1921

My dual flame totem Witch made it through Cruel Malachi and is now all the way into A2M. Merveil and the Butcher were jokes. The problem I’m starting to run into now is that the gear I have is so customized that it’ll be hard to replace anything (for example, my freakin’ wand has 25% Chaos resist on it and it’s really difficult to give that up!).

I hear what you’re saying about more active skills, but I’m starting to feel that as an old fart, it’s nice to not have too many buttons to push. I briefly saw a guy on twitch who was streaming, and he was describing that he had 9 buttons he had to actively push. I was like “no way, dude” and went somewhere else.

As for your stash, I will simply point out that I posted in this thread about 6 weeks ago that I spent an entire evening reoranizing all my stashes, so they all have identical names. The effort was painful but now when I have to merge tabs it should be pretty easy (except for the fact that the tabs are all bursting at the seams). I missed the premium tab bundle offer last week, I was so annoyed at myself. But I’m definitely getting more tabs soon.

1922

If you want more buttons to press you can always transition into a crit totem build. You can then use Ice spear to generate power charges. You can’t do any actual damage with them but PC generation apparently still works. Note that this is second hand info, I haven’t tried it myself.

And as usual, if you’re not using them yet, you should be casting flammability, endurance charges and lightning warp/other movement skill.

1923

Nope, button pressing is not an issue, I’m already pressing way too many buttons between Enduring Cry, Flammability, lightning warp, culling flame totem. I just meant more along the vein of being more tanky like Charlatan was saying, or swinging axes or firing ice spears, that sort of thing.

Preferably a build where I don’t have to use the keyboard at all actually, just the three mouse buttons. I hate using keyboard shortcuts. My ideal controls in this type of game is still Diablo 2. Left mouse button for active attacks, and then F1 through F8 assigned right mouse button skills, all of which can be scrolled through using the mouse wheel, no keyboard shortcuts for skills necessary.

1924

So you don’t want to deal damage via proxy and want as few skills as possible? Sounds like cyclone is exactly what you’re looking for.

1925

There is a build I played for a bit called “Scionic Flametank” (if you google for that phrase you should find it), which is a tank who tries to get massive regeneration of energy shield - large enough so that you basically out-regen anything that’s hitting you. Oh and it takes CI too so it’s 100% immune to Chaos Damage. It has something like 7 or 8 abilities on Cast When Damage Taken gems and uses Incinerate so you basically run around incinerating stuff and every once in a while fireworks go off (when the CWDT gems go off). I found it a lot of fun. Mine died when it got permafrozen by a boss in a Corrupted area (dumb mistake on my part). But other than that it was super tough. I think I used left mouse button for Flame Dash (stand in place + left click == movement skill), right button for incinerate, and the number keys for the flasks (when rarely needed).

I found the build, it’s here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1271604

1926

Wow, that looks really neat. I always wondered if it was possible to build a character with Chaos Immunity and the accompanying 1 life that comes with it. My own idea back in the beta days was to build a Witch with lots of energy shield and that one node near Chaos Immunity which gives you a HUGE boost in Spell damage when you’re low on life. And I thought, well, a Life of 1 is being low on life, so that would go great together. Unfortunately I brought it up in this thread and one of you shattered all my dreams by telling me that 1 life is considered full life, and with Chaos immunity you actually can’t be low on life at all. Damn you, dream destroyer. And the developer for not making those two things compatible.

This looks like the next best thing though.

Also, I’ll have to look into Cyclone builds. That’s a 2 Handed weapon skill, right? I have quite a few 2HWeapons in my stash just waiting for me to create my first 2H character one day.

1927

You can use it with onehanded weapons too but twohanded is generally preferred because of much higher dps. You can buy a decent roll (200%+) Kaom’s Primacy for a couple chaos and that will easily take you to level 90. This time I’m talking from experience (and I even used a 4 link!) ;). One great thing about cyclone is that you can’t get stunned while you’re spinning. From a mechanical standpoint it’s one of the best skills in the game since you can lay down some serious damage while on the move which completely trivializes most boss fights.

The only downside to cyclone builds from a new player perspective is the level requirement - up to level ~30 you’ll have to make do with some other skill.

Recommended weapons to level with, in order of their availability: Wideswing/Shiverstring, Geofri’s Baptism (lvl 27, 0.5 chaos), Rigvald’s Charge (lvl 44, ~0.5-1 chaos), Kaom’s Primacy (lvl 58, couple chaos - depends on phys roll).

Auras - herald of ash, herald of ice, hatred

Links: Cyclone (quality gem recommended) - Blood Magic - Fortify - Melee Physical Damage - Faster Attacks (5 link) - Added Fire damage (6 link)

Leap slam - faster attacks - blood magic

cast when damage taken - increased duration - immortal call/molten shell - summon fire golem

enduring cry + blood magic + vaal haste + increased duration

Gear: besides Kaom’s primacy you don’t need any uniques, but Daresso’s Defiance is a pretty good option for chest

Tree: link

Bandits: Oak (40 life), Kraityn (8% increased attack speed), Kraityn (frenzy charge).

Jewels: one should be reserved for Warlord’s reach, otherwise look for twohanded damage /axe damage / melee damage / damage / area damage / increased attack speed / increased attack speed with twohanded weapons / increased attack speed with axes mods, preferably a combination of 3 from the ones I’ve listed.

Ignore axe clusters until you start getting to lvl 60 since you’ll be using a different class of weapon until then. In order of importance: Resolute Technique, Amplify, scion wheel, duelist area, then the rest. Leave Hematophagy cluster for last or when you start feeling like you could use more life leech in higher level maps.

