Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[MaskedMartyr]

I did a bunch of dumb builds this league. All of them pale in comparison to a friend who doesn't play the game as much as I do (and make shit builds).

Blade Vortex Assassin with 95% chance to crit! Holy shit the flask charges. My AOE is a little underwhelming but my build is insanely tanky as well unless I'm in a curse immune map... working on getting some lifeleech without the gem but will probably have to use it, but I'll try and fill in the other gaps to my 5l setup or craft a 6l.
My friend did a rain of arrows trapper with assassin and its pretty crazy, his build is nowhere near as tanky as mine but he doesn't need to be. He just clears screens and shotguns bosses.

I dropped about 95chaos to get the retch to test out on slayer, it sucks ass. Gonna have to wait for those slayer mechanical changes. I also have about 48% maximum life leech per second and its really not all its cracked up to be.

I also built a Guardian and I did whispering ice with him while levelling. It was very nice. Then I dropped 30 regrets to respec him into a proper lowlife support and now he sucks ass. Definitely should buy all the shitty +mana gear I can get on poetrade eventually.

 

[TOME]

Those act 2 clears were pretty fast in a group where each player cleared one area so that only one mob remained. I just don't know how you can do those open a specific chest without resorting to a buy. Nothing wrong with buying but I would like to do or at least contribute to the challenge.

 

[T. Reich]

Well, "find" challenges are really only challenging because of all the layered RNG that PoE is notorious for.
Can get them very quickly, or can never get them at all. For example, I haven't seen a carto box for the last 3 leagues. Always had to get one via g820.
The good thing is that a lot of such objects are not high-value targets, so people who find them and don't care about "losing" out on loot of less than 1c value usually freely share them for free.
And, of course, due to nature of RNG, some people find them much more often than baseline average.
For txample, I haven't got any problems with findingg all but one perandus boxes myself via normal play (as in no grinding lunaris/kaom's path) and got the last one via random g820 giveaway. A little later I started leveling my second char and in a1n I've found 3x different rare perandis boxes, one of which I found two of in one area, and one more in the area after that. Talk about RNG. 5 people from g820 got lucky that day.

 

[Carceri]

For example, I haven't seen a carto box for the last 3 leagues. Always had to get one via g820.

I found 3 cartos this league, unfortunately they were all in the lowest map tiers. I figured it's the game way to make up for the fact that I had serious problems dropping any maps in the beginning of the league.

 

[T. Reich]

I really loved the un-nerf of Zana this league because it blends perfectly with my play style.
In the new leagues I tend to grab a free Zana from g820 as soon as I hit merciless, which means that by the time I actually reach a3m lab and invite her to hideout, my Zana is lvl3 at the least (probably lvl4).
That means that I have access to 1) Zana missions in lvl72-ish areas and 2) vendor maps of up to lvl72-73 (tier 5-6) for reasonable prices in chance orbs. Some of these maps are already rare, saving me alchs for rolling them.
That means that I don't have to go through t1-5 maps to "build my map pool" bullshit and can hop straight into the middle tiers.
Not to mention that I generally don't start mapping until I'm done with a4merc in its entirety (force of habit rather than necessity, ofc), so I'm generally around lvl75 when I'm ready to do maps of lvl72+.

And leveling Zana to lvl7 makes her sell t9 maps, and lvl8 Zana sells t11 maps for just 5 alchs each (that's a steal even late into the league), often in multiples, meaning that sustaining a t10+ map pool is extremely easy if you've been playing for that long.

 

[United Nations]

New player here.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for best builds for my Shadow character?

I've read that Path of Exile's builds are not cookie cutter and don't require a preset method of building playable toons.

 

[Zdzisiu]

New player here.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for best builds for my Shadow character?

I've read that Path of Exile's builds are not cookie cutter and don't require a preset method of building playable toons.

Always a decent idea is to take a look at the class forum on poe forums here: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-forum/303
This thread has a collection of good builds for shadow: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1065084

Here is an example of an interesting shadow build: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1625254 this one uses Essence Drain + Contagion skills.

Here is Mathil's fakenir build using cyclone and discharge: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1069569

Here is LiftingNerd's Cast on Crit Quill Rain build: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1621031

Here is Grocery's Caustic Arrow build: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1488967

Here you have a build with the popular skill Bladefall: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1614140

And here is another popular skill Blade Vortex: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1514961

If you would like to play some other skill, then find the relevant link in the link that has the collection of builds.

You dont have to follow the build guides perfectly, you can treat them as advice about what works best, and how to make the skill more powerfull/easier to use.

You can also take a look at what flasks people use, what gems beside the main damage skill. (Golems/Cast when damage taken/some movement skills/auras/curses)


You could also play your shadow for a few levels, try all of the skill gems you get in first act and maybe then decide which one suits you the most and then find a guide for it.

 

[varangos]

i played alot of POE last year,ragequit twice after spending 1200 fuse to 6 link 2 weapons.
well the fault is on me,instead of having fun with the game i became a cutthroat merchant carring only to hoard chaos.......
by the way whats the ratio of chaos to exalt?last time i checked it was 60 to 1

 

[TOME]

70:1 a week ago.

 

[varangos]

2 years ago it was 20 to 1

 

[Aothan]

last season it was about 35, which makes me curious as to what is influencingthe price range at this time

 

[Hobo Elf]

The abundant access to Chaos, Exalt and Uniques via Perandus Coins.

