Hey all! For tonight's blog post, I'll be streaming Path of Exile. Keep in mind I'm a complete and total noob at the game. I'll be seen trying to figure things out, messing up just about everything, and having a good time exploring the game.
After the stream ends, I'll be converting the live player below into a video for you to watch as well as updating the post with a writeup of what we did in-game.
While live, feel free to interact in the chat and ask any questions. I'll answer whatever I can from a newbie's perspective.​
Thoughts on Tonight's Play Session
I walked away from tonight's play session with two main thoughts.
Maps Respawn / Randomize Behind You
So whenever I left a 'zone' or 'map' and then returned, even in this same play session, the map regenerated and even randomly generated behind me. On one hand it's neat to have what seems like an infinite source of mobs, but it's sort of frustrating for a player like myself that doesn't know where I'm going and ends up backtracking to figure out where I am.​
Lack of Direction
On one hand I like that I sorta have no idea where to go. I'm meandering/roaming and trying to unlock/solve the mysteries of the map. That's super cool.
On the other hand, I'm roaming around and spending a lot of time making little progress - exacerbated by the maps regenerating behind me.​
In fact, I accidently beat act 1 and stumbled into act 2 without even realizing what happened. I was looking for an alternate way around a gate I couldn't open (inexplicably) when I suddenly beat the boss of Act 1 because I wandered into a hole in the ground.
Cool moment, but I don't think I even had a quest to do it!​
I'm really excited to continue with the game because I'm starting to feel like I can get into the story and the world and what's going on.
Not sure if you’ve found the commands yet, but pressing U brings up a world map, that roughly indicates the areas that are linked to each other – so you know how many exits there should be – and whether there’s a waypoint in the zone.
Tab brings up a larger map overlay, and I’m not sure if they’ve got the minimap now defaulted on in 3.0, but if it isn’t, that’s one of the first things players used to MMOs should really turn on via the settings.
Hopefully that helps a bit more with orientation and navigation, while the lost feeling should still linger.
(I know I spent -hours- running around the later Act maps which I was unfamiliar with, going “I know there are two more exits out of this place, where the hell are they?!”)
Yep I have the minimap in the top right and I use the Tab Map compulsively (Diablo habit). I didn’t know about ‘U’, so I’ll give that a go today. So you’re saying that by hitting U I’ll know where the maps link together? That’s incredibly useful compared to randomly running around looking for zone lines.
A pet peeve, and maybe in line with blogs being blogs.
When not live, remove the red dot and word live on the picture, and remove the word live from the topic. For some reason, seeing those dots gives me the idea/feeling you are actually streaming.
Also, please add/embed the vod in the post, or at least a link to it?
The VOD takes time to process. I said in the post I would link it, and I’ve done that. They can take their sweet time when they’re over an hour long.
As part of my desire to regularly engage my readers more with the games I’m playing, I want to go live in blog posts regularly and follow them up with my thoughts on that session as well as a VOD.
I appreciate the feedback on the featured image. The “LIVE” is meant to showcase that this was post a live stream post. I get that it might be confusing to have it not be a dynamic indicator (technologically impossible to embed that into the featured image without mad scientist skills or something). I want everyone to clearly identify these posts as live stream posts through the featured image since the image is what is seen on social media and statistically the main reason people click into a post. Any suggestions on how to do that without the “LIVE” stamp?
If you want to make pre and post stream posts, label em like that? Pre-Stream and Post-Stream
I’ have a watch later and see 🙂 be interesting to get the view of a new player again
Maps refresh between 8 and 15 mins of leaving them generaly, this beciomes a good thing later on but can catch you out
Downside to leveling up gems:
Most you want to always level up, however, higher gems need higher stats, so if you have gear that, say, gives you strength, and you level up a red gem that needs strength, and then take that gear off, you will no longer be able to use that gem, so either try and avoid using stat gear or be careful when leveling gems that use stats you don’t have a lot of (ie: as a witch you have lots of int, but low dex and str)
Asside from this, only a few specific skills should not always be leveled (examples are the buff clarity, which reserves more mana the higher level it is, and specific trigger gems (ie: cast when damage taken) which require more damage before activating as you level them)
Navali takes silver coins that drop in the world and gives you random prophecies that will cause something to happen or spawn in one of the zones, it could be something like ‘a large pack of skeletons will spawn’ or ‘you will meet a specific boss’ or ‘killing a rare will drop specific items#
The allflame is used in the ships graveyard, act 1, if you open the act1 map (u or waypoint screen) and click the icons on the bottm (to the left of the divider | marker are current quests)
Waypoint to the caverns (final zone of act 1) and run out the door next to it.
Zombies are more a meatshield than damage at this point, your spirits are your main damage source for sure, the zombies will tend to move towards your cursor when you activate a spell, so try and mouse over what you want them to attack as you cast your spells.
Don’t be afraid to use flask charges, you refill them as you kill stuff, also make use of portal scrolls if your bags full and you want to loot more just portal back to town.
the orbs you are banking are for ‘crafting’ gear, by crafting we mean changing its stats and modifiers, improving its rarity or sockets or modifiers, if you mouse over the items it will tell you what they do.
Turn up the volume on your mic recording, and speak more 🙂