Some things that might help a few bros out there starting with this game. Veterans need not read further.
I'm by no means an expert but those are things I wish people held my hand through cause I had to find this shit the hard way.
-Install filters for loot. This is key. This game is unplayable without it honestly.
FilterBlade - PoE Filter Customizer - Finetuned for NeverSink's Filter. I use a strict filter, but semi strict is fine when just starting to play. The filter is explained on the site, the installation steps are too. This is vital to play this game I can't stress it enough.
-Vendor recipes: Found here:
Vendor recipe system. Read it, memorize it, or have it linked to check it out. Don't throw shit away, first make sure you can't get something out of it using vendors. Some of the most useful at 7x jeweler orbs from any 6 sockets, pick that shit up!
-Upgrade your pieces of armor. Upgrade your maps. Upgrade the strongboxes in high tier maps. yes, you can scour, alchemy or chance strongboxes. You can even increase their quality like every other item by using orbs of engineering. Pro tip: upgrade a map before making it rare with an alchemy, it will upgrade it by 5 percent increment per chisel instead of 1 percent for 1 chisel. It's a big deal. Upgrade tier XVI or XV maps but probably not worth spending the chisels upgrading lower tiers.
-Use sextants on maps you're going to farm repeatedly. Not going in depth with shaping your atlas, there are many videos and sites that explain how to do it. Go for mods that add mobs that do cold, fire, chaos , poison damage etc, or straight up mods that increase the size of rare packs etc.
-Your maps are worth a lot of money. If you're pressed for chaos, sell the maps you won't be using. TIer X are 1 c per, XI are 2 c per usually, up to 9 c for tier XV. if you've been mapping consistently you probly have a surplus of maps just collecting dust. Sell'em. If you don't need chaos sell them for alchs and chisels to recoup the cost of upgrading / making your maps rare.
There is a LOT of demand on all tiers of maps. Be ready to literally spammed with tells if you open up your maps for trade. It's crazy.
-Delving can yield amazing payoff. Some of those Vaal outpost got some good shit. I found a nurse card by delving, that a huge pay off for hardly any work. If you want to make even more, look up how to farm the darkness. It's really not that hard, can be done at lower depths and can yield very pricy fossils. Those fossils sell almost instantly as well
-Visit your hatchery from time to time. Bestiary recipes are another form of lottery. If you're lucky you can capture a hybrid spider that will allow you to open a portal to Fenumus' lair. There you will fight fenumus, first of the night and upon killing it you will be able to put aspect of the spider on an item (most likely a ring). That is a huge huge paying item if you can put it on an elder ring that already has 'cast warlord's mark on hit'
-Download the poe trade macro and use it to gage item value. This has made me a lot of money and has basically taught me the value of items, suffixes and prefixes that are in high demand. By the way if you alt click an item it will tell you what the suffixes and prefixes are on it and what tier they are. As you do this more and more you will learn what is what and it will all come together.
-Don't wait for exalts to drop, make'em. A lot of people complain about not getting drops, but they sit on exalts worth of stuff in their bank without even knowing. See above for Poetrade macro.
-You can change your ascendancy in the uber lab. For that you have to remove all your ascendancy points (cost 5 refund points per point) then you will get the option to change the ascendancy completely. Tired of being a slayer? become a gladiator or a champion! No need to re level!
More to come may be when I get more time and am not at work.
