Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[Blaine]

It was for me on short allocation and I picked it up the picosecond it dropped. I dropped it back on the floor again to take the screenshot.

We're gonna split the proceeds from selling it off. We're not Jewish enough yet for that to be considered petty currency.

He's an expensive meat shield, but then again he practically never dies and actually deals damage, unlike some minions I could mention.

But yes, had the allocation run out, he most assuredly would have picked it up instantly. He always does.

 

[Berekän]

Can I have a Codex guild invite? Charname Elerain, for example.

 

[T. Reich]

Can I have a Codex guild invite? Charname Elerain, for example.

Sent.

 

[Blaine]

Reich ran us through a bunch of crazy red maps packed with spicy leaguestones today, and I got my first real taste of what's it's really like to be a big boy.

What was that taste, you may ask? Death. The taste was delicious, strawberry-flavored death.

I can see myself being able to more-or-less play at that level after another full league or two, having played a couple handfuls more characters, and having had another few hundred hours of learning the intricacies of the game.

I definitely do respect the game's considerable and ethical learning curve and skill ceiling. It's possibly the only online game I've played this century that I would actually place on par with EVE Online in the sense that knowledge of the game is hard-won, is well rewarded, and is the single most important aspect of excelling in the game.

 

[deama]

Any of you guys know what shield is best on an enforcer facebreak build? Or do I just pick any with 2k+ armour?

Oh, and I was wondering, what do you guys think of the default zoom level in the game? I think it's too low.

 

[Blaine]

Oh, and I was wondering, what do you guys think of the default zoom level in the game? I think it's too low.

You get used to it, but in principle at least I find it slightly obnoxious. Two upsides are that it feels a little more "old-school" than your usual modern 4k top-down game that has lots of teeny-tiny shit going on everyplace, and I suppose it also slightly reduces load on the GPU. It does also accentuate the need for experience with the game and situational awareness.

The downsides are obvious. You can't see as far, so analyzing the whole of surrounding terrain is more difficult (the map overlay helps but adds visual noise), and you can't analyze enemies until they're quite close or attack them from too far off (some ranged abilities that don't require direct clicking can reach offscreen if you know they're there; others can't). The effect is slightly more pronounced in the corners of the screen, where you'll have unnecessarily huge health and mana globes, your buff/debuff bar, and your minimap/quest tracker. You can't modify the UI or client in any way, either, on pain of being banned.

I will say however that unlike all of the other 3D Diablo clones (Titan Quest, Torchlight/II, Grim Dawn, World of Diablocraft 3, etc.), GGG managed to somehow employ a form of quasi-orthographic projection/near-true isometry in PoE. What I mean by that is that normally, when you take a 3D game and simply move and fix the camera viewpoint to simulate a traditional zoomed-out 2D isometric/top-down view, there is no orthographic projection effect. You'll therefore be able to see more terrain at the top of the screen, but less at the bottom, so that your character has a restricted view in that direction regardless of facing. The middle bottom of the screen will be very restricted.

If you've ever played Torchlight II, you surely know what I mean. You can see much further walking "up" or "north" than "down" or "south," meaning nasty enemies can more easily surprise you from the bottom-of-screen direction.

PoE's view is actually somewhat balanced across all directions. It's possible that PoE's restricted view is actually a product or part of the quasi-orthographic projection effect.

 

[T. Reich]

Any of you guys know what shield is best on an enforcer facebreak build? Or do I just pick any with 2k+ armour?

What's an "enforcer"? The best facebreaker shield for DPS is The Old One's Ward, by far. Otherwise, going for maximum life + resists seems reasonable because facebreaker builds have certain trouble maxing their res.

Oh, and I was wondering, what do you guys think of the default zoom level in the game? I think it's too low.

The official (and often repeated) stance in short: It's meant to be this way. It's not going to be increased except for specific rare areas.

I could do with a little more zoom (closer to what D2LoD had), I suppose, but I definitely don't want the game to allow for retarded "bird's eye" zoom.

 

[Blaine]

The thing is, after a while you'll have no idea what's actually going on within the visible portions of the screen, either.

 

[T. Reich]

The thing is, after a while you'll have no idea what's actually going on within the visible portions of the screen, either.

Nigga please, he didn't even have beyond on!

Also, the vid really demonstrates that the higher zoom levels are useless for the game. First of all, the zoom level already allows to see a good deal of the boss arena. But, more importantly, endgame PoE has so much shit going on that having EVEN MORE of screen visible would only mean even more shit going on, which would simply overload your senses (yes, even more than it does now). What's the point?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Projas]

I will say however that unlike all of the other 3D Diablo clones (Titan Quest, Torchlight/II, Grim Dawn, World of Diablocraft 3, etc.), GGG managed to somehow employ a form of quasi-orthographic projection/near-true isometry in PoE. What I mean by that is that normally, when you take a 3D game and simply move and fix the camera viewpoint to simulate a traditional zoomed-out 2D isometric/top-down view, there is no orthographic projection effect. You'll therefore be able to see more terrain at the top of the screen, but less at the bottom, so that your character has a restricted view in that direction regardless of facing. The middle bottom of the screen will be very restricted.

