Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[Carceri]

Oh, hello!

Just made it to Act 4 merc and this league looks promising already.

 

[T. Reich]

I think I'm finally ready to return to PoE.

And I think I'm crazy because I'm all but decided on a build - and it's a life-based one!
Most likely I'm gonna roll with scorching ray zerker - BM + IW (via repentance) + shitloads of life + regen. The only "defense" will be some amount armour (lol) and TC on orb of storms.
Basically, kinda like the ED guy I facerolled with last league, only with much weaker skill choice.
Aiming for 30k unbuffed tooltip, probably more if I optimise the shit out of the build.

 

[T. Reich]

Never mind my previous post - I'm gonna go full meta!

Presenting - Blade Flurry Cast While Channeling Bladefall CI Assassin!
Yeah, I know, it's missing Blade Vortex, but I felt that it's not as efficient in this set-up, and being efficient is as meta as it gets, so!

blade flurry + cast while channeling + bladefall + controlled destruction + concentrated effect + (added chaos damage/increased critical strikes/???)
Flurry is mostly a vessel to provide bladefall triggers via CWC. Check it - 1 cast per 0.35 sec via CWC vs. 0.8 sec base cast time of BFall - much faster than with spell echo and almost as fast as with spell echo + faster casting, and it gives it a 1.09x damage multiplier as well!
Death's Hand in offhand for PC generation and the seriously awesome Unholy Might.
Divinarius or a good spell dagger (ambusher base preferred) for main hand and weapon to use with Flurry. There are tons of potions actually available - including Advancing Fortress for more tankiness, or Bino's for strong Flurry damage and some crit multi and poison buffs.
CI because ES is meta, and dex-int part of the tree is notoriously poor on life nodes. Plus getting acro is shit because of new map mods, so stacking "life" pool is the best way to go.
Assassin because we want that sweet crit! Bonus points for being able to poison enemies with BFall because Flurry will bleed them on hit as well!
Gotta run warlord's mark blasphemy because we need that leech for sustain (also getting that leech on boots is a priority), and then there's a choice - run discipline for more "life", or go dual curse and run vulnerability for HUGE damage boost, or do both by grabbing some aura nodes (needs some work).
Phys reflect is an obvious no-no, hexproof is likely a pain, but all other map mods should be ez-pz.

That's why I love PoE - there are so many cool interactions that let me go from burnt-out to hyped-up fanboy in the blink of an eye.

Also, if you guys are feeling adventurous, I have a theorycrafted blade flurry CWC SRS the scourge "melee" summoner CI necro witch, and she also looks pretty damn sweet. Hit me up, if you want the passive tree and the base points.

 

[Aothan]

back to Cast on Melee as somethings don't always change, except this time I am taking practically every Templar elemental node and the starting melee nodes (strange as this may sound I have never done this as a melee character..) to see if it improves viability for my playstyle in the later stages

however I remembered why I finally stopped playing and that is because close to level sixty my only legitimate choices are life and defensive abilities, which is really forcing the best part of the game, but this time almost every elemental node has been taken before most other skills, and I'll be using Hyaon's blade if I manage to beat Piety and Malachi and then I can try to use Lightning penetration for Ice Crash and Arc. If I get into later levels, say around level 75 plus that might be a good time to try revising and shift points into Staff nodes (blocking, universal criticals, and see what happens). Although shield nodes are very useful, along with the extra armour and energy shield bonuses

 

[ArchAngel]

You might want to equip a lot of Writhing Flasks for your character to use when there are no normal mobs around. Whirlwind and spamming those flasks should do well with Cast on Melee Kill. Or maybe double Divinarius and BladeFlurry to get crit, spell damage and more area effect when killing the worms :D
Only problem is how to replace those flask charges with new ones but there are unique items and flask nodes on tree and there is that unique flask that gives more charges to other flasks you have.
Regaining flask charges on crit has been nerfed but I suppose it can still work to boost them a bit.

EDIT: Forget about it, they killed effective CoMK with 2.5.

