Path of Exile free to play in about six hours.

[MonTy]

Closing in on normal with my new Shadow and having a lot of fun. I've only played a Marauder previously so I wasn't sure what to expect, but Freezing Pulse and Ice Spear is a very nice combination of skills. When I got Lesser Multiple Projectiles from a quest reward and supported Freezing Pulse with it, everything started dying really fast :P

I didn't want to play a tank pulse aka Kripparrian style, so Ice Spear is really perfect. But ranged mobs and some spell casters in small rooms where I can't target them with Ice spear can give me some serious issues. Right now I'm just popping a quicksilver and running around like crazy, but hopefully at 31 spell totem with Ice Spear will help with that.

Otherwise, I'm barely getting away with being able to support my skills with my mana pool, so I'm bee-lining for the Which mana passives (and picking up health along the way of course). Here's my current planned tree, and I realize the top curse path is not really standard, but I really want it for this character. I'm noticing some tough fast creatures can give this build a problem, so I'm hoping both enfeeble and frostbite will help with that.

I think it'll be a challenge surviving hardcore, especially since I don't have any resist gear and the tree is a tad low on resist help. But I look forward to trying, he's a lot of fun thus far :)

[MonTy]

Maybe I don't have enough HP? I'm at 43 and have just over 1k HP.

So yea, 1k HP is definitely too low for 43. I had 1.5k HP and 500 Energy Shield at that time. Just got to 53 with my Cold Shadow and he's really a powerhouse at the moment, I went from horrible gear to extraordinary in the past few levels. Having little or no armor/evasion has been weird, but the ES buffer is really nice to have.

Also, it's the first time I've used spell totem combined with summon skeletons. Holy cow, it's so cheesy but effective at drawing the attention of mobs. If you're having any issues with bosses/survivability, I highly recommend trying it out. You would just need two links, one red for for spell totem (33 str/23int) and one blue for summon skeleton (24int). Trying not to abuse it too much and I will switch to spell totem+ice spear+ greater multiple projectiles once I actually get a GMP.

[LennyLen]

So yea, 1k HP is definitely too low for 43.

I'm 49, and I have 1 HP.

I actually found a novel way of killing myself today. I used one of my mana flasks for the first time since I went CI and forgot that one of its effects is to instantly replace 1/4 of lost mana from health. My mana is around 500 so it tried to remove ~120 HP, which resulted in instant suicide.

[shoju]

I have since increased My HP. I think a lot of it is a function of my Gear not having much Health on it.

Head: (Rare Executioner Casque)
Quality: +2%
Armour: 122
+16 Strength
6% Increased Armour
1.2 Life Per Sec
18% Lightning Resist
7% Block and Stun recovery

Neck: Rare Onyx amulet (reqs level 20)
+17 All Attributes
Adds 4-7 Damage
+12 Int
2% Phys Damage Leeched back as Life
8% Chaos Resist
9% Increased Cast Speed

Ring 1: Rare Coral Ring (R LVL 25)
+30 Max Life
Adds 1-2 Phys
Adds 1-15 Lightning
+49 Max Life
9% QTY of items found

Ring 2: Rare Topaz Ring (R LVL 19)
+25% Lightning Res
1% Phys Damage Leech
+4 Life when I kill
+14 to Max energy Shield
+7% To all Elemental Resists

Chest: Rare Arena Plate
Quality +20%
Armour 277
+13 Str
+45 Life
+8% Fire REs
Reflects 21 Phys Damage

Belt: Rare Cloth Belt (reqs 28)
22% Block and Stun Recovery
+56 Armour
+59 Life
+26 Fire Res
+7 Cold Res
14% Increased Flask Charges

Gloves: Rare Antique Gloves
Quality +20%
Armour: 134
+23 Dex
Adds 2-23 Lightning
+61 Max Life
+12% Fire Res

Boots: Rare Reinforced Greaves]
Quality: +2%
Armour 97
+26 STR
+36 Life
+6% Cold Res
+10% Lightning Res

Weapon: Rare Totemic Maul
Quality: 20%
Phys Dam: 158-237
Fire Dam: 26-43
APS: .95
20% Increased Stun Duration
135% Increased Phys
+3 Life Per Enemy hit
12% Reduced Enemy Stun Threshold
56 Accuracy

My Build At this point, I'm building to head over and pick up the nice collection of Life Skills in that Templar Cluster.

