[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Coldkil]

Hmm, so you think it's better just to focus purely on the Chaos damage, ED/Contagion side of things and forget the wand damage?

Yes if you build around spells. And actually i cannot concieve a build about wand damage being the most part of dps. Wands are nice because of stats and flat spell damage increase + dual wield wand nodes that increase cast speed.

[falagar112]

Yes if you build around spells. And actually i cannot concieve a build about wand damage being the most part of dps. Wands are nice because of stats and flat spell damage increase + dual wield wand nodes that increase cast speed.

You can make amazing phys wand builds!

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/vi...1822695/page/1

There you go

edit: even after wand implicit buffs, most actual spellcasters prefer daggers still. Because with a dagger you can use whirling blades which is one of the best, if not best movement skills ingame. While with wands you're kinda locked into using shitty lightning warp!

[Coldkil]

You can make amazing phys wand builds!

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/vi...1822695/page/1

There you go

edit: even after wand implicit buffs, most actual spellcasters prefer daggers still. Because with a dagger you can use whirling blades which is one of the best, if not best movement skills ingame. While with wands you're kinda locked into using shitty lightning warp!

I didn't know projectile nodes worked on Wands. That makes it a completely different story - also fun that some points were the same i was taking for a Shadow dagger+chaos damage+ES build.

[padie]

daggers are used both because of whirling blades and crit chance on them.

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I didn't know projectile nodes worked on Wands. That makes it a completely different story - also fun that some points were the same i was taking for a Shadow dagger+chaos damage+ES build.

Projectile nodes work with barrage (attack,bow). It depends on the skill/spell you use .(bow skills are considered projectile skills)

[falagar112]

I didn't know projectile nodes worked on Wands. That makes it a completely different story - also fun that some points were the same i was taking for a Shadow dagger+chaos damage+ES build.

Projectile nodes are not weapon specific, unless the passive states so specifically.

If a spell/attack is a projectile attack, the nodes will work regardless of what weapon you're using to attack/cast

Example: Spark is a projectile spell - projectile nodes will affect it. Barrage (guide) is a projectile attack, so also works with the nodes.

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daggers are used both because of whirling blades and crit chance on them.

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Projectile nodes work with barrage (attack,bow). It depends on the skill/spell you use .(bow skills are considered projectile skills)

Yeah that is why they buffed the spelldamage implicit on wands, to make the choice between dagger and wand a little harder. I say a little harder but because crit/whirling blades, daggers are always top pick. You basically only use wands nowadays if you are a non crit spellcaster or an actual wander build.

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@Coldkill

Here I will show you how you "know" what affects what and how things interact. It's a little badly explained in game but actually remarkably easy





If you notice on the skill screenshot, below the name of the gem it says "Projectile, Spell, Duration, Lightning" ?
That means that any passive that mentions one of those 4 keywords, will affect the skill (spark in this case) - and the same goes for support skills. Any support that has one of those 4 keywords will affect spark as well.

Weapon type only comes into play when passives specifically mention it - like "+% physical while using swords"

Hope that helps you out & maybe makes planning characters a little easier

[Coldkil]

If you notice on the skill screenshot, below the name of the gem it says "Projectile, Spell, Duration, Lightning" ?
That means that any passive that mentions one of those 4 keywords, will affect the skill (spark in this case) - and the same goes for support skills. Any support that one of those 4 keywords will affect spark as well.

Weapon type only comes into play when passives specifically mention it - like "+% physical while using swords"

Hope that helps you out & maybe makes planning characters a little easier

Yeah, i knew about the skill tags, but i didn't think about the application of them in the skill tree. makes many of the nodes more "generic" than how i was thinking about them - thus usable for different setups. Noted.

Side note: my username has only one L in the end so i won't see notifications that way XD
@Tremin sorry i wasn't able to log in last night. I hope i'll be online somewhat late tonight.

[padie]

Been looking at that build, wondering how big the drop in dps would be as CI. Losing 1-2 aura's vs a better shield..

[falagar112]

Yeah, i knew about the skill tags, but i didn't think about the application of them in the skill tree. makes many of the nodes more "generic" than how i was thinking about them - thus usable for different setups. Noted.

