Path of Exile - The Best Tips And Tricks For Beginners

Path of Exile is an online action role-playing game developed and published by Grinding Gear Games. First released in 2013, Path of Exile has grown into one of the most popular free-to-play ARPGs, drawing comparisons to classics like Diablo II.

What is Path of Exile?

Path of Exile is set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast, a cursed land abandoned by the gods and inhabited by exiles, outcasts, and monsters. Players take on the role of an exile who has been banished to Wraeclast for their crimes. Alone and without memory of their past, exiles must brave the hostile wilderness and ruins, fighting to survive against human enemies, beasts, the undead, and more sinister supernatural foes.

Exiles start out weak and vulnerable but can earn power through items, skills, and experience. By slaying foes and completing quests, they can acquire new gear and gain levels, unlocking access to more powerful skills. With seven character classes and an expansive passive skill tree, there are countless ways to develop and customize your character’s build. The emergent complexity from Path of Exile’s skill gems, socketing system, crafting mechanics, and deep character progression provides endless room for experimentation and optimization.

Why is Path of Exile So Popular?

Several key factors contribute to Path of Exile’s popularity within the ARPG genre:

Truly free-to-play: Path of Exile is completely free with no pay-to-win elements. The only purchases are cosmetic upgrades and extra stash space.
Looks and feels like Diablo II: From its gritty aesthetic to intuitive point-and-click combat, PoE heavily draws upon the classic Diablo II formula. This appeals strongly to ARPG fans looking for a modern successor.
Extensive character customization: With PoE’s massive passive skill tree, gem sockets, labyrinth enchantments, and more, you have unparalleled control over your character build.
Constant updates and leagues: PoE receives new content and challenge leagues every 3 months, keeping the game fresh and rewarding for veterans.
Deep endgame: Mapping, delving, boss fights, and league content provides almost unlimited endgame challenges and goals to chase.
Trading economy: Easy trade and crafting systems allow you to buy, sell, and craft very powerful items.
Great community: PoE has an engaged, helpful community creating build guides, tools, fan sites, and other resources.

What are the Key Features of Path of Exile?

Some standout features that help make Path of Exile unique include:

Skill gem system: Skills are granted by gems that can be socketed into gear. This creates almost limitless combinations and customization.
Passive skill tree: The massive skill tree has over 1,300 nodes to choose from. Combined with jewels that modify the tree, you can create practically any character build imaginable.
Randomized item modifiers: Items have random modifiers, leading to a constant hunt for better loot and gear upgrades.
League content: New leagues every 3 months provide fresh economies, mechanics, and challenges.
Free trade: Items can be freely traded between players without restrictions, fueling the game’s economy.
Crafting: Various crafting methods like essences, fractured items, and more allow extensive item customization.
Atlas endgame: The Atlas of Worlds provides an endgame where you fight through randomized maps to confront challenging endgame bosses.

With its fusion of sockets, gems, skills, items, crafting, and deep character customization, Path of Exile delivers a cutting-edge ARPG experience. The regular updates, challenge leagues, and flourishing community ensure there’s always something new to experience. If you enjoy complex ARPGs like Diablo, PoE is undoubtedly worth checking out.

Character Creation and Customization

When starting Path of Exile for the first time, you’ll create your initial character. You can customize their name, gender, face, hairstyle, attributes, and starting class.

There are seven classes to choose from: Witch, Shadow, Ranger, Duelist, Marauder, Templar and Scion. Each class has a fixed starting position on the massive passive skill tree and attributes aligned with their archetype, but otherwise represents just a starting point. A Marauder, for example, begins with Strength attributes making it suited for melee combat, while the Witch favors Intelligence for spellcasting.

However, your starting class doesn’t restrict you – through gems, gear, and passive skills you can mold your character however you like. A Marauder could later specialized into a caster, while a Witch may become a deadly bow user. This freedom is core to Path of Exile’s character customization.

As you level up, you’ll gain passive skill points to unlock nodes on the complex passive skill tree. With over 1,300 nodes to choose from, the skill tree allows incredible diversity. Careful planning is needed to create effective characters. Popular community tools like Path of Building allow theorycrafting builds outside the game.

The gem system also provides immense customization. By socketing skill gems into gear, those skills become usable by your character. Support gems socketed alongside will modify the skills by adding effects like piercing projectiles, chaining between enemies, converting damage to elemental types, and much more. With clever combinations, you can create completely unique character builds.

Items and gear offer further chances to refine your character build. Various unique and rare items have modifiers that synergize with certain skills and playstyles. The random nature of item drops keeps the hunt for better gear exciting.

Other special items like jewels can be socketed into the passive tree to transform sections and enable new combinations. Labrynth enchantments add powerful modifiers to your gear. The deep character customization possibilities are why fans praise Path of Exile’s commitment to player agency.

