I’ve seen zombie builds use those gloves corrupted to white sockets. I gather that makes the build “stupid OP” rather than “holy carp this is good.”
I think there is some fun to be had with…what is it,…elemental equilibrium? The skill that buffs other elements when you hit with one element. So…you cast some fire AOE and it makes all other elements 50% stronger etc. I think there is even a way to get your minions to do the initial element for you…trying to remember…getting old sucks lol.
Romalar
4949
It’s usually the other way around with minions. When you yourself hit an enemy with elemental damage, Elemental Equilibrium gives them get +25% resist to that and -50% resist to each other element (until you hit them with elemental damage again.) So, if you just hit them with one type of damage and have your minions use a different one, EE is fairly easy to use.
In my current build, I have lightning damage to attacks supplementing Shield Charge and also auto-cast Storm Brand on bosses so I very often give enemies -50% resist to fire/cold. Then my raging spirits and spectres can use fire and burning to take advantage of that all they want without resetting it.
The only way to have a minion apply it is to give them EE themselves, which I don’t think you can do in the tree. However, you can if you socket them into the Malachai’s Artifice ring. I think some people like to put one element’s golem in there and then cast another element to semi-reliably take advantage of the effect for themselves.
Just got a Tabula Rasa drop that says +10% quality, but it has no mods on it so I’m not sure what the +10% quality means. Can I add mods to it? If not I guess it will sit until I make a new character because I’d probably lose too many stats swapping it in for my current 5 link.
Edit - took it to the crafting bench and all the mods are red so that answers that question. :)
Romalar
4951
Quality on armor only increases the core defense stats (armor, evasion, ES) on the item. Tabula is always at 0, so quality on it is useless. Also, since it’s a unique, you can’t improve it with the crafting bench (or exalts.)
The advantage of Tabula is that it’s a 6-link. That usually helps your damage a decent amount over a 5-link if used well, but you’re right that if you need the stats/resists/defenses on your chest a 5-link may be better. If you’re in a trade league, keep an eye out for a 6-link for sale with similar enough stats and good enough socket colors on it that you can afford.
Woot! Awakener 8 down first try (I’d killed him at 5 and 6 previously). Not even close to deathless, though. Holy moly that guy hits hard. The mechanics of the fight are comparatively straightforward. Less hectic, at least for the summoner build, than Uber Elder.
Now to farm!
Grats! I don’t even know how to get there… maybe someday!
I wanted to chime in and say I found a Minion node in my Delving (around level 120) and it had some really great items I felt compelled to use in my minion build:
I had to give up Minion Speed on the rings I had but I think the extra damage is worth it.
Got to the Awakener today, finally. Between taking a couple of weeks off, and not really understanding the new atlas stuff until near the end, it took a while. I like the flavor of running around a dying plane of existence, but I hate it mechanically. I was never able to tell where the boss actually was, just hoped the minions were hitting him, because all I could do was dodge the fire and giant void wheel things or else I’d be dead. Which I was, 4 times, before whatever my minions were doing killed him. Glad they did the job.
I think I’m probably done with this league now. Might hop on every once in a while if I feel the urge to smite something, but I’ve done most everything once. Grinding out maps for awakener levels can wait for the next time around.
grats!
I am still pretty hopelessly addicted to this league. Against my better judgement I keep seeing builds I want to try. I’m leveling a Cobra Lash build lately. When not doing that I am mapping with my Necromancer. And then Delving with my Ice Crash Guardian, who’s super tanky. I feel much more secure in a delve with a tanky character. And he’s gotten down to around 125, which is 124 lower than I’ve ever gotten before!
I like Delve and do some of it in every league, but man is it annoying trying to find your way down to the lower levels. This league I more or less stopped after the second time I got stuck on the map and would have had to backtrack 10 or more levels, go sideways a while, and hope to hit a downward seam. Having said that, I really like doing the Vaal City areas and some of the special nodes. Just wish it was easier to navigate.
I have been getting guides on my youtube feed recently and I often watch parts of them - I usually ditch it when they say how much it costs to get the gear for the build. No matter how much currency I have I always feel like I don’t want to spend more than like 20 chaos orbs buying stuff!
I really really really hate farming in any game, so when those guides show up that say “make XXX per hour in Path of Exile” I don’t usually click them - I just want to have fun; if it becomes more about “earning efficiency” and “chaos per hour” I will just go somewhere else and do something else.
