Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[empi]

Not really, using percentage ones is though ofc

 

[dibens]

So, my HC wand marauder experiment was a failure (build of the week #8 in youtube). Between boring shit skill tree, constant dex/int starvation and shitty damage and accuracy, there is really nothing that works or feels right about him.

I still like the idea of being a tanky ranged attacker with a shield, so I rolled a shadow- aptly named Avadakedabro. My plan is to make use of wand's innate higher crit chance and merry it with shadow's proximity to attack speed, crit multiplier and wand damage nodes, then spam frienzied Siphon Power for that sweet, sweet critical damage overkill. Evades, energy shield and block should keep me alive pretty well. I may want to go CI for this, but not sure how viable energy shield is in hardcore- any bros that can share the experience?

Edit:

Here's the skill progression I had in mind.

 

[Castanova]

I've got a level 27 Ranger -- my plan was to use Ice Shot. I've got Ice Shot + LMP + Pierce at the moment and all I can say is, this character SUCKS. My mana pool and mana regen is so horrible, I can't even kill a single pack of monsters with Ice Shot without running out of mana. I've got Burning Arrow as a single target attack and even using that it'll take like 5-8 Burning Arrows just to kill a single enemy in the beginning of Act 3 Normal. Granted, I haven't put any points into DPS nodes (except for the +30% Cold Damage with Weapons) but I wasn't expecting to be basically useless in damage-dealing. I wanted to go Blood Magic but so far I've only got like 500 hp + Troll's Blood. If I start spamming 20 mana Ice Shots, I'll kill myself in about 5 seconds. So, recently I picked up a +30 INT node and started running Clarity. This helps A BIT but I'm still OOM by the time a single enemy pack is gone. I suppose at level 31 I can replace the Pierce gem with a Mana Leech gem and see what happens then? It just feels lame that I can barely even use my skills without going OOM instantly. Compare that with my Marauder who rushed to Blood Magic and was instantly able to spam abilities and kick everyone's ass with no damage nodes.

Supposedly Catacombs is meant to be the "grind" area for Act 3, has anybody tried it?

I haven't tried the Catacombs. But for my Summoner Witch, level 62 currently, I "grind" in The Docks and I'm fairly pleased with it. Most of the enemies are skeletons and those humans, neither of which are threatening at all. There are also the dogs with the AoE flame breath but they aren't bad either. It only gets slightly hairy when there's a large pack of elite dogs but I've never really been in any danger yet.

 

[spectre]

Yep, Blood Magic is so good that once you try it mana builds don't feel the same.
Clarity is the answer. I keep one at level 1-2 and cycle it between characters. However, on its own it doesn't do that much, you need to stack a few +mana regen effect on top of it for effect +mana rings may be necessary too.
Another solution is to use mana flasks with increased mana recovery time - this allows you to fire away for those 6-8 seconds.

Also, be wary not to overlevel your arrow skills - the mana cost gets ridiculous later on once you start slapping them 150% cost modifiers on top, no wonder your mana reserves can't keep up.

I may want to go CI for this, but not sure how viable energy shield is in hardcore- any bros that can share the experience?

Imo, energy shield works best on summoners and ranged attackers - when you don't spend too much time in the fray and/or when you can make some zombies for distraction.
Remember that CI got nerfed and no longer gives the +40% ES bonus. I tried a CI witch (blood rage + dagger/shield) in regular league and she's pretty squishy. There are several areas that WILL rape you if you rely on energy shield. Chaos damage hurts, puncture hurts, dot auras hurt too.

 

[dibens]

Chaos damage hurts, puncture hurts, dot auras hurt too.

Even when CI makes you chaos immune?

Oh and I completely forgot the Ghost Reaver passive, which applies all life leech to ES.

 

[Damned Registrations]

So, my HC wand marauder experiment was a failure (build of the week #8 in youtube). Between boring shit skill tree, constant dex/int starvation and shitty damage and accuracy, there is really nothing that works or feels right about him.