Classes and Skills

Path of Exile has seven main character classes, each with their own attributes and starting position on the passive skill tree. The classes include:

Witch – Favors intelligence and spellcasting from the upper right section of the tree. Can specialize into summoners, curses, elemental casters, and more.
Shadow – Focuses on dexterity and damage over time effects from the upper middle tree. Makes excellent trappers, miners, and critical strike specialists.
Ranger – Specializes in dexterity and bows from the upper left tree. Capable archers that thrive with elemental damage and ailments.
Duelist – Uses strength and melee skills from the bottom right. Can build them as impale champions, bleed block specialists, and more.
Marauder – Pure strength class from the bottom. Makes resilient tanks and damaging juggernauts ideal for melee skills like earthquake.
Templar – Located in the bottom left, favors strength and intelligence. Proficient with spells and melee skills like consecrated path.
Scion – Starts from the center with a jack-of-all-trades approach. Flexible ascendancy classes allow diverse combinations.

Each class also has three Ascendancy classes which further differentiate them with powerful specializations. For example, the Witch’s Occultist enhances energy shield and curses, while the Elementalist improves elemental damage and golems.

Skills come from gems that must be socketed into gear to be usable. There are six types – Active skill gems, Support gems, Trigger gems, Curse gems, Aura gems, and Herald gems. How you combine them creates your unique character build. Support gems are essential to enhance Active skills. For example, Added Fire Support added fire damage to skills. Multiple support gems can be linked to an Active skill for spectacular effects.

Items and Equipment

Items are the lifeblood of character progression in Path of Exile. Killing enemies and completing quests rewards you with equipment, currency, gems, divination cards, and other loot. Rare drops and unique items open up new build opportunities, so you’ll constantly be equipping better gear.

There are several equipment slots like weapon, armor, helm, boots, gloves, belt, amulet, and two ring slots. Different item types have different modifiers – swords offer critical strikes while wands improve spell damage. All gear can have MAGIC, RARE, and UNIQUE rarity tiers.

Magic items have a single bonus modifier, like extra fire resistance on a ring. Rare items have multiple modifiers, making them ideal late game gear. Unique items have fixed modifiers giving them distinct identities. Uniques like Tabula Rasa or Headhunter enable game-changing new builds.

Using Orb crafting items you can modify and reroll items. For example, an Orb of Alchemy turns a normal item into a rare one. Orbs of Scouring can wipe modifiers. It’s possible to craft very powerful gear through clever use of Orbs.

Item filters are essential to highlight valuable item drops and customize how loot is displayed. The randomized nature of item drops is core to PoE’s item hunt gameplay loop. Trading gear with other players allows acquiring the perfect item for your build.

Enemies and Bosses

As you journey through Wraeclast, you’ll encounter scores of deadly enemies out for your blood. Beyond bandits and cultists, you’ll face walking nightmares like Brine King, souls twisted by thaumaturgy, and demonic entities from beyond the veil.

Normal enemies provide XP and loot drops while posing a balanced threat. But Path of Exile is also known for intense boss encounters that test your skills and build defenses. These bosses have complex patterns and dangerous abilities requiring careful study and skill to overcome.

Act bosses like Brutus, Merveil, and Doedre appear at the end of story chapters, with new ones introduced in expansions. The Shaper and Elder as ultimate endgame bosses, able to overwhelm unprepared exiles in seconds. Other main endgame bosses include Sirus, Maven, and The Feared.

Many bosses have multiple phases, changing their tactics and attacks throughout the fight – making each encounter feel truly epic in scale.Dodging devastating blows while unleashing your own skills makes boss fights highly engaging and memorable. Defeating them provides huge rewards and achievements.

While normal monsters may fall easily to your heroics, Path of Exile’s bosses exist to utterly crush the unprepared. You must plan your character and gear carefully to withstand their onslaughts while fighting back effectively. These climatic battles represent the ultimate endgame challenge.

Maps and Exploration

As you progress through the story Acts, you’ll battle across forests, deserts, temples, mines, and more. But the real endgame opens up when you gain access to mapping. Maps are items that open portals to randomized tileset dungeons filled with monsters and rewards.

By slotting maps into your map device and activating them, you can select the map tier, modifiers, and difficulty. Each map has certain bonuses and penalties to provide varied challenges. Completing maps unlocks adjacent ones on your Atlas passive tree.

There are over 150 different map environments each filled with enemies to battle and loot to discover. Maps can also contain league mechanics like Breaches and Abysses or endgame bosses. Mapping allows you to tailor the experience while pushing into high challenge depths for greater rewards.

Delve is another endless explorable dimension accessed through Niko’s mine by spending sulphite. Delving sends you into monster filled Azurite mines where you can collect loot and currency while unlocking deeper depths. Delve and Incursion allow you to steadily upgrade your gear to survive at greater depths.

Between maps, delves, temples, hideouts, and random events, there’s unlimited adventure to be had across Wraeclast. You could play for years and still not uncover all of its secrets. Path of Exile’s ever-expanding environments and content gives fans an ARPG with infinite replayability.

