy to hear that 🎉

[@practic4l349]

@@bob-qt3bd THE FIRES OF A THOUSAND SUNS! *sigh* , death number 2 here I come

[@bob-qt3bd]

​@@practic4l349cascade of pain then the sound of dying character 8)

[@niikokun5326]

Hehe x3 Path of Exile's definitely a beast to get into, but I've discovered a tip that makes guides unnecessary, at least for the passive tree. There's a little 'search engine' at the top of the passive tree. You can type in what you're looking for, such as 'two-handed' or 'chaos damage' or etcetera, and it'll highlight the nodes on the tree that match. Helped me a ton when I figured it out.

[@NyxVellum]

Good to know, thanks!

[@coolers4444]

Awesome! I've been waiting for more episodes on this. Watching someone play a game I've been playing for years is quite refreshing. It makes me feel revisiting the journey I took once before with all the frustrations and fulfillment all over again and it is super exciting to feel that way again toward the game! Cheers!

[@vaji1068]

Was waiting for this! Nice job getting so far! Few more tips for ya. 1. Every class has 3 Ascendancies. For example, your Ranger has 3 Ascendancies called Deadeye, Raider and Pathfinder. To get to the place where you can Ascend (which is in the act 3 town (green color statue on the top of the spiral stairs) you need to complete these Ascendancy areas where you touch the plaque at the end of an obstacle course (an Ascendancy trial). You can tell if there's an Ascendancy trial in an area if there is a green color text in your quests area in the right side where it says "Complete the trial of Ascendancy in the area". You need 6 for the first trial. You'll find them as you progress the campaign. 2. There are so many hideouts that you can unlock during the campaign just like you did. You can freely change between them as you wish. Just find the area and clear it. Hideouts are where you have a crafting bench which gives you the crafting options you unlock (which you also find during the campaign) so you can craft them on the gear (if you have space to craft them) for the price of some in game currency you drop (alteration orbs, transmutation orbs, chaos orbs ect..) 3. Try to get some life on your passive skill tree so you can survive a bit more. 4. As someone else stated, EVERY act has an NPC that sells you better life flasks, mana flasks, rings, belts and gems that you unlock as you level up and complete quests. Also another dude that sells you weapons and armor. 5. Get the skill called Blink Arrow from the act 1 NPC vendor. It's what will allow you to traverse the terrain, jump gaps and gtfo of a dangerous situation. Keep it up exile. Loving the series so far.

[@alehut]

Going through without guides is a great experience and I think players who jump straight to build guides end up missing out on something really fun. THAT SAID... as a player with more than 5 years experience, I want to stress how much fun it can ALSO be to keep jumping into Path of Exile even after acquiring a lot of game knowledge, because the game is just that deep. What you've seen so far barely even scratches the surface of a 10 Act campaign that we only half-jokingly call "the tutorial."

[@NyxVellum]

It's incredibly deep.

[@justintolentino9222]

I tried going in blind before. Got stuck in act 3. Couldn't do build trial and error either because I ran out of respec points. In the video, I can already see the signs of the a failing build (1 attack of a mob took half of his HP). That should never happen early game unless facing an Act boss. It would be fun until act 3 / 4, until you realize that you now need to reroll your first character.

[@alehut]

@@NyxVellum Something to consider for the future of this series might be reaching out to someone with more POE experience to do sort of a "ride along" episode where they hop into discord with you while you explore the game. I know that you want to evaluate how well the game itself guides a solo player but at the same time, there are little things like your frustration with the lack of gems in this episode, or not knowing how to get intelligence, where a gentle hint could point you in the right direction - and in a more interactive way than just reading through the help screens. Doing this with an established content creator in the POE (or general ARPG) space could be a nice boost for the visibility of your channel and series as well, though of course you'd want to be sure they weren't going to just bombard you with information. Or another tactic could be to reroll and play duo with another ARPG player who hasn't played POE - that way you could fill in each other's blind spots, try different builds together, etc. Regardless, this is a perfect time to be putting out this sort of content because the Trial of the Ancestors league started almost 3 months ago, the next league won't start for another month (ish?) and so it's a low activity period for actually playing the game. We don't have any details about what next league is going to look like yet, so players are just looking for entertaining content. A few weeks from now, once we start getting teasers about balance changes and new content, everyone's attention will be taken up by speculation, build planning, league start guides, etc etc etc

[@alehut]

Just make sure you don't accidentally hear or read any illegal fishing secrets...

[@ABetterUserName2a2]

Now that I know this is going to be a series... SUBBED

[@icecoldsnakeYT]

I like watching your videos and paying attention to the editing style and pacing. Very good stuff and got some inspiration from this one for my own series going through the acts for the first time.

[@NyxVellum]

Thank you!

[@Bliss467]

This is actually super entertaining! You’re actually doing a phenomenal job getting through the game. It’s hard and overwhelming, but I think you’re going about it perfectly. Just know the game makes you work for what you want, but does reward you, and consistently has paths to get you there. You can find virtually all the gems at vendors. It’ll be more overwhelming. And yeah, you’ll need to start over for melee, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll get through it again.

[@JustinH1979]

Really enjoying the commentary. I feel your pain on the first-time tree mis-steps for sure! A small tip that might help, is you can link multiple skill gems to the same support if you are struggling to find gear with enough (or the right colour) sockets early on. Eg put 2 attack skills + a faster attacks support in a single 3-link item. It took me too long to realise this back when I started playing 😂

[@squirebalo9357]

