Path of Exile

Looking for feedback on a standard indigon PP build with my usually stupid twist.

The most popular Indigon PP build utilizes volatile dead in one pen and unearth, body swap, and GMP in the other. Volatile dead is great for bosses but that's about it. It kinda sucks for clearing. Even if you socket volatile dead and unearth so that they cast at the same time(so volatile dead won't eat your traveling corpse), there can still be clunky issues. Projectile travel time and los/tight spaces on unearth can cause you to plant less than 5 corpses. On top of all of that, 2 spells in one pen and 1 in the other is not great too. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I just can't seem to get rid of the negative interaction between volatile dead, unearth, and body swap where I'll just be standing there swing away, cast spells, but not body swapping anyway.

So, my thought was to use arc and lw. Works alright, but anyone that's played LW and PP know that LW is not suited for the spamability that Indigon requires.

So, I settled on Arc - Blade Vortex - Controlled Destruction in one pen, and Unearth - Faster Projectiles - Body Swap in another. That movement combo is pretty fucking good without volatile dead getting in the way, it's the fastest I've been able to rip through some maps. LoS issues kinda blow though.

Wondering if there's a better setup. An indigon precast 6L is occupying my weapon swap, that's why I didn't go with another pair of pens to switch to for bosses. I was thinking if I *really* needed to, volatile dead and GMP could be gem swapped in.

Losing precasting tons of balls does kinda suck.

I'm definitely using Herald of Ash, not sure how I'm going to fit linking anything to it though. Burning Damage and Swift Affliction make that big a difference in clearing when you have Arc already?

HoA can ignite?

The smoothness, or lack thereof, seems to be coming from Volatile Dead and Body Swap fighting each other for corpses. I didn't know MH and OH makes a difference for PP builds. What's optimal setup then?

Pyros said:

I don't know what's the optimal setup, but when I watched that Raiz poet pen lvling video the other day because someone was asking about Faster Casting in it, when he switches to PPs, it basically wasn't working because the corpses kept getting consumed and shit. Then he was like "oh", switched his 2 poet pens and then it was working fine. Was just saying if you have issues it might just be that. I haven't played the builds though so my knowledge of them are fairly limited.

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Well, my theory for best socketing is:
Volatile Dead - Arc - Elemental Focus
Unearth - Bodyswap - GMP

Volatile Dead will never use Unearth corpses unless you're staying in the same area(boss). Guess I should go read some more guides. Problem there is that a *lot* of people seem to just put up with that clunky gameplay when I watch their videos.

Aamry yeah, they should probably increase the prize pool with how popular the game is now. But still, for a good weekend it takes to get to 85, seems alright to me. I haven't played a sunderboi in a while.

He's joking.

There were some previous mayhems where you'd get 5(or was it 10?) ghosts in some really small rooms with a guaranteed unique. Usually Tora's beast lair mission. That was actually fun because it provided for some hilarious encounters. 3 doesn't seem like it will be enough to reach that critical mass.

Korrupt said:

Windz has a decent guide but he got the idea from Wizja. Was smooth as butter for the 2nd half of the grind to 100.

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You're referring to this video?


I don't think it's entirely fair to evaluate a build with headhunter. But, I'll watch the video, see if there's anything to glean.

Seems something fucky is going on. I would really love an in-depth guide on poet's pen because I'm missing something here. Like, Poet's Pen for Idiots.

Just testing out in Blood Aqueducts, no monsters or corpses(killed them and then used them up). I have Unearth - GMP - Bodyswap in main hand(left, looking at character screen) and Arc - VD - Elemental Focus in the other. Going slow enough(not that it matters, I don't have over 8 APS) to see the spells cast, I have gotten both Unearth and VD casting at the same time and then opposite each other. WTF is going on?!?!

Poet's Pen mechanics aside, what's the ideal on paper? Unearth VD cast at same time or not? This is assuming two spells in both pens.

EDIT: hmmmm, I think the sequencing is global. I can reliable "mess" with this by wielding one pen, casting a spell, then equipping the other pen, and now they are out of sequence until you do a double weapon swap.