2701

You’re in for a treat, PoE is the D2 of modern ARPG’s. So, so good. Two quick tips, don’t neglect life nodes on the passive tree and look to keep resistances maxed as they matter a lot. I presume they are still running normal/cruel/merciless difficulties on console since Fall of Oriath is not released (it changes everything). Each new difficulty imposes a penalty to resistances, so keep an eye on them.

2702

While that’s true, it’s still a linear progression under the new system, right? From what I read you go through Act 1 through IV like before, but instead of then repeating Act 1 under a new difficulty, you start Act V, which is essentially Act 1 under the new difficulty, kind of, but with other changes as well.

I think my favorite build so far was the one I implimented upthread that someone recommended with the dual fire turrets that kill the creatures for you, while you run around, trying to get away and stay alive.

2703

This.

Path of Exile is a much better modern Diablo II than Diablo III is. I like D3 for what it is, and even liked it before the major rework, but PoE is ultimately a lot more to my taste - especially after they fixed their netcode and refactored their engine for far superior performance over the last year (or two? I don’t even remember).

2704

It looks on streams like the Xbox version is 3.0+ only, so it’s got the 10-act system (8 acts available in the current beta.)

I’ve been able to play through 8 acts in the PC beta. Acts 1-4 are almost the same as before with tweaks plus one new zone. Act 5 is an entirely new setting with new zones, characters and creatures. Act 6 is the sorta-revamped act 1 and acts 7-10 should roughly match up to 2-5. Playing 6-8, they all have some mix of new zones, old zones, etc. All the quests and bosses are new though.

2705

^
I
I

Edit - Romalar seems more clued in to the specifics than me.

Yep, pretty much. New mobs, map changes, additional story elements and quests and a new ultimate goal as you re-traverse Wraeclast and witness the change your exploits have wrought across the world, through an additional six acts.

WTF!! Let’s just lazily add six more acts to our game! Grinding Gear Games are amazing and it’s why I rate PoE as one of, if not the best, F2P game out there. No P2W elements, but if you get into it you will be hurting for some of the account features - stash tabs and such. But if you get into it, throwing them some bones will seem like the least you can do.

2706

I hadn’t played in 2 years, jumped back in for the beta. Playing SSF HC (SSF didn’t exist when I played before but it fits my playstyle). My first character RIP’d to Innocence after feeling pretty safe until then; it was a frost pulse templar with 2.1k life and 55% armor mitigation. My second just made it past Innocence; she’s ranger using split arrow, ballista, grace, herald of ice, and burning arrows; she made it past Innocence with 1.7K life (69% evade with grace up ad 49% dodge) using the herbalism and thick skin wheels, and now I’d like her to get more life. so its either go towards the ranger nodes in the southwest or the assassin nodes to the north, neither is close and I can’t do both for a while; I’d welcome suggestions. Here is the 2.6 skill tree; seems to be the same as 3.0 in the relevant places? She helped Kraityn and as a raider she took quartz infusion.

2707

Go to the duelist start and pick up Golem Blood and Bravery health groups, pathing through Fury Bolts. Pretty much all bow builds pick up crit as well (they end up being the most efficient damage nodes even without heavy investment), so you want King of the Hill on the way there. Next steps would be to go straight north to assassin via the outside highway and pathing in through Blood Drinker, path through to Sniper, to Will of Blades, then Blood Siphon, then Trickery and Assassination.

Aside - the nodes around Aspect of the Eagle are not that good, especially the AS/Crit ones. While in isolation they provide OK damage, these are the nodes that you want to pick up last, if you pick them up at all. The reason is that they don’t give enough in comparison to moving somewhere else on the tree with a higher density of excellent nodes.

I think a final tree skeleton would look something like this

2708

Yeah, fdsaion’s tree looks pretty much identical to my last crit bow build. Just drop one of the outlier life nodes for nullifaction (15% EV, 5% life, 8% resist all). That’s a great node for 1 point.

I do like a bit more accuracy as well so tend to squeeze in depth perception and acuity but with some accuracy on your gear you might not need them; grab one if you aren’t hitting enough.

