Path of Exile is a MAJESTIC incline

[dibens]

Who has a Tempest character going?

Let's dock. Got a lvl 63 fire totem/firetrap templah going. Agreed, Malachai def kept me on my toes compared to the rest of the content (strongboxes being the exception what with the retarded lag and some unfortunate mods). I'm definitely bringing runspeed boots to the Merciless kill- outmaneuvering his shit is the hardest part I feel.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[LeJosh]

Let's dock. Got a lvl 63 fire totem/firetrap templah going. Agreed, Malachai def kept me on my toes compared to the rest of the content (strongboxes being the exception what with the retarded lag and some unfortunate mods). I'm definitely bringing runspeed boots to the Merciless kill- outmaneuvering his shit is the hardest part I feel.

Sounds good to me, char. name is Trindamu.

Currently 61 and gearing up for Malachai cruel, I use whirling blades with faster attacks and it's the best evasion tool I can think of besides lightning warp/reduced duration.

Farming Dried Lake/Voll usually.

 

[abija]

Regarding lag and stutter, game seems to be running a lot better with no vsync and limited fps around 100ish than with vsync on. Also at least from the graphs they show, looks like all violent fps drops are due to their netcode, not cpu/gpu/io issues.

 

[T. Reich]

From my not-insignificant experience, the violent fps drops occur every time the heavier assets are loaded up:

* when a lot of objects appear
Most often these days - a summoner char with their summons appears near you; less often - when some crowdier strongbox variants are opened, or if a lot of fracture mobs are killed in very short amount of time.

* when a lot of effects are displayed in a very short period of time
The most obvious example - a well-built coc or mjolner build. But there are variations - A good 1,5 years ago I could really lag some parties with my ultra-fast ele ST build if we played in ele reflect maps - the reason being each ele reflect visual effect from each mob would display on my char in VERY rapid fashion.

* when a lot of dynamic effects are displayed at the same time
Rain is still a nuisance for many, as is shocking/desecrated/burning ground. A combo of these and some of the above is guaranteed to slow the weaker machines to a crawl.
That's also the reason why early Dominus used to crash instances for a lot of people.

 

[Eyestabber]

hey guys, anyone knows if attacks speed affects stuff like double strike/dual strike?

 

[Aothan]

could always try Spell Echo & Enduring Cry -_-


as to Double Strike, yes I believe so, certainly seemed that way from my Ranger days

 

[udm]

Yes because both Double Strike and Dual Strike are attacks.

 

[dibens]

Lvl 69 (hehhehehe). Merciless act 3 is finally getting somewhat challenging. Charging mobs hurt now and have noticeably more hp. Piety hurts more than expected, I'd imagine touching Dominus and Malachai until lvl 80 would be unwise. I'm almost out of health nodes within a reasonable reach, will have to get that extra safety 1k health from the lewtz.

Did my first map yesterday, the Desert one. Wtf is up with the Mirage Of Bones? He takes FOREVER to kill, like holy shit. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, good thing I read the last patch notes.

• Added three new end-game Maps: Core, Phantasmagoria and Malformation.
• WARNING: The final encounter in the end-game Core Map is extremely difficult. Players in the Tempest league should expect to lose their characters.

 

[Cyberarmy]

"Players in the Tempest league should expect to lose their characters."

Good thing that I'm a SCfag.

Seriously, fuck my internet provider.

 

[T. Reich]

Lvl 69 (hehhehehe). Merciless act 3 is finally getting somewhat challenging. Charging mobs hurt now and have noticeably more hp. Piety hurts more than expected, I'd imagine touching Dominus and Malachai until lvl 80 would be unwise. I'm almost out of health nodes within the reasonable reach, will have to get that extra safety 1k health from the lewtz.

Did my first map yesterday, the Desert one. Wtf is up with the Mirage Of Bones? He takes FOREVER to kill, like holy shit. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, good thing I read the last patch notes.

Are you a newer PoE player? If so, paying for dominus kill is the easiest way to progress to a4 (because you want access to a4 farming grounds as well as the extra skill point quest reward in a4). Though, dominus is pretty trivial, by a4m standards.
You may want to skip merciless malachai altogether, because killing him gives you nothing of value, but it's a good way to rip.

Desert map boss is one of those trick bosses, which reward thoughful approach to attacks instead of the usual dps/gear check.
Hint: mirror copies of the boss are stationary, while the real boss moves away if you come close. don't waste your time attacking air, seek out the real one.

