How to interact with a system without telling me
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In the four years because Path of Exile was first released, I've attempted to play PoE trade currency countless times. I start a new character and, so long, leave them because I feel overwhelmed by the sheer intricacy--the commodity-based market, freeform character development, and the always nagging feeling that I am enjoying it the wrong way. However, with the launch of its massive Fall of Oriath expansion a month before, I decided to try once more, and I have found the light. Path of Exile is not an easy POE sport to get into, but if you stay with it, you'll discover the very richly rewarding ARPG out there.
Path of Exile is a theory crafter's dream come true, the kind of POE match with seemingly endless ways to construct and optimize your perfect personality. On top of a typical leveling system is a passive power shrub which produces Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid look like a 'connect the dots' puzzle book for toddlers--and that is just the beginning. There's an Ascension system for further specializing your personality, a Pantheon system that gives you more passive bonuses for murdering a variety of gods and trapping their own souls, the ability gems that lets you basically spellcraft--the list goes on. And on. And on.
Oh, and that I have not even mentioned loot. Good god, the loot. Never have I been so haunted by means of an inventory full of vague knick-knacks and gizmos that I understand do something but have no clue if this something is worth doing. If you're someone who enjoys knowing the fundamental concepts of a POE game right away, Path of Exile can sense hopeless.
To be clear, The Fall of Oriath, the most recent growth, fixes none of this. Not directly, anyway. The biggest feature is the inclusion of six excellent new acts, but you'll want to have persevered throughout the original four to experience them. A brand new in-POE game tutorial will help you through some of these basics in more detail, however I felt like it more often told me how to interact with a system without telling me how I need to use it. As somebody who recently returned into Diablo 3 to play as a Necromancer, the comparison could not have been more stark.
The biggest difficulty I had when first trying to play with Path of Exile was feeling paralyzed with liberty. Where Diablo 3 offers structured personality classes, Path of Exile's classes are nearly inconsequential. It's true that you can begin as a Witch, but nothing is stopping you from investing all your points to buy exalted orb poe into power and turning her to a sledgehammer-wielding melee maniac.
Veterans will inform you to simply wing it the first time, but I'm not fond of the notion of investing 20 hours to some rickety-shit build only to have to reverse those errors later. But looking at different build guides, they're often steeped in lingo which could be impossible to interpret.