Path of Exile: every single mob was a 20 ft tall goatman. The loot was "good"

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(Thread IKs: Captain Foo)

How do you feel about Archnemesis mods on rares?
	Incredibly fun, I love them!
	They're alright
	Needs more work
	Almost as much fun as shoving a red hot nail under my fingernail
	Other (post below)

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Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Murder Noveau posted:

Thank you for a new OP, it is great!

I want to do something new for this go around. RF or Glacial Cascade mines to start?

freezing pulse totem with loads of additional projectiles & sire of shards

# ¿ Jul 30, 2017 19:45

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 14:21

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Unlucky7 posted:

Should I take any elemental resist nodes that I can get at in the passive tree, or could that be covered by equipment?

If you're passing by those nodes anyway, they're usually a very efficient use of points (because they're attached to other bonuses that would be desirable by themselves) and give you a lot of freedom to do more with your gear.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 18:36

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

RoboJoe posted:

I've not played this game before but I was talking to a couple of friends about it a few days ago, who explained some things and showed me some videos, and it looks a lot of fun to play. I was told I should wait to start playing until this week when the new patch comes out though, so I'll do that.

One thing I'm not too clear on is how character builds work, because I saw the passive skill tree and that looks very confusing to me, however I do know that skills for abilities you attack with, etc, are gems you slot into your equipment though, unless I'm mistaken?

For example, I generally like 3 types of playstyles:
1) Hitting things really hard with a giant weapon, or dual-wielding, or with a sword and shield (especially if the shield has attacks that let me hit things with the shield).
2) Summoning lots of minions like skelllingtons or zombies or demons or whatever to flood the area and kill things for me.
3) Running around and casting a bunch of damage over time effects onto enemies.

So, if I wanted to do something like these builds, firstly would it be easy to do one of these when I'm just starting the game (especially minions)? How would I actually build a character in one of these ways with the passive and the way the gem system works? How would I get the skill gems needed to try to doing any of this?

Sorry for these dumb questions, I did try reading the OP but even that was overwhelming and somewhat confusing for me and I didn't see anything really basic like this.

Well, you can just jump in and play and learn as you go. It's not too bad and respec points aren't really too expensive, so it's easy enough to totally change your build. But, if you want to use the next few days before 3.0 hits for planning:

Firstly, look up skill gems and decide what skill you want to use as your primary damage-dealer. This may or may not be available early on, that's okay - you can get through the first few acts with a different skill and it doesn't matter much in the end; all of the gems except some high-level support gems can be bought from vendors for a low price. Also think about support skills, like curses (debuffs), auras, temporary buffs, and movement skills, that you might want to use, though these are a lot more fluid usually than the core skill you're building around and can be experimented with as you play.

Then, look up ascendancy classes - each basic character class has three. These are the real "classes" - each has their own mini-tree of bonuses that synergize well with particular skills and playstyles. Decide on an ascendancy class that goes well with your skill - an elemental spellcaster might want Inquisitor or Elementalist, a zombie summoner would want to be a Necromancer, etc. Decide your basic character class by looking at these rather than trying to immediately comprehend the whole passive grid - if a particular ascendancy class goes well with a skill, you can generally feel confident that there will be nodes relevant to that skill near that class's starting point on the grid.

After that, you can just start playing and build outward from your class's starting point. If you keep your skills and ascendancy bonuses in mind, it isn't that complicated even as a beginner to figure out what sort of passive nodes are desirable to make those skills stronger. Using zombies? Try to get lots of minion-related nodes and +max zombies bonuses. Every character needs defenses, too. Try to travel across the grid through big bonuses rather than the little stat nodes, but don't focus too much on staying local to your starting point either - most builds will benefit from branching into the neighboring class areas too. As a beginner, you probably won't design the sort of tightly efficient build that veterans do on your first try, but that's fine - you can get through everything but the toughest content with the sort of modestly efficient build you can make just by focusing on improving modifiers relevant to your skills and improving your life, mana, resistances, etc. enough that you don't die often.

