2581

Man, Frost Blades makes leveling a 1h and/or dw character a breeze. What a fantastic clearing skill for low levels.

2582

I often look through the PoE forums for ideas and builds. The summoner one I was trying was mostly following AngryAA’s:

A Youtuber named itsYoji took it and ran with it:

However, late last night I decided to try a Shock Nova Inquisitor, as discussed my Mathilification in his “Starter Builds for Legacy League” video:

As far as I know, there’s no writeup for this, just him talking in the video. I simply listened to the video and wrote down what he said! So far, this guy is doing pretty well, he just hit A4 normal. Leveling up to Shock Nova (around level 30) I used Firestorm which is a crazy strong spell… if you like casters you could do worse than finding a Firestorm build.

So to summarize, I mostly find builds where other people have done all the hard work, and then I use them!

2583

I’ve put quite a few hours into POE, and mostly enjoyed it. The one thing I really don’t like about the game, is I can’t really just start a character and wing it, and make a build as I go based on drops. Guess I’ll go take a gander at some builds and try and come up with a new idea.

2584

Yea, I decided to run a Shock Nova Inquisitor before I saw that, so when Mathil listed it as a decent starter build I was pretty hopeful. Unfortunately, mine is built quite a bit more defensively than his and I’m starting to think his is much better. I suppose that isn’t a surprise given how many builds he’s done compared to the dozen or so I’ve made on my own. In particular, I’m thinking EB was a mistake, and that MoM on it’s own would have been fine, and allowed me to run a staff instead of sceptre+shield. All I get from EB is the ability to run a herald as well as wrath.

I do tend to build far too defensively; if my dps doesn’t keep up into maps I might end up respeccing a bit towards his way, or go on to one of the other builds I planned out if I can find a nice item or two for them. I am playing SSF though, so I can’t get a Pledge of Hands and Call of the Brotherhood, so I’ll keep sticking to my plan for now.

2585

I’m currently loosely following the ItsYoji elementalist flameblast build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQxRIb1OLE). That said, I’m 51 now and haven’t switched to flameblast yet, so god only knows where I’ll end up.

2586

Still progressing into A4Normal with my guy, and I put down Daresso with few issues (boy do I hate that guy). Mathil doesn’t mention a golem but I figured a Lightning Golem would be ok to use and he seems useful. I also swapped in Conc Effect and Elemental Focus for Added Lightning and Controlled Destruction and that helped too. Though boss fights have been a bit dicey (I’m not using Mind over Matter but will be taking it soon).

I’ve had an issue getting decent drops though. Only 2 uniques (though I did use one of them for a while) and I’m struggling to get my resists up. I have barely run into any Forsaken Masters - most of them are at level 2 so no resist crafting for me yet (except for Tora).

2587

I used the lightning golem for a while, now I’m on chaos as I realized I wasn’t needing dexterity for anything but the lightning golem so I could just ignore dex by switching to chaos golem.

As for drops, pray for essence leaguestones, and save up alchemy orbs to use on two stone rings. Essence rares solved my resist problems until merciless, and then alching a few rings fixed me up the rest of the way. Though I’m still using a shield, if you’re using a staff I suppose it’ll be tougher.

I’m just about to hit maps, but the bug has bitten me for a new character and I’m thinking about trying a crazy vigilant strike build. Bound to not work, but it’ll be fun!

edit: and the essence thing made me wonder, what are people using for leaguestones? I’m vendoring all my rampage, onslaught, tempest, and torment stones (3 for 1 recipe) hoping for perandus, essence, and breach. I also have a soft spot for talisman, but I admit that’s nonsensical and I should probably seek help from a professional.

2588

My homebrew Wild Strike Raider is finally Wild Striking (just about to ascend the Sceptre of God in Normal, level 32 I think).

