[Megathread] Path of Exile

[falagar112]

I really dig arpgs.

I've tried playing half a dozen to a dozen times, and the game never got it's hooks in me. But each time they added stuff, I'd spend more time before I wandered off. I'm not sure if it's the hype with the new league, or just how the breach league plays, or hype for the new expac, but it's finally got it's grubby little claws into me.

Go find a build that looks cool as shit to you and work toward it. Unlock all the things. And prep yourself for Legacy league, which looks like a fantastic time to start playing.

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This so bloody much. The first couple of acts lack any form of personality. Once you get to act 3 it starts picking up both visually and personality.

And then you have that wonderful moment where it dawns on you just how much depth the game has.

The depth is amazing, considering that after playing actively since closed beta, there's still many builds and things I've yet to try (and want to try!)

[Slaughty8]

If You are a new to PoE I strongly suggest to take a look at beginner friendly veeery popular builds. Examples:
Earthquake
Firestrom
Tornado Shoot
Summoner
Totems

The gameplay experience is insanely different if You play a good and comfortable builds vs trying to make Your own and being destroyed in mercilless.

[unfilteredJW]

If You are a new to PoE I strongly suggest to take a look at beginner friendly veeery popular builds. Examples:
Earthquke
Firestrom
Tornado Shoot
Summoner
Totems

The gameplay experience is insanely different if You play a good and comfortable builds vs trying to make Your own and being destroyed in mercilless.

Yeah I've been doing this ranger cyclone build I found and it's an absolute blast.

Finishing Act 3 as we speak for the first time.

[Lysah]

I think i've chosen what to do - i'm running with frost golem (cast on dmg taken) so once i find a cool cold spell to couple with CWC i'll take lementalist and then get the witch starting point so i can take all those sexy cold damage/dual wield sexy nodes.

I just hope my HP pool is decent - how can i increse my HP without looking for nodes? I took some but now i'm wondering if i'm going too much offensive.

www.poeurl.com/3lJ

Here is an example of a generic non-crit fire caster build I might make to give you an idea of how much life to aim for (I would also put life jewels in every single one of those jewel sockets). While playing life builds your typical plan should be to go for all nearby life nodes and sockets and simply grab whatever damage and utility is close by. This is especially difficult as you start mixing in more mechanics, like auras and curses or crit chance or a second layer of defense, because THOSE points will generally force you to start dropping damage.

[Coldkil]

You can't. Life is from either flat life on gear (and a very few % life on gear) and/or life% passives.
As for what is "to glasscannon", I wouldn't dare running below ~150% worth of life nodes

A cool cold spell (lol) to couple with CwC? Icestorm! (it's a skill from the weapon "The Whispering Ice" ) it is exactly what I play right now, Elementalist too. I do convert all cold to fire damage though

Ok, so the plan is instascrapped. I have a backup plan already since i've checked for another path on the tree wich is running near a lot of life nodes. At the moment i think damage is more than fine, just i'm at 1.5k hp and runnign act4 cruel :P

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www.poeurl.com/3lJ

Here is an example of a generic non-crit fire caster build I might make to give you an idea of how much life to aim for (I would also put life jewels in every single one of those jewel sockets). While playing life builds your typical plan should be to go for all nearby life nodes and sockets and simply grab whatever damage and utility is close by. This is especially difficult as you start mixing in more mechanics, like auras and curses or crit chance or a second layer of defense, because THOSE points will generally force you to start dropping damage.

My build is going to the exact opposite side of the tree :P anyway now that i've fleshed out the damage i suppose i'll just go for life nodes.
I think i did a "good" choice into defining the dmagae nodes immediately, so now i can just sit back on them and aim for defenses.

[falagar112]

Ok, so the plan is instascrapped. I have a backup plan already since i've checked for another path on the tree wich is running near a lot of life nodes. At the moment i think damage is more than fine, just i'm at 1.5k hp and runnign act4 cruel :P

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My build is going to the exact opposite side of the tree :P anyway now that i've fleshed out the damage i suppose i'll just go for life nodes.
I think i did a "good" choice into defining the dmagae nodes immediately, so now i can just sit back on them and aim for defenses.

You should be fine until around dried lake in merciless before you start to notice the lack of hp nodes/gear. And because the higher level you get, the slower the levels become - I prefer sorting my surviveability early and my damage nodes can be taken later on.

There's no dps checks in this game until very far ahead in endgame, so surviveability is king early on.

