Path of Exile 3.0 (the other Diablo clone)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

It's fairly common to reserve ~75-85% of your mana since as long as you've got enough to cast your main skill a couple of times, leech should be enough to keep you topped up and movement skills don't usually take too much since they're generally only a 3 link. Not something to do early, especially not if you're still relying on mana pots to power your skills, but being able to power constant spamming of your main skill without flasks is the minimum you should be aiming for and once you're there, the vast majority of your mana is wasted if you're not reserving it.

I'm guessing that's the real secret weakness of Blood Magic then? You really don't want to reserve life if you can help it, so a blood magic build has far fewer auras than a magic-based one.

As long as you have the mana leech/mana regen to keep up with your skills, you can reserve a pretty hefty chunk of your mana to great effect...

[Sian]

??????????????

that's not a thing

He implied that the reduced rarity makes it less likely for Uniques to spawn, and in turn only using it when critically needed

[Siosilvar]

He implied that the reduced rarity makes it less likely for Uniques to spawn, and in turn only using it when critically needed

Oh right, I forgot that Aurumvorax has reduced rarity on it (haven't looked at mine since I bought it). I thought it was something like having uniques makes them less likely to drop, which isn't a thing as far as I know. I'm smart I swear...

[lord_khaine]

It's fairly common to reserve ~75-85% of your mana since as long as you've got enough to cast your main skill a couple of times, leech should be enough to keep you topped up and movement skills don't usually take too much since they're generally only a 3 link. Not something to do early, especially not if you're still relying on mana pots to power your skills, but being able to power constant spamming of your main skill without flasks is the minimum you should be aiming for and once you're there, the vast majority of your mana is wasted if you're not reserving it.

That is also a good point, and i have not used mana flasks since i got the mana regel jewel. Im just not certain that my mana pool can keep up at 85% reserved mana yet.

But anyway, was there anything better to link up to a Enfeeble/Herald of XXX ?

Oh right, I forgot that Aurumvorax has reduced rarity on it (haven't looked at mine since I bought it). I thought it was something like having uniques makes them less likely to drop, which isn't a thing as far as I know. I'm smart I swear...

We will of course have to believe you when you swear on it

[Sian]

But anyway, was there anything better to link up to a Enfeeble/Herald of XXX ?

Enlighten Support? ... Sure its drop-only so it might be difficult/expensive to get one.

[Drasius]

I'm guessing that's the real secret weakness of Blood Magic then? You really don't want to reserve life if you can help it, so a blood magic build has far fewer auras than a magic-based one.

As long as you have the mana leech/mana regen to keep up with your skills, you can reserve a pretty hefty chunk of your mana to great effect...

Mostly. A lot of people link their movement skill to blood magic as the later game life regen is more than enough to cover the pittance of a movement skill, letting you reserve even more mana. Not so much these days with the popularity of Vaal Pact though, but even then it's still done. The other one is that you are inconvinienced when you're out of mana, you're dead when you're out of life. There's a very large amount of life hiding behind BM, but the various auras also provide a huge amount of benefit, so it's a bit of a wash. Not to mention that most (acceptable) forms of sustain usually end up either coming packaged together as mana and life leech, are on gear you already want or are super close on the tree anyway.

But anyway, was there anything better to link up to a Enfeeble/Herald of XXX ?

Enlighten Support? ... Sure its drop-only so it might be difficult/expensive to get one.

This, though the 3 E's (Enlighten, Enhance and Empower) as mentioned are a pain to get and take ages to actually do anything, especially if you're not already at maps and don't have spare GCP's to waste on boosting their XP gain. If you're keen though, carry a stack of transmutes, alterations and augmentations with you and try and roll every single gemcutters strongbox you see with the "only contains support gems" suffix.

Culling strike could work on HoI, though you'd have to be doing a very specific amount of damage to have it actually do anything. Blood rage would also be a decent choice in there as a stand alone, though I usually shove it in with my CWDT-Immortal call - Increased duration set up as I'm slow enough that mine expires frequently otherwise, especially on lower tier content where packs are further apart and you're taking the time to pick up loot.

