Path of Exile 3.0 (the other Diablo clone)

[Tome]

If you're in Standard with that, I'll gladly buy it off you ;p

My electro witch is in need of a good weapon...

[lord_khaine]

Alright, fresh new question

What the heck are Cast-On Death good for? It seems pretty much useless in almost any situation i can imagine.

[Drasius]

Alright, fresh new question

What the heck are Cast-On Death good for? It seems pretty much useless in almost any situation i can imagine.

Linked to town portal so you don't have to trudge a million miles back to get vengance on whatever killed you usually. There was a build that made use of cast-on-death linked to discharge as a novelty, but that was nor for the lulz than anything else. Made a brief re-appearance when the Act 10 boss proved a bit too much for some people. the first day or 2 of 3.0

[Siosilvar]

Cast on Death + Portal in softcore. Other than that... some gimmick builds where you run up, get oneshot by a boss, and oneshot it too.

[N810]

Not sure But I think it may trigger on minion death if it's linked correctly.

[lord_khaine]

Ah yeah alright, the portal bit makes sense. How does the one-shotting of bosses work?

And side question, whats generally going to be best, increased crit chance or increased crit multiplier on my new claw?

[Sian]

And side question, whats generally going to be best, increased crit chance or increased crit multiplier on my new claw?

Depends on what your current crit chance and crit multiplier is.

[N810]

Ah yeah alright, the portal bit makes sense. How does the one-shotting of bosses work?

And side question, whats generally going to be best, increased crit chance or increased crit multiplier on my new claw?

as usual it depends....
do you have anything special that triggers on a crit ?
if so it's probably good if it triggers more often.

If you already crit fairly often it might be worth buffing the damage multiplier.

Otherwise you may just want to balance the two.

[Siosilvar]

Not sure But I think it may trigger on minion death if it's linked correctly.

Unfortunately not. It specifies when *you* die.

Ah yeah alright, the portal bit makes sense. How does the one-shotting of bosses work?

Cast on Death has a 304% more multiplier. Use your imagination (and Firestorm, Vortex, and so on).

[N810]

... yep, looks like it got nerfed a while back.
Never mind then.

[lord_khaine]

If you already crit fairly often it might be worth buffing the damage multiplier.

Hmm.. yeah alright thank you. Good point. I got a fairly large critt buff from a ascendancy.

Cast on Death has a 304% more multiplier. Use your imagination (and Firestorm, Vortex, and so on).

Well thats just the same as casting the spell 3 times. Or ahh.. of course.. the trick is to put that into all your gear, so it triggers something like 5 super charged spells at the same time.

[Honest Tiefling]

Hello! I have just started playing this game. There are a crapton of build threads with many confusing words. Is there an easy way to determine which build (other then 'cheap') is good for a newbie?

Also, is it just me, or did the plot get a bit weird in part 2? I mean...Did Silk really have sex with a spider? I'm so confused.

[Drasius]

Hello! I have just started playing this game. There are a crapton of build threads with many confusing words. Is there an easy way to determine which build (other then 'cheap') is good for a newbie?

Also, is it just me, or did the plot get a bit weird in part 2? I mean...Did Silk really have sex with a spider? I'm so confused.

When in doubt, EQJUGG! Sunder on a Marauder. Depending on how far you want to go and if you're willing/able to trade, then you can make almost anything work, but for a build that you can be sure will see you to the end of act 10 and easily into early maps, then a Marauder with a 2 hander using [Sunder -- Melee Physical Damage -- Brutality -- Ruthless] is very hard to go past. The best bit is, even if you don't find anything good, you can always make a +50% damage weapon of the appropriate level and that's enough to get you to the end.

Perhaps if you tell us what you're confused about, we can help?

For the best builds for a newbie, you're looking for a couple of things:
- Doesn't require super rare, specialised, perfectly rolled items to work
- Doesn't require deep understanding or complex interactions
- Doesn't fall over as soon as something looks at you
- Can hit more than 1 target easily

This usually means some sort of melee as casters tend to be a bit squishy (though there are exceptions) and Marauder tends to have more health early on than other melee characters. Given that you're already in act 7 at least, you're probably a bit beyond all that though, so again, you might have to tell us what you want that your current build isn't doing for you? Be aware that you probably shouldn't expect to do endgame content with your first character - everyone screws up their first character to some degree and without a reasonable amount of experience, endgame bosses will squish you flat faster than you can blink.

As for the second part, the spider is apparently known for being able to control the minds of those who look into its eyes, so probably not. The mechanics of the act alone would probably make it difficult and I doubt that's really what said spider was really after either, but hey, who knows? If that's your thing, feel free to have that be your canon story.

[Siosilvar]

... yep, looks like it got nerfed a while back.
Never mind then.

