[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Coldkil]

Fire is actually the least effective Herald as it scales off of your physical dmg - which is your lowest damage priority as a meatballer. Unless you have a particularly powerful phys weapon Cold/Wrath will add more flat ele. Fire will add dmg though, it just wont scale as well as the other two.

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Personally, i recommend 1h/shield. You want your dmg to come from the weapon with the highest ele rolls. Plus, some shields offer very nice utility in addition to their obvious defensive benefits. Shields also allow you to use shield charge, which is a top tier movement skill (on par with whirling blades). And being able to move quickly is paramount in lategame.

Ok, makes sense. Kinda sad about the dual wield part but sounds just right - as movement i am currently using leap but i assume the reason is sensibly faster attack speed/animation for Shield Charge right?

I also assume that a mirrored weapon would make the weapon choice easier, but again we're trading off defenses/utilities of a shield.

[Gorsameth]

There needs to a be a forum for PoE in here already..

But anyways I have a question. As a new player playing Softcore Incursion. Is it better to just follow a build? Then later be able to mess around and figure out your own builds??

Yes, follow guides the first few times to get a feel for how characters are built before striking out on your own.

Respeccing gets really expensive and you can make builds that flat out can't progress beyond a certain point.

[Nihilan]

Leap is perfectly viable if your attack speed is high enough, it just doesnt work with foils or claws, which are the two primary weapon types for molten strike as they have the highest potential for flat ele rolls and attack speed. If you can get an absolutely amazing ax with high triple ele rolls and 1.8+ attack speed, then leapslam works. Personally, i only ever play the claw variant of the MS build (for the inherent LGoH and the added leech rate from the claw tree), so i always run whirling blades. Some prefer shield charge as shield charge actually does a decent amount of aoe damage in its own right and speeds clearing, but i prefer WB as it feels faster for dodging.

And yes, if you had two basically identical weapons then DW would work, though you only gain a bit of attack speed and 15% block in trade for all of the defenses and (potential) utility from the shield.

[shaunika123]

Leap is perfectly viable if your attack speed is high enough, it just doesnt work with foils or claws, which are the two primary weapon types for molten strike as they have the highest potential for flat ele rolls and attack speed. If you can get an absolutely amazing ax with high triple ele rolls and 1.8+ attack speed, then leapslam works. Personally, i only ever play the claw variant of the MS build (for the inherent LGoH and the added leech rate from the claw tree), so i always run whirling blades. Some prefer shield charge as shield charge actually does a decent amount of aoe damage in its own right and speeds clearing, but i prefer WB as it feels faster for dodging.

And yes, if you had two basically identical weapons then DW would work, though you only gain a bit of attack speed and 15% block in trade for all of the defenses and (potential) utility from the shield.

it works with foils

[cudomix]

Ok, makes sense. Kinda sad about the dual wield part but sounds just right - as movement i am currently using leap but i assume the reason is sensibly faster attack speed/animation for Shield Charge right?

I also assume that a mirrored weapon would make the weapon choice easier, but again we're trading off defenses/utilities of a shield.

You can go dual wield without problems, juggernaut ascendancy would give you more than enough defenses and accuracy. With 2x Grelwood Shank you should be able to facetank almost anything short of reflect.

[Coldkil]

Thnak severyone for the pointers. I wanted to do axes for RP, but i can easily change into any kind of weapon since i don't have any weapon specific nodes (excluding onehand) and they are pretty low on priority currently. Also i'm in reach and i ahve included all dual wield block nodes and i'm 22 points left still on the template.

[Shaiandra]

As a new player playing Softcore Incursion. Is it better to just follow a build? Then later be able to mess around and figure out your own builds??

There are a lot of things you can mess up, so unless you're willing to spend time experimenting, following a guide for your first couple characters would be safer. I'm not all too familiar with many of the people Nihilan mentioned, though I have watched some Engineering Eternity vids and they seem like good generic starter info rather than specific builds.

If you do want to try your hand at your own build, I'd say the most important things to consider are:

1: Don't neglect life/defenses. I'd suggest aiming for roughly at least +150% Life from passives, if not more, which is probably at least ~7 life clusters on the tree. (Also don't expect to hit level 100; try to have the core of your build by level 80ish, when you have around 20 or so skill points left.)

2: It's likely you'll have one primary damage skill, so any offensive passives you choose should benefit that; if you do use more than one offensive skill, ideally try to pick ones that share keywords so they'll benefit from the same passives.

3: I think focusing on critical strikes is more or less an all-or-nothing stat; either invest heavily into it (grabbing numerous passives with +crit chance and +crit multiplier) or ignore it entirely.

Either way, welcome and good luck!

[Nihilan]

it works with foils

Ty, i didnt realize it worked with swords.

[Tauguy]

There are a lot of things you can mess up, so unless you're willing to spend time experimenting, following a guide for your first couple characters would be safer. I'm not all too familiar with many of the people Nihilan mentioned, though I have watched some Engineering Eternity vids and they seem like good generic starter info rather than specific builds.

If you do want to try your hand at your own build, I'd say the most important things to consider are:

1: Don't neglect life/defenses. I'd suggest aiming for roughly at least +150% Life from passives, if not more, which is probably at least ~7 life clusters on the tree. (Also don't expect to hit level 100; try to have the core of your build by level 80ish, when you have around 20 or so skill points left.)

