Path of Exile free to play in about six hours.

[shoju]

If you're saving them for jeweller orbs, that's not really doing it wrong. You'll be very thankful for having surplus of those when you find an incredible item that needs more sockets. People don't like trading away their jeweller's/fusings/or chromatics.

I'm currently trying to build up to a stack of all the orbs I can get from a vendor. So, my next goal is to build up a stack of fusings. Then, I'll probably work on Scourings, and then I'll probably start the process of getting alchs from Vanessa.

When rolling magic items you're really just hopeful for high life and a resist. Only thing I don't roll magic is boots, as they need several mods to be good (speed, life, resist).

Heh. Up until I was in my late 30's, I didn't think you could get life on magic gear. Then I rolled a "blah blah blah axe of the wrestler" and it had phys damage roll, and life. Used it until I picked up the Mace.

While the damage is nice, the attack speed is dreadfully low. I've had better mauls that won't sell because of slow base speed. But for that level it's decent. What's the sockets/links like? Melee truly needs that attack speed for life on hit/steal/procs/etc.

The speed is a little slow. It's a 4s / 3l R R-R-B piece. I've thought about dropping some gems on it just to see if I could get a little better sockets, but it just feels like a waste for something I'm going to be replacing in a few levels now. I've been rolling with it since 40.

If you decide to go for lightning, be sure to continue up to Static Blows. I'd also be tempted to go for iron grip since the lightning damage from lightning strike is considered a projectile and your strength bonus wouldn't apply. Here's a 85 pt lightning strike build that I just made which should be good for life, defenses, and resistances. Whatever you do, get a high attack speed weapon.

Please keep in mind I've just started playing PoE since it went open beta, so I'm still learning and a lot of my thoughts are speculation. But I have played a lot of it since open beta as I've had a few characters 60+ and in Merciless.

I appreciate all the help. I'm a nub, and the whole idea of gear in POE seems foreign to me. The whole stacking resists, and what not, really.... is very foreign to me. Then, this sprawling tree of passives? It's a little different from even the talent trees that we had in WoW when I started playing back in TBC, and Resist sets were something that you needed for a couple of fights.