Top of the morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of “Games with Coffee.”

So, one of my goals for this blog was to try out new games, especially those that I wouldn’t necessarily play on a regular basis, such as MMORPG’s. (I’ve always been more of a JRPG kind of guy, to be honest). One of my readers recently reached out to me and suggested that I try playing “Path of Exile”; an MMO Action-RPG developed by Grinding Gear Games. I thought, ‘Sure! Why not?!’

You can install Path of Exile directly from the website. Alternatively, if you have access to Steam, you can also install it there, which is what I used.

In “Path of Exile,” you play as one of seven classes: The Duelist, The Shadow, The Marauder, The Witch, The Ranger, The Templar and The Scion. You are a criminal exiled to the land of Wraeclast: a dark world inhabited by legions of undead, fearsome monsters and other exiles like yourself, trying to eke out a living in the unforgiving world. (Sounds like a prime vacation spot!)

I’ve spent about a couple weeks playing it and so far, I’m enjoying it! It’s looks a bit daunting at first, especially with the multitude of skills available for use and the enormous passive skill tree used to upgrade your character stats and give sweet bonuses, but once I started getting into it, I found that the game was very straightforward. Bottom line, I recommend giving it a try, especially if you’re a JRPG kind of person looking for something different to play. The story is broken down into multiple acts (I’m on Act 1 right now) and there’s a plethora of post-game content available.

If you’re looking to get started, here’s a couple of things beginners should know to help make your journey through Wraeclast much more easier.

Guides and Forums

Before you jump into the game, I recommend reading through some of the intro guides on the forums, especially if you don’t get a lot of time to play MMO’s on a daily basis. (Like us mature, distinguished gamers with lots of responsibility on our hands!)

I also found a highly comprehensive beginners guide on Path of Exile’s Steam Community page which was very helpful for me. It laid out detailed explanations about the game mechanics, builds and even loot filters – an interesting mod that helps to narrow down rarer loot drops that might be lurking around the common, unneeded ones. Very useful.

Now, if you have a lot more time on your hands, of if you shun guides, feel free to jump in and go nuts. If you get stuck however, or need direction on how to improve your character build, or are looking for items to trade, you should still check out the forums. It’s an invaluable resource you shouldn’t ignore!

Gem Basics

Path of Exile often gets compared to Diablo III (reviews on Steam basically call it a Diablo III clone), but what separates the two is Exile’s skill gem system – the heart and soul of this game. It’s a bit similar to the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII, but with a twist to it. Here’s a quick primer:

1. Skill gems come in three flavours: Red gives physical skills (elemental physical attacks for instance), green gives movement-based skills (traps that restrict movement are a good example) and blue gives magical skills (fireballs, lightning from fingertips, etc.) Blue gems are my personal favourite so far.
2. To use skill gems, you have to equip them into sockets. Each piece of equipment (weapons, body armor, belt, gloves, boots) has at least one socket to install gems in. However you can’t just throw a gem into a random equipment socket and start lobbing fireballs at the undead; sockets are also coloured like gems. You can only install a skill gem into its respective coloured socket in order to use it. That means you got to be smart on what you equip on your character.
3. Each piece of equipment can have between one and six slots to equip gems into. Six slot equipment is really rare, so be on the lookout! Slots can also be linked or unlinked as well (more on that on the next point).
4. Besides skill gems, there are also support gems that modify how regular skill gems behave. I haven’t gotten any support gems yet, but from what I’ve read so far, they can be devastating!  You’ll need to equip support gems into linked slots to bestow the supported effect to your skill gem. One example would be having a fireball skill gem linked with an added fire damage support gem to up your fireball damage!

(Side note: I mention fireballs a lot.)

Character Builds

As with other popular MMORPG’s, building a good character can make the difference between breezing through the story or rage-quitting in frustration. While you can go it alone for your own build, there are lots of character building guides on the Path of Exile forums tied either solely towards beginners or those who want to play the main story and not do the guess work when it comes to builds. The build I’m currently working on is called “Bladefall Witch,” which centers around the Bladefall spell, picked up in Act 3. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but the focus right now is to get to level 27 (the minimum level to use Bladefall) using area-of-effect (AoE) spells and prioritizing life and defense on the passive skill tree up until that point. The creator stressed that this build doesn’t rely solely on trading with other players to get stronger, which is one thing that appealed to me. Oh, speaking of which…

Trading and Currency

Unlike other RPG games, Path of Exile’s economy is based on trading and the game relies heavily on it. Every item, every piece of equipment and even gems can be traded to either vendors (NPC’s) or other players to receive items in return. Sometimes, trades can yield incredible rewards, especially if  you give vendors certain items in certain combinations. So far, my experience has been limited to obtaining Scrolls of Wisdom and a few orb fragments here and there, but it should improve once I find more cooler stuff to trade in.

Orbs are the de-facto currency in Wraeclast. They can either be used to improve equipment or in trades to get more valuable stuff from other players. Two of the most sought-after orbs in the game are Exalted Orbs and Chaos Orbs – both respectively called the gold and silver standard in the player-driven economy. Exalted Orbs are used to create powerful rare items while Chaos Orbs reforge a piece of rare equipment with random properties. Chaos Orbs are quite uncommon and are used most commonly for low and mid-level trades with players and vendors. Exalted Orbs, on the other hand, are extremely rare to find, unless you grind in high level areas.

Besides those two, there are many other orbs available that bestow different effects on weapons and armor, like Chromatic Orbs, which changes the colours of your equipment’s sockets, or Armourer’s Scraps and Blacksmith Whetstones, which improve the quality of your armor and weapons respectively. Beginners should really keep on the lookout for those two at the start.

Also, there are Orbs of Alchemy, which upgrades a normal item to a rare item and Orbs of Transmutation, which upgrades a normal item into a magic item. And, if you screwed up your passive skill tree allocation, Orbs of Regret will grant you passive skill refund points used to fix up your allocations.

There also exists places online called RMT (Real Money Trading) marketplaces, where players can buy in-game items and currencies for tons of different games, including Path of Exile using real money, including the aforementioned items above. Now, as mature, distinguished gamers, we’re free to spend our money so long as it’s done responsibly. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with forking over real-world cash for in-game cash (I’ve done so with Clash Royale never mind), take heed that there are risks involved with RMT’s. The largest risk is that some game developers will actively ban those who use RMT services for their games, citing violations of their EULA or other legal jargon. Thing is, most developers don’t exactly have the resources in place to police every single players who chooses to use RMT’s. Some, meanwhile, just turn a blind eye to it and some actually integrate their use into their own games and encourage players to use them. (Source). The bottom line here is that you have a choice in whether you use real money to buy in-game currency or not, so think it through carefully. If you do decide to buy, research your seller properly, make sure they have the item(s) you’re looking for and spend wisely!

So, that’s my thoughts on “Path of Exile.” How’d I do? Let me know in the comments! Also, if you decide to start playing, look out for a witch named Rhuki (pronounced ‘rookie’, get it?) in the Legacy league; that’s me! If you’re interested in partying up, let me know too! Oh and thanks goes to Daisy, the reader who introduced this game to me!

And stay tuned for the next edition, where I’m going to reminisce about an old friend of mine; Mega Man!

This is Ryan from “Games with Coffee,” telling you, whether you’re online or not, to Keep Gaming and Keep Brewing. See ya next time!