Path of Exile

[Yegolev]

I don't hate mtx but I don't go ape over it. Still love my neck-stump on PC. Bought the Celestial Necro bundle on PS4.

[dd0029]

Finally finished the campaign and am in the process of switching from a life based Orb of Storms/Wave of Conviction to a CI Vortex Cold Snap. Bosses are longer, but they are way easier and safer as I never stop moving. I need to find some better budget resist gear as I'm way low. This is the most eHP I've ever had though. 5500 shield and 1700 life.

The league mechanic is starting to get a bit tedious. It feeds into the OCD. Hopefully it will be less tedious when they patch in the autopickup of organs.

[Draegan]

The league mechanic sucks. Too much picking up.

I thought I read on reddit that they will make it so you vacuum up the things like sulferite.

[Rasix]

I think it's just going to pop in, no need to even hoover. My main issue is that some of the mechanics of the bosses make it nigh impossible to kill them. Life regen is the worst: I try to actively avoid it. If the reward is too good, I'll give it a try, but I often have to bail on those. I managed to make a metamorph that would just one shot me. It was one of those giant Vaal dudes and he had some sort of flicker strike + elemental strike.

I'm in mapping and it could be going better.  I'm still pretty weak, but I'll keep going until I feel like I'm just stuck or I get some decent twink gear for something else. No lucky drops, so the currency is just trickling in. I really should have made a vortex occultist or a soulrend trickster.

[Draegan]

So I'm in... act 8? with my miner start yesterday.

I think this is the first time I'm resistant capped already. I'm like 125 res across the board. I haven't played a full meta build since Winter Orb. I'm surprised how stupid arc mines are.

[dd0029]

The autoloot for metamorph stuff is in. Thing dies and the drop poofs to your thing. That's nice.

[Rasix]

I am not doing great this league. Both characters have seemed to sputter out around tier 15/16 maps. Shit just has too much HP. I don't mind the damage; you can mitigate the one shots in most circumstances, but I'm having 5 minute boss fights and am actually failing certain fights due to regen mechanics or just running the fuck out of flasks. Pretty sure both of these character could kill Uber Elder.

And again, I'm stuck with another item that won't six link. It's 41% quality and won't budge. Only reason my body armor 6 linked was due to getting a Fated Connections drop.

New plan is to buy a less than idea but cheaper 6 linked base and recraft, because this caustic arrow build is probably stalled until I can get more gem levels. Now I need some damn currency.

I should probably just give up and run a Necro. 

[Draegan]

I started an Arc Miner that got into high yellows after yellows would never drop. Stupid clear but I got tired of detonating things.
Then I started a vortex character that I got into maps but I wasn't feeling the play style.
Just rolled a Scion that will use chains of command. Should be fun.

[Rasix]

Crafted my bow in a single shot with a cheap six linked base.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Secondary stats are garbage, but I got the +2 Bow Gem Levels and +1 Socketed Gem level. I was preparing for this to be a lot harder. DPS on the caustic arrow dot is nearly doubled now.

Now to work on the rest of the garbage gear (jewels, helm, gloves, all jewelry.. ). Figure I should at least get to lvl 91-94 before deciding to shelve this completely. At 88 currently and there are still some decent nodes to get.

[Draegan]

Do you have the trigger socket spells craft? My wand has it but sucks for minions.

[Rasix]

I think I'm still one item off getting that unlocked. I can check when I get home.

[dd0029]

Wasn't enjoying the vortex/cold snap. Completely safe, but slooow. Dots are not for me. Tried out a stormbrand elementalist. I like the play, but my minions were just dying left and right and then I'd die shortly thereafter. Number three seems to be the one, another Cyclone summoner. There's just something so satisfying about spinning to win. I'm finally all set with a good budget outfit. I want to swap some gear, but that costs and I haven't had any currency luck.

[Draegan]

Got my Scion to 70 and I'm playing Chains of Command with two Writhing Jars.

This shit is goofy.

[Rasix]

Heh, got lucky and regaled a hunter base onyx amulet into +1 level all int gems and +1 level to all chaos gems. This is nearly perfect (dex would be better) for me, however, it does set me up with an interesting issue. On one hand, I could save up some exalts and possibly do a mediocre job finishing it. On the other, there are only 2 amulets like this for sale. One can't be further crafted and is 9 exalts. The other, like mine with only 3 mods, is 50 exalts.

HMMM.

[Draegan]

I need to sell an exalt for some chaos and buy a trigger wand with non fire  elemental damage to attacks and minion stats, new generic gloves and some fragility jewels.

I hate shopping in this game sometimes.

[dd0029]

For trade being such a central thing in this game, it is beyond stupid how awkward they deliberately make it.

There needs to be some sort of auction house-esqe thing. NPC vendors or something if they don't want the actual auction house. This weird hodgepodge is pants on head for how core it is to the game loop.

[Rasix]

Just got the Trigger Socketed Spell enchant if you want to save some money.

[Rendakor]

The lack of AH is a feature, not a bug. If trade were really easy, there would be an infinite quantity of cheap rares up that were better than what you found 99% of the time. This ruins the core gameplay loop of actually equipping drops you find, which is a big part of the pre-endgame appeal. League resets mitigate this a little, but it would still take at most a week for the AH to be flooded with gear.

