Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[Kjaska]

D2 at home edition:

 

[Cyberarmy]

LoL at the follower, nice touch.

 

[Alex]

So i wanted to try some zombies so i rolled a Witch, got the minion gem and erased her lul.

Wonder if i can make a necro-like build with my Templar. Looking at the passives tree there's an entire branch right off the bat that boosts minions, so it seems like i'm already poised to try it. I think i'm going to waste a respec point by just building my passives blind, without looking for guides, which is guaranteed to turn into shit hence why i'm basically burning away a respec point but what the hell.

I tried it this league and while it may well be that I am just incompetent; I warn you that it is pretty annoying not being able to direct your creatures directly. The build I used had pretty strong zombies, capable of soaking a lot of damage and eventually killing almost anything on my level. But various league stuff that you do once you reach the second part of the game or maps such as incursions or the fungal thing require you to be able to kill stuff quickly, which can be annoying. I mean, sure, if you get to the high end of your build, you will be doing enough damage to kill those things almost instantly, I suppose, but be warned it can be frustrating. Also, I think these two might be some of the most lucrative map events as well. Another annoying thing is that zombies keep making that annoying moan all the time.

Totems are much more easy to direct in comparison and might make for a more fun experience, but that is all my opinion of course.

 

[Goldschmidt]

I hope they'll keep this pacing and not cater to the pic related pinheads who had their brain folds eroded by the extreme deluge of loot explosion dopamine. Maybe this "ARPG" will actually have combat in the game again and not just a couple of map deleting buttons to avoid getting one shot off screen.

Nigga, you have no idea what you're talking about. Just because there are videos on the internet of Empyrian showcasing builds that are worth 3+ Mirrors, doesn't mean that that is how you have to play or that in fact how most people experience the game. Fire up Ruthless and get your shit pushed in, then come back and talk about "muh map deleting skills".

I have to second this comment but I guess it is a matter of fomo even on the codex. People flock to the most optimized builds possible and then complain it becomes a zoomfest. Why don't you just build your own build and dont put streamer goals but .... too hard to figure out it seems.

It is like luiji saying Shadows of Amn has fake complexity because everyone plays Kensage.

 

[Peachcurl]

More people should try out wacky builds. It's fun.

Like trying out actual reflect / retaliate builds. Of course those can never _really_ work without cheesy solutions (just look at Grimdawn, devs made retaliate builds viable by essentially turning them into active damage dealers), but it's still fun to try.

 

[Alex]

Personally, I've been trying ready made builds because I am too much of a noob and I don't know what is there in the game in first place, so I figured that it was a good way to try things out.

 

[Jaedar]

People flock to the most optimized builds possible and then complain it becomes a zoomfest.

Hf making any progress in the endgame if you're not zooming though. And considering a lot of league content these days is locked behind T14+ maps, you can't really say the devs didn't intend for you to get there.

 

[Kjaska]

Hf making any progress in the endgame if you're not zooming though. And considering a lot of league content these days is locked behind T14+ maps, you can't really say the devs didn't intend for you to get there.

You don't have to play a zoomer build to get into t14+, just roll RF and comfy-walk into the endgame.

In fact most recommended starter builds try to strike a balance between acceptable clear and boss damage while relying on as little gear as possible. The real zoomer build is what you make your 2nd character into, because those need good gear to function.

 

[Jaedar]

You don't have to play a zoomer build to get into t14+, just roll RF and comfy-walk into the endgame.

I think we are operating on different definitions of zoom here. You don't have to clear multiple screens per second to make meaningful progress, but you also won't get anywhere if you need to spend a full minute killing every other rare.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The problem with those type of games and not "following" guides is that many times it's actually unclear what actually works and what doesn't, unless you spend a lot of time testing things out, and also many times what's actually going on with the numbers isn't immediatly obvious from the descriptions alone.

It wouldn't matter too much if not for the fact the way those games work means that if your build is shit at some point you'll find yourself unable to progress at all.

BTW, is it me or there appears to be a certain lack of theorycrafting going on? I mean in terms of people discussing how things work and why certain builds came to be the way they are. I noticed a similar trend when i played Grim Dawn. Maybe it's because those games have been out for so long nobody needs to discuss anything anymore, but it's kinda depressing i actually liked reading about this stuff, watching people getting into arguments about this or that skill and so on. Back in the day whenever i ended up trying one of the established builds i still spent a lot of time figuring WHY the build was the way it was, reading up about what people said reguarding skills, their pros and cons etc.

Right now all i see is a bunch of threads about builds with scant comments on them, a few youtube videos that don't say a whole lot and a bunch of reddit posts again with very little actual discussing going on. So basically there's an handful of people who do the theorycrafting and everybody just blindly goes along? Because i don't even remember that happening in WoW where certain builds were mandatory for raiding.

 

[Peachcurl]

1. You don't have to "blindly" go along with builds. Good guides provide explanations, plus you can check details and alternatives pretty easily via PoB.
2. PoE is an old-ish game, most build guides reflect that. They are usually updates of older builds, to track changes from recent patches. The relevant discussion has already taken place.

Both of these probably contribute to a decreased volume of build discussion.

If you think discussion is lacking, start asking questions yourself.

