[Action RPG] Path of Exile

[Chiropteran]

Regardless of what I use for an attack, I tend to also build into the AA/MoM build which includes clarity and discipline. It's just so nice and makes certain threats (incinerate dogs at docks for example) much easier or trivial to deal with.

My current char has not yet reached MoM (as a templar it's damn far out of the way) but I will get it by around level 70. I'm trying to make Arc viable, I have a 20q Arc with 20q lightning penetration and 20q added lightning damage, along with an iron will gem for now (I'm not sure iron will is the best endgame choice so I haven't spent the currency to quality it yet). Other potential supports are elemental proliferation, faster casting, or alternatively culling strike and increased rarity.

As is, my Arc has a 50% chance to shock, with 40% increased shock duration. The paper DPS of Arc isn't so great, but with 3 shock stacks up I think it's worthwhile. Conductivity increases chance to shock even higher.


I also use a flame totem with faster casting and added lightning damage, and I should throw a faster projectile and/or lmp (maybe even gmp) on it, but my current socket options don't allow those. With conductivity up, and static blows, even the flame totem has some chance to shock low hp targets.

I also run tempest shield and have taken enough block nodes to push my block up to 50%, endgame I will try to cap it at 75%. Cybil's paw is my weapon so increasing block also buffs my spell damage.

Though, in reality I'll probably just put this character aside and never touch it again, because I want to play the new challenge leagues that start on Wednesday.

 

[Llwellyn]

1.1.0 Patch notes are up. Ho-lee-shit.

Version 1.1.0: Sacrifice of the Vaal
Notes:

• Due to substantial balance changes, every existing character has been granted an optional full passive reset. To use this, click the "Reset all Passives" button on the passive skill screen. Note that you must use this before allocating or refunding any other points otherwise the option will go away.

New Four-Month Challenge Leagues:

• Four month challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start. All your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new economies, complete challenges and climb the ladder!
• The new challenge leagues include a set of eight new challenges! If you complete all of them, you'll receive an exclusive Ambush/Invasion challenge shirt. 23 players completed all the challenges in the last pair of four-month leagues.
• Ambush: Various new types of chests called Strongboxes can be found throughout Wraeclast. These chests are guarded by monsters that ambush the player when they are opened. The ambushing monsters must be slain before the contents of the Strongbox can be claimed. Sometimes you'll encounter magic, rare or unique Strongboxes which have mods like items do. Prefixes affect the difficulty of the ambush by adding more monsters, springing traps or affecting your character. Suffixes improve your rewards from the Strongbox. You can use currency items to reroll these mods. One of the new challenges is to open Strongboxes with each mod.
• Invasion: Invasion is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). In the Invasion league, areas of Wraeclast have substantially more monster variety, so players will run into unexpected and dangerous invading monsters from other levels or acts. A unique boss monster from an invading monster type is also lurking in each level. Higher difficulty levels contain expanded monster variety and the invading bosses with more abilities. One of the new challenges is to kill each invading Unique monster.
• A new item type has been added to the challenge leagues: Unset Ring. It's a ring with a socket as its implicit property.
• Eight new types of quivers have been added to the challenge leagues. The old quiver types do not exist in the challenge leagues.
• Out of the 13 total Unique items added in this update, there are two new Unique items that can only drop in either challenge league, plus one that can only drop in Ambush and one that can only drop in Invasion.

Major Features/Content:

