To begin your journey in the Path of Exile, it's important that you get familiar with build guides, leveling strategies and general game mechanics. This step-by-step guide will help you understand how to follow a POE build guide so that your gaming experience becomes more fun and rewarding.

• POB Prep & Loot Filter
• Know What You're Looking For
• Passive Skills Made Easy
• Ascendancy & Labs
• Hideout, Early Crafting & Gear
• Midgame Build Swap
• Mana Reservations
• Mana Reservation
• Bandits
• Firestorm Mana Issues
• IDK Where to Go
• Starting Endgame
• Tabs & Affinities
• Mapping & Atlas Tree
• Awakened POE Map Filtering
• Crafting & Obtaining Your Gear
• Wand Crafting Demo
• Fixing Problems
• Ice Nova of Frostbolts Grind
• Final Thoughts

↖ POB Prep & Loot Filter

Before going deep into the details of Path of Exile there are several necessary tools and resources which should be acquired. The first section will cover on POB preparation as well as setting up loot filters for an enhanced gaming experience.

How To Set Up Path Of Building (POB)？

Getting the best possible planning tool is the first thing towards successful build plan execution. You may choose either online version or program download. Through POB one can explore skill tree and gems which provide insight on character progression, skill allocation along with gem synergies at different stages throughout the game.

Loot Filter Configuration

• Use of Loot filters improves gameplay by highlighting items of value thereby streamlining looting process. Following recommended loot filter like Zarin’s build ensures that crucial items are easily visible during play time.
• Having loot filters designed specifically for each league such as Zarin's "Calgar" loot filters for current league optimizes item visibility and management.

How To Access Awakened Poe Trad?

For PC players downloading Awakened Poe Trade simplifies trading items while playing the game significantly . The guide will show you how to download as well as integrate Awakened Poe Trade into your Path of Exile experience.

↖ Know What You're Looking For

When you know what you need to do, you are already halfway there!

Character Creation

• It is important to pick the right league for your playstyle when starting a new character in Path of Exile. For beginners, I recommend the settlers league because it allows trading and provides a good learning experience.
• Choose Templar class as that's what our build is based on (Hierophant).
• When you log in, turn on loot filter and open Awakened PoE Trades – it will save you a lot of time.

Gear Selection

• Knowing which stats to look for on gear is important. Early game gear should have cast speed, spell damage and mana on dual wielding wands.
• Helmets should have life and resists, stack these stats throughout leveling process.
• Use health and mana flasks only so you don't get overwhelmed with flask usage early on.

Gem Linking

• Skill gems and support gems are what enhance your character's abilities; make sure to familiarize yourself with them.
• “Rolling Magma" should be your main skill gem, link it with "Elemental Proliferation" and "Combustion", as per guide recommendation.
• Look for gear with appropriate gem sockets – this will make gem linking more efficient.

Basic Gameplay Mechanics

• Turn on "always attack without moving" setting – it optimizes combat efficiency especially when doing ranged combat.
• Get useful skills like Frost Blink or Flame Wall from Nessa (Act One) to increase your character's power level.
• Scroll of Wisdoms/Portal Scrolls are used for resource management – use them wisely to identify valuable items & navigate through the game faster/easier.

Progression & Adaptation

• Adapt your gameplay according to available gear/gems; make strategic choices to maximize character's performance.
• Prioritize getting gear with correct gem sockets for effective gem linking.
• If needed, use vendors to get missing gear/gems – stay on track with recommended build.

↖ Passive Skills Made Easy

When you level up in Path of Exile, you gain passive points which help develop your character. The passive tree is the most important tool when it comes to shaping your build but can be daunting at first. To make it easier:

↖ Ascendancy & Labs

While moving forward with the game campaign, you will find green text which asks to 'solve the trials of ascendancy'. The purpose of these trials is to open a labyrinth and get immense power. This is how you can do it:

• Finding Trials: Look for bronze monoliths in particular areas, they represent trial of ascendancy so engage them as soon as you come across during your campaign journey.
• Completing Trials: Each trial gives a short puzzle involving traps that need to be navigated through; finishing these trials are necessary to unlock labyrinth and boost character's abilities.
• Navigating the Labyrinth: Familiarize yourself with the labyrinth layout using resources like Poe lab website. Every labyrinth comes with challenges and rewards which contribute towards your character's progression.
• Timing for Ascendancy: Pay attention to time when completing ascendancy trials especially before facing final boss because if you complete them prior then all resistances remain unaffected thus giving strategic advantage by keeping in mind this point one should do such tasks before killing main antagonist.
• Ascendancy Talents: Upon ascending in the labyrinth select your ascendancy talents accordingly based on expert recommendations since they have large impact on character's abilities and playstyle.

