Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[set]

I was in the alpha for act 3. Perpetus back then was just hilarious - he one shot me the first time I ever encountered him. Even now he's still scary if you're too hasty. But the area he's in is so good to farm, it's a good thing he's a threat.

 

[bozia2012]

Yeah, that's Perpetus. He can be scary if you're not ready for him.

The problem is that we remember the bosses, quests etc. (we've completed the game on normal difficulties and died a lot of times on hc), but we don't learn :D

The Incinerate char has that advantage, thay you can just stand and fire in general direction whenever you notice movement. When the stack hits 3, most mobs die the next second after entering the aoe

 

[Machocruz]

So bros, just finished my first game of PoE. Standard mode. Lightning Strike focus with Templar. Was pretty fun. Monster design and a lot of the environs left a lot to be desired, but when it looks good, it looks really good for a game of this type; color palette and lighting is what D3 should have been. Some difficulty spikes with some elite monsters that pounded my anus harder than the bosses, but overall difficulty was average. Passive skill tree is a thing of beauty, but the skill gems I came across didn't impress me. D3s skills are more fun to use, imo. The way they did potions is smart, best system I've seen in a loot-crawler. Drops were respectable, way better than vanilla D3. Didn't get the good pots like Granite because I was getting bored with character and just wanted to finish the game. It sucks that I really have no faster attack options in Normal. The weapon speed nodes too far away, and I needed survivability and mana first. Probably should have run with axes, but no good yellows dropped.

Some questions.
1. What now? Is standard cruel worth doing, or are st. hardcore, rampage, or beyond more interesting.
2. I assume the Reverie Device in Solaris Temple is a mapworks thing that unlocks in the highest difficulty
3. Is this game's version of whirlwind any good?
4. Any new content (besides mapworks) in the higher difficulties?5
5. Leveling gems. When is enough enough/balancing damage and mana cost? My last LS level up saw me using up mana at an exponential rate.

 

[Minttunator]

Some questions.
1. What now? Is standard cruel worth doing, or are st. hardcore, rampage, or beyond more interesting.
2. I assume the Reverie Device in Solaris Temple is a mapworks thing that unlocks in the highest difficulty
3. Is this game's version of whirlwind any good?
4. Any new content (besides mapworks) in the higher difficulties?5
5. Leveling gems. When is enough enough/balancing damage and mana cost? My last LS level up saw me using up mana at an exponential rate.

1. I would say finishing normal difficulty is just an introduction to the game. Definitely move on to Cruel and Merciless - they're the same content-wise but much more challenging (and, hence, interesting). What else to do - try the races, maybe. The temporary leagues are ending soon and people aren't playing them that much at the moment. As for standard vs hardcore, that's a matter of taste - personally I only play HC nowadays but it's not for everyone.
2. Correct! The map device unlocks after you beat Piety in Merciless difficulty and it allows you to do maps. EDIT: or maybe it's after Dialla's quest as bozia2012 says, I'm not 100% sure.
3. More or less - check the official forum for whirlwind builds.
4. Not really.
5. You generally want to level your attack and support gems as high as possible. There are exceptions like some auras (Clarity) or CWDT (where the proc rate depends on the gem level). Mana issues can be solved (or alleviated) with Clarity, Mana Regen on gear, a Mana Leech support gem, Mana Leech on gear or in the passive tree.

 

[Machocruz]

info

Thanks for the info. I started a Marauder in Beyond league. Already feels better than my last character. Faster attacks with axes, and I was missing a good AoE for my LS Templar which made fighting large groups tedious. I expect that to change if I get the Faster Attack gem

 

[bozia2012]

I kinda like the art design - it's a bit exotic, sometimes weird in a good way (ribbons?). It ties neatly with the chopped/hidden lore of the game - sparks curiosity.

1. Standard in not worth playing (yaaaawn, you can't fail...), unless you want to prepare for hc. Hardcore gives that nice thrill and requires some discipline.

2. The device in Eternal Laboratory unlocks at Merciless after completing the quest for Lady Dialla. Maps will start dropping in Merciless also, but already in Cruel you will get sacrifice drops, which are used to get to the final boss.

3. It's pretty standard - you click and mince everything on the way to the point you clicked. The Vaal version is super cool though - after activating you spin in one spot and suck all monsters inside

4. Nope, just ridiculously skills on bosses (f.e. boss that uses jump attack and whenever he lands, he spawns several zombies that explode and leave a poison cloud). The different leagues have some extra stuff - we play on Beyond (hc) now and it spawns additional elites when you kill too many mobs in one spot. There's also Rampage (standard), which has killing sprees with cool effects every 15 kills.

5. Well, it all depends on your setup. There are ways to increase mana regen, there are ways to reduce mana usage - both through passives and other gems. There are builds where you can run several auras at the same time (some of which have base 40-60% mana reserved!) and still have mana to spam spells.