Side note: my username has only one L in the end so i won't see notifications that way XD
@Tremin sorry i wasn't able to log in last night. I hope i'll be online somewhat late tonight.

lol at the name xD
never noticed the single L

But yea, its not just for support gems, it is also for passives.
Goes further then that when you start playing builds that use damage conversion. Like my current build is full cold damage but I use cold to fire and avatar of fire to convert it all to fire damage -> so any passive that gives me both cold and fire damage affect me - the cold because it gets converted and the fire because.. it gets converted haha.

You're absolutely correct about most nodes being fairly generic, especially if you factor in that weapon type does not influence it either - you could cast spells with a bow equipped if you want to make use of bow passives, so to say

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Been looking at that build, wondering how big the drop in dps would be as CI. Losing 1-2 aura's vs a better shield..

The wander build? It's not as good as the low life version but it is definitely viable. Pain Attunement doesn't work with Crown of Eyes anymore, which was the biggest reason to go low life - now it is just the extra auras and nothing else.

The main problem the wand build that I linked has, is that it kinda wants a specific enchant (+2 barrage proj on crown of eyes) and is fairly expensive to gear. Not that the enchant is mandatory either but having played barrage bow builds... it is an insane enchant!

[Gallahadd]

Yes if you build around spells. And actually i cannot concieve a build about wand damage being the most part of dps. Wands are nice because of stats and flat spell damage increase + dual wield wand nodes that increase cast speed.

Yeah, I think I'll go for a full Chaos, ED/Con build rather than the KE inspired Wand/Shield build I was planning before. Although I'm rather taken with the Ranger Wand build linked below... Maybe next league.

[Lysah]

Wands are really good, but like all attack builds they are limited by the strength of their weapon. Since wands can roll a full spectrum of both attack and spell mods, it is actually that much harder to get a pure physical damage wand and good ones can be EXTREMELY expensive. I wouldn't recommend wand builds to most newcomers, HOWEVER there are a few uniques that can get you started. If you want a fun leveling experience, try using a well rolled Twyzel (1 chaos) with the large wand cluster and run around one shotting everything for a while. Additionally, while double dipping still exists, wands can make use of chaos damage and poison stacking to do good damage, especially because it is very easy for them to get high amounts of crit with their massive base crit chance.

Sadly, wands were hit really hard with the removal of ice wall stacking, kinetic blast just isn't that great of an attack anymore unless you can get mobs against a wall. Barrage is still a pretty good skill, though, and should be a lot easier to use with volley fire for AOE in a week.

[Fencers]

I have been toying with the idea of a Scorching Ray Marauder Chieftain. I suppose Firestorm would be the popular choice, but I wanted to do something like Fireball instead. Haven't figured it all out but I played around with the skill tree some and it might be a neat build to goof around with in Legacy.

Could do a trapper in Legacy league as well. Haven't decided on the traps I want to use yet though.

[Lagwin]

I have been toying with the idea of a Scorching Ray Marauder Chieftain. I suppose Firestorm would be the popular choice, but I wanted to do something like Fireball instead. Haven't figured it all out but I played around with the skill tree some and it might be a neat build to goof around with in Legacy.

Could do a trapper in Legacy league as well. Haven't decided on the traps I want to use yet though.

Are you not kind forced atm to use fireballs threshold gem to make it "viable"?

[falagar112]

I have been toying with the idea of a Scorching Ray Marauder Chieftain. I suppose Firestorm would be the popular choice, but I wanted to do something like Fireball instead. Haven't figured it all out but I played around with the skill tree some and it might be a neat build to goof around with in Legacy.

Could do a trapper in Legacy league as well. Haven't decided on the traps I want to use yet though.

Every time I make a trapper I end up being annoyed at its clear speed. Nothing more annoying as having the gear/damage to speed it up, but being locked into trap "charges"

I'm not sure what to do yet, might play the same but on a berserker (cwc icestorm -> fire conversion) it is so much leech overkill that after VP nerf in 3.0 it might still be viable.

