Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[T. Reich]

First, there's no "shotgunning". I'm assuming you merely mean "aoe overlap" that muclti-proj aoe skills still have, but FB and AB already had that without volley; the problem was always that they had a rather tiny explosion aoe making that aoe overlap quite difficult to achieve even before aoe nerf.
How volley would help them in this situation is rather questionable.

Anyways, I'd still rather preger the "classic" cone spread of GMP in any case:
1) at close range the spread difference of volley fire and fireball would be negligible.
2) GMP lets you stand in narrow places (like doorways) and still have good spread while volley will invariably lose some projectiles to walls.
3) over long range (offscreening or close to that) volley fire might be better for single target, but GMP spread is IMO better for overall long range coverage.

I think a good bit of comparative testing is in order come 3.1.0.

I'm personally interested in how volley support would influence barrage, because barrage is currently the only skill that fires a series of projectiles one after another, as opposed to all at once.
And whether volley support is a good aoe support gem for ethereal knives.

 

[T. Reich]

My Mayhem SSFHC romp ended quite funnily - I killed Kitava with relative ease, but as I was finishing him off, some of his heart's adds' attack went off on me, and I was gutted.
Lvl72, RIP.

 

[SirSingAlot]

needed a really good res, 30% movespeed and high life boots for the upcoming winter. i was toying with super really expensive ones for some time but decided to maybe delay the decision for now and just go with a great upgrade instead. found a pair, than insta slammed an Ex.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[ArchAngel]

im thinking about doing some bow build for very first time. Any pointers? Deadeye seem to be dead so id rather go for it.
how does pierce + chain + precision work together? Is it resolved in order i wrote this?
no idea what im gonna do with it yet but was thinking about focusing on poisoning. With deadeye it would have to be crit poison i guess?
Is barrage all the rage now or old news?

Pierce does not work with chain and fork. Projectiles that pierce cannot chain or fork.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[ArchAngel]

im thinking about doing some bow build for very first time. Any pointers? Deadeye seem to be dead so id rather go for it.
how does pierce + chain + precision work together? Is it resolved in order i wrote this?
no idea what im gonna do with it yet but was thinking about focusing on poisoning. With deadeye it would have to be crit poison i guess?
Is barrage all the rage now or old news?

Pierce does not work with chain and fork. Projectiles that pierce cannot chain or fork.

they do once piercing is spent

By that time it does not matter. Unless you only pierce 1 target or so.

 

[T. Reich]

Pierce -> Fork -> Chain. If you go pierce now, fork+chain become super useless. Make your pick.
What is precision?
Poison is super-hard to make viable (yes, viable). Going crit with poison is a sure way to fail horribly.
Barrage is still OP, way beyond any other ranged skill for single target.

If you wanna try poison, there was some offbeat post-3.0.0 dot nerf build that used extreme poison scaling and stacking by means of using Quill Rain (quill rain reduces weapon damage -> poison is now not dependent on weapon damage at all -> you get insane poison stacking speed AND keep the strength of individual poison counters). Look up "poison quill rain" builds for more details.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[T. Reich]

Oh, that thing. It's so obscure and situational, that no one uses it.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[SirSingAlot]

there is no double dipping anymore

 

[T. Reich]

Not because of that.

Poison and ignite have been rework to scale separately from hit damage, not from hit damage.
As a result, poison and ignite get their own base damage to scale from, and their own crit multiplier, which you can't get on the passive tree (all crit multi passives only influence hit damage) apart from the special keystone, which is utter trash, because it actually reduces damage harder than you get back in return via crit multi conversion for dot.
So, if you go crit, it automatically means that your dot is going to suck donkey balls, no matter what you do.

The only currently viable way to scale poison is to completely forget about scaling hit damage and to scale poison/dot damage explusively. And even then, it's going to suck unless you add some extra sneaky shit and poison-specific uniques - for melee that basically means using viper strike, and for ranged it means using quill rain for its insane attack speed that doesn't penalise poison.

Iginte is dead, btw. Like, utterly. Not even close to viable. Yes, even if you try to go derp like with poison. Because poison can at least stack infinitely and gets boosted by wither etc, and ignite can only get 1 stack (well, 2 with special uniques, lol) and it doesn't get any extra boosters on top of that.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Seethe]

Veterans of PoE, is the game playable for a casualfag like me? 1-2 hours per day, 4-5 hours per day in weekends. Can I explore all of the game's content per league, until the league ends?

 

[Berekän]

That's basically how I play it and I've never had any trouble. Never did the very lategame stuff, but by that point you're probably spending too much time to optimize your character by 1%

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[T. Reich]

Veterans of PoE, is the game playable for a casualfag like me? 1-2 hours per day, 4-5 hours per day in weekends. Can I explore all of the game's content per league, until the league ends?

ALL of content? Sure, if you're a veteran AND you're really gud.

