Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[Saark]

Yes, usually around 3-4 months. Every Talisman character will go to their respective standard leagues once it ends, so you can still continue playing it if you want to. There's a downtime of about 1-2months between challenge leagues that is filled with races and other stuff, the last two times they started a 1month league that had all previous challenge league mods combined which saw huge success, so I would bet they do it again this time around.

Anyone still playing Talisman HC? Everyone I know is playing SC which leaves me all by myself (and a couple of zombies/spectres) which is kinda boring. Sitting at level 80 or 81, would love to get the lvl90 challenge in HC.

 

[Aothan]

I stopped after my last post, it has been on mind to make a Ranger for the new Lightning arrow skill, but for the time involved and the inclination to reach higher levels it has not really eventuated. What has occurred to me is that after playing melee for so long I don't really know how to play as a ranged character with some of the encounters, most of all Piety in act 4

although I imagine one of the key differences is the overall amount of dps that can come through range, and I would guess maybe the use of skills such as Smoke Mine which are incredibly useful as best I can infer but would not have previously matched my class concepts

still waiting for the Templar's Prestige classes, the more I think about the more likely it seems one type of class will be a shield specialist with numerous on block effects

would also like to see a melee Ranger class that would hearken back to my starting interests with Armour-Evasion type armours

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Yes, usually around 3-4 months. Every Talisman character will go to their respective standard leagues once it ends, so you can still continue playing it if you want to.

That seems like so short a time to develop a new character. It took me longer than that even to get a single 20/20 gem. My progression must be like molasses compared to most people.

 

[Aothan]

a new melee skill for the coming Ascendancy update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9m0Wld8_VE&feature=youtu.be


although closer to quasi-melee than actual melee

 

[Radech]

So phys ice crash? - meh - though I was thinking about trying to reach 360 degrees with groundslam + the new treshold jewels - this seems a lot more realistic

 

[Saark]

The first skill that wants you to use a very slow high physical damage melee weapon. I like it.

 

[Aothan]

the same can be thought of as relevant to Shield charge where the slow movement speed is offset in part by skill dynamics and the higher concentration applies at first, but Shield charge is just very finicky and perhaps overspecialisaed for how Path of Exile typically plays. I did however theorise changing the skill to combine improved movement and 'cast' Innervate on groups beforehand (once again, a little on the over-specialised side, but interesting nonetheless)

 

[Saark]

I mostly wanted to butt in on the "looks like slower icecrash" thing that's going around a lot after the video got released. It is actually quite hard to design a skill that favors increasing base damage over using higher attackspeed, damage over time effects based on an initial hit is really the only thing that comes to mind. Earthquake does it quite nicely but I always wondered why there was and still is no fire-based melee skill other than molten strike and infernal blow, neither of which enabling you to kill packs with a single large hit and proliferating the burn. I suppose one could go the avatar of fire route or use glacial hammer with a pyre for a similar effect, but it's just not quite the same. After seeing the artwork of the three marauder ascendancy classes I am hopeful that there is another fire melee skill in the works. Maybe something similar to Kaoms smash-attack that travels along a line?

 

[Aothan]

a Koam-style skill would probably be received well, it does look like it could be a fun skill to use

 

[Carceri]

The first skill that wants you to use a very slow high physical damage melee weapon. I like it.

The old fashion Marohi Erqi might shine again if the skill turns out to be good.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

So... anyone found any good talismans yet? I just got this fella:

I doubt it's any kind of BIS godly gear or anything, but it beats out all of the necklaces in my treasure vault so far.

 

[Aothan]

amulets with those properties would be of certain value when the new prestige classes and "Inevitable Judgement" become available

well I have tenuously resumed playing, this time intending to properly explore the Armour, Life, Life Regeneration and Mind over Matter combination that is so natural to the Templar area

 

[Carceri]

So... anyone found any good talismans yet? I just got this fella:

I doubt it's any kind of BIS godly gear or anything, but it beats out all of the necklaces in my treasure vault so far.

Looks solid, I haven't found anything even remotely useful. I got a shitty unique talisman twice though. Pretty derp.

