Path of Exile

Thregin

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Doh, so it took me getting an actual influence exalt orb to start looking into them more and they're pretty damn neat, not before i made my quiver worse by normal leo slamming it though.
So it won't be good for everyone everywhere but in general if you find yourself thinking of normal slamming check poedb for what mods are available with a influenced exalt. In alot or most cases you'll probably find the influence that fits you best has 2-4 mods, and 1 is great and 2 are ok or good so chances you go away unhappy can be limited.

So from my limited exoerience i found prefixes for quivers (too late) and boots (which i did warlord slam for a prefix which is a chance at endurance charge (good), phys as extra fire (good and got it) and unaffected by burning ground (meh)) are great for my needs as a BA chief atleast.

Yeah, you don't really have time to react to the sound queue. Even flame dashing as soon as I heard the queue wasn't fast enough, I'd get clipped, and then I was stunned/dead. I think I might be moving "back and forth" too much, which is keeping me in the ability arc. Next attempt I'm going to try moving in wider arcs.

The Sirus fight has made me remember how much I hate bossing in this game (it had been a while since I had enough playtime to reach Shaper/Elder/etc.). While the mechanics are fun/challenging the first time, repeated attempts/fights are just tedious with low reward for time/effort. And while it's the same way in MMOs, at least when you get to the "farm" phase of a boss, you at least have the camaraderie of Discord/guildchat to power you through the tedium. In a mostly single-player game such as PoE, that tedium seems mostly pointless without high reward.

As for the Die beam on SIrus, I'm already running in circles with my finger on the flame dash when he does is clone spinner thing, and after that first Die! he'll do a 2nd shortly after so keep close and just circle him. I've never had any issues with anything but the storms and if he ends up on the stairs.

Personally I'd find POE much more boring whitout bosses. I gravitate more towards that as a goal than say getting to level 100.
 

Deathwing

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Anyone use Blade Vortex with Intensify support? I can't seem to get full or even partial usage out of it. Standing still against the targets need that much dps is enticing, but that's just asking to get killed. Blade Vortex with Conc effect or stacked Intensify = 21 radius, might as well be playing melee at that point.
 

Deathwing

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Nevermind on the BV question, playing melee this league seems like a lost cause as it throws dps and survivability equation out of whack in higher red maps. I would agree with others in this thread as it seems build diversity has been severely hampered this league. I know I'm not the only one that has been having issue finding a good fast clearer and bosser in the same build.

So, I guess it's time to try zombies and skeletons? Or is there an alternative? I doubt it's going to be cheap, even on a "budget" build.
 

Thregin

Blackwing Lair Raider
745
228
Nevermind on the BV question, playing melee this league seems like a lost cause as it throws dps and survivability equation out of whack in higher red maps. I would agree with others in this thread as it seems build diversity has been severely hampered this league. I know I'm not the only one that has been having issue finding a good fast clearer and bosser in the same build.

So, I guess it's time to try zombies and skeletons? Or is there an alternative? I doubt it's going to be cheap, even on a "budget" build.


Halfway through your post my reply was gonna be necromancers seem crazy tanky while still having a great amount of dps. But it seems you got that already heh
 

Deathwing

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Halfway through your post my reply was gonna be necromancers seem crazy tanky while still having a great amount of dps. But it seems you got that already heh
I league started on spectres and would prefer to play something besides summoner if possible. I'm fine with walking simulator builds, but summoners feels even worse because you aren't doing anything directly to kill monsters. I know it's a small difference, but I notice it. Also, I hate watching the minion AI make mistakes while clearing.

I'm hoping there's another alternative to summoner. Playing my BV chieftan last night, got a metamorph that casts Vortex in rapid succession. WTF is melee supposed to do about that?
 

Pyros

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I honestly had little issues with metamorphs, just kill them before they do anything. I randomly died a lot more from legion mobs, syndicate mobs and map bosses(this fucker in primordial blocks especially has the weirdest fucking attacks but somehow has a shit ton of life). I mostly select "minimum" stuff though for metamorph, like I'll get all currency/div card stuff I can, the unique obviously, but everything else I'll do whites or blue organs, with the least annoying mods possibly(no extra dmg/extra life/regen if I can avoid it). Leads to fairly easy to kill metamorphs for the most part.

