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[Cesare Borgia]

Haven't had time to try the two week league but damn I'm going to have to make time. The multiple mod leagues are always fun. Perhaps the appeal works due to how rare they're run but I can't help but wish more of the league mods could be added into the game for good. I get why stuff like Beyond isn't added, but as an example I see the Warbands have been included for the 2W league similar to how lock boxes work. That should be in the regular game. Perandus stuff should also be in the regular game somehow.

 

[Zynx]

Next league announced: Prophecy League.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1663440

Includes new endgame labyrinth and another two ascendancy points (what?!), a neat prophecy league mechanic, a handful of new skills. There's also a claim for way faster loading speeds and a re-written audio engine - could be really nice if it works that well.

 

[Rufus]

Didn't expect the performance enhancments so soon, tbh.

I can only assume Ascendancies are getting a huge nerf if they're going to give us even more points.

 

[Hellshingu]

I really hope they don't go overboard on the nerfs. I understand some people don't like the power the ascendancy classes introduced but the numbers of players and records for GGG can't lie.

I'm planning to do a spark build probably LL for endgame just hope my ideas don't get rekt before league. If all else fails I'll play a summoner been a few leagues since I rolled one.

 

[Zynx]

I kind of expect spark to get nerfed hard, since it looks like double-dipping isn't going away just yet, as the patch preview mentions that chaos conversion is being reduced which looks like a bandage solution to chaos-poison power. I actually threw together a spark character on standard yesterday just to have some fun with it before the patch arrives.

I wonder if the endgame labyrinth is supposed to be gated by a significant amount grind or difficulty. Right now each subclass has 12 ascendancy nodes - having 8 points to play with means each characters actually get the majority of what's available in a subclass. It feels less interesting when the choice of nodes is about what stuff to leave out, rather than what you really want.

 

[Zynx]

Post about balance changes is out:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1665252
As well as new skill tree:
https://github.com/EmmittJ/PoESkillTree/releases/tag/2.2.9
The larger general skill tree has just a single change (arcane vision was moved), but lots of ascendancy tree changes.

Ascendant-Berserker got gutted, and I bet Ascendant popularity is going to tank hard.

 

[Rufus]

New 2.3 unique:

Everyone will be chancing Assassin's Garbs now, too.

Ascendancy changes:
http://imgur.com/a/WOmtX

Some good shit in there.

 

[Hellshingu]

New 2.3 unique:

Everyone will be chancing Assassin's Garbs now, too.

Ascendancy changes:
http://imgur.com/a/WOmtX

Some good shit in there.

Looks pretty good. I am still kind of pissed that they are reverting their drop rates of higher end uniques. I was planning on going LL next league but now Shav's is going to go up in price again.

 

[Rufus]

Yeah, back to grinding the chaos recipe, I guess. Maybe I'll get lucky with my Chance orbs again...

Spoiler

Never gonna happen.

 

[Hellshingu]

Yeah, back to grinding the chaos recipe, I guess. Maybe I'll get lucky with my Chance orbs again...

Spoiler

Never gonna happen.

Yeah I am getting married the day league launches and then going on a honeymoon so I am going to be missing on the first 2 weeks of league at a minimum. That is when I make most my currency so it'll probably be a slow grind for me when I do start.

 

[Rufus]

Mazel tov!

 

[Zynx]

Congrats Hellshingu!

As for that chest - it's really nice for poison builds for the free poison link and the green-centric sockets but I don't think it's that hot for a large swath for multicurse builds - most of them go low life for more aura/mana reservation space. As for bypassing hexproof, I currently run a tri-curse build and I'm not too bothered by curse immune enemies - they're only occasional obstacles, nor by curse immune maps, I just run those with another character.

Also, I think the prophecy league mechanics could be the best set so far. Since silver coins are spent in town, rather than having to find Cadiro randomly in zones, AND there is a fixed cost for prophecies, rather than variable Cadiro prices, there won't be the same kind of inflation (unless the ratio of shit to good prophecies becomes too high). And the prophecy miniquests at least right now seem more appealing than stupid-laggy-golden-reanimating perandus packs.

 

[Zynx]

In-progress patch notes here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lozii-Pgpb77D4Vk1J1clM_UT0cWz35LQ3Zv3Kmf0ug/preview?pref=2&pli=1

RIP Hellshingu's spark dreams. It's getting nerfed.

 

[Hellshingu]

Thanks guys.