If you're going to recolour your gear, then any of the warcries can go in there as stand alone. As for recoloureed links, Item rarity could go with HoI as could cold to fire but I think that's about it really. Both a blasphemy and a herald are very stand alone things, so that 4th slot is always going to be for additional utility. If you shatter stuff a bunch, you could replace blasphemy with curse on hit and free up some mana that way however, but then, it's not going to be effective on bosses at all.

[lord_khaine]

This, though the 3 E's (Enlighten, Enhance and Empower) as mentioned are a pain to get and take ages to actually do anything, especially if you're not already at maps and don't have spare GCP's to waste on boosting their XP gain. If you're keen though, carry a stack of transmutes, alterations and augmentations with you and try and roll every single gemcutters strongbox you see with the "only contains support gems" suffix.

Alright thanks, not like i dont have a lot of spare transmutes.

Though on a side note, ouch! Cruel labyrinth were not that much harder than the previous one. But Izaru got a lot harder with traps thrown into the mix.

[Mari_Lilac]

Alright thanks, not like i dont have a lot of spare transmutes.

Though on a side note, ouch! Cruel labyrinth were not that much harder than the previous one. But Izaru got a lot harder with traps thrown into the mix.

Uber Lab is where it's at, that's when the fun starts ;)

[Sian]

is the potential mods on Staves good enough to be worth rolling at for Spellcasters?

[lord_khaine]

Uber Lab is where it's at, that's when the fun starts ;)

By fun you mean screaming and crying, right?

[Istarial]

By fun you mean screaming and crying, right?

To me it always seems like...
Nervous...
Nervous...
This is going okay so far...
Don't get cocky...
Nervous...
Nervous...
WHAT WAS THAT!?! (After getting one-shotted)

Or, after your first few dozen Uber Labs:

Oh, not that thing AGAIN!

I am not a good POE player. :/

[Drasius]

is the potential mods on Staves good enough to be worth rolling at for Spellcasters?

Generally, no, not unless you have some way of blocking non-caster mods. Pick one of the uniques and build around that. If solo, ID basically every staff you find and when you finally get something useful, build around that. Even then, giving up a shield and all the defensive mods it can have is a large ask.

To me it always seems like...
Nervous...
Nervous...
This is going okay so far...
Don't get cocky...
Nervous...
Nervous...
WHAT WAS THAT!?! (After getting one-shotted)

Or, after your first few dozen Uber Labs:

Oh, not that thing AGAIN!

I am not a good POE player. :/

I have finally encountered all 6 trials at lvl 89 (after getting stuck at 5 all last season!), so it's going to be interesting to attempt Uber for the first time. Guess it's time to pray for a divine shrine?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Generally, no, not unless you have some way of blocking non-caster mods. Pick one of the uniques and build around that. If solo, ID basically every staff you find and when you finally get something useful, build around that. Even then, giving up a shield and all the defensive mods it can have is a large ask.

Really? I'd figure it might be viable with a Necro build, seeing as how your primary defense is actually the zombies. Also, a Staff can get up to a 6L while a wand can get max 3L and shield 4L. Unless you're building around that Legendary shield that stacks Power charges and Necromantic Aegis, it might be more useful to have two skills with 6L, and it's not like you're missing DPS by not spec'ing spell damage.

Granted, you're missing out on the wand that cuts your number of zombies in half in exchange for having much beefier zombies, but something like Dying Breath would be really valuable to a necromancer, as they are certain to have auras to further boost their minions, and the further boost to damage to allies would only increase pet DPS further.

Femur of the Saints seems specifically designed for this with the massive minion bonuses. Slotting your Zombies in The Baron, then using a 6L Femur of the Saints for your SRS, then you can put your Spectres in a decent chest piece (or maybe swap that around if you want to focus on spectres instead of SRS).

Can Staves normally roll with +1 level to linked gems? It almost wouldn't matter what else was rolled on it, that would make it worth it.

Also, it's a crying shame Resolute Technique only works on your attacks and not your minions. An accuracy orb is generally more powerful than almost anything else after a while simply because of all the extra hits your minions get. Making it impossible for your minions to miss? Would be one of those 'don't miss this' skills.