As you can see this build is very cheap to get started, it’s got a very smooth leveling curve since your playstyle fully develops by levels 45-50 (much faster than most builds) and gets a huge boost at 58 when you can equip Kaom’s primacy.

1928

There spots available in the guild? Assuming so, can I get an invite?

1929

I can log on right now. What’s the character’s name that’s on? And which league?

1930

Hygd in Warbands. Thanks!

1931

I tried out a Tempest league character after getting my bearings within the game in softcore. The thrills and chills of near death misses have been exciting, but alas, Malachai was cruel. His trap, fireball combo brought her to within an inch of death, and running away before grabbing a flask proved fatal.

Freezing pulse on totems was working out very well. Lots of damage, enemies mostly frozen or chilled, with the only drawback that you have to keep the totems close to your target for maximum effect. In hindsight, it might be best to run a totem with more raw damage for bosses, as they seem to be immune to freezing and possibly chill as well.

Anyway thanks for sharing your hardcore stories, its what got me to try it out.

1932

Freeze duration is based on max hp and bosses have a whole lot so even if you freeze them it’ll be for an unnoticeable amount of time; not sure on how chill affects them.

1933

I’ve been fiddling around with summoners in Warbands since I’m temporarily using an older laptop and playing on a less robust connection while we stay with friends over the holiday weekend. I was leveling a SRS summoner and actually having a pretty good time of it but then I thought “eh, I should try a non-SRS version” so I rolled another character and started leveling that one. I made the mistake of trying some of the daily master missions with the second summoner - she must have been level 19 while I guess the mobs were level 30 or so? Whatever they were, they made mincemeat of her (did I mention how much I hate that master daily missions don’t scale to the character you’re playing?). Having warbands groups randomly appear is certainly exciting when you’re trying to do other stuff (I have had them spawn both right where the Dweller of the Deep is and at the Intruders in Black boss spot… exciting fighting a boss AND 3 annoying tough dudes at the same time!).

My problem with summoners is always that I run out of gas before I get a giant herd of awesome summons. Right now my SRS guy has pretty tanky zombies so maybe - just maybe - I can make it to the awesome phase. We shall see. Playing in Warbands is different because I have so little currency and spare gear, I feel like a pauper when I look at the stash versus what I have squirreled away in the Tempest league.

To get a guild invite do I have to be online at the same time as the inviter? What’s the scoop there?

1934

I think so, but not for the friends list. Put any of us on yours, which I believe works with any of our character names. (Porcuswine and Drakflame are the guys I’m playing most lately, either should work for me.) Then when we see each other online, you can be invited to the guild.

1935

I got fed up with melee characters so I started a witch with ARC / Flame totem/multiple projectiles. She’s melting faces faster than I ever did with a melee char. Feels like magic is so much stronger right now.

1936

My own Dual Totem witch is in Act 4 Cruelty now. The bosses have been no problem in this Cruelty round, unlike Normal. I did die again recently to a machine gunner yellow boss in the Lunaris Temple. Her and all her machine gunning minions got me. The most deaths I had with this character was in Act 1 Cruelty where I was mysteriously dying over and over to a Warbands mini-boss. It took me about 6 deaths to finally find out what the hell was happening. Basically the mini-boss was a mini-me. She had flame totems, fire traps, and was casting flammability on me and my flame minion. It was confusing because that’s exactly what I was trying to do to her.

This was before my Immortal Call was effective. Ever since then I’ve had no deaths until the machine gunner. Honestly, if I were to do a Hardcore version of this character, I think she’ll be fine once she gets Immortal Call going as an effective defensive technique, but getting through Normal difficulty with this character seems very dangerous.

I did accidentally over-level my Clarity Gem, and that’s pretty much worthless now. It reserves more mana than I actually have. So I might go into Blood Magic after all because of my own stupid mistake. Clarity works really great at the first few levels, just don’t keep leveling it because the small gains in mana regeneration are not worth the increases in mana reserved (which are not percentage based, but flat).

I also found a Vaal Clarity Gem which only lasts 8 seconds, which, quite honestly, seems completely pointless to me. So you spend a mana burst, and then can cast stuff for 8 seconds without mana? That still seems like an extra step for not much gain. Anyway, I’ll put it in the Guild Stash, maybe that can be incredibly powerful for some other build that uses huge mana draining spells.

1937

If you didn’t know, you can reduce your gem’s level by 1 by selling the gem+either a scouring or regret orb to a vendor. Then you’ll get back a gem that’s either level 1, or 1 level less than what it’s at now. I always forget which is which though, so make sure you check you’re getting the right one back; I think scouring is back to level 1 and regret is just down 1 level.

1938

Cool. I knew about starting again from level 1, I didn’t know you could go down 1 level at a time. That’s cool. Thanks Outlandish.

1939

Back at home using the good computer now so I’m back to playing my Tempest characters. Spent a little time with my dual-flame totem Witch and got her to level 65 - mapping is so close I can taste it! She still feels insanely powerful but the higher I get the more I worry she’s going to be one-shot by a boss. Maybe it’s just my paranoia setting in. I am really hating the Poison-based Tempests though.

I don’t always pop the blue and yellow boxes I see around the levels, but for some reason I opened a blue “cartographer’s box” or some such. Imagine my surprise when the contents were 7 or 8 maps! Those are the first map drops I’ve ever seen, and it really put a smile on my face.

1940

Nice find! I almost always open strongboxes, figuring that even if there’s nothing special in them, at least it’s more monsters to kill. It really helps to have a movement skill to get out of the middle of the pack right after opening, though. Some boxes have specific item types, as listed on the wiki, like the Cartographer’s box that you found. I like those plus Gemcutters and Arcanists boxes the best.