Well there's that. Time to go back to the drawing board. I'll see how things turn out when I finally get to play new league.

 

[Gaming Truth]

Thanks guys.

Well there's that. Time to go back to the drawing board. I'll see how things turn out when I finally get to play new league.

The projectiles are slower, but the damage is still there. I don't see a real nerf to Spark in the list

 

[Hellshingu]

The projectiles are slower, but the damage is still there. I don't see a real nerf to Spark in the list

I'm sure it'll be fine. Clear speed will be slower. I was planning on running either witch or templar. The inquisitor buffs and 2 extra ascendancy points might more than make up for the speed nerfs. Might even try witch after I see a finalized tree.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

do you guys mostly play on the hardcore mode or normal mode ?

 

[Blitzhex]

I'm hc, not sure about the rest. When I was in the neogaf clan at the start of this league there was only one other hc player, but I'm guessing quite a few gaffers aren't in that clan.
Quit this league about 5 or 6 weeks in. Died once at 92 and once at 94 before I was kinda burned out. I'm going to be back for the next league though, sounds interesting.

On a side note, my jinx shirt from the current supporter pack never showed up and the tracking number/site doesn't work.

 

[Rufus]

I'm HC only, but I might change things up for Prophecy, we'll see.

---

Final Patch Notes for 2.3
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1667259

 

[Gaming Truth]

I'm sure it'll be fine. Clear speed will be slower. I was planning on running either witch or templar. The inquisitor buffs and 2 extra ascendancy points might more than make up for the speed nerfs. Might even try witch after I see a finalized tree.

I don't know why it took reading it in the non-preview to notice this: re-arm time, is that practically cast-per-second has been halved or does that mean something else?

 

[Zynx]

I'll be playing softcore.

I don't know why it took reading it in the non-preview to notice this: re-arm time, is that practically cast-per-second has been halved or does that mean something else?

As far as I understand, when an individual spark projectile hits an enemy and pierces - the re-arm time prevents it from hitting anything else until the time has elapsed. So if you threw a spark into a pack of enemies in the past, it could hit and damage something, then half a second later it could hit and damage something else. But now, it's a full second before it can hit something else. So in a dense pack of monsters, sparks will hit half as often as before.

There are no damage nerfs to spark, but part of the reason why it was so strong was its unique mechanics. Every time a spark bounced off a wall, it could hit the same enemy again, unlike most other spells. This, among other reasons, made projectile speed valuable for spark - lots of bouncing off walls allowed the same sparks to deal damage multiple times to the same enemy. So the projectile speed nerf impacts that. Another mechanic that made spark strong was the lifetime of its particles - you could cast spark on one screen and when moving forwards, some of the sparks would continue forwards with you, still dealing damage without you having to cast again (or alternatively, doing extra damage in addition to your new sparks if you start casting again). The change to spark projectiles destroying themselves after a much smaller distance nerfs that as well.

It's probably true that spark will still be viable despite the nerfs, but compared to the past, where it could be powerful even with suboptimal gear and passive tree investment, it'll probably take a lot more to make it strong after the patch.

 

[Gaming Truth]

I'll be playing softcore.



As far as I understand, when an individual spark projectile hits an enemy and pierces - the re-arm time prevents it from hitting anything else until the time has elapsed. So if you threw a spark into a pack of enemies in the past, it could hit and damage something, then half a second later it could hit and damage something else. But now, it's a full second before it can hit something else. So in a dense pack of monsters, sparks will hit half as often as before.

There are no damage nerfs to spark, but part of the reason why it was so strong was its unique mechanics. Every time a spark bounced off a wall, it could hit the same enemy again, unlike most other spells. This, among other reasons, made projectile speed valuable for spark - lots of bouncing off walls allowed the same sparks to deal damage multiple times to the same enemy. So the projectile speed nerf impacts that. Another mechanic that made spark strong was the lifetime of its particles - you could cast spark on one screen and when moving forwards, some of the sparks would continue forwards with you, still dealing damage without you having to cast again (or alternatively, doing extra damage in addition to your new sparks if you start casting again). The change to spark projectiles destroying themselves after a much smaller distance nerfs that as well.

It's probably true that spark will still be viable despite the nerfs, but compared to the past, where it could be powerful even with suboptimal gear and passive tree investment, it'll probably take a lot more to make it strong after the patch.

That makes sense. They're trying to move Spark to a place where it's still good for packs of mobs/coverage, but removing it's "shotgunning" effect that made it very effective for bosses too

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

1 day before the new release, hype.

