Path of Exile

Shaper dies in seconds to a lot of stuff like Gogo mentioned but they mentioned already that HOWA is getting the nerf bat.

You can use the Mathil BLS build that one shots Phoenix, bleed based melee, or ele builds like ele Blade Flurry / Ele Wanders which all crush Shaper. None of those are getting nerfed that they've hinted and none double dip (except phys on bleed BF but it doesn't stack bleeds).

Korrupt said:

Shaper dies in seconds to a lot of stuff like Gogo mentioned but they mentioned already that HOWA is getting the nerf bat.

You can use the Mathil BLS build that one shots Phoenix, bleed based melee, or ele builds like ele Blade Flurry / Ele Wanders which all crush Shaper. None of those are getting nerfed that they've hinted and none double dip (except phys on bleed BF but it doesn't stack bleeds).

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I don't see BLS surviving without a massive nerf if they're nerfing HoWA. It's exactly the same mechanic. That's especially true if they're buffing Emberwake because the double-dipping removal actually makes ignite stacking with Molten Strike stronger because the less damage from Molten Strike doesn't get double dipped to the ignite anymore.

There's also the fact that BLS is exclusive to Torment league and thus won't exist in future leagues.

They for sure might nerf BLS but it's not HoWA giving you 15k ES + insane damage at the same time. They might take mercy on it since its STR and only life. Thats a good point about Emberwake depending on how they change the ring. My point about builds though is that there is a multitude of elemental and physical builds that decimate shaper. They might not all be the best map clearing but they kill bosses without double dipping but just aren't meta streamer builds.

Xequecal said:

There's also the fact that BLS is exclusive to Torment league and thus won't exist in future leagues.

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You know you can chance uniques in maps with mods of leagues right? I have chanced HH in 3 past leagues using the Zana mod. I've tried a lot more than 3 leagues but I've only hit it 3x, I don't get how people chance 2+ headhunters a league sometimes. My rng is horrible, I've done up to 10k belts and not hit it.

It is kind of sucky. I'm a Terminus Est flicker strike and with just full frenzy charges (7) and 3 power charges on a 6 link I'm at like 22k per hit and 11 hits per second. That's without any flasks activated. With all that I still in no way could do Shaper. The damage scaling you need for him has to be truly optimized builds whether they're poison/bleed stacking or just WED stacking. Kind of sucks, but I get it. He's THE boss and he's not for everyone, I just wish it wasn't so gated and that increasing his health by SO much when partying makes it unreasonable to group to do. Basically means you're handicapping the true DPSer.

Well I have a very strict filter and after a certain point you just don't give a fuck about even 75% of that loot filter. I'd grab basically fusing+ currency, belts, jewelry, and top tier armor (Hubris circlet, Astral plate, Sorc gloves). I was also trickster so I could leap slam for free as well. It is annoying if I get lazy and just hold down flicker to clear a map because I'll miss like 25% of the mobs and I'll have to go back for the loot. But in a good bloodlines and packsize map it feels fucking great. Pop in, everything dies, repeat. With flasks up and stuff my damage gets pretty loony toons with just Atziri's/Lioneye's/Diamond Flask. Problem is even with ~1.5% leech on my damage it's not enough without Atziri's up to really leech off big hit bosses. I have only like 9k ES because I'm using Incandescant Heart atm. I'm sure I could get another 2k ES pretty easy, but I like the extra elemental mitigation as well as bonus damage/leech it gives.

Here's my current character. I do like 10 maps every other day at this point, so I'm not finely tuned, but my gear is pretty decent.

View Profile - Path of Exile - Xevron

gogusrl said:

HOWA / BLS don't need any double dipping shennanigans to kill shaper in seconds and anyway, I'm pretty sure GGG never intended these fights to be over in under 10-20 seconds.

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It's like when people declared dps dead after CoC nerf. The next patch had voltaxic spark spam ...

mkopec said:

Im still pretty amazed that they can keep even this level of balance in this game. 100 skils and their interaction with eachother, 2000 tree nodes, and add ontop of that all the gear and how it can roll, its mind boggling really.

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It is simple budget math that basically every game uses. The game may also have a ton of skill gems but realistically only a handful are used and even then the main thing is damage skill + 5 supports which are basically all +more damage. It seems overwhelming at first but the game at least I feel has an outside perception of massive depth but in reality isn't that deep.

I also wouldn't call the game extremely balanced. There are always completely overpowered build each season until some uniques or passives are nerfed next league.

yeah, they have a balance policy that basically says, "fuck under powered items and skills. if it sucks, just use a better one. no one is being hurt by underpowered skills" so lots of stuff stays shit. arc, chain, elemental hit, cleave, sunder, glacial slam, etc.

rare do they get small buffs. (sunder was)
on top of that, what you have is, overpowered gear. Thats where things really stand out. few skills are really broken op. gear however. Shavs, taste of hate/vinktars/dying sun, ,etc. You could kill shaper with elemental hit, or autoattack, with the right set of gear.