There are a few things, you are missing or would make your life easier: - hotkeys/skills are automatically assigned to your hotkey bar. but you also can manually assign them. Just click on the slot and select the skill, you want to put into. Most ppl that i know put simple walking onto the left mouse button. That way you dont accidentally attack, when you want to move/pass something. I think, it was one of the reasons, why you were dieing at the bossfight with the construct. -Einhar is content from an old season. Once a season is over sometimes the season theme gets integrated into the main game in a slightly simplified version. Helping Einhar to catch beast is one of those things. During questing you always encounter a full 'set'. Which contains of a rare/red beast and 3-4 common ones. Fighting and killing a set in the arena gives you a reward. Most of the time an item or some currency or something else. The level of the item given depends on the level of the monsters used. - items can have up to 6 sockets. Thought only chest pieces and 2-hand weapons can go so high. Therefore ppl try to concentrate on 1 or max 2 main skills. (Mainly to put up to 5 support skills to their main skill.) (But also: having 6 sockets linked together in one item with the colors you want is no small task.) - the skill tree has a search function. you dont really need to use full guides/builds, if your main purpose is to learn about the game and finish the story. BUT you should try to focus on enhancing your main skill, so use the search function and pick which way on the tree you want to follow, to reach 'bigger' nodes that bonus your build-idea. (For example caustic arrow does chaos damge, so look for nodes that increase chaos damge. If you also want to poison your enemys, poison is also chaos damage but there are extra nodes to poison damage. There are also nodes for basicly everything. Like attackspeed, attackspeed with bows, increased area damage, area of effect etc. Look where those nodes are and if you want to use your skill points to go for them.) - in the longer run, you also want at least a few nodes with defensiv mods. For your character probably evasion would be a decent choice. (Evasion is dexterity based and all basic dexterity based armour gives also evasion.) And dont forget to pick a node with life bonus now and then. - the hideout is more usefull after the questing. It becomes basicly a customized and personal town hub. For example you can add all the 'service' npcs, crafting bench, you stash, a portal device and more. Making it a good looking hideout is a major task on its own. :D - the game itself is basicly free, but if you really want to play it for long, you want additional tabs for your stash. Some of those tabs are specialized and the one for currency is almost mandatory/a huge quality of poe-life improvement. every few months there is a sale on stash tabs on a weekend. - each town has a vendor that sells skill gems. the higher the act, the more gems are getting unlocked for you. you dont only have to use those that you find or get through quests. (thought different classes unlock certain gems at different levels.) After the story line there is a trader who can sell you every basic skill gems. (there are very few drop only gems if you dont count vaal corrupted ones. those can only be found or 'randomly' crafted. for some skill gems, there are advanced versions, but those are part of the higher end game already.)

[@NBenjy]

i feel that a lot of people try out PoE with the mindset of playing through it casually, which can be done, but it is not ideal. the game is unapologetically made for the more hardcore player base and a blind play-through wont really give much insight into how the majority of active players play the game. The convergence of the games systems dont really start untill late into the campaign and even then, a lot of systems are locked until after the campaign. While i applaud anyone doing a blind play-through and would love more people to get into the game, most people who attempt it will be disheartened and feel way too overwhelmed coming out the other end with a warped view of how the game plays. Playing through blind in PoE is kind of akin to playing through an item based roguelite like Binding of Isaac or Hades without picking up any items or upgrades, can it be done? yes, will it be fun? probably not. I am not trying to gatekeep players from enjoying the game how they like to, but the devs have been rather hands off with the new player experience, leaving streamers and content creators to become the games de facto new player tutorial system. I wish they would explain things like passive tree pathing, ascendency choices, gear rolls, etc., to new players, but they havent in the last 10 years, and now the main recourse for new players is KZbin.

[@NyxVellum]

Thanks for the write up!

[@LegendaryNightfall]

Your cons: 1. They don't want you to respec in this game. So they give you SOME respec points for quests, but if you want to respec your whole tree, that costs. Usually if someone wants to respec a whole tree, they just make a new character. 2. Gems don't drop often in the early game, and most of your gems come from quests, so those are moderately important. That said, if you want different gems, you can buy them at the potion vendor in every city on their #2 store page once they've been unlocked. Any quest that offers you gem rewards(support or skills) will even result in more options in the store than you are given for free, so they are worth checking out. 3. It gets easier, but only with a LOT of reading. For example, you had gems that needed more stats to level up, and you had a stat node that you just ignored very early on in your tree to give you both strength and intelligence. And as a tip, when you hover over a support gem, it will tell you if it will do anything for any gems you already have on your character as well as any restrictions on its use in the description. This game is all reading.

[@raymondamador1487]

Con #3, depends on class. Not enough gems? After he gets to last act and can buy all the gems in the game(except Divergent and Awakened) he'll think differently. lol

[@ferinzz]

Really felt the socket changing moment. I was happy you were getting excited about changing things and getting what you need... only to lose it because you were messing with an intelligence based item. Really looking forward to poe2 overhauling this system. Awesome editing btw. Great job keeping things moving and making sure to highlight moments that accentuate the pro and con ending. If you want to respec I'm sure plenty of people could offer some free regrets... but yeah, respec is a difficult thing to offer because it encourages strange behaviour from the player. Since the leveling can be pretty fast i don't mind it, but it does cause a quit moment

[@mekgaming111]

I remember the time when I saw my first hideout and also took the time to decorate without me realizing that I wasn't focusing on the quest for a while. Nice videos, man! I'm enjoying the series so far.

[@jogadorjnc]

For the gems thing, each act has a vendor that sells gems for pretty cheap, so you don't have to be limited to what you get on quest rewards. Besides that, the weapons you use somewhat limit your gem choices, but there are tons of gems for each weapon type so you can usually find multiple gems that you can pick between for your main skills. But the support gems are often where the feeling of having a different skill comes from, you've already seen arrow nova, but you also have stuff like volley support, which adds more projectiles at the cost of damage, and multistrike support for melee attacks which makes you attack 3 times in quick succession. When it comes to swapping builds, you'll find that you don't really need to fully reset your tree almost ever, since most builds will have nodes in common, especially in the early game. Looking at your skill tree I think you only need to remove the bow nodes you added this episode to be able to swap to melee without any issues. You could have swapped to melee at the start of the episode without changing any of the skill points with basically no drawback (This one is kinda backseat gaming, but strength, dexterity, and intelligence are kind of dead stats most of the time, as long as you have enough for the minimum requirements you don't really want to invest any more into them)

[@NyxVellum]

I need to check these vendors out. Thanks for the advice.

[@aeristheangelk2556]

@@NyxVellum u can also get balista support and link it with caustic arrow so the balista shoots that skill for example.

[@jogadorjnc]

​@@NyxVellumYou're welcome Honestly, this made me want to go play PoE again, which is really bad because I'm coming up on a big deadline and can't afford to go full degenerate

[@Masakiyomi]

