I'm glad you're having fun with POE. The new player oriented guides are always welcome, good luck with that!

What i like about the campaign is how your build take form and you start feeling your playstyle and you go faster and faster. Ofcourse mapping/boss is more fun but i dont mind doing it!

10/10 Review. As a veteran POE player I can say im super happy to see creators like you coming to this game and giving it a proper go. POE has it flaws but its also just an incredible game at the end of the day. Hope to see you back in future leagues

i cant get enough of all the diablo players discovering PoE. you did an amazing job analyzing everything the game has to offer

One of the reason most of us never get tired of doing the ten acts everytime is because of the "Character and build progression". The moment you enter Lioneye's watch, your mind starts to play in the direction of the build you have chosen to play, every single passive point makes a difference and can actually be felt in our character... which alone is already fun.. skill books are rewarding as hell.. the acts are fast pace, no unnecessary side quest, back and forth movement.. Then you reach act 3, you do lab and get your ascendancy with a hude surge in power..another dopamine boost... 2nd and third ascendancies till act 10... great.. Itemization is fun.. you are introduced to crafting, to hideout, to map system, to contents as a short quest... EVERY LEVEL UP, EVERY PASSIVE SKILLS, EVERY SKILL GEM, SOCKETS, etc etc makes a crucial change to your character that you can literrally feel in the game.. that is fun... after the acts... The real game started... and I dont have to talk about the end game.. Its endless...

As a very seasoned PoE player, I think you did a great job breaking things down at a basic level. I hope you get a ton of fun out of your time with PoE

The specific unique (Ventor's Gamble) you used as an example is a hilarious one, because it's a hugely variable unique based on rolls. It can be worth 1c or 5d depending on the rolls.

I think a very underrated part of campaign is the dopamine rush of getting levels and skill points so quickly, and a lot of early nodes are super powerful so you really feel their effects

Raxx, I cannot express how much I appreciate you. This is a SPOT on review. As someone who also enjoys the depth and complexity of play your own way, this video was a HUGE true. Hope GGG takes value in you as a creator and starts to invite/include you in activities.

My favorite part of this video is when you’re talking about all the different mechanics that have accumulated over the years while hovering over the atlas passive tree, a comparatively recent addition to the game. People often say “of course PoE rules, they have ten years of development” but from a developer perspective it’s amazing that they can still add so many new systems. It’s no trivial feat to design a system that holds up so well after ten years of added content. It’s why they often face backlash when they fix longstanding or accumulated issues and it breaks someone’s build or the new solution makes encounters disproportionately difficult.

Best take of this video: if you love D4, you don't have to hate PoE and vice versa. Just play both if you can and have twice as much fun, they're both great at their own thing

Ive been holding off starting my journey in PoE ever since you first mentioned you would be making a beginners guide, looking forward to it cant wait

I love POE''s endgame. It feels like this bottomless ocean that every time I dip into I find new depths. The headhunter is my favorite item in any ARPG. I enjoyed your hearing your thoughts as an ARPG veteran but also a new player.

As someone with a couple thousand hours in POE, great video. I agree with all your rankings. Fantastic game if you want to sink hungreds of hours in.

I would love a beginner guide from Raxx. POE has to be the one game in my library that I know is amazing because of everything I've watched and the opinion of people I respect. But for the life of me I still don't understand it and have never gotten to the point where I truly love it like this. I want to get there, but the ceiling is so high for some of us.

I think any game company should be lucky that Raxx makes a project like this about their game. What a mountain of work this must have been. Bravo Raxx

Very unbiased, clear, fair video Raxx. Well done

As a PoE player it would've been nice if you explained how Supporter packs and the MTX shop work as a lot of people don't understand why there is an option for supporter packs and why they're priced this way (including the $500 one) and everything that comes with those transactions. Great video, looking forward to more PoE content.