• Added a final encounter with Queen Atziri and her guardians in the Apex of Sacrifice. To access it, cleanse areas of Vaal corruption and look for fragments of their ancient civilisation. There's a competition where the first 50 players to kill Atziri and her guardians in each of the new challenge leagues will receive an exclusive Vaal-themed character effect. More information will be announced in the news.
• As you explore Wraeclast, you'll occasionally find Vaal-influenced secret corrupted areas that are indicated by a glowing, beating heart and swirling ribbons of blood. These corrupted areas have magical properties, similar to end-game maps, which substantially increase their difficulty. At the heart of each corrupted area is a new boss monster, guarding a chest that is guaranteed to drop a Vaal Skill Gem or Vaal Fragment. End-game maps do not contain secret corrupted areas.
• The Vaal civilization may have existed thousands of years ago, but it had its own form of Skill Gems. Brutally powerful and fueled by the sacrifice of foes, these gems are the ultimate version of many contemporary Path of Exile skills. Vaal Skill Gems charge up as you kill enemies and can be unleashed for a devastating effect. Where applicable, cosmetic microtransaction effects do work on the equivalent Vaal skills. There are 17 Vaal Skills Gems in this patch and more will be added in later updates.
• Added a new currency item: Vaal Orb. It corrupts a target item, modifying it unpredictably. Once an item is corrupted, further currency cannot be applied to it. This includes restoring imprints. There are many possible outcomes of corruption, some of which may be undesirable. Consider its use carefully!
• Added over 60 new boss monsters for secret corrupted areas and the Invasion league. They use complex combinations of skills and can be very dangerous. Higher difficulty versions often use more skills and supports.
• Added a new monster to Act One and Act Three: Soulless Watcher. It uses a charged up attack that blinds you if you're facing it.
• Free-for-all PvP is available in the Sarn Arena (at the top of the steps in the Sarn Encampment). Normal and Cruel difficulty Arenas have level caps of 40 and 60 respectively.
• Added 13 new Unique Items, some of which are Vaal themed and can only be dropped by Atziri herself.
• We've added some new cosmetic microtransaction skins: Seraph Body Armour, Seraph Helmet, Seraph Boots and Seraph Gloves. There's also a bundle that contains all four.
• Information on cut-throat events will be announced soon!

Minor Features/Content:

• Added a new armour base type which only drops from Queen Atziri: Sacrificial Garb.
• Dozens of Unique items have been updated with their own 3d art.
• Many monsters throughout Wraeclast have been updated with improved death animations. This includes zombie dismemberment.
• Waypoints now have effects that indicate whether they are activated or not.
• You are now able to select between multiple OpenAL audio devices in the audio options.
• If you don't have a full bar of Stash Tabs, a button is now shown next to your last tab that allows you to purchase more.
• Vaal items can now also be found in the Vaults of Atziri.
• World objects that drop quest items now have green text.
• Golden Chests have been removed from most areas due to Corrupted Secret Areas taking over some of their role. They still exist in the Vaults of Atziri for the achievement.
• Several new shrine icons have been added so that the shrines can be more easily distinguished.
• Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

General Balance:

• Shrines can now spawn in all leagues. The Thorned shrine no longer spawns.
• All rare monsters have a chance to spawn with a Nemesis mod, in all leagues. The Camouflaged Predator Nemesis mod no longer spawns. The Blessing of Elements Nemesis mod now does considerably more damage. The Shroud Walker Nemesis mod now gives the monster a smoke effect with a larger radius. The Storm Herald Nemesis mod will not appear until level 60.
• The way leech applies to the player has changed. If you leech additional life while currently leeching, it no longer queues after the current leech. Technically, where multiple leeches are stacked, the largest one is used.
• The Vaal Oversoul's Smash is now fully considered an attack. It can now be evaded or blocked, but cannot be spell blocked.

Skill and Support Gem Balance:

• Spell Totem and Ranged Attack totem now have multiplicative cast and attack speed penalties.
• Barrage: the attack speed penalty has been removed.
• Desecrate: the maximum level of a created corpse has been changed to being higher than the required level of the skill. This scales up to a monster level cap of 100 by level 20 of the gem. Desecrate also now enforces a limit of 15 corpses at a time.
• Spectral Throw: this now deals 46% of weapon damage at level 1, but increases as it levels. By level 15 of the gem, you will dealing 60% of weapon damage.
• Burning Arrow: the ignite chance on levels over 20 continues to progress linearly, rather than slowing the progression as it previously did.
• All Support Gems now support values up to level 30.

