New player here, have a few questions about the game

Hi everyone,

I have about 30-40 hours in the game, but I usually quit after finishing Act 1-10 and doing a few maps. My main issue is that I can't seem to find a clear goal in the endgame. Completing the Atlas feels a bit aimless to me because I don't fully understand the "why" behind it.

I just want to log in, blast some monsters, feel my character getting stronger, and relax after a long day. In Diablo 3 and 4, I used to play for the leaderboards, so I always had a clear objective. However, I’m completely lost when it comes to PoE's endgame. Since my English isn't great, following complex guides is quite difficult for me.

Could you suggest a simple roadmap for a beginner? What should be my main focus after the campaign to feel that sense of progression and power?

Thanks in advance for the help!

From a story perspective maps are done to kill the invading eldritch entities (searing exarch and eater of worlds).

You start at tier 1 maps and work your way to 16 with the story boss stuff appearing in tier 6 maps starting the maven who wants your help to fight the eater of worlds and searing exarch.


In terms of gear power its not linear like d3 and d4. You will get big power spikes as you get certain things that push the power of your build. For example the amulet in my build is a massive power spike compared to other upgrades I have gotten.


And the focus after the campaign is maps. If you dont like the feeling of progressing the map system the game probably wont be to your liking in the long run.

"

Xoigu#8765 wrote:

Completing the Atlas feels a bit aimless to me because I don't fully understand the "why" behind it.

I just want to log in, blast some monsters, feel my character getting stronger, and relax after a long day.

I guess you've just answered your own question. What you want from the atlas is to get resources to improve your character. Endgame content (including maps) is the only reliable way of getting good items. As you complete the atlas, you'll get bonuses, that makes necessary encouters appear often and be more rewarding.

"

Xoigu#8765 wrote:

My main issue is that I can't seem to find a clear goal in the endgame. Completing the Atlas feels a bit aimless to me because I don't fully understand the "why" behind it.

Completing the Atlas is what allows end-game farming of currency/rewards. There are several mechanics that support this.

1. Completing each maps bonus objective awards 1 atlas passive point.

Atlas passive points are used to configured your atlas passive tree to optimize/customize map content by focusing on a specific mechanic, increasing difficulty/reward, blocking unwanted content, etc.

2. Completing higher tier maps with maven/eldritch influence is how you complete the quest lines that lead to pinnacle boss fights.

This is a goal in and of itself, but in addition to that, killing the quest version of the pinnacle bosses rewards the 4 voidstones. Voidstones provide various small bonus', but also transform their quadrant of the atlas to T16 maps. This allows you to end-game farm your desired map layout

3. Working your way through the map tiers towards atlas completion will naturally result in leveling up.

To really have any chance at feeling the loot-induced dopamine in POE, you need to work your way to T16 maps and start adding scarabs/using your atlas passive tree. I would suggest getting on youtube and searching for stuff like "3.28 league start strategy" to get some insight on how to best progress and what mechanics to focus on early

Note/Warning: POE is a time-intensive game. To reach the end-game, understand the league mechanics, build mechanics, currency generation, 3rd party tools, etc, it all takes time. If you just want to log in and blast, without doing the work to get there, D3/D4 may be a better option. If you want to stick with POE, I would suggest finding a new-player friendly guild that is pretty active, so that you have someone to ask questions/advice from in real-time, as the forums are pretty slow to respond/dead at times.