↖ Hideout, Early Crafting & Gear

Now let us provide a beginner-friendly step-by-step guide to understand hideouts, early crafting, gear and more. We will talk about what crafting bench does, how should one optimize their gear for resistances + life and ways through which players can make their overall playing experience better.

How to Unlock Your Hideout?

At Act Two you get access to your hideout; simply click on waypoint tab then choose "Travel To Your Hideout". It may not look like others but it contains crafting bench that helps improve equipment.

Crafting Bench and Gear Optimization

Crafting bench is an important tool for upgrading gears. When it comes to survival during campaign always go after life and resistances. Aim for 75% fire, cold, lightning resistances. Chaos resistance matters less in the campaign.

• Crafting Resistances: Use crafting bench to add resistances on your gear; look for prefixes/suffixes which enhance life and three elemental resistances keeping this in mind prioritize them as first life then deal with missing ones.
• Crafting Life: Add life to gears using crafting bench – ensure you check regularly for new items and optimize both life + resists at same time.

Understanding Gear Bonuses

While evaluating different pieces of equipment make sure you take into account bonuses that are aligned towards what your character does best – e.g., if they use fire based spells then give priority to gears having fire damage or spell damage mods on them etc.

Crafting Weapons: Enhance weapons through crafting bench by adding mods that complement abilities of a character; for example flat spell dmg can be added to wand thus greatly increasing dmg output.

Gear Progression and Links

As one progress further into game try getting more sockets/links on gear initially aim at 3L blue socket with specific gem colors but later focus on multiple sockets linked together for increased power level(s).

Changing Gear

Be watchful of the stat requirements when swapping equipment as some items may have bonuses which are needed for wearing other things or jewels. Use the crafting bench to fix missing stats or think about investing skill points in order to meet those needs.

How to Solve Stat Requirements?

In case you run into trouble with stat requirements stopping your gear choices, allocate skill points on related attributes or else use crafting bench that adds stats into them. Also purchasing lower level gems can reduce skill based stast requirement on them.

More Resources

Act One and Act Three NPCs offer a lot of help in terms of gems and items so visit them If you want specific ones matching with your character's requirements.

↖ Midgame Build Swap

We will guide you through transitioning your Path of Exile build during midgame. We cover necessary steps such as getting new gems, optimizing gear and setting up skills to enable seamless and powerful build swap.

Level 31 Build Transition

• At level 31, you will go through a significant build transition where you get new gems and adjust your skill set up.
• Use the in-game help to find out specific gems and where they can be found in Act One, Act Two and Act Three.
• Buy the required gems from respective vendors as shown.

Optimizing Gear for New Skill Set Up

• Aim to acquire four-link gear with correct color sockets for your new skill setup.
• Firestorm should be linked with Arc Mage, Lightning Pen, Intensify which means blue sockets are mandatory.
• Use vendors or game currency to search or alter gears with desired socket colors.

Chromatic Essences Explained

• These essences can change the color of sockets on gear.
• Relate defense type on gear (Energy Shield, Armor, Evasion) with socket colors (blue, red, green).
• Prioritize Energy Shield based items as they are most likely going to give blue sockets for your skill setup.

Slotting Gems & Activating Skills

• Once you have obtained appropriate gear and relevant gems; slot them together into four-link sockets system.
• For best performance Firestorm should be linked with Arc Mage, Lightning Pen and Intensify.
• Follow instructions given by game when activating/enhancing/slotting new skills setup etcetera…

Benefits of Mid-game Build Transitions

• Switching over to Firestorm during midgame brings about huge power spike as well as effectiveness increase;
• This spell alone can carry players through maps while providing efficient currency farming methods.
• Have fun with improved gaming experience and dominance in fights brought about by this new skill setup.