 

[Aothan]

they changed the skill mechanics for reasons which are not obvious, still even with changes to cast time some skills might still technically procure an advantage because it bypasses casting animations, however this is as always mostly theory working with a skill that requires awkward combinations. Actually I'm still not sure about some of the mechanics, some spells really do appear to be more powerful than they should be but I'm going to continue and end with Arc and maybe Firestorm eventually

I've even thought about using Elemental Focus or something (which multiplies damage but prevents elemental status effects) but that's a later option, for now I'm using Innervate to reasonable effect with Lightning Penetration etc

 

[Zdzisiu]

Damn the Tul fight is stupid. Its basically:

1. If you try fighting him in the middle of the arena, the totems will rape you with ice spears that crit hard and freeze.
2. And then he will use his Ice breath of Doom that will annihilate you in seconds. You can avoid it, if you are not frozen already.
3. So you try and fight him in a corner. Good idea, now you just need to avoid his breath and dps him. And oh boy, does he have a gazillion hp. I have 70k dps on my double strike, and his health was barely moving. I could outleech his melee damage, but had to leap slam away from his breath because if it hits you and slows you, you are dead. After no less than 8 minutes of dpsing him, he was at around 30% hp, and Ice spear somehow managed to hit me and crit me to death on my last portal.

Really, that fight is such a chore to do. I did the two other elemental fights, and they were easy. Xoph I just outleech in melee, Esh has low health and you just have to avoid his balls and nova, plenty of time to do so. But Tul? AoE attack that covers 3/4 of the arena, spawns totems that will freeze you, and if you spawn the mobs from breach portal then good luck, they are more savage rapists than Congolese kid soldiers.

Lets hope the phys one, Ulg-Whatever is not as reliant on having Chill/Freeze immunity.

 

[Aothan]

I'm being swarmed in the breaches and cannot spend too much time trying to identify what rare types are being generated, and by the sounds it doesn't seem as though I'll be trying to dps check the Breach domains

 

[Zdzisiu]

I'm being swarmed in the breaches and cannot spend too much time trying to identify what rare types are being generated, and by the sounds it doesn't seem as though I'll be trying to dps check the Breach domains

There is also the issue of getting to the Lord's Arena portal in a Breach domain. When you open the portal with the breachstone, you have to get to the other side of the map before the timer runs out. You start at like 0:25 and get more time by killing mobs. The normal mobs give very little time, rares give around 3 seconds but some of them are tough because the map has 150% increased monster health and some increased damage. So you have to move forward killing mobs all the time.

Again, the two other elemental Lords, Xoph and Esh, seem to have easier mobs in their breach domains. With Tul, I had to really focus to keep the timer up, and I would skip a lot of the stronger rares.

All I am saying is, that you need a good aoe clearspeed for the breach domains, and preferably a good single target skill for the Lord himself.

 

[ArchAngel]

Let me c/p my journey with Mjolner Arc 100% conversion to fire Elementalist from another forum in case people here are interested in how it works and what problems I ran into and have tips or comments:

On December 14 2016 19:20 -Archangel- wrote:

On December 14 2016 00:58 -Archangel- wrote:

On December 13 2016 20:20 -Archangel- wrote:
PART1:

Spoiler

HELP NEEDED WITH "HOT" BUILD!
So after I got my Breach character build completed and ready I got an urge to make something cool with my Mjolner in Standard before I go full time Breach.

I read about a guy that took Arc and turned it 100% to fire so I said well lets try that but with Mjolner :D
How do you turn Lightning to Fire you ask? Well you take Avatar of Fire. Then you get Call of Brotherhood ring and you link it all with Cold to Fire support.

So Mjolner is Arc+ColdtoFire+Fire Pen. Like most fire/ignite builds I took Elementalist for free Proliferation. So I went in search of additional damage sources. Since I need to stack lots of Strength (and Int) for Mjolner I am also using another similar item Repentance for free Iron Will. Well since Str now gives me spell damage I bought Astramentis (also helps with Dex requirements)
Big CON with Mjolner is lack of gem slots to put supports in so now I am thinking how do I get more damage for my Arc to get big burns.. well since I am in templar and marauder part of the tree, there is lots of life regen here as well as +1% max fire resist... so Righteous Fire for the sweet 59% MORE spell damage!
So I equipped Rise of the Phoenix, Purity of Fire and I got a Ruby Flask as well as a dousing healing flask.
This is the passive tree this version of the build is aiming for: www.poeurl.com/VsS (this is poeplanner version: www.poeurl.com/Vtj) I need to thank someone from the guild that helped me refine it
Also I need to note that in this tree I use Elemental Overload while currently I am testing with Resolute Technique.

