Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[Perkel]

So, this summoner is the highest level/highest map completion I've ever had, and I'm starting to run into mechanics that are either new to the atlas or I never got to before.

First question, which of the following summoning skills should be on my five link? I have 8 zombies, 10 skellies (currently in the 5 link) and 3 spectres, who are the apes that give frenzy charges. The skeletons seem to have the best damage of the bunch, and their low health doesn't really matter that much since they're temporary anyway.

Secondly, what support gems should I be using? I have multistrike, melee damage, minion damage, and summon phantasm on my skeletons currently. I'm also not clear on whether the summoned phantasms are affected by the supports, although only one of them would even apply since phantasms are ranged.

I called you retard because you agree with everything i say and then you somehow say that as argument against my argument...

Either of those can be your main damage dealer. Summoner up to high tier red maps is pretty much easy mode. It is high tier content that is issue with it since it is heavily gear reliant and until you get something you can't progress at all unless you enjoy dying multiple times to kill some boss.

 

[lukaszek]

I really hope there will be no ascendancies. In my top 10 list of POE mistakes that is easily the first.

I wont agree with you in here.
I wont be surprised though if they remove ascendancies, after tree rework many mods you gain feel like ascendancy stuff

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

I really hope there will be no ascendancies. In my top 10 list of POE mistakes that is easily the first.

I wont agree with you in here.
I wont be surprised though if they remove ascendancies, after tree rework many mods you gain feel like ascendancy stuff

If ascendancies were removed I"d never play again, they are so character defining it just seems generic without them. Of course they won't remove them, that'd be asinine.

I called you retard because you agree with everything i say and then you somehow say that as argument against my argument...

Either of those can be your main damage dealer. Summoner up to high tier red maps is pretty much easy mode. It is high tier content that is issue with it since it is heavily gear reliant and until you get something you can't progress at all unless you enjoy dying multiple times to kill some boss.

If you think I agreed with everything you said you really need to read better next time.

I will agree so far summoner has been easy mode. It doesn't feel like it's been very gear dependent so far, but maybe I've just been lucky with gear this particular time around. The biggest thing with gear is that my main hand does almost nothing for me, all I've got is the crafted increased minion damage mod on it, and maybe a resist. This would seem to be the easiest area for me to improve, but it seems weapons don't normally drop with minion mods? So I'm not sure what to try to get a better main hand weapon. I've got a stash tab full of various currency so I could certainly throw some orbs of chance at the right base item if there's a particular unique I should be going after.

My only other issue is my character is rather slow. I think i"ve got like 20% increased move speed if I'm lucky, it may be less. I have some nice unique boots with +1 skeleton summons, however they only have 10% increased move speed so maybe they're not worth it...

 

[Gerrard]

Trade is the root cause of at least half of the issues with PoE. The "issue" of Harvest being too powerful was literally caused by trade.

This is like saying hardcore mode has fewer mechanics and is simpler than softcore

But it does, most players in HC don't interact with rippy content like Scourge.

 

[Jaedar]

Too bad they wont just keep endless delve around. Gathering fuel is not enjoyable.

appropriate, as neither is delve

Trade is the root cause of at least half of the issues with PoE. The "issue" of Harvest being too powerful was literally caused by trade.

I have said it before, but it is worth repeating: The game GGG wants to make could never exist. They want a game with a large audience, where you can and will trade anything, where there is a huge build and item variety, but also one where players find gear to upgrade with on their own. It's mathematically, economically and technically impossible. The only way they could make loot a viable progression path is if they nuked premium stash tabs and every other api that allows for trade indexing, and that will never happen.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

Trade is the root cause of at least half of the issues with PoE. The "issue" of Harvest being too powerful was literally caused by trade.

This is like saying hardcore mode has fewer mechanics and is simpler than softcore

But it does, most players in HC don't interact with rippy content like Scourge.

I guess my question regarding the "issues" are... what's the problem? People buying "too powerful" equipment obviously want it, people selling it want the currency... what's the problem here? "Too powerful" in relation to what? Who cares, is it just about the absolutely tiny minority of people who care about the ladder stuff?

