Hey folks,
since there are a lot of posts from new or inexperienced players in this subreddit in the run-up to the new league, I thought it might be a good opportunity to post my Toxic Rain Champion build guide for beginners & casuals which has now been updated for 3.19.
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Before I go into the changes I made for 3.19, here's a quick summary of what the guide does in the first place: The guide primarily addresses new players, beginners and casual players who want to have a smooth (first) levelling experience through both the campaign and the endgame. The goal of this guide is to give you the information you need at the time you need it without being too complex and without being too demanding in terms of knowledge.
Therefore, it comes with a simple build that scales well to the endgame - Toxic Rain Champion - without the need of having to invest hundreds of Exalted Orbs or Divine Orbs and with a handy step-by-step checklist which guides you through your journey and is intended to be your primary - if not only - source of information needed to reach the endgame.
Link to the guide: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229622
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3.19 patch notes and its implications
Just like all builds which used the holy grail of defense, namely Determination + Grace + Defiance Banner, the build took a huge hit in terms of defenses (less mana reservation effciency, loss of Gravicius Life as Energy shield veiled mod, loss of Ghost Dance as well as less armour and evasion from Defiance Banner) . As a result, you now have to invest way more than before to get your holy grail aura setup, for example, which means you will have the optimal defense setup way later than before - but you can still manage to set it up (although you won't have the same defensive power level as in 3.18).
Other than that, the build is pretty much the same as in 3.18, meaning it is a very decent and tanky league starter which will enable you to do all content, in theory. That being said, I would not recommend this build if you want to do Uber Bosses (fast) since it's on the lower spectrum of the damage scale (approx. 3-5M Sirus DPS, depending on your gear) - but if you want to do Uber Bosses, you most likely aren't part of the target group of this build guide anyway ;)
So as a result, I only had to adjust a few details of the guide, namely:
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In addition, I would like to share with you some reviews that the guide received in 3.17 & 3.18 (directly taken from the comments in the PoE forum). Maybe one or the other of you would like to give the guide in 3.19 a chance based on this feedback ;)
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>Perhaps the single best source of information (for casual/beginning) players around... thank you SO much for doing this guide and keeping things up-to-date! Looking forward to the next league, and will be starting it off with your build :) - by citruslounge
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>This is by far the most informative and broken down guide I have ever seen. I am a long time player (started back on Prophecy league) so this isn't something I would need anymore, but if I found something like this back in that time I would have lived by it. - by Drewndaberetta1
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>This guide is a true labor of love! I tried other guides before, but yours is on another level, really appreciate. For the first time I'm enjoying the end game. Thanks very much for this! - by razzent
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>I have attempted to get into Path of Exile for the better part of the past few years. Every league it was the same story -- tried to follow some general build guide on YouTube, then failure. I never made it past Act 4 in the past.
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>By the time I started this league, I had almost 100 hours in Path of Exile. 100 hours and I never even beat the game. That is how disrespectful this game can be with your time if you don't have the proper help or know what you are doing.
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>With this guide, the campaign went from being a confusing slog to very enjoyable, especially when I hit level 33 and actually got to use Toxic Rain. I beat almost every boss without dying a single time. I had zero issues in any of the labyrinths. Most importantly, I felt very ready to transition to mapping when the campaign was over. For the first time after trying and failing repeatedly to do so for several years.
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>This guide was clearly a labor of love, and I think it should be a stickied post on the subreddit and this forum every single league. Path of Exile has a major new player retention/attraction issue. This guide is what GGG should explain in-game, but do not. It is, in my opinion, an actual solution to having a new person play and enjoy Path of Exile. [...]
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>TL;DR: Your guide kicks major ass, and I wish you were a developer at GGG because they lack, in a very serious way, this type of insight into attracting new players. That being said, PoE has always overcome its flaws because of its community. In my opinion, using this guide as a new player should be just as standard as downloading a loot filter or Path of Building. Otherwise, this game can be quite unenjoyable. - by vengefulking
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>I'm going to be trying this build out, and I had to make a post and say your google doc guide is SO DETAILED and wonderful! Thank you so much for your time and effort in making it! :) - by Winter_Fairy
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>So I'm not a complete new player, but I'm so glad that I've found this build. This is my current league starter and it's working just fine. I even managed to get faster through the story than last league start, yay. At first I was kinda doubtful because I didn't like Toxic Rain but it turns out, that this is a nice solid choice for me since I love to play Duelist^^ thanks for the build and the smooth league start. - by JustAnn42
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>New player here using this guide,Its awesome man,Saved me lots of time. I just reached act 10 and it would probably have taken me 10x longer without this guide. - by ehv7979
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>Im using this guide and its awesome..i played a few other season but never managed to do more than completing the campaign and farm a few maps cause at some point i struggled to get gear/know what gear to use. But right now i feel like this guide will help me getting to the so often called bosses any time soon. All these crafting advices are also awesome thanks! - by Zyrac
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>I'm a casual player, know nothing about craft or efficient farm. I'm using this guide and i had the best progression of my life. I have like 3 EX investment so far and doing T16 easily. - by luiz1220