I still like the idea of being a tanky ranged attacker with a shield, so I rolled a shadow- aptly named Avadakedabro. My plan is to make use of wand's innate higher crit chance and merry it with shadow's proximity to attack speed, crit multiplier and wand damage nodes, then spam frienzied Siphon Power for that sweet, sweet critical damage overkill. Evades, energy shield and block should keep me alive pretty well. I may want to go CI for this, but not sure how viable energy shield is in hardcore- any bros that can share the experience?

Edit:

Here's the skill progression I had in mind.

I haven't played in a while, and never used CI myself when I was playing. But for what it's worth, I've found instant use healing potions to be invaluable while playing in hardcore. Having a large lifepool you can instantly restore to full multiple times per second in a frenzied panic when shit goes sideways has saved my characters many, many times. You can't do that to an energy shield, you need to stop taking damage to replenish it (barring ghost reaver shenanigans.)

 

[Castanova]

Yep, Blood Magic is so good that once you try it mana builds don't feel the same.

Clarity is the answer. I keep one at level 1-2 and cycle it between characters. However, on its own it doesn't do that much, you need to stack a few +mana regen effect on top of it for effect +mana rings may be necessary too.
Another solution is to use mana flasks with increased mana recovery time - this allows you to fire away for those 6-8 seconds.

I considered spending the next 20 skill points or so going up into the Marauder starting area, then activating Blood Magic. However, since I'm going Ice Shot, it seems like a waste not to use Hatred and you can't really use Hatred with Blood Magic. I think what I'm going to do is grab that Mana Flows cluster between the Duelist and Ranger areas as well as the three +20% mana regen nodes on the way toward the middle area. That, plus using Mana Leech at level 31, should hopefully allow me to spam Ice Shot semi-permanently. And then I can start using Hatred as well, hopefully. I suppose I could also go a bit left and grab those -% to skill mana cost nodes near Unwavering Stance.

 

[made]

Bought a lvl 27 unique mace for 1 alch. Turned out to be barely better than my old rare weapon. Wasted all my jeweler's orbs trying to at least improve the sockets but only managed to totally fuck them up in the process. Ended up selling it on for 4 chaos orbs. All's well... :D

So is there a quick and easy way to figure out how a weapon will improve your skill damage without actually equipping it?

 

[Grunker]

Remember that uniques in PoE aren't typically just better rares. Rather they offer unique effects to different builds. Like the gauntlets that enable you to do 867% extra damage when unarmed and shit like that. Sometimes uniques even have drawbacks next to their unique effects. So uniques are often only better if they fit into your build like a glove.

 

[spectre]

Even when CI makes you chaos immune?

I prolly should have put some spacing between these two sentences, or swap them around for clarity. Of course CI makes you immune to chaos damage, which is a good reason to get this, because it's annoying as fuck on energy shield, though I have to say without the +40% ES bonus, it lost quite a bit of its appeal. Being on level 30, I don't see my blood rage build performing any better than a regular frenzy and no CI one.
Long story short, I wouldn't use CI in hardcore, even with ghost reaver and plenty of physical damage.

I've tested ghost reaver a bit and it's a bit underwhelming too. For one, it relies on physical damage and does not use life on hit stuff. The dagger build I run had no lluck with +physical damage mods so far, so the effect is barely noticealble.
The other passive whose name eludes me atm converts life regen to energy shield, which may be better cause it's easier to set up (coral amulets go up to 4 life/s, there's a unique shield that gives 6.0/s and the mod itself can be seen on almost everything), not to mention the totem or troll's blood passives.

So is there a quick and easy way to figure out how a weapon will improve your skill damage without actually equipping it?

Hold alt to compare, but the usefulness is limited as it doesn't show you the change in dps.

Bought a lvl 27 unique mace for 1 alch. Turned out to be barely better than my old rare weapon. Wasted all my jeweler's orbs trying to at least improve the sockets but only managed to totally fuck them up in the process.

How many sockets were there? From my experience, getting more than 3 sockets with jeweller orbs requires lots and lots of orbs to burn, also you can't get more slots on an item than would be otherwise allowed by the item level this way. Long story short, be happy when you get 3 slots on a unique and just work the colors and max the quality. If you want more, you're better off with a nice, enchantable white item.