NO SPOILERS HERE (outside features/mechanics section I suppose) ABOUT GEMS: Vendors sell most of the gems, you don't have to buy them. Nessa in act 1, Yeena in act 2 (after a quest), Clarissa in act 3 (after a quest), Siosa in act 3 (in a Library, he actually sells ALL gems you can get before act 4, but they are always at lvl 1), you don't have to drop them yourself. You were able to choose between at least 8 bow gems before you even got to act 3, and that number is about to go up. ABOUT FEATURES/MECHANICS: Acts slowly introduce new features, but you are right in terms of their sheer number, there's A LOT. Strongboxes, Shrines, Essences, Beasts, Tormented Spirits (the ghosts running away from you, they buff monsters they touch to increase their drops), Delve, Delirium, Abyss, Breach, Heist, Sanctum, Legion, Ritual, Incursion, Metamorph, Blight, Harbingers, Syndicate, Conquerors, Pinnacle Bosses, influences, and a bunch more. The biggest jump in the number of available mechanics is when you enter the maps after act 10, you're being introduced to new mechanics pretty much every map you run. ABOUT THE PACE OF COMBAT: It's slow, but only at the beginning. The first 3 acts are boring as heck, and you really should've had Dash on your hotbar, it helps a lot. Later down the line it's absolutely mandatory to have some kind of movement skill at your disposal, otherwise you're gonna get screwed (and loose A LOT of quality of life, especially in terms of trials and the Labirynth). Your character gets noticeably faster around act 4/5 and typically it keeps speeding up over time because in the current state of the game if you're slow (or even worse: standing still) you're dead. This game is fucking brutal. ABOUT QOL/USER EXPERIENCE/GUI FEATURES Pressing Z isn't the only way to get the items to be visible (tho PLEASE do that already, you're missing so much stuff on the ground), if you go to options there's a whole UI tab that allows you to toggle things like life bars, numeric values above your life, energy shield and mana orbs, change the map transparency and many more, it's a good thing to go there and adjust things to your preferences. SIDE NOTE: LOOT FILTER If you go to the "Game" tab in the options there should be an Item Filter option, if you choose "" it'll still show you almost every single trash you drop but it'll also outline some of the better things out for you, making it a bit easier to go through all those piles of random items that drop on the ground. It's nowhere near the sufficient strength for late acts or early maps, but it's still better than having no filter at all.

[@Johannicus]

As a casual PoE player that very rarely follow guides, I love PoEs wealth of options. I can play a build find something that trigger an idea for a build theme, and start a new character to try it out. I also love that leveling is not repeating the same acts over and over like in old Diablo games. Sometimes my builds hold to end game and sometimes they dont but they are still fun while playing. I have found, thru experience, some bosses that I use as tests for my builds. If I cant beat them I know something needs to change. The cosmetics MTXs makes it feel fresh over the years wich I also like, and can be used on all characters. They also give me ideas for themed builds, even if I dont buy them for that theme. Favorite season was Delve wich allowed you to explore fresh things no matter if you pushed end game or just looked for better gear to push onwards.

[@NyxVellum]

Thanks for the write-up. It seems like you've found your favourite game!

[@Touchpadse]

Glad to see you're continuing this series! A little help here: As a general guideline you can think "My health should be somewhere around 300-500 times the act I'm currently in" so if you're in act 2 you should try to be at least 600 hp (I'd even suggest at least 800). It's an easy way to see if you're going to have a big problem with survivability

[@JasonOJX]

You can check which skill the support gem can support by mousing over it when its in your bag :) hope that helps

[@Blazh5864]

This function needs to be turned on in the game settings

[@NyxVellum]

It does! Thank you

[@electricant55]

@@Blazh5864 He has it, 12:50

[@cooper5602]

​@@NyxVellumjust a heads up as well, if multiple gems are linked, you can hover over one and whatever gem it is affecting/getting affected by will highlight. So if you have your rain of arrows linked to 2 support gems, when you hover over it in your armor the 2 supports should highlight. If not, then its not supported as well.

[@yinduyun]

So here's a few things that the game doesn't necessarily clue you in on: All currency is functional - Scrolls and Orbs are the Currency items of the game, and vendors can convert between them (though this is very lossy) Each act has at least two vendors - one vendor that sells primarily weapons (melee and ranged) and armour plus another vendor that sells wands, flasks, jewelry and (on another tab) skill/support gems. Items available to each vendor are different from act to act, and some gems are restricted by character class or locked behind quests. There's a bunch of quests that you've kinda sorta completed but not yet picked up the reward for - check your quest lists for the previous acts so you don't miss out on freebies.

[@ovidiumarcel7371]

Welcome to poe....u can buy the gems from the shop, the one that sells potions it will have a second window later in every act where u can buy gems, you should go check in act 1 too maybe u can find some gems u can use, have fun and keep em comming please XD (subscribed for more PoE episodes XD )

[@NyxVellum]

Thanks for the support

[@rm6095]

Remember that NPC in town can sells a few gems! You can found a lot of new skills from NPC, you don't need to drop them. Concerning respec, basically in this game, if you start as a bow character with bow skills, you have to go through this path for a while, you can't really respec that soon into the game. You kinda have to play projectile base build atm, which are bow skills and some caster builds. But there are a lot of bow skills, ice shot, lightning arrow, explosive arrow and so on that you could try out!

[@NyxVellum]

I need to check that NPC out.

[@HackFo]

just find the vendor that sells flasks, rings and wands and then click on page 2 and you'll see a bunch of gems. There's quests later on for vendors that sell a large collection of gems and then after the acts you can invite a vendor into your hideout that sells every single gem. (except a handful that are drop-only)@@NyxVellum

[@YamiEryie]

Oh hell yeah I've been waiting for this and yet I still want more haha

[@NyxVellum]

More is coming.

[@callsign_cloudy]

Holding Left Ctrl + Left click will quickly move items between inventory screens and storage/vendors. But if you enjoy the game, please keep uploading videos! This has given me some crazy nostalgia of exploring PoE for the first time years ago.

[@NyxVellum]

Good point

[@moroii785]

As long as you did not take projectile nodes you can be a melee build but you would have to look for melee skill gems in act 1 from nessa and they will be most likely green. As you play the campaign only certain gems show up in shops based on the class you picked. not until act 3 and you clear the library can you see and buy every gem. Another note, if you did take projectile damage nodes you can still use a skill that throws a weapon so it's kind of like a melee build but it will still scale with your projectile passives, examples being Spectral throw and Spectral helix which you can buy in act 1.

[@jogadorjnc]

Even in the library you can't find every gem, some are still unlocked later on (namely multistrike is only unlocked on act 5, iirc, which is unfortunate for flicker builds)

[@NyxVellum]

Thanks for the advice.

