Path of Exile

[Yegolev]

My only-damage-increase Ranger has only died once (I did something dumb against the Oversoul) however the Imperial Gardens are really cutting it close.  Before I get her to Cruel, I'm going to need some equipment and I decided the best way was to kick off a Marauder.  I'm doing Ye Olde Twoe-Hande Mace.

Also I'm finally remembering where the waypoints are inside the maps, so I'm making faster progress.

[zumu]

Currently a lvl 30ish ST claw shadow on Nemesis. Definitely my most successful character so far. I had a blood magic ST marauder around the same level, but died due 2h being slow as molasses.

I read people talking a lot of shit about claws, but the built in LoH/leech is pretty clutch for someone with 0 currency/friends. Not to mention the inherent synergy with spectral throw.

I'm struggling to figure out a end-game build, as I'm a million miles from any decent health nodes and am clueless about OP end game gear. I'm just hoping to build something viable-ish until I find something broken to do with my next character.

My current plan is to do some sort of ES/HP hybrid with the ghost leech thing or go for some sort of mind over matter build (probably terrible).

Where are you guys reading about builds? There is so much out-dated chaff to sort through :/

[ezrast]

Agree on claws; they may not hold up into endgame but for leveling the life on hit does wonders to shore up a character with less-than-ideal survivability on gear.

Pretty much everything I know about builds I know from streamers and experience. I'm fairly sure Mind over Matter is actually really good though.

[Rendakor]

The official forums are decent for builds; just make sure the threads are up to date.

[Cadaverine]

I've gotten all of my builds from the official forums so far.  So far, they're all working well enough, aside from a lack of gear at this point.  Even my 2h Templar in Nemesis is doing fairly well, having just gotten to Act 2 Normal.

[Yegolev]

I don't read about builds.  At most, I play with the character builder.

[ezrast]

Holy fuck. I just died at level 53 AGAIN right after spending a bunch of currency on gear AGAIN. Fuck. This. Game. How am I so goddamn bad.

[ezrast]

I donated some points to the guild so that we can have a couple stash tabs, in case anybody in Standard wants a Cloak of Defiance or some other shitty melee witch gear. SINCE I HAVE TWO SETS OF IT THERE NOW.

[Bann]

Holy fuck. I just died at level 53 AGAIN right after spending a bunch of currency on gear AGAIN. Fuck. This. Game. How am I so goddamn bad.

Its a curse. Spend money on upgrades and rip in the same session. I think its 70% the game just laughing at ya, and 30% overconfidence brought on by new gear. I know I spent a few orbs on a bow that doubled my listed DPS and I was going places I never had before. Even though my damage output went through the roof, my ability to take damage was still the same - sometimes hard to keep that in perspective.

Can you be in more than one guild at a time? I've got a small one setup for friends/family, but they do not play as often as I do. Failing that, I want you guys on my friends list. I'm usually playing nemesis on my ranger, Sarrowsore.

[Yegolev]

I think there exists something called Upgrade Hubris.  So, watch out.  I happen to be paranoid and have only died once (not Nemesis) because I was completely not paying attention to the Oversoul.  That said, I need to spend some time playing a Marauder so I can relax.

[Bzalthek]

Act 3 cruel is apparently my limit.  3 different toons hit that and just nope.

[Rendakor]

I just killed Brutus in Cruel on my first Nemesis toon, a ST Scion. It's tough getting upgrades because most people are only selling 50+ gear.

[Soulflame]

Any pointers on getting started?  I've tried every class (I think).  Except (obviously) Scion.  Most fun so far seems to be my duelist, with reave.  Which I picked because it sounded good.   

[zumu]

I died as well.

I think the worst part about this game is losing all your skill gems. I can deal with a lack of gear, but just flat out not having access to life-leech or LMP unless I choose a class that naturally gets one as a quest reward is pretty frustrating.

I don't even have access to scion, so no more ST characters til I power through act 3. Speaking of which, if I beat the game in Standard League do I get access to scion in Nemesis?

[Bann]

Skills gems becomes less of an issue the longer you play. Your stash will naturally accumulate them, or you'll have the currency on hand to buy what you need. If you specifically just want Spec Throw, Friend me in game and I'll roll up a mule and run a scion into town for ya.