2709

thanks! this sounds like a good plan, I’ll head to duelist next. The reason I have those nodes around aspect of eagle was that I wanted to get to aspect of lynx (which I left off the build I posted) and then to phase acrobatics ASAP. I have lots of respec points so no problem changing things around, and can drop the eagle nodes and still get to acrobatics, but this will mean dropping lynx, which you don’t recommend. I’ve been liking the fact that this build has so much move speed, and I need to check if I need the int for any of my gems, but maybe getting to the life nodes sooner will be worth it.

2710

Oops, the ranger RIP’d to Kitava, partially due to insufficient DPS and partially my impatience. This was an easier fight for the templar who was too slow to handle Innocence. So I need all 3 of defense, offense, and move speed, preferably something that doesn’t require too much aim, agility, or reaction time from me. I guess I could go totems, but I prefer being able to do direct damage. any suggestions?

2711

Blade Flurry is an incredibly strong skill to build around. I had tons of fun with a BF+block duelist a few seasons back, though his damage didn’t scale well enough to progress much past t8 or so maps. I know @Bateau had a very successful dual wielding BF raider, but that was the silly Dreamfeather + Queen of the Forest thing that is probably less suitable for SSF as it really needs those uniques to do its thing.

2712

Given my track record, there’s no point in choosing builds based on their performance in higher level maps; if I just make it through one or two low level ones that’s fine. So I’ll look into blade fury even though I’m not sure I’m quick enough to melee the new bosses.

2713

You’ve pretty much described why I play summoners most of the time!

2714

Hah, I hear ya. If you’re worried about defense, Gladiator/shield is stupidly tanky.

2715

For my two cents I’d recommend a Juggernaut using Sunder + Ancestral Protector/Warchief. If you make it through the first labyrinth take the unstoppable ascendancy; with bonus move speed and slow immunity it’s one of my favorite defensive nodes in the game.

I’d say as long as you’re not worried about doing endgame content Juggernaut is a great build for most non-spell skills; it just doesn’t lend itself to ramping up the offensive numbers enough to clear the late game maps as easily as other ascendancy classes can.

2716

What happens when you let an algorithm write the 3.0.0 patch notes

My favorite is the last one: “You can no longer exist”

2717

What’s everyone going to play when 3.0 hits? I was thinking of starting with a miner or a trapper (saboteur) for first character. Has double dipping been fixed? How’s life now? Assassin area doesn’t have that many nodes and I’d like to hit at least 6k since I won’t really have any other defense layers.

2718

I started playing this on Xbox, and its pretty great. I do have some things I don’t understand, and hope some of you experts here can help me with.

  1. I have a hard time understanding how damage scales - is it only based on skill nodes (+4 % elemental damage, for instance), or does it scale based on stats as well - i.e. intelligence?
  2. As a specific type of character, say, Marauder, I STILL need mana to cast all my spells - should I invest in intelligence then?
  3. Im currently trying out a templar, and am I correct in assuming str/int weapons are mainly maces? As in, swords are mainly str/dex? Its interesting that weapon types are based stats instead of random. I guess thats why you pick specific nodes?
2719

Looks like I’m going life based crit fire nova mine myself. Path of Building says that with mid tier 3 life rolls on all my gear that can get it I’ll be about 5.6k life and there’s still a 5% life node adjacent that I’m not planning on taking. So assuming I wanted to get proper t2-t1 gear I’d imagine that’d be about 6k.

Double dipping is supposedly gone, life should be easier as the amount of life on gear got significantly increased, and Assassin got hit hard with nerfs and the streamers are all down on it so I’d suggest sticking to Saboteur like me if you’re going mines. Traps I’ve never really played long enough to be sure.

edit: hah, missed where you said you were going Saboteur despite quoting it, the Assassin area remark threw me off.

2720

  1. INT only gives ES and mana ( https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Intelligence ). Scaling works on base damage - so skill gem + any flat damage in case of spells and weapon dmg + skill scaling in case of attacks, etc.

  2. No, never, unless you need it to meet the requirements for some skill gems. Grab the +30 stat nodes for this purpose, but a better option is to get it on gear

  3. Yes and no. You don’t pick nodes to meet weapon requirements. In general you never take stat nodes unless absolutely necessary - like pathing to good clusters, in which case it’s unavoidable

@Outlandish yeah I’m not really a fan of crit on non-assassin characters and for trapper/miner I like saboteur because it plays smoother. Horrible design behind Explosives Expert does sting a bit though, but unfortunately it’s mandatory for signature trap/mine skills because of penetration.

What will be your crit chance at full charges in combat?