Path of Exile

we had so many close calls with the new invasion packs last night, the difficulty is definitely hardcore.

Gilgamel_sl said:

Also, the gems are a) not great, and B) not rare at all. There is no other reason to do the side areas. Within a week no one will be doing them other than for the fragments for Vault.

RIP #1, Path of Ranged is back. Jesus fuck these new mobs are brutal.

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Ranged characters reign supreme with shit gear. Its a new league, people are playing safe ranged builds and looking to farm before trying melee builds which were far more gear dependent in the prior leagues.

I'm really enjoying the new Invasion league. Partly because it's new and partly because it's pretty hardcore, and Nemesis viable builds don't necessarily work in this league. I very much enjoy seeing top 20 peeps RIP.

This item corruption mechanic is hilariously unbalanced.

Eidal_sl said:

Ranged characters reign supreme with shit gear. Its a new league, people are playing safe ranged builds and looking to farm before trying melee builds which were far more gear dependent in the prior leagues.

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It's not just the new gear issue. It's the fact a lot of the mobs have flat fatal avoid mechanics that are far harder to avoid if you are having to melee. I played melee in every one week and did fine. This is a completely different kettle of fish.

Honestly I don't really want to play at the moment because right now I'm skipping half the bosses and I do not enjoy that playstyle. In Nemesis even with fresh gear I never skipped anything. That and the fact that I've killed approximately a dozen vaal areas and I have zero vaal gems I ever even use(aside from Molten shell they aren't very good for melees) has made it a pretty lackluster experience so far. I am axe/shield infernal with max resists and some of this shit is just completely undoable. Others I did for the first 50 levels but now I skip it because they are waaaaaaaaaay more trouble than they are worth.

I haven't played in nearly a year so no clue what Nemesis was like, but Invasion seems like a massive jump in difficulty which makes the game interesting. I'm dying in normal, which really never happened in vanilla hardcore.

Pretty friggin awesome

Yep, I've been playing all along on hardcore/nemesis and now Invasion...I can't remember the last time I died on normal difficulty, much less in Act 1, and lost my first 2 characters at level 7 and level 11. Invasion is no joke (of course I also don't have any twink gear yet)

Really enjoying the Ambush league atm. The boxes add a lot of excitement to doing places, with the chance of getting crazy loot. The vaal zones turn pretty shitty quickly though, with some bosses being pushovers and others absolutely silly. Also, had a shavronne's wrappings drop for me in Docks heh, so feeling pretty stoked atm.

Already bored of it again and quitting. The item balance has beendestroyedby this corruption mechanic, as well as adding yet another layer of you-can-never-get-this rarity to the already broken progression model. The gameplay has reached new heights of retarded, unavoidable insta-deaths, and desync is as bad as it always was. The balance between skills has become even worse and literally every single person currently streaming PoE is playing the same build. The game has some great fundamental concepts, but it's buried in absolutely atrocious design.

I'm done for a while as well. Ripped to worthless storm herald unique when the ground shit didn't show up. Melee is just ridiculous in invasion.

Doesn't seem like there's much of a point to play Invasion unless you're range/searing totem. They really should have tweaked Invasion mobs to make it a little more fair, and so many abilities seem lacklustre.

So much crying over spilled milk, I love it, this is what feeds hardcore games like this.
My summoner is drinking all the tears, and getting all the salty chaos orbs in exchange for lvl 40 Cruel Merveil loot lol.

If you guys need tips on how to make it work, you can ask on here or PM me @Vtality when I'm online.

I'm all in favor of GGG slowly retuning some aspects to allow for greater build diversity, but I think right now the reason we're seeing so much monotony in builds is because everyone is waiting for the pros to demonstrate reasons to do anything else. If you're min-maxing a new league launch, then you're playing whatever gets you up to Piety runs or early mapping as fast as possible. I think the dev team is making the right choice in refraining from wafflestomp nerfing their hard content in a knee-jerk response.

I don't understand why anyone would play melee in a new league that is more dangerous than anything prior -- melee's sucked in the last few leagues until sweet gear became cheap and prevalent...

You don't need gear. Gear wouldn't have saved me in either of my deaths. I had max resists and tons of hp both times, with a shield. It's ridiculous fucking mechanics combined with desync(much harder to deal with now that they moved unwavering stance further away) and no incentive to do the invading mobs. I have fun with the hard stuff and the death, but when I die to a graphical bug(no storm herald shit on the ground) or spend ten minutes killing a bullshit mob that I could have done in 15 seconds if I was ranged it makes me question why I am playing. I like to play melee because it is harder and I enjoy the playstyle. Skipping shit or risking death to complete bullshit is not a playstyle I enjoy. You ever tried to leap slam out of a soul eater corpse exploder/summoner bird's melee range while the game rubberbands you all over the place? It is not fun. All my deaths in Nemesis were avoidable if I'd just fought smarter. My two deaths in Invasion both made me say "HORSESHIT" at a very high decibel level. When playing smarter is essentially "do not interact with the primary feature of the new league" there is an issue with the league.

