Yeah, like Bateau said, warcries don’t work with CwDT post-Awakening. CwDT says it triggers a spell, and the warcries don’t have the spell tag. They used to, but not after the 2.0 patch. So if you want to use CwDT for defense, you’ll usually see it linked up as CwDT-Immortal Call-Increased Duration, and have some way of getting Endurance charges cast normally. On my dual-totem marauder, that’s the setup I use. I don’t mind casting the cry myself, it’s not like I have much else to do but cast it and Flammability while the totems are killing stuff. :)
I had some trouble as well, when I went through normal, but not as much as it sounds like you did. The difference might be in damage output, since you’re right that it takes a good long time for the totems to finish him off. As for dodging attacks, all I can say is that having boots with movement speed is a huge help, as well as Quicksilver and/or Quartz Flasks for getting the heck out of dodge when you inevitably get stuck in a bad spot.
So just like with a Witch’s regular attacks, the regular attack swings by a marauder don’t do any damage after you take ancestral bond?
I’m still not convinced that this is a good trade-off. Without ancestral bond there’s so many options available on how to handle a situation.
On a different topic, I noticed I still haven’t seen some of the spells you guys talk about, like upthread Wombat kept talking about incenerate, which is still not a spell available in Act 1 cruelty. And Immortal Call is often talked about, which is another spell not available. I’m not sure whether to be impressed that they’ll keep introducing new skills into higher difficulties, or to be dismayed by it. I kind of liked the fact that in Diablo 2, you had all your basic stuff set within normal difficulty, but then you ramped everything up higher in other difficulties.
Yep, that’s how it works. I find that as you go up in difficulty, it becomes more important to focus on a smaller skill set. In Normal, having several different attacks to choose from works all right for the most part, because those skills can be effective without passive tree support and/or multiple linked support gems. But as you get into Cruel and later Merciless, skills become less effective unless you’ve got those supports. So you really need to focus on a smaller number of skills, and so limiting yourself to the totems isn’t that big a deal since you’re not using much else anyway.
Incinerate you should see if you go talk to Nessa and look at her second store tab. I don’t think Witches get Immortal Call, sadly. My Duelist does, so I just bought one and put it in the guild stash (Maps/etc tab).
Yeah, while they’ve opened up skill gems immensely, there are some that are still class-specific and you have to hunt around for. That web thingy, PoEtrade.com or whatever it is, is a nice help; just enter the gem you want in and get the text to copy into a whisper to whoever is vending it.
Alright I give up. Joining a guild in PoE is super hard, but I’m willing to do it because you so gosh darn super helpful ineffablebob. I think you’ll need to be on with a character who I need to know the name of, or I need to be on with a character that you know the name of? Isn’t that how it works? My Witch is called ToweringInferno in Warbands. And I’m trying to log on now.
Well, aren’t you lucky that I came to check QT3 just now as the Portland-Seattle MLS match went to halftime! :)
Thanks! I love the guild stash. Is this all from you? I love the idea of sharing uniques. Especially in Warbands, where uniques can’t be lost, and most people will probably move on from lack of sockets, but they can be extremely useful for low level characters. I found 6 uniques during ToweringInferno’s run through normal, and I’m only using one, so I put the other 5 in the guild stash on the right side. I’m looking at a couple that are already in there, like the heavy belt. That would be perfect for this character I think.
fdsaion
1868
By the end of Act 4, you should have pretty much most gems available to purchase from the vendors. Different starting characters all have their own different sets of available gems, but there’s probably like 80% coverage there.
Yep, the guild stash is a great tool, I think. A decent amount of what’s in there is stuff I’ve found, but not all of it by any means. Everyone in the guild should have full access to add and remove stuff, so it’s a group effort. The Tempest stash is actually more full than the Warbands one as of now, but I’ve added a few things since I started playing Porcuswine.
If we could get more than five tabs that would be great. Hell, I’d pay for it if I could figure out how.
I know how you feel. The first time I did a character like this I had trouble pulling the trigger also. But assuming you have decent regeneration to start with, you should be ok. As much as it may seem crazy to use Blood Magic, it makes things easier: you can ditch the Mana potions and just use health potions. You don’t need +Mana or +ManaRegen on any gear. The important stuff to have is +Health, +Armor, or +LifeRegen.
One time to switch is when you finish Normal and are just starting on Cruel - because even though the difficulty is stepped up a notch, the mobs in Act1 are generally not as tough as they are in Act3 and 4.
I had a guy who used a lot of reactive skills. It was this one (just to show a different perspective on the same build).
I know the fight with Malachi takes a bit of time but 10 minutes on each phase seems… long. I just did it with a Dual Totem witch. Not to be insulting, but are you sure you’re fighting the right people in each phase (for instance, in phase 1 are you DPS-ing down Piety the two times she turns on you?). Do you have anything linked to your flame totems? I’m pretty sure by the end of normal I have them linked as Flame Totem - Faster Casting - Fire Penetration - Faster Projectiles. And I don’t have a ton of flame passives/notables yet.