It seems like an incredibly daunting and complex mass of information now, and yeah, there are even more dimensions to it than I've mentioned - things like support gems and gear - but PoE really is pretty good about easing you into the deep end and you can figure out what you need as you go a lot of the time.

Everything I've mentioned above can be looked into on the PoE wiki.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 19:29

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Ixjuvin posted:

They're just laying the groundwork for next year's April Fools update, in which every scroll drop will be met with "A scroll... of wisdom!"

Every time you use a scroll of wisdom..."Stay awhile and listen!"

# ¿ Aug 1, 2017 03:47

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

TheRat posted:

So if I remember correctly you've now posted a char name that doesnt exist and one that's twice the legal character limit. What's up dude?

i believe the name you quoted is intended to be humorous, an example of the form of discourse known as a "joke"

# ¿ Aug 3, 2017 21:57

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

TheRat posted:

I for one can't stop laughing.

or social commentary on the lack of controls on guild stashes, take your pick

# ¿ Aug 3, 2017 21:59

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

MechanicalTomPetty posted:

I can't check the patch notes now, is there anything in there that explains why my level 70 Templar has apparently completed all the new acts already?

it's so you can map if you want. you have to do the side quests to get the rewards tho

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 22:34

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Sab669 posted:

Rad, for some reason I thought Spell Totem Support made it so only things which directly effected totems added to them

Nope! Almost any combination that you can self-cast is also totem-castable, assuming it has space for the totem gem of course.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2017 17:55

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

queeb posted:

I mean, I thought we were just pissed off for getting exiled and coming back to oraith to gently caress people up because gently caress em.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF9LP-9uG_k

# ¿ Aug 5, 2017 20:30

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

epic Kingdom Hearts LP posted:

Got an SRS build rolling at level 18 with melee splash and minion support. It seems strong but constantly having to summon is a drag. Any way to make this faster/summons last longer?

just use faster casting instead of melee splash until you have the passives for it to work smoothly by itself (for me that was the mid-30s). grab the skill duration nodes near scion and if you're a witch necro has an ascendancy that gives duration too, and prioritize cast speed otherwise as you go through the tree until you're comfortable

also zombies are really strong now, they are more of your primary offense than srs is until act 4 or so i'd say and they're nice and permanent

# ¿ Aug 6, 2017 04:35

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

deep dish peat moss posted:

Yeah zombies are cool and all but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRL4VQycfh8

in practice this doesn't matter because you'll be blitzing stuff with srs and only need your zombuddies for things that don't melt immediately, and those things are spaced far enough apart that you'll always get a convocation off when you need them

also, most tilesets don't have convoluted enough layouts to pose a problem in the first place

# ¿ Aug 6, 2017 05:34

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

poe is pretty forgiving until the late game and as long as you aren't building in a way that makes absolutely no sense, you get more than enough respec points through the leveling process that it's really not easy to build yourself into a corner

there is no particular need to look at guides to make a character that can get to maps at the least

# ¿ Aug 9, 2017 02:56

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fat_Cow posted:

Necro players, How is SRS v Golumn v Spectre v Zombies?

Also does Aura build still work?

srs + zombies is just gently caress-off strong atm, zombies got buffed a lot in 3.0

there are some really cool new spectres in the act 5 monsters (all of the cathedral guys are just aces) and the skill wasn't really changed so it's still good but fiddly to use as a main

golems require like 300c in jewels to be really good but when you've got all of that they steamroll things very well

# ¿ Aug 12, 2017 02:15

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

psa re: the trio

don't kill it while dead or you'll have to do everything over from the belly of the beast because the game teleports your dead body to an area with lilly that takes you to act 10 and there's no other way to get to that area at all

# ¿ Aug 13, 2017 03:54

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

m.hache posted:

I'm running an SRS/Zombie build right now and it seems to be doing very well. My zombies do seem quite squishy though.

