Path of Exile 2 beginner tips: 7 important things to get you started
Path of Exile 2 is certainly not the most beginner-friendly game, even if you have experience with the first game. It will challenge veterans and greenhorns alike: those well-versed in ARPGs will find its mechanically grounded nature a surprising reversal of expectations, and greenhorns to the genre will find the game borderline inscrutable.
No amount of hand-holding beginner guides can fully prepare you for smooth sailing in Path of Exile 2 — much of it is intended to be a trial by fire. Still, some beginner tips can help make this trial a bit more well-guided, which is what we have attempted to provide here.
7 Path of Exile 2 beginner tips for a smoother start
1) Get used to the slower pace (and dodging a lot)
Path of Exile 2 gives you a much more grueling early-game experience than the average modern ARPG. Ironically, this tip will be the most relevant to those who have played the first game for a long time.
Unlike in the first game, there are no stand-and-deliver specs or playstyles to get you through the beginning. Instead, you must methodically pull as many mobs as you can handle at one time, and play a hit-and-run method with copious usage of the dodge-roll mechanic.
If your tactics are static, mobs can surround and maul you quite easily. This is because they're slow enough to outrun one at a time but tanky enough that you cannot always kill a whole horde faster than they get to you.
2) Use a shield on the off-hand (even if you're not a martial class)
In Path of Exile 2, the shields (not Focuses) present a surprisingly dependable tool to deal with pesky ranged mobs thanks to its active blocking system. This tool is not necessarily limited to the Warrior class, as you can slot it on anyone as long as you meet the STR requirement.
This can also be done on a non-martial class that does not have an empty offhand, such as a Sorceress with a Staff. You can place the shield on the second weapon set, and it still gives you the Raise Shield skill, which you can then bind to a key. When the skill is used, the game automatically switches the set for you when you guard yourself with the shield and it returns to your primary set afterwards.
If you are not a class that has natural STR stat, even using a low-level shield in this manner gives you an extra layer of protection.
3) Caster classes are less gear-reliant in the midgame
If you're wondering which class to pick in the early game, we recommend a ranged class. Especially, the Sorceress is far less gear-reliant than other available classes, as you gain a steady DPS increase just from upgrading your Skill Gems.
Martial classes, on the other hand, need to rely quite a lot on continually upgrading their equipped weapon, as their skills scale much more based on the main-hand weapon damage. Ranger is less susceptible to this trap, as you can rely on the Poison-stacking shenanigans as a damage solution.
4) Take note of vendor resets
There are multiple armament vendors in every town hub in each act. For example, in Clearfell, Renly is your marital gear vendor, while Una is your caster gear vendor. They sell you weapons and armor pieces of that respective playstyle, with three tabs worth of vendor inventory.
This inventory resets every time you open up, and they can sometimes present items with the exact affix you were looking for. It is therefore important to check vendor inventory and fish for good gear, especially if you're playing martial classes as we talked about in the last point.
5) The Gambling mechanic is more useful than it seems
Following up on the last point, there's also another gear vendor in every town. Starting with Finn in Clearfell, this new vendor type in Path of Exile 2 is called the Gambling vendor. They give you a randomized gear of a chosen type (i.e. weapon or armor subtype) for a price markup above what you'd pay for a rare time ordinarily.
This can generally give you a lot of Magic (Gold-rarity) gear of a chosen type rather cheaply. The gambling component comes in the fact that you have no idea what affixes they will roll with. However, if you're looking for an overall gear makeover at the start of a new Act, it can present you with some good level-appropriate options without having to grind the harder mobs.
6) Charms are the new Immunity Flasks
In the first game, Flasks were used for utility reasons in the endgame: to gain movement speed, or to shrug off elemental effects, i.e. Ailments like Freeze, Electrocution, or Ignite. In this game, Flasks can only be used to restore Life or Mana. The duty of giving you Ailment solutions is delegated to the new Charms system.
This is another tip that goes out to PoE 1 veterans: do not sleep on Charms. These are automatic solutions to your Ailment problems across various stages in the game (the most treacherous of these, arguably, is Freeze). It's worth fishing for Charms of different types and stockpiling one of each (anti-Cold, Fire, and Electricity) for on-demand help with getting through an area or boss due to Ailments.
7) Use crafting materials, but don't overspend the more expensive ones
You'll come across a large quantity of Orbs of Transmutation and Augmentation across your journey. They can of course be sold to vendors, but it's far better to keep them stashed and use them regularly.
This is yet another tip that goes to the more gear-reliant classes: Mercenary, Warrior, and Monk. Sometimes, even relatively small affixes like bonus Elemental Damage can work wonders, since the difference between one-tapping and two-tapping a regular grunt is huge.
Another upgrade material that's exclusive to Path of Exile 2 is Runes, which are your main way of easily increasing your Elemental Resistances. Be on the lookout for socketed normal gear in the world and upgrade their rarity via Orbs, or use an Artificer Orb on your latest favorite equipment to make way for some extra stats.
The two that you should use sparingly are Regal Orb and Orb of Alchemy. If you're playing a trade league (as in not SSF), Chaos Orbs should also never be used. They are the main form of currency in community trading in the first game, so there's enough reason to believe this will also be the case with Path of Exile 2.
Depending on your familiarity with ARPG traditions, you will not find all of these tips useful or eye-opening — but Path of Exile 2 has ample room for everyone to learn new things.
Check out our other guides on the game:
- Path of Exile 2: All classes and ascensions available in Early Access
- Path of Exile 2 Atlas system, explained
- Will Path of Exile 2 have crossplay and cross-save?
- Path of Exile 2’s new Skill Gem system, explained
- Does Path of Exile 2 have co-op features?