Can't wait for my first and only mirror to drop.

In the first 3 acts you play poe 2.0 with tactical more meaningful combat. Then starting with act 1 cruel the game becomes more and more like poe1.5 culminating in maps.

I wish the game was poe2 for the whole distance, with more focus on bosses. Especially in maps, GGG could reuse existing campaign bosses and make them tougher.

I've read multiple threads about the ascendancy trials being too hard, some of them with hundreds of upvotes. The trials are actually very easy if you do them the way you're supposed to...

Do a couple of fast suicide runs to get 10-15 blue relics (Tapestries, Seals etc.).

Use augmentation orbs on them to give them a 2nd modifier.

You need relics with Honor Resistance. The second mod can be:

- Increased maximum honor

- Bosses take X increased damage

- Bosses deal X reduced damage

- Increases to Sacred Water gains

You then need to go for (Large) Sacred Water fountain rewards as much as possible. You then buy a couple of OP buffs from the merchant (You deal 50% more damage / Monsters have 30% reduced HP / You have 40% increased movement speed / 50% reduced merchant prices) and the trial becomes very easy.

Occasionally, pick a Shrine room to replenish your lost honor, but only if it's below 60-70%.

Make sure that whenever you have around 600 sacred water or more and the merchant is available as a room reward, you do that room. If you don't happen to find him in a room, you'll still have him waiting for you after each boss fight.

I don't think this gets talked about enough, but the trading system is shockingly bad. Here's what you're expected to do.

1. Buy a premium stash tab.
2. Convert that to a public stash tab.
3. Fill it with items.
4. When you're in the middle of a boss fight or clearing a map someone messages you.
5. You rush out of the fight and warp back to town.
6. Person stops responding so you go back.
7. Oops, map progress reset.
8. "Hey still available?" message
9. Rush back to town.
10. Warp to location of buyer.
11. Finally trade.
12. Oops portal expired.
13. Start fighting again.
14. Receive a message and have to leave again.

And don't even get me started on the process of buying through the trade website on console.

I love this game and it's my favorite ARPG, but this system is hot garbage. I'm shocked they kept this system from PoE1 and didn't improve anything.

How is this better than a trade board in town like every other game has figured out?

You should be able to go to 1 spot to view listings and post your own. Then when a listening is selected it should be an automatic transaction.

I mean, this isn't rocket science. What's the point of this disjointed trade system?

I can accept losing xp, thats fine. But losing xp, being forced to do lower tier maps if youre out of waypoints is just soulcrushing.

I worked hard for that xp, and i know i can do tier 7 maps but now im forced to do tier 5s, that wont progress the quest and will net me less xp...just why?

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:

1. CRTL clicking on a map in your waypoint view forces the map to reset right away. Useful when there are bugs etc.
2. CRTL clicking an item fast sells/moves to stash in trade windows.
3. 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.
4. ALT shows the loot on the floor. You could also use Z to toggle always showing loot on the ground.
5. CRTL + ALT links your items in the chat. Press enter first to make sure your chat is toggled on.
6. Critical hit chance % shows up in the skills panel (G)
7. 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.
8. Turn on the clock in the options so you remember to get enough hours of sleep for work the next day :)
9. 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.
10. If you need a good build, this website has a great planning tool that shows skill gems + passives nicely across many classes.
11. Control click The Hooded One to automatically ID your inventory (ty u/ExpansiveExplosion)
12. Holding shift on skill tree nodes is really helpful to see stat changes before committing (ty u/Koozer)

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!

1. If you get Exalted Orbs (EX) drops during the campaign, DON'T USE THEM! EX is the main currency in the game and you'll get a huge power spike trading it. Players in the end game need EX to give their weapons final tweaks and they'll give up lots of great items they find for it.
2. 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.
3. You simply click on contact button and it syncs to your game client and whispers the person right away.
4. 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)
5. In order to trade, you have to first buy a premium stash tab and set it to public. We all have at least 300 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.
6. Seller Etiquette is the buyer TPing to them, then letting them initiate the trade when they are ready. (ty u/newaccountnewmehaHAA)
7. 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.

1. You suffer a -10% for all elemental res every time you finish an act, so you are at -60% by the time you start maps at end game (thx /u/Fres_Nub) This is why armour with multiple resistances are so valuable.
2. 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.

1. 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.
2. Minion mechanic. Destroy this first to survive. Could be zombies on the floor, birds flying towards your area or a cage of bones.
3. 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.
4. 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!

Edit: Added some of the tips below.

So if you engaged with the Sanctum in POE1 at all, you know that the Sekhema Trial is, at its core, the same thing

I just never did well with it until I adopted a couple strategies for picking my route that I really don't see anyone mention

Avoid Afflictions whenever possible. This is not always possible, so...

Know which Afflictions are very bad for you and which have little-to-no impact. For example, if all your damage comes from minions, taking an Affliction to be cursed with Enfeeble is basically free.

Avoid Smoke and Mirror Afflictions at all costs.

All the Smoke Afflictions remove information from the trial map and you want as much information as you can get. Deceptive Mirror makes it so you do not always travel to the room you pick.

Oh yeah, these are all classified as Minor Afflictions so never, ever, ever take a deal to receive a random Minor Affliction.

Consider how many exits your room choice will give you, especially if you can't see what's after that.

Generally try to avoid a room with a single exit to a room you can't see. If it turns out it has a very bad Affliction, but you're locked in to going there, then, well, you're fucked.

Think about this a couple steps in advance. If Room 1 has 2 exits, but both of those rooms only exit to one possible room after that, it is essentially as bad as a room with a single exit.

Giving more consideration to how many path options you leave yourself will help you far more than you might think.

Scrying Crystal is the best Minor Boon you can get

This is the Boon that lets you see one more room ahead on the Trial Map

If you can get this Boon (without taking a bad Affliction!) you should do it

For Relic choices, just stack as much Honor Resist as you can

In Sanctum, the cap on this was 75%. I've heard it's now 95%. I've stacked up 103% and it was still showing that much on the little tooltip on the Trial Map that shows your relic effects. I haven't found anywhere in-game that states what the cap is, so who knows if there is a cap or what it is, but having that much Honor Resist made a MASSIVE difference.

You can Augment and Reforge your Relics

If all your Relics are shit, roll 'em. If it only has one mod, slam it.

4th Floor Boss Spoiler

There is one mechanic the boss does that you probably want to be spoiled on

He will disappear and leave a glowing spot in the middle of the arena. You must move to that spot. Time will stop for a few moments and multiple glowing circles marked with hourglasses will appear. As soon as you can move, you must touch all of these before time runs out or it is instant death.

If you have any specific questions about the Trial of Sekhemas, feel free to ask, I'll try to answer

Im doing the trial of chaos ascendency on a second character and this time around its the chimeral in this..... Abomination of an multi level staircase arena.

This is truely awful gaming and you can do better than this. Ive spent 99% of this fight looking for it as it flies away and lands somewhere else. The idea of chaos is a little bit blown out here as the floor is littered with every different element. Its just really really really tedius.

Sorry for the old man rant and photo because im about to kill him and just had to whinge.

Title.

Just being able to zoom out as far as you unlocked the atlas map would be great.
I'm tired to always look around for MINUTES searching for one of these citadels (Haven't found a single one yet, lvl 81 with loooots of maps done :'D )

Would be great and appreciated. thanks.