EDIT: eh, the writing took too long

 

[Machocruz]

Fucking Merveil on Cruel . Died about 10 times once the statue spam started. I have max ice resist and her ice attacks still chew me to pieces while I'm trying to keep the number of statues down. It was wall to wall in there by the time I gave up. Doesn't seem like a well designed boss for melee. I didn't mind any of the other bosses that had adds, but this is ridiculous. I don't think there is much I could do better in terms of passive selection and gear at this level. Some people suggest having one or two Sapphire flasks, but I took Topaz and I don't know how to get another utility flask outside of that quest. Either melee isn't viable, I wasted points on mana skills and should have taken more STR, I need better AoE, or the boss is shit design.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Fucking Merveil on Cruel . Died about 10 times once the statue spam started. I have max ice resist and her ice attacks still chew me to pieces while I'm trying to keep the number of statues down. It was wall to wall in there by the time I gave up. Doesn't seem like a well designed boss for melee. I didn't mind any of the other bosses that had adds, but this is ridiculous. I don't think there is much I could do better in terms of passive selection and gear at this level. Some people suggest having one or two Sapphire flasks, but I took Topaz and I don't know how to get another utility flask outside of that quest. Either melee isn't viable, I wasted points on mana skills and should have taken more STR, I need better AoE, or the boss is shit design.

How much life do you have at the moment?

 

[Carceri]

10 deaths!? Sounds extreme. You're probably doing something wrong. I found the reworked Merveil to be the hardest on normal difficulty, because you are low level, so not too many passives taken, also the gems are low level as well, crappy links(or none) and usually undergeared. On higher difficulties this battle is a breeze because, in theory at least, you wouldn't suffer from all those handicaps at once.

Btw, try to trade for a sapphire flask if you feel like you badly need one. It should be dirt cheap.

 

[Machocruz]

How much life do you have at the moment?

1,178. Energy shield at 191

10 deaths!? Sounds extreme.

Mostly from beating my head against the wall, being stubborn. One on one she is no problem, than I get her down to about 1/4,1/5 of her health and she starts summoning gold bitches. I can kill the couple she sends at a time, but then I lose hold of it and I'm looking at double digit adds before too long, and stopping to fight them becomes suicide but they also tend to circle the wagons around her if I don't. It's either lag that's preventing me from killing them fast enough, or my lack of strong AoE. LS does not suffice, and my other high DPS skill is Heavy Strike which is single target.

I think Torchlight 2 does this kind of boss fight better, but I'm not going to blame the game. Maybe I should level up my Ground Slam gem or switch to a two-handed weapon with Determination aura.

 

[bozia2012]

~1100hp sounds about right. Few weeks ago I killed her with 2h ranger, it was though, but it's because of what Carceri wrote. On Merciless/Cruel I just tanked her. The only advice for normal is kiting, using good hp flasks and tportaling to refill.

 

[Minttunator]

It's either lag that's preventing me from killing them fast enough, or my lack of strong AoE. LS does not suffice, and my other high DPS skill is Heavy Strike which is single target.

I think Torchlight 2 does this kind of boss fight better, but I'm not going to blame the game. Maybe I should level up my Ground Slam gem or switch to a two-handed weapon with Determination aura.

What's the approximate tooltip DPS of your skills? I'm guessing you're just not dealing enough damage - tooltip DPS obviously isn't the be-all end-all, but if you're rocking less than, say, 800 in early Cruel then you should be able to improve it loads. You could get a better weapon (high physical damage, everything else is much less important), reconsider your links (your attack skills are at least 3-linked, right?) or your passives (again, LS converts physical damage AFAIK, so physical damage = good). Sorry if this advice is too generic or you already know all this - I'm just trying to cover all the basics.

 

[bloodlover]

I think I will put this one on hold for now. My PC can't handle it in maps where there are 4 people. Too bad, I was having fun with my FB marauder. The game was quite easy and cheap with this build but it's not really playable for me.

 

[Machocruz]

It's the statues. Can't kill them fast enough. Lightning Strike DPS with Weapon Elemental Damage support and Herald of Thunder activiated is 378 (she's elemental resistance, but I do have Conductivity), Heavy Strike is 305. I read that Melee Physical Damage support isn't good for LS, so I didn't take it, but maybe that was a mistake. The best yellows I've found only have 2 links. I focused on survivability, per the advice I read from several sources, but maybe I don't have enough damage passives.

This is what the shit looks like by the way. Usually I have mace and shield with Clarity and HoT going, but I tried higher damage weapon here. Didn't matter one bit.

Yes, I would like to find another way to the forest, thank you very much.

EDIT: Looking at some other LS Templar builds, my tree has some waste to it. Some of the Mana and Int nodes I took were unecessary. I should have put those points into shield and mace passives and more STR. Hybrid classes have never been a strength of mine, I always think I have to have an even proportion of warrior and mage attributes/skills. I had issues in Divine Divinity trying the same thing.

 

[Minttunator]

Yeah, I think the Melee Phys Dam only applies to the initial hit in LS's case (not the projectiles), which makes sense. Multistrike or LMP could be worth a try, I'm not sure.

