Path of Exile
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@Magus said in Path of Exile:
@Lathun said in Path of Exile:
@Magus Blade Flurry looks really good, such a nice 'melee' skill.
It's certainly more of a melee skill than spectral throw, since it sends a ghost of you to strike the enemy, instead of just throwing a ghost of your weapon. The problem is, it's so powerful that on a character who was having a hard time killing enemies with frost hit or whatever that forking skill is called, was oneshotting every mob and didn't even see the reversal effect except against powerful blues and yellows. And with increased AOE, it'll kill enemies offscreen. A minor damage nerf and a major AOE scaling nerf could still leave a completely awesome skill in the game, without it still being the best skill in the game.
I was watching someone use it and it just looked so crazy, the AoE was huge and the damage was nuts but the way the skill works mechanically is really awesome that even if it gets a nerf I bet it will be fun to play still. If I saw the gem in action with no knowledge of the gem tags I would have assumed it was a phys spell. I might play this upcoming league just to try out this skill.
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@Lathun said in Path of Exile:
@Magus said in Path of Exile:
@Lathun said in Path of Exile:
@Magus Blade Flurry looks really good, such a nice 'melee' skill.
It's certainly more of a melee skill than spectral throw, since it sends a ghost of you to strike the enemy, instead of just throwing a ghost of your weapon. The problem is, it's so powerful that on a character who was having a hard time killing enemies with frost hit or whatever that forking skill is called, was oneshotting every mob and didn't even see the reversal effect except against powerful blues and yellows. And with increased AOE, it'll kill enemies offscreen. A minor damage nerf and a major AOE scaling nerf could still leave a completely awesome skill in the game, without it still being the best skill in the game.
I was watching someone use it and it just looked so crazy, the AoE was huge and the damage was nuts but the way the skill works mechanically is really awesome that even if it gets a nerf I bet it will be fun to play still. If I saw the gem in action with no knowledge of the gem tags I would have assumed it was a phys spell. I might play this upcoming league just to try out this skill.
The league will be awesome anyway, but yeah, mechanically, this skill is just awesome. I only tested it on my elemental ranger, but I can only imagine it on a gladiator.
The problem is, there isn't a melee skill I'd rather use than it: Heavy strike is great with bleed, since it has the highest single hit damage afaik, but my AOE was Lacerate and something else before. Now why would anyone ever use lacerate? The return component of blade flurry is automatic and incredibly powerful. Way too good.
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@Magus Yeah I am having a hard time thinking of reasons to play Reave over this, Reave being one of my favorite melee skills before this was released. It seems to outshine everything. Also I noticed all three new skills (I think there are only 3) are all AoE skills, maybe GGG gave up on trying to make ST skills good. Early on you really wanted an AoE skill and then a ST skill for bosses etc but now so many AoE skills do such good damage it doesn't matter.
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@Lathun The thing is, there are single target skills that are potentially better for some things: You can't hit faster than double strike, or harder than heavy strike. For the other two, they're just tools in the bag, though the chaos one is terrible.
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I'm considering trying a scorching ray+cast firestorm on channel build. My lightning totems are awesome, and so is the gladiator, but I feel like it'd be fun too.
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Couldn't find Zana in a map after trying and trying. So I started that scorching ray character, and beat the oversoul. Currently using Tabula Rasa. Looks like firestorm is a bad skill for CWC, so I'm considering what to use. I'd love to use Raging Spirits, but Arc would be amazing too.
In any case: Scorching Ray is awesome and incredibly fun. Stacking cast speed is easy, and your damage gets noticeably better. Plus, spinning is fun!
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Best league yet, so far.
But I can't clear breaches fast enough with my bleed build, so I haven't killed any breachlords.
I currently have my now-defunct Spark Totem Hierophant, Scorching Ray Elementalist, and Bleeeeeed Gladiator to maps, and the elementalist is probably the best of them in terms of clearspeed, while the gladiator wins in survivability. Mostly. I hated the totem build, but it got me where I wanted to be.
I also have an RF Totem build through most of cruel, and it has been a lot of fun: Seriously powerful yet easy build. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on a wideswing with at least 4link.
