Before I continue (class choice)

Try melee if you feel that ranged classes are too easy or boring

There's so much variety. Make some RP builds for funzies. Right now I'm doing a Warrior werewolf and I'm thinking about having him be haunted by the Spectre of the first person he killed.

Don't look up builds or guides, just pick what seems fun.

Hi! First of all, welcome aboard :)

What I understand from your post is that you're looking for a more challenging gameplay than just point click kill.
In that sense, my advice would be going for any melee champ, if difficulty is what you're looking for. On the other hand, if you don't like melee, you could go for a more combo oriented class like Sorcerer, which uses elemental infusions to empower his spells, so you'll at least have to use 3-4 different skills in order to kill efficiently.

That being said, let me warn you that this game will push you to look for more optimal builds as you reach endgame. Farming currency early into the endgame is hard and time consuming, so you'll want a quick-killing mobile class to be able to farm as efficiently as possible.

At least, thats how I see it.

Now, let me give you a last piece of advice. Don't overthink and try to find the perfect class from the get go. You won't be able to find it until you get to endgame with a character and get the feel of it. Then, you will start to understand the game mechanics while you just enjoy the game.
In my first playthrough, I started as a Sorcerer. Abandoned it at lvl 33 because I wasn't feeling it. Started a Lightning Arrow Deadeye and got it up to lvl 96, until I got a bit tired and wanted to play something else. Ended up playing as a Blood Mage, which is kinda similar to what I was having with Sorcerer, but this time I knew what to expect from the endgame and understood that Blood Mage fit my farm optimization goals way better than Deadeye.

I hope this helps you a little.
Hit me up if you have any further questions about the game

Something great about this game is there’s tons of build variety outside of the mega S tier builds. The next tier down, still able to clear T17 maps, there is so much to pick from. I’ve tried something new each season.

This season I started Amazon. Used the grenade build for levelling which was very smooth then switch to a wolf melee build. Wasn’t loving that so started monk and have been really enjoying. My suggestion would be to give monk a go. I’m using a variety of the no weapon Hollow Palm build. It feels a lot different than any bow build.

I plan to return to Amazon once I built up enough currency to construct somehting more powerful.

The nice thing about POE is that your skills aren’t tied to your class, just your passive tree. Just because you’re a ranger or a huntress doesn’t mean you have to use a bow or spear. You could play those as a chaos spell caster or a shapeshifter or anything you feel like really. You might need some levels to have enough passive points to get to more relevant passives, and it might not be able to push as far in the end game as more standard builds, but there are some fun and strong builds that utilize the “wrong” weapons and skills.

I’d keep going. You are severely underestimating the difficulty of the game. Act 2 hits like a car. Act 3 hits like a semi. Act 4 is a 747 airline to the face if you haven’t perfected your passives. Do I need to keep going?

When in doubt, play ritualist and play almost any build cause rings and amulets are op. You can switch through attack builds as you please cause the core will remain the same except for the weapon.

ARPG’s like this really shine in their systems which can allow for all kinds of funky builds you can try. I could tell you to try grenade crossbows next because it’s a lot of fun, but at least for me a lot of the fun is also in exploring new build ideas yourself and just trying shit out.

You can try what Schwingy does and roll a wheel to randomize the ascendancy and the skill you have to use and work from there.

I also find spamming skills over and over boring, but if you already have a leveled ranger, I would recommend using crossbow instead of bow. You got some skills with very good synergy and grenades to spice it up. Gas grenade for example feels less spammy because you can throw a couple down and keep moving while stuff around you die. You can give it some armor break as well and put high velocity rounds and fragmentation rounds on, for some good single target damage.

On the other hand, if you want to be able to combo several cool abilities that work insanely smoothly together, I would highly recommend playing Druid and going with an Oracle Wolf build. Warning though, the build is relatively weak early on in the campaign.

Last, I recommend playing warrior, but imo using shield skills feels better than using mace. I would go with a combination of Resonating Strike and Shield Wall + Shield Charge. This build feels like a true badass warrior. Of course you can mix it up and add something like perfect strike or hammer of the gods for bossing or very tough rares.

Just started warrior but with monk skills doing whirling assault and maaaan is it sick clears the whole screen pretty much there is a guide if you search those words its awesome easiest leveling ive ever had