Also, it’s 20% all the time and another 20% when you’re full on ES. So 40% most of the time, especially once you start killing fast enough that you don’t really get hit much or you’re a summoner or whatever.
I’m so jealous. What is that type of item called in PoE? A unique item, right? Like in Diablo 2?
I’m now in Act 5 with my Fire Nova Mine Shadow build recommended by @Bateau above. Sadly, it’s a pretty shitty build, but that’s partially because my drops and rolls when making my own have been so poor. I haven’t found a single unique item in the game yet, which I think is a record. I usually find one unique by now, even if it’s for a different type of character other than the one I’m using now.
I do have my resists up near full, I think 75/69/72.
After beating Malachi and going into that new snow area, I’ve already died about 6 or 7 times. Each time I die, my motivation to keep playing this character drops. Mines do a lot of damage, yes, but staying alive isn’t my thing I guess. My hit points are around 1000, and they go away pretty quickly, as does the 500 or so energy shield. My evasion rating claims that I should be dodging 72% of the time, which is bullshit, because enemies never seem to miss me.
Evasion in PoE is a bit of a red herring. It is a layer of mitigation, to be sure, but it is not to be relied on. There is entropy built into hit/evade mechanics to avoid long streaks of either hits or misses. You will get hit, so you need to ensure your other defences are in order as well. Spells also can’t be evaded, so some mobs will naturally present more of an issue to EV based toons.
Grab yourself a decoy totem and slot it with an increased AoE gem (presumably being mine based you have also been taking some increased AoE nodes on the passive tree, so it should work even better). That will do a wonderful job of distracting mobs and make less of them come after you. It will also group them nicely - preferably on or around your mines!
That’s a good point. I’ve had a decoy totem slotted since the beginning of the game, I just never remember to use it because the mines kill things so quickly. In the beginning 3 Acts at least, using a decoy totem seemed counter productive because in the time it takes to put one down, I could have already killed all the enemies.
I guess it’s time to start using it now.
How the heck can you not have seen a single unique by act 5? boggle
I wouldn’t have expected a ton, but maybe 2-3.
Razgon
3267
I could use a little help please - I still have a hard time figuring out the games mechanics
Right now, I’ve started a Shadow, and LOVE the cold frost blades, but have a few questions about them.
- I thought it was magic, but it says “Projectile” on the spell - and melee - Does that mean, that EVERY skill gem that adds to projectile or melee, adds to this as well?
- Passive skills that affects projectile with speed and damage, will that also affect frost blades?
- Is there any reason to use any other AOE spell, like ICE NOVA which I got, when I can just turn and use frost blades? What is a good type of skill to use in combination? I currenetly use Viper Strike, but since I’ve selected primarily Life, elemental damage and mana passive points, I don’t find it a very effective skill.
Thanks in advance, guys!
I would look at the gamepedia page anytime you are investigating a skill.
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Frost_Blades
Some of the skills have funky interactions with support gems. The page will also usually list uniques that might be of interest.
Most of the time they break down the skill really well, for instance:
An attack with Frost Blades consists of two parts:
An initial melee hit with the keywords Cold, Attack, Melee
A projectile attack with the keywords Cold, Attack, Projectile
It’s a pretty complicated skill, since one part scales off melee and the other part off projectile damage. Might be good to check out a guide or two for ideas how to augment it.
Razgon
3269
Thanks @Misguided - Even though I’ve tried to play the game for years, Im a neophyte in it, my higest character a level 36, and I still have difficulty understand many things. But the wiki should be helpful!
Wish I could help more. I’m sure Bateau or someone else can. The wiki is hit or miss (I find some pages more helpful than others) but it is a good place to start. And don’t feel bad. It’s a complicated game.
Generally, you’ve got the right idea already. Support gems and skills on the passive tree that help melee and projectile is what to look for. As to what’s good in combination, I have no clue. That’s the kind of thing I have a tough time figuring out myself. Or whether or not Frost Blades will keep scaling well all the way to the end of the game if you keep leveling it up and helping it along with melee and projectile help on the skill tree. Maybe it still won’t be enough for late game enemies? Who knows? This game is not forthcoming with information like that.
Frost Blades is certainly capable of carrying you as far as you want to take it. Might be worth poking around some builds to make sure you’re not missing anything obvious, even if you don’t follow one specifically.
Try watching this video:
In the passives section, he goes over what are the best damage types to go for (I believe phys and cold), and mentions the info that @Misguided gave.
Frost blades is my favorite skill, I had to force myself to not use it again this league.
It scales just fine all the way to end game, but the trick is that if you want it to be your only skill you’ll need to focus more on the melee side of it. If you don’t want (or have time) to watch a build guide for it, make sure you take the node on the tree called Winter Spirit which will make it 100% cold damage so that any cold&elemental scaling are fully effective.
Then try to get all the nodes near you that say elemental damage from weapons penetrate resistance. You can search for “penetrate” in the search box on the tree and you’ll see 3 nodes pop up in the bottom/bottom right of the tree. Getting to those are your other major damage sources.
Finally, you’ll want to fit 2 jewels called “Fight for Survival” into the tree. You’ll get to pick one as a quest reward, the other you’ll need to buy. It should be quite cheap. They are tricky to fit into the tree so you might have to look up a guide as to where to place them.
Doing all that while also getting enough defenses to survive is an exercise in learning to make a build though, good luck!
One thing in general to know about POE, is that the language is very specific. If there is one word different in a description, it’s there for a reason. How things are classified is everything, and many of them are counter intuitive based on how the skill works or looks, or even what weapon it’s based on. I’ve been caught out many many times trying to buff something only to find out I was buffing an entirely wrong skill category.
How do you know from the language on the skill gem that the skill is more biased towards melee than projectile (i.e. what @Outlandish said, assuming he’s correct)?
The initial hit is melee, while the aoe is projectile. Therefore, in single target situations, e.g. bosses, it needs to hit the first (and only) target hard to be effective. I think that’s what he’s saying. All that can be inferred from the description.
I’ve been back playing again on my original character (Shadow Reave dual-dagger crit) that I started when Piety was the last boss, and has never encountered or done the Zana map missions or ascendancy. I got to lvl 66 before I hit a bit of survival wall around Kaom’s Heart.
After 3.0 I was back in lvl 41 content at the end of Act 5, and I am zooming through the new zones to get back to at-level play, but still dying to bosses a couple of times. I am still all self-found and solo play, so things will be getting hard again soon.
Is there a qt3 guild I could join? I have a few essences and currency I should probably give away to someone so I don’t waste them on my own crafting :)
What do people do with all the skill gems they pick up over the course of several characters? It used to be, several years ago when I’d originally played POE, that getting skill gems was rare and I hoarded them all and saved them. Now, it seems that skill gems are ubiquitous and I’ve become inundated with them. I’ve got four stash tabs full of them. They don’t appear to sell for anything, and they’re a PITA to keep organized. What should be done with them?
I save any gems that I’m likely to want and I save any germs with quality because turning in a total of 40% quality will give you a Gemcutters Prism (GCP); the rest I typically sell.
I hoard them. Because I am a hoarder.
