Path of Exile
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@PleegWat said in Path of Exile:
@Magus said in Path of Exile:
@PleegWat honestly, smite might be one of my favorite melee skills. It does pretty good damage, especially with its aura. If you're having damage issues with it, that usually has to do with the links: at four, I'd be using physical to lightning, elemental damage with attacks, and ancestral call. It's hard to fail then.
Totems should go well for sure, depending on the skill. This league more than any other I recommend trying to deal cold damage for the chill and freeze, but you'll probably be fine whatever you pick.
I might've linked in too much AoE to the smite. I'll look at what I've got linked in and what my alternatives are tonight.
I'm currently running a fire totem, which doesn't feel very effective. But then those things are hard to gauge, and it does its work without me having to point it at the enemy. I may check if I've got any alternatives banked.
The smite is currently in a 3-link; End of act 3 is a bit early for 4-link gear. The gems are Ancestral Call and Elemental Proliferation. On closer inspection, the latter may not work well on a skill that's AoE to begin with.
For some reason Holy Flame Totem wasn't linked with any support gems. I instead purchased a Spell Totem Support and attached it to a Frost Bomb. I'll play with that a bit before I try the labyrinth again.
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@PleegWat it can depend on which totem, but generally the thing that makes totem builds strong is that they get a lot of them. Holy flame totem is extremely strong, and I'm a big fan of purifying flame, which would almost certainly make a great totem. Either are probably best with avatar of fire.
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@PleegWat elemental proliferation works fine on aoe skills, it's just not very useful. If you can get elemental damage with attacks from act 2, it will go back to working.
Additionally, I don't think I'd make frost bomb a totem: it's a powerful debuff skill that has decent damage, but it's best used plopped down on packs as you run past, and the cool down wastes the totem's potential.
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@Magus said in Path of Exile:
the thing that makes totem builds strong is that they get a lot of them.
How does multiple totems work anyway? The wiki mentions a bunch of stuff about there being a global and a local limit, with the former being increased primarily by some passives and the latter by supports such as multiple totem support, but it doesn't mention how they interact. Do I need to increase both before I can field multiple totems from one skill, or would the multiple totem support suffice?
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@PleegWat the only skills with a local modifier are searing bond and the new balistas. You can only get extra local totems with multiple totem support, but it means throwing searing bond into your build may be fun. You'll get an extra totem from your ascendancy, one from the keystone ancestral bond, and possibly others from gear or multiple totems support. The latter isn't usually worth the dps loss though.
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@Magus I see, so global limit will do. Makes sense I guess.
The frost bomb idea was dumb. I went back to holy flame and tacked on combustion which I had banked and that's going much better.
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@PleegWat Ooh, Mokou's Embrace just dropped for me. Looks interesting.
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Yeah, Ele. Prolif is not doing a lot for you in that setup. Elemental damage with attacks (I think thats the name of the gem) is probably your best 3rd link for it, but even a straight damage link like added lightning or added cold will increase the damage substantially over ele prolif. Additionally, if you know you are going to fight something single target (like a boss fight) it is worth while swapping out the ancestral call gem for a dps gem. It will make the boss fight smoother, most don't have any (or minimal) adds to help get the full benefit of ancestral call. It isn't as bad as it used to be, but a true single target damage support will be superior.
Frost Bomb + spell totem is probably not a great combination. Unless you really want the no regen modifier of frost bomb a 3 link of spell totem+freezing pulse+hypothermia will provide a better slow on bosses. If you can four link it, get an LMP (or volley, I prefer LMP though) in there (eventually a GMP, once you get the damage)
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@Dragoon you're subtly wrong on the ancestral call thing though: if you attack from a distance, you'll hit the enemy with lightning and so will the ghost that appears on them, so for smite at least, ancestral call gives single target dps, similar to how it goes with lightning strike.
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I don't disagree and my wording could of been better. It requires a certain amount of targeting precision to make it work at full efficiency at times (like a complex boss fight) where that might not be the first thing on your mind. So a dedicated single target dps gem is simply easier (and as I noted above, smoother) way to go. But yes, correctly targeted you do still get the benefit of the "extra" ancestral call attacks.