[@iamtheshim]

Glad to see you're keeping at it! This journey's been fun to go on. To talk a bit about the cons you raised at the end: 1) It's really overwhelming: totally fair. There's so much to learn and understand and the ingame tutorials are pretty insufficient, and you barely have time to figure out one gameplay mechanic before the game throws two more at you. A lot of this is accumulated stuff from many years of added mechanics - Einhar, for instance, was added in the Bestiary league, and while his whole deal saw significant reworking from that iteration, it's still Another Thing To Learn. There's just so much in this game that it all crowds around itself saying "look at me! look at me!" while you're trying to figure out what gems go in what slot. As you said, it's a con within a pro - the ludicrous and staggering depth of PoE is what keeps me and plenty others constantly coming back and trying new and ridiculous builds, but it's very hard for new players to figure out without any help. 2) Cinematics: yeah, not a focus of PoE. If I could see some of the stuff in this game through the medium of D4-level cinematics, whoo boy... 3) Expecting more gems: one vendor in each town will sell you any skill gems from that act that you've unlocked through story progress. Act 2 is a bit interesting in this regard as almost all the gems from there are support gems or buffs like the Herald of Agony one, almost no active skill gems that you would use as your primary attack. If you go back to Act 1 and talk to Nessa, she'll have another tab with all the skill gems from levels 1-12 for a Ranger available, so you can definitely try out a few different skills and see what works for you. There's also another bevy of them coming in Act 3 for you to check out! 4) No full respecs: unfortunately, no. Some sidequests will award you with a couple respec points for completing them, but on the whole, PoE is not very full-respec friendly. This is actually one of the reasons people recommend following a guide for your first character - if you go fully blind and make your own, you might end up with a tree that is both unsuited for a lot of the more difficult content and quite hard/expensive to respec. With enough playtime it's not too hard to earn enough to afford them, and many people would rather completely respec a high level character than level up a new one, but again, this one's pretty punishing for beginners. Anyway, you make some valid criticisms, but I hope that they aren't weighing the game down too hard for you - there's a ton of really cool stuff to discover and play with as well. Looking forward to episode 3!

[@TrippyRiddimKid]

13:29 there is a way, hover over the support gem and to the left is a box with check marks indicating which skills you are using are compatible.

[@invoblisia5739]

Oh man oh man does this bring some memories. Path of Exile was first arpg game I ever touched and the firstplaytrough was quite messy :D Watched both act videos and damn I enjoyed this content. Sitting in a "waiting room" for new season this is refreshing to watch. Also I really want to backseat, but browsing trough the comments there are bunch of viewers already doing it. Liked you video and really waiting for the next act !!

[@QIDOM]

Not being able to respec to experiment is why I haven’t played PoE more. Its PoE’s biggest weakness imo. Its so strong in other categories that it is disappointing that they will die on that particular hill. But I enjoy seeing a fresh perspective on the game….good series so far 👍.

[@blanahaha]

the logic for the repec is ass backwards. Everyone tells you to just stick with you're shitty build until endgame because apparently orbs of regret drop like candy at endgame. But experimentation with builds is something you want to be doing early because you're figuring out the game and how everything works. Telling people to either play a shitty build until endgame or restart every time they learn something about a build is fucking stupid. In a game with so many builds, respecs should be free/cheap to incentivize on the spot experimentation. Rather then having to slog through countless new characters every time we have a new idea we would like to try out that sounds good on paper, but might not pan out in terms of gameplay feel.

[@zxkiller254xz8]

I dont know if someone has already mentioned this, but another pro tip is get a movement skill on your character as quickly as possible, it really helps with dodging enemy attacks and helps the pacing (especially early game) There are several different movement skills that work depending on your attributes for example: flame dash or frost dash are more "suited" to intelligence based characters Leap or slam (forgot the name) is more strength based etc etc. A good clue as to what skills works best with a attribute is actually the color of the gems. Green (dex) blue(int) red (strength) And some skills require 2 attributes so that could mean a skill gem requires 100 dex and 70 strength to use the skills. Also as you level gems the requirements for the attributes to use said skill increases as does the mana to use said skill, so mana leech is almost a must for bow or melee builds which you can find on the skill tree, gear etc.

[@alguira]

I'm waiting for him to discover the end game. Is so damn fun, intricate but at the same time engaging. You're up for a blast.

[@ArnoldsKtm]

That will take a while. This build is already bricked. Let's just see the journey.

[@kirktown2046]

Wish PoE players would stop putting the cart before the horse and saying dumb things like the campaign is just the tutorial. Vast majority of players do not get to "end game" content, and there's just as much or more enjoyment to be found in the early/mid game as late game. Obsessing over the late game just pushes players away.

[@ArnoldsKtm]

@@kirktown2046 this take makes sense only for people who play PoE for the first time. Acts take up literally a fraction of your entire league playthrough. The character is still being made, there's nothing to fully explore. You want to get to the end and finalize your build to play for real. Thus it's called the tutorial. Because it kind of is.

[@kirktown2046]

@@ArnoldsKtm No, this a misconception from a minority of the player base. Vast majority never complete end game content or even close, including return players. GGG reports this consistently for many years. Passionate but shortsighted players repeat this stupid line about the game only starting after the campaign because that's their experience and push people away that would otherwise enjoy the game without getting ahead of themselves. You don't need a guide or "build" to enjoy PoE, you don't need to complete all the content and pinnacle bosses or even red maps to be enjoying the core game. It's inane, having tons of endgame content =/= campaign is a tutorial. The tutorials are tutorials. The campaign is the campaign. Stop belittling and overwhelming new players experiences of the campaign, you are doing nothing positive for the game.

[@ArnoldsKtm]

​@@kirktown2046 you basically repeated what I said with more words... This is just for casuals that treat it as a single player story game. I could continue as I like how you seethe about it, but I digress, don't care. More power to the campaign players.

[@panwacha9191]

Hello, exile. Good video, you're doing really well and the editor rocks. I will be waiting for the next part of the adventures. To improve your gaming experience, I would also recommend turning on the sockets in the game settings (you can see the colors of the sockets and whether they are connected, this will be helpful if you want to use abilities with four connected sockets), turning on the clock, and most importantly, installing an item filter (filterblade), it will be very helpful helpful (it will isolate groups of items, which will make them more visible), and of course, have fun.

[@NyxVellum]

Great advice thank you.

[@Davidbruun]

Now that you have read some comments, I fully expect you to spend a lot of time looking at the like 50+ gems you have available at the vendor. Also, don't just look at "dex" items, you can put passive points to get more stats, and you will get it from items as well. IDENTIFY your items!!

[@NyxVellum]

Just finished recording Act 4 and you are 100% right. I spent so long looking at gems omg.

[@yuriwachsmuth1965]

One thing that I noticed by seeing many youtubers/streamers playing this for the first time, is that people don't read things properly, and don't pay attention to the UI changes. The support gems are a great example. Not only they have tags and descriptions, they also show up on the icon of the skill they're supporting, if they can support that skill that is. Also, this might be a deterrent, but playing an act, then waiting two weeks to play again is not the best idea for a game with such depth. People with thousands of hors don't have in-depth knowledge of everything in the game. If you felt like you needed a build guide for D4, then you're screwed with PoE, because the first several characters you build yourself will most likely end up in the trash. This is a "Am I willing to take the time to learn it?" kind of game. Or, you follow a build guide until you're knowledgeable enough to make one of your own, which is by far the easiest way to tackle PoE.