I'm just not 100% sure how to go. Do I pick up the STR on the way? Or the Armor and ES?

Some people say Armor is garbage, other people say I should stack it. From the Math I've been reading, it's not anywhere close to WoW armor, so I'm not sure what I should do.

After my first run of the Cave in Act II last night, I'm thinking about picking up the Bloodless Passive Skill. I had a fight go about a minute in there with a rare because he was leeching life from me, which made it almost impossible to kill him. I was finally able to Stun him, and then finish him off.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. Part of me wants to keep farming, and get a few levels before I get into the majority of the quest lines in Act II. I was never really in danger in the Cave, and it's close enough in level to me, that I might actually find some gear in there that would replace my stuff.

[LennyLen]

Some people say Armor is garbage, other people say I should stack it.

Armor is useful against normal mobs, but not so much against boss/mini-boss mobs. If they crit on their attacks against you, the damage reduction won't mean a thing.

[shoju]

Just started a shadow to mess around with. HOLY CRAP THIS IS FUN! Why didn't WoW rogues play this way?

Not too high in level yet, but I'm definitely going to give it a to for a bit

[MonTy]

Hail Shoju,

Glad you're having fun on the Shadow, heard melee ones are amazing early on. I'm in for a lot of grind on my caster shadow- I'm low on mana, resists, life, and Energy Shield for my level. Ten levels ago I was ahead of the curve, now I haven't improved anything and I'm falling behind in Merciless. But hey, I can cast two curses and they never expire!

As for your gear and build, it seems to be improving. That Templar area will greatly improve your survivability. I personally would go for the Body of Soul wheel since it has Armor and Resists, but technically it's inefficient unless you're going for Energy Shield as well.

Here's my current gear if you want to take a look. Only thing I spent some good currency on is the dagger. I needed to get rid of my old DPS one as it had too much +casting speed which destroyed my mana.

• Dagger: Lightning Warp + leveling a 11 quality freeze pulse I found :)
  
• Shield: Frostbite + Enfeeble. Will move to 4 linked boots when I get them to support faster casting and increased area of effect.
  
• Head: Ice Spear + Increased Critical Damage + Cold Penetration and I'll throw in faster casting when I get enough mana.
  
• Chest: Freeze Pulse+Faster Casting+Faster Projectiles+Lesser Multiple Projectiles.
  
• Gloves: Purity+Clarity+Discipline+Reduced Mana
  
• Boots: Spell Totem+Summon Skeleton. Will include faster casting once I have enough mana.
  
• Belt
  
• Amulet
  
• Pris Ring 1
  
• Pris Ring 2
  

[shoju]

Shadow Project was very short lived. I got to the Act I End boss, and kept dying on the transition. I just didn't have enough AoE to get things back under control fast enough. Probably my fault with the build I was trying to run, and not having the skills that I wanted yet. (I want to run a Frenzy/Discharge build at some point, on something)

So I'm doing a summoner, and slowly leveling my marauder, when I don't have lag. I have had some crushing XP loss due to Desync in the Church dungeon. I'm also working on my templar / paladin wannabe. I'm still missing some gems, and don't have a lot og support for it yet, but I'm fun, and sturdy.

[LennyLen]

I'm trying out my first shadow. I'm going to try for mostly melee but with lightning spells as well. The idea I'm going for is using AoE lightning to soften enemies up and finish them off with my dual-wield claw attacks.

[MonTy]

I'm having a hard time with my freeze pulse/ice spear/curse shadow. I invested too much in mana passives and now certain Merciless mobs are kicking my rear. The only option I could see is to bee-line for Ghost Reaver (life leech goes to Energy Shield) while working on raising my Energy Shield. I still have no armor or evasion so when I do get hit, I get hit hard, but my DPS is good so I figure if I get Ghost Reaver that may be my only saving grace for this character to survive.