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Gear makes the man. If the character page is to be believed (I'm cautious) this new staff with added lightning damage nearly tripled my smite DPS.
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Agh I just want to go home and rush back to maps!
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Just did the labyrinth. Had a good run on keys - found two initially, Izaro dropped two where I'm used to him only dropping one, and then one of the chest dropped two keys as well which I hadn't even conceived to be possible.
Ascended as Hierophiant, with Pursuit of Faith.
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Izaro drops extra keys based on phases 1 and 2. What spawns determines what you must do to get the extra keys. The generals, portals and curse fonts have to live. The golems have to get into him. One of the buffers must be applied, the other just has to be alive at the end (I can never remember which) conduits must stack to at least 10 (I think). If you do that, then Izaro will drop an extra key (per phase) at the end, it is possible for him to drop 4 (2 from his phases, 1 guaranteed from the kill and 1 from a dark shrine buff).
In total it is possible to get 9 keys by the end of the run. 4 from Izaro, 1 from Argus, 2 from a chest in the end room and 2 from certain chests on the way.
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@Dragoon the Golems just need to survive. The conduits are on when they rise up (the blue statutes) so you can just kill him and not worry about it. The idols (gold statues) have to have each summoned bombs at least once. The charges have to have fully stacked.
The problem is that the Golems, conduits, charges, and gargoyles all give him massive damage buffs, so they're the ones you want disabled if possible.
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@PleegWat don't know if you've mentioned, but are you using a holy relic? I highly recommend that if you continue to use smite, you use a holy relic linked to physical to lightning and summon phantasm on kill. That combo, with wrath as an aura, is incredibly fun.
Probably not what you should do, since once you get ancestral bond you will no longer deal damage yourself.
For your totem skill, I highly recommend divine ire, since that can have some incredible damage and clears decently, plus wrath is a very powerful aura.
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Yeah, I figured I probably screwed up the names, haha.
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@Magus I'm not sure if I want to get Ancestral Bond, because I'm wary of the loss of control involved. Plus how much fun I'm having with smite.
I might change my mind later though. I had raise zombie with summon phantasm support, minion damage, and meat shield on my necromancer last run which was quite the nice combination for weak stuff not getting the chance to come close to me. I've been eyeing summon phantasm again but I want to keep some distinction between them for now.
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This thread makes cricket seem simple.
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@HardwareGeek I'm sure there's pen and paper RPGs that are more complicated than PoE, but I'm not an expert.
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@PleegWat the main thing is that the phantasms and holy relic are both physical spell damage, so physical to lightning and wrath buff them massively. It's a nice cheap three-link and aura, and still requires manually attacking a lot.
Most hierophants aim for ancestral bond around the time that it gets them their third totem, because the damage becomes incredible.
Honestly, being able to just keep your distance and occasionally cast curses is the main reason to play totems. I hate not running up and hitting things, so I rarely play that.
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@HardwareGeek you should watch a video of someone starting the game and opening the passive skill tree. All of those videos go the same way.
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@Magus Why the middle man?
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@PleegWat imonmyphone.mng
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@HardwareGeek if you have any interest in playing a good sequel to diablo 2, just launch the game and see how it goes. You might not beat the story with a shallow plan, but you'll get far enough to see if you're in.
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Over the weekend, I, who have been playing since the alpha and have even found a mirror of Kalandra once, found, for the first time ever, kaom's heart. I've started a juggernaut using purifying flame and avatar of fire for it. Eventually I'll get there. When that build killed hillock, he dropped a last resort, so I finally got an achievement that I have never previously managed. Overall it's going well.
Meanwhile I ground out maps and finally meet Zana, got all my watchtowers located, and fought baran. Then Zana sold me more maps, and I fought the other two. I've got all the center zones socketed, and I have a few t6 maps, so I'm on a good path to success!
