Path of Exile free to play in about six hours.

[MonTy]

Getting another Marauder to end-game content in Hardcore, and it's going very well. Today was a tipping point for him, scored some REALLY nice gear. I only had to spend a dozen or so fusings to get this chest five-linked. Then I was searching for mauls and for laughs I decided to send a message to the player who had the number one DPS 2H Maul- I noticed his post was just put up today. After some haggling I was able to snag it for about 3 exalt in currency. One fusing later I was able to four link it.

That Maul is insane, almost 200-400 damage with nearly 1.5 attack speed. If I'm able to five link it I think it would be extremely valuable in Hardcore, especially with the upcoming buff to melee (support gems). I'm trying to build up Jeweller's but I'll probably need 500+ in order to secure six sockets, then another few hundred fusings to five link it. Could be 500+ fusings though.

I'm also in a pinch to get more hitpoints. He's only at 3.4k right now, and ideally I'll want 5k before doing maps. Also at about 4.5k armor so I'll want at least two thousand more. Here's my current gear.

[shoju]

Had a few bumpy spots with my Summoner in Act III, mainly because I'm so close to the level of the zones that I'm running.

But........ I FINALLY crafted something worth something in this RNG laden mess that they call a crafting system. (Seriously. The more I play, the more I HATE the RNG of "crafting".)

My Summoner's new gloves

3 characters at 50+ and I finally crafted something that I'm thinking is worth a damn.

Also, if you look, I've spent some time getting my summoner in order. I'm rather pleased with how she is coming along.

I'm not sure what level I want to be before I try Piety on Cruel, I'm 51 now, and I've got the waypoint in the Battlefront. I should be 52 by the time I make it through Solaris to the Gemling Queen. Then, I'll probably do the docks until I hit 53, and then hit the crematorium, and then move towards the finale. I think 55 sounds like a good place to be against Piety. I know from my Normal showdown with her, she's going to eat my minions for dinner, so I'm going to need some more HP to make sure I survive.

At 55, I'll have and additional 26% Increased Life, and +20 strength from Passive Nodes.

Here is where I am
Here is where I will be at 54

Now... The question becomes Where should I go from here?

• I've been working through using Arc, and Wrath for Lightning Damage, SO I could see myself heading back over towards the start, and picking up the lightning nodes that include Lightning Walker 4 passive points would give me 30 int, 24% increased Lightning Damage, and 15% lightning Resist.
  
• Or I could go over to the right side of the start, and pick up Life and ES. There is a nice little cluster of it over there, and should take me into the early 60's.
  
• Or I could work towards investing the 7 points to pick up the last summoner node. This puts me over in an area where there are a few more Resist Nodes. And heading into Merciless, the -60% Resist is damn near petrifying.
  
• Which has me thinking that heading over to the Shield node, and investing 6 points into picking up 30% resist for wearing a shield, isn't a terrible idea either. I know right now, without upgrading my gear, I'm rolling into merciless around ~10-20% resist on my elements, and a whopping -52% on Chaos. (yeah.... A2 is going to suck in Merc..)
  

What would you do? I'd love to hear what other people think.

[RTM]

I started a summoner and have been cruising through act 1 with few issues. I have a couple of neat fire spells and corpse explosion (!!!!) to add some oomph to my squishy minions. I was looking for the waypoint in the 2nd jail area when I died for the first time. The last waypoint was on the Rocky Ledge or something similar a good 2 areas back, and I hadn't put up a portal anywhere on the jail level, but no big deal, I'll just spend a few minutes running back. I was incredibly annoyed to find that not only had enemies respawned, but the entire map was rerolled! I'd have to rediscover the entrances and exits all over again.

You all probably knew this and are laughing at me for not putting up a portal at the beginning of each level. Lesson learned, I guess. I quit the game out of frustration and probably won't play it again. I can understand the game rerolling when you exit, but not while I'm still in the game! It doesn't even make sense- does my character have memory issues or something?

I understand that this is a game for "hardcore" players, and maybe years ago I would have put up with it. I just don't have the time for that kind of shenanigans anymore.

[shoju]

I think the Reset timers on areas is 8-15 minutes depending on the zone. Dungeons (like the Prison) are 15, while Open Air non dungeons are only 8.

Yes. It's sucktastic when that happens.

I wont laugh, because I did the same thing, multiple times, before I realized what happened.

I have my own issues with the game. Chiefly, the "crafting" system. It's not crafting. it's multiple slot machines.

WoW has crafting.
I know what I need to make the recipe. I knew that if I wanted to make Devilsaur leggings on my rogue, I needed some damn devilsaur leather, and I knew what I was going to get. I needed X of this, Y of that, Z of this, and I hit CRAFT!