Passive Skill Balance:

• The Marauder starting area has been reworked substantially.
• The area between the Duelist and Marauder has been reworked substantially.
• The wheels of primary defenses around the Scion opening area have been changed to allow fast lateral progress. The values of the life wheel have been reduced. The Elusiveness notable has been removed.
• The effectiveness of early Scion passives have been reduced.
• Several Energy Shield passives have been improved.
• Most spell damage, elemental damage and specific elemental damage passives have been improved.
• Vaal Pact no longer suppresses life recovery from flasks. It still prevents life regeneration and now also reduces your leech by 60%.
• The Beserking notable passive now only offers 12% attack speed.
• Elemental Adaptation has been moved to between the Witch and Templar.
• Larger groups of critical strike multiplier have had some minor nodes removed.

Item Balance:

• Two-Stone Rings can now drop in all leagues.
• Sanctified Life Flasks and Sanctified Mana flasks can now drop in all leagues.
• Jade Flasks and Quartz Flasks can now drop in all leagues.
• Prismatic Rings will no longer drop, but can still be crafted. The Taming can also be crafted.
• Unique items that were exclusive to Domination and Nemesis can no longer drop.
• The Increased Item Quantity Support Gem can no longer drop.
• Increased Item Quantity mods can no longer spawn on magic or rare items.
• Increased Item Quantity mods on Unique items have been reduced by around 30%.
• Reduced the implicit resistance values on hybrid strength/intelligence shields.
• Quivers are no longer awarded as quest rewards.
• Mods that provide critical multiplier have been reduced.
• A Fracturing mod has been added to the map affix pool.

Unique Item Balance:

• Deshret's Vise has been renamed Meginord's Vise and the Attack Speed penalty has been removed from it. Old versions will not change.
• The following Unique items have been changed (using a Divine Orb on an existing version will roll new mods in the new ranges):
• Aegis Aurora: the Replenishes Energy Shield based on your Armour when you Block mod has been reduced from 4% to 2%.
• Rainbowstride: Elemental Resist has been increased from 8% to 20%. Maximum Mana has been reduced from 80-100 to 40-60. Increased Energy Shield has been reduced from 150-200 to 140 to 180.
• Saffell's Frame: Block Chance Applied to Spells has been reduced from 100-120 to 70-80. All Maximum Resistance has been reduced from 5% to 4%.
• Bringer of Rain: Maximum Life has been reduced from 200-220 to 120-160. The supporting Blind is now level 6 and the supporting Faster Attacks is now level 12. On a legacy Bringer of Rain item, a Divine will reroll the Maximum Life, but not the level of the supports.
• Maligaro's Virtuosity: Critical Multiplier has been reduced from 40-50 to 28-36.
• Romira's Banquet: Critical Multiplier has been reduced from 10-20 to 10-15.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug in the race prize awarding where multiple characters on the same account could receive points prizes for the same race. Now, the highest level (alive) character that participated counts for points. Multiple characters can receive points in Descent, Descent: Champions and Endless Ledge races.
• Fixed various graphical glitches related to totems with arrows stuck in them.
• Fixed a bug where secondary hits from Lightning Arrow would not check evasion.
• Fixed a bug where the gore projectiles fired by Dominus, Ascendant would check spell evasion instead of attack evasion for their area of effect.
• Fixed a problem that could cause crashes on certain Creative sound hardware.
• Fixed some bugs with the 40% quality vendor recipe so that it better accounts for certain groups of items.
• Gem experience is now displayed with correct thousands separators.
• Fixed a bug where the the Ice Nova graphical effect wouldn't scale correctly.
• Fixed a bug where Offering skills would affect some shrine effects on you.
• Various bugs were fixed related to the display of skill tooltips.
• Fixed bugs with font keming.

Please note that we'll be updating the above notes over the next couple of days as development continues.

We're incredibly excited about Sacrifice of the Vaal and are really looking forward to you playing it later this week. Thanks for your continued support!

 

[Rhezuss]

This question again: How soloable this game is? How many content a solo player can complete, challenges and leagues included?

Didn't played in the last 4-5 months so i'm still new to this game. Played some in beta, then it got released and played for maybe 2 weeks before quitting (too much other games had my attention at the time).

I like the game but there's so much concepts in there that I don't know what to do/where to look. I mostly login and do quests solo.

 

[clok1966]

This question again: How soloable this game is? How many content a solo player can complete, challenges and leagues included?

