Path of Exile

[Ironwood]

The Delve changes to flares in particular are a Godsend.

Also, shared Azurite and upgrades between characters is also Luv.

[Draegan]

I don't agree.  Mapping is fun.  Also, the Shaper and Elder mechanics are also fun.  There's an end-point to mapping and good rewards to be found.

What bit of it is stupid and bugging you ?  Also, in what way does it differentiate itself from delving ?

I personally don't like collecting maps and hoping on rng to progress upwards. I don't mind rng in these games, but not rng on content access.

I'd prefer mapping be a layer upon something else.

Delving would be perfect without sulpherite.

[Ironwood]

Fair dos.  Personally, I usually end up swimming in maps. But that's why they call it RNG, I guess.

[Rendakor]

I've never had problems acquring maps either, but I usually only make it to tier 10 or so before the league (or my interest in it) ends.

[Draegan]

I have maps, it's just that I can't get enough of the next tier that I want to progress to. Ah well. Still a good game.

[Nebu]

I have maps, it's just that I can't get enough of the next tier that I want to progress to. Ah well. Still a good game.

You know that you can sell lower tier maps for higher tier maps, right? 

[Ironwood]

Those of  you whom, like me, were running (or are running) the Templar Minion Smitey build ;  it gets to a certain level and then just stops being even remotely competitive.  It's not gonna take you far in mapping and going to lead you into either massive gear bloat and expense, or just incredible frustration.

My advice would be to drop back into some tried and true builds for this one.  Melee summoners really, really need another gimmick where you can properly direct your minions or somehow gain power from them.  I'm finding my Templar has the same weaknesses and annoyance as my summoning witch did, even though she was better due to pew pew mages.

Zombies are just fucking useless.

Currently doing the Assassin Frost Blades thing.

[rattran]

I'm doing a duelist Frost Blades, it's getting a bit slower at 54 due to shit gear. My first ever facebreaker dropped, may play with that for a while on a new toon to see how it goes.

[Nebu]

I've found two things to be true with regard to this game:

1. You really have to understand how gear helps your individual build.  Knowing which stats are which tier of upgrade also helps to min/max.

2. You really need to tinker with path of building as you gear up to min/max your build.  Learning how crafting worked helped me with this a lot.  I was able to push through a few content barriers by crafting myself some solid items when I wasn't getting the drops I was after.

If you don't do these two things frequently, you will run into a content wall.  For me, it's always watching health and resists first before focusing on damage. 

The standard builds are a big help in better learning these two points, but even those require investment in some crazy good gear to become most effective. 

[Ironwood]

Yeah, that'd work.  Duellist Double strike I ran into the ground last league and he was really, really strong.  He was also hilarious to say out loud.  Especially when pissed.


Also, reminder that you can do this :

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/quillbeast/characters

And have a gander if you want.  Maybe even a goose.


EDITED :  Nebu snuck in a post between this and Rattran, just in case it makes little sense.

[Ironwood]

1. You really have to understand how gear helps your individual build.  Knowing which stats are which tier of upgrade also helps to min/max.

While this is abundantly true and the downfall of a great many of my blokes/blokettes, maxing that gear becomes very much the domain of the uber-player and streamers and, frankly, a massive, massive pain in the arsehole.  This is why the Delve Fossils are so important ;  they really, really do help craft that gear, not only by selecting from things you want, but also having the ability to block things you don't.

The Master Crafting is, to my mind, an awful, awful hardship later on and, as I've since found out, a pointless exercise once the league rolls over.

[Nebu]

The Master Crafting is, to my mind, an awful, awful hardship later on and, as I've since found out, a pointless exercise once the league rolls over.

I agree with you about everything. 

I start every season eager to get a new toon going and then abruptly quit when I hit about map level 12 or so.  The endgame grind is daunting, particularly when I choose solo-self-found for some stupid reason every season. 

[Ironwood]

I honestly, honestly, honestly, thought that my league master experience would roll into the Standard masters and I was well fucked off that what it does instead is give you resource to buy pretty things for your hideout.

Fuck.  That.

As a result, I'm going to get the bare minimum Vorici and Zana and fuck the rest.

[Rendakor]

Your Standard masters aren't all max level?

[Nebu]

Your Standard masters aren't all max level?

I don't bother with standard.  I just play seasons, delete, and repeat.  Maybe that's my problem.

[Ironwood]

Your Standard masters aren't all max level?

No.

[Draegan]

Those of  you whom, like me, were running (or are running) the Templar Minion Smitey build ;  it gets to a certain level and then just stops being even remotely competitive.  It's not gonna take you far in mapping and going to lead you into either massive gear bloat and expense, or just incredible frustration.