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>There's so much good in this guide for newer folks, and everything being in text and images and broken down helps a lot. Unique one-of-a-kind guide that will likely not show up ever again. Looking forward to setting up my end game build and shedding my tabula! Thank you so much!! - by Tahuma
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>I had 400+ hours in previous leagues before picking up this guide this league. It is one of the best guides I have used with only the Cold DoT guide by ShakCentral coming close. Highly recommend using following this guide unless you have a vast amount of knowledge of this game. - by K1ngJo
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>Brilliant build mate. My 10 year old is following along and really really enjoying it. [...] It's the first guide he feels comfortable with man, everything laid out for him. I enjoyed watching him, so i started one too! very well done, super comfortable. - by fight4anarchy
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>i have been playing this build for 3 days total game time so far, and im at lv 87 xd super nice build and the effort put in to the writte guide is awesome, so thxxxxxxxxxxx alot for taking the time to do this!!!, i cant open path of build so this help me alot to enjoy this league xd - by Monocito
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>Thanks for this insane supreme awesome guide!! as a casual player this guide provide me with so much information is insane! love it! - by Tele2k
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>Hi, I played PoE casually in a few leagues and now is the first time I made it to T10 maps without problems. Thank you for this awesome guide. - by ExeQtor3
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>Just wanna thank Fezz for this amazing easily digestible guide for noobs like myself that wants to jump into the game but have little to no knowledge on contents and what works. I have attempted to follow as closely as possible and Fezz was very detailed in his explanation when requested for build fixing! Can totally vouch for this build! Got me to level 91 and counting, t16 maps no problem. Could do Shaper map but a little challenging for me but thats a me problem. - by puresfplayer
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>I just want to say thank you for such an incredible guide! It really helps new players "catch up" with all the new mechanics in the game. Now that I've essentially finished my goal of 38/40 and managed to do ALL content solo minus The Feared. I can only imagine how potent this build would of been pre nerf. I've gotten to the point where every piece is a 2-4ex+ upgrade so it's time for a new build :~) TL;DR Can HIGHLY recommend this build to new/returning players. - by Chace1
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>Thank you for this very comprehensive guide. I'm not a new player but a lot of things have been very helpful to me. Fast, tanky enough, and the almost unlimited flasks are pretty darn cool. My build is not optimized, my flasks are bad and I am currently in T7. If you are a new player and don't want to play minions, I recommend this guide (and it works on console) - by I am French
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>Hey man, awesome guide! TR was the first build i started this game with, back in rituals, but that's the first guide i read that told me alo of the "whys" of this build! thank very much!! - by Gargarvore
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>Thank you for your guide, it's the first time I completed Act 10 and it really helped to reduce the feeling of overwhelming information that this game throws at a newbie. - by kungfuPT
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>Thank you for your guide, it's the first time I completed Act 10 and it really helped to reduce the feeling of overwhelming information that this game throws at a newbie. - by kungfuPT
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>I started looking at this guide because I wanted to try something different that was not squishy. The quality of this build guide is amazing - For a newer player, this would be invaluable. - by scjohnson243_1
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>This guide has been my very first experience playing through PoE. I’m currently still only on Act 7 but This guide has been so informative. I don’t have to spend hours delving down different rabbit holes trying to learn mechanics. The guide seems to give me the main information I need when I need it, allowing me to continue forward without the confusion. I have learned so much just from playing alongside this guide I’m genuinely excited to keep pushing! I don’t have much to compare it to, but it’s like night and day compared to trying to play this game blind. Thanks for all the effort you put into this guide!!! - by Huntaahh
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>Hey Fezz, I'm now getting around to writing some feedback at the end of the league. Thanks very much for this guide, it was great and useful, and while I haven't used it to the final endgame stages, I have seen it through most of the way and found it very helpful. For context, I've really only played one other league, Harvest, to level 85 on an ED-C Trickster in SSF, so it was very different.[...]
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>As a second time player, following it has helped me at each stage, working through the acts, progressing a build, and gearing for the end game. I've filled my Atlas, I'm working on Elder and Shaper guardians and Conquerors, and I'm going to take a shot at all the T16 bosses (Elder, Shaper, pinacle, Maven) before the end of the league. I've hit the plateau of gearing, and realistically i'm not going to manage to get all the endgame gear (not enough currency at this point) but I can see where to go from here. Thank you very much for the guide!!! - by Kongquistador
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>I wanted to thank you for this extensive guide! Your explanations regarding crafting the endgame items really has helped me a great deal in understanding how this crucial part of the game works. I am now comfortably running up to t14 and depending on mods t15 and don't really die, which is a great change to my first build I did xD - Trindokor
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Last but not least, I would like to thank all of those who have taken the time to provide very helpful and educational feedback via the forum, discord and ingame messages in 3.17 & 3.18. You are awesome!
Cheers,
Your friendly neighborhood Exile
fezz
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> CHECK OUT THE BUILD GUIDE HERE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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PS: Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/4NpyW4Dr / PoBB: https://pobb.in/AmpgpOtgVHbC
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Toxic Rain
Mirage Archer
Faster Attacks
Void Manipulation
EfficacyToxic Rain
Ballista TotemFaster Attacks
Withering TouchVoid Manipulation
Multiple Totems
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