Path of Exile - upcoming F2P Daiablo clone

[crazy canuck]

But if you have no MoM up then all damage will always go to life.  I don't really understand the downside, unless the player doesn't want to use flasks.

It's giving up reserved mana and a flask spot, which could be used for defensive auras, defensive flasks and the passive skill.  The build eventually goes there with both, but taken at the wrong time it can screw things up.

But MoM is the ultimate defensive keystone for a caster.  It is about prioritizing levels of damage of mitigation. Nothing in the game does that better for a caster. If a player has to give up one flask spot to achieve that, then it is a worthwhile trade off.

[crazy canuck]

Played around with Ire some more last night, and I found a combination that has not yet hit the guides.  As I said before I have been using Herald of Purity with it.   But what I didnt realize is that the Purity gem gives a huge boost to Ire, and here is the key, without requiring a link.  The reason is that Purity on its own gives the caster a physical damage baseline boost to spells and a percentage to minion damage buff remember to get that passive skill that gives the player the minion damage increases).  The combination of those two significantly boosts Ire damage.

If you have a six link you really get the benefit of 7 gems and on top of that a small squad of heavy hitting minions that also act as good meatshields. 

I sense a nerf in the next league.

[frunk]

But MoM is the ultimate defensive keystone for a caster.  It is about prioritizing levels of damage of mitigation. Nothing in the game does that better for a caster. If a player has to give up one flask spot to achieve that, then it is a worthwhile trade off.

That's generally true.  In most cases MoM is an excellent choice, but PoE always has exceptions.  CI doesn't work with MoM.  If you are running EB with full mana reservation and your ES pool isn't big enough to support MoM yet you are better off without.

[crazy canuck]

I am only at tier 5 maps, but my Ire/herald of Purity build is running through the maps.  I have to slow down to make sure I pick up the important drops.

With one exception, even a small percentage of elemental reflection cannot be run with this build because the amount of dps I generate on a large group instantly kills me even at the beginning stages of Ire.  And without killing things with those initial stages I cannot generate any minions.

But a small price to pay for easily defeating every other map.

[Iormlund]

I'm enjoying the Dancing Dervish / Consecrated Path convo. Since I don't do that much damage with CP, I went with Elemental Equilibrium, Hatred and stuck a Cold Added gem on the sword.

Keeping rampage up is an issue on some bosses, but Writhing Jar takes care of that. My main problem is triggering the rampage in things like Izaro. It's an awesome build for delving though.

[frunk]

Thinking about the future of PoE, they need to change the way they integrate old content.  Right now when you get to maps you get dailies for Incursion, Bestiary, Betrayal, Zana and Delve.  It's tough to focus on one but easy to do a bit of everything.  You can theoretically concentrate on one if you work Betrayal to get Scarabs that increase the return on maps, but now it is significantly tougher to focus on Betrayal.  I'm assuming it's also easier to focus if you party up, but since I always do SSF I'm not sure what that's like.

The net result is that attention is spread thin across very deep content.  I'm not sure I'll ever get to the Mastermind from Betrayal again.  I don't think I'll ever get to a Delve boss again.  As it was I only got to one after playing Delve and Betrayal heavily, and not even the main one.  I've never gotten (and probably never will) to the Bestiary bosses as I mostly skipped the league.  Incursion boss is easier to get to, but a lot of room effects I'll probably never see again.  Zana and Elder/Shaper are different since that can be advanced through all maps.  I'm not planning to play much of Synthesis so I doubt I'll get to any boss fights.  If I don't do it now my chances of getting to it later are minimal.

I think it would be better if we could choose to focus on particular content easier.  If I want to spend most of my time collecting Sulphite and Delving, let me.  Why can't I just do maps with Incursions and Temples?  You should be able to squeeze the Syndicate for all it's worth if that's all you want to do.  Not being able to do this makes casual play more frustrating since you can only get a superficial interaction with a bunch of content, particularly if you do this league after league.  I suppose it argues for just doing Standard, but it still spreads attention even though I suppose it would let me get there over the long term.

Presentation by Chris Wilson.  That's not me asking the question, honest.

[Iormlund]

Ugh. I don't like that answer at all.

I fucking hate PoE's trade system (or lack of thereof). In fact what usually happens during the league is I will hit a wall around t8 and the only way to progress will be to trade for maps and equipment, at which point I just stop playing entirely.

[crazy canuck]

After playing in maps in this league for a while, I realized that although I had the best character build I have ever played with, I was bored.