 

[Radech]

Are you a newer PoE player? If so, paying for dominus kill is the easiest way to progress to a4 (because you want access to a4 farming grounds as well as the extra skill point quest reward in a4). Though, dominus is pretty trivial, by a4m standards.
You may want to skip merciless malachai altogether, because killing him gives you nothing of value, but it's a good way to rip.

Desert map boss is one of those trick bosses, which reward thoughful approach to attacks instead of the usual dps/gear check.
Hint: mirror copies of the boss are stationary, while the real boss moves away if you come close. don't waste your time attacking air, seek out the real one.

He's still a gearcheck though, if you don't have enough dps/reliable single target(fuck you multistrike ) he'll spawn so many images that he becomes untankable - i usually refer to desert maps as chisels

In act 4 you get an optional skill point in mines lvl 2, which means you've unlocked the best premap farming zones, so no need to progress further(unless you're going spectres), killing kaom and daresso just gives a rare map(like dominus pre awakening), which might be worth it(i did it just because i love the daresso area - but I'm also softcore and died to him once

btw for dominus(and for general play) I'd suggest a lightning pot with shock removal and a granite flask with bleed removal, those have become permanent in my flask setup, because oh shit soo much deeps usually only happens when I'm shocked or have run into a corrupted blood pack(or both)

btw did a corrupted unidentified rare map yesterday - no regen, cursed with vulnerability(more phys damage/more damage over time), and monsters immune to curses(no warlords mark), almost died the first time i activated blood rage running around with empty pots desperately trying to find something to leech on

 

[Eyestabber]

So...how does a dual wielder deal with mobs? The lack of an AoE hurts a lot! My 2-hander main char just trolololololo Cleave stuff left and right, but my DW has to be extra careful and take enemies out one at a time. Also, what's the best weapon for a physical dual wielder? No magic! Because my first response would be "daggers, ofc" by they demand int!!! Which I won't invest!

 

[T. Reich]

Um, are you aware that cleave is possibly best used as dual-wield skill, because it attacks with both weapons at the same time?
Also, link dual strike to melee splash.
Also, saying that dw has to be extra careful compared to 2h is laughable, because dw has at least 15% block that 2 doesn't have.

Dw is pretty versatile when it comes to weapon choices. One of best possible ways to play dw is to use the very powerful dps stick in main hand with a skill that can be used with that weapon class, while carrying an utility weapon in off-hand, of a weapon class that can't be used with said skill. This way, you will always be attacking only with main hand, while getting both the dw bonus and the benefits from the off-hand. The current FotM offhand weapon is Death's Hand.

 

[Eyestabber]

Yeah, but I'm like UTRA EARLY GAME, so I don't have melee splash yet with my DW chick. On the other hand, my 2-handed guy was easy mode from level 1.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[made]

Yeah I'm done with the game until they fix the map crashes. Losing 150% IIQ 78s left and right when they are rare as fuck is only bearable for so long.

Are there no recent single-player games that let you tweak and mull over your chars in a way similar to PoE?

 

[Black_Willow]

I just killed the last boss of act 4. I don't know why people are complaining so much. Yes, he requires patience and can't be rushed but on the other hand he's slow and clumsy as hell. I had much more trouble killing <spoiler of act 4 plot>

Spoiler

corrupted Piety.

 

[abija]

From my not-insignificant experience, the violent fps drops occur every time the heavier assets are loaded up:

I run it from ram with textures 2 lvs bellow medium and if I leave it unlocked I have 350-500fps, 99% sure is network related and their vsync implementation makes it worse somehow.
The spell effects overload is different and that's very obvious when it happens.

1% is the chance their 'proprietary filesystem" from gpk is so retarded it fucks everything up and assets are the real issue.

 

[dibens]

Yeah I'm done with the game until they fix the map crashes. Losing 150% IIQ 78s left and right when they are rare as fuck is only bearable for so long.

Are there no recent single-player games that let you tweak and mull over your chars in a way similar to PoE?

Had the same thing happen to me yesterday. After an epic battle with two Incarcerators, I couldn't return to get all the fat loot- unexpected disconnects until you run out of portals. Apparently that has been an issue for some since forever, with more frequent occurrences lately.