Didn't played in the last 4-5 months so i'm still new to this game. Played some in beta, then it got released and played for maybe 2 weeks before quitting (too much other games had my attention at the time).

I like the game but there's so much concepts in there that I don't know what to do/where to look. I mostly login and do quests solo.

done nothing but solo, but i don't do challenges. Put the game on perma death, its enough challenge for me. Online game.. getting high level without having a network glitch or fail, not making a stupid mistake.. hardcore enough for me.

 

[smackababy]

I solo'd most everything up to like level 85. There were a few things that having some extra players helped (Dominus and Piety are a PITA at around 60 without proper gear).

I will have to check out my EK Scion now that they have increased spell damage nodes (I've taken quite a few). Should be a nice DPS increase!

 

[Llwellyn]

If your build is solid and you can get ahold of the right gear to complement it (or in some cases, make it), then you should be able to solo all the way to the very highest of end game maps (72+).

If you are playing softcore (Standard, or Ambush, after tomorrow), quest bosses are basically gear/build checks as you go. If you can't clear an area solo, look at why you can't; fix that problem before you move on, because that issue is only going to compound itself in the next area or next difficulty.

I generally solo and only group if I'm having trouble on bosses or want to find some gear or grind XP. I don't always follow my own advice above, but usually I do, or if I know skillpoints are the hurdle I will go grind a couple of levels in a PA level group in the act where I'm stuck (docks, fellshrine, cata, depending).

On Hardcore, you kind of have to already know you are going to be able to live through bosses and know your build and gear are solid. Having a weakness linger here, or not paying attention while playing, is a guaranteed trip back to Standard. I generally do not play Hardcore, especially in PoE. Too many builds are desync-prone and I would end up breaking something dying to desync on a HC char!

Invasion is going to add a whole new level to that, as will the secret areas, bringing maplike mods to non-endgame sections. That gives you some options for grouping if you want them, as well as a way for testing your strength solo if you don't want to group up. Depending on what kind of mods they are allowing into the pool for corrupted areas, there can be some crazy shit going on in there.

They also added fracturing to the map pool, so who knows if it is part of the corrupted pool as well. Watch out running those un-ID maps now!
Fracturing increased elemental LMP farshot devourers, anyone?

I still think I am leaning towards another Blender for Ambush. He levels so damn fast and they really are viable all the way to maps. It'll make a good first character, and now that IIQ is not really a consideration I don't have to feel bad not running a summoner.

I still am not sure what I want to do for Invasion though. I have no idea how to really build for Hardcore survival, and I'm still not really that good of a player overall. I was thinking maybe Searing Bond, but we will have to see if the increase to elemental damage offsets the nerfs to totems.

 

[Rhezuss]

Thanks all! I'll wait till tomorrow to restart playing the game, sounds like the new changes are great additions!

Any advices for a Melee Templar? 1H+Shield is viable or should I go 2H?

EDIT: Question, can you change/choose a league when new ones are introduced? Basically, should I wait till tomorrow to start a new character or should I start it tonight and switch tomorrow when the new leagues are available?

 

[TallBill]

Thanks all! I'll wait till tomorrow to restart playing the game, sounds like the new changes are great additions!

Any advices for a Melee Templar? 1H+Shield is viable or should I go 2H?

EDIT: Question, can you change/choose a league when new ones are introduced? Basically, should I wait till tomorrow to start a new character or should I start it tonight and switch tomorrow when the new leagues are available?

If you start tonight you won't be able to switch unless you roll a new toon.

Hardcore or softcore?

 

[Chiropteran]

Thanks all! I'll wait till tomorrow to restart playing the game, sounds like the new changes are great additions!

Any advices for a Melee Templar? 1H+Shield is viable or should I go 2H?

EDIT: Question, can you change/choose a league when new ones are introduced? Basically, should I wait till tomorrow to start a new character or should I start it tonight and switch tomorrow when the new leagues are available?

1h and shield is fine, and as a templar makes a very durable build. The shield block circle near templar start with +elemental resistance when wearing a shield is a great way to get some easy resists and increase your block chance.