[@BalbazaktheGreat]

I've got several thousand hours in PoE and I love the Campaign, especially the stellar voice acting. I'm in a tiny minority, though; most PoE players only care about "Endgame," and try to blow through the Campaign (derisively called a "tutorial") as fast as possible, which is sad to me.

[@NyxVellum]

One of us, one of us, one of us

[@dieterbohlen7951]

Well I enjoy completing campaign once per league, I do it in my own tempo, not rushing etc, but when I want to create 2nd, 3rd and so on character, I am like oh God, I have to go through campaign again, even though it's easier and faster for many reasons (no spoilers for Nyx)(and after a minute of complaining I actually enjoy those campaigns too xD)

[@BalbazaktheGreat]

@@dieterbohlen7951 To be fair, I usually take a break in between starting new characters.

[@positivitize]

@@NyxVellum One thing that's really fun is when a new league starts, there's a race. The game tracks who's the first to enter a zone, and there's a pretty hardcore community of racers. I'm old and have bad reflexes, but these folks practice for weeks ahead of time to shave minutes off their total. IIRC, the best time through all 10 acts is something like 1 hour 20 min When the new league starts in a month or two, you should check it out on twitch. Its more fun than watching a guide, and you'll pick up pro-strats

[@DaneElec256mb]

Just some non-spoilery tips: -There is an NPC in act 3 who sells 75% of all the gems in the game for very cheap. They're all level 1, but you can get most of what you want. -There is an NPC in act 6 who sells 99% of all the gems in the game for very cheap. Still level 1 though. This will open up pretty much all the customization you'll need. -Not all optional missions will reward you with skill & refund points, but enough of them do that they're all worth doing. The rest give nice gear. You have some optional quests completed but need to be turned in still. -Competing all story AND optional missions will leave you with 20ish refund points by the end of the acts (before you enter endgame). Full-on respecs ARE possible, but you'll probably need an additional 20ish orbs of regret on top of your refund points. They get more common later, and they're not expensive to trade for. Have you thought about whether you want to do any trading with other people? -If you change your mind and want the 6% movespeed and other benefits from helping Kraityn, you can change your mind later and trade those 2 skillpoints back for Kraityn's favor. It's a secret vendor recipe (there are many hidden vendor recipes, where selling a certain combination of items to an NPC produces a unique result).

[@ExiledDelver]

I've been playing for 5 years and its heartbreaking how hard it is for new players to get into.... but holy farts... once you start mapping, bosses, farming content, crafting, trading, flipping currency... oh my god its so insanely good... it has its cons still for sure but all games do! there is so much debate between d4 and poe.... like when pubg and fornite started.... omfg they are just different games for different players... they can both have their place. If I want to sink 100's of hours and think lots, min max, farm, and really feel accomplished I play poe! When im burnt out and bored and want to shut my mind off I play diablo.

[@NyxVellum]

I do enjoy the depth.

[@robertheintz5255]

Newbie Hints (Non-spoiler): 1.) How you sell something can sometimes modify the return value (combinations, specific values, etc). If you want to look them up, I recommend it - helps with earning currency early on. 2.) Vendors have multiple tabs when you open up their trading UI. Some of those tabs include gems for purchase. 3.) Loot Filter. There is a default loot filter in the options. One of the single most useful options to enable. I've been playing POE since beta and I still enjoy watching new players (especially Diablo-ers) realize the appeal. Excited to continue following your adventure.

[@BardakiKel]

Take a look at the options menu. There are some QoL stuff that you mentioned in video. Like seeing which support can be used with which skill.

[@NyxVellum]

Thank you for the advice.

[@RexgarTV]

Ayyy, so glad to see you back for another Path of Exile video. You asked specifically about the best way to respec your character and the unfortunate answer is that it would likely be faster to roll an entirely new one at this point than to grind for the orbs of regret you'd need. Later on in the game (late game) this won't necessarily be the case, but for now that would be the fastest way for you to try melee. Really enjoyed this video, and hope to see more. Thanks very much for making it.

[@sirzento]

You picked the ranger class and want to already respec at lv 17 to use swords?

[@NyxVellum]

Yes.

[@ricodevega109]

I'm so glad you're not just jumping on a guide. Didn't think you would but you're absolutely right, it'd defeat the purpose. I have a few things to say and I will try to keep them as non-spoilery as I can. Respecs are a bit of a block early (ie the entire story), but because your skills are gems, you can pick up new skills that work with bows for a different kind of respec. There's a merchant in every act who sells gems and there's 20 bow skills you can feasibly use for a build spread out across mostly the first 3 acts. The gems you buy from merchants will be leveled not quite to your level, but should be high enough to not impact you too badly if you want to use them, as long as you can afford to buy them. If you find you're not using your default attack you can change it to "Move only". This is what a lot of players do so they can kite easier by left clicking and not accidentally attacking. "How do people who have 1000 hours play through the story?" As fast as we can. I liked the story and spent time on it the first couple of times, but the content I play for now doesn't come until after you finish the story. Every few months Path of Exile has a new "Season" (League) which has its own new feature added. If you encounter anything in the game that seems out of left field and doesn't completely fit with the story, it's probably an old league mechanic that became part of the core game. If it has some super overwhelming system it's probably a more recent league, like Einhar or the silver coins you found. Older leagues feel a little more natural and unobtrusive(?) like the Strongboxes or that ghost that was running away from you. I agree wholeheartedly with the cons you present. The game really feels like you need to watch a guide or have an experienced player sit down and play through with you. It really needs to better explain to new players a lot of the basic tips we've been saying (left click to move, loot filters, etc. etc.) and I think it would really benefit from having a sort of tutorial build for each character that's enough to get you to the end of the campaign and maybe even in to some of the end game... without you needing to find an external wiki devoted to a single build (I'm not exaggerating). Also being unable to appreciably respec your character feels awful as a new player. I really wish there were a couple of full respecs available at certain key moments of the game to allow people going through the story to make changes based on what they've learned without impacting on the endgame players.