I might make a queen of the forest something character for a change. I used to avoid evasion builds like crazy, I dislike the rng aspects of dodge mechanics so have always rolled either life/armor or ES. But after seeing a few of those speedfarm builds in action... 3 minute uber lab clears sound like fun! (even though I'll never make fastest time without a SSD, lol)

Legacy is a bit meh though. Sure it's nice that they brought back a way to get some pre-nerf uniques... but I already have most of them as I actively played back then and never sold them off. If anything it will bring down the prices on standard legacy gear... rip my 999% facebreakers

[Fencers]

Are you not kind forced atm to use fireballs threshold gem to make it "viable"?

I don't know. Have played CwC SR/FS before and did fine up to level 90 or so when I rip'd. But that was back when CwC was first out and lazily threw it all into a cheap 5L +2 stave.

If the CwC SR meta shifted to Fireball, I was not aware. I thought Cold Conversion and Firestorm were still the dominant meta for SR.

[Lysah]

Rolling flames is really good, and will be even better now that you don't need to waste a bunch of points activating the jewel. Might try it myself. Not with CWC though, it would be criminal to not take advantage of fireball's many different modifiers for maximum self cast damage.

[Baza]

I've been playing this game a bit before, but very casually, I'm still a total noob at it, but I want to play a bit more next season and try to reach the endgame. What are the biggest mistakes I can do as a new player? I saw the proper talent points I should pick at start, but what about the currencies? At what point should I start using weapon/armor upgrades? When, and on what should I use the vaal orbs? Any other important stuff I should take into consideration?

[falagar112]

I've been playing this game a bit before, but very casually, I'm still a total noob at it, but I want to play a bit more next season and try to reach the endgame. What are the biggest mistakes I can do as a new player? I saw the proper talent points I should pick at start, but what about the currencies? At what point should I start using weapon/armor upgrades? When, and on what should I use the vaal orbs? Any other important stuff I should take into consideration?

That is a good start into crafting.

Never vaal orb anything unless you are fine losing the item (odds are, that is what will happen) - vaal orb boxes instead. Like jeweller strongboxes to make them drop corrupted jewelry.

If with armor/weapon upgrades you mean armourer thingies and whetstones - they are supercommon you can use them as you feel like it.

In general when it comes to currency (and assuming you know the worth of the individual currency) - if its a chaos orb and up, keep it until you know how to use them properly. If its orbs below chaos orbs, just use them as you get them.

I would say the biggest mistake you can make is to not invest heavily enough in defensive passives/gear and then end up with a character that has amazing damage but is simply to squishy to do endgame. But that is a mistake that you can correct (regret orbs) with respeccing.

One thing I would say is very important, and a much bigger improvement then most people assume - fix your flasks early. It only costs alteration orbs to roll them, and a bunch of well rolled flasks are a lifesaver.

[falagar112]

Any of you guys think a totem build can get by with a lot less health than normal?

I am trying an Assassin Siege Ballista build that avoids Iron Commander, so I have to get way over to Ancestral Bond, that coupled with getting damage nodes leaves me with a pretty sparse +32 life, 64% increased life from my passive tree. I would think best case scenario I would only have like 4k life.

Of course - I wouldn't advice it for hardcore

My first uber atziri farm character was a tornado shot/puncture ranger (before ascendancies) with around 4.4k hp. I barely survived her spears (dodge rng at it's best) and you would have to keep running to avoid the flameblasts as they would outright oneshot you through ruby flask.

It was still easy game. I don't see totems being different, it's like the warchief build, place totems and run around like a scared chicken avoiding all the bad

So in short, if you are okay playing the game properly, it's just fine. If you want to be able to stand in stuff that a tankier character can stand in, you won't have a chance.

edit: 4k life is about the bare minimum I would run with though - below that and certain unavoidable damage might oneshot you, like said uber atziri spears.

Also... why not make it ES instead? Just grab CI (or a shavs even to go lowlife) and off you go. It's much easier to gear without many es% nodes as it is without life% nodes because you can get a lot of % through INT and a lot more flat on gear.

[falagar112]

Alright cool man.

You seem to know your stuff, could you comment on how far you think my proposed build might get?

I plan on using Ancestral Bond and a high rolled phys/crit bow (the dream is to eventually get a Reach of the Council for the AoE) over Iron Commander since I hate that item and hate dex stacking.