Mechanics

The Passive Skill Tree

The Passive Skill Tree is the core foundation for character growth in Path of Exile. Spanning over 1,300 nodes, the tree presents an intimidating degree of choices. Planning efficient routes is crucial to avoid wasted points.

The tree consists of many branching paths that connect to Keystone nodes which dramatically change mechanics. For example, the Iron Reflexes keystone converts Evasion Rating into Armor. Other notable passives provide major boosts to specific skills or damage types.

Classes each begin in different parts of the tree aligned with their archetype. Marauders start at pure Strength nodes while Witches surround Intelligence. But nothing prevents crossing the entire tree to reach distant powerful nodes. Jewels can also transform sections of the tree into new mini-trees.

The scale of customization from passives is staggering. Careful planning using tools like Path of Building helps maximize efficiency. You receive a passive point per character level plus many from completing quests for around 120 points by level 90.

Respeccing points is possible by gathering Refund points from quests or using Orbs of Regret. This allows reworking builds. Many unique builds center around utilizing key passives like Minion Instability or Perfect Agony to enable volatile mechanics. Understanding the skill tree is instrumental to success.

Currency Items

Instead of gold, Path of Exile uses a wide array of currency items with specific effects. Their main use is crafting and modifying items, but they also double as trade commodities. Common currencies include:

Orb of Alteration: Rerolls a magic item’s modifiers
Orb of Chance: Turns a normal item into a random rarity
Chromatic Orb: Changes item socket colors
Jeweller’s Orb: Changes the number of sockets
Orb of Fusing: Links between item sockets

Higher tier currencies enable powerful outcomes:

Exalted Orb: Adds a modifier to a rare item
Divine Orb: Rerolls values on a unique item’s modifiers
Blessed Orb: Rerolls values on implicit modifiers

Crafting items with the perfect modifiers involves careful use of currency. Other special currencies enable rerolling item sockets, maps, strongboxes, and more. Understanding the effects and value of each Orb type is instrumental to gear progression.

Currency also facilitates trading. Chaos Orbs are the most common trading denomination, with Exalted Orbs being premium. The currency exchange rates form dynamic markets. Using currencies wisely provides major advantages.

Crafting

There are many methods available to craft powerful items:

Orb Crafting – Using currency Orbs to reroll, add, or modify item modifiers
Essences – Applying Essences guarantee specific modifier types like resistance or attributes
Fossils – Fossils modify item crafting outcomes based on their traits
Harvest Crafting – Allows targeted adding, removing, or rerolling of modifiers
Betrayal Crafting – Unveiling items reveals crafting recipes for the bench
Incursion Temple – Double-corrupts items for implicit modifiers
Delve Crafting – Adds special Delve modifiers and suffixes/prefixes
Bestiary Crafting – Imprinting, splitting, and fusing items using beastcrafting
Synthesis – Fractured item modifiers can be synthesized into powerful implicits
Eldritch Crafting – Eldritch currency rerolls socket numbers, links, colors, and more

With clever use of these systems, you can eventually craft near perfect endgame items. Starting with a good base type item is key. Planning modifier combos and proper upgrade order is also critical to maximize results. Crafting is essential for pushing deep into Path of Exile’s endgame.

Gem System

Skills in Path of Exile are granted by Skill Gems that must be socketed into gear to be usable. There are six gem types:

Active Skill Gems – Grants the skill to use. Examples are Cleave, Fireball, Summon Raging Spirits.
Support Gems – Modifies the attached Active skill. Supports like Added Lightning Damage increase damage dealt.
Trigger Gems – Triggers socketed Active skills automatically. Useful for skills like Cast when Damage Taken.
Curse Gems – Applies a debilitating Curse effect to enemies. Enfeeble and Temporal Chains are popular.
Aura Gems – Aura skills apply beneficial effects to yourself and allies, like Grace boosting evasion.
Herald Gems – Grant added effects to your skills like Herald of Ice exploding enemies.

Support gems are essential to boost Active skills. Linking multiple support gems creates powerful skill combinations. However, links can break if socket colors don’t match gem requirements. Obtaining optimal items and sockets for your build is key.

Gems also gain experience, allowing them to reach higher levels. Level 20 gems can be upgraded into more potent level 21 versions. Empower support gems boost levels further. Having high level gems is incredibly important for maximizing your build’s potential.

Trading

Path of Exile has a free market economy fueled by trading between players. Trading allows easily acquiring items for your build. The most common currencies used are Chaos Orbs and Exalted Orbs.

There are several ways to trade:

Trade Chat – Manually linking items and pricing in chat channels. Easy to start but tedious.
Forum Trade Threads – Creating forum posts with your items listed. Viable for bulk sellers.
Premium Stash Tabs – Price items and they automatically list on the trade API. Very convenient.
Trade Sites – Third party sites like poe.trade and pathofexile.com/trade access the API listings.
Trade Macros – Tools like MercuryTrade that integrate pricing checks and buyer whispers.
Discords – Active trading and price checking on channels like PoE Trading.