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Current progress: I have 8 watchstones, and have one in every region now. I'm planning to fight the third set of conquerers in the outer four. I'm also leveling a magma orb trickster that will work even better if awakened chain ever becomes purchasably cheap instead of costing 15ex.
My friend is stacking abyss jewels with some of the cool abyss uniques and his tree to make a piscator wand build. Meanwhile I'm considering a wand poison trickster or assassin, because I think that'd be interesting.
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@Magus said in Path of Exile:
costing 15ex
Is it my browser, or does the forum's font look like there's a space between 1 and 5?
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@acrow
@error_bot !xkcd kerning
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Okay, so, I have never made as many characters as I have this league. It's been ridiculous, I'm at more than 20 I think. Today I leveled a bane build from act 4-10, the easiest clear I've ever played. Undergeared and weak, I still just crush everything. I'll worry about equipment tomorrow.
Meanwhile the success has helped me theorycraft a similar build someone should totally try: Icefang Orbit and Volkuur's ice glove, on an assassin with a Bino's Kitchen Knife. It doesn't really matter what starts the sequence, you'll clear screens of stuff you can't even see. Maybe throw in a decay just for good measure. Probably the essence version.
Anyway, one of my friends has managed to become extremely wealthy by actually selling items, and I've been unable to kill the awakener, so bane sounded like the skill for the job. It clears well, and the damage is obscene on even a weak level 65 character. Highly recommend trying it. I figure if I go CI, I'll have one less problem to deal with, so I'll go for my second awakener attempt.
Anyone else still playing?
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Still playing, just dropped a "The Saviour" sword and a Bottled Faith yesterday. Need to find a build I want to do with them now :)
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@Dragoon crazy. My friend got one of those, couldn't get path of building to give him more than 2 million dps, and found that he was weaker than his poison build, despite using probably the strongest weapon in the game, so is planning to sell the sword again.
I think it'd be fun with lightning strike.
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I don't think POB takes into account the clones that it creates.
I think I will do a flicker strike build with double strike for single target. Haven't done flicker strike in ages.
My two current chars are a Mjölnir-CoC-Cyclone-Ball Lightning build. It is CI with an ES gained on hit watchers eye. Really tanky but not insane damage (hard to calculate because it depends on lots of different things, but it feels like its in the 2-300k range).
My current DPS char is a low-life soulrend occultist. Utilizing an average +gem bow and soulstrike quiver. Pushes just under 1mill shaper dps in PoB and there are lots of upgrades should easily break 2mil with better gear.Played 5 other chars, but these are currently the only two that I actually play.
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@Dragoon I think my strongest is my cremation inquisitor, who even with Kaom's heart only has 5.5k life, because crit is dangerous. He gets oneshot too often, which is why I decided to give up on banning myself from chaos damage over time spells.
I'm really enjoying the interaction between herald of ash and obliteration: the explosions of the latter do enough damage to trigger severe overkill burns from the former, which can retrigger the latter. It's good stuff.
I'll need to figure out some damage weapons to go along with the level 21 bane I'll have to buy, but it'll definitely be weapon swap, obliteration is too good to lose.
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@Magus
This staff https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Cane_of_Unravelling is very cheap and a great starter. You can get some insane wand and shield combos as well, but when I was looking last (admittedly a month ago) they were far more expensive than the staff even for comparable damage.
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@Dragoon said in Path of Exile:
@Magus
This staff https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Cane_of_Unravelling is very cheap and a great starter. You can get some insane wand and shield combos as well, but when I was looking last (admittedly a month ago) they were far more expensive than the staff even for comparable damage.I keep forgetting about that thing. That or some other staff would let me also 6L my essence drain for maximum boss damage, so that may actually be unbeatable.
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Delirium league was announced, and it'll start on Friday the 13th. This is going to be really cool. The quality of the new enemies I saw definitely looks post-poe1, and the customization looks insane. People are going to actually use that new wand skill. People are definitely going to make dex-stacking unarmed builds.
Like this adds a shocking amount of stuff. 218 new notables, and this stuff seems to all chain. People with the money might just say goodbye to the normal skill tree, considering how much life you might be able to get out there... Legion jewels seemed cool and all, but this is something else entirely.
