Comprehensive List Of Tips / QoL Tricks For New POE2 Players
This is my first time playing Path of Exile and I’m absolutely loving it! Being new to POE, I had to figure out quite a bit on my own. So I thought it’d be helpful to share a list of tips (that aren't intuitive) to help other players get the most out of the game.
I'm sure this is nothing new to experienced POE players, so if you’ve got more tips or tricks, feel free to add them to the list.
Gameplay Tips:
- CRTL clicking on a map in your waypoint view forces the map to reset right away. Useful when there are bugs etc.
- You can fast teleport to a party member by double clicking on the portal icon at the bottom left of their portrait. This also makes trading very fast. The moment they enter the area, you can right click on their avatar to enter a trade and you don't have to stand next to them.
- ALT shows the items on the floor. You could also use Z to toggle always showing items on the ground.
- CRTL + ALT links your items in the chat. Press enter first to make sure your chat is toggled on.
- Critical hit chance % shows up in the skills panel (G)
- There's two sets of weapons you can carry if you tend to rotate e.g one hand wand + shield/focus vs two handed staff.
- Turn on the clock in the options so you remember to get enough hours of sleep for work the next day :)
- Portals to map areas have time limits but logging out seems to save dungeon map progress. If you've reached of a boss after a painful crawl and don't want to lose progress but need to sleep, just logout. When you login again, you'll be at the same spot.
- If you need a good build, this website has a great planning tool that shows skill gems + passives nicely across many classes.
Trading Tips:
Game loot is unsatisfying at the moment and we will get even more irrelevant drops as more classes are introduced. My experience (and gear) improved significantly after I learned how to trade. However, it's not intuitive at all for new players!
- If you get Exalted Orb (EO) drops during the campaign, DON'T USE THEM! EO is the main currency in the game and you'll get a huge power spike trading it. Players in the end game need EOs to give their weapons final tweaks and they'll give up lots of great items they find for it.
- POE2 has an official trading website here. It's pretty damn good (tons of filters) apart from the fact that it's down a lot.
- You simply click on contact button and it syncs to your game client and whispers the person right away.
- If a seller doesn't respond, chances are they are not interested or they set it at a wrong price and have received endless messages. MOVE ON! I received 400 messages in 2 mins the first time I listed a unique, I'm not kidding. (I listed it for 1 orb and later sold it at 8)
- In order to trade, you have to first buy a premium stash tab and set it to public. We all have at least 400 gold from buying EA access so you don't have to spend more money! Hit (M) to go to the shop then go to upgrade premium stash tabs. The easiest way to sell stuff is to set everything in the tab to sell for 1 Exalted Orb, which is the main currency in the game.
- I would list all decent looking rares - it always surprises me which ones end up selling.
Cruel Mode:
You enter cruel difficult after completing Act 1 - Act 3.
- You now start each act with negative resistance modifiers so this is why armour with multiple resistances are so valuable.
- The ascendency quests are bugged and keep showing in Act 2 and Act 3. Ignore them as you can't complete them. I respawned the map a few times and it was painful. If you're looking to get your 3rd and 4th ascendancies, you can refer to this Reddit post that explains how to.
Boss fights:
The bosses might appear difficult at first, but it's hard to die once you know all the patterns. The first thing to note is cues come from not just animations but specific audio. They each translate to different actions you must take. These are the 4 main patterns for every boss.
- Safe spot mechanic. Find the area you can stand in where no damage is dealt. Could be behind a giant sword, behind Asala shielding you, or just a circle where there's no glowing stuff.
- Minion mechanic. Destroy this first to survive. Could be zombies on the floor, birds flying towards your area or a cage of bones.
- Timing mechanic. It's either an attack right away, or a delayed attack after an animation. Just learn the cue then the timing and move out of the way / dodge.
- Dodge mechanic. You survivability goes way up once you internalise the concept that you move faster than you dodge. Meaning you have to MOVE AWAY not DODGE AWAY some times, when bosses start their animations/audio. This is the Count's freezing/blood droplets, Draven's glowing circles, Jamanra's twin runes that chase you. Just stop whatever you're doing and run, not dodge. Also, there are times where the boss has a two step attack - you're supposed to move away during the first step, then dodge during the second e.g Lachlann's homing missile thing.