[Drasius]

Really? I'd figure it might be viable with a Necro build, seeing as how your primary defense is actually the zombies. Also, a Staff can get up to a 6L while a wand can get max 3L and shield 4L. Unless you're building around that Legendary shield that stacks Power charges and Necromantic Aegis, it might be more useful to have two skills with 6L, and it's not like you're missing DPS by not spec'ing spell damage.

Granted, you're missing out on the wand that cuts your number of zombies in half in exchange for having much beefier zombies, but something like Dying Breath would be really valuable to a necromancer, as they are certain to have auras to further boost their minions, and the further boost to damage to allies would only increase pet DPS further.

Femur of the Saints seems specifically designed for this with the massive minion bonuses. Slotting your Zombies in The Baron, then using a 6L Femur of the Saints for your SRS, then you can put your Spectres in a decent chest piece (or maybe swap that around if you want to focus on spectres instead of SRS).

Can Staves normally roll with +1 level to linked gems? It almost wouldn't matter what else was rolled on it, that would make it worth it.

If you have a staff, you can't use whirling blades nor shield charge, so you're stuck with one of the suck tier movement skills and that's generally bad news.

Also, you only need 1 6 link and that's your chest (unelss you're wearing a Kaom's, in which case it's a 2 hander for you), and shields can only have 3 links, not 4.

A +3 fire staff does go a long way for a SRS necro, but you can spend a lot of currency trying to make one to little effect. You can also get the same thing on a 6 socket crude bow, but getting one of those is more difficult that getting a staff (plus there's both 5 and 6 linked staff div cards and the 5 link is super easy to get).

Also, montregul's isn't used as much as you'd think since zombies are usually tanky enough as it is and having less means less chance for them to accidentally be in the right place since the AI is a bit retarded (as befits zombies).

+1 level isn't as useful as having a shield or second weapon 9 times out of ten (though it certainly never hurts).

So, technically, yes, a staff can be worth it, but more often than not you'd almost be more likely to find a mirror than you would a decent rare staff that was better than a "normal" setup, and even then it's usually limited to certain classes (such as an SRS necro, Hege's melee or a Xirgil's Crank occultist).

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Really? I'd figure it might be viable with a Necro build, seeing as how your primary defense is actually the zombies. Also, a Staff can get up to a 6L while a wand can get max 3L and shield 4L. Unless you're building around that Legendary shield that stacks Power charges and Necromantic Aegis, it might be more useful to have two skills with 6L, and it's not like you're missing DPS by not spec'ing spell damage.

You lose room for auras, buffs, and defensive utility skills, so it's generally not more useful to have two 6L skills. There's some builds that get two 6L skills because their general clearing skill is just that bad at single-target, like lightning arrow. But what with an aura or two, maybe a herald, an auto-curse setup, a defensive CwDT setup, a movement skill (or two), a Vaal Skill, assorted buffs... There's a lot of utility to be had for most builds!

Granted, you're missing out on the wand that cuts your number of zombies in half in exchange for having much beefier zombies, but something like Dying Breath would be really valuable to a necromancer, as they are certain to have auras to further boost their minions, and the further boost to damage to allies would only increase pet DPS further.

Femur of the Saints seems specifically designed for this with the massive minion bonuses. Slotting your Zombies in The Baron, then using a 6L Femur of the Saints for your SRS, then you can put your Spectres in a decent chest piece (or maybe swap that around if you want to focus on spectres instead of SRS).

I'm not very familiar with summoners so take this with a grain of salt, but I imagine they want a bunch of auras and a movement skill, Convocation, Offering(s?), Vaal Haste, an Immortal Call setup, curse(s?) and a way to apply them... More than can be fit on the two 4-linked items that are left.

[Drasius]

Link for probably the most comprehensive summoners handbook for PoE --> https://github.com/Mattc33/Necronomi...ecronomicon.md

Just in case anyone wanted the low down on what to prioritise and why.

[Sian]

Currently got This build going while having just entered Act 10 ... Other than the obvious of continuing to pick up +Life% whenever it feels needed, is there any specific nodes that it would be wise to chase?

primary offensive skills are Flame Totem and Scorching Ray+CwCFirestorm

[Drasius]

Depending on how much reservation you've got happening, MoM can be a good surviability boost - though I doubt you're having too many problems as Heiro. One of the increased duration clusters (exceptional performance in this case I'd suggest) would do wonders for your single target since it would affect firestorm for a massive damage boost, but also IIRC the scorching ray defuff so it doesn't expire as fast when you have to dodge stuff. Plus longer totems if you find that they're running out of time before running out of life, but I doubt that's the case. Celestial judgement/punishment isn't that far out of the way, and it's a lot of damage in my experience.