I get that the game is new player unfriendly (bcs of the design or age of the game) but why do people say that it is casual unfriendly? Let's say your goal in every new league is to get 3 voidstones (exarch, eater, maven), you can do that by following a build guide without much thought. Most build are so easy to understand that even a casual can (Toxic rain, SRS, Bonezone, Ice shot, etc). Also the new mechanics are pretty easy to understand at base level: Affliction - enter forest, kill stuff, get out, now mobs drop more loot (or not :D) Ancestor - auto chess Crucible - get a mini skill tree on your weapons Sanctum - rogue-lite Sentinel - press button buff mobs Expedition - explode things, kill mobs for artifact, trade artifacts for stuff Ritual - kill enemies in a circle, kill them again, select loot based on the number of mobs killed

Very good and accurate review Raxx. I started playing POE in Delve league (2018) and still feel I'm a newbie to the game. I play and enjoy every league and set my own personal goals and try not to keep up with the crowd. The only frustration that I have is that I play for months and still do not acquire the currency and gear that the top players get in a couple of days and I put many, many hours into the game. I try to get better but seem to hit the same block every league and not sure how to overcome it. Other than that, POE has been my main game for over 5 years (what other game can do that?). I thoroughly enjoy and anticipate the new league launches and love following the community on Twitch/KZfaq to try to learn a bit more. It keeps the game fresh and very exciting. Also, I love supporting GGG as a game studio. They have a single game, designed by players, that you can tell is about their passion and vision and not just making corporate dollars. POE/GGG is a shining star compared to other games in and out of the ARPG genre. On a lighter note, we found an all grey, stray kitten a few years ago. We brought her into the family and needed a name. This kitten is now known as Kitava, the Insatiable. The name gets a lot of compliments from the vet and visitors and most don't know where it comes from.

As a D4 quitter here's my short PoE review : it's complex, overwhelming but ultimately fun and rewarding. And there's so many things to do you can probably play this game for years and still come up with new cool builds and strats. And even though many people don't seem to care so much, the lore is worth digging through.

casual/vet and I still really enjoy the campaign unless I make 3+ characters in a single league. I really love the overall story and theme in PoE, a ton of the lore and voice acting is top notch and was enough to make someone who wouldn't normally get into an ARPG want to learn all they could as to enjoy it as much as possible.

Just wanted to say thanks for putting the time in to make content like this. I just started playing POE myself and I'm having a lot of fun. I learn a lot from your channel so know that its much appreciated.

One of the best things that’s happened for my gaming enjoyment is D4 not being as good as I thought. I tried out LE and enjoyed it. However, I had seen Zizarran stream D4, enjoyed his content, and learned that he was a PoE player. Long story short, I’ve been obsessed with this damn game. It’s so fun! I can’t remember a game that has been so enjoyable in years. I go “OHHHHHHH” multiple times a week when cool ass shit happens on my screen.

As a new player POE is very good. Wish I started sooner.

I am a new PoE player and I'm following the same guide but it's just so much information that I don't wanna play anymore. It would be amazing if you can create a new player guide specifically on items and gems and upgrading. Thanks!!

I started poe for the first time, last league. I was so impressed I immediately gave them $100 supporter pack and probably will buy more eventually. My only gripe is that is so unbearably mind meltingly complex as a new player, BUT its what makes it good. There's always a good feeling to progressing or figuring things out one step at a time. I do wish crafting was a bit less gamble like and a little more straight forward like last epoch. But then the trade economy is what really makes the game worthwhile because of how its setup. I promise anyone, take the game slow, don't stress out to much and you will enjoy it, more and more and more.

Good Review. I think one of the reasons I like POE is that I like games where I have to do some research to optimise characters. It just makes it feel more than just a computer game. The other big thing for me is the build diversity. At the start of each season I have a list of about 3 or 4 builds I want to try out in a season. The next season I'll have another 3 or 4 to try. The problem with this season is that I have 5 different builds I really want to try out - I just hope I have time to try them. BTW - If you ever play POE whilst your not streaming, take your time and speak to each NPC to get the lore of the game. Its really deep.

When I was finally burntout of wow and d3 was just not ever what d2 was...I finally gave PoE a chance it was scary at first until I pushed through the pain and started following guides and streams. I felt so happy when I finished the campagn and then saw the endgame atlas omfg yes this game is for me BOOM supporter pack and 2k hours later still playing 10 straight leagues. Probably might not reach 3k hours but thats cause PoE2 here we come!

PoE is probably the greatest ARPG to date

Very good video, Raxx. I like it when people take the time to articulate and say things in a direct and clear way.