Good trading etiquette is expected – responding promptly, not price manipulation, andhonoring listed prices. Trusted traders are invaluable in PoE’s economy. Using poe.ninja helps value items against current market rates. Wise traders can amass huge wealth in currency and gear.

Acts and Campaigns

Path of Exile’s core story content is divided into Acts across multiple expansions:

Original Campaign

Act 1 – Exile arrives on shores of Wraeclast and journeys through wilderness and caverns fighting corrupted foes. Final boss is Merveil.
Act 2 – Travels across arid deserts and oasis to cross forest encampments. Defeat bandit lords and the Vaal Oversoul.
Act 3 – Traverses the bustling capital of Sarn and climbs the Solaris Temple. Final boss is Piety.

Fall of Oriath Expansion

Act 4 – Ascend into Highgate mountains and battle across frozen peaks. Final boss is Malachai.
Act 5 – Descend into the Templar Courts and Chamber of Innocence. Battle Inquisitor Arakaali.
Act 6 – Explore ruined Oriath cities destroyed by the Beast. Defeat Tsoagoth.
Act 7 – Travel to glacier fields and defeat the Ash General Gruthkul.
Act 8 – Navigate the toxic Sewers and battle the Goddess Arakaali.
Act 9 – Traverse the Riverways into the Foothills and defeat the Ravenous Goddess Arakaali.
Act 10 – Final journey up the Ossuary into the Canals and Solaris Temple to battle Kitava.

Completing the campaign opens up endgame systems like Maps, Delve, and the Atlas. Optional sidequests also unlock key features like the Labyrinth. Journeying through the story acts provides valuable world building through lore and quest dialogues.

Endgame Content

Once you complete the 10 story acts, the real endgame opens up:

Mapping – Unlocking higher tier maps to take on greater challenges. Conquer The Atlas and defeat The Shaper, Elder, and more.
Delving – Venturing into the endless Azurite Mines to battle deadly monsters and uncover treasure at deeper depths.
Conquerors of the Atlas – defeat Sirus and his Conqueror minions to gain Atlas passives.
The Maven – Witness elite boss fights and complete Maven Invitations to access pinnacle content.
Uber Bosses – Supercharged versions of endgame bosses like The Feared provide extreme challenges.
Simulacrums – Survive waves of enemies in this deadly endurance event to earn vast rewards.
Five-way Battles – PvP brawls between you, hordes of enemies, and other players.
Breachstones – Activate pure Breachstone items for endless waves of enemies and Breachlord boss fights.
Delve Bosses – Aul, Kurgal, Ahuana. Ancient endgame bosses require reaching extreme depths.
Synthesis Bosses – Uber Elder, Cortex, and other pinnacle bosses enabled via Fragments and portals.

Path of Exile’s ever-expanding endgame provides unlimited goals to achieve. Each league also adds new pinnacle boss encounters and challenges to overcome. An exile’s power is truly tested battling the most dangerous entities within Wraeclast’s darkest realms.

Leagues

Every 3 months, Grinding Gear Games introduces a new league with fresh mechanics, items, challenges, and economies. This cadence keeps Path of Exile exciting for new and veteran players alike. Some past leagues include:

Delirium – Mirrors that lead to deadly fog-filled realms with reward scaling difficulty.
Harvest – Sacred Grove gardens with crafting options for targeted item upgrades.
Heist – Assemble a crew of thieves to pull off complex heists and big loot scores.
Expedition – Use explosives to unearth artifacts and currency from dig sites with dangerous monsters guarding them.
Archnemesis – Combine monster mods to create deadly super-powered Rare and Unique Nemesis enemies.
Sentinel – Empower sentinel robots who assist you in battle while converting enemies into rewarding conversion crystals.
Kalandra – Place mirrors that generate Reflected versions of maps with lucrative rewards.

Leagues provide a fresh start and economy. Many go core, adding content to the main game. Chasing challenges and demonstrating mastery of new league mechanics provides fun seasonal goals. Racing to max level as leagues launch is also hugely popular among the community.

Challenges

Each league introduces 40 new challenges to test your skills. These involve completing specific goals, events, and tasks. Some examples:

Defeat endgame bosses at special conditions like Uber Elder without being hit.
Complete specialized maps like unidentified rare Maps warped by Delirium.
Collect entire sets of divination cards and turn them in.
Earn tons of currency from league mechanics like Heisting.
Max out masters like Alva, Einhar, and Niko.
Level characters of specific classes and ascendancies to 90.
Unlock crafting recipes and master hideout decorations.

Completing challenges earns you exclusive microtransaction rewards. Typically, 12 challenges earn you a weapon effect, 24 a character portrait, 36 a hideout decoration or pet, and finally 40 an armor set. These reflect your accomplishments.

