In Path of Exile, for some players, they may have no idea how people come up with builds. Do you just pick a skill, and then sit there with poebuilder and pick random paths until the numbers look good? Remember the following steps, I hope that will help you.
1. Pick a skill, pick a delivery method then pick a class and Ascendancy.
2. Dual Wield Sword Crit Static Strike as Duelist Guardian.
3. Path to as many life nodes as you can. (don’t go CI until you have practice making builds)
4. Once you can get 200% increased life, then try to find paths to get you defenses as well. Note the nodes that give you a lot of what you need and priorize those (like the nodes that give you life and defense). Take nodes along the way that give you the damage that you need (in my case, sword, dual wield, and crit nodes)
5. Try to shoot for only as many points spent as you can get at level 85 or so. If your build sucks, you’ll burn out trying to xp past this point, or perhaps earlier. Keeping an eye on poe orbs buy can also make things easier.
6. Now load in your skills into Path of Building, choose reasonable pieces of gear you know you can attain – uniques are good for starters – and then configure everything fairly. (that is, don’t turn on enemy is shocked unless you can guarantee shock uptime)
7. With your tree filled in, skills chosen, and items slotted, path of building will show you what to expect from it. At this point, if things suck, its probably best to move on. If the damage is reasonable, but not great, then try to fix the tree to path through more efficient areas, and more efficient nodes.
8. Tweak your gear a bit, tweak your tree, and never be satisfied with what you have. Throw poebuilder in the trash. Path of Building is what you want.
If you are new to the game and don’t want to mess up your first build, follow some build guide from our website. Another option is to just mess around yourself and see how things work.