Do you use Flammability? This decreases the mob’s flame resistance, making your totems do more damage. A Flame Golem? He increases your damage by 15%. You should be using both of those.
That was definitely part of the learning curve. I was trying to place totems so that they would both take damage since I didn’t know which portion had to go down first. And then suddenly Piety was back, and she said do it now, but that’s when I died. When I came back, I was again running around trying to damage both him and his hand/tentacle thing (which turns out to be piety instead). So yeah, there was definitely a big learning curve involved in the fight. (Second portion had a more obvious portion in which he was invincible, but that took me a while to figure out too).
Do you have anything linked to your flame totems? I’m pretty sure by the end of normal I have them linked as Flame Totem - Faster Casting - Fire Penetration - Faster Projectiles. And I don’t have a ton of flame passives/notables yet.
Yep, I have Flame totem linked to Faster Casting, Fire Penetration and Cold Damage. I don’t have Faster Projectiles yet. I looked at all the vendors. I’d assumed that would become available much later.
Do you use Flammability? This decreases the mob’s flame resistance, making your totems do more damage. A Flame Golem? He increases your damage by 15%. You should be using both of those.
Yes and yes. Flammability was constantly used in that fight, even though I couldn’t see the symbol above his head. Maybe he was immune to it? Either way, I was constantly trying since he was taking so little damage. And yes, I have a little Flame Golem with Life Leech, additional Minion resistance, and added Minion Life running around. But he was constantly dead during that fight, so I couldn’t really recast him most of the time.
EDIT: I just looked up Faster Projectiles. Apparently it becomes available in Act 3? I could have sworn I didn’t find it for purchase. Can I switch difficulties like in Diablo 2, and go to Act 3 and look for it? It seems to lock me into Cruel difficulty unless I’m missing something obvious.
I’ll be on later tonight as BoujiBoy. Not nearly as far as you guys but I’d love to join up.
You do indeed have to pay for more guild tabs, 50 points each. The way you do it is by donating the points that you’d usually spend in the store to the guild, and then as the leader I can use those to buy tabs. Click on the little + symbol in the guild stash by the tab names, then the Give Points button, then you should get a browser window where you can actually donate. It’s convoluted, but functional…I used it to buy the 4 extra that we have now.
That sounds right, a witch should get Faster Projectiles from Clarissa in A3. Here’s where I go if I’m not sure where to buy a gem: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Quest_Rewards
Yes, you can swap difficulties - click on the difficulty name in the waypoint screen. Same way you click on the Act name to switch those.
I don’t get the little plus sign in the guild bank because I don’t have the permissions to do stuff like that. So if you want me to provide some stash tabs, I guess I need to get promoted or something. I’m happy to chip in a few bucks though.
Thanks for adding me. I’m a solo player and unwilling to spend money on PoE so I dropped 3 low level uniques into the guild stash to makes sure I’m not just a freeloader.
Same here. I don’t have much left-over, but I was going to donate my 35 points that I have to the guild, but there’s no plus symbol in the guild stash for me.
(Also, I just noticed the unique jade amulet someone put in there. Oh my god, this thing is awesome. Thank you!)
Bah, that’s what I get for being the guild leader and thus not knowing what the rank and file can see. :)
You can get to the point donation page from the guild web page as well. I think this link will do it, assuming you’re logged into the PoE site: https://www.pathofexile.com/guild/profile/38776/transactions
If that doesn’t work, try going to your own profile on the web site, click the link for the QT3 guild from there, and go to the My Transactions tab.
No worries, fellas. Anyone is welcome to whatever’s in the stash, that’s why it’s there! Don’t feel like there’s any pressure to donate points or items, either. Just whatever you don’t need!
No worries! Projectile speed and movement speed, excellent for fire totem-ing. The only real downside is that there’s no resists on it.
The link worked for me after I logged in. Donation done. No pressure, I just figured the guild stash growing would do the points more good than me spending it on visual effects or something.
No worries! Projectile speed and movement speed, excellent for fire totem-ing. The only real downside is that there’s no resists on it.
And yet, I’ve just returned it to the guild stash, because I immediately found a unique Onyx amulet. Lots of bonuses to attributes, and +19 to all resists. Unfortunately, it also has 25% reduced life and mana. But I think the life hit is worth it for the resists. So the jade amulet is back in the stash.
Bateau
1880
Huh. Never heard of anyone using maces in a crit build. I wonder how it works at endgame. Personally I still prefer Resolute Technique because it removes the need for two stats on gear (crit and accuracy, crit being especially expensive), except on specialised builds like crit dagger - I had a 70% base chance to crit on my reaver, without power chargers up. With PCs it was ~92%. I doubt the guy has more than 30-40% base chance, considering that most maces have flat 5% chance to crit and all the crit nodes scale off base levels. Daggers start at 8%, I had one with 9.79%.