I mean, I'd get it if harvest league was giving out such better stuff that nothing else mattered, but I certainly don't remember it that way. If a piece of content has such better rewards than the rest, the rest might as well not exist, in a sense, I can see how that's a problem.

HC players may choose not to engage certain mechanics, but they're still there and available.

Scourge is definitely rippy, lol, my character usually has full health and shield even when wading through crowds, but occasionally in the krangleverse something will just chop my life down super quick, like 2-3 shots. Since I'm usually so invincible, I tend to be slower to hit the potions, so I've had a number of deaths to that. It wouldn't bother me except I do not know what was killing me, and thus, what to avoid/plan for.

 

[Gerrard]

Trade is the root cause of at least half of the issues with PoE. The "issue" of Harvest being too powerful was literally caused by trade.

This is like saying hardcore mode has fewer mechanics and is simpler than softcore

But it does, most players in HC don't interact with rippy content like Scourge.

I guess my question regarding the "issues" are... what's the problem? People buying "too powerful" equipment obviously want it, people selling it want the currency... what's the problem here? "Too powerful" in relation to what? Who cares, is it just about the absolutely tiny minority of people who care about the ladder stuff?

The problem was being able to make "perfect" items "easily" by buying the crafts from other people through some tranny discord. Or playing 8 hours a day.
Also 99% of PoE's problems come from Chris being a fucking idiot.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

The problem was being able to make "perfect" items "easily" by buying the crafts from other people through some tranny discord. Or playing 8 hours a day.
[/QUOTE]
I still fail to see a problem here. I guess the real problem was that some clever players were able to top the ladder without the usual playing 72 hours straight business, so the top streamers didn't win or something, right? Is POE something people watch other people play? Damn fucking kids these days, I tell you...

 

[Kjaska]

First question, which of the following summoning skills should be on my five link? I have 8 zombies, 10 skellies (currently in the 5 link) and 3 spectres, who are the apes that give frenzy charges. The skeletons seem to have the best damage of the bunch, and their low health doesn't really matter that much since they're temporary anyway.

Either skellies for better boss damage or proper Spectres for clearspeed.

Secondly, what support gems should I be using? I have multistrike, melee damage, minion damage, and summon phantasm on my skeletons currently. I'm also not clear on whether the summoned phantasms are affected by the supports, although only one of them would even apply since phantasms are ranged.

If you absolutely need phantasms for something, put them on zombies and link Skellies to Brutality. You can hover over any linked Support Gem and it will highlight the Skill Gems it is supporting.

So I'm not sure what to try to get a better main hand weapon

You can use a fossil combo of Jagged + Corroded + Metallic + Shuddering in a 4s Resonator on a Convoking Wand for +1 All Spells and +1 Minion Spells. The average is 12 tries to hit that combo. It would be your best bet for a deterministic upgrade and will last you for a long while. Alternatively you can spam some Bound Fossils on a Convoking Wand and settle on 3 or 4 decent mods. The good thing about Delve is that you can sometimes find +1 Spectre body armours down there.

I wont be surprised though if they remove ascendancies, after tree rework many mods you gain feel like ascendancy stuff

My man, GGG is going to ADD 19 more ascendancies to the game when PoE2 launches

My only other issue is my character is rather slow.

One of the main drawbacks of Summoner. Go for 30ms boots and swap to Flesh Offering for mapping. You can also try using Shield Charge with Faster Attacks. It works with Wands.

The game GGG wants to make could never exist.

I'm willing to bet that current PoE is what GGG wants to make. Just because Chris has his Vision, doesn't mean he wants to make the game less fun for the players. From what I have seen, HC Trade economy is pretty close to the ideal case: you can trade for currency and common uniques, but if you want to min-max you will have to craft the gear yourself. SC Trade is okay for the first 3 days of the league and gets more fucked up as time goes on. Finding an upgrade off the ground is still possible during those initial 3 days, where the majority of the players play the most during any given league. I don't think GGG wants you to find upgrades only off the ground. They'll probably try to increase the amount of upgrades you find yourself before using trade to get BiS gear.

and thus, what to avoid/plan for.