Depending on how much you use SR/FS, then Fire Walker is a pretty good deal for only 2 points. The first ele damage/mana node at the templar start is also fantastic value for only a single point. EO and shaman's dominion can work well, you'll have EO up most of the time from firestorm and that in turn will buff your SR too which is nice, but it's also a heavy investment - but 40% more without taking a gem slot is a lot. There's so many life nodes within easy reach however that I'm not sure you're going to have the points. 3 into quick recovery, 5 in the scion life wheel, 2 for barbarism, 2 for juggernaught, 2 for purity of flesh, hell, that's 14 right there without any filler required, then you've got the devotion trio and another socket not too far away as well and bloodless down on the south side too.

[Tome]

Working on the build I'm aiming for on my Ranger in Harbinger.

How does this look for a planned passive tree? I might respec the 7~ points in bow stuff and put them in things I need to make an Oro's Flicker Strike build work (grab Lava Lash), if that's still viable in 3.0.

[Drasius]

Working on the build I'm aiming for on my Ranger in Harbinger.

How does this look for a planned passive tree? I might respec the 7~ points in bow stuff and put them in things I need to make an Oro's Flicker Strike build work (grab Lava Lash), if that's still viable in 3.0.

Saved you 2 points, I would probably not bother with the 4 after heart of oak, even for a bow build. You've probably got way more mana leech than you'll ever need too.

If you can get a Lioneye's jewel, then the slot just above acrobatics lets you grab the soul raker cluster for mondo leech and damage. If you wanted to ditch bows, then Oro's flicker is definately a thing and raider cyclone is very strong too with Ngamahu's and Debeon's both being very solid options for quite cheap.

[Sian]

Depending on how much reservation you've got happening, MoM can be a good surviability boost - though I doubt you're having too many problems as Heiro.

Running BlasphemyEnfeeble, Purity of Elements and lvl6 Clarity (although looking at it, I don't quite need it for anything more than continuously pushing my totems forward) which with my current reductions clocks in at 62% reserved + a bit ... without Clarity I'm sitting at 467mana, Also going to grab Divine Guidence from Merciless Labyrinth, which would, by my mental arithmetic, be enough for that MoM would be going to drain my mana pool more often than I'd like.

One of the increased duration clusters (exceptional performance in this case I'd suggest) would do wonders for your single target since it would affect firestorm for a massive damage boost, but also IIRC the scorching ray defuff so it doesn't expire as fast when you have to dodge stuff.

It does work for the Scorching ray debuff ... I've been running with lvl14 Increased Duration Support on it for a while, before I swapped it out for a lvl16 Fire Penetration, and as soon as I find a non-crappy 5+L body armour, that would probably go back into that setup as well

Plus longer totems if you find that they're running out of time before running out of life, but I doubt that's the case.

From my experience Totems still don't die before they either run out of time or before I need to move them

Celestial judgement/punishment isn't that far out of the way, and it's a lot of damage in my experience. Depending on how much you use SR/FS, then Fire Walker is a pretty good deal for only 2 points.

Given that I'm running Mono-element Fire Walker would boost me no matter what since +firedamage is also influencing Flame Totem.

The first ele damage/mana node at the templar start is also fantastic value for only a single point.

true, that might be the second non-life related point I take (I'm probably going to take Deep wisdom next)

EO and shaman's dominion can work well, you'll have EO up most of the time from firestorm and that in turn will buff your SR too which is nice, but it's also a heavy investment - but 40% more without taking a gem slot is a lot.

Not quite sold on focusing on getting crits when I have no crit of mention at this point. Sure 40% is nice, but given that I with the same investment could get Fire Walker AND Celestial Judgement ...

There's so many life nodes within easy reach however that I'm not sure you're going to have the points. 3 into quick recovery, 5 in the scion life wheel, 2 for barbarism, 2 for juggernaught, 2 for purity of flesh, hell, that's 14 right there without any filler required, then you've got the devotion trio and another socket not too far away as well and bloodless down on the south side too.

