Path of Exile



  • @magus said in Path of Exile:

    For the builds I've been playing, the only thing that seems to kill me is Elder. The dive attack and the damage over time are the things that make it hard... the rest seems fine.

    The dive attack you can avoid, when he jumps in the air and throws the shards he targets where you are standing, so have to move right than. I generally move around as soon as he starts the attack and just keep moving until he slams back down.

    The DOT he does is entirely physical, so physical mitigation helps a lot, especially the pantheon that reduces phys damage over time. I take that plus soul of solaris for the reduced single target damage taken as his biggest damage attacks are when he has no adds.



  • @dragoon said in Path of Exile:

    The DOT he does is entirely physical, so physical mitigation helps a lot, especially the pantheon that reduces phys damage over time. I take that plus soul of solaris for the reduced single target damage taken as his biggest damage attacks are when he has no adds.

    That's a good point.

    I also seem to die a lot to something stunning or slowing me or being in the middle of casting when he starts using infinite tentacle slam.



  • @magus

    He has a teleport behind you move that he follows up with a phys degen aoe (180 degrees in front of him for a decent distance) that stuns you. Nothing you can do but tank it, save your flasks for those if you don't have good regen/mitigation. My trickster had ~700 hp/sec and that was just barely short of being enough so it is somewhere in that area of damage.



  • @dragoon That's like the one part I can deal with consistently.



  • So, they said they were going to give us like the league name or something this past weekend, and they didn't. But yesterday they finished the press tour, and we'll be finding out what the new 'biggest league yet' is on Thursday.

    I'm super excited, and forcefully avoiding the game to prevent burnout.



  • @magus said in Path of Exile:

    I'm super excited, and forcefully avoiding the game to prevent burnout.

    Yeah, I should be doing that as well. At 29 challenges with the others in reach. I really want to hit 36 for the first time ever. Hopefully I can push really hard this week and get them done and than take time off until the next league.



  • @dragoon I decided that the wings were enough. The league portal is awesome, but the supporter one is fine...



  • Well, here it is:

    They buffed the chieftain through the roof, and changed the unimportant parts of Berserker to be cool. And so many other cool things. This really will be awesome.



  • With the small amount of information we have to go from since yesterday, my options have changed and increased. I still intend to go Magma Orb, but Berserker has been eliminated, while Chieftain and Hierophant are now both very good options. We'll have to see though; Deadeye was an okay choice before, and Raider could be too. And Ascendant is going to be really interesting to see... Much to wait for.



  • So, I now have to decide between Hierophant and Trickster. Trickster may just be better, especially if I get a gloomfang and no longer have leech issues.

    Today will be stash sorting day...

    And then tomorrow? The new adventure begins!



  • @magus said in Path of Exile:

    Today will be stash sorting day...

    I have I don't know how many hundreds of tabs (remove only) in hardcore perma-league. Organizing that is never going to happen, haha.



  • @dragoon I always keep my currency tabs and such at the start, so they get jumbled close together. Those I sort.



  • Three builds so far:

    1. Reached act 10 as a trickster using magma orb. It's beautifully strong, but needs more defenses. Gloomfang is still too expensive.
    2. Trying to make a generic frostbolt build. Not very far along. It's fine. It's been a while.
    3. Dude beastcrafting is the best. I got Brutus' Lead Sprinkler of all things! Making an infinitely powerful chieftain.


  • @magus

    Just got my Scorching Ray trickster to maps last night. Died on a different build just before maps so had to level this one. Time to push maps and start making money so I can try out many of the fun builds I didn't get to last league.

    Beast crafting is okay, the ability to catch things really depends on the skills you are using. My first char was using blade vortex and it was almost impossible to catch anything.



  • @dragoon They kind of fixed it, though. You can throw the net while the enemy is at full life even, as long as you kill it quickly enough once the net lands.



  • @magus

    That certainly helps, but with a blade vortex + profane bloom combo I can detonate an entire pack as soon as it appears.



  • So, as it stands now:

    • The Mighty and Powerful Trickster, by the name of MagiciansRed, has reached, at this time, the seventy-ninth Level, having completed around 35 Maps, and equipped the illustrious Gloomfang. In Power, this mighty fighter can little be Bested, though Survivability, it seems, is not on his side.

