[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Cyclone Jack]

The Descent was pretty interesting, but I doubt I'd play a ranger again. So slow starting out, but most of that could be because I didn't get any useful drops until 45 minutes in. The No Projectile league was pretty interesting. I was curious as to how they would do this, since Witch and Ranger start as ranged, and was relieved when the first area allowed for ranged. After that, ranged attacks did no damage.

On another note, I lost two Onslaught chars to latency. This was no fault of the game, and all due to my connection. Had the modem replaced and a line technician do some rewiring due to some noise. Much better now, but lost 2 uniques because of that. Have already restarted one of the chars, which was doing quite well. DW/Block Claw Ranger was halfway through Cruel and doing fine, though I'll probably tweak my passive progression a bit this time.

[OrcsRLame]

Descent was cool. I took rank 130 as Duelist, because I, (along with everyone else it seemed lol) figured they'd start with cleave, and cleave is OP in races. I could have placed a LOT higher than 130, but I died in the last 3 minutes. I was literally one shotted by a rare discharge mob. He was the only guy in a room, I walk up to him, dual strike him once, he melees me back for almost no damage then instantly uses discharge and I die from 100% to dead. I looked at the affixes, gains power charge on crit, increased crit and crit damage. I was positive 7 lightning res, (I was in cruel) with 394 life, with all the life nodes I could get in the race. Thankfully, dead characters still count for Descent races, just really frustrating to go as tanky as possible and die to a one shot in a 1v1 with absolutely no misplays. With another 3 minutes to farm that area, with my kill speed, I probably could have been like 80 ranks higher. Oh well, QQ. Gonna race marauder next time and rush for the lightning res nodes past diamond skin, because dischargers are fucking insane and crit damage reduction seems insane for mitigating RNG. You need fire res in the first couple levels, then it's all cold and lightning aside from a few Merveil spawn exploders.

[Redblade]

This having to sit on uniques is painful, must have 10+ exalted worth of them in my stash...

[Vocah]

So, I just updated PoE... and I have to say: I hope the other armor pieces also become an update, the new helmets stick out like a sore thumb (atleast in my eyes).

On another note: Is it now possible to facetank mobs with armor alone or would you still get easily crushed?

[Redblade]

On another note: Is it now possible to facetank mobs with armor alone or would you still get easily crushed?

It's easier than it used to be, some mobs still require a bit of skill to fight and some end game bosses still require you to use ranged abilities or traps. With the right build and granite flasks you can deal with most things head on though.


Unrelated note, 39 uniques 14 maps and 180 ish passives to go for my t-shirt the rest isn't an issue.

[Fencers]

On another note: Is it now possible to facetank mobs with armor alone or would you still get easily crushed?

Armor alone, as in no other buffs? Not a granite flask or endurance charges, etc... no. Well, yes. But it is not the best idea at endgame too often.

As Redblade said, it is possible with buffs and so on. Also easier than before. But the mobs(+mods) are too brutal most of the time to actually facetank via armor alone.

Evasion is kinda awesome now when mixed with other mitigation options though. I have found some dodge goes a long way in combination with Armor, HP or ES. GGG made more options for mitigation feasible in the last big patch.

[Lagwin]

i saw on the announcements they are going to be tinkering with the rangers side of the passive tree soon

[Fencers]

Yea, Ranger definitely needs a Duelist-esque rework at the start of the tree/web. It's very difficult to run Ranger melee, well not difficult. But not worth it in a lot of cases.

Early mana issues & weird melee talents that don't compliment any thing around that area for melee kinda suck for Ranger.

I never know why I would play a Ranger over a Duelist, tbh. I just get everything I need quicker and with less effort as a Duelist.

[Cyclone Jack]

Yeah, the only reason I started a melee Ranger is because I specifically wanted to do a full evasion build, so I actually wanted the early evasion nodes and the extra dex. Sadly, it is slow to get going and I immediately go into the Duelist tree. This is the early build that I have going before heading towards Ondar's Guild and up the right side of the tree. It has served me well so far, but now I'm in the phase of decided when to get more health or block while heading towards acrobatics.

So, yeah, I've gotten it to work for me, but I'd love to see the Ranger starting area get an overhaul. I also wouldn't mind seeing her Act 1 quest rewards get tweaked a bit, specifically her 1st supports. Melee only gets Extra Cold Damage just as you enter the area full of cold resist mobs, so all you're really doing is increasing the cost of your skills for little return.