Are you looking at the 1.0.5b change? Cast on Death used to cast minion spells, it was never able to trigger off them.

If you want to cast on minion death, you have to use Cast on Damage Taken + Heartbound Loop.

[Honest Tiefling]

Erm. I figured that a necromancer would be easier, since I just toss bodies at the enemies. I have been using a build guide, which...I'll just link. It's outdated, but it was hard to find newer build guides.

Here it is

I'll try a Mauarader next, I so far have three characters to focus on. But the league is ending in a bit, so...Next league, Maurader!

[Tome]

Having finally hit 67, I can safely say that Oro's Flicker is super fun. It also clears super fast, letting me get to Level 71, kill Kitava and speed through maps amazingly fast.

I went from like 900 dps to 4k+, and I only have a 4 link.

EDIT Is there a recommended level of +% life increase to aim for from your passive tree? I'm looking at hitting around 180%, but I'm not sure if I shouldn't be aiming higher or if I can shave soem off for more deeps.

[Drasius]

Erm. I figured that a necromancer would be easier, since I just toss bodies at the enemies. I have been using a build guide, which...I'll just link. It's outdated, but it was hard to find newer build guides.

Here it is

I'll try a Mauarader next, I so far have three characters to focus on. But the league is ending in a bit, so...Next league, Maurader!

Uh, Necros are already pretty easy and your link was updated for 3.0 a couple of weeks ago. Having said that, there's no newbie/budget gear options and ES is a lot less good now than it was previously, so I'd probably recommend a different plan unless you managed to find some really expensive stuff already. Having said that, ES changes won't matter as much to minionmancers.

Spoiler: Some brief tips that might help you out:

Show

- Look into switching out Skelly totem for SRS totem [Spell Totem -- SRS -- Minion Damage -- Melee Phys Damage (or Melee Splash if you don't already have Splash on your zombies)]
- Self cast SRS is also pretty viable since summoners have a bit more free time than most, though as is traditional for summoners, you're going to run out of gem slots pretty quick
- Do the Normal and Cruel Lab and get Commander of Darkness for Normal and Mistress of Sacrifice for Cruel
- Desecrate is very important as it lets you power your offerings and emergency summon zombies/spectres
- Try and get a hold of a Stone of Lahzwar amulet, they should be reasonably cheap if you're trading and reasonably common to find if not (as easy as anything is self found that is, if RNG hates you, well, there's not much you can do about it)
- Once you've got Mistress of Sacrifice, if you're in danger of taking damage at ANY point - Bone Offering will boost your block chance to solid levels and should let you survive. If you're not in danger and your minions aren't taking too much of a pounding, then flesh offering is a fantastic boost to their kill speed. Remember though, your survival takes priority over your minions

Spoiler: And some generic tips for any character:

Show

- When in doubt, portal out
- Cap your resists (should be super easy with Commander of Darkness) once you're half way into act 3 (after you meet Dialla basically) and keep them cappped, not forgetting to update your gear once you take the resist penalty at the end of act5 and act 10
- Get a good blocking shield (there's not thaaaaaat much difference between shields though, but a high base block shield and a +block % mod will be a noticable change from a low base block shield with no +block mod)
- Get more life/ES on your gear. No, it doesn't matter how much you've already got, get more
- If you can't get more life/ES and you're not in maps yet, get more armour
- Have the highest level healing flask you can that heals for the most life total
- Have another flask that has an instant heal that you can spam quickly
- At least 1 flask needs to have "of Staunching" while another needs "of Heat" as Bleed and Freeze are very bad. The others you can live without, but those 2 are the most common killers
- Pre-maps, a granite and/or jade flask will make you feel a lot more sturdy for enough time to either win or get away

Also, the league only just started, the next league will likely start in ~November or December'ish, so you've got ages to go yet.

[Drasius]

Having finally hit 67, I can safely say that Oro's Flicker is super fun. It also clears super fast, letting me get to Level 71, kill Kitava and speed through maps amazingly fast.

I went from like 900 dps to 4k+, and I only have a 4 link.

EDIT Is there a recommended level of +% life increase to aim for from your passive tree? I'm looking at hitting around 180%, but I'm not sure if I shouldn't be aiming higher or if I can shave soem off for more deeps.

Recommended life for melee is ~180-200% at lvl 90 (which is about as far as most reasonable builds aim for) with the lower end for the right side of the tree and shield users while the higher is for the left side and/or 2 handers. In fact, ~170% is basically mandatory minimum for almost any life build as unless you've got 5k life, a very comprehensive knowledge of the game or mad skillz, you're going to die a lot.

Flicker is great (unless you get a headache from it like many people), but you will occassionally get taken on adventures that you don't really want to go on and some bosses will really make you wish you had picked another skill.