 

[spectre]

Remember that uniques in PoE aren't typically just better rares. Rather they offer unique effects to different builds. Like the gauntlets that enable you to do 867% extra damage when unarmed and shit like that. Sometimes uniques even have drawbacks next to their unique effects. So uniques are often only better if they fit into your build like a glove.

This. I like this approach very much, some rares are convenient, others are powerful for everyone, others are build enables, and others have significant drawbacks that beg to be turned into advantages.
I remember having a +100% item rarity on low life boots pre-wipe. Good fun getting it to work.

I have to say, in the open beta the rng is kind to me. First unique drop was a free to use infinite town portal skill gem. All my buggers are using it now. Next came a level 12 two handed axe with 120 damage. It took my marauder all the way to cruel.

 

[dibens]

What traps/spells are rangers here using and swear by to keep mobs away?

 

[empi]

Also CI didn't give +40%, used to give 1.5xES, which is a lot lot better ;p, and ghost reaver doesn't rely on physical damage if you use a life leech support, and it works very well with vaal pact

 

[Castanova]

What traps/spells are rangers here using and svear by to keep mobs away?

People seem to use either the Decoy Totem (if they're going STR+Iron Grip+Blood Magic) or Spell Totem + Summon Skeletons.

 

[empi]

Yeah decoy totem got nerfed a bit too hard, if you can use them then summon skele+spell totem is better

 

[Cowboy Moment]

In lategame, damage scales way faster than skill mana cost, even with support gem modifiers, so for melee characters with mana (Templars and Shadows mostly), Mana Leech will typically cover it. My lvl 51 Shadow runs Wrath and Hatred, and 2% leech from Mind Drinker is nearly enough to cover LS spam. It definitely will be enough with a better/slower weapon and once I bother to trade for the support gems I need (anyone have spare melee phys damage btw? also warlord's mark).

 

[DakaSha]

What traps/spells are rangers here using and svear by to keep mobs away?

People seem to use either the Decoy Totem (if they're going STR+Iron Grip+Blood Magic) or Spell Totem + Summon Skeletons.

My ranger currently keeps them away by one shotting the entire mob

Sure it wont last long like this though. Only lvl 25+ or so

 

[made]

also warlord's mark

That one I have. /w Marzog ingame.

Uh, EU server ofc.

 

[oscar]

Good shit for a two-hander duellist?

 

[Gerrard]

Man, that pyramid at the end of act 2 was a pain in the ass.

 

[Stabwound]

I'm starting to get annoyed with this game around 1/4 through HC Act 2 of Cruel. I'm using a level 20 weapon and can't find a better one for the life of me. I can tell that if I join groups, I'm just leeching and being carried. I might have to just switch to a 2-handed weapon and kiss 1/3 of my armor and 9% all resistances away from my shield goodbye.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

I'm starting to get annoyed with this game around 1/4 through HC Act 2 of Cruel. I'm using a level 20 weapon and can't find a better one for the life of me. I can tell that if I join groups, I'm just leeching and being carried. I might have to just switch to a 2-handed weapon and kiss 1/3 of my armor and 9% all resistances away from my shield goodbye.

Just buy a high level weapon from vendor then transmute/alt it until you get decent +physical.

 

[DakaSha]

Just traded 2 alchs away for Raise Spectre for my necro guy (not sure if i got ripped off but whatever.. i need it for my build)
Awesome skill. Not sure if it is really powerful due to the way it nerfs the mob but its just fun to use

edit: wow the monsters being able to use their abilities is awesome. charges up the ass

 

[Stabwound]

Yeah, you did unfortunately get ripped off. It's a quest reward for at least 2 quests in normal difficulty if you're a witch. Not a big deal, I guess.

 

[DakaSha]

Yeah, you did unfortunately get ripped off. It's a quest reward for at least 2 quests in normal difficulty if you're a witch. Not a big deal, I guess.

Yeah the only class i havent rolled yet is witch. Oh well. i seem to find a fair amount of alchs