How exactly do they scale? Which stat feeds directly into them?

don't skimp on the minion life nodes, srs benefit from life too once you have beacon of corruption so they're good

# ¿ Aug 13, 2017 20:45

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Ciaphas posted:

Do chests in Silver Door areas in uber lab ever hold treasure keys, or can/should I just skip them if they're off the main path?

they usually lead to emperor's troves, which are quite similar to the chests after you beat izaro in terms of reward

they can be very much worth doing if it's not like, a sawblade & spike trap

# ¿ Aug 13, 2017 20:58

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

awesmoe posted:

How important is improved item rarity? Is it basically required like d3 vanilla or completely useless like current d3?
Basically I've got 1 skill that kills everything, and it kills everything pretty well. If I get another link for that skill, is it worth throwing an IIR support gem in there?
(I'm just hitting endgame on my first character, for context)

Unrelated, I've been using flame dash as my 'teleport across unpathable areas' utility. Is there a better skill to use for this?

not useless, but it's a frill you could get if your clear speed is good and can afford to sacrifice however many gear mod slots for iir instead (never use iir support though)

most people don't bother because it's better to be stronger and clear harder stuff instead

# ¿ Aug 13, 2017 23:58

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Ra Ra Rasputin posted:

Am I just bad, or are the spinning blades the worst when it comes to not taking any damage crossing them?

they're the hardest to pass undamaged but spikes + sawblades renders you entirely at the server's mercy while you're in the trap. one second of lag and you're dead

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 01:03

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Phobophilia posted:

Yep. Random crap, some currency and rares, no cool things.

The best I got out of Labyrinth Troves were corrupted items and sac fragments. The best I got out of a Emperor's Vaults was currency (with an exalt). So these are equivalent to the final treasure room's chests. Except I don't think the Trove/Vaults includes some of the cooler variations, like the map chest, or the leveled quality gems chest.

emperor's chests can drop superior gems but they're level 1

currency and jewels are the best rewards for bothering with silver keys though

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 09:10

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

dead in real life posted:

So is it fair to say the reason Baron is coveted for SRS is solely due to a single mod (strength is added to minions)? Most don't bother with zombies, and in the final build you want your minion gems in your 6L so the +2 mod doesn't seem to be of any use there. I guess it must be a hell of a damage increase?

zombies are very good in 3.0, not bothering with them is not wise now

the life leech at 1000 strength is a big deal too

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 18:13

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Dennis McClaren posted:

Just DLed the game last night. Read the OP, and watched https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7GqFLebBU8inlrcqTZFXtIwP362XrdNe guy's beginner's guide which was really helpful.

As I Understand it, the class choice/ascendancies you make, isn't really important. It seems like if you get to the late game, there are enough sockets and points to distribute to make your character pretty useful no matter how you choose your class...

That being said, are there any classes/ascendancies that stand out? Weak classes/strong classes? What are some of the popular vs. most un-popular class/ascendancies out there?

Thanks for the help, I can't wait to get started when I get home from work and try to get in the guild through Discord later.

ascendancy choice is vital, it needs to be something that benefits the skills you want to use

but pretty much every ascendancy has viable builds so in that sense none of them are wrong choices

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 18:41

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Dennis McClaren posted:

Is the OP still relevant, as far as ascendancy descriptions? Or have these "general descriptions" changed since the OP was published? A lot of these descriptions sound downright boring...

you have to play for a bit to understand why their bonuses are cool

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 19:02

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

YoshiOfYellow posted:

My main character in the league is SRS/Zombies and my main problem is my own squishiness more than anything else, mostly from spreading myself too thin getting a lot of non-defensive nodes. With a Mon'tregul's Grasp my zombies have like 12.8k HP and I'm also using a Daresso's Courage with Necromantic Aegis, my zombies are functionally immortal. On top of all that I have 2 Violent Dead jewels to buff them even further. The Act 10 final boss couldn't even make a dent in those fuckers with all his bullshit.