My advice would be to drop back into some tried and true builds for this one.  Melee summoners really, really need another gimmick where you can properly direct your minions or somehow gain power from them.  I'm finding my Templar has the same weaknesses and annoyance as my summoning witch did, even though she was better due to pew pew mages.

Zombies are just fucking useless.

Currently doing the Assassin Frost Blades thing.

I'm leveling a scourge arrow assassin with quill rain. Also using toxic rain totem with it.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, that's a good one.

My wee frost blade dude is squishy, but glass cannon as fuck.  The bosses occasionally cause issues, but that's why he packs Vaal Double Strike and Vaal Ancestral Warchief.

Nothing like summoning those 6 cunts on a boss.

[Draegan]

You haven't even looked at that vaal. Cool.

[Ironwood]

Eh ?

[rattran]

I'm enjoying my Duelist FB build, found a Taproot while doing the 3rd Labyrinth, and it made it a breeze. Easiest Kitava kill I've had too.

Elemental reflect makes me explode though.

[Ironwood]

Elemental Reflect was put in the game solely to make hilarious youtube and give the developers a laugh.

The bastards.

[Draegan]

Eh ?

Ancestral warchief, I haven't even looked at it other than reading the description.

[Ironwood]

It was the way you wrote 'You'.  Made it sound like I'd fucked up on something.

But it works really well.  Jumping totem of nutter doom.

[Bunk]

This is the first league in a long time that I've actually stuck with. 74 now, playing a FIRE! FIRE! MORE FIRE! Necromancer: 7 Zombies, 2 Specters, SRS on Scorching Ray, and summoning 10 Skelies, 5 at a time. The Skelies all have 100% convert to fire, Minion Instability, and self destruct after 2 seconds. With multple methods of Fire Pen stacking, it ends up a pretty funny build. And I've only spent one Alch on it so far in trading for gear.

Dropping 52 minions on a boss and watching them all explode at once is very satisfying.

It's not an ideal Delve build, since I need to keep stopping to summon or channel, but its been fun.

[Ironwood]

Zombies and Melee minions all have the same problem to me ;  they really, really badly need a mechanism where you can sic 'em on an enemy 'cause 90% of the time if you run from the boss, they will too.

Guys, I'm just repositioning out the fire and Doom, can you please still fucking hit the boss ?  That'd be GREAT.

On a related note, had to do a couple of things with the wifes character and, as a result, I'm now making my own poisoning Toxic Rain Pathfinder, 'cause that shit is just funny as fuck and overpowered as all hell at the moment.

[Draegan]

I just hit level 68 of a scourge arrow build with poison, assassin and a toxic rain totem that applies wither and when I get a 6 link, a curse.

Everything melts and I'm using a voltaxic bow and a denonbrate chest. Everything else is crap.

[Ironwood]

Wife runs a 5 socket Dendrobate and it works well for her, as well as the Embalmers gloves, which also help.

She's more caustic than toxic though (and so's her character), but I prefer the toxic pods.

In other news, we're starting to dump more shit into the Guildbank ;  if anyone has any unique prefs, maybe put a note in your character heading and we'll see what we can do.  For now, it's just the low end shite that's getting dumped in there.


Can you get special tabs for the build bank ?  I was thinking that maybe us addicted players could put some maps in there if people are genuinely finding map collecting difficult ?

Also, just a note that the new Interface and working for Zana missions is just fucking awesome.  So much better.  If only they could make the other masters even remotely interesting.  It would be really nice to pick the Vorici mission, since the one where you have to keep guys alive are just....problematic.

[Draegan]

By the end of the year they are re-doing masters. I don't know any details other than they are looking at how they function.

Heres my Scourge Arrow character: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Draegan101/characters?characterName=ZombieHack

[Ironwood]

Fuck, how much did the bow and quiver set you back ?

[Draegan]

I forget, but somewhere between 10-20c. They were cheeeeap.

[Nebu]

I don't know why it is.  I want to love this game but get intimidated by the skill tree. 

What I should see: 100000000 ways to make my character fun and awesome.

What I really see: 870070979006068609809890 ways to fuck up my build.

[Draegan]

Fucking up a build is fun. I do it all the time.

[Ironwood]

So I get this Toxic Avenger lassie to mid 60's, finish the main quest and decide, eh, fuck it, time to buy the Quill Rain.

Only to find out a couple of things ;

1 - It's pretty much the heart of the Toxic Rain build because
2 - This bow is fucking fast as shit and can throw more pods down than ur mum.  It's fucking horrendous DEATH and it's FUNNY AS FUCK.
3 - The bow is available from level 5.  I could have been doing this shit from level 12.

I really feel daft, but if you fancy it, you can at least learn from my mistakes.

[Draegan]

Quill rain is one of the best leveling items. It's also BIS for some builds.