The Easiest of the Easy Beginner Build Guides [1.1 SotV UPDATED]

My character seems to be messed up.

I have trouble killing things alone at the Merc docks.

Where have I gone wrong? Or is it simply a gear problem?

And does anyone provide a shopping service?

Thanks in advance.

@ThePainLingers

Your Gem setup is horrible!

Added Cold, Cold Penetration on Lightning Arrow??? Why?

Frenzy with Blind and additional Accuracy? Seriously?

If you dont have the gems, which I don't think as you get them as quest rewards, invest a bit in faster attacks, lesser multiple projectiles, weapon elemental damage etc...

@painlingers: I presume you're doing self-found, which is what I had done to around L42/44. I then found that I hit a wall with some of the bosses and even Oak in Cruel when soloing. So I then traded up most of my gear, which you can see on Islidox's thread. My bow was 6C, most everything else between 1 Fusing and 2 C, so you can dramatically upgrade as long as you have been farming the rares, blues, Chromatics and 6 sockets for vending. I never traded in D2 and was reluctant to start, but it's pretty hard to continue without some trading it seems (though I read some folks did finish entirely self-found). Just words of encouragement from another Newbie

I am 67 levels into this build and it's going very well. Only complaint is single target DPS. I have a felling it is gear related. I am starting A3M and already farming Docks which I can easily clear, albeit not too fast yet. Resists seem to be fine. Just curious, what kind of DPS should I be looking at for a Bow? I feel faster attacks helps with Shocks stacks.

Current Bow:


I haven't had much luck finding or rolling a decent bow. Obviously, I would love an Lion's Eye, but my bank cannot afford one. However, a plain blow w/o sockets or links is feasable since I have a 5L chest, which may afford me more DPS. Current DPS is 129 (way too low), but I am wondering where it should be. Gut tells me 250-300 would be ideal. Coop friends DS builds are 3K DPS, which also greatly benefits from my LA Shock stack (although they just think they are uber awesome). Still they RIP way more than me. I don't expect to get in that range, but I would like to know what to shoot for.

I am hoping a better bow and quiver may help ST DPS. AoE seems to be fine. Survivability isn't really an issue (one RIP due to lag and an Ice Arrow ranger on Dominus(C)). First Ranger was a glass cannon, so I have a good comparison of what squishy feels like. I took life nodes over Phys dmg. In hind sight, I should have spread them out better, but I was tired of RIP'n on my first ranger.

I realize this isn't a high DPS flashy build, however I have had some issues with some bosses were you can't get past their regen, ES, or leach (General Gravicius(C) comes to mind). PoE is complex, and I realize you cannot have the best of both worlds. Guys like ZiggyD realize in races and HC, dps gets you nowhere when you're RIP. Others want a flashy DPS build, but there are a lot of other balances, and every build will have trouble with something sooner or later.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Just realised you can't actually see my build. Here is the link:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4EfgUtBfkILg48FHEV8BjbGY4Z_ho4GtsbASFgKLUppTJ-MokylDpSOlhAoEGqSn1OKlYEVvpX4lnzW69gS2CIYVJmnmegapNyqXRBdO108XfXd-V673zZfwKGYIcZh3aQVZUFm42euabgp4Sn1Kyqr-u2Qb3mvqfAD8AaxKLNmNJN037V7dnG3BXdDd7G37_qYuw47YPuDu9O73r3Mvjr-WP60vzF_sg=

And how can I link my gear in a post?

Thanks again, in case anyone experienced with this build is available too help.

"

Titan182 wrote:

Just realised you can't actually see my build. Here is the link:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4EfgUtBfkILg48FHEV8BjbGY4Z_ho4GtsbASFgKLUppTJ-MokylDpSOlhAoEGqSn1OKlYEVvpX4lnzW69gS2CIYVJmnmegapNyqXRBdO108XfXd-V673zZfwKGYIcZh3aQVZUFm42euabgp4Sn1Kyqr-u2Qb3mvqfAD8AaxKLNmNJN037V7dnG3BXdDd7G37_qYuw47YPuDu9O73r3Mvjr-WP60vzF_sg=

And how can I link my gear in a post?

Thanks again, in case anyone experienced with this build is available too help.

To link gear you need to click on your character portrait at the top left, which opens your inventory/stash/passive window. Just left click on the gear, and it inserts it in this text. Then you just close the window with the round X at the top right (not the web browser one).
It's a very nice set up from GGG, like most of PoE =))

I am no expert, but fairly well read, and a good ways into this build. From your passive tree, I would guess your struggles come from lack of Static Blows, it is the key for DPS, along with some decent gear, but honestly, my gear is not that great and I can clear docks. ZiggyD did a great job with the passive progression, however some of it is dependent on your play style and gear or struggles, whether you take evasion, life, resist, or damage nodes. I was shy on damage at one point and used a few respec point to change it. I also picked up blood magic and static blows early, which made some other stuff harder. PoE is a constant balancing act, which is why I enjoy it so much. Any game you face roll is pretty boring.

Good luck.