Zombies are real good.

mind over matter + the covenant will give you a lot of burst survivability while making mana depletion meaningless (this also gives your srs added chaos damage which is very good)

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 23:23

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

YoshiOfYellow posted:

Well the problem is mainly that I also went in hard on auras with a Victario's Influence so a vast majority of my mana is reserved. I can probably play around in Path of Building and see what kind of adjustments I can make. I've been using either Discipline or Purity of Elements outside of my Victario's for survivability and that's a huge chunk of that mana. I've mostly abandoned this character as unsalvageable for endgame content without a shitton of Orbs of Regret but if I can save it I'll definitely try.

so where is your srs if your chest is for auras and you're wielding wand/shield? it might only seem unsalvageable because your srs is in a 4L

i would ditch all of your auras except hatred and discipline, replacing discipline with clarity once you have MoM, and transition to a covenant instead of victario's (they are like an alch so you might as well experiment). the aura effect/reduced mana reservation nodes are still very good even with just 2 auras, and necro no longer gives crazy aura stacking bonuses so you're not really losing that much. people like haste but hatred + haste seems less good than the survivability of MoM to me

# ¿ Aug 14, 2017 23:47

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Ciaphas posted:

I can absolutely guarantee you that if I were in the middle of a sorting spree my eye would have seen the implicit and the 4-8 cold damage and thought "meh". Wouldn't have even seen the bottom few lines, or known that that IED affix was so powerful even if I had.

~70 life + two resists in the 40s is definitely always interesting, the easiest valuable combo to spot imo. the extra fire resist and elemental damage, on one of the better ring bases, are what make it expensive but even without those it would be worth trading for sure

i wonder how much it would have been worth with 5 affixes, dropping the 4-8 cold damage

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 00:45

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

dead in real life posted:

This is all with a Baron I presume? If they're real good without Baron, then goddamn, I'm intrigued.

zombies do not need a baron to do what they describe. you don't even need mon'tregul's grasp to have functionally immortal zombies that pack a huge punch, though they are better with it.

honestly i question whether you need a baron at all, damage has not been a problem for me ever and i don't have one. the leech is probably the biggest attraction there tbh. the strength-stacking limits your build a lot though and it does basically nothing until you have a baron so maybe don't do that and try something different until you hit a hard wall and feel you need to respec to baron-using

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 01:04

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

masters don't only show up in their home acts

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 17:47

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Powerful Two-Hander posted:

How do I increase HP? I've been piling points into +life% passives but my HP stays low (like 2.4k at level 60) and I can't see any passives that increase base points, just add a %.

It doesn't help that I had quite a few points in shield passives but just found a ridiculously good unique 2H axe that has a-50% enemy fire resist so melts through everything with either sunder or molten strike+multistrike+extra blobs gem as long as I can survive long enough to get through.

Edit: it's this axe: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ngamahu%27s_Flame

there are some passives that give base life, most of it will be on your gear though

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 23:11

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

dead in real life posted:

So I've been getting into incorporating more item-finding stuff on my gear, but it just dawned on me (and was confirmed after some research) that increased item rarity has no effect on currency. Not sure how I feel about this, since it seems like 99.99% of rare items that drop are garbage whereas currency is reliable. Is increased item rarity even worth stacking? Is increased item quantity just better? Help me, item-finding experts.

iiq is infinitely better, iir is only good when it's free (i.e. the map rarity mod)

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 23:34

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

yeah you don't really need very many life nodes for most builds until around act 10 on softcore, bosses might splat you a few times but the clearance speed gains from damage are a lot more important for having fun

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 07:22

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

I thought the speed reduction was a big loss. If the mobs are running around and the heads can't catch up how will they do damage?

maybe i'm just missing something that the super-pros do but melee splash has never worked out as a gem for me on srs. you have so many skulls that making them each better at single target ends up with roughly similar clear speed without the lowered damage on bosses.

also your skulls should be much, much faster than any mob with minion speed and flesh offering

additionally, you're stacking strength on your passive tree but you don't have a baron helm. if you aren't intending to use a baron you build srs a lot differently, picking up nodes like death attunement and grave intentions.

also also, you're not using any minions other than your srs. that flameblast totem is way less powerful than raise zombie-minion damage-minion speed-multistrike with two violent dead jewels (which should be easy to place, you have two jewel slots within 2 points each on your current tree) would be, given that you have lots of minion-boosting stuff and no fire or totem boosting stuff.

you are correct that your current strategy is going to be hard to take further without serious investment, but changing your skills somewhat could do a lot for you relatively inexpensively

Jazerus fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Aug 16, 2017

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 20:25

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

I would like to get Baron at some point, but it so expensive it doesn't seem worth it now (plus I'm poor in game, 18c).