Avoid getting more than 100 stacks of corruption until you can handle more.

I spent all my essences and fossils trying to craft an upgrade for my MF char, only to find out that the krangled Piscators I had since day 3 of the league was better than all of them by at least 10%. If only I could be less lazy and use PoB more often

 

[Jaedar]

HC Trade economy is pretty close to the ideal case: you can trade for currency and common uniques, but if you want to min-max you will have to craft the gear yourself.

That may be true, but HC as a gamemode kinda sucks, and GGG has no real desire to support it, same as SSF.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

lots of good stuff

Thank you, that's very helpful. Yeah I dunno why I'm sticking with the phantasms, one problem with minion builds is you have no idea whatsoever what kind of damage each of your minions is doing. I mean, it's gotta be a lot judging how quick the bosses go down, but I have no idea if the phantasms are even really making a difference.

I haven't found a convoking wand yet, I see that can roll minion mods therefore it's the obvious choice. I haven't messed around with fossils much, I'll have to pay attention to which ones I have and look into that. Solid advice there.

Another issue I have is with the changes to get to the uber lab, I have been mapping for quite a while and still haven't seen a single offering to the goddess or trial. I've been doing all the zana missions I can, but again, no trials. I do have 3 out of 6 divination cards for an offering, should I pursue that or will offerings to the goddess become more common in the higher tier maps? I'm pretty sure the lab itself will be a cakewalk, I was able to beat Atzari effortlessly, I have never come close on another character. Although it did illustrate that while reflect won't hurt me, it is a huge pain in the ass to have to re-summon all my minions constantly. So, like all my previous characters, I guess I gotta just avoid reflect. Honestly reflect seems like a stupid mechanic, for 90% of characters it just means "Avoid this content".

 

[Gerrard]

I wonder if Perkel is playing the Gauntlet, 10 minute Brutus fight seems like his dream version of PoE.

Another issue I have is with the changes to get to the uber lab, I have been mapping for quite a while and still haven't seen a single offering to the goddess or trial. I've been doing all the zana missions I can, but again, no trials. I do have 3 out of 6 divination cards for an offering, should I pursue that or will offerings to the goddess become more common in the higher tier maps?

Trials only appear in yellow or red maps (unless you have the Dream Trial prophecy).

 

[Kjaska]

That may be true, but HC as a gamemode kinda sucks, and GGG has no real desire to support it, same as SSF.

IMO that's not true. Up until this league, the changes introduced into the game felt more impactful in SSF than in trade (Expedition Vendors, Ritual shop, Divine Vessel recipe etc). I'm guessing you want Death Log for HC. I think GGG are hesitant to implement it, because it'll never be perfect and the community will just endlessly whine about its shortcomings, while it eats away at the servers by constantly logging every damage intake.

Another issue I have is with the changes to get to the uber lab, I have been mapping for quite a while and still haven't seen a single offering to the goddess or trial. I've been doing all the zana missions I can, but again, no trials. I do have 3 out of 6 divination cards for an offering, should I pursue that or will offerings to the goddess become more common in the higher tier maps? I'm pretty sure the lab itself will be a cakewalk, I was able to beat Atzari effortlessly, I have never come close on another character. Although it did illustrate that while reflect won't hurt me, it is a huge pain in the ass to have to re-summon all my minions constantly. So, like all my previous characters, I guess I gotta just avoid reflect. Honestly reflect seems like a stupid mechanic, for 90% of characters it just means "Avoid this content".

Lab Trials will only spawn in yellow and red maps now. There is also a prophecy that can spawn a trial, but I'm 90% sure it won't trigger in a white map.
You can solve reflect by selecting the Yugul Minor Pantheon Power and equipping a body armour with the krangled mod that reduces reflected damage. Alternatively you could try rolling an ilvl75+ body armour that has Redeemer Influence (Veritania).
For Atziri specifically, it's only 1% reflect, so Minion Leech on a notable or a Ghastly Eye Jewel should suffice.

 

[Jaedar]

That may be true, but HC as a gamemode kinda sucks, and GGG has no real desire to support it, same as SSF.