Frost Blades was so damn good with a pair of Ewar’s Mirage swords (thanks for that tip @Bateau) that I wasn’t even sure I was going to switch to WS upon finally getting the dumb gem from the General “My place is at God’s side, Exile” quest.

Uh, yeah, I switched to WS. It murders the holy bejeezus out of everydamnthing. Wow.

Still a lot of pieces to come together for the build to really work: Blasphemy/Assassin’s Mark for extra crit and sweet, sweet power charges. Vaal Pact and nontrivial lifeleech for sustain. Possibly Elemental Equilibrium even though I have 16% passive penetration from my tree. Lots more delicious, delicious crit and attack speed as I go loot the Shadow zone. Raider nonsense for Onslaught and Frenzy charges and all of the movespeed forever and ever amen.

Good times, good times. Not convinced I’ll be tough enough to really push T15+, but I rarely get there anyway. Could be I’ll have enough dps to flip Mark for Enfeeble and not get oneshot, or enough movespeed and awareness to manually dodge what I need to (lord knows that how I often deal with Izaro, that dick).

Also, I’m pretty proud of BoJacksonWasGOAT for the name for my Raider in Legacy league. Heh.

Leaguestones:
Eh, Talisman’s often a decent fight and a corrupted rare amulet with a chance for something absurd, so there’s nothing wrong with that.

Are there Perandus stones that actually spawn the dude? I’ve a few dozen coins (whee…) but meh.

I like the Bloodlines stones; you get a bunch more blue packs of mobs for slaughtering. Essence and Breach, obviously. Don’t mind the Strongbox ones either.

Got a Bloodlines stone that ensured one of the blue packs had a Wealth mod. That was fun, but the RNG didn’t really smile on me with much beyond some bonus crappy rares for vendoring.

2589

Yea, I’ve found them a few times now so they don’t seem to be too rare. It takes a lot of coins to get anything though. I was hopeful because I got to about 800 coins right off the bat, it seemed like every stone that dropped was Perandus, but the first time he offered me something fantastic it was 4500. Looks like around 4000 or so is the baseline for a quality unique.

There is also a talisman suffix that guarantees the amulet will be rare, but I’ve only gotten that one once. I also just got a drop of a bloodlines one that guarantees the voidspawn of abaxoth pack; I don’t know that I’ve ever fought Abaxoth and I’m not sure if he spawns in at the level of the map or if he’s just plain scary so I’m holding out until I’m overleveled to try that.

2590

Voidspawn pack can spawn any Beyond boss, it’s not a guaranteed Abaxoth. He is a pretty mean dude though ;)

2591

Pretty happy with my gear for 3rd day of the league - link. Ele weakness capped, chaos capped (!!), doryani, 6L - I’m aiming to get good opal rings eventually and possibly another doryani for offhand, at least for guardians and shaper. I’ll have to sacrifice resists but the damage will be worth it. Level 21 Flameblast is also something I hope to acquire sooner rather than later.

edit: Forgot to mention - I love what they did with MoM - it’s so simple to get a decent ehp with casters now.

2592

Just a PSA, ambush leaguestones do not interact well with prophecies involving strongboxes. I had bountiful traps prophecy (6 strongboxes in map) with an ambush leaguestone, the ambush stone overrode it and I only got one box but the prophecy still triggered. The same seems to happen at least some of the time with other box related prophecies so if you have any, don’t activate ambush in the leaguestones.

2593

I did the thing where I get annoyed with my first character and start a new one. Shock Nova Inquisitor almost certainly has a higher ceiling than Wildstrike Raider - I’m an idiot and didn’t realize that Wildstrike doesn’t leech because it converts all your damage to elemental, durr.

2594

I’ve done Wildstrike before, and it was on my list of possibles this league. You probably have to run a life leech gem; you certainly did before. However, they did change the leech nodes in the shadow area to leech attack damage rather than physical so you can now get 0.4% leech of mana and life there, and the claw nodes if you want to go claws are also no longer physical.