There is occasionally skills that suck balls normally, but right just the right setup. great. Arc stands out like this.
Arc as a skill sucks balls these days. it fell behind with powercreep. ball lighting just utterly shits on it. Self cast or totem. Its not worth ever using Arc. However, arc does have a means to not just be viable, but excel. Mines/traps. Arc is uniquely powerful in cluster trap/mine form. If you use an AOE spell in cluster mine/trap, you will notice they pop aoe, and usually 3/5 of the aoe will hit any given target. If you use a projectile, they will fire off towards the target or pack, and same deal, any given target even with pierce will only get hit 1-3 times out of the 5. Nova's from lit trap, same deal. 8 projectiles per trap.. but still they spread out and do not overlap 100%. Arc autotargets. 5/5 will hit on target EVERY time.

arc 70% damage. 2-7 chain.
remote mine. 49% more mine damage.
minefield 21% less. +2 mines.
+2 mines passives.

so, arc with 500 damage average hit single target.
will be about 700 damage average hit with remote mine.
And, 560x5 for 2800 damage average hit with minefield+2 mine passives.
Just those, not even including mine/trap damage vs spell damage scaling. nor chain x7, potentially chaining back to primary target.

GGG certainly did not plan or intend Arc to be only viable via traps/mines.

Foxtactics streams Arc and is a monster if youre looking for a viable version, I copied his build this league after seeing him doing Uber Atziri with it - View Profile - Path of Exile - FoxTactics

Its single target is super bad even with the worm flask so he uses Lightning Tendrils in his BP and a psuedo 5L in his gloves for Arc. Super fun build and insane DPS for not really having anything expensive. Pretty impressive that it kills Shaper in 5m runs as well.

so.. hes lightning tendrils. And using super over geared Arc to clear trash..

Hes going to use tendrils to kill bosses, uniques, rares. possibly even blues. Arc is to kill white con trash, out of reach. Ball lit might be smoother, killing blue and yellows faster. but Arcs auto targeting of white mobs out of direct aoe line of sight, is likely why he uses arc here.
I would not call it an arc build, when you are just using arc to pick off trash mobs, in the same way builds use Herald of thunder.

Caliane said:

so.. hes lightning tendrils. And using super over geared Arc to clear trash..

Hes going to use tendrils to kill bosses, uniques, rares. possibly even blues. Arc is to kill white con trash, out of reach. Ball lit might be smoother, killing blue and yellows faster. but Arcs auto targeting of white mobs out of direct aoe line of sight, is likely why he uses arc here.
I would not call it an arc build, when you are just using arc to pick off trash mobs, in the same way builds use Herald of thunder.

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You use Tendrils for Guardians, Uber, Shaper and use Arc the other 98% of the time you're playing. I am not sure where you got the idea you need LT for map clearing when you run a 790k dps Arc that eats maps bosses in seconds (that's what worm flask is there for) especially when you're chaining 12x2 per cast with the helm enchant and meet the 3 mob minimum with the boss and flask.

I would say the only complaint from leveling to 92 is super low ES from using 2 VB's and that updated chest but the mitigation from incandescent heart felt really OP.

I liked Arc until I had to kill Uber Lab and I had to run around doing piss for damage. Shame because I loved chain lightning sorcs in D2. But the build just kind of felt tedious since every map has a boss you have to chip away at. Maybe I should have looked into a secondary skill.

The flask and helm enchant are really what makes Arc good for mapping. I used elemental weakness on hit gloves for it which really help also but are 2-4ex. The helm enchant costs around 25c on an 84 Hubris. The most expensive part of the build is the chest by far which is a whopping 5ex. The Void Batteries arent meta and are 80c right now thanks to Mathil using with Freezing Pulse, I paid 35c for mine before he spiked the price. I had a lot of fun playing it as my most recent build, its satisfying to see Arc chain 20+ times from a single cast across a screen.

There's no problem in gem swapping in PoE. I mean all meta bow builds and wanders use barrage for tough bosses and Tornado Shot or Lightning Arrow for the other 98% of content. Same thing with CoC or Discharge builds, you use shield charge 98% of the time and 2% you use cyclone for bosses. A lot of builds swap in more multipliers like pierce or slower proj for GMP in projectile based builds. You can double your DPS or more in 2 seconds of swapping for only certain bosses.

I can't fully explain it but I literally hate swapping gems. It takes maybe 5 seconds but I hate doing it every time. With my Cleave build I'd want increased area on clearing then for harder bosses swap in conc. For whatever reason I hated doing it every time. So I vastly prefer builds where zero swaps occur.

WOOOO finally 6 linked that shavs took 2 new chars of leveling to 70/80 and using the currency to get fusings and finally did it. Took 1k fusings total which sucked really, but was able to map pretty easily on 5 though but wanted that six so decided on that route of leveling new chars till i six linked it.

Had fun with a Frostbolt Elementalist and then that Mathil Molten Striker without a Xophs and was fun.