Raxx you nailed it at the end. One of the best and fastest ways to learn the game is to keep making new characters and playing new builds. I have been playing for a couple years on and off and going into last season I still had no clue what I was doing. I made a toon and followed a build into maps. Then made another build on a different class, took it into maps, repeat repeat and through that I gain a TREMENDOUS amount of game knowledge in one single season

Great vid! Im looking forward to your beginner guides Raxx, I just find your teaching really simple and easy to understand.

I've done the campaign about 7 times now and still enjoy it. Which is weird, because I hate replaying games in general. I think improving your time through the campaign each league is a fun little game in its own right and shows how you have improved over time.

Just hopped on for the first time last week and it’s a bit overwhelming at first but this game is too good! 🔥

I've played PoE since open beta sometime in 2013, and I still love going through the campaign. Obviously the campaign we have now is very different from the Normal/Cruel/Merciless loop we had in the start, but even back then I enjoyed it, and the switch to a 10 act structure and the removal of Normal/Cruel/Merciless has only made me love it more. I just really like the sense of progression it gives you, it feels like you gain a lot both in terms of power and new skills, and I honestly have never grown bored of it, I am far from a hardcore blaster though, I mostly enjoy taking my own sweet time and doing things my way, and I realize that if your purpose is to get to the absolute endgame and kill some Uber bosses as fast as humanly possible, the campaign may be a pretty annoying hurdle. But for me I still really like it, I'll get to those bosses in time, admittedly a lot later than most people who have played the game as long as I have. Edit: Shoutout to another great ARPG that gets overshadowed by PoE, D4 and even Last Epoch, Grim Dawn is a fantastic game, highly recommended from a random moron on the internet, I hope you enjoy it.

Damn dude, 10 year player here, and I have maybe 130c and 2 divs to my name, not even a 6 link yet and here is rax, someone who just started playing the game and has 20d of gear on. I think it’s about time I put the game down and focus on something else in my life, I’m not even kidding I truly think it’s time

Really good and balanced take. It's always nice to hear from the newer players 👍

34:15 I think you gave an honest review. I hope your next beginner guide tells new players to sell everything magic(blue) and Rare(yellow). Cause all new players at PoE, make that mistake. They think they don't need something for their build and leave it on the ground. Then they don't have the currency to upgrade their gear.

I also like completing the campaign. I have been playing the game for almost a decade, and still enjoy the ritual of rushing the campaign with the whole community. There is something nice about going through all the acts and everyone starting on the same page.

i actually love this the more i think about it. hopefully you can take learnings from PoE and pass suggestions over to the D4 team lol. i really hope the D4 team doesn’t think that just brining past mechanics back as items all the time is a good thing…. i would rather have a version of the mechanic itself

Thanks for the video. As a newbie another category I would add is visuals which would be like a 5/10 for me. There is some sort of visual cohesion and artistic style that other ARPGs have that PoE does not. I think I remember you echoing a similar sentiment at one point in a stream. PoE 2 seems to have radically and drastically improved visuals.

Hit the nail on the head with the veterans of the game being able to blast through the content and knowing the past league mechanics because we played it when it was fresh. I have walked several people through this game and I can only do it by slowly explaining what things do. Its so damn much and I am far from being an expert. Glad you enjoyed the game!

As someone who has been a total noob at this game for years, I wish I could play for longer than an hour. The information overload is just so intense unless I'm really determined.

Glad you enjoyed the campaign, I loved it the first 10 times, accepted it the next 100 times, now I kinda look forward to poe 2 :)

A suggestion: use excalidraw for this type of drawing. Great content as usual.

So I also was a diablo main for years and have been poe for about a year/year and a half. One additional bonus of the long campaign is build craft testing. There are some major fights or spots in the campaign and if you are making a new theory crafted build you can use these as benchmarks for dmg and survival. If you are cruising along and you dmg is great and nothing touches you and then you get one shot by bosses then time to get some survivability. If your dps is great on aoe but sucks on single target or you start running out of resources etc it can be a good early warning. Just getting into trying to make some of my own builds and have found this aspect quite helpful cause all maps are different combos of mods and whatnot so gives a good consistent baseline before you hit endgame

Raxx I am excited about the upcoming video - all of the mapping guides are always from the point of someone who knows the game really well so they make a lot of assumptions

I'll start playing POE once your beginner's guide is released, Raxx

I recall my first time in POE. A friend got me & a few others join & we started in a league instead of standard. No guides, no prior knowledge, just nothing. Didn't even finish the campaign. In fact I didn't even understand the meaning of league/season game-wise. Think I dropped it after a few weeks & went back to it months after. It was only then I took the time trying to learn the mechanics - linking gems being the main subject as it was the most foreign concept to me. So many leagues since then I have probably scratched much of the surface, yet discovering intricacies of interactions between different mechanics with the help of guides found in forums. Good luck on the guide!