 

[TOME]

The revelation of master crafting increased exalts worth a while ago.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Also the increased ability to trade introduced with the premium public stash tabs contributed to the change in c:ex ratio.

Another factor would be that a lot of builds now are stronger than a year ago and can clear higher tier content and do it faster, so more currency is generated this way too.

 

[Saark]

The revelation of master crafting increased exalts worth a while ago.

Pretty much this. Chaos:Exalt ratios have been close to 50:1 ever since meta-mods were introduced. Prices were hitting 70-80c during warband/tempest, which was around the same time information became available on how people mastercrafted +3staffs/bows.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Jesus fucking Christ, I rolled a Chaos sparker. Its beyond ridiculous how strong this abomination is. Admitedly, with a fair amount of decent gear but still.

 

[Kjaska]

Enjoy it while it lasts. Shit is so going to be nerfed. Maybe they'll even do something amazing and instead of just nerfing chaos/poison they will instead remove or change how reflect works.

 

[T. Reich]

All they have to do is to up the chaos resist of all mobs in general - since there's no such thing as chaos penetration (the closest thing is that witch ascendancy thing, and it's only for nearby mobs anyway IIRC), chaos res is a straight "less damage" modifier. On the plus side, it also wrecks those pesky poison builds.

But, I suppose, a bit of good old nerfhammer is also in order - say hello to legacy Voltaxics, because the new one will only have 50% conversion and will lose its "chaos damage can shock" property.

You're welcome, exiles.
Best regards, your GGG balancing team.

 

[Kjaska]

Chris said they don't want to do chaos resist, because they wanna keep chaos destinct from other types of damage. They'll probably just nerf Voltaxic's conversion rate and poison double dip.

 

[Saark]

Nerfing voltaxic conversion might bring chaos sparkers/vaal sparkers back in line, while killing LA builds completely just because people are abusing the conversion for spells. It's easier to just stop spells working with voltaxic alltogether, I don't think anyone thought casters would be using voltaxic before poison become a thing by skipping 2 links of the conversion-chain. Technically you could already get a chaos sparker going, but it'd require a call of the brotherhood, a pyre, 2x consuming dark or infernal mantle respectively. Thats only 50% conversion (37.5% if you want to wear a shield and use a mantle) though, maybe it might still work in SC? I'd rather see chaos-spark stomped into the ground than slightly nerfed, I don't want to have a fourth season where sparkers/vaal sparkers are one of the fastest clearing builds out there.

 

[Zdzisiu]

There is also the fact that Drillneck for some reason works with spark with the Projectile Damage increased by Arrow Pierce Chance so with 100 pierce chance you get 100% increased projectile damage that double dips on poison support gem.

If you ask me, the most likely changes are: Change to poison double dipping, change to Drillneck Projectile Damage increased by Arrow Pierce Chance, Change to Voltaxic conversion (Probably down to 50% as you have suggested), and a change to Spark itself.

 

[T. Reich]

I don't think anyone thought casters would be using voltaxic before poison become a thing by skipping 2 links of the conversion-chain.

Wrong. It's PoE we're talking about here, not some third-grade "rpg". PoE thrives on creative use of gameplay mechanics, and the alpha realm testers and the balance team know of such obvious if a little unconventional combos often way before the general playerbase finds out.

The next thing you're going to tell me that using blink and mirror arrow as main damage skills is impossible, or that mine sumoners are a novel concept, or that you've never figured out the pretty obvious interaction between Roth's Reach bow and spark.

 

[Saark]

While all of that is true, I cannot remember a time where using a bow has been that much better compared to a multitude of other items and weapons - for a caster mind you. Only comparison that I can think of would be Quill Rain + Flame Totem back when they were both introduced, and the build only was as good as it was because it bugged out with LMP and damage effectiveness. Seeing how they did not touch the poison doubledipping interaction when they changed consuming dark to nerf chaos incinerate/firestorm last season, instead opting to change the item itself, I expect them to do the same this time around. But since it's a bow we're talking about and not a spelldamage dagger I kind of expect them to not nerf chaos LA into the ground by giving voltaxic a 50% ratio (which basically makes it unusable in HC due to reflect issues).
I think they very well anticipated the majority of builds utilizing poison and its doubledipping with multipliers, I still do not think they expected sparkers to hit that amount of clearspeed again after they just nerfed chill of corruption in 2.1. It may very well happen but I'd be disappointed if they did nerf the conversion ratio when theres multiple ways to keep this build in check without collateral. Changing drillneck mechanics or disabling people to go 100% lightning > chaos conversion for spells would be my best guess. Maybe change voltaxic to 50% but add a 50% conversion quiver aswell, so you either miss out on the drillneck damage boost or 50% conversion.

 

[T. Reich]

Sparkers don't have some sort of amazing clear speed. Only vaal spark did. Hence the uber-nerfs to it in 2.2.0.
A well-done spark is a very strong build, but it's not something gamebreaking.
While having pretty good aoe clear damage and good safety overall, it actually quite struggles in map layouts with lots of elevated ground, obstacles and narrow doorways. sure, in map layouts like Arid Lake spark is king, but try the same in something like Conservatory and you'll be soerly disappointed.
Similarly, a chaos sparker is only moderately stronger than vanilla spark thanks to being able to run ele reflect maps and having extra fun with poison. Ele reflect rares are perfectly manageable by a properly done vanilla sparker (properly done = not made of tissue paper).

 

[TOME]

Well shit. Vaal sparker was one of the builds I wanted to try. I guess I have to wait for the next round of OP.