Getting started is pretty much just have fun. If your the kind of person who gets twitchy if they suspect they are not building their character 100% most efficiently, check the official forums for a character guide that sounds cool and try it. Otherwise, identify a cool looking spot on the passive tree and build towards it. If your playing nemesis you should definitely get all life nodes that are on the way to your target point. Once you make it to the cool spot, pick another one. If you want a specific answer, try a facesmasher. Take a big 2 hander and make your primary skills Ground Slam for packs, Doublestrike for bosses, and leapslam for mobility. You can augment those skills out with a variety of supports.

I know alotta people have trouble figuring out what kind of character they should roll. How it tends to work for me is that I party up with someone who is doing something really cool looking, and I decide I wanna try that out too. Or I get some skill gems or interesting uniques to drop and it gives the idea for my next character.

[Rendakor]

I don't even have access to scion, so no more ST characters til I power through act 3. Speaking of which, if I beat the game in Standard League do I get access to scion in Nemesis?

Yes.

[Lightstalker]

You can unlock Scion without actually finishing act 3 and play it in Nemesis before killing Dominus, which is handy as my returned-to-HC after-Carrion-Queen-fix Marauder died during Dominus' monolog when the client crashed...

Reave is an odd choice for survivability as it commits you to being in one place (e.g. right in melee), at least I haven't had much success with it.  Spectral Throw is super popular and strong now, but you need mobility as well - leap slam or whirling blades (depending on your weapon choice) seem to fit the bill.  For face tanking melee you have a lot of options when starting out, but you may find Double Strike and Lightning Strike to be useful. 

Support gems that are useful early are life on hit (especially for spectral throw as each throw can hit multiple targets), melee splash, and added cold damage (cold for control).

Utility gems aren't really necessary until you get to end-bosses, those would be things like molten shell, totems, etc.

I played each of the classes up to level 15 just to see how they performed based on where in the passive tree they started.  As a consequence I have a pile of low level gems available for a re-roll after an untimely demise.   This also helps address the "can't find a drop" problem as you'll build up a stash of useful rare items for new characters or for character types other than the one you are currently playing now. 

[Soulflame]

Reave works really well with the claws that return life on hit.  At least, so far.

[zumu]

So, any know exactly how many +damage nodes you really have to take?

I think I might be building too defensively, if that's even possible.

[Bzalthek]

You can build too defensively.  When mobs regen life faster than you damage them, you run into a problem.

[ezrast]

In my experience, the only times I can't out-DPS something's regen is when I'm having to kite it constantly, ergo I don't have enough defense. Most of the advice I see from streams is to rely on your gear for damage, not your tree.

As has been stated, however, I am not good at this game.

[Pennilenko]

Anybody know if the a guild invitation applies at the account level or just the character level?

[taolurker]

I installed this again, and am trying to re-select all the skills for the characters who are back to mid twenties after the wipe, but I still don't really have the urge to play risky (ie hardcore+) or to advance to higher levels... All I want to do is start new alts to test builds and distribute equipment that's clogging my Stash.

I sent a friend invite to Rend to possibly join the guild from here, but didn't actually see any response yet (although I can only get to game maybe once weekly and am probably out-leveled by everyone). I have a character named taolurker if anyone wants to add me for a possible pick up group (of lower levels)

My favorite character right now is a Duelist using 2h sword, who is basically a Shadowknight, summoning Zombies and using Lightning Strike. I still haven't reached act 3 (even pre-open beta) but do enjoy playing in small doses (when my back pain and internet cooperate).

Anybody know if the a guild invitation applies at the account level or just the character level?

Pretty sure it's going to be account level, since the friend system is account level, but I don't actually know for sure. Adding friends adds the whole account, so that would make the guild system a single guild for each account if it is that way. Hopefully someone can confirm or deny my suspicions.

[Rendakor]

Guilds are account based. I'll hop on in an hour or so and toss you an invite. If anyone else wants one just let me know.

[Hoax]

Here's my most useful 1-40 advice re: skill gems.

It doesn't matter. Almost every build can get by for quite some time using any old thing (Cleave, Leap Slam, Damage Spell X, Ground Slam, Aoe Arrow Skill Y etc.) the worse the skill and build though the more you rely on gear for your damage.

