Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Cadmus]

I finished this game in 2 person coop. It was pretty good but the items sucked ass as per usual and I have no desire to go play another difficulty or farm some shit. The atmosphere was really really good though, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Aothan]

Ascendancy is sooner than expected, I just went past Malachi on Cruel (again, or again, I don't recall) two nights ago and there appears to be a new ability in the final encounter

both the Heirophant and Inquisitor have powerful abilities, the former has some very interesting intrinsic skill variety and valency to make use of

 

[ManjuShri]

Are axes, swords, or maces best for a 2h Mara?

 

[Saark]

Usually axes, since they have a higher base-dps but no implicit modifier. Swords have accuracy, but a lot of builds get resolute technique anyway so this will be useless while maces have stun duration which is only useful for a couple of builds that actively try to perma-stun enemies.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Saark]

Unless they severely changed up the balance due to the ascendancy-classes power creep, you shouldn't really need any damage nodes as a trapper. One clustertrap each should clear most packs already so occultist for survivabilty is pretty nice especially as CI. Not quite sure whether the occultist PC generation works, since CI cannot really afford to wear jaws of agony and Blast Cascade itself wasn't enough with multitraps it would be nice to have another way of getting Power Charges. Even if it doesn't blast cascade+clustertrap should be enough and the notable still grants the +1 PC. I myself will be running the same build as occultist or elementalist, maybe play a Whispering Ice character once I die.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[T. Reich]

there is passive in tree near witch area towards shadow, which gives you percentage chance of generating power charge whenever trap is triggered. I think it was 15%

Anyway with it you dont need jaws. Thats why i said that this 10% is just a bonus

That's the Blast Cascade Saark was referring to. It *is* enough to maintain power charges with multitrap *unless* you're using just 1 trap set-up. I usually roll with 3 trap set-ups on my trappers, so it's not an issue.

Personally, I'm not going to roll a trapper since I've played one two leagues ago. I currently have my eyes on Oro's cycloner, sparker (non-vaal, just spark), RF totemancer and maybe KB wander or Caustic Arrow. Gotta decide what to roll first, probably will go with totemancer since he's got low gear requirements and is pretty gud vs nasty stuff.

 

[TOME]

About those new classes and new notables, are these included to the normal skill tree? Or how do GGG intend to implement these?

 

[Perkel]

About those new classes and new notables, are these included to the normal skill tree? Or how do GGG intend to implement these?

They are "additions" They don't exist on normal skill tree and you can't buy those skills with level up system.
Once you beat the labiryth you will be given i think single point which you can spent on those new trees.

Imo far more insteresting will be item enchantment system. Some of those new enchancements are really interesting.

 

[Aothan]

from brief readings it may be two points for each level

I am awaiting the release of information about any new melee skills, although the game has focused on different directions over time, and the playerbase tends to support these (vocally in any case), it would be welcome to see a few approximately traditional melee skills, but ah who can say

the Heirophant looks to be my preferred choice so far, to start with Divine Guidance and then Sanctuary of Thought (assuming progression follows that order), and this is without any intended design with totems (besides Devouring Totem for Life and Mana), in fact I've never made a totem character

though I am really undecided unless they actually introduce some new playable melee skills that are not 'quasi-melee' (i.e. Reave and the likes) with a return to Glacial hammer

 

[Zdzisiu]

Two points per difficulty, 6 points for ascendancy passives in total. The ascendancy tree was once shown replacing the generic starting picture/wheel on the tree for your class, the thing when you start on tree and have your Strenght/Dex/Int presented.

Enchancements: One item per labirynth you managed to finish. No cap on how many times you can finish a labirynth. One item can be re-enchanted to roll a different enchant. Enchancements cannot be changed by anything other than vaal orb that can replace them. They can be put on any item from the slots Gloves/Boots/Helmets, any rarity. They replace or introduce a new implicit on the item, the one above the line. There is no way to re-roll the value of the implicit, as it is always the same value, as in, its set.

On normal: First gloves enchancements. Word of..... proc effect.
On Cruel: Second glove enchancement. Stronger version of words.
Boots enchancement. Boosts under certain conditions.
On Merci: Third glove enchancement. The strongest version of words.
Helmets enchancements. A boost to a certain skill gem.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Saark]

Unless they changed how it worked last time I was playing a trapper or I remember it wrong(its been over a year) there shouldn't be an issue with occultist and trappers. Back then when a trap killed an enemy, effects that only triggered "on kill" still applied since the trap itself as an entity did no longer exist (since it exploded) and the kill therefore got attributed to the player. Totems/Minions work differently in that regard.

It should be fairly easy to double-check, just get a weapon with mana gained on kill and kill stuff with a trap. If it works, occultist notables should do too. Damage over time effects (burning ground, poison, ignite, bleed) always attribute the kill to the player, so in case it does not work there may be a workaround utilizing the southbound gloves. Since you are unable to kill enemies directly using southbound, they will be stuck at 1hp and die to a degeneration effect, triggering any 'on kill' effects. Southbound specifically work this way with damage over time.

