Path of Exile
- Thread starter Jim Russel
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
kitsune
Golden Knight of the Realm
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- 35
I'll be playing as long as I can stomach once it starts (it's 9pm my time so probably 6 hours or so) and if anyone is playing from eu a gateway that doesn't suck (for some reason I get low ping when playing with washington -not sure why) then we can group. Going to play a Block incinerate Scion on the sc league
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Since it's a new league and cyclone is more dependent on getting a good weapon then incinerate, I would say go incinerate for a starter char.
kitsune
Golden Knight of the Realm
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- 35
New league start in ... 10 hours from now I think. I would play there, the softcore league probably because it's going to be scary.
If you haven't played in a while, I would just make a flame totem character. Strong, no real currency investment needed and works pretty well for new leagues. When that bores you, hopefully you'll have amassed some coin to try something else
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Flame Totem is REALLY boring though, imo. You can do just fine with one of the many other builds that require no gear, a few of which can be MF builds too if you want.
Casters:
Mostly Incinerate builds, bunch of variations there with block/multi layer defenses/cybil's paw and such, generally super tanky builds to make up for having to stand still but still do crazy damage due to incinerate being very strong. Can MF.
Explosive Arrow(it's obviously a bow attack, but it behaves pretty much like a spell), very strong build but needs an early Quill Rain which can be annoying to get. Can MF.
Melees:
Cyclone builds, tons of variation there, 2H mostly, very tanky due to always being moving and tends to be very health/str centric
Reave builds, tend to be 1H+shield or fake DW(you equip a non reave supported weapon in your offhand this way you get DW benefits but only need one weapon the other being an offensive stat stick), crazy scaling lategame but can be hard to level without a decent weapon(if you go daggers though you can use a bunch of very strong phys unique daggers)
Archer:
- Poison Arrow, arguably is close to caster also, basically you just poop poison clouds everywhere, relies on getting a +2bow asap and shit so can be annoying to gear, but only for high end shit, it's very easy to gear until you reach the endgame maps/atziri and such, can MF easily I think
- Tornado shot with double heralds is also still viable and pretty easy to gear early on
Summoner/Totem:
- Traditional Spectre summoner, very strong, very easy to gear(do need a few summoner uniques to maximize efficiency, but not needed until later on). Can easily be MF built, but you have to go grab your good spectres everytime you relog so it's a pain in the dick to play sometimes. Also has an animate weapon variant.
- SRS variations, some of which include spectres+zombies, only zombies or no other pets at all, very strong, very easy to gear, can do MF, can focus a lot on defensive shit in the tree, only downside is you need a good way to deal with the high mana costs(EB+ZO and ES, Blood Magic Vagan mod or just a high mana pool preferably with Pledge of Hands). There's a mines variation but you need the mines unique staff for it(which tends to be cheap but meh)
- Dual Flame or Incinerate totems, see guide posted above or the incinerate one, very easy to gear, very easy to play, can MF very easily, but boring as shit imo
There's probably a trap/mine build that's good somewhere too, but I haven't really heard of it. There's been a bunch of improvements to the gameplay though, notable being able to spelltotem+detonate mines so you can just drop mines and have them detonated instantly over and over.
Casters:
Mostly Incinerate builds, bunch of variations there with block/multi layer defenses/cybil's paw and such, generally super tanky builds to make up for having to stand still but still do crazy damage due to incinerate being very strong. Can MF.
Explosive Arrow(it's obviously a bow attack, but it behaves pretty much like a spell), very strong build but needs an early Quill Rain which can be annoying to get. Can MF.
Melees:
Cyclone builds, tons of variation there, 2H mostly, very tanky due to always being moving and tends to be very health/str centric
Reave builds, tend to be 1H+shield or fake DW(you equip a non reave supported weapon in your offhand this way you get DW benefits but only need one weapon the other being an offensive stat stick), crazy scaling lategame but can be hard to level without a decent weapon(if you go daggers though you can use a bunch of very strong phys unique daggers)
Archer:
- Poison Arrow, arguably is close to caster also, basically you just poop poison clouds everywhere, relies on getting a +2bow asap and shit so can be annoying to gear, but only for high end shit, it's very easy to gear until you reach the endgame maps/atziri and such, can MF easily I think
- Tornado shot with double heralds is also still viable and pretty easy to gear early on
Summoner/Totem:
- Traditional Spectre summoner, very strong, very easy to gear(do need a few summoner uniques to maximize efficiency, but not needed until later on). Can easily be MF built, but you have to go grab your good spectres everytime you relog so it's a pain in the dick to play sometimes. Also has an animate weapon variant.
