Ah, Poe. I love playing him. But he's one of the first characters that I'm very torn about his stats. He starts with +25% PickUp Radius (Magnet on his stats section) which is very good. But also -30 Max HP, very bad. His Move Speed is normal, so he can at least put some distance between himself and the enemies. Which he'll need to do. With his lower HP, he can get in trouble fast. But he's also a great leveler. The 25% to Pickup is soooo good. Getting Poe Attractorb is a no brainer. +75% Magnet with orb maxed out, anyone?
Because of the bonus Pickup, this lets' Poe quickly level up....

Poe uses Garlic as his weapon of choice. Of all the weapons in VS, I haven't seen any weapon that people go back and forth more on if it's a good weapon or bad then Garlic.
Let me settle a few things on Garlic so you have a better understanding of what it is. Garlic is a support weapon with great starting game. But tapers off so badly once you get to around mid run or so. Mainly due to low damage output. Doing 5 damage starting and hitting 15 at Level 8, its' max level, it's great for early run grinding and can deal with groups of weaker enemies with ease, like the bat swarms and the minute 11 skeleton wave on Mad Forrest. That said, Garlic isn't going to win anyone a stage by itself. It just don't do enough damage to be viable. Fortunately, Garlic is more then just a AOE with low damage. It buffs weapons with knockback and reduces freeze resistance to anything that's in its' area, making Garlic a great support weapon. Getting weapons like Magic Wand and Ice Lancet become good picks cause Garlic lets them work their magic much better with its' support.
Evolving Garlic, with Pummarola, turns it into the Soul Eater. It keeps its' knockback buff and reduction of freeze resistance, but changes appearance, from three concentric circles on the ground to a to a pulsing black aura. it also becomes bigger and gains a decent damage boost. it also provides minor healing as it will steal a heart (1 HP) from enemies every now and then. that stolen HP starts getting turned into bonus damage. for every 60 HP healed while having Soul Eater, it gains +1 damage till it maxes out at +60. takes something like 3600 HP to hit that. there is a caveat to that, unfortunately. the HP for gaining extra damage must actually heal Poe to count to the bonus damage. if Poe's at full health, any overhealing he gets don't count toward getting the bonus damage

Why Poe?
Poe has one of the best starting games due to his bonus to Magnet/Pickup and Garlic, one third of The Holy Trinity. Get it up to Level 4 and the first 10 minutes on a run should be a breeze. Add in Attactorb and Candelabrador and Garlic is a great leveling tool early on, letting you make your build faster.
Why not Poe?
Between starting with a support weapon and his reduced health, things can get rough for Poe right out the gate. the area on Garlic at Level 1 is abysmal. and Garlic's damage, even with fully leveled, is mediocre at best. starting enemies may not be a issue most the time, but a elite enemy or boss will just waltz right through Garlic's area to punt Poe across the stage. Getting Poe a second or even third weapon become crucial to make sure the run can get past the 10 minute point. and Soul Eater makes playing Poe a bit more hectic if you try to get the extra damage for it. even with Hollow Heart, Poe will still need to be played with a 'hit and run' style of game play to make sure he's always healing to get the bonus damage for Soul Eater, risky to do with his lower HP.

Getting Garlic to Level 7 will unlock Poe. he can then be purchased for 500 gold before scaling

Tips
Garlic won't win you any damage contests. It's not meant to. It's a support weapon through and through. Make sure to level it for early leveling, but get weapons that Garlic will make even better. It making knockback and taking freeze resistance from anything that gets in its' range make it ideal for weapons with decent knockback, like Bible and Magic Wand, and that freeze enemies, Clock Lancet or anything affected by the Arcana Jail of Crystal, becoming far more useful with Garlic around

Icy Despair build
Weapons: Axe, Ice Lancet, Magic Wand, Santa Water, Song Of Mana
Passives: Attractorb, Candelabrdor, Crown, Endless Tome, Pummarelo, Skull O'Maniac,
Icy Despair is a AOE build for Poe that makes anything trying to get to him difficult, as Garlic and Santa Water lay down damage zones hard for enemies to get through while working toward finishing the build. when fully evolved, Poe will have large areas of knockback going while Ice Lancet freezes everything it hits, letting La Borra, Mannajja, and Soul Eater pick apart anything frozen with Death Spiral and Holy Wand giving Poe both mobility and coverage to deal with tougher enemies like elites and bosses. if you want less Curse for the build, Banish Skull after you pick it up, though the build can take Skull being fully leveled to 5, letting Poe gain even more of that sweet sweet XP

Holy Trinity (Asmongold version)
Weapons: Axe, Bible, Lightning Ring, Runechaser, Santa Water
Passives: Attractorb, Candelabrador, Duplicator, Pummarelo, Spellbinder, Spinach
this is the build Asmongold used to get his first win on VS with Poe, as seen here on Never Nathaniel's Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWIy6ZEJJcs
this build pretty much utilizes the Holy Trinity build with two extra evolves for a solid beginners build that will get the job done. not bad for Asmongold's first win. I hope he's still playing, cause this build could use some optimization love. even getting Endless Tome over Spinach would of improved the build by leaps and bounds in combination with Dupe making everything fire off more. but overall, it's decent at what it does and will do for most causal runs

Ah Poe. I've always found him fun to play. but still get a chuckle when I see people talking about how much he and Garlic suck or how he's the best character in the game.
truth be told, Poe's a fun and solid character to play. his version of the Holy Trinity build is one of the better ones for leveling and his drawbacks are easy to overcome with a little planning.
Poe's low health, not the worst in the game, and Garlic's low damage don't stop him from clearing runs as long as one remembers his weaknesses and builds for them accordingly.
Poe may be a old man. but he still has it where it counts and should never be counted out.



P.S.
If anyone can point out who drew the picture I used for the thumbnail, please let me know. that picture of Poe is awesome and the artist deserves to be credited for their work