And then a pretty normal cast on crit scion: definitely the best crit build I've ever done. I downgraded a dagger to a windowmaker because I had plenty of crit to hit the cap with charges (which I gain through the assassin ascendency and conduit), and have not regretted it. I've even considered using my consuming dark just to apply poison stacks, since I use herald of ash, but I don't know if that's actually a good idea. This build has the highest clearspeed so far, so it may have to be my main once I get through the rest of merciless.
Overall: If you have any interest in path of exile, this is by far the best league yet. Though admittedly the next one should be more exciting than even this one was!
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Resurrected my spark totem build because I found a Sire of Shards:
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With the league starting to wind down, my friend and I still decided to make two new characters each: He made an Abyssal Cry Berserker (Kripp's build), and I made an Oro Flicker Raider - both of us had a lot of fun, and he was finally able to run breaches: Additionally, we all got our challenges and unlocked the Breach portal.
With the new uniques, he set out to build a Tulfall Elementalist, while I went for an Obliteration Wander - both guaranteed to do a lot of damage... someday.
But next league I have big plans: a Sequential Elemental Cast on Critical Strike Elementalist - a build which may be horribly broken in a truly fun way. Certainly I hope to benefit from Elemental Conflux, Proliferation, and that one sequential one. It should be very interesting.
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Okay guys, here's the rundown this league:
- There are rocks you can pick up that activate old leagues
- You can use three at once
- They have random bonus mods as well
- Sometimes you can get a key to open a chest to get a pre-nerf foiled unique
- It starts on Friday, March 3rd.
I'm going in with a bleed gladiator, since 1h melee is getting buffed, and probably going to switch to a sequential cast on crit elementalist once I find a Tabula Rasa. I may change my mind and build off some league unique if I find one. My first build could change to a chaos witch possibly.
The League of Mighty Friends emblem is still <TDWTF>, and everyone is still welcome. This is the last league before the Ridiculously Huge Expansion, and maybe not the best time to start, but it should be a blast especially for returning players.
I hope to see some of you in there!
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Freedom in one hour. Going 1h Axe Bleediator.
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Going to start this league the same as every other league. Fireball. (least they finally made it good enough to use)
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I have no idea what this is all about
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@Dragoon Are you in the guild? If you want in, I can invite you.
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@RaceProUK Path of Exile has a league every 4 months or so with new special rules, so we're preparing to start the new one, which launched today. You're welcome to join us :D
EDIT: Note that our guild has several mechanics nerds, so we can ease you into the giant skill web without you getting too lost.
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@Magus Thanks, but I am in a guild with a few of my friends.
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@Magus Installing it on Sky Patrol now :D
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@RaceProUK Recommended starting builds: Anything using totems or spells. #1 piece of advice: Get lots of defensive-sounding things from the skill tree.
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So: Over this weekend we made it partway into cruel. Parties have been causing a lot of crashing, which seems crazy since it's never been a problem before, and it seems to be worst in the labyrinth. Still, a friend and I who are both in the same state don't crash very often. I only have once.
The leaguestones are incredibly common and incredibly powerful: I've never played Talisman before, but the leaguestones are probably about as worth it as anything can possibly be. They encourage you to take the game slow, and see all the sights that you will never see in quite the same way again after the new expansion. The challenges are easy and fun. Overall, this has just been a great league so far.
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Beyond with %inc chance to spawn + Breach with %increased density is hella fun. Generally throw in rampage when I run these, it can really help to deal with the massive number of spawns you can get.
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@Dragoon One of the challenges is to be on a rampage with a shrine effect and kill 100 breachspawn, so I'll probably do a bit of that combination later.
Still, as a physical build, these Breakrib Talismans make everything so much better!
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I've decided to write a basic build guide, because all the ones online are terrible. They teach effective builds, but aren't new player friendly. So, without further ado:
This game looks hard!
