Looking for tips etc that might help me not make big mistakes early.

Anything I truly need to know?
Downloading it now. Will update as to when I have questions etc.
Seems like a great active community. Looking forward to the game

Follow a build guide tagged as budget or league starter
do not "wing it"

this

also do not expect your first build to go well even with a guide poe has so much content

Will do. Any recommendations on what builds are solid for newbies. Ive heard the amount of content is insane.. so maybe if I start with something that makes sense for noobs.. I wont hate the game?

I'm not looking for expensive, cheap af best possible to start off?

there are so many builds that it more depends on what kind of character you like to play

there is something inherently wrong about the game where you are (correctly) advised to not even try to make your own build

most the builds tagged budget/starter friendly are anything but.

if you don't have a strong dislike for minion playstyles your best bet for an easy all around character that starts strong and can skill infinitely would be a necromancer (witch)
similar easy to play and minimal 'work' are totem builds
both allow you to do damage via minions/totems while paying attention to your character. the game is primarily one shot mechanics so avoidance is the name of the game - you can never make a character that will be able tank everything.
both those styles don't require a ton of flask management either where-as just about everything else requires heavy flask usage and management

if you want a melee build there are fairly cheap cyclone builds with various starting classes/ascendancy as well as lacerate gladiators that can both do all content with minimal investment.

this particular league is all about crafting and unfortunately crafting is very complex and not explained in-game at all so you will have to do a ton of outside research and use multiple 3rd party sites and databases - which is why this league is such a big failure because majority of people don't want to do all that shit they just want to play the game.
that being said you can skip all league content if you want, the downside being you miss a lot of opportunity for upgrades.

download neversink item filter

Watch Engineering Eternitys newbie series at Youtube.

also dont even start poe if you dont have at least one phd of mathematical type