Sure I got a lot of Life within reach, but as mentioned above I'm not entirely certain if thats the most efficient use of my points to go all in on all of them ... scion life wheel is probably at the bottom of the list, and given that my last two Ascendency points are going towards Sanctuary of Thought I should have enough effective health as it is with it's bonus ES

[Tome]

Saved you 2 points, I would probably not bother with the 4 after heart of oak, even for a bow build. You've probably got way more mana leech than you'll ever need too.

If you can get a Lioneye's jewel, then the slot just above acrobatics lets you grab the soul raker cluster for mondo leech and damage. If you wanted to ditch bows, then Oro's flicker is definately a thing and raider cyclone is very strong too with Ngamahu's and Debeon's both being very solid options for quite cheap.

Ooh, thanks.

I think I'll drop the bow specific nodes anyway. Run an Oro's in one weapon set with Flicker Strike, and a bow and my Blackgleam (eventually replacing it with a Signal Fire) in the other for 100% fire conversion Blast Rain or maybe Barrage. With 100% conversion to fire, blast rain and flicker strike run the same nodes anyway.

Probably see if I can grab Lava Lash, for that lovely fire resistance penetration.

[Drasius]

Not quite sold on focusing on getting crits when I have no crit of mention at this point. Sure 40% is nice, but given that I with the same investment could get Fire Walker AND Celestial Judgement ...

Firestorm crits at 6% (5% if you're running controlled destruction) and with CWC, you get a cast every 0.35 seconds. EO duration is 8 seconds, so, if you cast 16.66 times in 8 seconds (20 if running controlled destruction), then you've got ~100% uptime on EO. 8 / 0.35 = 22.8 casts in 8 seconds. It's an extra 40% more link on every one of your elemental skills for, like, 2 or 3 points and requires no effort or investment to maintain. There's literally no reason not to take it unless you're going crit, using a non-ele spell or don't have something that hits.

Sure I got a lot of Life within reach, but as mentioned above I'm not entirely certain if thats the most efficient use of my points to go all in on all of them ... scion life wheel is probably at the bottom of the list, and given that my last two Ascendency points are going towards Sanctuary of Thought I should have enough effective health as it is with it's bonus ES

...I should have enough effective health as it is with it's bonus ES

...have enough effective health...

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[lord_khaine]

Just in case anyone wanted the low down on what to prioritise and why.

Thanks, is interesting if nothing else.

Also, turns out Cruel Izarue is a lot more managable with the added survivability of having a shield. But im now left with the big question about what Templar acendacy to take.
And if it is worth the trouble to also pick the ability to start from the Templars starting point. Or if i should instead wander up and get the ability to use an additional golem, with the theoretical last 4 points.

[Drasius]

Thanks, is interesting if nothing else.

Also, turns out Cruel Izarue is a lot more managable with the added survivability of having a shield. But im now left with the big question about what Templar acendacy to take.
And if it is worth the trouble to also pick the ability to start from the Templars starting point. Or if i should instead wander up and get the ability to use an additional golem, with the theoretical last 4 points.

Generally you're better off with the second class ability (since that's the whole point of playing scion) first, then nab the 3 skill points and the start location of the one that's the most convinient for you last. Edit: If you're new, don't bank on getting those last 2 ascendancy points. Not only can finding the trials be annoying but Uber Izaro is extremely rough for many, many builds and if you're not already reasonably well geared, you're in for an unpleasant time and a lot of quick trips back to Sarn with a depleted XP bar and 1 less offering.

As to which ascendancy, well, depends on what you're playing, but if you've killed cruel Izaro, you should already have a fairly good idea. Totems? You probably need a pretty good reason to pick scion not to go Heiro/Chieftan. Some sort of ele damage build? Inquisitor followed by either Assassin or Elementalist depending on if you want that juicy crit bonus or if you want to be nigh immune to reflect? Defensive spec for max block? Guardian/Gladiator for days.

Having said that, I'm still trying to figure out if I want to go Trickster/Chieftan or Trickster/Necro for my Righteous Fire/Blade Vortex chicky.