Indeed it does! A large part of the draw of this game is how much you can customize your build. This makes the game incredibly fun for experienced players, because there's no way you've tried everything before a new patch comes out and things change, but it also puts a major burden on new players, who may have a hard time figuring out what's going on. I'll do my best to start you off easy. Just remember not to overthink it. If you find a cool unique that you want to build around, ignore this guide :D
Creating your character:
Challenge Leagues
You'll notice that when you try creating a character, you're presented with a couple of flags. By default, your character will be created in the current 'league', a (usually four month) separate instance of the game, which has its own economy and special temporary rules which will likely be added to the main game. You will not lose your character when it ends, they will simply be moved to the permanent or 'standard' league. You may also play a hardcore version of the league, where your character (but not your stash) is moved to standard if it dies.
tldr: Just go with the default
Characters
Path of Exile has seven classes. The seventh is locked until your first character hits act 3, because that one can do fun niche builds, but is hard.What we're aiming for is to make this easy on you, so you'll basically want to decide if you want to be ranged or melee.
Melee
Pick Duelist. Use any 1h weapon you want, and a shield. If you decide to be a gladiator (which I recommend!) the only stat that matters on your weapon is physical damage. Anything else is a plus, but high physical hits pierce armor better and apply bleed and poison better, so they're your focus. If you don't go gladiator, elemental damage is probably what you want most.As far as passives, grab a few 1h weapon nodes, a shield cluster or two, the nearby leech cluster, (if gladiator, take the two bleed clusters) and then just worry about life and life regeneration. There's a lot straight above the duelist start. Elemental resistance will help a lot too. Don't worry too much about damage apart from what you get from shield nodes, because your weapon is far more important than your passives.
Then you have skills. Skills come in gems, which unlock the skill when socketed into an item. Some gems are support gems, and those help any gems linked to them (they don't even have to be adjacent, as long as they're a contiguous set of links). Basically, as a duelist, use whatever you want. Whatever feels good. I highly recommend Sunder, but seriously, use whatever you like. It really doesn't matter. (The exception being Double Strike - if you focus on elemental damage, use it. Otherwise, Heavy Strike is just better). This game even has three counterattack gems that work automatically, and as a melee shield user, you can use all of them!
Defensively, armor and evasion work differently, but you can pretty much use one or the other or both.
tl;dr: Duelist. 1h Axe and Shield. Sunder and Heavy Strike. Get all the life.
Ranged
You can be a ranger if you want, but I don't recommend it as your first build. I suggest a witch.Almost all of your damage comes from gems rather than items, so you don't have to minmax as hard. You'll want to find something you like. If you like mindless, pick Firestorm. It's kind of fun and really powerful, but can get boring. If you like safety, choose ice - it's powerful, and frozen enemies can't punch you. If you like killing things from a safe distance, pick chaos: chaos starts slow, but will definitely kill any enemy you come across, and leave plenty of time for you to dodge.
As a witch, you are fragile. You will need to dodge a lot. Your armor gives you energy shield (ES), which regenerates quickly, but ONLY out of combat - and chaos damage (like poison) goes right through it. If you can get around 4-6k ES, there's a node near the top of the tree called Chaos Inoculation (you can search for it) which sets your max life to 1 and makes you IMMUNE to chaos damage. It's very good, but you need to be prepared for it.
Note that if you aren't careful, the end of cruel will involve your repeated death, which may not be fun at all.
As for other passives, you may want damage for your chosen element (general spell damage is best, and works on chaos). If you're ice, take lots of spell critical strike chance nodes. But seriously, focus on energy shield mostly, and make sure you have enough mana and mana regeneration to keep on casting!
tl:dr: Witch. Ice Magic. Use daggers. Dodge things.
General
Pick up all currency items, all the scrolls and orbs and things. They're like money, and also let you craft things.
Ignore blue and white items except flasks. They aren't worth your time.
From cruel onward, pick up occasional white items that look useful You may be able to craft them.
Even with yellows, most of them are junk. Stay focused.
Unlock the labyrinth: There are simple mazes in the Prison, the Crypt, the Chamber of Sins, the Crematorium, the Catacombs, and the Hedge Maze. If you do them all, there is a special dungeon you can and should do in act 3. It will be very hard. Depending on the difficulty, you will need a minimum of 600/1200/2000 life to survive a hit from the boss, so prepare.