 

[Jaedar]

The wiki https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Path_of_Exile_Wiki also has a lot of information about how most things work. The game is kind of "solved" in that respect. PoE is also really complex at this point, it's kind of hard to have a strong opinion on someone elses detailed build, and even then it's often like "yeah, you could do it that way instead, but I chose this way".

You also don't need that much theorycrafting, because path of building exists and can just tell you, so there's not much room for disagreement which is what drives a lot of discussion.

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

I can't speak for their quality but this guy makes videos on game mechanics if you are interested in that.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I suppose that makes sense. I've been checking out the forums and there IS some discussion going on in there, at least on some popular builds (found a couple with something like 500+ pages but it's mostly because the build keeps changing with each updage so there's some comments going on about the changes periodically).

So out of curiosity i checked the "recommended" build for ruthless and the one that came up more often is something called cold dot occultist. I'm actually tempted to try it because it seems to be using all the gems given to the Witch as quest rewards so you don't need mules. Considering there's only two months left on this league (plus my play time is limited to begin with) i may run with this just to ease myself back into the game then try something more unique in the next league.

 

[Gerrard]

More people should try out wacky builds. It's fun.

Like trying out actual reflect / retaliate builds. Of course those can never _really_ work without cheesy solutions (just look at Grimdawn, devs made retaliate builds viable by essentially turning them into active damage dealers), but it's still fun to try.

 

[Kjaska]

but you also won't get anywhere if you need to spend a full minute killing every other rare.

If you're doing that, then your build isn't working properly. Besides, dps vs rare mobs isn't indicative of your clear speed, you could make a build with low clear speed that has great defences and great single target dps.

 

[Kjaska]

The problem with those type of games and not "following" guides is that many times it's actually unclear what actually works and what doesn't, unless you spend a lot of time testing things out, and also many times what's actually going on with the numbers isn't immediatly obvious from the descriptions alone.

You can clear the campaign with default attack. Game highlights all the Supporting Gems that work with your Active Skill Gem when you mouse over them. There aren't many Support Gem options competing for any single damage type. PathofBuilding exists. A large supply of good guides exist. If you're a newb and you need help, you'll get it. If you're in it for the build variety, you have the ressources to do so in PoB.

There is no discussion on builds (in this thread), because the build making scene has evolved beyond forums a long time ago. You either know what you're doing and play one of the good builds or you're doing some homebrewed jank. Neither camp is interested hearing what the counterpart has to say. The jank enthusiasts are enthusiastic about their own build. They don't get hyped over somebody else's jank, because the entire point of playing jank is that you came up with it on your own. The people playing good builds don't hang around this thread for discussion, they go to discords and to streamer chats who play the same build, because that is where the knowledge congregates. Every new League Start there is a mad rush of theorycrafting the best starter builds. There is a mad gold rush after it goes live to figure out the potential of the new League mechanic and what kind of build can utilize it the most.

It wouldn't matter too much if not for the fact the way those games work means that if your build is shit at some point you'll find yourself unable to progress at all.

So just start a new character. If you're after build variety, you'll have to make a lot of new character anyway. Starting fresh should be in your DNA.

This is why I have Lyric Spam on ignore. He plays 30 minutes of a game and writes 3 pages of thread. He doesn't like playing games, he likes to spam this forum with his "thoughts" much more. Just become a streamer, you can monetize that gift for stretching content out.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I'm sorry but who are you first of all and what the fuck is this salty shit lmao.

 

[frajaq]

I wonder if GGG is still sticking to creating the three new ascendancies for all non-Scion characters (plus one new for Scion, for a total of 19). Thats just straight up double the effort of trying to balance shit

 

[Kjaska]

I wonder if GGG is still sticking to creating the three new ascendancies for all non-Scion characters (plus one new for Scion, for a total of 19). Thats just straight up double the effort of trying to balance shit

I was worried about that as well when they announced it, but the reality of balancing Ascendancies on Live is that they realistically have to rework only 1 or 2 Ascendancies every 3-4 months at most for people to be satisfied. More Ascendancies means less pressure on all of them to be great. Besides, players will gravitate towards the perceived meta regardless.

 

[Justinian]

I wonder if GGG is still sticking to creating the three new ascendancies for all non-Scion characters (plus one new for Scion, for a total of 19). Thats just straight up double the effort of trying to balance shit

i hope so, the new ranger ascendancies look pretty interesting

 

[Reinhardt]

You can clear the campaign with default attack.

but why, when you can play cleave duelist.

 

[Baron Dupek]

PoE 2 campaing shorter and more randomized
still waste of time if you play more than 1 character in league

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i'm a trying a Witch now, using freezing pulse, teh zombies, frost bomb and some chaos debuff thing forgot what its called. No synergies whatsoever, but then no support gems means who cares, just stacking shit for the sake of it lmao.

Also, an Orb of Regret just dropped. Wonder if the next time i'll see one will be at the end of the league lul.

 

[Kjaska]

Just because the new campaign has 7 Acts instead of 10, doesn't mean it'll be shorter. If you're reasonably fast (5h and below) through the campaign right now, you'll be slower in the new campaign for your first couple of playthroughs at the very least, if not forever.