Also, and this is very important. Having "just" life/es isn't a competitive strategy, it's not enough
You need to layer defences. Life/ES + block/dodge/evasion/armor/flasks/leech/defensive auras/curses and so on.
The difference between a shaper smash with just ES and a shaper smash with flasks+enfeeble is like 12k damage vs 5.4k damage.

edit:
when you play ES you *can* get away taking no es% nodes on the passive tree. My current char actually does that, it doesn't have any es% node except CI. The reason for that is Intelligence giving 1% es per 5 int - so my 1700 int gives me 340% es

[Gallahadd]

Ok so... I've been watching a lot of videos about Fall of Oriath and I'm super hyped, but I've noticed something.

Whenever they have gameplay, the people only seem to be using about 4 skills. One aura, one move, one shout and an attack...

Am I the only one that has my action bar full, and uses everyone one of those abilities?

[Lysah]

Ok so... I've been watching a lot of videos about Fall of Oriath and I'm super hyped, but I've noticed something.

Whenever they have gameplay, the people only seem to be using about 4 skills. One aura, one move, one shout and an attack...

Am I the only one that has my action bar full, and uses everyone one of those abilities?

Depends. Summoners never have enough buttons, as melee usually I bind my attack to 4 different buttons because you only need two or three.

[Gallahadd]

Depends. Summoners never have enough buttons, as melee usually I bind my attack to 4 different buttons because you only need two or three.

Yeah, that makes sense. I guess in demos the tend to give them to super easy-mode builds to play, because there's no point giving them some insane build that takes 15 different keybinds, if they're only using the character for one boss fight.

[Slaughty8]

Does anyone know which spells are the best paired with Void Batteries? I finally got a Void Battery and I'am wondering if Arc is the only spell worth going.

[Lysah]

Does anyone know which spells are the best paired with Void Batteries? I finally got a Void Battery and I'am wondering if Arc is the only spell worth going.

Anything crit based basically. Pair it with the assassin ascendancy and you can play whatever spell ya like.

[Coldkil]

You should be fine until around dried lake in merciless before you start to notice the lack of hp nodes/gear. And because the higher level you get, the slower the levels become - I prefer sorting my surviveability early and my damage nodes can be taken later on.

There's no dps checks in this game until very far ahead in endgame, so surviveability is king early on.

Also, and this is very important. Having "just" life/es isn't a competitive strategy, it's not enough
You need to layer defences. Life/ES + block/dodge/evasion/armor/flasks/leech/defensive auras/curses and so on.
The difference between a shaper smash with just ES and a shaper smash with flasks+enfeeble is like 12k damage vs 5.4k damage.

edit:
when you play ES you *can* get away taking no es% nodes on the passive tree. My current char actually does that, it doesn't have any es% node except CI. The reason for that is Intelligence giving 1% es per 5 int - so my 1700 int gives me 340% es

I found pretty much the opposite - if i can oneshot stuff before they even attack me + life leech is more than fine. I had way less issues with Cruel Daresso than with normal.

Anyway: i'm currently filling the %life nodes i had near me. I can respec a couple of loose points i've thrown around for no actual reason and use them to reach other stuff. I knew already that i needed to layer defenses - i'm stacking evasion plus have some life leech/life on hit (Poacher's mark + blasphemy) and have Arctic Armour on; have an evasion flask which i spam and an all restance one. Major issue i have now is to avoid being oneshot, but i'm aiming to the 2k hp mark for the moment. There is a nice evasion+onslaught node just 2 points far so i'll take that once i finished the life%.

I think the build is fleshed out. Atm i'm leveling the Vortex gem before putting it into cwc (using bladefall at the moment) so i'll check later if it works better or not.

[falagar112]

I found pretty much the opposite - if i can oneshot stuff before they even attack me + life leech is more than fine. I had way less issues with Cruel Daresso than with normal.

Anyway: i'm currently filling the %life nodes i had near me. I can respec a couple of loose points i've thrown around for no actual reason and use them to reach other stuff. I knew already that i needed to layer defenses - i'm stacking evasion plus have some life leech/life on hit (Poacher's mark + blasphemy) and have Arctic Armour on; have an evasion flask which i spam and an all restance one. Major issue i have now is to avoid being oneshot, but i'm aiming to the 2k hp mark for the moment. There is a nice evasion+onslaught node just 2 points far so i'll take that once i finished the life%.

I think the build is fleshed out. Atm i'm leveling the Vortex gem before putting it into cwc (using bladefall at the moment) so i'll check later if it works better or not.

Yeah it is because you've yet to get higher level

Once you hit act 3 merciless, difficulty goes up a fair amount, and act 4 merciless is in my opinion quite a bit harder then most <t10 maps even.