When you beat the game, the game repeats in cruel then merciless difficulties, before ending with the Atlas of Worlds. The later difficulties decrease your base elemental resistance. Armor does not apply to elemental damage, and evasion does not apply to spells, so you NEED elemental resistance. Try to keep it capped if possible.Conclusion
This guide is very imprecise, on purpose. Try things. Your first character may become useless in merciless (though probably not, if you get where this guide is aiming you). If so, try a new one. Find cool items, make cool builds. If you don't neglect your defenses, you should be fine! Just have fun!
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So: Legacy League is amazing.
DemonBloodLordTheThird is pretty much unstoppable now that he wields the crabhammer. I cannot recommend this build enough!
Meanwhile, I started a chaos firestorm build, as a Berserker with the Infernal Mantle, two Le Heup of All, two Consuming Dark, and a rather bad Rotfeather Talisman. I can't survive the third ascendency, but if I ever manage to, I will become a god of destruction, as the immense chaos damage and poison stacks I pour down on my enemies is already powerful.
My biggest issue is that I need better gloves, boots, and helmet, since those are the only sources of armor I'm able to get. (Grabbed a belt with a decent amount though) So, it's a good build, but very hard.
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Playing hardcore, I have lost a lot of chars this league, highest was 92, last (last night) was an 87 strength based RF chieftan. Was going to be my lab runner, running maps to get all the uber lab trials done (there is always that one that just never shows up). Caustic cloud from a zombie (with triple essence) wrecked my 7k life (my resist gear for mapping is weaker than my lab running gear so my health was a little low) in about 2 seconds. Was amazing, never seen caustic cloud wreck me like that. Oh well, on to another.
Currently leveling: A 12 aura necromancer, King of the forest Assassin (hopefully my future lab runner), my take on elementalist fireball (similar to mathils build, but mine was first damnit), and a non-discharge cospris mallice assassin.
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@Dragoon Hardcore sounds much too frustrating for me. I don't even know how I'll make my barbarian survive maps effectively, despite the insane leech. I can't even break 3k life without some incredibly good boots, helmet, and gloves... And izaro hits me for around 90% of that consistently.
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Just aim for ~180% life in the tree and with good gear you can hit 5-6k life. It is fairly easy with anything on the left side of the tree. It is really only hard to play life based as witch, shadow or ranger (ranger has it the easiest). You can always go CI though, and just easymode it through most things.
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@Dragoon The only thing making it hard is the Infernal Mantle. I need that extra 15% of fire as chaos, but it makes general defenses hard. I could get away with Kaom's Roots, and probably should, though I'll miss the movespeed. It's the gloves and hat I don't know about.
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Right, so, after ascending that build is still painfully weak. I think I need to find something better than Faster Casting + Increased AOE + Concentrated Effect. Thinking maybe Added Chaos Damage and Spell Echo to replace the last two might turn the tables, but I really need a 6L.
Meanwhile the gladiator continues to annihilate everything.
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@Magus So what are the links you are currently using?
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@Dragoon Like I said, faster casting, increased aoe, and conc effect.
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@Magus
Generally, you never want to stack inc AOE and conc effect. You swap them in/out as needed. Generally, inc aoe for clearing trash and swap it for conc when you run into a boss (with good damage outside of essences, no rares should warrant a gem swap).Faster casting vs. spell echo is personal preference really. I prefer faster casting as I don't like getting locked down by spell echo, but with enough cast speed total, that becomes a mute point. (Spell echo will be more damage, but it might feel a less responsive, so try it out and see how it feels)
Since you care about chaos, I would go with:
FC (or echo if you prefer), void manipulation, inc aoe/conc effect (swap as needed).
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@Dragoon Void Manipulation is a good point, I hadn't even been considering that. The only reason I'm using increased area of effect with conc is that I'd prefer the size to be about the same, but with more damage. Still, point is noted. I imagine I'll go Added Chaos, Void Manipulation, Faster Casting, and then my fifth link can be Spell Echo if I get that link, and sixth can be whichever area gem. Dunno. All I know is, after getting 40% more damage, my firestorm still feels incredibly weak. Making it really hard to willingly play the character.
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So, Void Manipulation + Faster Casting + Spell Echo + Added Chaos have tipped that character over to dealing insane amounts of damage. I'd like to add in one of the area gems if I ever get a 6L, but who knows.