Chasing challenges requires engaging extensively with all of Path of Exile’s core content. It pushes players to try new things and truly master the leagues. The timed nature also creates competition during the 3 month span.

Events

Beyond core leagues, GGG introduces various global Events with specialized rules and modifiers:

Mayhem – Monsters gain multiple damage mods resulting in complete chaos.
Endless Delve – Pure delving challenge seeing how deep you can reach.
Flashback – Fun mods like extra Rogue Exiles make the leveling process mayhem.
Turbo – 20 second Soul Eater buff results in ludicrous clear speeds.
Descent Champions – Short 1 hour Descent Races to level and defeat boss waves.
Blitz – Players race through story Acts with major buffs to experience gain.
Private Leagues – Customizable private leagues with special mods, loot, and challenges.

Events usually last 1 hour to 1 week and are announced sporadically as special treats for the community. They provide enjoyable diversions from standard gameplay with wacky modifiers. Participating also unlocks special alternate art unique items to show off your achievements!

Forums and Social Media

Path of Exile has a thriving online community across various platforms:

Official Website – Contains forums for builds, trading, leagues, new player help, community showcases, and more. The Gateway to Wraeclast!
Reddit – The /r/PathOfExile subreddit has over 450k members actively discussing leagues, mechanics, and sharing content.
Discord – Many community Discord servers exist for price checking, grouping, and league gameplay discussion via chat.
Twitter – Grinding Gear Games’ Twitter @pathofexile shares news updates, teasers, and patch notes.
Twitch – Top PoE Twitch streamers like Zizaran, Octavian, and CuteDog draw thousands of live viewers daily.
YouTube – Many content creators showcase builds, boss fights, guides, tips, and more PoE content.
Facebook – The Path of Exile Facebook page engages over 350k fans.

Active sub-communities also exist for trading, PvP, guilds, item crafting, and other specific interests. The friendly and welcoming nature of most PoE community spaces makes getting involved highly rewarding.

Player Guides and Resources

Path of Exile has extensive player-created guides and resources:

Build Guides – Detailed step-by-step build guides for new player builds all the way to endgame meta builds. Easy to follow with PoB links.
Leveling Guides – Tips and leveling trees to progress quickly and smoothly through story acts.
Loot Filters – Customizable filters to highlight valuable drops while leveling and endgame. Filters like Neversink’s are invaluable.
Passive Tree Planners – Online skill tree planners like PoE Planner and PoE Vault allow planning builds outside the game.
Flask Macros – Tools like POE Lurker provide convenient flask management.
Trade Tools – Utilities like PoE TradeMacro, PoE Trades Companion, and MercuryTrade improve trading efficiency.
Crafting Guides – Useful references on crafting methods, odds, costs, and best practices.
Atlas Strategies – Optimizing your Atlas passive tree for different playstyles and farming.
Economy Trackers – Sites like poe.ninja track item values and currency exchange rates.

The Wiki, Reddit, YouTube, and official forums offer a wealth of knowledge created by the community. Following guides and using tools enables smooth progression.

Fan Art and Cosplay

Path of Exile has inspired amazing fan art and cosplay over the years:

2D Art – Stunning digital paintings reimagining characters, scenes, and armor sets on ArtStation. Sketches and comics bringing laughs on Reddit.
3D Art – Intricate 3D rendered armor sets and items, plus animations on YouTube, inspired by Unique items and skill effects.

Unique items like Shavronne’s Wrappings or arts like Storm Call have inspired elaborate cosplays at events like ExileCon recreations:

Armors – Using EVA foam and Worbla to craft armor pieces like Lightning Coil or Terminus Est.
Weapons – Bringing signature weapons like Starforge, Axe of Goddess Pakke, and Voltaxic Rift to life through prop making techniques.
Full costumes – Dressing as iconic characters like the Witch, Shadow, Templar, and Scion with meticulous detail in robes and gear.

Fans also submit their own Supporter Pack armor sets which may be voted into the game. The creativity of the community through cosplay, hand-crafted replicas, and stunning digital art tributes leave a lasting legacy.

Streaming and Content Creation

Path of Exile has an established content creation scene on platforms like Twitch and YouTube:

Streamers – Top streamers like Zizaran, RaizQT, Octavian, CuteDog, and ZiggyD stream PoE daily pulling thousands of viewers. Many participate in events and race starts.
YouTubers – Content creators like Path of Matth, BigDucks, and Palsteron create build guides, bossing videos, reviews, and informative content to hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Podcasts – Shows like Baeclast regularly host GGG developers and community figures for deep dives into mechanics and news.
Documentaries – Series like PoE Origins cover development history, interviews, and behind the scenes details for diehard fans.

Many racers, SSF players, and streamers push the limits of builds and content through expert play. Their entertaining and skilled high-level play offers a window into PoE’s immense depth.