After 3000h I do have slight more critisizm towards PoE but yeah - There's simply no other aRPG on the market that can rival it's variety in terms of builds and different mechanics. Af for the guide... Ech... I don't want to sound like a jerk but a "beginner guide from a beginner perspective" doesn't sond like a good idea:/ Not only there are FANTASTIC guides for new players done by PoE vets but also - Not being a PoE veteran you might get some stuff mixed up or not well represented and that will just confuse new players even more. I donno - I get that you need to release new content but IMO having just couple hundreds hours in PoE is not enough to teach masses.

You need to try a slammer, it's a very fun and active melee playstyle.

Raxx you're pretty on point with your review. I personally think PoE requires a lot more thinking generally than D4 which is another reason why someone might prefer D4 (other than the new player experience) - as a software dev I get quite tired solving problems you know :))

I've dabbed with PoE in the past, but I never finished the campaign. I was convinced the play for me was to wait for PoE2, but I'm in a game lull and decided to give PoE another shot. I cleared the campaign two days ago, and started doing maps. And while there's obviously a lot I still don't know, I've been having a blast. Looking forward to seeing how far into this I can get in my first real season, and I'm looking forward to Rax's take on it.

Love your videos. Always short and to the point, but with arguments and constructively. We need people like you in our arpg community. I was playing PoE a long time ago, just 2 seasons. Maybe your guide is the way to come back in this game.

Very comprehensive analysis Raxx. The only other dimension I would have added is crafting. This is different than theory crafting obviously. The depth of the crafting system is insane - more than your traditional orbs on your main currency screen… you can use essences, harvest crafts, bench crafting, beast crafting, fossil crafting, conquer orbs to combine influences etc… I too have a math degree and my mind is blown in the probability system in the crafting. Check out craft of exile to run through crafting scenarios and determine your odds to hit favourable outcomes. Excellent work Raxx.

Blown away by people not liking the campaign. Great story, especially sea hag’s is a sad one.

I like the campaign too, it feels rewarding getting to maps (especially on HC and/or SSF) and you can benchmark your character by comparing it to other runs or builds you've done with all the variables being the same. It only takes a few hours anyway so it's not a big deal once you've done it a few times.

What I love about builds is just how many ways you can set up a skill. Do you spec into the DOT part of the skill or try and go for hits? Do you go crit or non-crit (Elemental Overload for spells or Precise Technique for attacks)? Do you want to attack fast or slower but harder hitting? Do you want to invest in elemental ailments to CC or boost your damage? What about defenses? There's so many layers of defense you can add, but which ones are the most efficient for your build to invest into so you don't die as much? Hell, even lightning arrow can be made tanky if you go all in on evasion and spell suppression. You then spec into Wind Dancer so the first hit you take is very reduced (avoid 1 shots), but afterwards the next hits do a bit more damage, but you get more evasion. You can even convert your spell suppression into spell dodge to make Wind Ward from the Deadeye ascendancy prevent 1shots even further. Some of my tankies chars have been evasion based because you just don't get hit, and when you finally do, it's for a smaller amount. Yes there's an occasional one-shot but honestly that happens just as much on my armour/bloch char as well because they were slower and needed to play closer. I love Path of Exile and there's just nothing else quite like it. The more time you invest into learning the systems, the better the game gets. You then start to make your own builds and figure out what's good for the limited budget you have, and the content you want to run. Not every build can do everything and that's okay. It took me a while to figure that out. Skip the things your char is bad at and double down on it's strengths. It'll be way more fun as opposed to a do-it-all char, unless you're ready to invest heavily into that one

Looking forward for the beginner guide, I feel there are tips that are put in complicated way and can be more accessible to new players.

only thing missing from Poe for me is the graphics/worlds feel which seems to be much better in Poe 2, such a great game and great team behind it

About Path of Building, there is even a function that lets you search the market with the tool for better items with an price limit you set and creates the wisper text for you.