[@Illumina_Blade]

Aymars Hunt

[@saltamuertosturambar4050]

Hello! Just two little things first: 1- It's amazing to watch a new player come to Path of Exile, no matter your background. I'm enjoying these videos and hope you'll make it all the way up to maps (endgame). 2- you can control+left-click an item in your inventory to sell it to the vendors. No need to drag the item, just control+leftclick. Apart from that, you're doing it fine. If you are struggling a bit with survival, just take the life or resistence nodes on the passive tree. And if you want to try a melee build, unfortunately the best I can tell you is to create a new character. It's tought and disgusting for new comers (totally agree), but if you eventually want to come back to the game after this first playthrought, do it again following a melee build (or any leveling guide for the campaing). Just out of pure curiosity and comparasion, to see the difference and how it feels. Good luck, have fun and beware the touch of GOD!

[@1000byakuya]

I do understand its meant to carry more weight in our decisions by limiting the refund points. Personally i like that aspect. But i can see how its a negative to some as well. I do agree heavily about a completely natural guide free playthrough even though i do alot of research myself Btw the weevils den as a spider lvl has got to be one of the best designed ive ever seen in an rpg hands down.

[@NyxVellum]

It bummed me out! Thanks for the tips!

[@raphaelbastospedroso4280]

@@NyxVellum evey season you get a free refund all, so you can try a new build with every character every season. I do realize its way less flexibe than Diablo 4, I dont really mind since it only counts for passives, the skill are a apart from all that, those have a lot of room for experimentation.

[@josephstafford7741]

Also there is a search bar in the skill tree. You can type in what you are looking for in order to see how you want to spec your tree. Like attack speed,life, health/mana regen, movement speed etc. Same for the market. This helps a lot with the overwhelming passive tree as you can spec for exactly what you want. Most of the currency drops start dropping the further into the acts you get and even more so after you finish the campain and enter mapping. A final note, though the chances of this happening are astronomically low. If you get a Mirror of Kalandra hold on to it! It is the rarest drop in the game. It can be traded in market for a enormous amount of currency or used to duplicate an end game piece of gear.

[@117Veritas]

I’ve have always thought something that was missing that would really help with new player retention would be one or two full respecs while leveling. Maybe after Act 5 and 10 or something.

[@Living1tUpAllday]

Would also shake up speedrunning having a free respec

[@yngbenjiw]

“This game just throws a feature at you and says but what if we multiply that by 50” 😂😂😂 I haven’t even actually started playing yet and I have anxiety 😂

[@danielalexandru6904]

You need to change your left click into movement instead of attack otherwise you will attack accidentally and stop in place which cause you to die

[@NyxVellum]

Good point.

[@broccoli-dev]

A couple notes: 1. I'm not sure if you noticed this, but you can assign skill points to the mastery nodes (maybe you did this and I missed it). Not really your fault as the game doesn't tell you this and they don't look like regular nodes. 2. You can respec through Orbs of Regret as you saw, but there's no mass respec button. This is a con to many players but personally I like that it forces some level of commitment and thinking ahead. Orbs of Regret are not that difficult to acquire later on and many quests offer respec points. 3. You can purchase skill gems from some vendors.

[@ncc1709]

Tips (no spoilers) Ctrl click to quick transfer from inventory to stash or vendor change your left click to move only, it will stop your char getting stuck on mobs when trying to run from them press C and check defences tab (resist cap is 75%)

[@gregorysmith9114]

I love how you kept opening the shop when trying to open the map at the start

[@benediktmuller9539]

fun fact to einhar: he has a voice line "do you not have nets exile?" as a reference to 2018s blizzcons "do you not have phones?". einhar was first introduced for one league 8 month before blizzcon and returned for the temporary league right after blizzcon and thats when they added this voice line! edit: also before then you had to buy nets from him and capture beasts yourself and since it was annoying people usually ran out of nets at some point and didnt bother to buy more. after player feedback they changed it so einhar would capture them for us without buying nets

[@Hravokh]

Einhar is proud to count you as friend! Einhar now has to go back doing Einhar things! also yes you can get more gems from vendors. there is a little number on top of their inventory. where you can switch through their stuff. the one who sells flasks etc also sells gems on a different tab

[@Twisted_Hammer]

I didn't notice any of the other comments mentioning this, so I thought I'd let you know: When you tool the "100% increased critical strike" node, you did NOT gain a 100% chance to land a crit. When this game uses the word "increased," it means that it is modifying the already existing stat, not adding in a new stat value. So, if you had a 5% to land a crit to start with - taking that node would double it to a 10% chance. There are buffs that work the way I think you were imagining, but they use the word "more" in their description. More = Stat Injection. Increased = Stat Modification.

[@ginduo]

Randomly recommended your channel, ready to binge all of these now

[@wrathofyourmom]

Rarely comment on YT, but felt compelled to give some kudos: I'm glad to see new players blind playing PoE. I've been playing for 4500 hours now and getting new players to *really* give PoE a try is very hard. It's crazy overwhelming, but I struggle to name a game with as much depth and replay-ability. Please keep at this series. Once you're done with the campaign, I'd love to see you try a complete build for the first time, try Sanctum for the first time, see maps, etc. I love the commentary to know your thoughts as you go. Great stuff!

[@zexononerotaki]

Love watching you get the hang of it. It’s all a process and it’s a lot to process. Can’t wait for act 3.

[@mojemacki]

I'v been waiting for that sooo hard :D Thank you verry much! :)

[@ObatongoSensei]

About trying new builds... You have more than 20 character slots available and your stash is in common between all the characters in the same league, so, if and when you find something that could be useful for a different build or character, just put it in the stash and create the new character. This works also if you want to respec your current character: put everything it has equipped into the stash then go to the character choice screen, delete it and create it anew. You'll have to restart from scratch, but you'll also already know how to change your build and you'll have some fine equipment already in the stash for it. There are several tools to design your build in the passive tree. There is even one in the official site for the game, where you can test all the builds you want and check them when leveling up to reduce the chance to make the wrong choices, especially when creating a new character. The best way to learn, though, is just stopping to read and think. Taking your time to explore the passive tree a bit to see the possible routes you may take is really worth the effort. Since you are a Diablo player, you should know that what you need in this game is exactly what you needed in Diablo 2, with the addition of some additional skill-related stats such as bleeding, energy shield or charges. Even the items work in the same way, although you have six different base sets of them, each based on the main stats of one of the main six characters. The ranger, for examples, has leather armor, buckler shields, rapiers and bows. Her main defensive stat is evasion. Her main stat is Dex, so everything tailored for her has only Dex requirements. This doesn't mean you can't use other things, just that it would be harder to satisfy their requirements.

[@jetsonone1]

Appreciate the updated Pros and Cons! It will be interesting to see how your opinion changes as you progress. Good luck exile!