IMO that's not true. Up until this league, the changes introduced into the game felt more impactful in SSF than in trade (Expedition Vendors, Ritual shop, Divine Vessel recipe etc). I'm guessing you want Death Log for HC. I think GGG are hesitant to implement it, because it'll never be perfect and the community will just endlessly whine about its shortcomings, while it eats away at the servers by constantly logging every damage intake.

Death log would be good yes, but there's other issues with HC. PoE in its current state will (and this is by design) have you sleepwalking through encounters for a minute, and then suddenly you'll be up against something that can kill you unless you play well. What this tends to translate to in HC is you'll spend 10 hours barely taking a hit and then you'll get oneshot before you even had a chance to parse the mods of the rare(s) that killed you. You can't really prepare beforehand (except maybe by datamining), and you'll be just as clueless afterwards. And ofc there's the issue that when you die you need to spend hours leveling a new character on trivial content which is only so much fun.

 

[lukaszek]

except maybe by datamining

are there overlays for poe that can mark problematic enemies?

imagine, in 2 years we will get enemy filters, like we use loot filters now

 

[The Dopamine Cleric]

Fuck this game.

It's not incline. It's crappy Diablo 2.

Every game of this genre is crappy Diablo 2.

So is Diablo 2.

 

[Jaedar]

Every game of this genre is crappy Diablo 2.

Except Diablo 2. That's a crappy Diablo 1.

Fixed it for you.

 

[The Dopamine Cleric]

Diablo 1 isn't even an RPG. All you do is level up Dexterity.

 

[tritosine2k]

Diablo2 has rock solid 24fps here we have galaxy brain dopamine junkie builds telling you how to bring it down to 15-20 reliably for L000t how that's not awesome

 

[Kjaska]

That may be true, but HC as a gamemode kinda sucks, and GGG has no real desire to support it, same as SSF.

IMO that's not true. Up until this league, the changes introduced into the game felt more impactful in SSF than in trade (Expedition Vendors, Ritual shop, Divine Vessel recipe etc). I'm guessing you want Death Log for HC. I think GGG are hesitant to implement it, because it'll never be perfect and the community will just endlessly whine about its shortcomings, while it eats away at the servers by constantly logging every damage intake.

Death log would be good yes, but there's other issues with HC. PoE in its current state will (and this is by design) have you sleepwalking through encounters for a minute, and then suddenly you'll be up against something that can kill you unless you play well. What this tends to translate to in HC is you'll spend 10 hours barely taking a hit and then you'll get oneshot before you even had a chance to parse the mods of the rare(s) that killed you. You can't really prepare beforehand (except maybe by datamining), and you'll be just as clueless afterwards. And ofc there's the issue that when you die you need to spend hours leveling a new character on trivial content which is only so much fun.

IMO you need to forget the notion of actually surviving. Instead focus on playing your stash. It's a great filter in that regard. IMO it is very possible to get to 100 without ever dying on a character. Once you solve your defences, it's possible to sleepwalk through every map. As long as you don't roll them with multiple damage mods that is. I don't play HC, but when I try to level past 97 there is no sleepwalking. You're focused 100% and if you can't focus anymore, you either play a different character or don't play at all.

telling you how to bring it down to 15-20 reliably for L000t

Nobody is telling you anything. Play the game however you like. But if you don't like loot, I have to wonder why you even bother with PoE.

 

[Sharpedge]

IMO you need to forget the notion of actually surviving. Instead focus on playing your stash. It's a great filter in that regard. IMO it is very possible to get to 100 without ever dying on a character. Once you solve your defences, it's possible to sleepwalk through every map. As long as you don't roll them with multiple damage mods that is. I don't play HC, but when I try to level past 97 there is no sleepwalking. You're focused 100% and if you can't focus anymore, you either play a different character or don't play at all.

Obviously its possible to get to level 100 in HC, theres many people who have done it. But with regards to whether or not you can sleepwalk your way to 100, well, it depends entirely on how you play. If you are doing pure chayula rotas/5 ways/beachheads or any of those other degenerate strategies which have been added into the game over the years, it is fully possible to get to 100 in a very short period of time, while paying minimal attention to the game. As of Harbinger, leveling to 100 stopped being an achievement and became, in most cases, simply a manner of how much currency someone was willing to throw at it.