Edit: Turns out I am getting old, traps do not trigger 'on kill' effects unless its a damage over time effect resulting from the trap (like burning ground from fire traps) that do the killing. The southbound variant definitely works though.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Saark]

Indeed, since damage over time effects aren't considered a 'hit' (if they were they would trigger reflect or corrupting blood) they bypass the "your hits can only kill frozen enemies". It's a weird interaction with traps since technically they arent YOUR hits and should therefore ignore the mod alltogether but it worked in talisman and so far there has been no confirmation that this is indeed a bug.

Friend of mine played a bear-trap poison build in talisman that had great aoe clear because he would spread the poison via binos kitchen knife. Since the bear trap usually oneshot mobs he had to make sure that it wouldn't (by using southbound), and traps usually don't trigger binos "On killing a Poisoned enemy, nearby enemies are Poisoned" either. Thankfully damage over time is always attributed to the player so the combination of those two interactions made the build possible. Stuff like this is what made me fall in love with PoE.

Edit: This build kind of peaked my interest, looks a little bit too squishy but with the necromancer self-offering and constant bone offering casts this might easily reach 50+ spellblock (youd have to skip acrobatics though, so not sure if thats worth it).

 

[Zdzisiu]

Indeed, since damage over time effects aren't considered a 'hit' (if they were they would trigger reflect or corrupting blood) they bypass the "your hits can only kill frozen enemies". It's a weird interaction with traps since technically they arent YOUR hits and should therefore ignore the mod alltogether but it worked in talisman and so far there has been no confirmation that this is indeed a bug.

Friend of mine played a bear-trap poison build in talisman that had great aoe clear because he would spread the poison via binos kitchen knife. Since the bear trap usually oneshot mobs he had to make sure that it wouldn't (by using southbound), and traps usually don't trigger binos "On killing a Poisoned enemy, nearby enemies are Poisoned" either. Thankfully damage over time is always attributed to the player so the combination of those two interactions made the build possible. Stuff like this is what made me fall in love with PoE.

Edit: This build kind of peaked my interest, looks a little bit too squishy but with the necromancer self-offering and constant bone offering casts this might easily reach 50+ spellblock (youd have to skip acrobatics though, so not sure if thats worth it).

Remember that the fact that "on kill" effect are attributed to you from degen effect even from traps and totems is a bug, and not an intended feature. It works for now, but might be changed with the expansion next week.
Poison will most certainly be under scrutiny with the release, I would wait with theorycrafting any complex poison/chaos build until release.

And I still dont know what to play in Ascendancy. Trappers seem to be the FOTM for this league as many people say they will try them. And there are no new active skills that would really interest me.

God Damn, why it must always be so difficult!

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Saark]

Remember that the fact that "on kill" effect are attributed to you from degen effect even from traps and totems is a bug, and not an intended feature.

While I'm aware that this is a bug and that they may decide to fix it I feel like this is an issue that might be harder to fix for traps/mines than totems. RF totems for example are actually there when they kill stuff, mines/traps on the other hand simply do not exist. I would imagine that not having 'something' kill an enemy may cause issues with a whole lot of things depending on their code, therefore the player becomes the killer instead. I wouldn't bet my life on it staying unchanged but I feel like this specific interaction isn't something that is giving them headaches.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Remember that the fact that "on kill" effect are attributed to you from degen effect even from traps and totems is a bug, and not an intended feature.

While I'm aware that this is a bug and that they may decide to fix it I feel like this is an issue that might be harder to fix for traps/mines than totems. RF totems for example are actually there when they kill stuff, mines/traps on the other hand simply do not exist. I would imagine that not having 'something' kill an enemy may cause issues with a whole lot of things depending on their code. I wouldn't bet my life on it staying unchanged but I feel like this specific interaction isn't something that is giving them headaches.

Yeah, it might be interesting how they will fix it, if they decide to fix it even. I just wanted to point out that this way of getting the on kill effect is considered a bug, not a feature so the likelyhood of it being changed is higher.

 

[Saark]

Thankfully GGG look at bugs like these and consider them smart thinking as long as they dont totally trivialize the game (like for example tempchains+chilled ground did), I remember a couple of situations where bugs lead to being highlighted in a build of the week episode and became universally accepted as gameplay mechanics instead.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Yeah, some bugs are so interesting that they evolve into features. Which is a good approach, as it wont screw with the builds that were taking advantage of them, therefore it will not piss the people playing them. And as you said, when they are not ridiculous then nothing really is lost when they stay.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Saark]

Depending on the traps you wanna run I'd probably skip the area nodes and get clever construction instead. Having your traps destroyed by any kind of aoe damage is a pain in the ass, and it's exactly 4 points that you would get by scrapping the aoe nodes.