[@deathtoll2001]

As someone who's played the game every few leagues since beta, it's really fun to watch someone attempt to learn the game completely alone. The in-game tips and such have really improved for the most basic stuff, but once you hit act 2, you're basically still on your own. The devs intentionally let the community wiki detail all the mechanic info and regularly have "ask your mechanics questions here" Q&A sessions. It's just that complex! Here are a couple tips to help you understand how to read the in-game information: * The terminology in the game is EXTREMELY specific. Be sure to carefully read everything to understand how it works - they will always use the same words to mean the same things across the game (with a couple legacy exceptions). Especially the tags at the top of the gems. * Values on weapons are "base" values - all of the "increased", "reduced", "more", and "less" values modify these. If you see a flat number (like add 1-2 damage), that improves the base that other things work off of. * Gem tooltips don't tell you the whole story, but you can see some of how the game calculates your stats in the character panel, or when hovering over the skill in your hotbar. It will at least give a sense of what's changing * Minions/totems/etc are very difficult to understand in any detail without a 3rd party tool, so if you want to continue solo learning, I recommend to not heavily invest in those. I'm glad you are enjoying the game!! I completely agree with your pros and cons so far, aside from not really caring if there are cinematics XD By far my biggest frustration with the game is that endgame is designed around trading with players, but the trade system SUCKS. So, it can be hard to play that content without an active guild or a TON of time to grind.

[@WastelandPuppy]

I greatly enjoyed your journey so far and I'm absolutely stoked to see more. You seem to have a very good sense for what's strong and what you enjoy. At the same time, Path of Exile shows how brutal it can be if you overlook something important in its jungle of systems and features. So here are some gameplay tips from me. I will keep them to mechanics you've already seen or very general statements about the game, but hide them behind the "Show more" button nonetheless. 1. Life and resistances are probably the most important stats in the game. There are practically infinte ways to clear the map in Path of Exile, but almost every build will try to reach the cap in all four resistances and get as much maximum life as possible. 2. You *generally* get more base life from gear prefixes and stacking percentage life from the passive tree. 3. There is a search function in the passive tree. You can highlight what you're looking for and use the attribute nodes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence) to travel there. That's why these nodes are also refered to as "travel nodes". 4. On resistances: If you're expecting some specific damage type, carry a few spare resistance rings (Sapphire -> Cold, Ruby -> Fire, Topaz -> Lightning) on you to quickly swap them in. 5. Every town has a vendor which sells gems. In act 1 it's Nessa, in act 2 it's Yeena. There will be vendors who sell almost every gem in the game. 6. You get additional respec points from quests and Orbs of Regret will become far more abundant later on. 7. Transitioning into completely different builds with respecs is either very costly or completely unfeasible. Most of the time players will play a "starter" build which gets them some currency and unlocks access to more crafting options in order to kickstart other builds with it. Levelling through the campaign becomes trivial after a few play-throughs, and many players will only take a couple hours to finish it. 8. Following a guide is not necessary to beat the game, but in the late-game content after the campaign you will definitely hit a wall without a lot of game knowledge. Building at least one character with a guide will teach you so much about the game, and in my own experience enhanced the enjoyment greatly. 9. There are exceptions to almost everything I said. Path of Exile greatly rewards creativity and engagement with its many systems. There are no "wrong" builds in Path of Exile, but many builds will have a much harder time at a lot of content.

[@jokerledger5400]

I dont know if you notice but there is an option in the setting to show the gem slot of the current equipment, make it easier to keep track of everything instead of hovering over it. The game has no cinematic, at all (spoiler), and the story is kind of there, but the player is just there to be awesome and kill shit. What kind of wacky skill combo you can make. there will be a lot more gem, there will also be a gem vendor that sell basically all the active and support gem you can use in later arc, even the ones you skip as rewards. You will have respec point as rewards and a type of special orb currency to respec, but they are either rare and/or hard to come by, so each point spend is precious. it fine to save up a few points and plan out your build. If you start getting wrecked instantly by act 2 boss it will be tough in later arcs. Defense nodes, either health, defense, or dodge chance, gear with defense and resist stats are very important, not just increase in attack. You cant kill stuff if you die if they so much as sneeze in your general direction, but if you can stay alive, you can heal and damage them.

[@Krazygamr]

the biggest thing that will limit your damage is not linking support gems into your main attack. Throughout your video it looked like you only had one support gem linked to your main attack. Respecs are possible and you can trade up currency to get to the orbs of regret. Just pick up everything that is magic or greater in rarity and vendor and you'll quickly get what you need. Respec points also come from completing quests. There are lots of gems, but they get progressively unlocked through the acts, with lilly providing access to the entire list of gems at act 6. LINK YOUR GEAR. The biggest piece of the puzzle is getting things linked and colored how you need it Dont worry about 6-links on your chest piece or weapon when starting out. Save your resources for the big cost links for later on in the game. A 5-link weapon or armor is relatively easy to get but still has a moderate cost, which is why you usually save that for closer to end game stuff.

[@TrippyRiddimKid]

IM SO HAPPY YOU DECIDED TO DO A SERIES! If there is one tip you almost MUST follow, its to use a loot filter. Please, for your own sanity. Its a requirement for this game.

[@dragonslayer9x]

Couple things I will mention to help you explore a bit (no spoilers). The game does have vendor recipes, try changing what you give the vendor every now and then from your inventory (ctrl+click so you don't have to drag it over) to see how it changes their offer. You have a few quests you didn't complete in act 1, not super important but maybe look at that for your next run though. As you complete quests the gem vendors in each act gain stock and this stock is different for each class (generally on tab 2 for a vendor that sells gems). Eventually you will unlock a vendor that sells level 1 gems of almost every skill in act 6 and you can stuff her in your hideout for future characters (lets you setup how ever you want as you level). I wouldn't recommend looking at builds yet, play around with the skills and see which ones you enjoy. Generally a support gem has to have a Tag that the main skill can use in order to work with it. If you aren't sure if the gem works with the skill check out the skills icon, when you place a support gem linked to a skill if that gem can support it the icon will gain a letter that represents that support gem.

