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 an update to my Toxic Rain Champion build guide for beginners & casuals.

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Before I go into the changes I made for 3.18, 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 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.

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Since I wrote the first version of the guide for 3.17, the last league was the first in which I received actual feedback from numerous players (new and old) and I have now used this feedback to optimize the guide for 3.18.

Therefore, I would like to share a listing of the changes, new features, and improvements in hopes that those of you who still characterize themselves as newbies, inexperienced, or unsure may reach a new level of knowledge and experience with the use of the guide:

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• The first version of the guide was published in the form of a Google Doc. Although this had some advantages, I decided to change the format, which means that the guide is now displayed via a web page, enabling new possibilities especially in terms of navigation and visual presentation.

• The campaign has been reviewed and replayed in order to make the tasks and item acquisition even more comprehensible for beginners and casuals. Special care was taken to remove complexity where possible to make it as smooth as possible for new players to get started and to take their challenges into account - even if it means not using 100% of the build potential.

• The skill tree has been adjusted to better address the needs and issues of new players (see below). For example, because many players reported mana problems during the campaign, various skill tree nodes have been included by default, even though they are not strictly necessary, but they do make for a better game experience (later in the guide, players are encouraged to check if they still need these skill tree nodes or if they can use them elsewhere).

Full screen: https://poe-beginner-guide.com/toxic-rain-champion/skill-tree-default

• Both the campaign and the endgame part of the guide were supplemented with useful tips that make it easier for new players to master challenging tasks, to understand game mechanics or to gain an advantage with simple measures, for example:

https://preview.redd.it/jgd9o9eczvy81.jpg?width=775&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b242530284d8aa77c72211128cc45c76d960ec62

• The endgame section has been updated with information on Atlas completion and Voidstones, including the following cheat sheet:

Full screen: https://poe-beginner-guide.com/atlas-completion

• To give new players a feel for how the build performs with different league mechanics, a corresponding difficulty assessment has been added (which can vary greatly depending on gear and experience, of course). Moreover - although the build basically can deal with all map modifiers - the endgame section has been updated to show which modifiers should be used with caution.

• The endgame milestones section has been optimized. Existing milestones have been adjusted and new ones have been added, including information regarding Awakened Support Gems, AoE sweetspot, Corrupted Blood immunity , spell suppression and Catalysts.

• The endgame items & crafts section was strongly revised and now contains detailed information regarding base type, minimum recommended modifiers, additional nice-to-have modifiers, acquisition and crafting for each item slot. On top of that the guides provides tailor-made links to the PoE Trade website for which different budgets are taken into account. This information is rounded off with a visual example item (example below).

https://preview.redd.it/57e1lvufzvy81.jpg?width=809&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=258b3ee1f4f6ddc8a49763da2cd71156f683538d

• Besides the endgame items that can be crafted, numerous unique items which can be pretty good for this build have been added as alternatives (mainly for Trade League players), including Watcher's Eye, Maloney' Mechanis, Viridi's Veil, The Devouring Diadem and Ashes of the Star.

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In addition, I would like to share with you some reviews that the guide received in 3.17 (directly taken from the comments in the PoE forum). Maybe one or the other of you would like to give the guide in 3.18 a chance based on this feedback ;)

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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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>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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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. You are awesome!

Cheers,

Your friendly neighborhood Exile!

PS: PoB = https://pastebin.com/w6XBujVM