Those changes were what made me want to go back and try Wild Strike again, but even with that the Shock Nova Inquisitor is indeed quite likely to have a higher ceiling, and be easier to gear for as well.

2595

I am such a dingus, I didn’t even realize they’d changed those over to Attack damage and not Physical. Alas.

Shock Nova is pretty insane, though. I’m running a variant I found (maybe it’s the popular one, idk) that has Heralds of Ice and Thunder in a 4L with Innervate and Ice Bite, so they freeze and proc Frenzy charges all over the place. HoT is constantly triggered with Shock Nova, and there’s a non-trivial amount of passive damage going around just from that and the Orb I’m (obviously) using to apply Assassin’s and Warlord’s Marks.

This thing is just getting going, too. I’ve gotten very little crit in my tree so far, but the next 20 levels (I’m 43 right now I think) are pretty much the fattest, crittiest parts of the Templar/Witch/Shadow areas (and Vaal Pact). Good times, good times. Even now, things pretty much melt if I get a single crit and I’m only at something like 13% base crit chance and 165% base crit mod.

Switched out my second Lifesprig for a shield to round out resists (and for Tempest Shield on CWDT, why not) and that helped a ton. I’m still relatively squishy, but as @Bateau said in chat, Decoy Totem is the real MVP. What an incredible skill.

2596

Yea, the damage buff Shock Nova got is fantastic. Even in early maps now, I’m killing beyond bosses before I even know they’ve spawned. It’s odd seeing an achievement pop for killing a boss while it has onslaught and you never even saw it.

I feel like I’ve basically done the build now, though. I rarely go into high maps and other builds are calling. I haven’t managed to get a single good weapon drop though, I have builds planned for generic 1 hander, claw, and 2h mace but not one has been good to me yet. Hurry up, GGG, and pick my next build for me.

edit: GGG listens. the very next map dropped a Divinarius. Not what I was really looking for, but it’s probably a pretty good weapon for the Arctic Breath Deadeye I’d been considering so I might start giving that a go now.

2597

Congrats!

I’ve decided that Perandus + Beyond + Breach is I think my favorite Leaguestone combo. So much murder.

2598

Just found what has to be one of the best possible leaguestones.

Abundant Anarchy Leaguestone of Tethers. Good for 5 areas, will spawn a total of 4 rogues exiles in each area, and tethers means that each item they drop is fully linked. Unfortunately, the one I found has a max monster level of 47.

I’m not sure how rogue exile levels work; if the monster level is 47, then a magic monster can drop 48, rare can drop 49 and uniques can drop ilvl 50 stuff. I don’t know where on that scale a rogue exile falls, but this has to be the best chance I’ve ever had to find a 6 link, even if it is only on an ilvl 47 armor or 2 hander.

I look forward to the crushing disappointment that is sure to befall me. Just like when you open a fully linked strongbox and nothing with more than 3 sockets ever drops. Or a +2 socket box that drops nothing but scrolls and jewelry.

Also, the 20% quantity buff they gave to Onslaught leaguestones might make that one of my favorite map stones, at least for lower tier maps. I ran some with Rampage and Onslaught and actually felt like a professional streamer clearing a full map in 2 minutes or so. And they apparently fixed the ambush boxes with prophecies issue and all Perandus stones now get a 20% shot at Cadiro.

That might be the biggest change in this league: knowing that certain things are either definitely on the map or have a higher chance than usual means I’m full clearing a lot more areas than normal and instead of getting to low tier maps around level 62 or so I think I was 72 before I went into my first Jungle Valley.

2599

Good compilation of beginner builds on GGG’s page if anyone is in the same boat as I am.

2600

Just to correct my above misinformation before someone is actually affected by it, uniques apparently only drop +2, not +3 ilvl items. On the plus side, I tested it and exiles count as rares and drop +2 so when I get there I’ll be able to get ilvl 49 stuff off that stone.