2: It's likely you'll have one primary damage skill, so any offensive passives you choose should benefit that; if you do use more than one offensive skill, ideally try to pick ones that share keywords so they'll benefit from the same passives.

3: I think focusing on critical strikes is more or less an all-or-nothing stat; either invest heavily into it (grabbing numerous passives with +crit chance and +crit multiplier) or ignore it entirely.

Either way, welcome and good luck!

This is actually extremely helpful tips, thank you a lot and I will actually keep this as a reminder for when I start theory crafting myself!

[Gallahadd]

Okay, so my Infernal Strike juggy was a bit dull... Decided to swap out for something I've NEVER tried before:

Dual Wand Occultist, using Power Siphon. THIS is the build I was thinking about...

But I have NO freakin idea if this would be any good...

[Shaiandra]

Dual Wand Occultist, using Power Siphon. THIS is the build I was thinking about...

But I have NO freakin idea if this would be any good...

Power Siphon is an Attack, not a Spell. All those spell damage, cast speed, and spell crit nodes are useless if Siphon is to be your primary damage. There are plenty of attack speed, projectile damage, and generic crit nodes around the Shadow section (and Ranger section) of the tree though, so finding DPS nodes near you isn't a problem. I'd also suggest grabbing Blood Drinker and Mind Drinker for some leech.

That build also has minimal Life; this can only work if you build for Chaos Inoculation (which will likely include getting still more Energy Shield). If you do go an ES build, then remove Mind Over Matter since it only applies to hits that would take Life (not ones that reduce ES).

Generally I also wouldn't entirely fill out most clusters except life-oriented ones. Try taking the shortest path to the Notable skill(s) in a cluster and then put the saved points towards heading to another notable skill.

EDIT: Also, I think many people download Path of Building, but for an online tree, I'd suggest poeplanner.com instead of the official website.

[Deleted]

I skipped incursions and temple stuff till i got to blood aqueduct at lvl 61.

There's not rly much to gain from doing it while levelling except for the fun of it.

Yep you're right, I only gained a tabula from the corruption altar, I've gained an exalt from the vault, I've gained like 20 chayula splinters from it and I also gained a few weapons which I needed for leveling, on top of that a lot of xp. It's worth doing.

[Gallahadd]

Power Siphon is an Attack, not a Spell.

And that is exactly why I asked here XD. Thanks for the note!

This is an updated build, minus the spell nodes etcetc.

[imabanana]

I didn't plan to play this league seriously, but the game wants me, never had that much luck in any league, I only really played about 4 days, but:

- 2 ex drops on first day (as many as I dropped during entire bestiary, clearing all content)
- 2 ex drops again on second day (wtf)
- not much on 3rd, bought a Soul mantle and spent ~150 fuses without getting even a 5L. Rolled a 6% life + cast speed + global crit jewel
- 4th day, I log in, Soul mantle 6L on my first fise (then I realize the buyer gave me the wrong one, almost perfect roll, only 1% off on both stat, that's not what I bought ), then of course I'm no longer res capped with that, I still go for a quick map for fun, and drop a ~165 total resist ring with ~80 life... I'm capped now

I feel like I have to stay now :|

[Coldkil]

Ok, now i got the initial setup and it's definitely working better. I'm still at act 2 - anyway i'll unlock heralds really soon and thing should start going way smoother.

[Thelxi]

I started playing SSF, but omfg it takes a century to unlock all the trials to do the last lab. Like holy shit it takes so long. I get a trial maybe once every 20 maps, and then it is 1/6 to actually get the trial I need.

[Coldkil]

I started playing SSF, but omfg it takes a century to unlock all the trials to do the last lab. Like holy shit it takes so long. I get a trial maybe once every 20 maps, and then it is 1/6 to actually get the trial I need.

haha i ONLY play SSF. i know it's slow but i don't care. The last flashback event however was awesome - it was much much faster and enjoyable as SSF.

[Edge-]

So...moving PoE from my HDD to my SSD was like the best decision ever. Holy shit does it make a huge difference.

[kail]

There needs to a be a forum for PoE in here already..

But anyways I have a question. As a new player playing Softcore Incursion. Is it better to just follow a build? Then later be able to mess around and figure out your own builds??

Find a build that looks fun, look at videos and also see what gear is required for the build to fundamentally work. Does the build require something as expensive as Voidforge to work? Probably not the best league starter.

The #1 factor that dictates how a build is played is the main skill used. Find one you like and look for a build that uses it. From there, you could do variations from the build. Could go tankier or more damage options.

Lastly, Path of Building is such an amazing tool and 99% of the builds usually have a link for it so you can upload an entire dummy character for quick reference of skill tree and recommended gear to hunt for. It even does the math for you when deciding on your own variation. Let's you know how much damage certain point nodes give and etc.

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And that is exactly why I asked here XD. Thanks for the note!

This is an updated build, minus the spell nodes etcetc.

Could save your 2 points in Blood Drinker as you picked CI.

[Gallahadd]

Could save your 2 points in Blood Drinker as you picked CI.

I was mostly taking Blood Drinker for the Leech (to fuel Ghost Reaver)... But I'm wondering if Blood Rage wouldn't be a better choice because not only does it offer Leech, but also Attack Speed AND Frenzy Charges, although I'm unsure how that would interact with CI.

This is why I usually just make Juggy builds. I'm good at Juggys.