POE has a slot machine.
Hey! I got an Item. It's Rare! It's Unidentified!
SCROLL OF WISDOM!
Yuck. That's garbage.
VENDOR!

Later
Hey! I got an Item. It's Rare! It's Unidentified!
SCROLL OF WISDOM!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
Hey... That's garbage... But... It's got good sockets.
CHAOS ORB!
HEY! That's... Not Terrible. Now, it's not terrible, and it's got good sockets, but I need MOAR LINKS!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
ORB OF FUSING!
NO! THOSE LINKS STILL SUCK!
HEY! I have a not terrible item, and I finally have the sockets I wanted.

It's Slot Machine After Slot Machine, With 50 different levers to pull.

[swirly]

I'm only lvl 20, but so far I think I like the craft system.

With a system where you know what you are going to get I end up feeling like I am just grinding towards some static goal. One foot in front of the other slow drudge toward it.

I'd much rather flip a coin when the urge hits me and see if it lands good or bad. Even with bad turning up the majority of the time I end up enjoying the process more. Everyone knows me as a rather chaotic person though so I suppose this isn't really unexpected.

[MonTy]

I find the crafting system rewarding but also frustrating. Getting a five link in a few fusings when you know it takes hundreds is really satisfying, but at the same token when RNG gets you back and you spend over a thousand jeweller's to six socket an item, but come up empty, hurts.

I do find the average drop rate to be very low, so getting enough fusings to five or six link an item can take a month or longer for the average player. If you spend time setting up a shop or trading it may expedite the process, but I doubt it unless you're farming map drops (especially in default, it's hard enough selling in Hardcore). And that won't last long, I've heard reports of currency value getting screwed up in default due to external money sites, so decent items you try to sell won't be worth much. In Hardcore I'm able to sell items fairly often from map drops for several chaos to exalts.

As far as Action RPG's goes, this game offers a near endless quest to improve your character. There's so much time and currency needed to five or six link your items, get 20% quality on all gems, and find/craft/trade high HP/Armor/ES/tri-res gear.

But I am enjoying the map system, an end-game that is very random in content. I can not farm Act 3 in Diablo 3 ever again due to repetition, but the end-game farming in Path of Exile greatly changes based on the maps you roll. Although it's not easy getting a character to run maps, my 76 Hardcore Marauder is having a hell of a time surviving.

[LennyLen]

I think the Reset timers on areas is 8-15 minutes depending on the zone. Dungeons (like the Prison) are 15, while Open Air non dungeons are only 8.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the way it works is that areas with sub-areas (eg Mud Flats has Fetid Pool) stay open longer than other areas. I know I've read that somewhere, I just can't find the source.

[MonTy]

What would you do? I'd love to hear what other people think.

That's what I love about this game, there's no forced path and you have to make decisions. Do I want health, mana, utility, or defense now? If you need more hitpoints, go into the templar health starting zone. If you need mana go through the middle and get leadership/additonal minions and go for Eldritch battery then pick up the nice passives near that witch/shadow area. Eventually you'll want whispers of doom to double curse some of the tougher encounters in Merciless.

[LochnarITB]

I think the Reset timers on areas is 8-15 minutes depending on the zone. Dungeons (like the Prison) are 15, while Open Air non dungeons are only 8.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the way it works is that areas with sub-areas (eg Mud Flats has Fetid Pool) stay open longer than other areas. I know I've read that somewhere, I just can't find the source.

I'm not sure if we're saying the same thing but my understanding is this. It will exist for 8 minutes, unoccupied, if it is a pass through - one where you go in one end and out only through the other end or the way you came in. If you have more than one way to exit, other than the way you came in, it exists for 15 minutes. An example would be the Sarn Slums. You enter from the camp but can go to the Sewers, Crematorium or Warehouses. The Crematorium lvl 1 would be 8 minutes because you only have exits back out to the Slums and down to the second level.

[shoju]

What would you do? I'd love to hear what other people think.

That's what I love about this game, there's no forced path and you have to make decisions. Do I want health, mana, utility, or defense now? If you need more hitpoints, go into the templar health starting zone. If you need mana go through the middle and get leadership/additonal minions and go for Eldritch battery then pick up the nice passives near that witch/shadow area. Eventually you'll want whispers of doom to double curse some of the tougher encounters in Merciless.

Well, I'm at just over 1k HP, and as you can tell from looking at my gear, I still don't have a lot of Health on Pieces.