- SRS variations, some of which include spectres+zombies, only zombies or no other pets at all, very strong, very easy to gear, can do MF, can focus a lot on defensive shit in the tree, only downside is you need a good way to deal with the high mana costs(EB+ZO and ES, Blood Magic Vagan mod or just a high mana pool preferably with Pledge of Hands). There's a mines variation but you need the mines unique staff for it(which tends to be cheap but meh)
- Dual Flame or Incinerate totems, see guide posted above or the incinerate one, very easy to gear, very easy to play, can MF very easily, but boring as shit imo
There's probably a trap/mine build that's good somewhere too, but I haven't really heard of it. There's been a bunch of improvements to the gameplay though, notable being able to spelltotem+detonate mines so you can just drop mines and have them detonated instantly over and over.
kitsune
Golden Knight of the Realm
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Problem with all the builds you listed is that you can't really start off with them. Summoners become decent halfway through cruel, probably same with SRS. The least frustrating experience in a new league (especially if you haven't played the game in a while) would be to make a flame totem character, just because of how easy it is to level. I don't really enjoy the playstyle much either, but I'll start off as one tonight and progress to incinerate later on
Korrupt
Blackwing Lair Raider
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I think Pyros posted a pretty accurate list of the current meta skills. You shouldn't be starting with any build that's endgame really anyway. Most of the time you want something like fire trap or tendrils etc to level with until you're planned skill is viable.
Tornado shot is proven over and over every league to be the fastest route from leveling ---> Uber Atziri but its leveled normally as split arrow, see Porter / Dwoods streams or their posts for their videos. No one comes close to killing the toughest boss as fast as he does every league.
Cyclone is the same thing, one of the strongest builds by FAR in the current meta and normally you level with Cleave or Sweep.
Tornado shot is proven over and over every league to be the fastest route from leveling ---> Uber Atziri but its leveled normally as split arrow, see Porter / Dwoods streams or their posts for their videos. No one comes close to killing the toughest boss as fast as he does every league.
Cyclone is the same thing, one of the strongest builds by FAR in the current meta and normally you level with Cleave or Sweep.
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Yeah as Krassus is saying, all the builds are listed are fine for your first char, you simply don't start playing SRS at lvl 4 cause it's shit at lvl 4. Every build you basically go fire trap+flame totem then if you're a caster you go firestorm or flamesurge, melee DW cleave or 2H sweep and archer I don't know, probably PA or split. Then by 30-40 or something like that, once you have all the skills and 4links and shit is when you start playing the builds. For maximum efficiency, you even wait longer than that until like 50-60 even.
Like even if you make a flametotem build right from the start to farm up with MF and shit, then start your actual build, you're still not gonna play it from lvl 1 because it'll still be unable to equip the right gems or have the right amount of links to actually be worth using over flame totem/fire trap/x. So there's no real point in doing that and playing a boring build first. A MF build sure that makes sense, but a bunch of build can MF just as easily as totem, especially summoner builds.
Now if you like totems, by all means play a flametotem build, no reason not to, was just pointing out that there's a ton of viable alternatives for a first character using solid skills for different playstyles. You should however expect to play most/all your normal difficulty playthrough with a flame totem fire trap + one skill, due to how the spells scale even without any passives or supports and help a ton.
Like even if you make a flametotem build right from the start to farm up with MF and shit, then start your actual build, you're still not gonna play it from lvl 1 because it'll still be unable to equip the right gems or have the right amount of links to actually be worth using over flame totem/fire trap/x. So there's no real point in doing that and playing a boring build first. A MF build sure that makes sense, but a bunch of build can MF just as easily as totem, especially summoner builds.
Now if you like totems, by all means play a flametotem build, no reason not to, was just pointing out that there's a ton of viable alternatives for a first character using solid skills for different playstyles. You should however expect to play most/all your normal difficulty playthrough with a flame totem fire trap + one skill, due to how the spells scale even without any passives or supports and help a ton.
Korrupt
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Khane I think youll like Flame totem, it was pretty fun for me when I finally tried it. You'll be surprised the damage it gets from +2 scepters leveling. I am pretty sure when I went into maps I was still using a +2 scepter with a 3 link and shredding shit.
I would level as fire trap in the very start until you get to level 17, once you hit Act 2 go to the vendor and buy a scepter and use the recipe to make a +1 crafted scepter main hand and personally I use lightning tendrils in a +1 lightning offhand. Feel free to hit me up when the league starts if you guys need anything, ill be in the guild page. We generally are pretty good about filling the guild bank with useful stuff as well.
I would level as fire trap in the very start until you get to level 17, once you hit Act 2 go to the vendor and buy a scepter and use the recipe to make a +1 crafted scepter main hand and personally I use lightning tendrils in a +1 lightning offhand. Feel free to hit me up when the league starts if you guys need anything, ill be in the guild page. We generally are pretty good about filling the guild bank with useful stuff as well.
I liked my flame totem character. Not sure if I'll participate in this league since I have quite a few games I want to play and it's only one month long.
khalid
Unelected Mod
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