[lord_khaine]

Alright thanks, i had not though about how hard Izaro might get in the last trial, so i will just count on getting 6 points. That does also fit nicely with 2 class abilities anyway.

As to which ascendancy, well, depends on what you're playing, but if you've killed cruel Izaro, you should already have a fairly good idea. Totems? You probably need a pretty good reason to pick scion not to go Heiro/Chieftan. Some sort of ele damage build? Inquisitor followed by either Assassin or Elementalist depending on if you want that juicy crit bonus or if you want to be nigh immune to reflect? Defensive spec for max block? Guardian/Gladiator for days.

Well.. dont underestimate my ability to get though things without making up my mind. Im currently Frostblade/essence drain/exploding totems with a side order of Molten shell.
And thats comming from a Lightning strike/frenzied strike build that did not work quite as well.

Though still, i guess what i most of all do is either chaos damage or a lot of elemental damage. So its likely that i will focus on with Inquisitor/Elementalist.

I take it the main Bonus of the inquisitor is the increased critical strike chance against enemies affected by elemental ailments.
And the Hierophants main stick is getting 1 more totem ?

[Drasius]

Well.. dont underestimate my ability to get though things without making up my mind. Im currently Frostblade/essence drain/exploding totems with a side order of Molten shell.
And thats comming from a Lightning strike/frenzied strike build that did not work quite as well.

Though still, i guess what i most of all do is either chaos damage or a lot of elemental damage. So its likely that i will focus on with Inquisitor/Elementalist.

I take it the main Bonus of the inquisitor is the increased critical strike chance against enemies affected by elemental ailments.
And the Hierophants main stick is getting 1 more totem ?

Frostblades is strong clear, ED can be fairly strong and has good sustain. Sounds like you might struggle a bit on single target in the near future though.

The main bonus of any class is what you get use out of, but generally speaking, yeah. If you are really mana heavy and are running ES for some reason, then it's the mana and ES that's going to be attractive rather than the totems. But Heiro isn't seen as overly strong normally, though the strength of frostbolt totems is making it a strong choice for a starter since it doesn't need any gear and his skills tend to be available on high end gear. Not having to give up your damage to get a second totem without super expensive stuff like Tukohama's fortress is a massive damage increase, even if they are limited to being in your helm.

For a normal inquisitor, the real attraction is ignoring resistances on crit strikes, so you don't have to worry about -ve resist curses or ele penetration gems, meaning now you've got room for yet another more gem and a survivability curse. For a Scion, it's also not a bad choice for Righteous fire since the elemental damage works just fine, taking less elemental damage reduces the self burn and consecrated ground heals you for 4% life /second. Also handy for any spell spammer, even if not crit (though I'm not going to lie, inquisitor/assassin is pretty great for a crit build and crit is generally the way to go) to help mitigate reflect in conjunction with elementalist.

Guardian is in a bit of an odd spot, but still gets use, especially with some totem builds if they're running soul mantle as they can eliminate the self curse with scion guardian and a pair of Kikizaru rings. The block also pairs well with Gladiator is you're going for a max block character as 10% free block is fairly hard to come by (and 30% of normal block counting to spell block too). You can also go Guardian/Necro if party support was your shtick too, as everyone likes free block/move/damage/charges/resists.

The whole thing about the Scion is not just picking something good for your build, since with a few exceptions (looking at you, Assassin and Elementalist!), every other class does their gimmick much, much better. It's about picking out something from 2 ascendancies that either work together really well to "do-the-thing", or that are very different and allow you to do something you wouldn't normally be able to do by just focusing on the "normal" ascendancy.

At the end of the day, even if you don't get 100% of the benefit from your ascendancy, it's not the end of the world. They're really strong, sure, but many a character reached silly high content before they came out, so it's not like they're needed. Even if you only get half the bonus, it's still a lot more than you would normally have. Even then, you can respec your ascendancy just like the skill tree, it just costs way more.

[Sian]

:p Just got a jewel that kinda makes me want to make a Sunder Gladiator; +16% phys damage from Maces, +13% Melee phys damage while using shields, +19 Dex

[Sian]

Lightning Damage% is worthless (as I'm using Fire), but still, Stupid powerful one-handed for a spellslinger

[N810]

Thought I'd mention the Xbox one X version is live today.