 

[Aothan]

I'm trying Wild Strike which is powerful in some respects but also very likely curtailed in other ways, but on balance it looks as though it could make for a very viable type of selection for the coming Inevitable Judgement skill on the Inquisitor class

edit: not being level 38 as of yet I'm curious if the special effects of Wild Strike count as melee, and thus would generate a Cast on Melee effect, that could make for an interesting combination of abilities

 

[T. Reich]

My second char this league is a wild strike maxblock spec. He does respectable damage and has a good clear speed (for a non-cyclone/reave non-crit melee build ) in up to tier-10 maps (probably can easily clear t11-12 as well, but I'm keeping those for my main).
It's fairly good IMO, as far as melee skill goes.

The on-hit ele effects of wild strike are NOT classified as melee. So not only they don't trigger CoMK, they do not get any damage monuses from "melee damage" mods.
That's actually the main weakness of WS - it's pretty hard to scale its damage, because a lot of standard damage-boosters available to melee classes boost melee damage rather than just physical or attack damage.

 

[Aothan]

it is definitely an erratic skill, I think things like Weapon Elemental work, which is good though I cannot say with certainty without trying to be a good deal more systematic, and after now just reaching 38 to try Cast on Melee it is hard to distinguish which cast or effect is which. I can see that the frost wave (which seems very effective) does not cause a cast, and the lightning chain is practically impossible to casually distinguish from Cast on Melee, which then leaves the explosion, and to alternate between effects typically requires a stronger unit to stand out in front (e.g. Voll) and see what happens if lighter units take the explosion damage

yeah I am conflicted between my fondness for Cast on Melee, typically Ice Crash (because the area of effect counts as melee), and Arc, and now Wildstrike which seems to work really well even though it is at first appearances too random to use or optimise, but on that point most of the different combinations can support one another and more or less have the same overall effect as a quasi-type of aoe

I'm also thinking, after all else, to try a really daring combination of the Doedre's tenure and the Simulcra mask that would add about 90% total spell effect to Arc, that in conjunction with Cast on Melee would increase the effect to about 150% and that is not counting the natural elemental nodes the Templar can incorporate. However presently that is all very much conjecture because I'm yet to move past Piety and the rest in Act 4, if nothing else happens along the way these are always gatekeepers for my characters time and again

 

[Perkel]

heh started today PoE because i though mini expansion is out. March :/

 

[Saark]

Well I'm hyped for Ascendancy, probably gonna play elementalist EE trapper or occultist CI trapper. Witch masterrace.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Saark]

Firestorm was kinda shitty since it didn't cover a large enough area with just multi-trap, Firetrap was simply better due to the lower cooldown and additional support. With the new cluster supportgem firestorm might actually be viable though. I'm still torn between going elementalist for the additional damage or occultist for the increase in defense, trappers generally have enough damage already so higher and more reliable defense might be the way to go, especially since the wording on a lot of the elementalists notables implies that some of them won't be working with traps.
For my planned hc crit CI EE trapper I was thinking shocknova(mb arc, depending on how hard they nerf it)/firetrap/the new icetrap, beartrap for singletarget obviously with the ES and power charge generation notables from occultist. Too bad there's no good fire spell that has a single large hit and covers a decent area to boot, at least firetrap will take care of whatever survived the initial blast of traps. Will do a carcass jack/jaws of agony life version before I manage to get decent enough gear for CI.

 

[T. Reich]

Fire trap DOES benefit from spell modifiers, and it always had. The "spell" gem tag has always been there.

Firestorm is currently the only viable fire spell to use with trap gem, and it's miles better than fire trap in most situations damage-wise, especially for single-traget, but not too shabby for aoe clears.
And if you go 100% fire to chaos conversion with it, it suddenly becomes the opie-op fotm uber-atziri murdering, t15 clearing spell of doom.

Personally, I never liked using EE on my ele-trappers - too much finesse required. I'm a "spam a few traps on a pack, move along" kind of trap player.

I didn't put much thought which ascendancy class to use with trapper, but I'm kind of inclined towards the shadow classes - any of them, in fact, but the saboteur one is a sort of obvious choice.

Btw, shock nova is AMAZING with traps. Mandatory linkage: nova + trap + multitrap + increased aoe + lightning penetration. This combo is usually strong enough that you will 1-shot almost any big pack due to overlapping of shock novas' aoe, including overlapping of +50% more damage nova circles.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[T. Reich]

Fire trap DOES benefit from spell modifiers, and it always had. The "spell" gem tag has always been there.

only for initial dmg, not the fireground burn

If you want your fire trap to do any good damage, you focus on initial hit damage and go crit so it would ignite on crit.
Its burning ground effect, while moderately strong, has often lagged behind in terms of base damage, unless you focused specifically on it.