Quality and Linking for Gear Enhancement

• Increase gear quality with armor scraps.
• Use fusings to link sockets on gear, aim for four-link setup for best skill performance.

↖ Mana Reservations

When it comes to mana reservation, the main focus should be on managing your auras effectively. In Path of Exile, auras reserve a portion of your mana pool to give you buffs. Here is what you can do about mana reservation issues:

↖ Mana Reservation

When it comes to mana reservation in Path of Exile, auras are what you should focus on. They soak up a certain amount of your mana, but provide great buffs. How to deal with issues related to their amount? Here are some tips:

1. Get to know your auras: usually for this build Clarity is used as the main skill and later you can add Wrath. If you see that there is not enough mana for skills, remove an aura.
2. Optimization of gear: see if there is any option among your items which increases the maximum pool of Mana – You need exactly as much as required by auras and other abilities.
3. Passive tree optimization: look for nodes in the passive tree that buff mana reservation or increase maximum pool allocated points into them all (activate all possible ones).
4. Gem leveling: some auras have lower costs at lower levels, so you can buy gems corresponding to this level and save more mana.

Carry several flasks restoring health during battle because when playing hard games sometimes everything goes wrong at once; especially good idea is carrying 2 such flasks when leveling through game having problems with managing mana is most common.

↖ Bandits

The choice whether to help or kill bandits may lead character progression in different ways according to the game Path of Exile. So, who should you choose?

You should follow recommendation given by guide book however for those new players aiming at getting highest defense possible I would suggest helping Alira because her resistance will come handy later on especially when facing strong bosses but remember that you can change your decision any time later if need be so do not panic about making this choice now.

↖ Firestorm Mana Issues

Is it hard for you to cast Firestorm because of mana issues? Here's what may help:

• Don't forget about Mana management: try to prioritize increasing mana pool while progressing through game; this build is mostly based on mana with few auras, therefore there should not be many problems with them.
• Always take at least two flasks restoring health and another two restoring mana – sometimes even in the endgame one flask only needed as character becomes stronger and kills faster
• To reduce cost of casting link Inspiration skill gem into socket colored red near firestorm slot so that firestorm will become less expensive.
• Always read about skills like inspiration which states "Reduces 25% of total amount required by linked sockets" – this information might come handy when optimizing your build.

↖ IDK Where to Go

When you're unsure about where to go in the campaign, using the Waypoint system can be helpful. Here's a breakdown of how to navigate the campaign using the Waypoints:

↖ Starting Endgame

Once the campaign and third lab have been completed, it's time to start looking at endgame content. Here are some of the things that you can do in order to prepare yourself for this stage:

• Life and Resistances: Try increasing your life pool as well as resistances which should be kept up throughout the game. You may want to target 75% resistance across all elements at least.
• Endgame Basics: It's worth noting that what worked through campaign will still work here; therefore, always try to maximize on survivability before diving deeper into more complicated mechanics of endgame.

↖ Tabs & Affinities

Knowing tabs and affinities will help smoothen your experience during end game. Check this out:

• Map Tab: Buy a map tab from The Path of Exile store since it is necessary for effectively managing maps.
• Currency Tab: Invest in a currency tab which should then be set as "currency" affinity so that any currency items found are automatically sorted into it; thereby making wealth management easier.
• Premium Quad Tab: Consider getting additional storage space and organizational capabilities by purchasing premium quad tabs also known as PQSs or simply refered to as quads in gaming circles.

↖ Mapping & Atlas Tree

A main part of the game is the Mapping & Atlas Tree, this requires you to complete various maps and understand the complex tree structure. We will go through this process step by step so beginners can easily follow along with it.