My main skill was going to be Siege Ballista - Poison Support - Pierce - Slower Projectiles - Added Chaos - Increased Critical Strikes Chance. (With a Rain of Splinters Jewel for AoE until I can afford a Reach of the Council)

Then I wanted to get +3 power charges, for 3%+~350% more crit at 6 charges (from Assassin passives). Using Orb of Storms - Power Charge on Critical - Increased Area of Effect or Faster Casting - Projectile Weakness

But then throw in a Drillneck and I just wanted really high base phys and chaos from the hits, that pretty much always crit. Because crits double the poison damage (in addition to already making the base poison that much higher from the crit itself). And then the poison maims the target. And maimed targets take double damage from bleeds. Etc. To just quickly stack a lot of high damage poisons/bleeds on the enemies. With a lot of double dipping for both the poisons and the bleeds.

Just stacking various amounts of phys%, poison%, chaos%, totem%, projectile%, damage over time%, etc...

Almost there - the idea is good, unless they finally nerf the poison dmg in 3.0.

The problem you have with this is, as you mentioned before, surviveability.
Going with so little life is going to be a problem. In some ways it hurts your damage as it locks you out out of a lot of uniques that have no life rolls, that you kinda want to use being a crit build.

So I would make it an ES char, get good ES roll on your chest and some int rolls on your jewelry should be doable to get at least like 8k ES at minimum, which is a lot better as having sub 4k life.

If you are ES you can also have a look at the +1 totem chest. I have no idea how viable it is to run that - but it would save you a shit ton of traveling on the tree just for ancestral bond.

I'm not sure but I also think that using assassin's mark instead of proj weakness might be better if you are going crit - and will give you an even easier uptime on your power charges to boost.

If you are going the life route - I'm not sure if cospri's work on siege ballista but if they do, that is surely even better despite probably having that sub 4k life, lol.

Since that allows you to drop poison gems & run both proj weakness and assassin's mark.

If you look at my char called "ThatBarrage" in my profile linked below, it should give you an idea since apart from using barrage instead of siege ballista, the idea of what you want is kinda the gear that char is using and should give you an idea.

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/...112/characters

[falagar112]

What are some of the uniques?

If they are chance then I wouldn't really need them.

Just right near the Shadow with a few passive points I can get 200% increased crit chance with bows, 200% increased crit chance in general, and way over near ancestral bond is 100% increased crit chance when you summon a totem. Couple that with 6 power charges, which will be .5% crit chance and 58% increased chance per charge. And then increased critical strikes chance gem on top of that for another 1.9% chance and 110% increased chance. I would be hard pressed to need anymore crit, that is damn near 100%.

Would multiplier really help with the reliance on poisons/bleeds? My base multiplier would be like 300% or something, which is bad, but I was more interested in just always scoring crits to double the poison damage than to have the crits do a ton of damage outright.

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Also I just decided on life since there were few life nodes on the way to Ancestral Bond. I don't really care whether I use life or ES, apart from life usually being way cheaper than ES since everyone is ES.

Since poison damage is based on base damage and there are only so many ways you can add flat physical on gear, yes I would say that multiplier is something that will increase your damage by quite a bit.

As for the uniques - definitely gloves (winds of change or shadow and dust if you can afford), probably headpiece (rats nest), and if cospri's will works with siege ballista, definitely that too.

Then the drillneck and reach of the council (though drillneck has a little life), and maybe a phys doryani belt (not sure if it beats a rare phys% belt) .. you will be hard pressed to get flat life rolls

Mind you, if you use these uniques you might overcap on crit chance but that would be worth it simply as the saved passives on the tree would get you more life

edit: you are correct that good ES gear is a lot more expensive, but keep in mind that all you really need is a good chest and boots, and maybe headpiece if you decide to drop the rats nest - since all the other slots are kinda uniques+jewelry

my napkin math tells me you are barely overcapped on crit with everything that you mentioned (6% base on reach, 1.9% increased crit chance, 3% from power charges, 1% ascendancy = 11.9% x 900% on tree/charges - 107.1%) - so yes if you don't mind needing power charges to be capped, you can run without a rat's nest and get a high life headpiece instead. That is a rough out of my head calculation and I might have forgotten something