The amount of damage I had was probably a big part in how "easy" a bunch of stuff felt though, looking at streams of some other melee skills, shit fucking sucks. Like looking at Mathil's manly man punching FB Infernal Blow, clear speed is solid but god does it look like shit for single target in comparison to Viper. There was a really strong cyclone build I saw kill Sirius really fast though, shit look like probably around 10m DPS, think it was champion impale stuff.

Fair amount of ppl seem to be playing Vortex builds but no idea how it clears, probably not great due to the cd? Not sure if you can get Herald of Ice chains off it either it's not a hit I think so it doesn't freeze right? Bunch of people playing Ice Nova too though so might just be the same builds using nova for clear and vortex for harder stuff. The non cyclone "melee" skill that's on top otherwise seems to be Lacerate, supposedly does good single target damage too with bleed stacking(it's all glad pretty much for lacerate).
 

Deathwing

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Gimping your meatmorfs feelsbadman. Like playing something that wasn't Vaal Ice Nova or ED/Contagion during Legion. Yeah, it solves the problem but in a bad way.

Vortex has an initial hit, so it can freeze. Those builds rarely invest in crit or freeze chance though. Never liked them much due to the cooldown on Vortex, hard to get into a kill rhythm while clearing.
 

Pyros

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Well it's isn't really gimping them as much as not going full left everytime. If there's no reward/the reward is armor/weapons, shit's useless and just add unnecessary mods on the metamorphs. As long as you grab all the good stuff, the unique and still fill the bar, that's good enough I think and that generally means going blue/white on 1-2 organs. I don't even think you get more rewards if you go "over" the bar cap, just more difficulty.
 

Narac01

Trakanon Raider
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You use cold snap for clearing mostly, but can alternate in vortex as well. Still slower compared to builds made for mapping.
 

ronne

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Lacerate Gladiator has cleared everything I'm up to so far without too much issue if you really want to play "melee". I haven't seen a shaper/elder spawn yet but I cannot imagine them being any harder than the metamorphs or some of the guardians.

Only weak point so far is some of the metamorph fights can be a slog if you really juice them, but with positive chaos res and the poison immune pantheon I haven't died to one in like 50 maps or more. Their HP pool can be solved by me just having better gear as well, as I haven't been willing to spring for a 400+pdps axe or an impale watchers eye yet.
 

Nirgon

YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE
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Coaching the wife on PS4, she's doing ignite fireball elementalist (herald of fire, malevolence). Proliferation and Herald is ez mode clearing for newbers. Vaal fireball is a great oh shit (her: eeeeeee!) button.

You think the trading on PC is rough, lol wew. I've been covering that end for her. I even learned the weirdo tag lingo to enter into the trade things. She will never succeed in keyboard/mouse gaming, so I guess this is it. Try trading for currency on that shit, holy fuck. Badly needs a checkbox for buyout only (can enter "~" for that, but still) and which type of currency buy out.

Wishing they'd do cross platform for 4.0. Doubt it ever happens but would be kew if it did.

My other hope for 4.0 is more hybrid/minion options, preferably an ascendancy based around it for Shadow.
 

Deathwing

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I don't understand the popularity of Lacerate this patch. You can't use Ensnaring Arrow, and most builds aren't pumping the bleed damage anyway. So what makes this better than something similar like Sunder, Tectonic Slam, Frost Blades, Blade Flurry, or just about any strike skill with splash and ancestral call?