As life you have it a little easier as you can gear up before you hit that point. ES doesn't have that luxury as all good ES gear pretty much requires level 68 -so those builds just rush to dried lake in merciless and farm up to 68 there. Got there on my last char with 900 hp, no life nodes taken

On life builds I try to get above 3k hitpoints before I hit act 3 merciless, then aim for between 4 and 5k endgame build. 4k is on the low end and requires dodging endgame attacks (but perfectly doable, killed uber atziri on my old 4.1k hp tornado shot ranger before ascendancies!) and 5k is on the "I can survive most things" level.

This does require a fair amount of armor etc to mitigate physical damage - but a granite with %armor and a basalt flask pretty much get you like 50% physical damage reduction already.

PS. I haven't tried these in a while but I have a feeling that bladefall might actually beat vortex in CwC - but neither are close to the madness that is CwC Firestorm (converting it to chaos damage) and Icestorm (whispering ice staff)

I wouldn't actually advice going CwC Icestorm though, because it uses meta gear and is very expensive to gear up because of that - it has cost me over 25ex to gear and that is not counting some self crafted pieces that would sell for an easy 10+ a piece.

edit:
You are correct that cruel is generally easier then normal. You have better gear and higher level skills (and access to more of them) - so speed wise it's a lot faster.
I generally take like 6 hours to get through normal yet cruel takes maybe an hour or two. Then in Merciless it really slows down unless you have the gear to twink really.

edit2: try switching your poachers mark to warlords mark. The 2% flat life/mana leech is quite a lot better than the life on hit from poachers.

[Coldkil]

-snip-

Ok, will aim to reach at least 3k hp - hope to reach merciless tonight (first time i ever reached it) and see how it goes later. I'll probably farm some more levels (65 in my head) just to clear Cruel with less issues and just go YOLO on bosses if i must. I just need the Kaom gem and then Piety/Malachai.

Bladefall seems to work pretty good so i'll stick with that. I tried blade vortex and while the damage is pretty good (plus it stacks easily to 7-12 blades) having people always in melee isn't that feasible while i can aoe zerg people from a distance.

I've yet to tackle anything about crafting though i know i'll need a 6link chest as fast as i can to buff the main attack and then work on the rest for more defenses/auras. Though my mana reserve is completely drained atm XD

[falagar112]

Ok, will aim to reach at least 3k hp - hope to reach merciless tonight (first time i ever reached it) and see how it goes later. I'll probably farm some more levels (65 in my head) just to clear Cruel with less issues and just go YOLO on bosses if i must. I just need the Kaom gem and then Piety/Malachai.

Bladefall seems to work pretty good so i'll stick with that. I tried blade vortex and while the damage is pretty good (plus it stacks easily to 7-12 blades) having people always in melee isn't that feasible while i can aoe zerg people from a distance.

I've yet to tackle anything about crafting though i know i'll need a 6link chest as fast as i can to buff the main attack and then work on the rest for more defenses/auras. Though my mana reserve is completely drained atm XD

Don't farm more levels, just yolo through after killing piety in cruel, just ignore everything unless you have to kill it (bosses) until you reach act 1 merciless. It's not worth the time/deaths to stick around in cruel. 65 is way to high as well, it will just give you an xp penalty for most of merciless (merciless act 3 is lower level then that already)

In act 1 merciless you can farm up a few levels on the ledge (quick and easy as 2 reset points and one long clear) instead, or just push through to dried lake in act 4 and farm up there instead

6 link chest is the last thing you should worry about. It's a luxury that most people cannot afford even. I cleared all endgame content before I got my own 6 link this league. I put over 3000 fusing into an amazing chest and failed... had to buy a 6 link instead

you can use an "enlighten" gem linked to your auras, it reduces mana reservation

personally I farm up to level 60 on act 1 merciless ledge if I reach there before that level, and then farm to 68 in act 4 dried lake. Then sort my resists/gear and start the low level maps.

[Coldkil]

Don't farm more levels, just yolo through after killing piety in cruel, just ignore everything unless you have to kill it (bosses) until you reach act 1 merciless. It's not worth the time/deaths to stick around in cruel. 65 is way to high as well, it will just give you an xp penalty for most of merciless (merciless act 3 is lower level then that already)

In act 1 merciless you can farm up a few levels on the ledge (quick and easy as 2 reset points and one long clear) instead, or just push through to dried lake in act 4 and farm up there instead

6 link chest is the last thing you should worry about. It's a luxury that most people cannot afford even. I cleared all endgame content before I got my own 6 link this league. I put over 3000 fusing into an amazing chest and failed... had to buy a 6 link instead

you can use an "enlighten" gem linked to your auras, it reduces mana reservation

personally I farm up to level 60 on act 1 merciless ledge if I reach there before that level, and then farm to 68 in act 4 dried lake. Then sort my resists/gear and start the low level maps.