 

[Rufus]

I should have skipped the 2week, I'm not as hyped to play now.

 

[Anoregon]

Looking forward to hopping in tomorrow. I think I'm gonna try duelist, they have a few cool looking dual weild/2h builds.

 

[MrPing1000]

Gonna play Witch in HC. Been playing for a few years, never played Witch, it's about time.

But because I like things silly, I'm be burning arrow elementalist.

 

[Gothos]

I'm going Duelist Slayer, dual wield, not sure what skill yet And definetely softcore this time around, I'm tired of making 5 or 6 chars every legaue Time to learn new content on SC first

 

[Gaming Truth]

definetely softcore this time around, I'm tired of making 5 or 6 chars every legaue Time to learn new content on SC first

One of us. One of us.

Unfortunately, I'm probably skipping this because Overwatch and Ori are eating up all of the available game time I've got right now. I might slide in mid-season

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Forgot this came out, good thing my work is done for today. I can play this and watch some dota 2 tonight.

 

[Zynx]

How's everyone enjoying the new patch/league so far?

Prophecy feels less generous with goodies than I expected, but a bunch of the new items look fun. Among other things, a new quiver that looks great for MrPing's burning arrow witch.

Apparently the shield charge rework made it super strong? I'm doing bladefall totems for my first character in the league but I'll probably play around with the super high base values frostbolt later too.

 

[Anbokr]

im lovin it, playing shield charge gladiator

I do miss Perandus though, I hope they add him to the base game somehow in the future. More opportunities to get ultra rare uniques or some sort of safety net like he provided just make the game so much more enjoyable. These seasons take such a toll sometimes especially if you have bad luck with drops--Perandus kind of made it fun for everyone with a nice safety net/alternative farming method.

 

[Cerity]

Jumped back in with a earthquake berserker. It's probably the only skill that keeps me interested enough in melee (well it's kind of melee right) to get to maps with a marauder. That and shield charge . I could never do spin2win.

 

[Maledict]

Just coming back to the game after a long time away, and wondering - is there an easy way to get hold of the gems that are vendor sold for other classes? I'm playing a firestorm witch and really want to get hold of Warlords Mark and Anger, but the only way I can. See to do that is to quickly get a melee class through to act 3 and complete the first main quest. As a daily casual player I'm not too keen on that!

 

[KKRT00]

Just coming back to the game after a long time away, and wondering - is there an easy way to get hold of the gems that are vendor sold for other classes? I'm playing a firestorm witch and really want to get hold of Warlords Mark and Anger, but the only way I can. See to do that is to quickly get a melee class through to act 3 and complete the first main quest. As a daily casual player I'm not too keen on that!

Trading for like few alts is probably Your best bet.

 

[Haly]

They're usually all a few alts/an alch at most.

http://poe.trade/

Type in the gem you want.

Find a seller who's online.

Click the 'Whisper' button to copy a prefab whisper message.

Paste it into chat.

Voila.

People are usually slow to respond to skill gem sales (because it's kind of a bulk item) so don't bother waiting and keep asking for new sellers.

 

[Cesare Borgia]

Just coming back to the game after a long time away, and wondering - is there an easy way to get hold of the gems that are vendor sold for other classes? I'm playing a firestorm witch and really want to get hold of Warlords Mark and Anger, but the only way I can. See to do that is to quickly get a melee class through to act 3 and complete the first main quest. As a daily casual player I'm not too keen on that!

You can get many gems in town from the potion/belt/ring vendors. Won't have access to everything but it really helps.

I made a Storm Call Templar. Should have time to play tonight and get it to a point where it feels decent; almost done with Act I normal. Definitely the slowest I've been in a league. I played Perandus a LOT and am still a bit fatigued. Right now I have about 5 silver coins, haven't used any so I'll try the prophesies tonight. Seems like a nice mechanic.

BTW how has the end game Lab been received? Satisfy people who want more/better end game? I like the concept of the Lab but it's quite tedious. I'm hoping they continue to experiment with similar concepts though. I'd love to see WoW type raids in POE, in some form or fashion.

 

[Anbokr]

Jumped back in with a earthquake berserker. It's probably the only skill that keeps me interested enough in melee (well it's kind of melee right) to get to maps with a marauder. That and shield charge . I could never do spin2win.

yeah i wish every melee skill was as good as these 2

 

[MrPing1000]

After dying at 54 and 62, finally got into maps 77 atm.

