Path of Exile: The Journey Continues - A Few Things That Beginners Would Find Useful

Hey guys, this is Ryan from Games with Coffee! How’s everybody doing? The fine people from Playerauctions.com have asked me to guest post on their blog and I thought, “Why not?”

About a month ago, I started my journey through the foreboding world of Wraeclast, the setting for the highly popular, free-to-play Action-MMORPG, Path of Exile.

As a mature, distinguished gamer, I try my best to balance my many adult responsibilities with playing games, but Path of Exile has tested me on that balance. With the multitude of skills and equipment available, the interesting trading and currency system, tough enemies, map modifications and the HUGE passive skill tree, this game has me trying to find any time at all in my busy schedule to play it! You can find my first impressions, as well as my advice for beginners of the game here.

On that note, I thought I’d continue to share what quests, items, and currencies I think beginners should continue to look for on their way through the game. Today’s post covers my journey up to the Prison.

Masters Quests

Along the way, I met an interesting NPC named Haku, who gave me a quest to bring a spirit to him under some Haunted Grounds. I accepted the quest, beat down the baddies, got the strange red apparition and returned to the entrance to give to him. I received little in reward but noticed my reputation with him increased. I checked the forums and lo and behold I learned about Masters – important NPC’s who, after gaining several reputation levels, will allow the use of a personal hideout and unlock the ability to craft ultra-useful items that you can either use for yourself or trade with others to get even better gear! These kinds of quests should be on the radar for both beginners and veterans of the game alike, especially if you have items and orbs available to craft their unique wares.

Items and Currencies to Look Out For

As I continued towards the Prison, I’ve been on the lookout for any valuable orbs or items I can trade with vendors or with other players to get stronger and further my game. However, a few of these orbs have uses that beginners should definitely take advantage of. For instance:

Orbs of Alchemy upgrade normal items into rare items. They are perfect for those who have normal weapons or armour whose quality has been improved through the use of Blacksmith’s Whetstones or Armourer’s Scraps. Beginners should use these in conjunction with Whetstones or Scraps on their normal items to create more powerful gear. These are pretty uncommon to find on the field, so if you get one, save it for when you’ve upgraded the quality on your normal items before applying it. Or you could also trade it with vendors to get new skill gems or rare, unidentified items.

Now, these orbs are cool! Applying an Orb of Chance to an item upgrades it to a random rarity. So you can end up with a Magic, a Rare or even a Unique item, just by applying it to a normal item! This is a commonly found currency, so it shouldn’t take very long to find one. I used one on my witch’s Goat’s Horn that I picked up and it transformed into a Rare item! Orbs of Chance can be used on just about any item, regardless of the rarity, but you run the risk of getting an item of lesser rarity. Sometimes, though, the rewards outweigh the risks, especially if you have several orbs on hand. 

If you’re itching to get more of these or other orbs, try looking on the Path of Exile items store on Playerauctions.com. They have a large selection of items and currency available to purchase at a reasonable cost, and all transactions are safe and secure.

Additional Tips 

Here are some extra tips that will help make your journey an easier one:

In the Submerged Passage, take a Sapphire Ring with you. The extra Cold resistance will keep you from getting iced from the Cold-elemental enemies in the area.

Upgrade your flasks as soon as you are able to. I made the mistake of sticking with the initial flasks. I didn’t last very long in further areas.

There’s also a quest in town in which a Quicksilver flask is rewarded. This increases your movement speed for a limited time when used and refills the same way as life and mana flasks. Get it ASAP.

And thus ends my little quest update. If you like what you see here, I invite you to check out my blog. I talk about the games that changed my life, the video game music scene and dispense advice on how to fit gaming into all of life’s major responsibilities, all over a cup of coffee.

So, with that, I bid you all adieu! This has been Ryan from Games with Coffee, reminding you to Keep Gaming and Keep Brewing. See you in Wraeclast!

Disclaimer: This article is written by Ryan Cheddi is a Mechanical Engineer, Freelance Writer and the author of the blog "Games with Coffee"