The last part of the build is how to activate Mjolner. Well I wanted to be away from danger and recent nerf to Mjolner (it can activate every 250ms up from every 100ms) means I don't need to use MoltenStrike with GMP to get 10 activations per second. So I chose Spectral Throw with GMP, Faster Attacks, CurseOnHit and 2 curses (Flammability and Temp Chains). I am testing with Tabula. This lets me use my mana for Purity of Fire and Anger. Spectral with these links costs 15 mana per use or basically nothing (I can get it lower if I use lvl 1 Spectral). For version that uses Elemental Overload I would need to replace FA with Additional Accuracy.

So how does this perform?
I test with a lvl 81 character. With lvl 18 arc and less level of other gems when I turn on lvl 15 RF the tooltip says my Arc does almost 8000 fire damage per hit. With 4 hits per second it is up to 32k dps (average dps lower). With Fire Pen and Flammability everything non boss dies fast (white mobs die from one use of Spectral Throw without use of RF). I tried up to tier 8 maps.
Vs Map Bosses it does less damage than wanted. I got a Scorching Ray Totem setup for those to help, it is still slower than wanted. This is a build with Mjolner and Astramentis and multiple high quality gems, I want more boss kill speed.

I think the biggest problem with vs Boss kill speed is that I don't get 4 hits per second on bosses and I am not sure how to fix that while still staying at safe distance. Another solution would be to find a way to do bigger hits so burn can kill the boss but I don't have an idea how. I could use Frost Blades+ Multistrike to get fast 3 hits in but that one makes you stand in one place for possibly too long while with Spectral you throw them and shield charge away.

Any tips are welcome (or bigger redo of this build if you got a better idea)!

PART2:

Spoiler

What I plan to test next is use Elemental Overload instead of RT to try to get that 40% more damage. Hopefully my accuracy will be good enough. I will try to use Frost Blades+ Multistrike as that saves me one support (compared with ST+Faster Attacks+GMP) so I can fit Additional Accuracy.
Also it is not realistic this build will be using 6L so I need to put one curse on Blasphemy and just have one on Curse on Hit connected with main attack. Or since I will need to use OoS to trigger Elemental Overload I can put one Curse there as well. If I can come up with a good 5L setup I can buy a 5L Cloak of Flames instead of Tabula and see how it performs with one of the two armors that are best for this build (other one being Lightning Coil). They are best because receiving Physical damage turns them into elemental damage and it triggers my Elementalist Paragon of Calamity which gives me 40% increased damage.

Also I need to try to use Vaal Lightning Trap and see how much that helps.
Would Rallying Cry be something to try as well? Its generic damage bonus should boost burn damage as well?
Or maybe I am now overextending with the amount of stuff I need to trigger in combat to boost damage (RF, Vaal LT, Rally Cry)

Any tier 8 or less map bosses with good health/fire resistance you guys suggest I test this vs?

PART3:

OK, so now I tested these setups.
#1 Cylone+AddAcc+CoH+Warlords+Flammability
#2 Frost Blades+ Multistrike+CoH+Flammability+AddAcc
#3 Sunder+FA+CoH+Flammability+AddAcc
#4 Spectral Throw+FA+CoH+Flammability+AddAcc

#1 Awesome for murdering normal mobs on maps, probably most effective for clearing maps. Warlords curses anyone that I hit and then Arc leeches life for me. It helps that when I got Righteous Fire(RF) on, enemies are in range of its DoT and it gives bonus DPS. On the other hand it sucks vs bosses as this is not a defensive melee build, it is even worse if I use RF as my life regeneration of 500+ life per second drops to nothing due to need to sustain RF. And I only need RF for boss fights.
#2 Kind of works for both map clearing and bosses. But due to Multistrike it fixes you on spot, also the need to namelock enemies to hit them is super irritating. If I could force myself to use it, it would probably be best choice but the feels of playing with it is off.
#3 This skill is kind of fun because you only need to point in general direction of enemies. It clears slower than both Cyclone and Frost Blades but it is safer vs bosses and does not have the need to namelock enemies like Frost Blades. But still kills bosses slow. Didn't try it with Multistrike as my 5L armor only has one red slot and didn't want to chrome it just for short Sunder test. And I am not sure I want to have my character stand still for 3 attacks with sunder having 15% LESS attacks speed modifier built in
#4 So in the end I came back to Spectral Throw again. I figured I don't really need GMP since Spectral hits multiple enemies anyways and procs multiple Arcs and GMP does nothing vs bosses anyways. Spectral lets me throw it and run around having hammers come back to me and hit more times. Quality Spectral Throw gives attack speed and with FA support (and I will probably need to take accuracy node near templar start) I could get my ST to 2 attacks per second and since it hits once one way and once coming back that would result in 4 attacks per second which is what I need vs bosses. But I need to do more testing. I only ran 2 tier 9 maps with this setup.