Even so, though... I die too fast. I just don't have the armor. I have around 4k life, but only around 5k armor, and it seriously causes issues.
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Legacy League is coming to an end soon, and I will mourn it.
I'm at 21 challenges currently, with no hope of getting to 36... but I will get that weapon effect!
I'm off by one exile, one invasion boss, one tier 2 talisman boss, one ascendancy plaque, and a few other simple things. 4 Perandus chests seem impossible to find - but whatever, I'm going to do this!
I'll be skipping the beta. I want to play through ALL of it fresh! Besides, the new skills aren't even going to be in the beta!
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@Magus
Did you see that the league is extended to run throughout the beta?
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@Dragoon Oh what? That's the best news ever! Maybe I will run for the portal! (yeah right)
I want the portal, though :/
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@Magus I too want the portal, am currently at 22 but I can hit 30 without issue, it is those last 6 that will take some time.
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@Dragoon I'm seriously annoyed at how they implement some of the challenges.
Get 50 silver coins? Easy, I can do that with no leaguestone.
Fight every rogue exile? Yeah, good luck, you depend on RNG.
Open every kind of Perandus Chest? Yeah, right, those things are rare anyway!
Fight every warband leader? That, above all, will never happen.
If they'd done the typical, fight 10 warband leaders, or buy 10 items from Cadiro, some of these would be doable.
This is really messed up imo.
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@Magus
While it is RNG, those are all fairly easy if you play a lot. The Invasion bosses is one of the hardest, because of the shear number of talismans needed.The warbands can all be gotten even without stones, simply from the maps (and is arguably easier to do this way)
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@Dragoon The last two days, I ran invasion and anarchy maps all evening, and still havent met the last of each.
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Beta? What beta? Are they adding another act or something? Or a new engine?
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@blek 6 new acts, new gems, new items and a new system that gives defensive bonuses.
Edit: The new defensive system - http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Pantheon
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@Lathun Wow, six new acts? God damn, that's brutal. I guess I'll check it out when it's released.
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@blek I haven't been following PoE news that much lately but the original plan was to have the new acts replace cruel and merciless difficulties, which is a nice sounding change. Not sure if that is still the direction they're moving forward with but I hope so.
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@Lathun Yeah, I was just wondering that. Seems like that's the case:
Announcements - Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.
Not only have we removed the Cruel Difficulty and added Act 5, we've also removed Merciless Difficulty and added Acts 6 through 10. Yes, you read that right! It's one ten-act playthrough.
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@blek It's so cool! The beta is starting soon, and will have the first 8 acts with no new skills, but it'll be where they test the new balance changes mostly.
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@accalia The end of this will be a thing.
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So, we begin once more on the 4th, and anyone who wants in the LeagueOfMightyFriends is welcome.
With six new acts, new supports and actives, and defensive god-bonuses, there should be a lot of new stuff to see.
My starting character is going to use Ball Lightning, supported by Added Cold Damage (maybe I'll ditch that if I get a Call of Brotherhood), Innervate, and that cold one (Hypothermia?).
With that said, I have a number of choices to make: I might be best off as a Raider for the phase-dodge and damage increase, but I could benefit about as strongly from the golems and free proliferation of an Elementalist, or the crit-stuff of an inquisitor.
The more I think about it, the more I favor Raider, since onslaught and frenzy charges are going to be on me all the time with this build, but I wouldn't really need to apply them with a support either if so, which would free up some supports.
Anyone else interested in playing? This should be a great time for new players and old alike, and you're all welcome of course!
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Yup should be lots of fun. Going to try the new lightning skill (with CotB, because freeze everything), with the new pantheon reduced reflect power, i might try inquisitor but I will probably do elementalist.
Going to make another malice char, because that was tons of fun last league, and I died early on him, so I want to see how far I can take it.
Will probably have another ele-spectral throw raider and likely do an ED occultist as well.
Plus 5-10 more as I die on all of these.
HC can be brutal.
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@dragoon Definitely worth considering the new Ailment stuff. I'm fairly certain Essence Drain will actually be better than ever, but for instance I think you could have some pretty good success with an AoF Sunder Berserker with Herald of Ash, especially depending on how Emberwake works now.