Gilgamel_sl said:

You don't need gear. Gear wouldn't have saved me in either of my deaths. I had max resists and tons of hp both times, with a shield. It's ridiculous fucking mechanics combined with desync(much harder to deal with now that they moved unwavering stance further away) and no incentive to do the invading mobs. I have fun with the hard stuff and the death, but when I die to a graphical bug(no storm herald shit on the ground) or spend ten minutes killing a bullshit mob that I could have done in 15 seconds if I was ranged it makes me question why I am playing. I like to play melee because it is harder and I enjoy the playstyle. Skipping shit or risking death to complete bullshit is not a playstyle I enjoy. You ever tried to leap slam out of a soul eater corpse exploder/summoner bird's melee range while the game rubberbands you all over the place? It is not fun. All my deaths in Nemesis were avoidable if I'd just fought smarter. My two deaths in Invasion both made me say "HORSESHIT" at a very high decibel level. When playing smarter is essentially "do not interact with the primary feature of the new league" there is an issue with the league.

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The game is hard, unknown, and many of other variables.

Melee is, and always will have higher variability than ranged for the simple fact that you have to walk up to monsters and shake their hand first.

Do you expect to face tank Merciless Kole? My Grace Determination Iron Reflex witch could only take one maybe two hits from kole at 80+ (70% reduction from armor)

This isn't karate class, this is Wraeclast.

Additionally I have a lot of respect for those that choose the melee path, it's a rough one! Just be aware that you're signing up for an ass beating right out of the gate, that's the nature of melee in all things.

I ripped my 87 witch (nemesis) to a trap boss because I got lazy with the super modded map and I walked into a beartrap that was on a firetrap and didn't potion in time.

Alasliasolonik_sl said:

Been playing PoE for about abyear or two off and on and I really enjoy this invasion league. This is the first time ive even made it past like level 25. Died on the first day of the new league at level 7ish but ive been rocking a "necro" build I guess. Just got my sixth zombie and not too sure where to head next but I will figure something out. Been loving summon spirit while my undead army stomps shit.

I have only found one totem so far and it was something gay so I just vendored it, is there some way to get a summon spirit totem? Im only like level 26 or so, have I just been unlucky for not finding it or is this something that comes inthe next 25 levels?

I have a full set of all yellow items with pretty decent stats and a few mana regen and life nodes. Going to work on some resists and maybe grab the thing that explodes the zombies when they are low hp. Does this all sound right? Should I worry about resists sooner or later? So many nodes that look cool but I dont want to really fuck myself.

I've done a lot of reading but I just wanted to know if you guys have any personal experience with this sort of setup. Nylab is my name in game

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General Advice:

Lvl 1-30 can be done in three hours once you're familiar with Act 1 and Act 2. The idea is to get to Docks fast and then grind to 40 there. This allows you to build up some currency and gear before progressing through A3 which is the most dangerous part of the game.

If you're missing key items for your build, consult poe.xyz.is -- you can filter to see only people online selling the item you want with a listed buyout.

You should worry about resists always. Resists should be capped before leaving Normal, and capped again in A1C. You should be able to get this on gear; i.e., don't use valuable passive points for it unless you absolutely have to. A willingness to learn the economy and trade a little helps a ton, but progressing through Cruel is completely doable self-found... not sure about Merciless, haven't got there yet in Invasion.

You should be building up a decent stash of currency items like Orbs of Alteration, Fusing, Alchemy, Chaos... etc etc. This is your "wealth" which continues even after you die -- so it isn't a complete waste when you lose your character. You shouldn't be using anything other than Alts/Augs/Trans orbs in the early level (pre-50 to 60).

I can try to answer any other questions.

Feel free to alc anything you need. I Alc 4 links of shitty slots and jewelry all the time while leveling, it makes it easy to keep your defensive stats maxed and getting random mana leech and hp on jewelry makes it worth a ton. Just use recipes or buy cheap unique weapons. Also make sure you have good flasks and movement speed. Slow is dead in this game, and ms makes mechanical fights like Vaal trivial.

The only thing that should ever kill you are 1 shots, desync, or corrupting blood if you dont have good flasks. Just be cautious and have a good escape ability.

Don't be afraid to run, if you're playing invasion, either. Some of these bosses roll some nuts ass mods, like 100%+ Faster Casting increased fire damage fire balls, or triple-multi trap etc.

So insane, my buddy got murdered last night to the multi-cast call lightning guy. He filled the whole screen with lightning in a matter of seconds, One shot my friend. Got a good laugh because it was so ridiculous.