Nice video, Im pleasurable surprised how high score you gave PoE. Also one note: they're not moving away from linking system they're changing it so its tied to gems, not items. That way you can change your equipment freely while you only need a main skill with 5 sockets to get whats currently a 6-link. But now that PoE2 will be a separate game the new system might be only a PoE2 thing.

its so strange, i knew him as the guy who defended Diablo Immortal. And now he is also playing PoE. What a character arc :D

Really locking forward to the beginners guide 😊

As a PoE veteran I agree with your takes on this. The most fun is indeed to look at PoB to create the ultimate build, but most of the time there is a hidden catch somewhere that you have forgotten about. Then it continues to figure out to solve that problem and so on. It's very hard and takes a lot of knowledge and creativity to make something unique functioning. For example I looked into Neversink's stream the other day, he was playing frostblink (a movement skill) that is used by his totems lol and it works. Who could have thought of that? The only thing I would like to add is that a lot of current league mechanics are overtuned at the start of a season, usually it gets some fixes a few weeks in and when they reintroduce it (going core) it's most of the time pretty balanced.

Welcome to the PoE club! I’m 5000 hours in and still learning new stuff about this game every single day. D4 is a great game too, I advise everyone to start with D4 and when that game get’s easy and boring, you step up into PoE.

would love to see you do Grim Dawn since it's massive update.

Kripp dubbed it Path of Life Nodes, when it first came out. You pretty much had one way to build your character or you would be murdered. It has certainly evolved a lot.

A very good and useful review. I tried PoE a while ago (2017-2019) and back then I thought "nah, this game is not for me" after ~5-10 hours of play. From time to time I wondered whether I haven't given it a "proper shot": maybe I missed something, maybe I played it wrong, maybe I wasn't in the right state of mind. Now that I watched your video I am much more confident in my initial assessment. Thank you Rax!

I've been playing POE on and off for like 8 years, and it's definitely the best end game experience. I used to hate running the campaign over and over but I was trying to blast, without paying attention to my current gear. My mindset was just get through it as quickly as possible, and any gear I'm just going to replace anyway. After I started doing gear checks and working on my gear throughout the campaign, it made it a lot more enjoyable. Excited to see more POE content from you though, thanks!

You aren't alone in liking the campaign. In fact, I still miss the days when the game was 3 or 4 acts, and you had to play through the campaign on 3 separate difficulties (like D2) to reach endgame. I loved killing the final act boss and going through a portal just to appear on the beach and do everything again in the fresh challenge of a new difficulty. Miss that.

i would love the D4 world/look with Poe game/endgame systems

On your first point about people not liking the campaign, I am with you. I am so glad GGG has never compromised on the idea that every character should go through the campaign. Just as an estimate, I've probably completed the campaign about 50 times. Not an insane number, but I am still fully in the pro-campaign camp.

Poe endgame is so huge it takes a few seasons to try everything it’s insane how much there is to do and how easy it is to put your toes in to see if you like the vibe. I am excited you tried it out. With your min/maxing tendencies, this game will give you an endless playground. The campaign just helps you lvl and once you get some speed running boots, you can just blaze through the whole thing. It does get to you if you end up hating your first couple of builds and need to run through the campaign 5 times in 3 weeks.

My only problem with POE is that the combat just doesn't look or feel as good as Diablo 4, hell even Diablo 3 clears. The canned death animations of enemies is just never going to feel as great as the physics based ragdolls in Diablo 3 and 4. Some may call it a nitpick, but blowing up a group of enemies in Diablo and seeing their pieces fly everywhere just activates some part of my monkey brain that POE doesn't and sadly POE2 doesn't look like it has ragdolls either 😢

Remember that each of the mechanic in the game currently is recycled league mechanics that went core. You can’t really compare to the current d4 endgame with POE because it took POE a long time to have the current endgame.