I did a T14 Elder Guardian last night and I was ready for him to kick my ass based on him having map mods. It was actually kind of boring, got through it deathless. This was the same map with the juiced metaworf that was chain casting Ice Nova(it wasn't Vortex) to delete my chieftan. I thought my dps sucked but then I remember they beefed boss hp. The difference is so jarring that it makes me think my build sucks first instead of them just wanting fights to last this long. IDK, I kinda don't have any easy knobs left to tweak to up my dps, which makes me think they overdid it.
 

ronne

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I don't understand the popularity of Lacerate this patch. You can't use Ensnaring Arrow, and most builds aren't pumping the bleed damage anyway. So what makes this better than something similar like Sunder, Tectonic Slam, Frost Blades, Blade Flurry, or just about any strike skill with splash and ancestral call?

I did a T14 Elder Guardian last night and I was ready for him to kick my ass based on him having map mods. It was actually kind of boring, got through it deathless. This was the same map with the juiced metaworf that was chain casting Ice Nova(it wasn't Vortex) to delete my chieftan. I thought my dps sucked but then I remember they beefed boss hp. The difference is so jarring that it makes me think my build sucks first instead of them just wanting fights to last this long. IDK, I kinda don't have any easy knobs left to tweak to up my dps, which makes me think they overdid it.

You don't need Ancestral Call is a big part of it - the AE is enough that you just rely on Sand Stance. It's not even really a dedicated bleed build, I think the only bleed node I even have is Crimson Dance or whatever the 8 bleed stacks thing is called? It's a big chunk of physical damage that just happens to apply 8 fatty bleed stacks based off of that because Lacerate itself scales your bleeds so hard in Blood Stance for bosses.

In practice it's not really any different than Cyclone, but it is kinda nice to keep up some damage on bosses with bleeds while you aren't actively attacking them. I'd wager than Champion Cyclone is better overall for bossing cause of insane Impale stacking, but meh I already played a lot of Cyclone and the bleed explosions on Gladiator are some of the most satisfying mapping there is.
 

Apostolos

Golden Knight of the Realm
432
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Did a completely new to me build this go around (storm burst). I know I'm slow compared to most. I'm up to trying to flesh out my T11-T13 maps right now and up to around lvl 92. I just tried a unique map that I did not have complete and it kicked my butt so bad. I think it was the synthesis bosses all in one or something. I killed the first big golem looking boss without too much problem. (ungodly amount of HP though). the second boss pops and due to so much HP I used up all of my portals trying to down that one. I don't know if my dps is utter trash or not, so if anyone knows the build really well I would welcome any suggestions on what gear to prioritize working on. Currently I've been working on better jewels. (Account name is Apostolos)
 

Kiroy

Marine Biologist
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I don't understand the popularity of Lacerate this patch. You can't use Ensnaring Arrow, and most builds aren't pumping the bleed damage anyway. So what makes this better than something similar like Sunder, Tectonic Slam, Frost Blades, Blade Flurry, or just about any strike skill with splash and ancestral call?

I did a T14 Elder Guardian last night and I was ready for him to kick my ass based on him having map mods. It was actually kind of boring, got through it deathless. This was the same map with the juiced metaworf that was chain casting Ice Nova(it wasn't Vortex) to delete my chieftan. I thought my dps sucked but then I remember they beefed boss hp. The difference is so jarring that it makes me think my build sucks first instead of them just wanting fights to last this long. IDK, I kinda don't have any easy knobs left to tweak to up my dps, which makes me think they overdid it.

you can quick stack bleed and then run around, making it one of the survivable 'melee' skills

I started with lacerate and did well, had to switch to totems cause my hand couldn't handle melee.
 

Derkon

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Lacerate Gladiator has cleared everything I'm up to so far without too much issue if you really want to play "melee". I haven't seen a shaper/elder spawn yet but I cannot imagine them being any harder than the metamorphs or some of the guardians.

Only weak point so far is some of the metamorph fights can be a slog if you really juice them, but with positive chaos res and the poison immune pantheon I haven't died to one in like 50 maps or more. Their HP pool can be solved by me just having better gear as well, as I haven't been willing to spring for a 400+pdps axe or an impale watchers eye yet.

Any particular guide or PoB you are following? Need something new to play and never fucked with Lacerate.
 

Kiroy

Marine Biologist
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jfc I really can't understand how an economy is suppose to work when the trade api is CONSTANTLY FUCKING BROKEN