But I've put more time into races recently. Did a 1-hour race and two-3 hour solo races. Having a lot of fun with those- hit my goal of getting into Act 3 in the recent 3-hour solo, so that felt good.

Lastly, I'm trying to brainstorm for a new build. Want to tie in Poison Arrow, Bear Trap, and Corpse Explosion. But have to figure out what support gems to use and which class/skill path to go for.

[Frag]

I'd like to suggest a way to slow people down to work with those abilities, Monty. Ice Shot, Temporal Chains and Skeletons are all great ways to abuse and take advantage of your max bits with those skills. (PS, get a headset FFS )

[shoju]

A couple of topics, I'd love to discuss with people.


gear
I have to say, I feel a real dearth of gear in Act II. I know I'm not going to find anything to match my level, since I'm overlevel, but I'm not even finding upgrades to what I have. I haven't really upgraded my gear much since Act III normal.

which leads me to crafting
Mainly, I guess, I just need to get the orbs together to try and craft some of my stuff a little better, but I've been trying like mad to save up so that I can play around with the better gear I'm hoping I can get in later Acts. Should I be trying to craft more while I level?

I have

25 Orb of Trans
22 Orb of Augmentation
30 Orb of Alteration
44 Armor Scraps
21 Whetstones
5 orb of chance
28 Chromatic Orb
15 Glassblower Baubs
20 Jewelers
1 fusing
1 Exalted (a drop. When my templar was level 10)
1 Blessed Orb
2 Scouring
3 Chaos
1 Regal
3 Orb of Alchemy (and I'm halfway to another one)

I've been buying orbs from the vendors when I can. Trying to turn my orbs for magic items into better orbs. I've only ever crafted Flasks and one Axe that turned out well as magic items. So I keep a stack of the magic orbs around for my lowbies, and I've been turning the rest into better items. I just turned a bunch of Alteration into my stack of Jewelers orbs. I guess now, I'm going to turn those into fusings, which is a slow process.

gems
I do seem to have a good quantity of Gems. I've been trying to sell them off to get more orbs, but I guess I don't have anything that anyone really cares about. Not even my quality gems seem to be anything of important.

If anyone is interested, I have

5% Projectile Weakness (lvl1)
8% Detonate Dead (lvl1)
13% Conductivity (lvl1)
9% Double Strike (lvl6 - I used it for a bit)
5% Ice Shot (lvl1)
9% Hatred (lvl1)
11% Decoy Totem (level 12 - I use it right now for trying to save my marauders dumbbutt, but would part with it if someone could use it better than I am)

Other "not starter" gems I have

Green Support
Trap
pierce
Fork - lvl7

Green
2x Puncture 1 lvl1 and 1 lvl2
2x Projectile Weakness
Explosive Arrow
Frenzy
Flicker Strike
Hatred

Blue
Conductivity
Wrath
2x Discharge
Conversion Trap
Frostbite
Clarity
Vulnerability
Shock Nova

Red
rejuv totem - lvl6
Dominating Blow
Flame Totem
2x Melee Damage on Full Life

They are all Default league, but if anyone is interested, I'm more than willing to work out a trade that works for both of us. If someone had a level 1, or low level Enduring Cry, I'd trade a fair bit for it.

Flasks
How often would you try to craft flasks up? Since I don't use my stuff to make magic items too often, I've been messing with flasks. I'm able to "increase" my flasks to the next level (I currently have Colossal, I think I can go up to Sacred?). But, I "normally" sport 4 life flasks, and a granite flask. 3 of my 4 life flasks rolled into extra health. Base on Colossal is 700, 3 of mine are 1120. Since I don't have a mana pool, the offshoot is nothing.

1 of them, does nothing for me, as it has a Mana Leech while under the effect. I have no mana, so basically, it's just extra HP.
1 of them, I never bothered trying for a second modifer on, since the first one rolled into mana leech.
the 3rd is 25% Resistances while under the effect, and rolled the "recharges when you crit" (which doesn't help me)
The 4th flask is a resistance flask, 28% while under the effect, but just a normal 700 HP per 7 seconds.

Should I bother trying to upgrade my flasks? I mean, I have a good deal of HP going on these, and some (not all) useful mods. I'm just torn. Being silly I guess.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling.

