Starting out.

When you are starting out, should you go after builds? Or just wait until level 20 (acquire most skills, armor, weapons, etc.).

If you shouldn't go after builds at a low level, how are you to cope with challenging quests/etc?

Most builds I've searched contain some skills I have not achieved yet. Is there any "noob" builds for players starting out? ;3

Don't worry too much about builds until you reach level 20. Until you get to that point, experiment with skills and find out what they do and how you can combine them to maximise their effectiveness - the majority of the challenges you handle in the level 1-19 bracket can be done with pretty much anything on your skillbar. Getting to level 20 is more of an extended tutorial and getting to know the ins and outs of your character than anything else.

prioritize gettin to lvl20 first

if u can get a good build sooner
then great
but dun make it ur number 1 priority, i.e. go out of ur way spending loads of time and money on skill tomes and runs, etc

That took a lot off my mind. I was in a state of complete confusion. I kept wondering how low level people could achieve (Elite skills, weapons, attribute points, etc) so fast and it left me in a state of hopelessness.

Thanks guys. (;

Make the best of what you have. If you have an excess of tomes and such, use that to make a little bit better of builds. Don't worry about a set build until you have a real elite to use.

Check out the Campfire section of guru. Each profession has a subforum and a stickied guide to playing that profession. Most of the guides give you a basic build that only uses skills available to a low level player in each campaign.

The builds talked about in the other threads usually assume you are level 20 and have all campaigns.

ive never seen a point in spending tons of money on elite tomes and such to have 1337 lvl 20 builds as soon as they start up, even with all the skills you dont have enough att points to make them worthwhile...as everyone else sais...just go with what you get as you go along, maybe buy 1-2 local skills from the skill trainers along the way, but dont go out of your way to get them

These people have other chars and storage accounts where they can access other weapons, skills, cash reserves, etc. After you have been through a campaign once, you can take a second character through very quickly with all the help you can give it.

Its pretty much all been said but you should definetly pay attention to your
build and skills offered by trainers. Take a little time to see which skills compliment each other and check out some build suggestions to get a feel for what folks are trying to do with thier builds. These forums often offer some real pearls that may also be helpful.

Above all, have fun

Ant

For now just concentrate on learning your chosen profession. Each one has several directions that it can be taken. Explore each and find your niche.

For example, a warrior can be a sword warrior, axe or hammer. A monk can be a healer, smiter or protector. Elementalists have 4 elements and can specialize in any of them. Necros can be minion masters, spiteful cursers, blood degen or energy batteries.

Use the skills that you can find at the beginning of the game to complete the quests. Give each a try and you'll soon discover your favorites. Concentrate on your primary profession only and use your secondary only to supplement your primary skills. For instance, a W/E should not be a fire nuker. He may bring along 1 or 2 ele skills to supplement his weapon like Conjure Flame or Shock but first and foremost he is a warrior, not an Ele. Your attribute points should be concentrated in 2 - 4 attribute lines. If you're putting a little bit into 6 or 7 lines then you're doing it wrong. (Jack of all trades, master of none)

Those folks that are level 6 with 10 elite skills capped already aren't beginners. They started out just like you and were once in your position, but they've been playing for awhile now. Don't worry about them. You'll be there too one day.

I know what you mean by "builds", but I'd like to point out that a "build" is whatever set of skills (plus weapons & runes perhaps) you happen to be using. Basically, all of Normal Mode is easy enough that you don't have to be concerned about having some particular "build" - as in what you would find on PVXwiki. Particularly, when you are starting out, you need to acquire all the skills you can from quests and then buy whatever other skills sound interesting to you. As you go along you will get better skills and start to learn to use them together. Eventually you will have your own "build".

Edit: The post below made me remember to add -one good reason for doing the quests to get skills, and only buying skills you might use, is that the cost of buying skills goes up as you buy them, until it gets to 1k per skill. If you buy too many too soon, you can push the cost to 1k while 1k is still hard to get.

At some point, you may want to try to do harder things, or make some things go easier, so you can start experimenting with different "builds" , but there's no need to rush into it. Also, keep in mind that most "builds" are just templates - you should feel free to modify them to suit your own play style and/or the skills/equipment you have.

The Story: A buddy of mine, after farming Raptors, had a large number of Claws of the Broodmother. He jokingly said he should make a build specifying the Claws as the weapon and post it on PVX, then everyone would be looking to buy them.
The point: You don't need to have the "exact" equipment specified in a build.

just make sure you do the 'bonus attribute points' quests, especially in factions or NF where you can get them relatively early.

once youve got those, then you can make better use of the skills you get.
On the same note, lots of quests have skills as rewards, and these are good ways of cheaply aquiring new skills to use while you level up.

Have fun