Right now, I feel pretty good on health. Unless I'm doing something dumb, I really don't find myself in much trouble of dying. I have a pretty large horde of undead to hide in.

As far as I can tell, I only have one more minion cluster available to me. But it's a pretty nice one, giving me one more zombie, one more skellie, and 30% increased Health.

I think What I'm going to do, is work like this:

Next Goal 7 points from where I am now, at 52. (Oh yeah, I dinged last night)

From there, I will probably go for This To finish off the summoner Nodes. That's another 7 points, so 14 points from where I am now at 52. That should put me around level 60 when I get there. From what I've been reading that should be about the time that I'm in A2 Merc..

Then, from there, I think I'm going to go back and flesh out life and ES.

That's another 6 points, so I should be nearing Piety in Merc I would assume. 20 points from where I am, including the skill points from quests, Should be another 15 levels, so 67 ish.

From there, I'm probably going to Look at the little Resistance nodes, to give me more flexibility in my gearing, as I still see Chaos Resistance to be the least available thing, and I know that in Maps, you can roll maps that have you taking a set amount of Chaos resist per second, and well... I think Chaos Damage is stupid.

You're right on about selling in default, and drop rates. It's bloody awful. Most of the time, I am just vendoring my rares that I will never use, even the good ones, because no one cares in Default.

I'm sitting on a stockpile of Q gems that I know people use, and I can't sell them either.
Power Siphon
Increased Critical Damage
Faster Projectiles
Haste
Projectile Weakness
Cyclone
Double Strike
Ice Shot
Added Cold Damage
Dual Strike
Fireball
Heavy Strike

and I just can't get them to sell at all.

I'd sell them for Jewelers and Fusings as those are the orbs I need the most now.

[LennyLen]

I think the Reset timers on areas is 8-15 minutes depending on the zone. Dungeons (like the Prison) are 15, while Open Air non dungeons are only 8.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the way it works is that areas with sub-areas (eg Mud Flats has Fetid Pool) stay open longer than other areas. I know I've read that somewhere, I just can't find the source.

I'm not sure if we're saying the same thing but my understanding is this. It will exist for 8 minutes, unoccupied, if it is a pass through - one where you go in one end and out only through the other end or the way you came in. If you have more than one way to exit, other than the way you came in, it exists for 15 minutes. An example would be the Sarn Slums. You enter from the camp but can go to the Sewers, Crematorium or Warehouses. The Crematorium lvl 1 would be 8 minutes because you only have exits back out to the Slums and down to the second level.

Yup, the Slums and Crematorium examples match what I read (I discovered the source here btw). Your earlier example of the Prison is incorrect however, as there are no side areas, so it will only last 8 minutes.

I'm still not sure what you were referring to by dungeons and open-air non dungeons. As It consider the Act I cave to be a dungeon, but the first level of it has a side area (hidden depths) so lasts 15 minutes, while the second level only has the two exits and so lasts 8 minutes. Likewise the Mud Flats are an open-air non dungeon and they also last 15 minutes, while the Terraces are also an open-air non dungeon and it only stays open for 8.

[shoju]

Man, I'm having a terrible time getting Health Flasks to pop as "animation" without being a reduced amount of health and instant recovery. I blew through a ton of orbs re-rolling them to see if it would pop. In the end, I'm still stuck with low life instant animation flasks.

[swirly]

Shoju, have you considered Chaos Inoculation? I'm seriously considering it on my summoner. Figure it would enable me to ignore both chaos resist and life which should let me focus my gear better and maybe even save some passives if I ever went into nodes for those. It is only 4 points from a node you take anyway for minions so not that far out of the way. With how summoners are able to avoid hits I feel like it might be a good way to go. The more I think about it the more I feel like it will be what I do.

[shoju]

Shoju, have you considered Chaos Inoculation? I'm seriously considering it on my summoner. Figure it would enable me to ignore both chaos resist and life which should let me focus my gear better and maybe even save some passives if I ever went into nodes for those. It is only 4 points from a node you take anyway for minions so not that far out of the way. With how summoners are able to avoid hits I feel like it might be a good way to go. The more I think about it the more I feel like it will be what I do.

I have been debating CI. The biggest problem for me, is that it generally means, that if something does go bad, I'm dead. I'll see how things pan out, as it would be towards the end of the build when I take it, and If I did that, I wouldn't be able to do what I was planning (run tons of auras, and link BM support gem to Arc)

[swirly]

Just finished normal. I'm 38 and my passives look like this: http://bit.ly/10ZL6Hw

My next three points will go into that minion node I'm at then I think I have all the minion stuff unless I've forgotten one. From there I'm thinking I'll spend my next six points to reconnect to the start like so: http://bit.ly/ZRdlhk

That will enable me to refund the 6 points I spent to the left at the start which I can then use to climb to Arcane Focus like this: http://bit.ly/Zf7cZr

My next three levels will then get me to Chaos Inoculation and the 4 after getting Infused Shields. Which leaves me at: http://bit.ly/15491Mt

Which is about as far as I have planned out.

