Why is act 1 gated?

[JZilla]

Anyone else stuck in act 1?
How the heck do you progress without gear upgrades?
Is this lack of progression gear part of the game?
Are you supposed to get stuck due to lack of RNG ?

The lack of loot drops for your character class is perplexing. Imagine playing over 20 hours and not finding a single upgrade weapon. Imagine not being able to progress past act 1 because you can't beat anything because your weapon sucks and your armour is trash.
The vendors sell garbage and rarely offer any real worthwhile upgrade you can afford.

After 20 hours of suffering there is zero incentive to load the game and keep suffering with this terrible RNG and lack of progression gear.

GGG ignoring this issue entirely, in their last upcoming patch notes is mind boggling. Either they are ignorant of the issue or choose to willingly ignore it completely hoping it will go away on its own and it wont.

[5ean5ean]

If you have crafting mats you can make gear yourself. You can't rely 100% on drops.

[The Haney]

I'm on character #4 and I have had *zero* issues with gearing, because I lean heavily on vendors in general and the gambling system in particular.

The gambling vendor has consistently been an excellent source of gear upgrades for me.

[Manic Infidel]

Just use the trade website if you're having issues getting the gear you need. Though if you're struggling this much in Act 1, your build probably sucks and it might be that no amount of gear will fix it.

[Dr. Rockso]

Some of the best leveling gear I have found was at the vendor.

I find it hard to believe you spent 20 hours in Act 1 and if you did you should have some decent gear by that point.

Your issue sounds like your build is just

[grei]

had same problem. it seems that someone gets god tier loot and someone is less fortunate. Relax, take a break. You will finish that act anyway. Try to put some gear with better quality loot probability(if you have some). It might help. Also if you have enough money try to gamble with the trader for a better loot. Personally i got lucky with amazing crossbow. But it costed me all gold xD

[Lerchs]

Check vendor every time you level up, craft the gear yourself, gamba for gear with gold.
I beat act 1 the first time only with trash blue gear I picked up. It's more challenging, but not impossible.

[Medicles]

Imagine looking 20 hours for loot and being stuck in act 1 and then coming into the forum to complain about it, but dont even think about going to the vendor or use crafting mats.

Imagine not understanding what an Early Access is, apparently not informing yourself about the game at all and be properly prepared to adapt to any differences that the game might throw at you.

[SkaldedDawg]

Originally posted by JZilla:

Anyone else stuck in act 1?
How the heck do you progress without gear upgrades?
Is this lack of progression gear part of the game?
Are you supposed to get stuck due to lack of RNG ?

The lack of loot drops for your character class is perplexing. Imagine playing over 20 hours and not finding a single upgrade weapon. Imagine not being able to progress past act 1 because you can't beat anything because your weapon sucks and your armor is trash.
The vendors sell garbage and rarely offer any real worthwhile upgrade you can afford.

After 20 hours of suffering there is zero incentive to load the game and keep suffering with this terrible RNG and lack of progression gear.

GGG ignoring this issue entirely, in their last upcoming patch notes is mind boggling. Either they are ignorant of the issue or choose to willingly ignore it completely hoping it will go away on its own and it wont.

You can't survive without gear upgrades. I used the merchants several times.

[thestile]

The guy could use the crafting mats and still get garbage though. That's what they don't tell you. Haha

[SkaldedDawg]

Originally posted by Lerchs:

Check vendor every time you level up, craft the gear yourself, gamba for gear with gold.
I beat act 1 the first time only with trash blue gear I picked up. It's more challenging, but not impossible.

I'm embarrassed, I didn't know there was crafting. I didn't get prompted about crafting that I remember. Maybe I skipped it. Intriguing. My drops have been decent, but no spirit to speak of. I need it.

[Hoki]

PoE1 is like 1% skill and 99% statdriven.

PoE2 on the otherhand is slower and leans more on the skill portion in comparison. the key to geonor is actually simple: know his attacks.

High jump
when he jumps up and disappears run in any direction where you have enough range to get out of the aoe zone. after a second or so dodge to get the rest of the distance covered to get outta there

frost attack
the solution is simple - dont stand on the ice patches

fog attack
this is my opinion the only statreliant attack. either have enough armour/evasion/ES to survive through it or deal enough dmg to get rid of the werewolves. either way works given the ads die at the end of the attack

requiem / the other aoe
solution - pay attention to him. when he raises his sword (there is also a voiceline as indicator) stop attacking. there will be 4 attacks coming. Increased ailment threshold would help here in case you get hit

geonor is by no means build reliant. even bad builds can deal with that boss. equipment wise just try to stay up to date for the lavel range - dont bother minmaxing anything

[Thornburst]

buy gear from shopkeepers

[EyeXombie]

Honestly you don't really need that good of gear in Act 1. It's more about your build than anything.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by thestile:

The guy could use the crafting mats and still get garbage though. That's what they don't tell you. Haha

Frankly, for act 1 as much as act 2 and 3 standard difficulty, its fairly enough to simply get the latest weapon version of your respective zone and use some runes on it to get a good enough weapon that no enemy should be much of a problem.

[asd]

Originally posted by JZilla:

Anyone else stuck in act 1?
How the heck do you progress without gear upgrades?
Is this lack of progression gear part of the game?
Are you supposed to get stuck due to lack of RNG ?

The lack of loot drops for your character class is perplexing. Imagine playing over 20 hours and not finding a single upgrade weapon. Imagine not being able to progress past act 1 because you can't beat anything because your weapon sucks and your armour is trash.
The vendors sell garbage and rarely offer any real worthwhile upgrade you can afford.

After 20 hours of suffering there is zero incentive to load the game and keep suffering with this terrible RNG and lack of progression gear.

GGG ignoring this issue entirely, in their last upcoming patch notes is mind boggling. Either they are ignorant of the issue or choose to willingly ignore it completely hoping it will go away on its own and it wont.

craft gear or buy from vendor...