Your basic leveling build should have these things in order of importance:
-Your pack clearing attack.
-An aura (You should group way more often than you do! Clarity counts if you can't afford to run a real aura)
-A trap, everyone should have a trap for regen mobs or kiting or just more dps. Traps are too good at low levels.
-A curse, the best thing about having a curse is that it gives you an excuse to not stand near certain mobs/bosses in a party setting while still seeming like you are doing something. Leeching is life in poe. If you have an aura and a curse you are still useful to the group since some people are bound to be way overgeared and they would do 90% of the damage anyways.
-Defensive shit. Things like Decoy/Rejuv totem, tempest shield, enduring cry, whatever.
-A single target attack. Some people obsess a lot over this. You really shouldn't. At least in HC you wouldn't want to be fighting any super strong single target boss at such a low level that you can't beat them without a 4L single target skill. That path leads to death.

And there you have it. If you have the gems for all those things on a character from level 1 you can take 100% defensive nodes all through normal and clear it no problem without feeling super useless or gimped unless you get no luck on gear drops. After that you'll need to start moving into the damage multipliers for whatever build you are going for and taking important keystones and finding linked items and appropriate support gems but its really a good way to start especially if you are in the poor self found first character sort of way.

As always that's all for HC, on softcore who fucking cares. Do whatever you feel like.

[Njal]

Well you may say who cares but if your build sucks at normal you can die repeatedly once you hit Dominus and only clear him through continual use of teleport scrolls. I know this from experience :)

I haven't dipped into HC yet due to too much lag/oos problems but now that I have a clue what I'm doing I will probably get into it.

Who's going to be on tonite/this afternoon who can toss me a guild invite?

[Rendakor]

I'm on now, and will be for a few hours. What's your account name? Mine's Rendakor.

Edit: Also, bought the guild tabs ezrast paid for after figuring out how to obtain gifted guild funds. Are guild items shared across leagues, or will we have 2 tabs in each league?

[Druzil]

Time to get back to some PoE!    Think I'm going to try a spectral throw Scion since that seems to be all the rage these days.  I got one going last night and it was really fun.  I tried a reave Shadow out briefly and wasn't feeling it (compared to cleave).  So far all the new content seems to really flesh out some of the more sparse zones, like the new enemies in Coves are pretty cool.

I lost my first 2 Onslaught characters in their early 50s, one to Vaal when I ate a smash and then another to puncture in Act 3 since I didn't understand the mechanic and popped a quicksilver to get away.  Cruel Act 3 is a big difficulty spike IMO.

[Cadaverine]

Working my way through Act 3 with an EK Scion in the Nemesis league. Been pretty fun so far.  Only had one truly close call with a rare in the sewers.  Not looking forward to the gardens, though.

[Njal]

Anyone got a red-red-green 1H weapon in nemesis around L-35. I'm still using a L-20 sword that used to be kickass. Looks like I might have to grind until I get a nice drop. :)

[Hoax]

I've got a blue ceremonial mace with R-R-G linked that has a the best possible phys affix for its level (wicked) @ +81% and the worst possible strength str affix @ +12. So if it fit just what you needed you could alch it and cross your fingers.

Its 51-65, 1.1/s requires 95str to wield and level 28.

[MrHat]

Got lucky and found a Tabula Rasa.

6L Cast on Crit + Spectral Throw + Power Charge on Crit + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Fireball + Arctic Breath.

Double daggers for max crit chance, have lightning damage only on my gear + elemental equilibrium.

It's fantastic.

[Njal]

I've got a blue ceremonial mace with R-R-G linked that has a the best possible phys affix for its level (wicked) @ +81% and the worst possible strength str affix @ +12. So if it fit just what you needed you could alch it and cross your fingers.

Its 51-65, 1.1/s requires 95str to wield and level 28.

Sounds. close to perfect Hoax. I can give it a shot anyways. Leave it in the guild stash?

Thanks much.

Or I could get lucky with a drop and get a 50% increase in dps. That should do for a while even if it has the wrong slots.

[Hoax]

Sadly I'm afk from my machine for thanksgiving until Monday. I didn't really think this through. If this poe account wasn't my steam acct I'd just pm someone the l/p but...

[zumu]

So is there a nemesis guild?

I've logged 100+ hours in by myself. Currently, a lvl 37 shadow. Name: Zumux.