Instead I picked up the new DLC for Grim Dawn, and it is a lot more fun.  A lot more itemization judgments, more variables and combinations to think about, and generally a superior system.  Plus you can respec at will within the chosen profession you are in.  So if you get a great gear drop you can change everything up, with the expense of some in game currency - everything is denominated is iron pieces.

[frunk]

After playing in maps in this league for a while, I realized that although I had the best character build I have ever played with, I was bored.

I wasn't planning to play this one that much, and yeah, I'm mostly burnt out for now.  It lasted a bit longer for me once I stopped bothering with Synthesis, which was way too fiddly (even after the fixes) for what should be a fairly mindless game when not setting up your build.

Instead I picked up the new DLC for Grim Dawn, and it is a lot more fun.  A lot more itemization judgments, more variables and combinations to think about, and generally a superior system.  Plus you can respec at will within the chosen profession you are in.  So if you get a great gear drop you can change everything up, with the expense of some in game currency - everything is denominated is iron pieces.

I like Grim Dawn, and it definitely does some things better than PoE.  I wouldn't say respeccing is one of those.  You get ~20 respec points in PoE for free just by doing quests, and even for the relatively small amount of time I've done on Synthesis I've got 50 Orbs of Regret which I could easily increase by currency conversion.

[frunk]

Ugh. I don't like that answer at all.

I'm fine with it as long as they know there is an issue.  They always balance around trading, which does make it tougher for non-traders.  So much of their business model comes from people showing off their gear and setups that I don't mind that concession.  The rate they are pumping out changes wouldn't be sustainable in a pay once solo play model and I'm happy to have other people pay for my DLC so they can look cooler.

I fucking hate PoE's trade system (or lack of thereof). In fact what usually happens during the league is I will hit a wall around t8 and the only way to progress will be to trade for maps and equipment, at which point I just stop playing entirely.

If I have a good build going I can usually get to T10 or 11 without too much difficulty.  I stick to SSF so I'm pretty much unaware of the trade system.

[crazy canuck]

After playing in maps in this league for a while, I realized that although I had the best character build I have ever played with, I was bored.

I wasn't planning to play this one that much, and yeah, I'm mostly burnt out for now.  It lasted a bit longer for me once I stopped bothering with Synthesis, which was way too fiddly (even after the fixes) for what should be a fairly mindless game when not setting up your build.

Instead I picked up the new DLC for Grim Dawn, and it is a lot more fun.  A lot more itemization judgments, more variables and combinations to think about, and generally a superior system.  Plus you can respec at will within the chosen profession you are in.  So if you get a great gear drop you can change everything up, with the expense of some in game currency - everything is denominated is iron pieces.

I like Grim Dawn, and it definitely does some things better than PoE.  I wouldn't say respeccing is one of those.  You get ~20 respec points in PoE for free just by doing quests, and even for the relatively small amount of time I've done on Synthesis I've got 50 Orbs of Regret which I could easily increase by currency conversion.

And so with those 50, you have a pretty limited range of things you can do, considering how far you need to travel in the passive tree to go from a health build to a CI build as an example.

[Iormlund]

Ugh. I don't like that answer at all.

I'm fine with it as long as they know there is an issue.  They always balance around trading, which does make it tougher for non-traders.  So much of their business model comes from people showing off their gear and setups that I don't mind that concession.  The rate they are pumping out changes wouldn't be sustainable in a pay once solo play model and I'm happy to have other people pay for my DLC so they can look cooler.

I fucking hate PoE's trade system (or lack of thereof). In fact what usually happens during the league is I will hit a wall around t8 and the only way to progress will be to trade for maps and equipment, at which point I just stop playing entirely.

If I have a good build going I can usually get to T10 or 11 without too much difficulty.  I stick to SSF so I'm pretty much unaware of the trade system.

I can do t11 maps with little issue, but getting them to drop is a pain in the arse.

[frunk]

And so with those 50, you have a pretty limited range of things you can do, considering how far you need to travel in the passive tree to go from a health build to a CI build as an example.

Well, it would be 70 (20 free + 50), and at level 78 you have 100 passive skill points total.  That would let you remake 70% of your passive tree.

[frunk]

I can do t11 maps with little issue, but getting them to drop is a pain in the arse.

Fair enough.

[crazy canuck]

And so with those 50, you have a pretty limited range of things you can do, considering how far you need to travel in the passive tree to go from a health build to a CI build as an example.

Well, it would be 70 (20 free + 50), and at level 78 you have 100 passive skill points total.  That would let you remake 70% of your passive tree.

Yeah, once.  No such restrictions in GD - Respec all you want