Ultimately, if you are going a shield build you should try to increase block as much as possible, the 75% block cap is huge. Though, you can't disregard resistance or life either. IMO you should try to get resistances fully capped by act 3, which is 75%. Prior to that you will want max or near max cold resist for merviel, and high lightning resist for vaal oversoul. As a general guideline you should have around 1000 life by the end of normal, and 2200 by the end of cruel. It's certainly possible and desirable ot have more life, but these numbers are around the minimum I feel safe playing with, with capped or near-cap resists. If your resists are lower you need a lot more life to avoid death.

The weakness of 1h and shield melee build is lack of range and aoe-damage. For aoe, I suggest you eventually get an infernal blow + melee splash link going, as it's a very cheap combination that makes your 1handed melee attack splash for incredible area damage. For range, you could socket a spectral throw gem as an alternative to your main attack.

Your main attack should probably be heavy strike or double strike for maximum dps, though you would probably do fine with other single target skills such as infernal blow (without melee splash added) or glacial hammer.

I strongly encourage you to avoid any weapon-specific damage nodes, like "physical damage with maces" because even if you are using a mace at the time you will switch weapons several times during the course of leveling up. The more generic "one handed physical damage" type nodes are perfectly viable and will give you plenty of DPs to reach late game.

 

[Rhezuss]

If you start tonight you won't be able to switch unless you roll a new toon.

So the point of the new leagues is to experience new concepts implemented in the game?
Is there a "normal" league that doesn't change?

I don't really want to start a new toon every 4 months just to try new stuff...since the only 2 classes that appeal to me is Marauder and Templar....don't want to restart a Templar every new content lol...

Or maybe i'm misunderstanding those leagues?

 

[Chiropteran]

So the point of the new leagues is to experience new concepts implemented in the game?
Is there a "normal" league that doesn't change?

I don't really want to start a new toon every 4 months just to try new stuff...since the only 2 classes that appeal to me is Marauder and Templar....don't want to restart a Templar every new content lol...

Or maybe i'm misunderstanding those leagues?

There are standard and hardcore as base leagues. Normal is the first difficulty level, not a specific league or game type. These are both permanent leagues. While some stuff may be added to the game, and items are occasionally adjusted, they are basically unchanging and you won't lose your character every couple of months.

Then there are the new challenge leagues, ambush and invasion. Ambush is defaulted standard, with some extra stuff added, while invasion is defaulted to the hardcore league, with extra stuff added. These leagues are starting tomorrow and will run for 4 months. At the end of the 4 months, you don't lose your characters- they are just pushed back into the default leagues. For example if you had a character in ambush, at the end of the 4 months that same character would be moved into the standard league.

For the most part, veteran players prefer to play the 4 month leagues because the economy is fresh and exciting and everyone is starting over so there are lots of groups leveling up. If you start playing in standard, you might not find very many people looking to group after tomorrow, because most of the players will be playing ambush or invasion.

 

[Rhezuss]

Ah ok thanks, makes sense hehehe! So i'll wait and start a new toon tomorrow, probably on ambush since that character is "moved back" to standard after the 4 months, it's not a waste.

Thanks

 

[Udgnim]

This question again: How soloable this game is? How many content a solo player can complete, challenges and leagues included?

Didn't played in the last 4-5 months so i'm still new to this game. Played some in beta, then it got released and played for maybe 2 weeks before quitting (too much other games had my attention at the time).

I like the game but there's so much concepts in there that I don't know what to do/where to look. I mostly login and do quests solo.

people have gone up to Lvl 90+ solo

question is whether you find that experience fun though because it's a definite grind

in terms of when the game starts feeling grindy, for me it's around Lvl 80

for others, it can be a higher level. it's dependent on map pool.

 

[Rhezuss]

1h and shield is fine, and as a templar makes a very durable build. The shield block circle near templar start with +elemental resistance when wearing a shield is a great way to get some easy resists and increase your block chance.

