Path of Exile fans, aren't you sick and tired of suffering from catastrophic deaths in the game's Hardcore league setup? Is there anything worse than devoting hours upon hours into a character on your favorite ARPG only to lose it to a perfect storm of circumstances? I feel your pain. It doesn't have to happen anymore.

Chris Wilson, the lead developer at Grinding Gear Games (the company behind this awesome Diablo III alternative), has made it clear that the use of third-party applications is completely allowed as long as you're not automating anything to run in an unattended environment. This is extremely good news for those of you who are in love with macros. AutoHotkey is an incredibly popular piece of Windows software that makes creating your own macros a breeze.

In this article, I'm going to dish out two scripts that are practically a must-have for any Path of Exile player, especially if you play in a Hardcore league (which means you can't dare risk dying). Setting these scripts up is very simple.

  1. Download AutoHotkey
  2. Open Notepad
  3. Copy and paste the script into Notepad (found below)
  4. Save the file with the AHK extension wherever you'd like (for example, "script.ahk")
  5. Double-click the file
AutoHotkey

You'll notice the AutoHotkey icon in your system tray at this point. That means the script is running. Right-clicking that tray icon will allow you to quickly edit your script, pause, suspend, or exit the application. Easy, right? Now, on to the scripts!

Fast Log Out

In Path of Exile, you're able to escape sticky situations by simply logging out of the game. Doing so will reset your character's position to the nearest town, allowing you to practically teleport away from any dangerous mob that may have killed you. I'd have to assume that this is a necessary feature because sometimes players may find themselves caught in an emergency. Maybe your phone rings, you forget you've got something in the oven, etc. Players need to be able to quickly (and safely) escape the game. Nonetheless, it's still a mechanic that even the most undisturbed player can take advantage of.

Path of Exile

Many players have testified that simply pressing the Alt+F4 key combination does not immediately log you out of the game, and I believe them. The best practice is to press the Esc key and click the button to log out. However, even the fastest and most accurate of mouse-holders will struggle to perform this action in under a half-second. With this script, it's nearly instantaneous.

Copy this text as described in step three above:

        F1::
IfWinActive, Path of Exile
{
WinActivate
BlockInput On
SendInput, {Esc}
WinGetPos,,,Width,Height,A
X := (Width / 2)
Y := Height * .44
MouseClick, Left, X, Y, 1, 1
BlockInput Off
}
return

You can feel free to change "F1" in the script to whatever key you choose. Here is a list of all possible keystrokes (and mouse presses) within AutoHotkey. If you use a third-party application to make your Path of Exile window a borderless window, simply change the value of .44 to .40 and it should work like a charm.

Resynch Yourself

Desynchronization is an issue that has plagued the ARPG genre and Path of Exile in specific.

Dying because you're one place on your screen yet another on the server is a tragedy. However, there is a chat command to ensure that you're synchronized properly. Constantly typing it is a hassle. This script puts it all on a single key.

Copy this text as described in step three above:

        F2::
IfWinActive, Path of Exile
{
WinActivate
BlockInput On
SendInput, {Enter}
Sleep, 20
SendInput, {/}oos
SendInput, {Enter}
BlockInput Off
}
return

Like our last script, you can feel free to change it off of the F2 key to any of your liking.

Conclusion

Since I've started using these two scripts, I feel so much safer when playing the game under its Hardcore setup. If you watch streamers on Twitch, you'll probably notice many of them use very similar scripts. It's no wonder that they so recklessly hit level 70 in 24 hours, right? (It takes a lot more than these two scripts to do that, actually.)

I really hope these scripts are able to help you. Becoming a better player at Path of Exile is a subject I'm very well-versed in, and macros are necessary! Let me know what you think of them in the comments below!