I started this game yesterday - thnx to your Begginner guide :) I was surprised how good the graphic looks :) I remeber it from 10 years ago and it is night and day difference. :D Maybe because I got HD7970 back in the past and now RTX 3080 but I think there is much better lightning and atmosphere than before :)

Really nice video for the start. I've tried PoE with the new season but stopped after few days because I got lost in the depth and didn't have time to study, learn and google everything and I didn't like to play incorrectly in a way. Maybe second chance after your beginners guide video. Game looks fun but very intimidating for a new player, even someone with experience from other games. Looking forward to the next video!

How TF do you rate a game that high based on fundamental stuff that only works well because of 3rd party apps pretty much half your review is about. You rate the game, not the apps. Simple truth is that the game is contrived overdone crap without those.

Since you're a math guy, a helpful starting guide would be how the various numbers affect damage, aoe, health, armor, etc. It's deeper than most realize. Ex: the difference between 2-4 added fire damage and adds 12 percent fire damage. Sometimes the 2-4 fire damage is more dps. This is where i think most struggle with creating a new build, at least I do.

Wow, 9/10! As a person who stands between casual and blaster, I really dig POE and i started playing 2 weeks ago. Thanks for the review! I'm so hypped for your begginer's guide! Keep up your good work!

Deli mirror looking like a grey peacock had me! That’s awesome. I’ve never looked at it like that.

Great review! One thing about the campaign is that those of us who don't enjoy it have no problem with the content itself, we just don't like being weak. I personally don't like the ssf kind of gameplay where you have to pay attention to how you build your character with very limited resources. What I enjoy is minmaxing, so the campaign is just this chore I have to get through before I get to what I actually enjoy. This is why I actually enjoy the campaign on second and third characters with more expensive leveling gear, cuz im not struggling.

Welcome sir! Hope you enjoy the experience of poe. Glad to have you in our community!

this is a really awesome video. i havent really ever watched your stuff because I was primarily a poe player, but I played d3 on occasion and sometimes watched your guides. im very pleased to see that one of the biggest names in diablo is giving poe such a great review despite being new. you're obviously a very smart guy, getting to this point as a beginner even with help is impressive and your takes are all fair and well said. i hope you continue to enjoy my favorite game and get others to enjoy it too to any new players, please hear raxx's point that his chat told him at 17:35. just doing the things that are necessary ("The Way Forward" quests, skill points, trials of ascendancy + lab) and skipping everything else is absolutely vital for most people's enjoyment of the game, AND it happens to be the most optimal thing to do as well, since rewards are so much worse in the early game than when you're in maps. you may even follow a walkthrough, i know zizaran has something like that. All you've gotta do is get to maps, then you'll learn the game and how all the systems work, and then when you do the campaign next league (season) it will be much easier and probably more enjoyable.

I also started PoE this league. I watched about 50 hours of videos about the game, and took about 50 hours to finish the campaign taking my time as best I can to try to really understand things. I am playing SRS Guardian which several content creators listed as a very beginner build and good this league. I have had a blast, but yeah, it has been a very intensive onboarding process. I feel very satisfied with the time invested, but I now completely understand all the talk I heard before about onboarding being a problem for PoE. Agree with almost everything Raxx said here. I was pretty consistently overleveled throughout the campaign, which made the league mechanic a bit more palatable. I can't wait for your beginners guide. I am thankful all the videos I watched before I started, but wow, did their perspective as multi-year blasters color how they presented information for their beginner's guides. Its not bad information but it feels like it is often working on a definition of a beginner as someone with only a couple hundred hours in the game instead of someone with zero hours. I understand how it happens, as these folks often have PHD levels of experience in PoE, and its really hard to remember how little a newbie has, even if they have blasted other games in the genre. True zero-hour beginner content is definitely a niche in the content creator community that is currently unfilled though, so really looking forward to what Raxx can make for it.

Hey Raxx I'm glad your enjoying POE. I also had alot of fun with it once you get yourself past the noob stage. Great economy, crafting and community. I only ever asked for help once and someone responded right away and helped me do the most difficult map and wanted nothing in return. Great vid man.

im currently taking my phd just to understand poe's skill tree system. few more yrs & i'll be able to play poe & maybe fully understand it

Love the review Rax, nice to hear a fair review without being bombastic. I'm also a noob - just starting to get into crafting very high end items, about 3000 hours in and I still love to LOGIN every league

I wanted to make a beginner guide but I have no brand, you are in a great position to do so. Guys like Zizz are great but are actually terrible teachers not just because they can no longer truly empathise/understand a newcomers pov, but they also just happen to be terrible teachers! using end game language / un-defined terms early on, not stating goals, and just generally presenting things in a terrible order for comprehension of base systems. 10 years on POE is still in need of a truly useful beginners guide. The only one I've ever truly agreed with was schwingy's "A REAL Beginners Guide". 7 minutes , essential tips only, in the right order and fun.