Alright, I hope this helps. GGG has made an incredible game and I know it'll only get better.
For the more experienced players. please share your knowledge too!
Comments
Doesn't the res penalty start from normal act 2? I remember getting a popup for it at the start of the act.
When you buy a premium stash tab, or a currency tab, right click the tab and you will see a bunch of checkboxes such as Currency, Essence, Flasks,. Etc.
Check the box and then when you are sorting your inventory, and you ctrl click the item, it will auto stash into the right tab.
I’m on my 2nd level 80 before I knew this….
Control click The Hooded One to automatically ID your inventory
simple trade etiquette tip for first timers:
1a) transactions happen in the seller's hideout. you'll visit them there by clicking the little icon on their portrait as OP pointed out. the seller will be the one to initiate the trade. be patient and give them time to get their item(s) out of their stash and do not spam them with trade requests while they get it ready for you :)
1b) if you are the one selling an item, you can right click the buyer's name in chat from the whisper they sent you and invite them from the dropdown menu. they will come to your hideout and you will initiate the trade
bonus tip: CTRL + left click to quick deposit items into your stash or sell to vendors
You can use checkpoints to teleport to other checkpoints. I didn't realize this until act 3
If a seller doesn't respond, chances are they are not interested or they set it at a wrong price and have received endless messages. MOVE ON! I received 400 messages in 2 mins the first time I listed a unique, I'm not kidding. (I listed it for 1 orb and later sold it at 8)
I'd caveat this. If the item was just posted then the above is probably true. If it's been on the market for an hour or so then just wait 5-10 minutes and ping again. Lots of times people are in the middle of something and don't wanna stop to trade.
I never heard anyone using EO for exalteds. Thats silly
These are great tips, now I want them with console commands (ps5) lol
300 gold from smallest supporter pack, not 400
Thank you for all the tips! Is there a plugin or website that people use for their loot? I see it all the time but I want to make sure I don't download the wrong thing. I come from OSRS and we use Runelite and there are a lot of fake websites that try to phish you.
You don't need the gameplay tip 7, hide that shit. All the others are good.
The resistance is not from cruel acts, its -10% for all elemental res every time you finish a act, so -60% by the time you start maps
Also to add, if you really want a specific item and you are willing to wait, you can /whois seller name and it will show you if the seller is in map or ho so you can either wait or send a message to get back to you when the map is finished
I wish someone would make one of these for ps5...
Combat
- Your basic attack automatically gets stronger as you level up and costs 0 mana. Don't forget to use it.
- If you're ranged and a boss has a big one shot mechanic that you're having trouble dodging, try fighting in melee. Many bosses have a slow turn speed and staying close lets you run behind them to DPS safely. Oftentimes, it's better to roll past a boss, as opposed to to the side.
- Some form of passive life regen or health flask regen is very helpful early on.
Navigation
- Quests that permanently improve your stats will be marked with a + icon on your world map. Other quests give xp and a shot at loot, but if you're in a hurry, focus on the + quests.
- Much of the time, the waypoint for an area will be next to its entrance. Even if you're not finished with your current area, it's generally worth entering new zones just to grab the waypoint, then return to your old zone.
- Don't be afraid to TP when you need to. If your inventory is full or you run out of flasks, just go to town.
No one is calling exalts EO. Also, use exalts during the campaign. Game should be fine, not optimised.
Buy items on trade for regals and not ex until cruel. There are plenty of good items for regals. Sure good boots with ms i had to buy for ex but outside of very good or rare items you fine with regals
I hate that the first trading tip is a thing. I’ve used all the currency I’ve found and it’s taken me to endgame, but the idea that if I’d been unlucky I’d just be fucked, or that I could have gotten way more bang for my buck by just trading, sucks.
Holy shit that's gold vontent
Hi, PoE newbie, though I've played my way around last epoch, Diablo and what not.
To add to your boss tips, what might help some people is this.
Think souls games for bosses. That's it. Bosses in the campaign became incredibly easy once I said to myself "oh this is just 3rd person over head elden ring." Everything you said is perfect, and was told to me from almost the beginning, but it didn't click until that moment.