It's a matter of choice, really - you either go multi-trap (as in using several different traps) and then you don't have enough passives to devote to dot for ftrap, or you go full derp with fire trap, and then you boost its base hit damage + aoe + dot/burn a lot, and you also go for crit so it would triple-dip on all the fire/ele damage nodes - first by critting with initial hit, then by igniting the target, and then by burning it with ground effect as well.

You could actually get a strong focus on fire damage instead of spell damage here, and use fire trap + firestorm trap + flame surge to cause maximum damage.

Sorta like this - tanky BM mutha marauder (also works well with the new ascendancy mara class that just got announced):
1) +2/3 fire gems and spell damage STAFF (you got it right, a staff! For extra 5-6L): fire trap + multitrap (or cluster trap upcoming support) + conc effect + fire pene + trap damage = RGGGB - 6th link options being empower and controlled destruction; for aoe mob clearing mostly.
2) carcass jack (for that aoe) OR infernal mantle (for that +1 gems): firestorm + trap + trap damage + conc effect + fire pene = RGGBB - 6th link option being controlled destruction; this is a single-target trap mostly, hence the absence of multitrap.
3) flame surge + echo + fire pene + conc effect/controlled destruction = RBBB - real good kill assist tool for tough single targets; can put it in voidbringer gloves or geofri's/the vertex if you're feeling adventurous.

...oh, and you could use iron will support gem for any of those as well, considering how much str you'd have. Or you could try to squeeze in the Repentance gloves instead - by using the astramentis ammy, for exampe, which would also fix all your dex requirements for gear and trap-related gems.

+2x 4L that you could fill with whatever. No need for any auras, so you could use one 4L for flame totem (bait for mobs + extra damage; ftotem + fcast + fproj + blind), and another one for utility like a movement skill + golem.

Would roll with this passive tree (mara + templar parts for BM + fire damage + aoe + life regen + delves into witch area a little for more of the same):
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive...VxpeVRtc6WFJTrJg9X5f08Ww22CGwSRs09yqNl4XsVS6U

 

[Radech]

Tempted to try and build a grenadier, with two of the new trap duration reduction cooldowns and a sunburst, but both are probably going to be massively overpriced early league.

I really wan't to try a max block/spellblock duelist(aegis aurora lategame goal), maybe try to stack lightning damage, and go try tempest shield+reckoning with a hyaon's for a full afk build, not sure where clear speed is going to come from though...

Melee necromancer could also be quite fun, though even more starved for sockets than an ordinary summoner.

^^ ouch that's a lot of off colours for that build, you're gonna be stuck with deer stalkers for a while. Otherwise I like it, I've been wanting to do firestorm traps for the last couple of leagues but never really could figure out how to angle it, this might be worth a shot.

Edit:
just remembered this little baby https://siveran.github.io/calc.html ~200 chromatics(for a staff with 100 str/int req) for the staff if you use vorici's 1 green recipee, so not as bad as i thought

 

[T. Reich]

Personally, I'm less than thrilled with the new trap cooldown reduction gem.

First, it doesn't seem to come with any sort of damage multiplier - it's purely a utility gem. And traps already have an over-abundance of strong damage-increasing gems, so the gem faces a strong competition for a gem slot.
Secondly, it's only really necessary if you rely on a single trap to do your work. If you use even just one more trap set-up, you don't really run out of traps unless you throw them about like crazy.
Thirdly, there are other good sources of trap cooldown reduction - a relatively easily available notable on the passive tree and one of keystones of the trap-related Saboteur Shadow ascendancy class. Sure, you could combine those for some extremely high cooldown reduction, but I feel that this is unnecessary.

Sunblast belt may or may not be expensive very early into the league, but it's still merely a low-level low-tier unique, so its price will quickly drop down into 1c range after a couple of weeks. Plust it's not a mandatory unique, though it's pretty nice to have.

Building a maxblock duelist with decent damage is quite possible; I played one this league. I don't think your afk-blocker can reach any sort of decent clear speed, though - TS has got a pretty low base damage and next to nonexistent aoe capability...

The build I threw together isn't really scary in terms of chromatic requirements, yeah. Plus, I could always play around with sockets, like ditching trap damage gem for controlled destruction, or dropping multitrap for increased aoe.
Or I could simply switch FS and FT between the staff and the armor, and have a much easier time rolling socket colours.