Ok, i am currently 61 so i suppose i'll just go straight to the core. Will check also for the Enlighten gem but i don't think i'll have the socket ready - though it will definitely be needed since i have currenctly 3 or 4 passive effect active the whole time.

Will need also to do Cruel lab for those ascendant points.

[falagar112]

Ok, i am currently 61 so i suppose i'll just go straight to the core. Will check also for the Enlighten gem but i don't think i'll have the socket ready - though it will definitely be needed since i have currenctly 3 or 4 passive effect active the whole time.

Will need also to do Cruel lab for those ascendant points.

I believe cruel lab is 58, so might wait a little with that!

Normal lab is fairly easy but cruel is a little step up, I just go back for it after I hit 68 on dried lake - I don't like dying in lab, I don't have the game on a SSD so they take long enough as is

But yes if you are already 61, wouldn't stick around anywhere and just progress towards dried lake in merciless, and you can catch up a little there. It's an amazing map to start farming some currency to gear yourself up meanwhile.

Enlighten doesn't do anything when it's level 1 (it only goes up to level 3 and requires a LOT of xp to level up) - on lvl2 it gives 96% mana modifier and on lvl 3 92%. Saves 8% reservation per aura it is linked to, so if you use a lot of them like me (sounds like it, with 4 already) it might give you the mana to add another aura in

I go from 60 unreserved to almost 300 unreserved with a lvl 3

edit:
Figures that needs a little better explanation on how xp/loot works:
Your level -4/+4 = xp penalty range. So when it's 5 levels lower or higher you start getting a penalty.
Loot works exactly the same way, farm a to low level area you get that penalty. But the loot caps out on area level 68 - so even when you are level 100 you will never get a penalty as long as you farm 68 and up.

Dried lake is 67, making it one of the better places to farm, if it was 68 it would be perfect.

[Coldkil]

edit:
Figures that needs a little better explanation on how xp/loot works:
Your level -4/+4 = xp penalty range. So when it's 5 levels lower or higher you start getting a penalty.
Loot works exactly the same way, farm a to low level area you get that penalty. But the loot caps out on area level 68 - so even when you are level 100 you will never get a penalty as long as you farm 68 and up.

Dried lake is 67, making it one of the better places to farm, if it was 68 it would be perfect.

Ok, that's nice. I suppose that lvl 68+ areas are the last act4 zones and maps. I defintely need to go through that i'm curious about how i can go in endgame.

Side note, i play completely solo self found. I don't trade at all and i don't care much about how much time it takes to get something - i'll just farm my way through it until i'm fine otherwise i roll a new char and so on. Then when i have a heap of chars i just jump from one to another XD

[Deleted]

I hope we kill Gul'dan before the new league starts.

[falagar112]

Ok, that's nice. I suppose that lvl 68+ areas are the last act4 zones and maps. I defintely need to go through that i'm curious about how i can go in endgame.

Side note, i play completely solo self found. I don't trade at all and i don't care much about how much time it takes to get something - i'll just farm my way through it until i'm fine otherwise i roll a new char and so on. Then when i have a heap of chars i just jump from one to another XD

Exactly why you shouldn't start investing currency into getting a 6 link straight away. For the price you will pay on average to get one, you can sort every other slot in your gear for less then that price

And that is self crafting of course, not buying. Even though I am not a SSF player, I do usually end up crafting a lot of my own gear simply because I either cannot find the stats I am looking for, or people are just overpricing it in my eyes. Not to mention.. crafting is fun. It's like gambling in diablo 2 but with more control over the outcome!

And yes act 4 merciless is pretty much 68-70. Only the entry area and dried lake are 67. Because of being an amazing layout, dried lake is still better as the 68 areas afterwards though. There's used to be an area called kaom's path towards Kaom that was even better (ledge layout and actually 68/9) but they removed that area to make act 4 a little shorter. Mixed feelings about that obviously haha.

Maps start at 68 yea. Tier 1 is 68, and it goes up to t16 (83), and Shaper is "t17" being 84.

That also means that above level 88, even if you'd farm the highest level maps non stop, you will be getting an xp penalty. That's why level 100 takes forever, it isn't just the xp required, but farming it with the penalty in place :P



those boots was my best crafting result this league. Alt+regal spammed the light res/move speed and intelligence roll, used 2 exalted on it to get the fire resistance and es%, mastercrafted flat es, gg boots!