[@Mr.NoodleHair]

Quip about being attacked by LA crackheads in act 3 made me chuckle! Glad you decided to make this a series

[@Generiname]

Prismatic Burst is a triggered ability: when you use the skill supported by Prismatic Burst Support, it casts Prismatic Burst on whatever it hits, with a short cooldown. It's pretty bad though since its damage doesn't scale with any of your current passives. Of the five Herald skills, Herald of Agony is probably the worst unless you're going to play a dedicated poison build. If you want to stick with a minion themed one, Herald of Purity boosts your Rain of Arrows damage and also summons dudes as you kill monsters. I see a lot of people telling you to get life passives, those are important, but also upgrade your life flasks! You can buy ones close to your current level at the jewelry/wand/gem vendors in town, and you can sell three of a lower tier to get one of the next tier up. The passive skill tree has a search bar at the top, which can be helpful. Certain passive wheels have an associated mastery that you can spec into once you allocate one of the notables (big passives): if you click the icon in the middle of the wheel, there is a menu that you can invest a passive point into for a generally very strong effect. This menu is shared across all similar masteries, so every bow wheel has the same menu, and you can only choose each mastery once. Speaking of passives, the very large passives are called Keystones, and have very strong effects, but often come with a condition or a downside. One of particular interest for a bow attack build is Precise Technique, located south of your starting area. Have fun drinking from the firehouse of new information!

[@KingJerbear]

There's so much to know & learn about this game, I don't want to spoil stuff or overwhelm you, but I'll try to write a little bit to help you out. As far as the Skills go, they give you a good amount of stuff to choose as quest rewards, as new gems are unlocked upon completing certain quests and hitting certain levels. Basically, because you picked a Ranger, they'll give you gems that lend themselves to benefit from some of the nodes near the starting area of the passive tree (bow stuff, etc). You can still go to the Vendor and buy other gems to try, including the quest reward options that you didn't choose, as well as many others, but there's a portion of the game's available skills that are not accessible to you - just purely based on the class you started with. Eventually (soon) there's a way to unlock the sale of all available gems at the vendor, so you can try EVERYTHING out (if you can afford it), but keep in mind these gems will be level 1. Leveling up your gems increases the power. In some cases it's just adding base damage to the skill itself, sometimes it's decreasing the "less damage multiplier" of the gem (like you saw on Arrow Nova), sometimes it's increasing the AOE, etc. Strictly spell based gems are often VERY reliant on gem level, because they don't have any weapon scaling to increase the damage like a bow or melee based attack gem would. Sorry this is so in-depth, but I hope it kind of explains the system a bit better for you. In a similar vein to the rest of the game, there used to only be a certain amount of skills available, but now we've had 10+ year of new skill and support gems being introduced with patches, so they've tried to add a way to not completely overwhelm people with choices right off the bat. Another thing to point out, is that typically all support gems are CIRCULAR in shape, whereas skill gems will have a unique shape. If you go talk to Nessa in act 1, you'll see all the gems that unlocked for you (as a Ranger) once you hit level 12 and completed the first boss Merveil. But seeing as the gems and their supported linked gems are so important to your power level and your gameplay experience, your Gem sockets on your items become the #1 priority, especially in the early game. It's worth wearing a plain white bow over a significantly stronger one, if it has the 4 linked green sockets that you need to power up your Blast Rain, for example. So keep an eye out for socket colors that may drop on gear you find. This is why an item filter also becomes so useful, because it can highlight linked items you might otherwise have zero interest in even taking a second look at. If you search for the website Filterblade, you can download (or import) a preset filter that just has to be selecting in gameplay options, and will really help you gauge which items are worth clogging your bags over, even with zero game knowledge. Sorry for the essay lol, hope this helps a little bit, and I hope you're enjoying your experience. Path of Exile is one of those games that just gets more and more rewarding as the light bulbs in your head continue to go off and you figure out how stuff works.

[@Inzectious]

Ok SO - with as little spoilers as possible, most players consider the main story of PoE as ‘the tutorial’. Veteran players just blitz it as fast as they can so they can get to the end game. Effectively, every new mechanic you see here, can be dialled up to 200 in the endgame and you can choose which mechanics you want to see at a given point. Oh and some nice early game tips for you: 1: SOCKETS. Sockets should be the goal right now. If you can find a piece of gear with 4 linked sockets, that can easily carry you halfway through the story or more, as long as you can color them right. In general, you want to pick one good skill (your favourite, doesn’t matter too much which) and just beef it up with as many support gems as you can. 2: Support gems will say what kind of skills they support, and gems will have tags like ‘Attack, Duration, AoE’ that will tell you in advance if skills can benefit them. 3: do not stress about respec points JUST yet, as it’s easy to make a build that can get through the main story without too much stress. And also, this level of loot right now is peanuts compared to what you’ll get later on in the game. You will have plenty of respec points available to you a little ways into the endgame, which is where you want them the most. 4: Path of Building, Community Fork is a third-party tool that allows you to build PoE builds AND download existing ones (such as your own). You can mess around and see what works there without spending precious respec points. Just a warning, there are a lot of options and stuff (as expected), but it at the very least let’s you sort out your skill tree without too much trouble. It’s also the go-to place to follow a build guide, should you choose to. 5: IF and only if you plan to do endgame content, unfortunately this is where pre-planning really comes into play. Just to note the endgame is extraordinarily expansive with lore, new bosses and even more mechanics you likely haven’t seen yet. But this is also the part that punishes you the most for ‘bad builds’. Most new players are forced into a build guide by this point, but that eats away at a lot of the fun from the early game. I recommend continuing with your current build but don’t be defeated when it doesn’t let you deal with some of the harder bosses - it isn’t your fault. If all else fails, find a build guide for your class once you’re endgame and roll with it. It’ll cost a bit to rework, but if this does genuinely interest you then it’ll absolutely pay off. Enjoy the game!

[@HanMedSkjegget]

Awesome to see this is becoming a series just a quick tip on how to see if gems work together: Mousing over socketed support gems will light up supported skill gems, if the skill gem can be supported by it Mousing over socketed Skill gems will light up all the support gems supporting it Mousing over support gems in your inventory or in a shop, there is a list of all your socketed skill gems showing if the support gem will work with them or not.

[@scootaloo3501]

QoL protips: 1. Don't use a build guide. People like to complain the game is hard without one, but I feel most people will be able to at least make it through the standard campaign without one. It's the endgame content that really requires one. 2. Do look into using a loot filter and keeping loot on. That way your screen won't get filled up, but you won't need to stop and look everytime you kill a blue pack. 3.Check the shops periodically for higher level bows/ gear you think would fit your build. You can buy the ones with good sockets/links, and even if they're common you can upgrade them with Alchemy orbs/ essences. 4.... maybe do actually look at a crafting/vendor recipes for noobs guide. Not if you want a purely first look experience I guess... there's just soo much QoL there. 5. You can allocate "masteries" on the skill tree. Once you pick up one of the large nodes in a cluster (you picked up the two for bows all the way on the right) you can allocate the "mastery" in by spending a skill point clicking the center of the cluster, then picking one of the options.

[@cooper5602]

I've been checking every day for this. Thank you for continuing.