Ok.. I'm not a new player, but I've taken long breaks from playing here and there, and I've never gotten good at builds or equipment... I've been following this guide since it's supposed to be a character that's easy to get to endgame with. I like the game-play style, but I just can't figure out why I'm doing so badly mid-game.

I'm level 55. I'm trying to fight the final Dominus guy in Cruel, and I just can't beat him. I used 22 portal scrolls this last attempt, trying to whittle him down, and I just gave up. Before that, I died all the time getting to him. I am not tanky. I can barely survive fights several levels lower than me.

I know my equipment isn't the best, but it's the best I've been able to find. I don't have much currency to buy better.

I'm going to post my stats and equipment and current skill tree. I just want to know what I need to focus on changing and fixing to make my character work.

Thank you if you can help.

My Equipment


My Passives. I know the spot just to the right of the starting area doesn't follow the template too well. I'm working on fixing that.


With the above equipment and setup...

My Lightning Arrow shows
only 111.5 DPS
APS 1.57
Total Combined Dmg 37 - 105
Phys Dmg 11-36
Fire Dmg 13-26
Cold Dmg 1-2
Light Dmg 12-41
Accuracy 1001
Atk Spd Inc 12%
Life Leech from Phys 2%
Life Gained on hit 32
Arrows Fires 3

My single target Frenzy/Culling Strike dmg is better. But still not great.

I tend to run Conductivity unless I start getting in trouble which is often, then I throw Weakness or Temporal Chains.

I don't really use my Decoy Totem because it just doesn't seem to work well enough to be useful.

Please help me figure out the many things I'm doing wrong... Thanks!

Your bow sucks. Buy yourself an upgrade, you can easily do 2-3 times the damage.
Investment <5chaos.
If you buy a really serious bow, you will have to pay a bit more, but there are a lot on poe.xyz.is with easily 4-10 times your damage... ;)

And your single target DpS looks horrible as well.
Linking Culling and Item Rarity is nice for a tertiary attack only used to finish off bosses, but with LA having abysmal Single Target effect, you need your Frenzy linked to some serious damage gems. At least somethin like: Physical projectile, faster attacks, life leech.

"

Peterlerock wrote:

Your bow sucks. Buy yourself an upgrade, you can easily do 2-3 times the damage.
Investment <5chaos.
If you buy a really serious bow, you will have to pay a bit more, but there are a lot on poe.xyz.is with easily 4-10 times your damage... ;)

And your single target DpS looks horrible as well.
Linking Culling and Item Rarity is nice for a tertiary attack only used to finish off bosses, but with LA having abysmal Single Target effect, you need your Frenzy linked to some serious damage gems. At least somethin like: Physical projectile, faster attacks, life leech.

He makes good points, you should find a better bow and equipment if possible. I am not sure how much currency you have, but you should try to generate some by selling good rares, gems and uniques. 10-20 chaos orbs will get you quite a bit to decent gear. You could wait for rare drops, or good whites to craft, but honestly that can take forever and general consensus is that crafting sucks, is depressing, and best left to uber wealthy players. IMO, you are better off farming mats and currency vs crafting. Picking what you want to buy vs hoping for a good roll works better for me. It also talks a long time and a lot of research to comprehend the ranges of mods on gear to start knowing what is good and what is not (high roll vs low roll).

I am nearing the end of A3M, and my bow was too low at 130 DPS, so I bought one at 300 DPS which made a world of difference, both linked below:


I would also recommend getting a faster attack speed bow since it will apply shocks more frequently, along with faster attacks support gem (I swap faster attacks for culling strike depending on what I am doing, but I really like that recommendation of a tertiary attack with culling strike and IIQ). You should also focus on physical damage. Changes were made to the game which affected how elemental damage was calculated. If you read through all of the posts on this thread, ZiggyD changed a lot of this build due to these changes. It helped out a lot since physical damage nodes now do a lot more for you.

You could also really use a good 5L piece. While 2 5L would be great, you can get buy with 1, and I use it for my LA. Obviously 6L would be better, but I wouldn't get too obsessed with 6L.


Your support gems could you some work as well, which you may have to buy. Keep in mind that this build is not massive DPS, higher DPS LA is relative to the other builds. I run with some guys that do a lot more DPS than I do, but this is very stable and is a great build for a group with LA shock stacks. Probably a great HC build. Also keep in mind that most all of the high DPS build rely on very expensive gear in end game, where this one does not making it a great build for beginners who have little to no currency. I have also ran into trouble spots where some passives needed adjustment. You many need to move stuff around to alter life vs resists vs armor vs physical damage. It's all a balance depending on your progress and gear. Obviously it's a good idea to start getting resist nodes right before merciless. I ran this build with nearly maxed resists in cruel and merciless and it was much easier than my first ranger. All builds run into issues somewhere, hopefully most are resolvable, sometimes they are not. Some people tell me the haven't run into problems yet, but they are still in Cruel. I feel certain bosses in A2M (Weaver comes to mind) and the end of A3M is pretty tough, and when you find out just how good your build is, since your progress will come to a crawl if you RIP a lot.

Good Luck!

Thanks PerterLerock and BadKarma for the advice.