Understanding The Atlas Tree

• The Path of Exile's Atlas Tree is a complicated system which involves completing different maps; each map completed grants another point on your Atlas.
• It encompasses all of the game's history with various leagues having unique endgame mechanics which are then tweaked and re-introduced for more depth and variety over time.
• As a beginner, it can be overwhelming with all these different leagues and their respective mechanics but for this build guide we will only focus on understanding and mastering Legion league, where you click on a giant purple thingy that spawns monsters to kill them for rewards.

Navigating The Atlas

• The Atlas Tree is made up of nodes connected by pathways, each representing a league or mechanic history.
• In our case let us stick to legion league as much as possible while still reaching out into other areas which have good nodes for our specific build.
• By following a build guide designed specifically around legion league beginners are able to progress through the game smoothly while learning about new mechanics along their way.

Progressing Through Maps

• Maps in Path Of Exile are divided into tiers starting from tier 1 going up to tier 16, each requiring certain conditions before they can be completed.
• Different rarity and corruption requirements exist between white, yellow and red maps respectively.
• Beginners should start off with completing up to tier 16 maps where only meeting rarity requirements gives credit towards completion of such maps.

Completing Maps

• For starters always make sure that the map you want to complete has necessary rarity level by using currency items like orbs of transmutation or orbs of alchemy to upgrade its rarity.
• It is important to understand map modifiers because some can make a map impossible to complete depending on your build e.g. if a map reflects elemental damages it may not work with certain builds.
• Keep track of completed maps through the map tab where they are highlighted once you have done them for easy reference.

Advancing Through The Atlas

• As beginners progress through more maps and learn new mechanics, they can unlock harder content further out on the Atlas Tree.
• Following a specific build guide designed for Legion league will help beginner players effectively advance their characters’ build for end game content as they progress through the Atlas.

↖ Awakened POE Map Filtering

Knowing how to filter and optimize your maps is among the most important skills you can have in Path of Exile. The awakening PoE map filter allows players to do this very efficiently, it enhances their maps, and maximizes its potential.

1. Setting up Awakening PoE Trade

• Make sure that Awakening PoE Trade is turned on.
• Open awakening PoE trade with the hotkey "shift + space".

2. Filter Maps Using Awakened POE Trade

• Click on the "Edit" button for map rolling.
• Add a rule using regular expressions to filter out map modifiers.
• Use po.re website for help with regular expressions.

3. Optimizing Map Modifiers

• Exclude unwanted map modifiers such as elemental damage reflection, life regeneration or recovery rate etc.
• Copy-paste the regular expression code into awakening PoE trade and apply the filter.
• Use this filter to quickly see if a given map has desirable modifiers or not.

4. Alchemy and Corruption of Red Maps

• Turn red maps into yellow ones by using Alchemy orbs on them.
• Before going any further make sure that the map has desirable modifiers.
• Corrupt the map with Vaal orbs so as to modify it unpredictably.

5. Kirac's Map Missions

• Run available maps to fill in completion bars thus accumulating more missions.
• Interact with Kirac so as he gives you additional missions from different tiers.
• Use alt trick to identify which maps need completion.

6. Buying Maps

• Purchase maps from Kirac depending on their cost in orbs.
• If incomplete prioritize buying those costing orbs of chance or alchemy.
• Avoid spending chaos orbs on maps especially as you progress further.

7. Endgame Setup

• Complete each map to accumulate rewards and progress further into the game.
• Use control + G to access Legion Guide for endgame setup.

↖ Crafting & Obtaining Your Gear

Crafting and obtaining gear in Path of Exile is one way to optimize a character's build. We will explain how to find necessary items through the trade site and create powerful equipment for better gameplay.

The Trade Site

• To get the gear you need, we will be using the trade site which is called Awakened PoE Trade. This tool assists in pricing game items thereby making it simple to find appropriate gear for your build.
• Begin by opening up Awakened PoE Trade then use search feature in order to locate specific items based on their stats or value.
• For example, if you are looking for a unique helmet called Kitava’s Thirst, simply type its name into the search bar and set filters like price range or corruption status.
• By filtering out corrupted items and setting a max price point, you can narrow down your search results so as to find what you need at an affordable cost.