So anyway, another build popped up yesterday. I started watching it and it seems pretty interesting (melee, Reave skill) but then the streamer said “this build isn’t that expensive at this point in the league, the gear shouldn’t cost you more than 30 exalts”… and I just shut it down and moved on.
I don’t even have 30 Chaos much less 30 Exalts. It feels like the endgame is beyond the reach of new players like me. That’s fine as I’m not expecting to conquer the endgame in my first couple of months playing the game. Will finish out this league and then see where I stand on maps. Might just keep going in Standard rather than start all over in the next league.
FYI, prices in Standard are even higher, due to the sheer amount of currency imported from old leagues. But of course you can always play with what you find.
Personally, I always start fresh in the new leagues, because I want to see whatever new shiny mechanic they’ve added.
Everyone enjoys different things! For me, starting over every league is awesome, for a number of reasons.
- There are 1093498483724 different builds and skills to try out.
- I get really sleepy when I’m endlessly farming for a .04% increase to some skill or stat I already have. The game is pretty repetitive as is, given the low number of skills per character, when you plug that into endless farming runs it gets really boring, really quickly, at least for me.
- Some new fangled mechanic or foozle to get used to and chase, which always opens up even more new build ideas.
It really depends on what you enjoy. I love tinkering with different builds, and once I sort of get them to proof of concept stage, I don’t really care to min/max them beyond that. Some people are just the opposite.
Good points guys. No rush for me to decide of course. Will have to see what new mechanics the new league offers and how far I get with maps in this league. In either case I doubt I’d kill the final boss and it’s not really a high priority for me anyway.
There’s no wrong way to do it, it’s all about enjoyment :) One of the things I love about PoE is that it’s always starting over…which I do anyway due to serious alt-itis. PoE makes me feel like my particular problem is a feature!
I enjoy leveling a character and getting them to 70 so they can begin maps. And then usually I run a few Maps and then get distracted by some other shiny built to try. That’s what most leagues are like for me.
Running maps over and over, even though there’s variety involved, sort of feels like a grinding to me. I understand that it’s part of the character progression, and at that point you focus on making your character stronger, but for some reason it just doesn’t have a big draw for me… until this league.
Nevertheless, I’ve still managed to create about eight characters and level them through various stages of the game. In fact, whenever I see an idea that sounds interesting but not too expensive, I usually roll up a new character and try it. Most of the time I lose interest before I get too far but sometimes I go all the way to 70!
I’ve got the necromancer who can run pretty high-level maps now, and an ice crash juggernaut who is very tanky and can delve pretty well, so when I feel like doing those two activities I log on to them.
I suppose most people have moved on. I, however, am still firmly stuck here! I always keep my eye open for interesting builds that work for someone who is mostly pretty lazy (i.e., builds that don’t require frantic button presses or weapon swaps or crap like that). And I have been having a blast with one recently.
It’s a Guardian (Templar) build that uses Herald of Agony and a unique weapon called Fang of Arakaali which generates spiders on kill. That’s your minions. It’s super tanky (I have 83% damage mitigation from armor, and I will have over 70% spell and attack block). I Cyclone around to apply poison and the crawler kills stuff. When the spiders get generated they go bonkers. Another funny thing about the build is that you’re wearing mostly uniques - there are just so many weird and neat things about the build.
I had like 4 Exalts drop this league and I spent maybe 2 on the build so far - some of the pieces are in the 50 chaos range (and I did buy a 6 socket 5L chest for like 80 chaos but only because I did not want to go through the pain of creating that myself - the cheap version of the chest is like 5c).
FYI, the build is here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2554248
The build is almost unkillable - I killed Kitava at 68 and realized I had not been to the Lab at all, so I did the first three labs right then. I am now in the mid 70s and have done maps up to Tier 12. About the only time I die is when I get a super dangerous Metamorph (and at that point boy do I wish there was some sort of log so you could see why you died). I still have 3 jewels and a flask to buy, they cost 1ex, 10c and 10c and 10c (the first jewel will double my block so it’s very important - however I’m running fine without it).
Anyway that’s the fun I’m having right now.
That sounds pretty cool, @Charlatan! I’ve played block-heavy builds in prior leagues but they’ve always involved melee attacks for damage, which can be pretty slow. The spider thing sounds like a lot more fun.