Why do I want those nodes for zombies or spectres if I am just running SRS?

I need to replace the totem. I used it to help level but now I never use it, been using the decoy totem instead. Will be looking to add in Haste as J suggested.

you should use zombies instead of the flameblast totem is the biggest point i was trying to make. you already have a lot of zombie-related nodes because they are also good ones for srs, so it's the most natural replacement for the flameblast totem, and you are within three points of +2 additional max zombies nodes too. minion life is also a buff to srs damage once you have your beacon of corruption ascendancy, so those won't be wasted points in terms of srs either. if you are building toward a baron then your passive tree is fine and you shouldn't go for death attunement/grave intentions, that was just a hypothetical since you didn't mention the baron as a desired upgrade for you. since you do eventually want a baron, it's worth mentioning that if you don't use zombies you're also wasting part of the baron's mods.

it's up to you, but it's the most straightforward path toward making your character a lot stronger. zombies are very, very good in combination with srs. they are powered up by exactly the same modifiers so your focus is never split.

also i see a distinct lack of cast speed, well, anywhere. it must be taking you a while to rev up to 20 skulls at the moment which hinders how fast you can go and how much time you spend with 20 skulls. that would be another easy fix.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 21:01

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

Ah ok. Well I will definitely be putting in Zombie skills in for the totem! I imagine it will help keep mobs and bosses off me too.

Yes....it takes me forever to get 20 stack. I can't get it without flesh offering and even then I have to keep spamming it in order to keep 20 stacks going. This is another issue I have because if each head does 7k dps, that should be 140k dps on a boss. Instead I can hold 3-5 heads on a boss because I am avoiding skills shots since agro is on me. Where can I add cast speed?

you'd want to look for cast speed on your staff and rings. the commander of darkness ascendancy also helps a little, and so will haste. you are also close to a few jewel sockets which could have cast speed jewels put in them if you feel you still need more.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 21:27

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

Am I looking for being able to cast 20 skulls without flesh offering?

yeah. on my srs necro that's only a few levels higher than yours i can keep up 20 without it, and then flesh offering lets me do that while also moving, using my ball lightning for elemental equilibrium and vulnerability on hit, refreshing zombies if they need it, etc.

i have +89% cast speed without flesh offering but a little less would still be serviceable

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 22:06

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

Could you link your PoE profile so I can have a reference please?

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

it's a very very different build than yours because i'm experimenting with not using a baron at all, and it's still rough in terms of links/gem arrangement, but hopefully it's still useful.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 22:29

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

The profile is set to private

sorry, it's fixed now

# ¿ Aug 16, 2017 23:26

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Filthy Monkey posted:

How are golem builds in 3.0? Starting to build up some good currency now, and I do have the ability to try one of the more expensive builds like that. Still fun and viable? Never done one before.

if you can afford an anima stone and loads of primordial harmony jewels it wrecks things

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 04:37

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

Fixit posted:

J and Jazerus

Could you look at my profile again and look at the staff I crafted and tell me if it is good or bad please.

Thanks!

the +2 fire gems is the only relevant modifier, so bad. attack speed doesn't apply to casting srs, only cast speed.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 08:08

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

go pretty much everywhere on the map then portal out and leave the 20 remaining skeletons to their barren existence in an exploded hellhole

# ¿ Aug 18, 2017 02:27

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 14:21

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

whypick1 posted:

And fracturing enemies mod as well

the beyond bosses spawn possessed by tormented spirits, and any rogue exiles spawned by the strongbox summon a warband on death

# ¿ Aug 18, 2017 04:09

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Path of Exile: every single mob was a 20 ft tall goatman. The loot was "good"

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