Wasn't always this way. It used to be much more annoying going towards the bottom of the screen, because you couldn't see anything coming. It is much better now since they just moved the position of your character towards the upper half of the screen. Kinda interesting how such a simple change could be so effective.

 

[Blaine]

I did notice that the character is placed an appreciable distance away from the screen's apparent center after posting that, since it was fresh on my mind. That may be the bulk of why the viewport is fairly balanced.

Even so, I think there's clearly a particular sort of perspective/orthography shift at work as well. It's subtle, but there seems to be more to it than just the camera placed in a particular position and orientation above a fully 3D world.

When I played in closed beta though, yeah I definitely remember the camera pissing me off.

 

[deama]

Any of you guys know what shield is best on an enforcer facebreak build? Or do I just pick any with 2k+ armour?

What's an "enforcer"? The best facebreaker shield for DPS is The Old One's Ward, by far. Otherwise, going for maximum life + resists seems reasonable because facebreaker builds have certain trouble maxing their res.

Oh, and I was wondering, what do you guys think of the default zoom level in the game? I think it's too low.

The official (and often repeated) stance in short: It's meant to be this way. It's not going to be increased except for specific rare areas.

I could do with a little more zoom (closer to what D2LoD had), I suppose, but I definitely don't want the game to allow for retarded "bird's eye" zoom.

Woops, I meant Juggernaut not enforcer, I got the two mixed up...
Since I use a totem, what about that totem +1 shield? I forgot it's name.

You get used to it, but in principle at least I find it slightly obnoxious. Two upsides are that it feels a little more "old-school" than your usual modern 4k top-down game that has lots of teeny-tiny shit going on everyplace, and I suppose it also slightly reduces load on the GPU. It does also accentuate the need for experience with the game and situational awareness.

The downsides are obvious. You can't see as far, so analyzing the whole of surrounding terrain is more difficult (the map overlay helps but adds visual noise), and you can't analyze enemies until they're quite close or attack them from too far off (some ranged abilities that don't require direct clicking can reach offscreen if you know they're there; others can't). The effect is slightly more pronounced in the corners of the screen, where you'll have unnecessarily huge health and mana globes, your buff/debuff bar, and your minimap/quest tracker. You can't modify the UI or client in any way, either, on pain of being banned.

I will say however that unlike all of the other 3D Diablo clones (Titan Quest, Torchlight/II, Grim Dawn, World of Diablocraft 3, etc.), GGG managed to somehow employ a form of quasi-orthographic projection/near-true isometry in PoE. What I mean by that is that normally, when you take a 3D game and simply move and fix the camera viewpoint to simulate a traditional zoomed-out 2D isometric/top-down view, there is no orthographic projection effect. You'll therefore be able to see more terrain at the top of the screen, but less at the bottom, so that your character has a restricted view in that direction regardless of facing. The middle bottom of the screen will be very restricted.

If you've ever played Torchlight II, you surely know what I mean. You can see much further walking "up" or "north" than "down" or "south," meaning nasty enemies can more easily surprise you from the bottom-of-screen direction.

PoE's view is actually somewhat balanced across all directions. It's possible that PoE's restricted view is actually a product or part of the quasi-orthographic projection effect.

Hmm, interesting, I didn't think the default zoom level was so important, it kinda makes me sick tbh though. It was fine during lvls 1-60, but then I started to spec into movement and attack speed, that's when it started being annoying.
Well, I guess it's good there's zoom hacks at least lol.

 

[T. Reich]

Any of you guys know what shield is best on an enforcer facebreak build? Or do I just pick any with 2k+ armour?

What's an "enforcer"? The best facebreaker shield for DPS is The Old One's Ward, by far. Otherwise, going for maximum life + resists seems reasonable because facebreaker builds have certain trouble maxing their res.

Oh, and I was wondering, what do you guys think of the default zoom level in the game? I think it's too low.

The official (and often repeated) stance in short: It's meant to be this way. It's not going to be increased except for specific rare areas.

I could do with a little more zoom (closer to what D2LoD had), I suppose, but I definitely don't want the game to allow for retarded "bird's eye" zoom.

Woops, I meant Juggernaut not enforcer, I got the two mixed up...
Since I use a totem, what about that totem +1 shield? I forgot it's name.

We've discussed it in this thread the other day. Look it up on this or last page or so.
TL;DR: noob trap that's waaaay too expensive for what it does compared to other options.