I had tons of fun theorycrafting Adventurer builds in Tales of Maj'Eyal, but the game is a little bit different genre.

I just killed the last boss of act 4. I don't know why people are complaining so much. Yes, he requires patience and can't be rushed but on the other hand he's slow and clumsy as hell.

What difficulty are you talking about? If normal or cruel, they adjusted Malachai's difficulty in a patch few weeks ago

While we're very happy with the difficulty of the final boss on the Merciless difficulty level, it was definitely too hard in Normal and slightly too hard in Cruel.

• The final boss now has 33% less life on Normal, and 17% less life on Cruel.
• The final boss now has fewer area effects on Normal and Cruel difficulties.
• The damage of some skills performed by the final boss have been reduced slightly, especially against minions.
• The final boss's mortar degeneration ground has been reduced in the last portion of the fight in Normal and Cruel difficulties.
• The Corrupted Lightning Beam attack used by the boss in the penultimate area now does significantly less damage to minions.

And nerfed further a week later

We've rebalanced the end of Act Four so that it's less deadly in Normal and Cruel difficulties. Merciless has been kept intentionally difficult because it's designed to be a challenging optional alternative to mid/low-tier maps.

• Damage has been reduced on several of the skills of the final boss in Normal and Cruel difficulty.
• Life has been reduced on the final boss and some components of his fight in Normal and Cruel difficulty.
• The duration of the explosive runes have been greatly reduced on Normal and Cruel.
• The lightning beam on the first stage of the fight no longer shocks on Cruel difficulty.

Shit, now that I think about it, I'm not looking forward to meeting him in merciless at all. Maybe a suicide run at the end of the league.

 

[Radech]

Yeah, but I'm like UTRA EARLY GAME, so I don't have melee splash yet with my DW chick. On the other hand, my 2-handed guy was easy mode from level 1.

Use cleave, you get melee splash act 2, so from there on it should be easy sailing(cleave may still be better, as melee splash got nerfed in awakening), cyclone is also a good option(act 3?), but it alternates weapons so should only be used if the weapons are reasonably comparable(the bane of dual wielding). If your weapons are wildly different consider using a main hand skill(double strike, ice crash), or skills with weapon restrictions(e.g. reave with a mace offhand), using the other weapon more like a shield, as you will still benefit from dual wielding passives.

 

[Carceri]

If so, paying for dominus kill is the easiest way to progress to a4 (because you want access to a4 farming grounds as well as the extra skill point quest reward in a4). Though, dominus is pretty trivial, by a4m standards.

Hey, concerning that, is this the new strategy now? Going to farm in the first areas of act 4? When I hit act 3 merc I started mapping thinking that I'll go later for act 4 to get the free point. I didn't see this as a priority. Any pros and cons to delay mapping and go farming in Act 4 first?

 

[Radech]

Hey, concerning that, is this the new strategy now? Going to farm in the first areas of act 4? When I hit act 3 merc I started mapping thinking that I'll go later for act 4 to get the free point. I didn't see this as a priority. Any pros and cons to delay mapping and go farming in Act 4 first?

pros:
skill point
better pre map farming areas

cons:
dominus

so yeah if you're all ready mapping it's probably fine - 68-72 is pretty easy to sustain even with white maps. The Dried Lake is a pretty good area though if you like boss farming, as you can do voll runs very fast for a bit of d2 nostalgia

 

[dibens]

Hey, concerning that, is this the new strategy now? Going to farm in the first areas of act 4? When I hit act 3 merc I started mapping thinking that I'll go later for act 4 to get the free point. I didn't see this as a priority. Any pros and cons to delay mapping and go farming in Act 4 first?

It appears our fear of merc Dominus was unsubstantiated; he was piss easy for me at lvl 72, clearly nerfed to the ground so that players can progress to act 4 without grinding maps.

 

[Carceri]

pros:
skill point
better pre map farming areas

cons:
dominus

so yeah if you're all ready mapping it's probably fine - 68-72 is pretty easy to sustain even with white maps. The Dried Lake is a pretty good area though if you like boss farming, as you can do voll runs very fast for a bit of d2 nostalgia

I see. It's all about farming Voll then. I'll stick to maps for now, I'll go at some point to act4 to get the skill point though, other than that there is no reason for me to do otherwise.
Btw, Dominus is a cakewalk anyway and he's been like this for quite some time, that's not a cons.