I used to play HC, before all my friends quit HC and moved to SC (I have always preferred playing in groups) and as a byproduct I moved. The only real difference in mindset between playing HC and SC really is risk aversion. On HC you check what modifiers are on a map before you run it and reroll mods which are dangerous (usually -max, multiple of the x% phys taken as elements, less recovery rate and no regen). You only try to fight bosses when you sure you are ready for them, you don't risk doing them when you are not comfortable. HC is, in my opinion, very good at teaching you what kills you, because unless you want to never make any progress, you will learn quickly what to avoid.

Once you are doing that level 97-100 push however, your character is (normally) more or less finished. You know exactly what will kill you and you know how to avoid it. Even if you aren't using degenerate strategies, most of the avoiding death actually occurs before you are anywhere remotely close to dying - it occurs when you are rolling maps. Its basically just the hardcore mindset all over again. You aren't paying much attention to what is going on when you are actually inside of them, you are simply burning through them as fast as possible, trying to gain XP. That is more or less my experience with leveling to 100 and I have done it a couple of times.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

I used to play HC in diablo 2 occasionally, it was interesting building characters with defense in mind as opposed to my typical glass cannon builds.

So my skelly summoner finally has their last ascension, I went with the one that gives energy shield and mana regen based on nearby corpses. I got the offering from a ritual reward. This allowed me to drop my clarity aura and put more levels onto my life regen aura.
Additionally, I took the keystone that makes life regen apply to energy shield instead. I have ~300 energy shield regen per sec. This has done good things for survivability, as I can chug potions when my health isn't full, but my shield is just constantly refilling, rather than spending most of my time with my 1200 ES gone.

I changed up my gem layout a bit. I moved my zombies to my main hand and they're only supported with meat shield now. In their old place is a CWDT setup with cold snap, culling strike, and increased area. I don't know if this is a good cwdt setup honestly but the theory is that I'd chill enemies who are hurting me, and finish off low health enemies with the cold ground it makes with culling.

I put brutality on my 5 link, so my skellies have +minion damage, +melee damage, multistrike, and brutality. I dropped the aura that adds cold damage based on phys damage and swapped it out for pride.

I changed my banner to the one that gives +armor, I don't know how I missed that, I was using the one that gives impale chance and - enemy accuracy, which was doing nothing for my build really. I have 45% phys damage reduction now.

I have capped resists, +5 in the case of fire, and 37 chaos resist. 5100 health, 1200 es.

I see a lot of minion builds use skitterbots. I don't get it, chilling and shocking enemies for 35% mana regen seems like a lot. What am I missing?

My auras are +life regen, +ES, pride, defiant banner, and I have -16% reservation costs or so.

Is there anything obvious I should change up? I currently run around raising skeletons, cursing enemies, making corpses, and offering said corpses with flesh offering. It works great except when it doesn't and I die instantly.

 

[Kjaska]

You can't cull with dots. Enemies shouldn't be attacking you in most cases. Try rolling a Ghastly Eye Jewel for minion taunt on hit. Skitterbots scale with your minion levels, so there is synergy there. Shock is a big damage multiplier, the chill effect can also be leveraged as a damage multiplier, if you link your damage minions to Hypothermia. You can also utilize the unique ring Profane Proxy, to swap the chill aura for a curse aura for example.

IMO for a CWDT setup either use lvl1 CWDT and a lvl3 Immortal Call linked to increased duration or if you're stacking armour go for a lvl1 CWDT linked to a lvl10 Molten Shell, preferrably a Vaal Molten Shell, so you can have an additional emergency button.

For quality of life, I recommend crafting Trigger on your wand and slotting it with Desecrate, the offering of your choice and the curse of your choice. Alternatively you could try using Arcanist Brand linked to those 3 spells.