 

[Blaine]

Since I'm sure some haven't seen this, here it is:

 

[deama]

We've discussed it in this thread the other day. Look it up on this or last page or so.
TL;DR: noob trap that's waaaay too expensive for what it does compared to other options.

Ah, I see now.
What about ascendancy? Which ascendancy class is the best for a facebreaker build?

 

[SirSingAlot]

well, i assume i could use a guild as well.

invite SureMustBeNice
you have been warned

also (dont judge me) this was my first league. i am not sure if i will find the time to grind that hard again in any league to come, so i could be forced to play in pleb land (standard) here and there.
i have accumulated some currency in legacy league now and would like to build 1-2 superb pleb fighters ins Standard with it.

are there some items worth buying now and reselling in Standard later for a profit? breach stuff? (like the nightmare jewels) not sure about the economy once league flushes into eternal pleb league.

 

[Blaine]

We've discussed it in this thread the other day. Look it up on this or last page or so.
TL;DR: noob trap that's waaaay too expensive for what it does compared to other options.

Ah, I see now.
What about ascendancy? Which ascendancy class is the best for a facebreaker build?

For a newbie, Juggernaut might be the way to go, because it's good to not die. Saurus went that way, and he enjoyed great survivability right up until red maps. It lacks megadamage, but you seem to be new, so you'll be taking your time anyway.

The generic answer is that many ascendancies could be made into facebreakers because there are various possible interactions between passives/gear/skills. Berserker and Juggernaut for Marauder and Slayer and Champion for Duelist are probably the most thematically vanilla whomping classes.

Frankly though, the biggest survivability issue for many build paths (in my neophyte opinion) and the reason so many people whore out ES/CI/Vinktar's etc. is spike spell damage (with a small side of chaos shenanigans). You can paste on three feet deep of armour, evasion, or what-have-you, but that doesn't matter at all where spells are concerned. Even with maxed resists, you still have to guard against being one-shot by some rainbow explosion blasting back and forth on the ground during a boss fight. The main mitigation is to have a lot of beefy health and/or ES.

My current new build, which I designed myself, may prove to be a failure solely because of spell damage and not having enough life, despite the fact that I went Acrobatics and Spell Dodge (a very limited mechanic with only a few sources, but helpful). I'm 99% sure it will be great right up until red maps, but at that point I have no idea.

The developers sprinkled just droplets of health nodes around the Ranger side of the tree, as if they got done pissing everywhere else and then shook off the last few drops of piss there. So you have to bend over backwards in order to try not to die (in certain situations).

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[T. Reich]

We've discussed it in this thread the other day. Look it up on this or last page or so.
TL;DR: noob trap that's waaaay too expensive for what it does compared to other options.

Ah, I see now.
What about ascendancy? Which ascendancy class is the best for a facebreaker build?

Totally depends on the melee skill you're using with facebreakers.

In general:
Berserker (marauder) - best if you want maximum damage and insane leech (with vaal pact), also adds a good deal of attack speed that facebreaker needs (unarmed is slow). Needs to stack a lot of life to survive.
Juggernaut (marauder) - the tankiest option, need to stack endurance charges to realise his full potential. Damage is relatively meh, of course.
Chieftain (marauder) - best if you choose to play infernal blow.
Champion (duelist) - ok if you're lazy and want permanent fortify and some other decent bonuses. Not really that good, but also a viable option.
Gladiator (duelist) - you lose out on some damage and attack speed bonuses here, but it's the best class if you want a maxblock tank that also uses both frenzy and endurance charges.
Slayer (duelist) - possibly best if you're using shield charge, due to good aoe bonuses. Also has great leech options and good for damage in general.
Raider (ranger) - also a possible option if you want speed. A really unorthodox choice, you probably go acrobatics+evasion here, and getting enough life may be a problem.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

So over the past week or so I've been fucking around with PoE planner to experiment with possible builds, maybe see what could be fun (fun being the keyword, not "effective" or "useful"). A golem-focused build perhaps, but seems like it would need hella-expensive gear to really work, and might be better worth doing later if they implement a way to use more than 7ish skills at a time (I wanted 4 golems, plus curses, plus auras). I'm also tempted to make some sort of build that spams out MAXIMUM SHIT all over the place just for shits and giggles.