In other news, it took me ~500 jewellers to 6 socket a Marohi Erqi and then ~10 fusings for a pseudo 6 link. Using it against level appropriate content is hilarious and it's one-shotting rares.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, got a high quality wand with two blue and a red linked. Decided to use one of the essences with a cap of 35, because why not? Ended up with a prefix/suffix of +1 level of fire skills. Which... is less useful for me since I'm a necromancer. But hey, I just realized... SRS has the 'Fire' flag! So, SRS + Minion Damage Support + Melee Splash Damage = win! It's not as good as +1 level of minion skills, obviously, but I'll take it.

Oh, for those who haven't capped their resists yet, a Bismuth flask gives +35 resist all temporarily. Get something like of Heat or of Cooling (removes burning) on it, and it can be useful temporarily. But really, you probably want all capped resists if at all possible.

[Drasius]

So, got a high quality wand with two blue and a red linked. Decided to use one of the essences with a cap of 35, because why not? Ended up with a prefix/suffix of +1 level of fire skills. Which... is less useful for me since I'm a necromancer. But hey, I just realized... SRS has the 'Fire' flag! So, SRS + Minion Damage Support + Melee Splash Damage = win! It's not as good as +1 level of minion skills, obviously, but I'll take it.

Oh, for those who haven't capped their resists yet, a Bismuth flask gives +35 resist all temporarily. Get something like of Heat or of Cooling (removes burning) on it, and it can be useful temporarily. But really, you probably want all capped resists if at all possible.

You can also do SRS-Added Fire-Melee damage/splash if you recolour to BRR and your added fire will get another level too. Depending on the min lvl requirement for the wand, it could be an excellent twinking item for your next character since SRS in a +1 fire wand is SILLY strong early. Another thing to remember if you're going to have another character is to keep any white or low level requirement 4-socket / 4 link items as they trivialise early game content nicely. Plus aformentioned +1 fire wands/sceptres since you can do SRS + SRS totem or firestorm + firestorm totems and go through the first 30 odd levels on cruise control. Wouldn't be the first time I'd killed malachai only to realise I was still wearing a white item that I put on back in act 1.

The bismuth is OK, but unless you're keeping your flasks up all the time (almost certainly not before you can really cap your resists, even with a +duration or recharge prefix), you're going to get short quickly since (capped) resists don't matter that much before Lunaris temple and if you haven't capped your resists by then, you're really going to struggle from then on. Keep in mind that the game is balanced around 75% ele resist and -ve chaos resist.

[Tome]

Recommended life for melee is ~180-200% at lvl 90 (which is about as far as most reasonable builds aim for) with the lower end for the right side of the tree and shield users while the higher is for the left side and/or 2 handers. In fact, ~170% is basically mandatory minimum for almost any life build as unless you've got 5k life, a very comprehensive knowledge of the game or mad skillz, you're going to die a lot.

Flicker is great (unless you get a headache from it like many people), but you will occassionally get taken on adventures that you don't really want to go on and some bosses will really make you wish you had picked another skill.

In other news, it took me ~500 jewellers to 6 socket a Marohi Erqi and then ~10 fusings for a pseudo 6 link. Using it against level appropriate content is hilarious and it's one-shotting rares.

Cool, I'm on track for 181% by level 88 so that should work.

The adventures are half the fun.

I've picked up a few extra uniques to augment my Oro's. An Emberwake, Darkray Vectors and a fire elemental Doryani's Invitation. I'd like a Kaom's Heart and Essence Worm eventually, but those are both way more expensive. Currently running at about 3.2K life.

EDIT Someone was doing a necro build, right? I think I have a few uniques for that rattling about.

Scratch that, already traded them as it turns out.

[lord_khaine]

So, been thinking i might need a better single target attack skill. What are the better ones for that when it comes to dual wielding?

[Sian]

Dual Strike maybe?

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, thank you Drasius. I'll try to tweak my necromancer. Through I wasn't aware of the SRS trick, that sounds awesome.

As a question, is ES/Evasion...Bad? My Shadow keeps biting it and perhaps I need more life gear, but I'm wondering if those defenses are just bad.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well, thank you Drasius. I'll try to tweak my necromancer. Through I wasn't aware of the SRS trick, that sounds awesome.

As a question, is ES/Evasion...Bad? My Shadow keeps biting it and perhaps I need more life gear, but I'm wondering if those defenses are just bad.

The problem with Evasion, as I understand it, is that while armor is damage mitigation, that is to say a percentage of the damage is prevented but you still get some, Evasion is damage avoidance, either you get it or you don't. Which means once you start getting up there, either you dodge or you die, so you have an extremely binary survival tree with very little to do about it.