Generic: Any minion build can profit from a Animate Guardian. Staple uniques, that are often found are Victario's Flight boots, Embu's Charge body armour, Leer Cast helmet, Dying Breath staff and Southbound gloves

Offensive: Get a 6-link. Get an elder helmet and roll 2-3 minion mods on it for a pseudo 6-link+. Get a Bone Helmet for some generic damage. Get a +2 Convoking Wand. Get +1 skellies on helmet, amulet, boots via Syndicate and/or Delve. Convert damage to cold via Triad Grip gloves with 4 green sockets and use Hatred + Hypothermia.

Defensive: Get a Rumi's Concoction flask. Get a %life gained on block shield (shaper or warlord influence). Get a Jinxed Juju amulet.

 

[Kjaska]

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

You can't cull with dots. Enemies shouldn't be attacking you in most cases. Try rolling a Ghastly Eye Jewel for minion taunt on hit. Skitterbots scale with your minion levels, so there is synergy there. Shock is a big damage multiplier, the chill effect can also be leveraged as a damage multiplier, if you link your damage minions to Hypothermia. You can also utilize the unique ring Profane Proxy, to swap the chill aura for a curse aura for example.

IMO for a CWDT setup either use lvl1 CWDT and a lvl3 Immortal Call linked to increased duration or if you're stacking armour go for a lvl1 CWDT linked to a lvl10 Molten Shell, preferrably a Vaal Molten Shell, so you can have an additional emergency button.

For quality of life, I recommend crafting Trigger on your wand and slotting it with Desecrate, the offering of your choice and the curse of your choice. Alternatively you could try using Arcanist Brand linked to those 3 spells.

Generic: Any minion build can profit from a Animate Guardian. Staple uniques, that are often found are Victario's Flight boots, Embu's Charge body armour, Leer Cast helmet, Dying Breath staff and Southbound gloves

Offensive: Get a 6-link. Get an elder helmet and roll 2-3 minion mods on it for a pseudo 6-link+. Get a Bone Helmet for some generic damage. Get a +2 Convoking Wand. Get +1 skellies on helmet, amulet, boots via Syndicate and/or Delve. Convert damage to cold via Triad Grip gloves with 4 green sockets and use Hatred + Hypothermia.

Defensive: Get a Rumi's Concoction flask. Get a %life gained on block shield (shaper or warlord influence). Get a Jinxed Juju amulet.

OK good to know, cold snap ground effect doesn't "Hit". I wasn't sure about that, so that CWDT setup is pointless.

You say skitterbots scale, but do they actually do damage? I thought their main purpose was for traps and mines.

Wouldn't using hypothermia or converting damage to cold make the brutality support not work? Or does that conversion happen after?

The Qol idea of a trigger wand makes sense, although honestly I don't mind hitting a few different skills, gives me something to do while my minions kill stuff. Mostly I run around casting animate skeleton, desecrate, curse, and offering on a rotation, while frost blinking around.

I have the bone armor ascendency skill, so I don't think I even could use immortal call or molten shell with that, they share a cooldown right? But obviously I need to rethink my CWDT setup, or even abandon the idea totally, as like you say, I shouldn't be taking hits normally anyway.

Animate Guardian sounds like a huge pain in the ass, if it dies the items are lost right? And even if they weren't, I would have to notice when it died and resummon it? Keeping my spectres is bad enough. Still, something I might have to just live with, since red maps are starting to get pretty tough...

A 6 link would be nice. I'm playing SSF so no trading, but I understand the krangler is actually good for getting 6 links, alongside the tainted fusing orbs. I'm just kinda afraid of screwing up my body armor, it's a 6 slot 5 link unique with resists, life, armor, and ES. Assuming I do procure a 6 link, what support should I add to my skeletons? I currently have melee damage, minion damage, multistrike, and brutality.

Can I get a Rumi's concoction by chancing granite flasks? That would be a straight upgrade to my current granite flask, and I do have a lot of currency.

Also, this is the farthest I've ever gotten with a character. I could actually envision completing the atlas with this character. At the same time, I have a shitload of heists available. Also, I've barely touched delve stuff. Should I be prioritizing anything in particular? I think my number one priority at the moment is to obtain a convoking wand, which if I understand correctly can only drop on a few specific maps.