    • The Indomitable Chiftain who goes by the name FireIsAlsoCool has gone forth, raining fiery doom appon all who Approach. His mighty weapon, Brutus' Lead Sprinkler grants for him great Potential, as does his role, greatly favoring strength. In Speed alone he does not Excel, yet a bright future awaits one who cannot fall in Battle. For him, the Mapping has only just Begun.

    • In the reborn SilverChariot, the Shocking Intellect of the Elementalist is shown most truly. Wielding the mighty twin blades of the great Terror Fidelitas, Safety is a Top Concern. As such, this warrioress of elemental mastery pelts Enemies from Afar with the venerable Spectral Throw. Having Ascended, at last, for the first time, this Journey has only just Begun, but it shall Truly be one to Remember.



  • @magus

    Not having a great league so far, lost 4? chars at various stages. Made it to maps with one of them, not really feeling this league so far. Probably not going to go super hard in it.



  • @dragoon This is probably one of the hardest leagues in a long time. We got massive power buffs, but the enemies got far more dangerous. The legendary beasts can get pretty ridiculous, too.

    But the player buffs and new keyword stuff just makes all of this incredibly fun. 125% herald of thunder should be really cool!



  • So, my spectral throw Maligaro's Spike build is going quite well. Killed Innocence last night, the fastest I ever have. My DPS is higher on a 4L than it is for most characters I make until like an act later, and I don't think it counts all the multihitting. I only just found out that Steel Spirit doesn't have a maximum number, so I may scale most of my damage with those, and then get my Inpulsa for ultimate power. It's possible that high-end foils could out-damage the 'Spikes, but if so I can use Herald of Ash, so no real loss there.

    I'd forgotten just how awesome spectral throw is.



  • @magus Yeah, spectral throw is a lot of fun.



  • So:

    • Spectral Throw build is complete. I switched to Hyaon's Fury, which didn't change my damage and lowered my attackspeed. Found a Maligaro's Restraint right as I leveled to 68, which is when I was able to use Inpulsa's. The build is now good. But not quite as good as I'd hoped. Needs way more life.
    • Haven't played the 'Sprinkler build lately. It's still really powerful and hard to kill, but dies sometimes for stupid reasons. Needs better resists and regen.
    • My starter is still my strongest, with those chaos-dealing Magma Orbs ripping through absolutely everything. Super squishy, though. Died in every elder guardian fight except the Constricter and had to let my friend take care of the rest of the fight (Was his atlas). But then we fought the Elder: Apparently my friend's scorching ray never gets through the energy shield, and the Elder just starts regenerating it mid combat. So we can't kill the elder.
    • Started a Kinetic Blast berserker, who has only barely reached Twyzel mode. Good character so far, but kind of weak. Plenty of potential. This will be very elemental.
    • Flame Blast Assassin is fun.

    I think either my friend or I will do an Essence Drain Trickster this time. My friend was thinking of Righteous Fire on a Trickster, but that seems slightly less appropriate. Unless one were to use... both...

    EDIT: It's also worth thinking about Dark Pact totems. That would be some serious damage...



  • Got the Wand Berserker through the second ascendency (carried by a friend) and got my damage boost, then went and got the 30% of wand damage added as extra lightning damage node. My build is starting to be very good now.

    With Physical to Lightning and some Stormchargers, my damage is almost pure lightning, and that feels SO GOOD. Still need to reach the other two elemental wand nodes, and then everything should be awesome.



  • So I have now made a lot of characters. More than in any previous league. Some have been successful, some have not. Elementalists seem completely amazing, and the balance changes have been so extreme that I can no longer recommend a starting character for anyone, I don't think. Because they all work, and so well too!

    Flashback is coming at the end of the week, though, and I am super excited. Probably going to do an elementalist, just because its easy. Anyone else up for 3 random leagues + Bestiary, changing every hour?



  • @magus
    I took this expansion off. Just wasn't feeling it and I still have a giant backlog of games to play. But, I plan to run the Flashback league, they are always fun.