Sharing knowledge also helps onboard new players. Creators introducing beginner build guides, tips, farming strategies, and commentary engages PoE’s expanding audience.

Competitive Scene

Path of Exile has an established hardcore community competing in various events:

Races – Short 1 hour Descent Champions and Turbo races to level and progress as far as possible while under extreme conditions. Very competitive.
Leagues – Private leagues allow competing on ladders in guilds or groups for glory and bragging rights.
SSF – Solo Self Found playthroughs where trading is disallowed provides a pure test of skill and knowledge to overcome all odds alone.
Boss Racing – Speed attempts to defeat endgame bosses like The Shaper and Uber Elder as fast as possible.
Level 100 Push – Pushing the maximum 100 character level requires immense dedication and efficiency in maps.

Popular racers and SSF players like Darkee, Steelmage, and Havoc are admired for their skill in mastering game mechanics while leveling at blazing speeds. Their racing performance demonstrates immense knowledge and grinding capabilities.

While Path of Exile doesn’t have formal competitive PvP leagues, the community has molded many of its mechanics like Delve depth and boss racing into exciting tests of ARPG skill. Their passion drives setting new heights each league launch.

Tips and Tricks

Getting Started

Path of Exile can be daunting for newcomers. Here are some tips to help get started:

Follow a build guide – Choose a beginner-friendly build guide on the forums to help create a strong first character and learn mechanics. Look for detailed leveling sections.
Focus defenses first – Prioritize life from tree passives and gear early on. Cap your resistances. These are crucial to survival. Damage comes later.
Use a loot filter – Filters like Neversink’s highlight valuable items and currency. Customize it as you reach endgame.
Save quality gems – Don’t vendor gems and quality flasks. Use Gemcutter’s Prisms and Glassblower’s Baubles to upgrade their quality to 20% before vendoring for more GCP and GBB currency.
Gather currency stash tabs – Premium stash tabs allow easy trading. Currency tab helps organize all your Orbs, fragments, cards, essences, etc.
Plan your Passive Tree – Use tools like PoE Planner to plan your skill tree route around key nodes.
Learn vendor recipes – Recipes like vendoring a weapon, magic rustic sash, and whetstone sells for a weapon with +phys% mod.

Leveling Quickly

Reaching maps and endgame requires leveling efficiently:

Move speed – Prioritize movement speed on boots. Faster clearspeed means more experience.
Damage scaling – As you progress, your main damage skill should evolve from a 4-link, to 5-link, to a late game 6-link.
Flask management – Keep your life, mana, and utility flasks up constantly. Use housetab macros for convenience.
Weapon upgrades – Check vendors for weapon dps upgrades. Use Orbs of Alchemy on good weapon bases.
Clear speed – Focus on skills with good area of effect damage to plow through hordes of enemies quickly.
Leveling uniques – Certain leveling unique items like Tabula Rasa provide major powerspikes.
Lab trials – Complete your first 6 trials of ascendancy by Act 10 to unlock your core subclass bonuses.
Waypoint network – Unlock waypoints strategically to minimize travel time on repeat runs.

Adopting meta leveling strategies from racers will help you reach maps much faster. The leveling phase is a small fraction of your overall playtime – optimize it to unlock the real endgame sooner.

Gearing Up

Life and resistances – Get life rolls and cap elemental resistances on all rare gear first. These provide survival.
Weapon DPS – Boost your main skill’s damage via weapon physical DPS, added damage mods, crit, and attack speed.
Movement speed – Prioritize 25%+ movement speed on boots for speed mapping.
6-link chest – A 6-linked chest boosts your main skill’s damage tremendously. Tabula Rasa is a cheap but powerful leveling unique option.
Influence mods – Hunter, Elder, Shaper, etc influenced rares provide special modifiers. These can enable powerful interactions for your build.
Flasks – Get an instant life flask, mana flask if needed, and utility flasks like Jade, Quicksilver, Basalt. Upgrade quality.
Jewels – Skill-specific threshold jewels enable new mechanics. Use Ghastly eye jewels for damage.
Immunities – Specialized gear like Chayula amulet provides stun immunity. Kaom’s roots give freeze immunity.

Building Your Character

Defensive layers – Build multiple layers of defense like life, evasion, dodge, block, armor, Mind over Matter, etc. These compound effective Health.
Ailment immunities – Specialized gear like Chayula amulet provides stun immunity. Kaom’s roots give freeze immunity.
Flask management – With automatics, ensure your life, mana, and utility flasks are always active.
Curse immunities – Warding flasks remove curses. Self-flagellation Glorious Vanity timeless jewel makes you unaffected by curses.
Cast when Damage Taken – CWDT linked with Immortal Call, Molten Shell, and Enfeeble/Temporal Chains provides robust mitigation.
Defensive auras – Run auras like Grace and Determination matched to your build’s needs. Enhance Support boosts aura effectiveness.
Vaal skill combos – Vaal Molten Shell gives huge absorb shield. Vaal Grace boosts evasion. Vaal Haste increases attack and cast speed.