I'm guessing your weapon probably sucks - if you're playing self-found then that's pretty tough. Master crafting helps up to a point but it's usually cheaper to just buy a decent leveling weapon from someone.

For instance (I hope linking the XYZ search page works), in Standard: http://poe.trade/search/uwoharetamazio
Weapons with at least 200 DPS (at least 160 physical), max level req 45, max price 3 Chaos (no point in paying lots of currency for a leveling weapon). If these are much better than what you're currently wielding, just pick one up.

 

[Nim]

Even self-found that damage is insanely bad, how did you beat Dominus with that ?
And why haven't you done the Dweller and Fairgraves yet ? That's 2 skill points.
You could also link your tree here.

 

[bozia2012]

Ok, I have no idea how you managed to get so many adds...

Sorry for no advice, I'm just amazed.

 

[Machocruz]

It's like I'm playing a different version of the game. The one handed mace I have that does 27-55 is by far the best 1h drop I've seen in my playthrough, and plenty yellows have dropped. The best 2H didn't surpass 113 with 1.00 attacks per second. Only orange that has dropped in 40 hours of total play were some slippers. And I have not seen one Chaos Orb. Also my experience with the boss seems to be different than what I've read. Hardly anyone mentions anything about the statues aside from one guy on Reddit who has video that looks just like that screenshot I posted. Only other real result links to... my posts here

Obviously there are some nuances to this game that have gone over my head, and mistakes I'm making (like listening to fast leveling advice, which is why I skipped the Dweller), but it has to be a DPS problem, which is strange. Dominus was no problem at all, Brutus had some similar add action going on, but I ignored them and unloaded Heavy Strikes in his face that took him down fairly quick. I'm calling bugged game mechanics #darksydephil

 

[Zdzisiu]

It's like I'm playing a different version of the game. The one handed mace I have that does 27-55 is by far the best 1h drop I've seen in my playthrough, and plenty yellows have dropped. The best 2H didn't surpass 113 with 1.00 attacks per second. Only orange that has dropped in 40 hours of total play were some slippers. And I have not seen one Chaos Orb. Also my experience with the boss seems to be different than what I've read. Hardly anyone mentions anything about the statues aside from one guy on Reddit who has video that looks just like that screenshot I posted. Only other real result links to... my posts here

Obviously there are some nuances to this game that have gone over my head, and mistakes I'm making (like listening to fast leveling advice, which is why I skipped the Dweller), but it has to be a DPS problem, which is strange. Dominus was no problem at all, Brutus had some similar add action going on, but I ignored them and unloaded Heavy Strikes in his face that took him down fairly quick. I'm calling bugged game mechanics #darksydephil

You playing on standard ? Or rampage? I can give you some shit on both leagues if you need it.

 

[Nim]

Also my experience with the boss seems to be different than what I've read. Hardly anyone mentions anything about the statues aside from one guy on Reddit who has video that looks just like that screenshot I posted. Only other real result links to... my posts here

I've had her overwhelm me once with statues but that was in merciless and it wasn't as bad as yours. You simply need a certain amount of damage to kill her first form fast enough. Why didn't you ignore the adds like you did with Brutus and focused on her ?

 

[Zdzisiu]

Also my experience with the boss seems to be different than what I've read. Hardly anyone mentions anything about the statues aside from one guy on Reddit who has video that looks just like that screenshot I posted. Only other real result links to... my posts here

I've had her overwhelm me once with statues but that was in merciless and it wasn't as bad as yours. You simply need a certain amount of damage to kill her first form fast enough. Why didn't you ignore the adds like you did with Brutus and focused on her ?

I guess he did so because the adds were raping him faster than he could dps Merveil.

 

[Machocruz]

Why didn't you ignore the adds like you did with Brutus and focused on her ?

The adds for Brutus were ranged skeletons that didn't follow me around, and he didn't summon nearly as many, and he couldn't slow me down. He's also less tough, his highest damage attack is easy to avoid, doesn't use it as often, he doesn't spam ranged. The statues are major cock blockers who will eventually catch up if I spend any time trying to attack her. Add in the slow effect from her ice attacks while all this is going on, and it's just not possible whether toe to toe or hit and run, can't even get around the room after a while. Your second sentence is what this is about. I'll need to farm or trade to get by this impasse.

It's also odd to me that the average APS of available weapons is lower for this Cruel character than my Act 1 normal (Beyond league) character, like it's getting worse as the game goes on. Wonder if this is the game's logic, or random chance.

 

[Nim]

Why didn't you ignore the adds like you did with Brutus and focused on her ?

It's also odd to me that the average APS of available weapons is lower for this Cruel character than my Act 1 normal (Beyond league) character, like it's getting worse as the game goes on. Wonder if this is the game's logic, or random chance.

RNG is insane in this game. You haven't seen anything yet really in that regard.

 

[made]

New leagues have been announced - Bloodlines and Torment.

Coincidence? I think not.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

inb4 cease and desist