Conclusion for attack skill testing:
Cyclone makes map clearing most fun but sucks vs bosses. Spectral Throw is better vs bosses but slower in map clearing. Sunder and Frost Blades each have their problems that make them weaker than cyclone in map clearing and weaker than ST vs bosses and sometimes in map clearing as well.
Blade Flurry would be perfect skill for this build if it only worked with Maces :D

I completed my equipment, not perfect as it is hard to buy anything on Standard but I got resistances maxed, I got 4500 life at lvl 83, 5L Cloak of Flame, Voll's Helmet (with 12% max life roll). Items can still be upgraded (belt and ring only give me +50 life and boots are at +80).

I tested Cyclone on Tier 10, Tier 11 and Tier 12 maps but with a friend that is self cast Flameblast and bosses on those maps were terrible experience for this character (probably main reason why I gave up on Cyclone), but it could also be that is due to lack of experience fighting those map bosses.

I just figured out that Arc has 70% effectiveness, maybe using Anger aura is not the best idea. I might try to switch to Blasphemy or Haste Aura.

How is DPS now?
I managed to hit max of 12k per Arc when I got RF on and Elemental Overload activates. Since this is based on Lightning skill you know that they got low min damage as well. In theory if I can proc my Arc 4 times per second this would be max of 48k dps before counting in resistances (that are reduced by 5%+Fire Pen gem+Flammability) and then burn damage is even more.

How does it feel to play this character?
It is loads of fun, Arc hits stuff at edge of screen and sometimes off screen and ignites them and then you proliferate that to others there. Cyclone version is especially fun.
This will be even more fun if I will finish Uber Lab and get the Elementalist's Paragon of Calamity as any physical, fire, lighting or cold damage done to my character will boost my Arc damage (due to conversion of all elements). Also it is possible that while I got RF on, that might count as fire damage being done which would result in immediate 40% to fire damage (if that works I might want to try to switch my body armor to a 5L Lightning Coil so any incoming Physical damage turns to Lightning and boosts my damage even more)

 

[T. Reich]

Use wrath instead of anger, it still works as full 1.2x damage multiplier for Arc before conversion.

 

[ArchAngel]

Use wrath instead of anger, it still works as full 1.2x damage multiplier for Arc before conversion.

That is true but I am thinking to get rid of that and use Haste or Blasphemy curse. Arc has 70% effectiveness and I am not sure it is worth it while Haste would give me more attack speed and mobility for Spectral Throw version and Blasphemy+Warlords would be great for Cyclone version. I am looking how to improve the survivability and plan to link the attack skill with Fortify and possibly Blind (Blind would work well with Cyclone, probably not so much with Spectral Throw).
I am also thinking about trying Shock NOva in combination with Spectral Throw. If range of both is similar it would be a good synergy. And Shock Nova in optimal area does more damage than Arc (but has less range).

 

[Saark]

Really, that fight is such a chore to do. I did the two other elemental fights, and they were easy. Xoph I just outleech in melee, Esh has low health and you just have to avoid his balls and nova, plenty of time to do so. But Tul? AoE attack that covers 3/4 of the arena, spawns totems that will freeze you, and if you spawn the mobs from breach portal then good luck, they are more savage rapists than Congolese kid soldiers.

Tul is one resistant motherfucker, I feel like he is the second hardest of the Breachlords. Thankfully I play AW which works amazingly well for breaches. Don't even have my Severed in Sleep yet, which will make Tul look like this instead of the ~10seconds it currently takes me to kill him: https://clips.twitch.tv/theuberelite/MagnificentSheepFrankerZ

 

[ArchAngel]

Really, that fight is such a chore to do. I did the two other elemental fights, and they were easy. Xoph I just outleech in melee, Esh has low health and you just have to avoid his balls and nova, plenty of time to do so. But Tul? AoE attack that covers 3/4 of the arena, spawns totems that will freeze you, and if you spawn the mobs from breach portal then good luck, they are more savage rapists than Congolese kid soldiers.