[OrcsRLame]

Honestly, I think Shadow is worse than Ranger. Yes, Shadow has faster potential clear speed, but the lack of life nodes borders on being silly. And all those claw/dagger passives, ugh. It's like, go freezing pulse or go home, and you only go shadow for the early crit and chance to freeze, then you get the fuck out of that half of the tree. I suppose the real issue aside from the lack of life nods is that claws and daggers just have no good skills. Two handers get 3 good AoE skills, swords/axes get cleave, and claws/daggers get nothing. Dual strike all of the things!!!

[Redblade]

I suppose the real issue aside from the lack of life nods is that claws and daggers just have no good skills. Two handers get 3 good AoE skills, swords/axes get cleave, and claws/daggers get nothing. Dual strike all of the things!!!

I made a shadow and used dual strike up to the early 30's if I remember correctly, felt really powerful up to that point but hit a cap around there. I do agree though that the shadow is lacking in it's early tree and skill choice.

[Cyclone Jack]

I made a shadow and used dual strike up to the early 30's if I remember correctly, felt really powerful up to that point but hit a cap around there. I do agree though that the shadow is lacking in it's early tree and skill choice.

Dual Strike is still fairly decent with Melee Splash into the high 40s that I have seen thus far. It's still no Cleave, of course, but I just like claws so I'm stuck with that.

Shadow isn't too bad, though I do agree that it could use a bit of work on their early skill tree. My only issue with claws/dagger is their lack of early AoE, other than Whirling Desync. Actually, if they can get desync under control WB would actually be a decent AoE of sorts, but until then it misses more often than it hits, and you really don't want to use it more than once every few seconds or you'll be in a world of hurt. Dual Strike is still a nice ability for claws. I've not done much with daggers, but with their inherent crit bonuses they could be decent with Ele Hit when paired with Splash and Prolif on a Shadow.

[Fencers]

Yeah, the only reason I started a melee Ranger is because I specifically wanted to do a full evasion build, so I actually wanted the early evasion nodes and the extra dex. Sadly, it is slow to get going and I immediately go into the Duelist tree. This is the early build that I have going before heading towards Ondar's Guild and up the right side of the tree. It has served me well so far, but now I'm in the phase of decided when to get more health or block while heading towards acrobatics.

So, yeah, I've gotten it to work for me, but I'd love to see the Ranger starting area get an overhaul. I also wouldn't mind seeing her Act 1 quest rewards get tweaked a bit, specifically her 1st supports. Melee only gets Extra Cold Damage just as you enter the area full of cold resist mobs, so all you're really doing is increasing the cost of your skills for little return.

I actually played a sword & board Ranger with IR. It was rather good but I felt that the dps dropped off too much at later levels. And getting there was a pain! However, I use the free respec to re-roll the Ranger as a two-handed LS build and it was a bit too squishy for HC without the shield.

It is workable, I agree. But it's so not worth it at the moment.

I stopped around here: link.

[Redblade]

Dual Strike is still fairly decent with Melee Splash into the high 40s that I have seen thus far. It's still no Cleave, of course, but I just like claws so I'm stuck with that.

Doing a claw Duelist now with double strike as both single and multi target, it's working surprisingly well. So cleave isn't the only solution to multi target.

Desync is busting my balls though.

[Redblade]

62/90 uniques, anyone want to bro deal me a Shavronne's? :P

[Cyclone Jack]

62/90 uniques, anyone want to bro deal me a Shavronne's? :P

I'm so far behind that if I had one, I'd give it to you. I'll keep an eye out for it, but not getting my hopes up. You looking for the ring, boots or chest? Or all three?

[Fencers]

Chest most likely!

[Redblade]

Yeah chest is what I need, the only 'hard' bits I got left is Void Battery, Shaveronne's Wrappings, Aegis Aurora and Lioneye's Glare. The rest isn't that hard to get. Only 7 maps left for that one but even with poor RNG I don't see my self having to much issue with it, even if it's quite scary doing 77 maps with 3,2k life...

Either way I see my self completing them all in time, it did help quite a bit to get both the new axe and astral chest to drop for currency generation though. :P

[NoRest4Wicked]

I just updated my game file (last time I played was in October I think) and I have a question. Have they added a colorblind mode or some way to see what color the linked sockets are? I looked around the options and didn't see one, but for me this would improve my game play immensely.

[Fencers]

Nope. No colorblind mode.