As a new casual player (you and DM got me into POE), I agree with your sentiment regarding complexity. But with tools like Maxroll builds, POB, and youtube tutorials, I have had more fun with this game than any other in quite some time so I'd rate it higher. Too many games are utter carebear handholding affairs with no challenge to your thought process. Thanks for your content and unbiased opinion of games.

Note on seasonal mechanics: GGG is all about iteration, so most mechanics worst form is when they're initially implemented. Many leagues I skip a lot of the new content until it gets adjusted both over the leagues and when/if it's added to the core game.

Thanks Raxx. I've tried PoE many times and never make it off the beach. I want to like it, and git good, but I feel like I am hitting brick wall every time. Can't wait to check out your beginner video, maybe I'll finally be able to get off the beach. if anyone reading this comment has suggestions on where to start please lmk

So glad to see you played PoE! Been hoping you would try it out some time. It genuinely blew me away when you started the video showing everything you had done so far because that's all a lot of work to get done for a new player in a single season. I think my first ever season a few years ago I made it to like lvl 80 ish doing about 25% of maps and 25% of all the old seasonal content. Definitely agree, the new player experience is extremely rough. It's why the most common advice anyone gives a new player is to follow a build guide. The other stuff can kinda flow out as players run into stuff, get curious, and start to do their own research, but you really need that backbone of a solid build guide to really have a smooth start imo. Regarding the campaign as a vet, yeah, it definitely gets old, but I honestly don't think I'd like leveling via maps or something any more. The only thing I can think of that would make it "better" would be getting power leveled like in D3 where you're good to go in 20mins, but even then the depth of your character builds and such in PoE kinda mandates taking it a lot slower that that. It's also fun having to work out how to level the class you want to play, when to pivot to what skills you actually end up using, etc.

Wow, I only learned about you (Rax) threw playing D4 in the beginning and tried to find good content creators - and you are one of them ! But as somebody who has like 15k+ hours in POE and looked at ton of videos from people rating poe over the last decade, this might be the best and honest review I ever watched. Doesnt matter for me how high your scores are, but you where rly able to talk about all the positve things that many of us POE verterans love, too. Awesome video, great explanations for a "newbie" and I wish you all the best in the future. 🙂

Raxx, I'm a Diablo player since D1, played D2 for years and all I want to say is I can't wait for your beginner's guide to PoE as I've never played that game before too. Thanks for all your videos and all your work on ARPGs

Came here from Steelmage's "roast" of this video, I gotta say this is one of the most measured takes of PoE I've heard from a new player in a long, long time. I have my own thoughts about jumping into the game with a full guide before trying it out blind but that's neither here nor there. Tuna's LA Ranger is a great build for anyone who's looking for a glasscannon bow character, it does what it promises to do and nothing else. I can guarantee you'll reconsider your opinions on the campaign once you've run it 30 times, but that's more on us who play this game an unhealthy amount (scratches wrists). Again, very measured and grounded take on this game. It has a crazy insane difficulty curve and any "new player oriented" content is always welcomed. We've lost a few of the really good ones over the years (you are forever missed @EngineeringEternity). Welcome to Wraeclast Exile, now get blown up by a triple empowered rare monster with a bunch of exponentially scaling modifiers.

Holy smokes! I am so happy you finally tried POE!! I’m super excited to see your guides and see you explore the possibilities! Love you man and Merry Christmas! Thank you for everything over the years I still cherish the time I spent farming keys with you GLHF.

Yo Raxx WELCOME!!!!🥰😍🥰 So nice, you finally came to poe!!! Enyoyed your videos for a long time at D3! Can't wait for upcoming, may fresh build guides from you about poe, may poe2.🍀 I know maxxroll from your days at d3. S+ TIER BUILDER!!!💣💥❤‍🔥 Whatever content u like to do about poe, the bell is on again.