    Really want some of the old races as well. BLAMT is madness, uber beyond and uber breach are also insane.



  • @dragoon This expansion really changed up the game, in ways that are hard to describe. It's become very difficult to say that any given ascendency is better than another anymore. There are still some favorite ones, and, for instance, chieftain has no attackspeed, but the parity is way closer than it's ever been, despite the ascendencies being far more distinct.



  • Decided on my flashback build: Volatile Dead Elementalist. Should be able to get away with something silly like Ice Bite, and just rush through the whole thing effortlessly. VD takes added damage well, after all.



  • Down to just over an hour, guys! And yet I won't get home for another hour after that at least. :(



  • So, the volatile dead build works great, though its limited without my uber ascension. Can definitely recommend that build to anyone.

    Then I started a new play on the old spark farmer builds: A Spark Slayer. None of the Slayer's minor nodes help me at all, but most of the major ones are amazing: The 20% cull applies to spells, and so does the 20% more damage if you've killed recently. I Haven't managed the cruel ascension yet, but I can recommend this as a legit offclass option. May start the next league with it!



  • So, looks like Incursion League is going to be all about time travel, so you can kill all the Aztecs in the past AND the present. The unique sword sequence on the announcement page makes a frost blades elementalist sound insanely overpowered.



  • Current starter plan:
    Spark Slayer is cheap, effective, and has just been buffed. Definitely going for it despite the inherent problems, because it's amazing.

    Later:
    Elemental Hit Berserker, probably with brightbeaks. Should be insanely fast and powerful.



  • I am going to start with a resurrected classic. Elemental proliferation Flameblast.



  • The servers are down in preparation for the launch. Steam hasn't started showing the patch yet. But it's ALMOST TIME!

    Honestly less excited than last league somehow. Maybe because this one can never really go standard, where the last should've. But the new builds and items are still super exciting.



  • This league is awesome, possibly the best yet.

    My Spark Slayer still hasn't cleared the game, but my Berserker did very quickly. He might be faster than my deadeye was. However! As soon as I hit maps, I started dying instantly to any incursion with vaal constructs. I have no easy way to solve my chaos problem. One of my strongest characters ever, proving that Elemental hit does have legs.

    So I started an Occultist who will eventually use essence drain, contagion, and CI - just so chaos never bothers me again. But I've played chaos spells every single league for years now, so I got bored.

    Tried leveling a Flame Blast character, but ended up abandoning that for now in favor of a Consuming Dark Incinerate Poison Trickster, which has been fairly great.

    But then I found a second Story of the Vaal, and thought about something... An elementalist with two of those would be amazing, right? And what if I used Wild Strike? Sure enough, it's completely insane. Only level 39, and it crushes screens of things immediately. Just need some more attackpeed and it'll be golden. Wild Strike is still better than Elemental Hit, even without the Elemental Equilibrium - it's just an insanely good skill.



  • So, I haven't mentioned anything lately, but I went with Mathil's suggestion and tried a Blade Vortex Chieftain for the flashback. It's easy, cheap, and OP. Can recommend. And then today I notice:

    (Note that the following is in fact a link to the page for the new league, Delve)



  • So yeah, unless we find out there are some particularly amazing new skills (Though honestly, the wording of that new lightning attack being such that it gives you specifically an aura means Skeleton Guardian will certainly be worth considering!), I'll probably be the chieftain I've been using in Incursion Flashback, because it's OP and easy and can just autokill anything that approaches the light.



  • Man this looks great:


  • Considered Harmful

    @Magus Online-only? Lighting discussed instead of gameplay? The servers are in New Zealand? SIGN ME UP!



  • @Gribnit said in Path of Exile:

    Online-only?

    Yes. Even in the fully solo mode. Which I understand, even if it can be a pain at times.

    @Gribnit said in Path of Exile:

    Lighting discussed instead of gameplay?

    Gameplay was discussed mostly during the announcement trailer and some of the other news posts, but people are pretty excited about the engine improvements, since the game plays rather well. The start can be slightly rough, since many skills have minor warmup animations that get mitigated by attack/cast speed improvements, but early on that makes the game somewhat stiff.