Here's the perspective:
1) The "story mode" comprises approx character levels 1-70 and will take you anywhere from 10 (efficient veteran semi-speedrun) to 30 hours (explore every nook and cranny, no rush, actually talk to NPCs, plus first-time player's learning time) reasonably. It features all of the basic features the game has to offer, but almost none of the stuff that gets traction on r/pathofexile.
Then you're off to maps - the real endgame. Here it's YOU who decide what's your goal.
2) Taking a character to lvl 85 (a reasonable endgame goal) will normally take you to t7-10 maps depending on your luck with drops and general skills. It will reasonably take approx 10-30 hours again, depending on a lot of factors, including the major one - how much time you will spend idling in hideout mucking about with different stuff instead of actually running maps. You will normally see most of what the game has to offer of the more advanced game mechanics, but you will not have seen the most advanced stuff in terms of gear, atlas mechanics, or what can be considered "difficult" content (not even close). You may have encountered some of the more advanced league-related mechanics, but likely not the top end of what the league has got to offer. The amount of "grind" (having to repeat content in order to advance) at this stage is fairly low - you will spend a good deal of time simply discovering all the maps the atlas has to offer at this point. We're talking about at least 50 varied locations that differ by layout and tilesets, plus each has a unique boss that may look like something you've already seen during story mode, but usualyl features some extra twists. Ideally, at this point you won't even have to run the same map more than once, while the game throws progressively harder things for you to handle, so the game still stays fresh.
3) Taking a character to lvl 90 (it's where a lot of less demanding veteran players usually stop playing and either make another character or drop the game until new content altogether, or take a break) will normally take you into actual endgame (red-tier maps) and will require approx 10-30 hours again, depending entirely on how gud end efficient of a player you are. The grind becomes noticeably more pronounced, you will have to run repeat content a lot more simply to progress to new map tiers, or to even find better gear to be able to handle the content you'r at. Depending on your luck and determination, you will get into t13-15 maps and may or may not experience t16 guardians (aka the pre-bosses of the very endgame boss), and you're likely to have failed miserably unless you're a veteran with the "right" build. You will have run the endgame Labyrinth. You will have found a good deal of various gear, maybe including some of the more exclusive stuff. You will have likely encountered the very endgame part of the current temp league, but likely only a few times.
4) Going lvl90+ means you want to get all the game has to offer. Beat the Shaper and farm the shit out of endgame league content, and get the best gear the game has to offer. The grind is officially ON full-time here - you MUST do repeat content ad nauseum until you acquire enough resources to be able to do cerain things better (or at all). Engaging in trading is pretty much mandatory unless you're super good at game. Not for casualfags like you, unless you're REALLY damn efficient veteran player who wastes no time on bullshit (basically, 1% top player).

Most of your fellow Codexians who actively post in this thread fall somewhere between groups 2 and 3. A couple go full way into group 4.

 

[SirSingAlot]

standard should be a serious consideration if you intend to casually play a few hrs here and there.
you will only miss the new Abyss features, but there is sooo much content, it will be overwhelming anyways.

 

[Zdzisiu]

standard should be a serious consideration if you intend to casually play a few hrs here and there.
you will only miss the new Abyss features, but there is sooo much content, it will be overwhelming anyways.

There is absolutely no benefits for a new player to play standard instead of a new league.

In new league you get everything the game has to offer plus the league mechanics.

On standard you don't get league mechanics.

In the new league the economy is way easier for new players, gear is cheaper, there are more players to trade with.

On standard everything is inflated to hell and back. Items cost up to 10 times of what they due in a new league. Also, there are less players to trade with.

Even when you are just a casual player, you can continue to play after the league has ended, your char will be moved to standard, no time limit whatsoever.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[SirSingAlot]

of course there are many benefits of playing league > standard, that goes without saying.


BUT if you are a casual not beeing able tp spend much time and effort, standard is a solid long term choice(be it along some legaue play or without), as a filthy casual you at least can tackle the real engame enemies after some time.

 

[T. Reich]

I feel like the league/perma choice is ultimately pointless.
You either have your fill of the fun/don't have any fun and drop the game early -> it doesn't matter what you played.
OR you got hooked on PoE and stick around for long enough:
1) you become a league-only player, like most of the people these days are -> what goes into perma leagues in the end doesn't matter to you, it's basically like playing a long voided race.
OR
2) you also play standard, so eventually you will be able to afford anything, even with standard's relatively inflated prices.

 

[Zdzisiu]

of course there are many benefits of playing league > standard, that goes without saying.


BUT if you are a casual not beeing able tp spend much time and effort, standard is a solid long term choice(be it along some legaue play or without), as a filthy casual you at least can tackle the real engame enemies after some time.

But isn't starting in a league and then continuing in standard still a better choice than starting in standard? You get to experience the league mechanics and then after the transfer you can take all the time in the world to tackle the endgame on standard.