Boss Fights

Endgame boss encounters have complex mechanics and deadly attacks. These tips help master them:

Learn the mechanics – Study boss guides and YouTube videos detailing each phase and attacks. Knowing is winning.
Focus on dodging – Learning to recognize and react to each telegraphed attack improves survivability immensely. Keep moving.
Manage adds – Use skills like Convocation to pull minions away from emerging adds. Focus fire adds before returning to boss.
Watch for key attacks – Stay alert for devastating slams, degens, and combos. Prepare mitigation skills ahead of time.
Keep flasks active – With enough damage, bosses can often be facetanked with wise flask usage supplying healing and mitigation.
Stack damage for phasing – High damage pushes bosses through phases faster, limiting deadly attack exposure time.
Have patience – It takes practice. Treat each death as a learning experience. With experience, you can defeat any boss consistently.

With knowledge of boss patterns, proper defenses, focused dodging, and relentless offense, you can overcome Wraeclast’s greatest threats. Soon even The Shaper and Uber Elder will kneel before your exile’s power!

Crafting High-End Items

Crafting top-tier gear requires knowledge and immense investment:

Start with a good base – Use a Shaped/Elder/Hunter base with high item level and proper influence for desired mods.
Block bad mods – Master craft “Prefixes/Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” to block bad rolls from destroying an item.
Awakener’s Orb – Combine influence types by destroying an item and transferring a modifier to a new base.
Maven Orbs – Elevate select modifiers to higher tiers. Allows concentrating immense power in one mod.
Reforge crafting – Deterministictargeted adding and removal of modifiers via Harvest, Essences, Eldritch currency.
Metacrafting – Block bad mod groups and repeatedly “Prefixes/Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” and scouring allows total control.
Multimod crafting – With open affixes, crafted mods boost lacking stats until better mods are rolled.
Split item beasts – Imprint magic items, split into two, Regal orb one, and reunite the best mods on the imprint.
League-specific bases – Synthesized, Fractured, and Elevated mods enable unique possibilities.
Bench crafting – Unveiling unlocks powerful crafting recipes for peaking off items.

Crafting mirror tier items rivals winning the lottery in odds – but with enough currency and patience, truly insane items can be created through clever use of crafting techniques.

Trading Effectively

Efficient trading reaps huge currency gains for acquiring endgame gear:

Price items correctly – Check similar items on poe.trade to gauge real value. Don’t underprice or items sell instantly.
Sell in bulk – Stacked Decks, fragments, essences, scarabs sell in bulk at slight discounts. Easier than selling piecemeal.
Flip underpriced items – Use tools like PoE TradeMacro to instantly check and buy underpriced items and relist for profit.
Don’t ignore small currencies – Fusing, alchemy, vaal orbs, and fragments build up. Selling these nets huge income.
Make large trades – Selling items, maps, etc in bulk trades saves time over many small trades. Offer discounts.
Learn real probabilities – If you’re crafting to sell, know the actual odds and value. Don’t sink more currency than will likely return.
Avoid price manipulation – Don’t try to artificially alter prices. Be transparent in trades. Unethical traders get blacklisted.
Use premium tabs – Easily list items in your public stash tab. Set fixed prices or leave unpriced for offers.
Respond to whispers – Reply to buy whispers promptly. If sold already, politely let them know. Professionalism creates goodwill.

Experience teaches which items have demand and breakpoints for undervalued purchases. Savvy traders dominate the economy. But be ethical – your reputation matters.

Delving into the Endgame

Delving deep into the Azurite Mines is extremely rewarding but challenging:

Get Sulphite first – Maps in high tier regions provide much more Sulphite to delve deeper.
Maintain Niko – Run Niko missions and use Scarabs to boost sulphite gains. Get as much as possible.
Darkness resistance – Stack darkness resist on gear to reach distant reward nodes without dying to darkness damage.
Flare efficiency – Throw flares preemptively to scout paths through darkness. Don’t waste flares unnecessarily.
Azurite upgrades – Spend Azurite on upgrades like flares, darkness resistance, and especially item quantity for better loot.
Fossil farming – Stack Item Quantity and use non-valuable fossils first. Target Biomes contain specific fossils.
Delve sideways – Going horizontal at depth unlocks cities and prime reward nodes. Don’t just plummet down.
Prime resonators – Use Prime Chaotic resonators on valueable fossils like Faceted, Bloodstained, etc to improve odds of good rolls.
Target farm – Certain Delve levels unlock farming for exalted shards, six-links, currency chests, and very valuable fossil combinations.

Delving demands theyou survive the dangers of the deep while balancing Sulphite needs. But mastering its depths provides some of the most profitable content in Path of Exile.