    @Gribnit said in Path of Exile:

    The servers are in New Zealand?

    And everywhere else.

    @Gribnit said in Path of Exile:

    SIGN ME UP!

    It is free.



  • So people are worried by the post announcing the new physical herald skill, Herald of Purity. Many people seem to hate minions, while I see a few more things to soak damage for you to be rather helpful.

    Mostly people are worried about the announcement that the first of the new Guardian nodes will increase the amount of added physical damage you get from the herald, and the one beyond it will benefit it even more: They read that as guardian being focused toward this one skill. But most guardian effects are aura/reservation focused as it is, so it could be something like "25% increased effect of heralds" or "25% increased added damage" or something crazy like that, with the one beyond it being "Your heralds apply to minions" or "Added damage to attacks also applies to minions" - the kind of things they seem more likely to go with would make it a very good alternative to necromancer for a strong minion build.

    The thing I'm interested in seeing is that herald with phantasm on kill; I don't know that I'd like the reservation, but you'd automatically summon quite an effective army just by fighting.

    So what we know: 2 new bow gems, 1 new herald, 1 new melee gem, one new support, where 3 of those we haven't seen the gem for. There are still 4 more gems, one of which is a totem gem. I'm still very curious.



  • Stash sorting will commence tonight or tomorrow.

    Meanwhile I may make a guide website, with a different goal than most Path of Exile guides and things.

    Plan is still to go Blade Vortex Chieftain this league, though I really need to see what Guardian's got now...



  • So, Blade Vortex is an unmitigated success. Easiest build I've ever played, despite building it sort of wrong.

    I've just barely started an Abyssal Cry Berserker, and am seriously looking forward to seeing how it goes. I found a Cane of Unraveling, so most likely it will go very well indeed.

    As for Delve: This is the best league these guys have ever built. Endless scaling and goals to accomplish, with all sorts of rewards: I am almost to a Vaal biome, and have a Perandus-themed node very close by. The excitement only rises. This feels like Legacy league, but without the fiddly annoyance. There's some creepiness, crazy rewards, and a feeling of true challenge. Everything I could want!

    And the Zana update! All her quests are now choices between maps that she adds past league modifiers to! It's the best thing I've ever seen! Now is the time to play this game.



  • Also, this may help anyone playing this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7mj5q8iYUc



  • Yeah, Delve has been fun so far. Flares and dynamite are a little clunky, I wish they would throw like traps, but outside of that it has been enjoyable.



  • @Dragoon They apparently will, soon.



  • I have far too many builds now.

    My last two delves, though, have been interesting: Both had depths, and different liches. Both dropped Darkness Enthroned and a Bubonic Trail, the latter of which I stared at for a bit, and then went and looked at the Soulwrest I'd found much earlier.

    I am now leveling a guardian who will walk around to summon minions.



  • As usual in HC I have lost many chars, but my BV chieftan is doing great (the second one that I made, the first died to me being stupid and thinking I could face tank dual rigwald with added lightning and boss damage). Starting either a gloomfang magma orb inquisitor or a max block agony crawler gladiator this week.



  • @Dragoon Yeah, my BV chieftain is still towing my atlas and delve progression. Still haven't made the plunge to 200 yet, but soon probably - I'm at around 145 or so, and 87 atlas bonuses.

    My friend tried gloomfang, and like me couldn't manage to make it capable of surviving, but that damage is great.



  • So, this league, my chieftain is still my strongest build. He struggles because he has to get too close to enemies, but really everything else is perfect. One of my best characters ever.

    As of yesterday, I got my new toxic rain CI trickster to level 70 and 6k ES, and it is already approaching taking the crown, since it's the fastest character I've ever progressed with. Expecting a huge nerf to the skill next league.

    Speaking of which, I'll probably be hosting a guild league, now that we can buy private economy zones. I probably won't make it more difficult, since the point is to make it just a small community league. Interested to see what else they announce today!



  • @Magus

    My friends and I are going to play softcore for the first time next league. We want to try the hardest content, something that we don't get to try very often always playing in hardcore.


Log in to reply