At the moment I'm playing around with the idea of a fire-based totem Hierophant sort of thing, so they can spam flameblasts all over the place (which would otherwise require you to channel one at a time. Boring!). A Michael Bay character. I'd probably have 1 decoy totem, 2 (or 3) flameblast totems, 1 firestorm totem (maybe), maybe a searing bond totem (which should be pretty cool with a bunch of totems on one side of a boss and searing bond on the other), and flammability cursing. The thing I was curious about was getting good fireblast damage. As far as I can tell, most support gems would be useless, since a max-stack fireblast already has 1100% more damage, so 50% more damage does bugger all. Seems I'd be better off going for increased damage, but the supports don't help with that. I figure I'd use a 3 sock for fireblast (just fireblast - faster casting - spell totem), one 3s in the other hand for decoy (decoy - increased aoe - increased duration/elemental res), then the body armour for a pimped out firestorm totem, since that would actually benefit from the various +% more damage supports, and probably draw even more aggro. Since I have decoy and wouldn't be attacking personally (ancestral bond), I figure I should be kinda safe from most things. Sort of. Maybe. Plus the 1100% more damage on flameblast should make the 8%/totem less damage from Ritual of Awakening basically meaningless (except with firestorm). Of course all these assumptions about more/less/increased damage interaction from various places might be completely wrong.

I'm not sure about what gear to use though. Extra cast speed would be good, but beyond that, I don't see much of particular use beyond Tukohama's Fortress. Can I dual-wield Tukohama's and Trolltimber? That would be neat. Though if I use Tukohama's then my mana is basically useless except for the 30% DR thing. Room for auras I guess. Maybe soul mantle for even more explosions fireblasts. Yeah sure he'd be pretty slow at clearing maps and might not be terribly survivable, but having fireblasts and firestorms all over the place just sounds like jolly good fun.

 

[Blaine]

NO, YOU HAVE TO BE A MOBILE TURRET WITH AT LEAST +100% MOVEMENT SPEED, 10k ES, CI, AND A MAIN SKILL THAT SHOOTS OUT A HIGH-SPEED FAN OF ONE-HITTING DEATH AT MACH 5

 

[ArchAngel]

So over the past week or so I've been fucking around with PoE planner to experiment with possible builds, maybe see what could be fun (fun being the keyword, not "effective" or "useful"). A golem-focused build perhaps, but seems like it would need hella-expensive gear to really work, and might be better worth doing later if they implement a way to use more than 7ish skills at a time (I wanted 4 golems, plus curses, plus auras). I'm also tempted to make some sort of build that spams out MAXIMUM SHIT all over the place just for shits and giggles.

At the moment I'm playing around with the idea of a fire-based totem Hierophant sort of thing, so they can spam flameblasts all over the place (which would otherwise require you to channel one at a time. Boring!). A Michael Bay character. I'd probably have 1 decoy totem, 2 (or 3) flameblast totems, 1 firestorm totem (maybe), maybe a searing bond totem (which should be pretty cool with a bunch of totems on one side of a boss and searing bond on the other), and flammability cursing. The thing I was curious about was getting good fireblast damage. As far as I can tell, most support gems would be useless, since a max-stack fireblast already has 1100% more damage, so 50% more damage does bugger all. Seems I'd be better off going for increased damage, but the supports don't help with that. I figure I'd use a 3 sock for fireblast (just fireblast - faster casting - spell totem), one 3s in the other hand for decoy (decoy - increased aoe - increased duration/elemental res), then the body armour for a pimped out firestorm totem, since that would actually benefit from the various +% more damage supports, and probably draw even more aggro. Since I have decoy and wouldn't be attacking personally (ancestral bond), I figure I should be kinda safe from most things. Sort of. Maybe. Plus the 1100% more damage on flameblast should make the 8%/totem less damage from Ritual of Awakening basically meaningless (except with firestorm). Of course all these assumptions about more/less/increased damage interaction from various places might be completely wrong.

I'm not sure about what gear to use though. Extra cast speed would be good, but beyond that, I don't see much of particular use beyond Tukohama's Fortress. Can I dual-wield Tukohama's and Trolltimber? That would be neat. Though if I use Tukohama's then my mana is basically useless except for the 30% DR thing. Room for auras I guess. Maybe soul mantle for even more explosions fireblasts. Yeah sure he'd be pretty slow at clearing maps and might not be terribly survivable, but having fireblasts and firestorms all over the place just sounds like jolly good fun.

Flameblast totems is one of the popular league starting builds. If you want something a little different get Emberwake and The Taming and a fire spell like Incinerate+spell totem or just Flame Totems. The Taming is expensive but the combination makes for some crazy damage after a few seconds.

 

[T. Reich]

I played "vanilla" crit flameblast totems CI inquisitor as my first character this league.
It's a solid build that is easy to level (as life-based on a 4-5L), and it scales real well with investment into endgame. All content viable, yadda-yadda...
Definitely worth a try if you want to get a feel how a good spell-totem build plays like.

Going as elementalist is also viable (crit becomes optional).

 

[deama]

Oh, I forgot to ask, what do you guys think of the whole "logout to live" mechanic? Like you can logout just before you die to save yourself from either HC -> SC or in SC not lose exp? As well as it being legit?