Crafting Essential Gear

• In addition to using the trade site, crafting gear is another essential part of optimizing a character’s build. Let us go over how we can craft the necessary pieces of equipment required for our builds such as helmets and wands.
• While crafting for a certain item e.g., Kitava's Thirst; try getting %mana cause it directly affects damage output of your characters among other best possible rolls-stat combinations.
• Use filters when looking through different items with specific stats i.e., mana; then put maximum amount so as not only do we get them but also at cheaper prices considering their power levels relative towards our builds.
• When building wand prioritize cast speed plus mana gain per second besides spell damage increase by% all which goes hand-in-hand enhancement abilities available once again on this path filled with choices therefore choose wisely!

Step By Step Approach

• Taking things step by step ensures that you get the most suitable gears possible for your build using trade site and crafting essential gear.
• Start off by identifying major items in your build like Kitava’s Thirst then narrow down the search results using filters based on important stats as well as price range.
• While creating gears concentrate on vital stats that directly influence abilities of characters e.g. %mana for increased damage output.
• Take some time to compare options available so far look out for cheaper but still powerful enough equipment which suits what you require from your builds.

↖ Wand Crafting Demo

In this section, we will be learning how to craft wands in Path of Exile using Profane Wand as an example. We will cover the basics such as item level importance, trade for the right base, guaranteed stats with Essences and crafting bench options. Follow these steps if you are a beginner looking forward to enhancing your gaming experience and creating powerful wands for your characters.

Understanding Item Level and Base Selection

• Look for non-unique Profane Wand which has 83 or higher item level.
• Corrupted wands cannot be manipulated so avoid them at all costs.
• Use Poe resources to know minimum item levels required by certain affixes.
• Trade the wand picked using Chaos orbs or any other in-game currency.

Improving Wand Quality

• To increase the quality of the wand use whetstone.
• Keep in mind that quality can affect affix rolls on some items.

Crafting with Alchemy Orbs

• You can make use of Alchemy Orbs which turn wand into rare item with randomised affixes.
• Take a look at acquired affixes and think whether they are useful for your build or not.

Making Use of Essences for Guaranteed Stats

• Get familiar with Essence mechanics while crafting it's mandatory.
• Choose an Essence that guarantees desired stat (e.g cast speed).
• Essences can be obtained through trading or delving in Kings March during game activities.

Crafting Bench Options

• Add specific affix(es) on wand using crafting bench.
• Try different crafting methods based on available resources.
• Aim towards having combination(s) of affixes supporting character build.

Iterative Crafting Process

• Repeat steps by getting more wands & essences to optimize crafted one.
• During in-game trading interactions, be polite and positive.

↖ Fixing Problems

When you come across bad items, you need to know how to deal with them. Here is a step-by-step procedure for addressing the issue:

1. Identify the attribute lacking (e.g., Fire Res) and item type (e.g., chest piece) that needs improvement. 
2. Use in-game trade system to look for cheap replacement items with desired stats and sockets. 
3. Example: Searching for rare six-link body armor with specific attributes using trade system. 
4. Improve new item by adding missing stats through essences etc, also overall making it better as well.
5. Take into account certain skills which are efficient for progressing through game content e.g Firestorm.

↖ Ice Nova of Frostbolts Grind

Understanding and obtaining key gems like Ice Nova or Frostbolts is crucial for some builds. Here's how:

• Complete necessary in-game trials to access labyrinth and understand its mechanics.
• Transmute a gem into Ice Nova or Frostbolts at an Altar of Ascendancy within the labyrinth.
• Alternatively buy potential expensive gem from in-game auction house.
• Get frostblink, winter blast etc by similar means or farming methods

↖ Final Thoughts

This guide has been designed as a comprehensive introduction to Path of Exile for beginners who want help getting started with this complex game but are not sure where they should begin? So what else can be done?

• Visit official forums/ community platforms – there are many useful resources available here!
• Live streams on YouTube/ Twitch – watch experienced players play live while chatting their knowledge away! You'll soon learn everything there is about POE!
• Feedback - let us know what you thought about our guide so that we can make it even better next time around?
• Embrace Learning Process + Enjoy Journey = Master Path of Exile!
  

Remember that learning new games takes time but don't worry because once mastered there's nothing like it!