[MonTy]

gear
I have to say, I feel a real dearth of gear in Act II. I know I'm not going to find anything to match my level, since I'm overlevel, but I'm not even finding upgrades to what I have. I haven't really upgraded my gear much since Act III normal.

which leads me to crafting
Mainly, I guess, I just need to get the orbs together to try and craft some of my stuff a little better, but I've been trying like mad to save up so that I can play around with the better gear I'm hoping I can get in later Acts. Should I be trying to craft more while I level?

I have...

I'd say the basic rule of thumb is while leveling, you should spend only transmutes, and that you should use them on on good base white items with sockets/links that fit your spells. You'll want to use white items that drop or sold from a merchant. Weapons should have modifiers that boost your damage (Physical%, Elem Damage, Crit, Attack speed, cast speed, etc), and armor should have HP and at least one resist, unless you're going for some Chaos Inoculation build :)

You'll want all other currency for end-game gear (lvl 55+), in which you'll desperately need materials for.

Your other option is searching http://poe.xyz.is/ for specific items and try bartering that way. Most people are happy to sell mediocre gear for very cheap prices, but I prefer to use this as little as possible, normally just for a good weapon. Make sure you check out the following sites to help with currency ratios for trading: http://www.poeex.info/ & http://poecalc.com/ & http://www.ppoe.net/calc

gems
I do seem to have a good quantity of Gems. I've been trying to sell them off to get more orbs, but I guess I don't have anything that anyone really cares about. Not even my quality gems seem to be anything of important.

Gem markets already feel flooded and can be hard to sell unless you get the popular drop only ones (GMP, Chain, Elemental Hit), or high quality popular gems (freeze pulse, reduced mana).

If you need a lvl 1 enduring cry I'll be happy to transfer it to default and give to to you. Just let me know your in-game name. Alternatively you can also get it from quest rewards- just look up your class at this link:

Flasks
How often would you try to craft flasks up? Since I don't use my stuff to make magic items too often, I've been messing with flasks.

While leveling I would only spend transmutations on white flasks that drop or sold from the vendor. Save your alterations for hallowed flasks (highest level flask). Be sure to upgrade them to 20% in white base form with Glassblower Baubs first! You'll also want a 20% white granite and quicksilver flask that you'll alteration then transmute for the best stats. Here's my prized flasks: http://i.imgur.com/kPulu52.jpg - that sapping hallowed health flask is literally the best flask I could ever have for one of my blood magic characters. Since I have no mana it doesn't affect me at all, and the 100% armor boost is a perfect roll.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling.

Feel free to ask questions anytime! You can ask me in-game as well under Monty or Ziralith.

[shoju]

I'd say the basic rule of thumb is while leveling, you should spend only transmutes, and that you should use them on on good base white items with sockets/links that fit your spells. You'll want to use white items that drop or sold from a merchant. Weapons should have modifiers that boost your damage (Physical%, Elem Damage, Crit, Attack speed, cast speed, etc), and armor should have HP and at least one resist, unless you're going for some Chaos Inoculation build

You'll want all other currency for end-game gear (lvl 55+), in which you'll desperately need materials for.

Well, Then I've been doing that a little wrong. I honestly, don't even bother much with magic items that much unless I am identifying them from a dungeon. I really have had very little luck with crafting them. Alterartion shards feel like a dime a dozen. I've seriously used stacks of them to buy jewlers orbs.

The only thing that feels more common than alteration shards are armour scraps.

Obviously, I haven't used any of the "rare" orbs. Fusings, Divine, Blessed, Chaos, Scouring, or Exalted. I've used a few Chromatics to get a few pieces to work for me.

Your other option is searching http://poe.xyz.is/ for specific items and try bartering that way. Most people are happy to sell mediocre gear for very cheap prices, but I prefer to use this as little as possible, normally just for a good weapon. Make sure you check out the following sites to help with currency ratios for trading: http://www.poeex.info/ & http://poecalc.com/ & http://www.ppoe.net/calc

I tried the xyz thing to search earlier this week, and I just didn't have much luck finding anything. I've only ever had luck in buying one item. I bought my freaking sweet 2h'er for 2 fuses and a scouring.