[Tome]

The problem with Evasion, as I understand it, is that while armor is damage mitigation, that is to say a percentage of the damage is prevented but you still get some, Evasion is damage avoidance, either you get it or you don't. Which means once you start getting up there, either you dodge or you die, so you have an extremely binary survival tree with very little to do about it.

If I recall, isn't armour actually flat damage reduction, with the percentage being an estimate for hits from equal level trash mobs or something, and thus wildy useless for high end content?

Evasion is pretty useful, you just can't rely soley on it I've found. I have a 50% evade chance, 50%/30% dodge chances, a good bit of physical damage reduction from arctic armour plus fortify and then a reasonably sized life pool on top of that. Most attacks don't hit me, and I can usually survive the ones that do long enough to flask or leech myself back to full.

ES seems to need some way to regen it mid fight, like Occultist or Ghost Reaver, to be worth it. Otherwise, well, damage is high enough for it to be basically a very minor speed bump.

Really, endgame defence seems to mostly be in the form of having a lot of life and leeching it back faster than it gets depleted.

Speaking of, is there any way to deal with desecrated ground effects? they seem to be my number one cause of deaths in maps.

[Drasius]

As a question, is ES/Evasion...Bad? My Shadow keeps biting it and perhaps I need more life gear, but I'm wondering if those defenses are just bad.

Shadow has the most difficulty getting to any decent life nodes, even more than witch, and at the moment, ES isn't in a great place (unless you're occultist, trickster or sab, and then it's just passable) while as mentioned below, evasion is a yes/no thing - you either take 0 damage (yay) or all the damage (boo). That's not to say it's bad, evasion's probably the most useful endgame, but what you really need is layered defense. A combination of things (stacking HP/ES, armour, evasion, dodge, block, fortify, basalt/granite/jade/stibnite flasks, endurance charges, +max resists, % phys damage taken as [x]) that all work together. That's not to say you need all of them, but probably at least, like, 5 of the various suoorces of mitigation.

The problem with Evasion, as I understand it, is that while armor is damage mitigation, that is to say a percentage of the damage is prevented but you still get some, Evasion is damage avoidance, either you get it or you don't. Which means once you start getting up there, either you dodge or you die, so you have an extremely binary survival tree with very little to do about it.

Pretty much this. The reason why people tend to belive armour is useless is because when you're taking a 15,000 damage hit, unless you've got absolutely absurd amounts of armour (like, multiple hundreds of thousands absurd), you're dead while evasion at least gives you a chance at surviving. Where armour is better and evasion is "worse" is lots of smaller hits which work better earlier in the game, since you can reliably tank even things like malachai/voll slam early on if you have some decent armour and a bit of fast recovery whereas evasion will still be in a "are you at full HP or 0 hp" situation.

If I recall, isn't armour actually flat damage reduction, with the percentage being an estimate for hits from equal level trash mobs or something, and thus wildy useless for high end content?

Evasion is pretty useful, you just can't rely soley on it I've found. I have a 50% evade chance, 50%/30% dodge chances, a good bit of physical damage reduction from arctic armour plus fortify and then a reasonably sized life pool on top of that. Most attacks don't hit me, and I can usually survive the ones that do long enough to flask or leech myself back to full.

ES seems to need some way to regen it mid fight, like Occultist or Ghost Reaver, to be worth it. Otherwise, well, damage is high enough for it to be basically a very minor speed bump.

Really, endgame defence seems to mostly be in the form of having a lot of life and leeching it back faster than it gets depleted.

Speaking of, is there any way to deal with desecrated ground effects? they seem to be my number one cause of deaths in maps.

Armour is based on the size of the incoming hit relative to your armour, but it's not a linear equation, so the more you get hit for, the worse armour gets and visa versa. Edit: Link to a nifty calculator for damage mitigation --> https://jsfiddle.net/p7pe80jx/39/embedded/result/

The whole game is about making sure that incoming damage < EHP replenishment, doesn't matter how you get there (until suddenly you get things that bypass you prefered method of mitigation).

Desecrated ground is dealt with by having decent chaos resists or by not standing in it, there's not really any other way around it to my knowledge (bar 1 pair of boots that makes you immune).

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Desecrated ground is dealt with by having decent chaos resists or by not standing in it, there's not really any other way around it to my knowledge (bar 1 pair of boots that makes you immune).

Soul of Arakali gives -DoT damage, and, if one can reach t14 maps and capture the Shadow of the Vaal boss, 25% chaos res vs degens.

Which is just ugh. DoT's are basically the only thing even slightly threatening to my gladiator (5.3k hp, 65% block/spellblock, 10k armour, 25ish flat phys reduction, MoM) and GGG went and put that Soul at the end of the atlas.

[Tome]

How do you get divine vessels, by the way?

I'll have to try and fit some chaos resist into my gear.

[Dire Ferret]

Divine Vessels are just a random drop in maps.