Ultimately, if you are going a shield build you should try to increase block as much as possible, the 75% block cap is huge. Though, you can't disregard resistance or life either. IMO you should try to get resistances fully capped by act 3, which is 75%. Prior to that you will want max or near max cold resist for merviel, and high lightning resist for vaal oversoul. As a general guideline you should have around 1000 life by the end of normal, and 2200 by the end of cruel. It's certainly possible and desirable ot have more life, but these numbers are around the minimum I feel safe playing with, with capped or near-cap resists. If your resists are lower you need a lot more life to avoid death.

The weakness of 1h and shield melee build is lack of range and aoe-damage. For aoe, I suggest you eventually get an infernal blow + melee splash link going, as it's a very cheap combination that makes your 1handed melee attack splash for incredible area damage. For range, you could socket a spectral throw gem as an alternative to your main attack.

Your main attack should probably be heavy strike or double strike for maximum dps, though you would probably do fine with other single target skills such as infernal blow (without melee splash added) or glacial hammer.

I strongly encourage you to avoid any weapon-specific damage nodes, like "physical damage with maces" because even if you are using a mace at the time you will switch weapons several times during the course of leveling up. The more generic "one handed physical damage" type nodes are perfectly viable and will give you plenty of DPs to reach late game.

Thanks for the tips man!

 

[smackababy]

people have gone up to Lvl 90+ solo

question is whether you find that experience fun though because it's a definite grind

in terms of when the game starts feeling grindy, for me it's around Lvl 80

for others, it can be a higher level. it's dependent on map pool.

For me, the grind really sets in once you need maps for XP. Once level 68-69 maps give pretty negligible XP, it really becomes a grind for me. Which is strange, because I can grind for items in D3 all day.

 

[Rhezuss]

Well i'm not even sure i'll go over level 30, I know myself lol.
But, i'll definitely start a new Templar tonight to check out the new stuff and see how it goes.

I don't mind the grind as long as I discover new maps and new environments/dungeons/challenges in the process. So leveling and questing is absolutely fine with me. If I feel the game start to feel boring, i'll start a new toon or just play something else.

 

[Majes]

Im rolling in Ambush league tonight. If you're scared of playing solo just hit me up on here or in game if you ever want to play.
My standard character's name is MajesOnTheBuffalo, and Im going to try to get the name ShutUpMaghda for Ambush.

 

[TallBill]

Will check out ambush.

 

[Rhezuss]

Gonna start Ambush too, not a fan of Hardcore.

 

[Chiropteran]

I usually play hardcore, but I think I'm going to start a test-character on Ambush first and get it to endgame level before rolling on invasion.

 

[Udgnim]

forgot that Shrines & Nemesis mods will also come into play in the new leagues

non-hardcore players going to have fun learning Nemesis mods

 

[Rhezuss]

Just played a bit with a Templar. I'm currently level 8 with 2 rares and having lots of fun. Infernal Blow is awesome! I see they added some kind of chests/containers that in order to open you have to kill 3 groups of monsters. Really cool stuff that drops lots of loot, sometimes rares.

Great game so far and from my last play (5-6 months ago) I can see the work and changes they made. No Wonder this game is successful and imo one of the best F2P game out there.

 

[Udgnim]

new Invasion bosses make the Hardcore league fun in a keep that asshole tight because you don't know if you're about to get owned

they are a definite challenge starting from Lvl 1 for non-geared characters at least

 

[CPA]

Just started this game. How do I use one of those gems that convert an item to a magic item.

I have a blue gem that says it converts a normal item to a magic item. I also have a blue orb that can only be used on a magic item.

So, I have helmet that has two blue sockets. I can't get it to accept the magic blue gem, so I assume the item is already magic. However, it won't accept the blue orb either. Seems I can't use either of these blue enhancements in any item with a blue socket and I'm not sure why.

 

[Udgnim]

Just started this game. How do I use one of those gems that convert an item to a magic item.

I have a blue gem that says it converts a normal item to a magic item. I also have a blue orb that can only be used on a magic item.

So, I have helmet that has two blue sockets. I can't get it to accept the magic blue gem, so I assume the item is already magic. However, it won't accept the blue orb either. Seems I can't use either of these blue enhancements in any item with a blue socket and I'm not sure why.

give the names of what you're trying to use