I've been using the Poeex.info to bone up on things. I hadn't heard about the others.

Gem markets already feel flooded and can be hard to sell unless you get the popular drop only ones (GMP, Chain, Elemental Hit), or high quality popular gems (freeze pulse, reduced mana).

If you need a lvl 1 enduring cry I'll be happy to transfer it to default and give to to you. Just let me know your in-game name. Alternatively you can also get it from quest rewards- just look up your class at this link:

I feel the same way. I sold an Elemental Hit for a Chaos a week or so ago, before I realized that people were fighting to get them.

Thanks for the link to the spreadsheet. That's a HUGE help. I got the Enduring Cry Last night from completing a quest. I feel pretty excited about my templar now. I'm using

Tempest Shield
Shield Charge
Glacial Hammer
Ice Nova
Enduring Cry
Immortal Call
Warlord's Mark

(Yes I know that leaves one spot open, I just have issues with mapping something to my left mouse button. IT's a wow habit)

This acutally gives me a spot for more questions!

So. I'm using Tempest Shield, which gives me Lightning Damage, but then I'm using the two Cold abilities, because I'm a fan of Freezing things, as a way for DR.

I have been thinking. Should I change over to Lightning strike, and Shock Nova? I could then work to migrate my Warlord's Mark over to Conductivity (which I have a 13% Quality on) as I'm able to get gear that allows me to link Life Leech to my abilities. That's really all I'm using the Warlord's Mark for at this point is the life life. I don't need it often, but there are still some packs that can chew through my ES and having the life leech is a pretty big help.

Here is my current build at level 24 on him.

This is my plan for the next 10 points.

The next 10 points

And the next 10 points

And the final 10 points I have planned out

i feel like it's a really nice, rounded build. I found this script on the forums that you run with tampermonkey in Chrome that allows you to get a nice succinct summary of your build.

When I get to the end of the points I have allocated, which will probably be sometime around the beginning of Merciless if it goes the same way that my Marauder has been going level wise, I will have:

21% additional Shield Block Chance
104% increased Armour
90% increased Block Recovery
115% increased Defences from equipped Shield
31% increased Elemental Damage
40% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
22% increased Melee Physical Damage
24% increased Physical Damage with One Handed Melee Weapons
104% increased maximum Energy Shield
62% increased maximum Life
12% of Block Chance applied to Spells
+2 Maximum Endurance Charge
+40 to Intelligence
+190 to Strength
+30 to maximum Life
+30% Elemental Resistances while holding a Shield
+45% to all Elemental Resistances
Never deal Critical Strikes
Your hits can't be Evaded

What I like about this build:
1.) After using Energy Shield, I like it a lot more than other things. This build will allow me to build up a MASSIVE Energy Shield, while still maintaining decent armor.

2.) 75% Resist going into Merciless to Cold, Fire, and Lightning. That offsets the penalties on those, +15. It gives me a little more leeway in my gearing, so that I can look for Chaos Resistance on pieces that may not have other resists on them, since a few pieces of Resist gear will go a long way with this.

3.) I was able to get Resolute Technique. I can't even begin to explain how happy this makes me. This actually makes me want to go more towards lightning, because Lightning Strike says that the projectiles will hit if the strike hits. And, with Shock stacking to take more damage, maybe I can kill quickly enough that the Freeze won't be needed...

4.) I should be sitting around a 45-50% chance to block. 50-50 to take no melee damage? Cool.

What I don't like about this build.

1.) I'm worried that going into merciless it will be a little light in the life department.
2.) Did I take enough Intelligence boosters? It feels a little light.

I'm not sure how fast I will level once I'm in the mid 50's, so I haven't planned that far ahead, but I would assume that my points from here on our would probably go above the templar tree, picking up the Fitness/Life Group, and then into the shield cluster above that.

While leveling I would only spend transmutations on white flasks that drop or sold from the vendor. Save your alterations for hallowed flasks (highest level flask). Be sure to upgrade them to 20% in white base form with Glassblower Baubs first! You'll also want a 20% white granite and quicksilver flask that you'll alteration then transmute for the best stats. Here's my prized flasks: http://i.imgur.com/kPulu52.jpg - that sapping hallowed health flask is literally the best flask I could ever have for one of my blood magic characters. Since I have no mana it doesn't affect me at all, and the 100% armor boost is a perfect roll.