The only AH I could imagine helping the game is one for trading currency only; being able to exchange C:EX or buy maps easily would certainly help without really breaking anything important (although it would certainly help the RMT sellers...).

[Draegan]

Just got the Trigger Socketed Spell enchant if you want to save some money.

Ha. Thanks. That means I have to sell an exalt still anyway since I have 0 chaos in the bank right now.

[Rasix]

Cortex fight is kind of nuts. Superbowl of dodging shit.

[Draegan]

Rasix - I put the convoking wand and 3c in the guild stash (2nd tab) if you wouldn't mind crafting "Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill" on it.

thanks

[Rasix]

Done.

Just had a metamorph completely disappear on me in Tane's lab. That is aggravating. Sucker had like 4 unique item tags and at least 2 divination card ones. 

[Draegan]

Thanks.

So I'm running this Chains of Command build, and with a small shopping spree and the help of Rasix I just zoom zoom through all the maps with shield charge and perma Onslaught. Level 49? doing the few T9 maps that I have. Need more watchstones, I only have 7 or 8.

Anyway, build is super duper, it can get better with jewels etc.

I just need the last damn lab trial for uber labs. Sigh.

[Rendakor]

You're doing maps at level...49? Is that a type or do they let you get to endgame much earlier now?

[rattran]

Fuck the Cortex fight. Failed on the 5th boss, even with crazy dodging shit there's just too much damage to do.

[Draegan]

You're doing maps at level...49? Is that a type or do they let you get to endgame much earlier now?

Lol typo on the phone. Level 79.

[rattran]

Double fuck the Sirius fight. What a clusterfuck. This is the new endgame fight?

[Draegan]

For now I guess.

[Rasix]

I'm just really bad at the fight. Second part in particular. I can get him sub 50 without dying, but then it just all goes to shit.

[Draegan]

Played a bit the other day and my Animated Guardian with okish gear and a bunch of minion nodes and +2 gem levels got one shot by a metamorph.

That was fun.

[Rendakor]

I decided to give this league a shot with a Scourge Arrow Pathfinder; made it to Act 6 over the weekend. I'm duoing with an RL friend who's playing Flamethrower Traps, who I invited to the guild. The Metamorph mechanic is pretty cool; it's nice being able to summon it on your own terms. I'm hoping to make it to endgame before getting bored, but at least having a buddy to chat with makes the story less of a slog.

[Draegan]

The new atlas is huge improvement to the old system in my opinion. It gives you more direction and goals prior to just going after the bosses.

My only issue is the UI and selecting maps within regions. It's a pain in the ass going from the Map to my Stash constantly. Wish they were all integrated. In fact I wish I just had to click on the map on the atlas screen to open it. But that would make too much sense.

[Rasix]

I think my current build is just too squishy for how bad I am at dodging shit. It's still a rather good build and only really struggles on the end game bosses. It does all T16s fine and has enough DPS to trivialize most metamorphs. It mainly relies on avoidance and dodge and only has around 4.7K HP. So, if one of those layers fails, I die. Out of the new bosses, really only the Redeemer is a pretty sure deathless attempt. Drox sometimes just one shots me out of nowhere, and Baran/Poison guy can put you in some really awkward positions. Juiced up elder guardians are a trip. That electric asshole is really one-shotty.

So, I either try to pump up the HP pool and defenses or roll a tanky boi (necro, jugg or champ). I've read/seen things that can be done with flicker/double strike and it could fit the bill. Luckily I still have 12 ex plus sitting around.

[dd0029]

Fought Sirius for the first time today. Such a bullshit fight. It's not all that mechanically difficult, but those clouds are just fucking stupid. First, they are bigger than their graphic, so enjoy trying to thread any sort of needle on that. The stupid tight zoom the map forces a time means you can't always be aware of where the fucking things are either. He also seems to like to switch phases in the middle of them. It also seems like you need to be under him for some period of time to get him to switch, but if he's in a storm, good fucking luck. I spent two minutes just randomly dodging his stupid shit until I could get near him. Then there's the weird snare thing that not only affects move speed, but also cast speed on move abilities. That's the real fuck you of the whole fight. All of your reflexes are thrown off. Things you can see coming get you because your abilities don't react as expected. Real fun there. The other mini bosses are mostly good, though the cloud one can be annoying as she likes to camp in her moving storm.

[Rasix]

It's also red on grey/brown/more red, which is a visual catastrophe for me. Wither totems are the only way I can see if he's targetable sometimes. I did better on the storms this last attempt, but once the rock stuff starts getting incorporated, you're just in situations where you have like .5 seconds to move away or you're eating the "die" laser (and you do). Shaper, elder and uber elder were not easy fights for me either. Only last league were shaper and elder deathless for me and uber elder still wasn't quite there. It took a lot of attempts before I was any good at them, and it might end up being that case here.

I have a lot of the same visual issues with Elder where it's grey abilities on a grey/brown background. Shaper is a lot easier because his abilities have distinct animations and the graphics are a lot brighter and more colorful than the background.