Edit: Now that I have thought about it more, I think I should wait longer on that refund. Go up through the Int nodes and over to Deep Wisdom then down through Arcane Focus to connect back to the start. Then use the refund to power up to CI. Would end up like this: http://bit.ly/ZRikib (which has some other things added on that I've been considering getting after all I have discussed)

Edit: For those who might not know, apparently the PoE passive tree links are too long for the forum. Have to use bit.ly ones to have functional links.

[shoju]

Yeah, the Passive tree links blow.

It's interesting to see someone else playing a similar class, and going for the same basic idea, and going at it in a different way. Hey Swirly, are you on hardcore, or default?

[swirly]

Yeah, the Passive tree links blow.

It's interesting to see someone else playing a similar class, and going for the same basic idea, and going at it in a different way. Hey Swirly, are you on hardcore, or default?

I started hardcore, but I took a break at the end of act 1 after beating the boss and moving some gems around and such. So the next day I came back and went to a new zone. Pulled those big apes that call little monkeys and discovered after the pull that my skills had moved on me. Ended up dying before I figured out what was really going on. At that point I decided the way the game is designed bugs me enough that I didn't want to do hardcore in it. Which is funny cause D3 never gave me that feeling. So I've been in default ever sense.

[swirly]

going for the same basic idea, and going at it in a different way.

Right now I'm basically doing Summons and Auras, but the reserve on the Auras is killing me. I have three, but only really feel comfortable running one cause of what it does to my mana pool. I summon Skeletons manually so I can throw them where I want them. Have them gemmed for damage and speed right now. So I use them kind of like an attack spell. I see mobs and I immediately start throwing skeletons on top of them. With one aura active I can get 8 out then have to drink a flask. I usually end up wanding after that cause I don't like using up my mana on casting other attacks. Though the mana issues bother me enough that I might start looking into how to fix them. If I can get that stable then I might switch to having an actual attack.

[shoju]

If you use a totem, it will "smartly" throw your skellies at the mobs as they come, AND it only costs you mana to summon the totem, giving you some real savings on mana.

I normally try to run with 2-3 auras, but I'm running into some mana problems right now, while my gear is trying to catch up to merciless, and the new level of the one aura. I didn't think to check before I clicked level up, so now my auras leave me without enough to toss the totem.

But I run Clarity, Discipline, and Wrath when I can. If I have to drop an aura, I drop Wrath.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-th.../#p1114180

Check out that thread. I tossed together some of my old summoner gear, and some other stuff I have sitting in my stash right now. If any of it interests you, ,let me know. You can have it.

I'm not a huge fan of Hardcore, so I haven't tried it much.

[swirly]

If you use a totem, it will "smartly" throw your skellies at the mobs as they come, AND it only costs you mana to summon the totem, giving you some real savings on mana.

It's the damage penalty that really bothers me. Not that I have tried it to see if I notice or not, but I don't like the idea of my Skeletons doing... what is it? 30%? 40%?... less damage. Plus I hear you actually summon them faster doing it manually which I like as well. I might try a totem someday if I happen to get one to drop (one was available from a skill quest, but I chose something else), but I'm not overly eager on it. Once I hit CI I'll be able to take the life flasks off my bar and put some more mana ones up there. I'm curious to see if that will make it so I worry less about expending them so much. Have like 2 that I'll be able to think of as there to waste as I wish and another 2 as backup for emergency. Something like that could help fuel things I think.

I did just regem some gloves I'm using to include fire trap. So might go back to throwing some of those too.

I run Clarity, Discipline, and Wrath when I can.

I have Wrath, Discipline, and Purity on my buttons. I think last time I ran a zone I did it with Wrath and Discipline on. Purity is nice, but it's 40% reserve makes it rough to do anything else. With planning on going CI though I feel like Discipline and Purity will be a nice combo with it. I just have to get my mana high enough to deal with that first.

Edit: As for the gear... I glanced, but nothing stood out to me as worthwhile. I just started Act 2 cruel and seem to be steam rolling everything so I figure I'll just keep going till I notice a problem. I'm pretty happy with most of my gear anyway. There needs to be a WoW style armory so I can look outside of game heh.