Tul is one resistant motherfucker, I feel like he is the second hardest of the Breachlords. Thankfully I play AW which works amazingly well for breaches. Don't even have my Severed in Sleep yet, which will make Tul look like this instead of the ~10seconds it currently takes me to kill him: https://clips.twitch.tv/theuberelite/MagnificentSheepFrankerZ

Wait, I read Animated Weapons don't follow you to new areas. You need to find new weapons in each. How did he transfer will all weapons from his hideout?

 

[ArchAngel]

I played my Mjolner Arc Elementalist some more, tested different setups. Bought a Lightning Coil and a new ring to cap Lightning Res again. For now I settled into using Spectral Throw+GMP+FA+Culling Strike+Add Accuracy, all Q 20 (except FA) for the attack speed boost. I got my attack speed with ST to 2 aps so with returning weapons I can hit bosses 4 times per second which is a cap for Mjolner. I now got a Blasphemy+Warlords and Purity of Fire and I got a CwDt(lvl 1)+Arc(hits 5 targets)+CoH+Flammability. I am also back to using a Scorching Ray Totem (at least it can distract enemies for a bit :D) and I am also using a Vaal Lightning Trap. It is fun to arc and burn stuff while staying out of melee range. I have zero problems in up to Tier 9 maps. I have to try solo in higher tier (got some Tier 10 and 11 to try). My build is also still not ready and I cannot have Righteous Fire on all the time without needing to use a Ruby Flask but I should be able to do that in few levels (only lvl 83 atm)

 

[Saark]

Wait, I read Animated Weapons don't follow you to new areas. You need to find new weapons in each. How did he transfer will all weapons from his hideout?

They don't. You generally take 5-8 daggers with you to the next map you do, or breachstone for that matter, and start with that. That's enough to get started, you usually have 20-30 weapons 1minute after starting, and cleared the map in another 1-2min then.

For Breachstones you swap out inc duration for spell totem since they drop a shitton of white weapons. You can easily get to 100+ AWs in less than a minute that way. Breachlord Domains are one instance so weapons don't despawn when you enter the boss Arena.

 

[T. Reich]

Attention, fellow Codexers!

The glorious official Codex Diversity Squad guild has recently went through the purge, expelling the filthy degenerates who abandoned Wraeclast for good.
As such, we are open for fresh meat - anyone who wants to share the company of the fellow prestigious codexers while grinding up mobs for exp and loot is welcome to join!
We are mostly playing temp leagues, and partaking in lazy discussions of whatever (mostly PoE-related) in the guild chat in the spare time.
There are mostly 4-5 of us active more or less regularly, so we're looking for more active buddies to do shit with.

If you're interested, message either me (IGN: Johnny__C) or our guild leader Hoaxmetal (IGN: DyaeblMetal) for an invitation. I'm usually online every day.
Or you can just post your IGN, and I'll add you to the guild the next time I'm online.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Our guild needs fresh autistic blood.

 

[ArchAngel]

I would join but I am already in a more prestigious guild

 

[Zdzisiu]

I would join but I am already in a more prestigious guild

Lies and slander, there is no guild more prestigious than ours!

 

[Saark]

Ripped to standard a couple minutes before midnight, if anyone wants to play around with Animate Weapon I'll gladly trade him the gear. Or just sell the United in Dream to fund your own build, I don't play standard so I don't care about the currency there.

 

[Aothan]

I'm always surprised when there are so many players in standard, not even the normal league, but standard

 

[T. Reich]

Because a lot of people don't like your schmanzy-fancy bullshit and starting over again, and just want to enjoy the game.

 

[Aothan]

I understand the preference it is just after playing leagues exclusively for so long it is a surprise when you see someone move across the screen as you start in town and then realise the town is fairly active with multiple players

speaking of which started again and reflecting on recent success with dps realised any time damage is being developed some of the first nodes (and the pathing options they enable) to be included should probably begin within the jewel slots, from what I can tell they almost always produce the best results for number of skill points and all the more so if different types are used e.g. elemental and melee, area of effect, etc in which case the "increased damage" type often going to prove optimal

also trying Shield Charge as a secondary skill in conjunction with Cast on melee because of the new cooldown changes with the skill, don't know what brought about that change but Shield Charge is one way of producing an area of effect over time ability, and the mobility and increased damage make for a good combination

I've also been thinking about Herald of Ice as an aura but I have limited experience with this since I almost always focus on Herald of Thunder with passive skills like Chance to Flee as a combined area of effect 'spell' and type of externalised defence

 

[you know what time it is]

What's the point of guilds in PoE anyway? Is there some sort of guild specific content or somesuch? Genuinely curious.