Goddammit why did I have to d/l and install this game again??? I’ve been unable to do anything for the past week, I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, I don’t see anybody. It’s really bad. (Well, in a #firstworldproblems sort of way :) )
The main cause of my current bout of obsession is that I’ve finally gotten my first character through the story. I’m now doing maps, and I’m totally obsessed with my build, trying to perfect it (having found that Orbs of Regret are actually quite cheap in terms of the currency that drops fairly regularly, at least enough to keep fiddling about).
I think I’m nearly there though. What I’ve got going is a Lightning Tendrils/Arc Witch (with Cast on Channeling Support linking the two), and using Inpulsa’s Broken Heart Sadist Garb, which explodes Shocked enemies I kill. Most satisfying indeed. The basic principle is adapted from a build that’s on the forums, except I’m using Orb of Storms to set an AoE Curse with Conductivity on every encounter, which works quite well - instead of building in a purely min-maxed way around crit/crit multi and Power charges from the Orb, and Elementalist ascendancy, like that build does. (My build is doubtless less efficient and I don’t think it’s going to go all the way up the map tiers at all, but it’s still very satisfying, with whole T2-T3 groups insta-popping much like in the guy’s vid - and anyway, it’s partly a theme build, with just an eye on min-maxing. I’ve got a Cyclone build brewing (nearly done the story) for super efficient map running - if I ever have any time to get to it in this league, which is unlikely.)
I’m also going Occultist instead of Elementalist because I’ve been obsessed with trying to wrangle some use out of the Energy Shield. It’s pretty slim pickings, I know (I gather it was the uber thing at one time, but nobody recommends it now), but I found a bit of a game changer when the Immortal Flesh unique belt dropped for me, which has massive life regen on it, which in combination with the Zealot’s Oath keystone (which transforms life regen into energy shield regen) and a few of the life regen nodes, makes the shield “bounce back” in a fairly sprightly way in combat (as opposed to naturally recharging after a short gap, which it does out of combat anyway, and I’ve got that delay down short too, and the recharge super-fast too). I’m also using Mind Over Matter keystone, with Vaal Clarity for tight spots (when charged and fired, it makes you not use mana for spells, which gives MoM a bit more to work with).
So all that, combined with learning (after many deaths, much cursing and carpet chewing) how to teleport behind bosses, I now at last feel I’m starting to get a handle on the game and I’m dying less in maps and with bosses now.
Anyway, probably all greek to those of you who haven’t been down this little path, but I thought I’d share the fun I’m having :)
Here’s the Path of Building Pastebin if anyone wants to have a look and critique this WiP. It just has placeholders for my actual gear apart from the 2 key uniques I’ve mentioned, and some of the skills are out of date (things I was playing around with earlier).
It really is an excellent game, well thought-out and ultra addictive. I particularly love the art style, reminiscent of the hallucinatorily over-detailed fantasy artwork of Keith Parkinson.