Completing Challenges

Chasing 40/40 challenges each league is an immense feat requiring expansive gameplay:

Complete normally – Many challenges involving maps, levelling, uniques, mods etc complete through normal play.
Plan ahead – Look at the list early and target harder ones involving specific interactions. Acquire items needed.
Use trade 820 – The /trade 820 channel provides challenge services like breachstone runs and boss carries.
Optimal Atlas tree – Tailor your Atlas passive tree to speed clear requirements like maps with Nemesis mod.
Group challenges – Partner with others for tricky multiplayer challenges requiring coordination.
SSF viable challenges – Even in SSF many are achievable through grinding, checkout SSF guide videos.
Practice endgame – Challenges like The Feared require practicing the pinnacle fight first to avoid wasting attempts.
Ask community tips – Many challenges have optimal approaches. Consult experienced players.

40/40 is a badge of honor requiring extreme time investment. But the glow and exclusive MTX reward showcase your dedication to mastering everything Path of Exile offers.

Competing in Events

Competing in Path of Exile’s racing events takes serious skill:

Learn leveling routes – Practice speed running Acts 1-10. Know quest rewards and waypoint routes.
Leveling uniques – Tabula, Goldrim, Lifesprig, Wanderlust provide huge boosts. Have a leveling gear setup planned.
Practice on Turbo – The 20 second Soul Eater turbo events are great practice for pushing pace and reflexes.
Flask piano – Get good at ensuring flasks are always active, especially when under damage pressure.
Focus on speed – In events, clear speed trumps single target damage. Prioritize covering ground quickly with good AoE skills.
Study racers – Watch top performers on Twitch like Darkee, Havoc, and Tytykiller to learn their tricks.
Minimize town time – Don’t waste time managing inventory or gems in town. Hit next waypoint and go.
Know monster threats – Dangerous enemies that can hinder progress. Counter them effectively.
Stay alert – Events can spring surprises with mods or requires nimbleness to adapt strategies. Expect anything.

Competitive events ultimately test your mastery of PoE’s core gameplay under extreme conditions. Hone your skills to stand atop the ladder!

The Future of Path of Exile

Over its first decade, Grinding Gear Games has built Path of Exile into one of the premier ARPG experiences. Its future continues to look bright:

Path of Exile 2 – A full sequel currently in development, overhauling graphics, skills, and more while retaining full backwards character compatibility with Path of Exile 1.
New Skills – Path of Exile consistently adds exciting new skill gems with each league like Storm Rain, Shield Crush, Eye of Winter, etc to enable fresh builds.
Continuous Expansions – Major expansions like The Fall of Oriath demonstrate Grinding Gear’s commitment to keep evolving and expanding Path of Exile’s scope over time.
More Endgame Content – With each league comes new challenges like Maven boss invitations, Atlas passive trees, Uber content, and more for veterans to conquer.
New League Mechanics – Innovative new leagues like Archnemesis, Sentinel, and Lake of Kalandra provide fun seasonal twists every 3 months.
Improving Servers – Ongoing server infrastructure upgrades aim to provide more stability with PoE’s legions of players.
ExileCon – Fan conventions like ExileCon bring together the passionate community to celebrate Path of Exile’s past, present, and future.

Path of Exile’s extremely replayable endgame built on deep mechanics ensures unmatched longevity and retention. Exiles will be plumbing its depths for many years to come!

Why You Should Play Path of Exile

For fans of complex ARPGs like Diablo II, Path of Exile is easily one of the top options available today. Here’s why you must play PoE:

Incredible build diversity – With 7 classes, the gigantic passive tree, skill gems, jewels, and items, you can create practically any character imaginable. Want to be a summoner who dual wields wands while time traveling? You can build that in PoE!
Satisfying item hunt – Randomized modifiers and smart loot systems creates extremely rewarding gear progression full of exciting upgrades.
Cutthroat economy – Trading rare crafting materials, divination cards, currency, and items fuels a robust player driven economy. Playing the market is a game unto itself.
No pay to win – Path of Exile is 100% free to play without compromising the experience. Only cosmetics require real money.
Engaging crafting – Crafting takes items from good to amazing. Mastering essences, fossils, beastcrafting and metacrafting provides immense power.
Great progression – The leveling, Atlas, Masters, Delve, Lab, Talisman, and Pantheon systems provide endless goals to pursue. There’s always a new summit to climb.
Polish and depth – Combat feels crunchy with tons of skills. Clever Ascendancy classes and mechanics like impale demonstrate serious ARPG chops.
Active community – Helpful player-created guides, tools, discord channels, and content creators make getting into PoE easier.
Frequent new content – Major updates every 3 months with new skills, items, and challenge leagues keeps the game fresh for years.

With its excellent free-to-play model, incomparable build diversity, and sheer depth of mechanics, Path of Exile stands in a league of its own. If you crave complex ARPGs, there’s no better choice available today than PoE. What are you waiting for, exile? Wraeclast awaits!