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@Magus said in Path of Exile:
Like this adds a shocking amount of stuff. 218 new notables, and this stuff seems to all chain.
As I understand it (from ZiggyD) it is a maximum depth of three Large jewel --> Medium Jewel --> small jewel.
I really like the fact that delirium interacts with all of the existing content. Sucks hitting a breach and an abyss at the same time and having to choose which you will get the most out of.
The new skills are all unique which is cool, not sure the viability of all of them, but cool none-the-less.
Looking forward to the league, got 36 challenges done a couple of weeks ago and hope to hit that this league as well.
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@Dragoon I've been trying to stay out of the game for the past couple weeks, so I've been playing wolcen a bit to recharge.
One thing you'll notice in the delirium trailer is the new monster models and their animations: they're slowly putting in more of the poe2 tech.
What really interests me is the speed of the enemies though, because they seem to really rush you down. Minion builds are probably going to be nerfed, but even if they weren't, that swarming would be really dangerous. I'd been planning to try toxic rain mines for the leaguestart, and that might still be kind of great, but I'm currently thinking sunder gladiator will be particularly good at the basic content of the league. Or a freeze/shatter build.
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Still trying to decide what to play for the new league. Sunder gladiator is going to work, but it's expensive to take it far into endgame. A crit cold spell assassin would probably be a lot of fun, but for some reason I have a hard time picking it. I'm convincing other people to try essence drain, since this seems like a good league for it. And toxic rain mines is probably still the cheapest build for its power in the entire game...
We won't really know until we get the patch notes, which they like to save for as long as they can so they can keep going over the balance. But my current plan is actually an Abyssal Cry berserker: sure, that new Cry Wolf notable is basically useless for it, since it's more a rallying cry type node, but there's only really one good notable for the skill anyway, and there's probably some nice chaos stuff out in the clusters. Or honestly, even just area would be nice. But I figure it'll be cheap, and I can use breath of the council, which no one cares about anymore, for both high damage phys hits and the chaos damage. And my tree is going to really be compact.
I can't come up with anything else I really want to try as a starter, but I'm definitely of the opinion that proliferation of some kind is going to be king.
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Not sure on my first char either, was thinking of doing a Vortex Occultist, they can do all content but are slow. So I might do another BV char and try out the new skill for it. BV is my favorite skill in the game and I have played every single variant of it, so might as well try this out. Did elementalist and chaos occultist (not as good as poison assassin) last league, might do it as Inquisitor this league. Might also start as a saboteur and mine some things, still undecided.
Have a few more expensive builds that I want to try as well (always have those), so getting some currency flowing is desirable from my starter char.
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@Dragoon bv, especially as a chieftain, is always a safe choice for league start. And blade blast looks amazing, so you'll likely have a good time with it.
I worry about mines and minions this league, with how fast and aggressive the enemies seem this time. But that might be a good thing. We'll see.