That's what I've done. I've only rolled Alterations on them if I ended up with a bad flask. I haven't spent any of my Glassblowers yet. I'm up to 16 of them so far.

My plan, is to end up with a nice set of top flasks for health, Mana, a quicksilver, and Resist Flasks. I already have a Ruby and a Topaz, so I've got my eyes open looking for the other two. I've seen people selling them, but I have some time before I go digging into those

Yeah, I like it when I can roll Sapping Flasks. 3 of my 4 right now are Sapping, and the other is a nice resist on use. So Hollowed at 54. Well, I'm almost there on the Marauder. Even though i'm not real sure if I'm going to keep playing him. My frustration level with death on him is mounting.


Quick Edit:
If People have gear in Default that is marauder centric, I'm currently 49. I'm in the market for:

4L or better Chest. Mine is Ilvl37.
Gloves. My are 2L, and ilvl39.
Belt. My is ilvl38.
Boots: They would have to be pretty good. Mine are ilvl40, but sporting double resist, Str, and Life
Rings: both of my rings are Ilvl ~29. One is purely life, the other is +7 all res and +25 Lightning
Neck: Not sure if I want to replace it yet. But I'd be looking at an Onyx Choker with nifty stats. mine has Chaos Res and 2% Life Leech.

[MonTy]

Well, Then I've been doing that a little wrong. I honestly, don't even bother much with magic items that much unless I am identifying them from a dungeon. I really have had very little luck with crafting them. Alterartion shards feel like a dime a dozen. I've seriously used stacks of them to buy jewlers orbs.

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.

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).

I've only ever had luck in buying one item. I bought my freaking sweet 2h'er for 2 fuses and a scouring.

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.

So. I'm using Tempest Shield, which gives me Lightning Damage, but then I'm using the two Cold abilities, because I'm a fan of Freezing things, as a way for DR.

I have been thinking. Should I change over to Lightning strike, and Shock Nova?

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.

[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.

[shoju]

Some Updates!

Last night was brutal in Western Forest. i don't know what the problem was. I normally run about ~100 ms latency, and ~25fps. In Western Forest, I couldn't get over 8fps, and under 500ms So... It was a suicide run getting the bandit leader killed in there. I only mention it, because while running it, I found a 5s 4L rare Chainmail with 8% Quality that turned into a spiffy piece awaiting my Templar.

+Life
L/PS
+mana
+Cold Resist

And I will probably get to put it on tonight. I've actually been amassing quite a nice little base of gear for him to put on over the next 5-8 levels.

I've been pleased, and frustrated now that I have all the skills on my Templar. I still feel like I have no mana. I think part of that, is that I'm just still a low level, and don't have much +int/mana gear, and part of it, is that I'm using skills just to see how they work tgether (do I really need to Enduring cry a pack of melee skellies in Fellshrine? no, but I'm just trying to get the hang of it all. I ran some of the church, just killing time, and feel like I'm on the right track. I'm not sure I'm going to swap over to Lightning just yet. I still like Freezing mobs too much.

All in all, I like the survivability I have with ES, and Block on my Templar more than I do the Life Leech model on the Marauder. My goal now, is to finish up Normal on the Templar, and see how I feel after that. I just feel more comfortable with the templar, even with my current mana problems. Maybe I'll try replacing one of my health flasks with a Mana Flask.

[LennyLen]

I found a 5s 4L rare Chainmail with 8% Quality that turned into a spiffy piece awaiting my Templar.

+Life
L/PS
+mana
+Cold Resist

Nice find.

[MonTy]

I found a 5s 4L rare Chainmail with 8% Quality that turned into a spiffy piece awaiting my Templar.

+Life
L/PS
+mana
+Cold Resist

What are the values of those stats and the inherit armor/es?

[shoju]

Armour: 75
ES: 23
35 max life
3.3 lps
31 mana
27% Cold Res

the 5 sockets are: R-R-R-R G