Just wanted to create a thread to provide tips that I've come across that can help new players. I've got a relatively small amount of time in the game, but some of these are things that have helped me in subsequent plays.
If anyone else has any other tips, please feel free to add below.
Movement Skills
For skills that you are using just for movement (e.g. Whirling Blades or Leap Slam), there's no need to upgrade the skills. This preserves the low mana cost while the movement effect doesn't change. Not only does this save on mana, but some of these are used with Blood Magic Support, which takes life instead of mana, so keeping the cost low is a good idea. A nice 4 link build that I use is: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks Support - Fortify - Blood Magic. This allows me to zip around the place and also give me a defensive buff when I go through mobs.
Support Gem Levels
This one has caught me out a few times, some support skills, apart form having Str/Dex/Int/Level limits (Can be seen when you hover over the gem), will also have limits to the level of gems they can support e.g. I use Cast When Damage Taken Support and, currently, at level 6 I support a gem of max. level 48. What this means is that any gem that I want to work with that support has to have a level of 48 or lower, otherwise it won't cast.
Yup, it can be extremely annoying to have the level up icon pulsing in the side of the screen, but believe me, it's more annoying having to purchase and level another gem from scratch.
Leveling Extra Gems
This is a very simple one, yet is something I keep forgetting about. If you notice on your character sheet, you have the option of equipping a second set of weapons (Roman numerals I and II above your weapons slots). Gems in your secondary weapons will level up the same, even if they are not active weapons. This can be very useful when starting off as you may not have the required slots for some skills, but want to save time on leveling them later or for leveling gems to sell on trade.
Resistances
This mainly applies to part 2 of the game, but is good practice to get into.
in PoE, the max resistance that you can have for any type of elemental damage (Chaos, Cold, Fire and Lightning) is 75% (there is such a thing as over-capping, but that usually only comes into play in mapping/end game, so will leave that for later).
These generally don't matter too much in part 1 as your gear/passives will take care of them without you really having to worry about it. At the end of Act 5 you get a major debuff to resistances (-30% to all, and again at the end of Act 10 for a total of -60%). This might not seem like a big deal, but trust me, elements start to hit really hard and can provide a bit of a road block (especially when you take into account the 5% xp loss on death from Act 6 to Act 10 and 10% loss in maps).
Luckily, there are a number of ways to grab some resistances:
- Check your skill tree, there are a number of areas that have resistance boosts. Until you get gear with the proper resistance on it, it can be worth jumping into these, if not too much out of the way. Also, keep a look out for gem slots in the passive tree. You can grab some nice gems (different to skills) doing quests or from drops that will boosts resistance.
- Skills/Flasks - certain skills and flasks give boosts to resistance e.g. Purity of Fire, Topaz Flask
- Items - a lot of the items you can get will have +res% on them, then main ones that I have seen are rings and neck. Some of the best ones to look out for are the Two-Stone Rings which will have dual resistances on them. If you are having a tough time getting resistance items to drop, check out PoE Trade. This is a website that was set up as a parser for the PoE trade forums and allows you to search for very specific items. This is not a real money trade forum, it only uses in game materials.
White Gear to Look Out For
When I started, for the most part, I tended to turn my nose up at white gear until I started to get the hang of and understand the crafting system of PoE. You'd be surprised how easy it is (forgetting RNG for a moment) to craft a pretty decent item.
Again, this will be mainly towards later levels/end game while you are waiting for specific items to drop/appear on trade, but can be useful at the start to get into the habit of mentally filtering gear drops (yes, even after you have the filter turned on). The benefit of having white items is that they are blank slates and you can use the materials that you picked up along your adventures to upgrade them (with a small percentage of getting a unique along the way)
Boots, Gloves and Helm (4 Sockets Max)
- Best: 4 Sockets, All Linked - Can use Chromatic Orbs to manipulate the colours (as a side note, the colours are weighted based on the relevant attributes in the requirements, Str is Red, Dex is Green and Int is Blue and this will affect the outcome of your Chromatic Orb rolls).
- Runner up: 4 Sockets, None/Partial Linked - this is a preference, but I find it easier to link sockets than to get extra sockets on an item.
- Anything else I would vendor (again, talking about white items)
One-Handed Weapons and Shields (3 Sockets Max)
- Best: 3 Sockets, All Linked - Same as above
- Runner up: 3 Sockets, None/Partial Linked - same as above
- Again, anything else I would vendor (again, talking about white items)
Body Armour and Two-Handed Weapons (6 Sockets Max)
- Best: 6 Sockets, All Linked
- Runner ups (in order of value): 5 Sockets, All linked; 6 Sockets, None/Partial Linked; 5 Sockets, None/Partial.
- Anything else I would vendor (unless your build has no need for 5 or 6 sockets, then play it by ear)
- There is a body armour called Tabula Rasa. If you get that, hold onto it. It is a 6-Links White Socket item with no level requirements, meaning that any skills can go into it and can be worn by level 1.
Finally, Vorici can craft sockets on items, depending on his level all the way up to 6 linked sockets for 1500 Orb of Fusing (which works out around the average amount of orbs you would need if trying to roll yourself).
While none of these may seem like major things, they did help me understand the game a little bit more and had a great QoL improvement. Hopefully some of ye find them as helpful.
Good luck, Exile!
Ultrin