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Decided to write up some build guides on my usual no-details way, good for new players who just want to try things:
Delirious Destroyers: I'm gonna basically explain some builds to try. Use: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree to search for passives. 1. Chieftain of Blades - You start as a Marauder - You're gonna be using green skills, so you'll need a lot of dex - You're gonna want to stay on the left side of the tree mostly, so check where the dex is carefully - Lots of life around - Area of Effect is super good - FIRE ~ SKILL OPTIONS ~ - Blade Vortex - Spins around you - Ludicrous damage - You have to get kind of close though - Bladefall - Massive area - Insanely cool looking - Ethereal Knives - Strong - Long range - Cone shaped - Can chain or fork - Blade Blast - Works with any of the others - Strong debuff ~ IMPORTANT POINTS ~ - You will only deal fire damage. - You need the Avatar of Fire node on the skill tree - Also Constitution - Divine Fury - Amplify - Once you become a Chieftain in act 3, your goals with your ascendency are "Ngamahu, Flame's Advance" and "Hinekora, Death's Fury" Then anything that sounds fun. 2. Essence Drain Trickster - You'll be a shadow - Your damage spreads everywhere ~ SKILL OPTIONS ~ - Early on, grab Blight. - Strong - Boring - Has a good slow - There's a pair of gloves that make it totally viable if you love it - Contagion - The most important skill you get. - It spreads Essence Drain when it spreads - It's damage is good - Essence Drain - This is how you kill bosses - Just spray, then WALK AWAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4ibFq1aup8 - Bane - You need multiple curses for it to be strong - Super high max damage - Simple playstyle - Decent alternative if you hate the other stuff, but it won't spread. - Soul Rend - Long range - Autotargets - Easiest playstyle of all if you hate the other stuff - Not as good as other things ~ IMPORTANT POINTS ~ - Your damage is all chaos - Casting more just refreshes the duration, so don't keep shooting - You still need to take Constitution - Find life, as much as you can get - Get Arcane Expanse, Atrophy, and Corruption - Area is OP, get more - When you become a Trickster in Act 3, go for Patient Reaper first, the best node on the Trickster ascendency - Next Trickster point is Prolonged Pain. Then Ghost Dance. Your choice between Swift Killer and Escape Artist for the last one. 3. Cold Assassin - You start as a shadow - You're gonna be a crit boy! - Use any cold skill! - Clear screens instantly! - Dangerous on-death effects don't exist! ~ SKILL OPTIONS ~ - I can't be bothered explaining them all, just don't use Cold Snap or Vortex or Arctic Breath. The rest are great. - Herald of Ice - This is the skill that matters. It blows up things that shatter. ~ IMPORTANT POINTS ~ - Get Doom Cast - Your damage is your crit multiplier, so focus on that - Get Constitution - Life is hard in the shadow zone, so spread out and find some. Maybe take an edge jewel socket and use one of the new cluster jewels for more life. - As an Assassin in act 3, take Unstable Infusion. Next is Deadly Infusion. Take whatever you want after that, just not the poison ones. 4. Bleediator - You start as a duelist - All your enemies will EXPLODE. Megumin is pleased by your selection. - Enemies who do not die immediately will die from the bleed when they chase you ~ SKILL OPTIONS ~ - Sunder - Area Line Skill - Echoes on enemies it hits, and the echoes can overlap - Super fun - Earthquake - MASSIVE - STRONK - I don't like it personally - Lacerate - Good range - Good damage - MODE CHANGE - Bladestorm - Hangs around - Moves sometimes - Good - MODE CHANGE - Double Strike - Has a cool vaal version - Crazy strong - Single target only ~ IMPORTANT POINTS ~ - If you want damage, you need to fit in Pride, Flesh and Stone + Maim, and some way to cause Vulnerability - You're in the tank zone - You can use a shield - Leech is the best - Get Vitality Void, Dirty Techniques, Bloodletting, and Golem's Blood - Path through shield nodes when you get the chance. They're awesome for damage. - Ascend in act 3 as a Gladiator, then take Blood in the Eyes - Your next ascensions will be Gratuitous Violence, Painforged, and then Versitile Combatant. You are now OP.
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@Magus I'm getting crazily excited, since I haven't played for over a month. We get the patch notes today!
Given the cluster revelations last night, I'm thinking the assassin is probably a stronger choice than I thought. I may not be able to resist. If I can get that freeze proliferation node, nothing can stop me...
But that's so much more risky as a starter, since it can't possibly tank well. I need information!
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I'm rapidly changing my mind on what build to try, but for now I'm thinking shield charge slayer. Should be powerful, mobile, and good at clearing (they just doubled the aoe!?)
But so much uncertainty. Who knows what will work!?
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@Magus said in Path of Exile:
Who knows what will work!?
In POE, that usually depends on your budget :)
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@Dragoon people are freaking out about the fossil changes, and ancient orbs just lost a lot of the top end from their value. The economy is going to go crazy this time.
I recommend watching for Luna Wolve's Chaos Report in a day or two. That series is awesome for people who need that kind of data.
1015: Kerning - explain xkcd