If you haven't played a souls like game...well, remember dps is good, but your dps is always zero if you're dead. Sometimes, it's better not to just spam hit the boss with early characters. If you're really struggling with a boss, go in with no weapon or skills equipped and just focus on not getting hit. You'll start to get the feel for dodging and understand what "I-Frames" are. Generally if you think you can dodge something, or roll under it (flame wheel, or an attack that covers the entire area) chances are you can.
Also If the boss is throwing down large AOE attacks, just move around. Don't hit the boss. It's not worth it. Wait for your openings and attack then.
No! Use your exalts! They designed the game so that you can use them! You get PLENTY of them as you play the game. If you ever have a piece of gear with several good stats on it and open prefixes/suffixes you should slam it! There are much less “bad” rolls on gear now too. You should also exalt your waystones when you run a juicy map node that has extra content on it!
This is not Poe 1, the currency and crafting system is fresh and newly designed with over 10 years of retrospective experience so that you can just play this game and not need to trade! Trading is very powerful and your best end game items will more often come from trading rather than crafting, but it’s so much more fun easy and rewarding to slam exalts on gear you already want to use while leveling and progressing!
Awesome. Now do console controllers since none of that applies to me lol.
As of the last patch, you can now right-click abilities on your bar to open their respective menu to check damage.
gameplay tip #7 saved me
It’s ex, not EO
ex has been the vernacular for 10 years
Lost all credibility with EO. Exalts are Ex.
Great idea to put this list out. I assumed that the clock was yet to be added so will definitely turn it on once I'm back on.
#consoleplayersadge
Tips and tricks are great I’m so coming back to this!
Wait wait wait what time period in the POE verse is this game set in?
For new *PC POE 2 players
The holding shift on skill tree nodes is really helpful to see Stat changes before committing to some
Im on PS5, but good advices.
Do I need a premium stash tab to buy but not sell? Wanted to grab a decent scepter for early game but don’t have anything I need to sell atm
CRTL
Thank you!
Can we get an xbox/controller version of the first part?
Affinity tabs are useful too. You can set any tab by right clicking its name and marking what you want to automatically be deposited on it once you right click on an item, independently on the tab you’re on.
Thanks. Control click hooded one is amazing
The more important currency to not use randomly is the divine orb lol. You could get end game gear with 1 divine currently.
What's the point of dodging then?
The Desktop shortcut logo with the Standalone Client Installation is the old POE1 logo. Go into the POE2 installation folder and create a new shortcut from the executable with the new POE2 icon. Don't know if this was only for me or for others as well.
Graphics:
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If you find the grainy look to some areas (grass, sand) not appealing, disable upscaling or use other than the current default one (NIS with sharpening).
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Dynamic Resolution.
This is ticked on by default and recommended, but the frame rate when Dynamic Resolution kicks in is at the bottom of the Graphics option menu under Advanced Settings. Even though, the tool tip for Dynamic Culling refers to "Target Framerate." (GGG needs to change that, or clarify that "Target Framerate" applies to Dynamic Culling and Dynamic Resolution.)
Set the "Target Framerate" at your choice. e.g. I set mine to 60FPS. I don't want to play with less than 60FPS.
Highly recommend new players unbind Z. Nothing worse than thinking your drops are sucking because your finger slipped.
Thank you so much for this. Tips and advice in the midst of all the negativity are very much appreciated.
gonna save this
- Vendors cycle inventory every new player level
- Vendors will often have things worth purchasing
- Vendors in earlier acts will often sell socket and rare equipment worth their value in shards
Any tips for us playing on console?
woof #8... i burnt the shit out of some beans learning that one. had to open all the windows of my house
Is there a quick way to check how much a rare item is worth ?
Very useful mate!
Could you help me understand what Resonance node does? I.e. Power Charges and whatnot?
“5. In order to trade, you have to first buy a premium stash tab and set it to public. We all have at least 400 gold from buying EA access so you don’t have to spend more money! Hit (M) to go to the shop then go to upgrade premium stash tabs. The easiest way to sell stuff is to set everything in the tab to sell for 1 Exalted Orb, which is the main currency in the game.”
This is not true you can also trade by making a thread in the trade forum on the website and posting your items from there with buyout price if you choose to include one.