Just found this, time to show off.

Considering I'm burning arrow, intending to use lightning coil, it's perfect for me. Gotta be worth a few exalts too.

 

[Rufus]

I've been getting shit drops. Only hit 74 so far. Finally resist capped. I think I'm going to farm Dried Lake until I can switch to self-cast discharge (Juggernaut). If I get an OP weapon I might stay EQ though. Or at least until I can do merciless lab. My last attempt didn't go so well.

 

[TheFatOne]

Didn't think I would play PoE because I didn't like how they handled the crafting mods stuff a while back. My friends convinced me to give it another go so I have been playing in this league. I really like the new league. Think prophecy should be a permanent thing. Running the old reliable flame totem magic find as my feeder for other builds. Got a six link Astral Plate now, and I got super lucky on the rolls. Nearly perfect for what I wanted except the life roll is low. Can't complain though.

Have a question though since I have been out of the loop for a while. I got super lucky and found this bad boy.

The question I have though is what the hell build should I go for?

 

[Randomizer123454444]

YEAAAAH!

I just got to Act 4 (normal) for first time as a hardcore character. ~1000 - 1100 hp, ~800 ES and max elemental resists (0% chaos). Summoner Witch, I'm at lvl 35. It was easiest Dominus fight I have ever done, it's insane what decent preparation can do.

Skeleton spell totem, raise undead, spectres, raging skulls, purity of elements + discipline auras, desecrate + flesh offering. Plus some golem into the last slot, dunno what yet.

But now I'm starting to get afraid of losing this character. I guess that means I'll have to obsess about increasing chaos resist + increasing my EHP.

 

[Cerity]

Don't think I've ever been more sour in my life.

 

[Rufus]

The question I have though is what the hell build should I go for?

Caustic Arrow, formerly knows as Poison Arrow

 

[Hellshingu]

Won't be back in the states until Tuesday so I haven't been following the latest league. How's everyone liking it so far?

 

[Rufus]

I like it, but I'm going slower than usual because I played Perandus a lot more than I usually play a league.

I hope Ms. Prophecy turns into a master after the league ends.

 

[Cerity]

Caustic Arrow, formerly knows as Poison Arrow

is CA still viable/in meta? I really should catch up with all the changes lol, I was expecting it and poison in general to get nerfed to all hell after 2.1

 

[Rufus]

Dunno how good CA still is. Poison didn't get much of a nerf, but Chaos conversion did.

 

[Zynx]

Caustic Arrow should still be an okay skill - it was nerfed in 2.1 but has stronger support gems to work with now. But if you want a strong skill to use with that bow - explosive arrow might just be the skill for you. It also scales with gem level like caustic arrow does, did not get nerfed at all, and has good synergy with a bunch of ascendancy classes, including the rather strong Elementalist, and also benefited a lot from a bunch of new and buffed support gems.

As for my feelings about Prophecy League, I'm strangely disappointed, mainly because I came into it with rather high expectations thanks to all of GGG's pre-launch announcements.

I first expected prophecies to be more interesting than perandus packs + boxes - but a lot of them aren't interesting at all, and are more tedious than perandus packs - because you have to travel to past zones and often search for specific mobs to complete them.

I also expected a freely available item economy as GGG mentioned they learned from Perandus that players liked having their build-enabling uniques and such more easily accessible, but Prophecy League is actually quite skewed in what it provides. There's a small subset of specific uniques with prophecies which drop them, and those are all cheap. For example, the Astramentis is the cheapest it's been in ages. But for a lot of useful uniques not on the prophecy drop list - they're back to being expensive again.

Finally, the performance enhancements have were supposed to improve the play experience don't really help at all. If I'm only logging into PoE to trade, then the faster startup/loading time is welcome, but otherwise, the faster startup/loading is exchanged for extremely poor performance for quite some time after zoning - combat can actually become pretty dangerous during this early loading time. GGG actually recently enabled an option for players to disable what was supposed to be the performance enhancing change (asynchronous loading) so that obviously shows that for at least a subset of the players, myself included, it wasn't an improvement at all.

With that said, I still think the game's still very good and a lot better than it was in the past and GGG continues to successfully improve and expand the game most of the time.

 

[Haly]

I'm also very disappointed in the Prophecy mechanic itself.

 

[TheFatOne]

I spoke to soon about prophecy. I decided to just do a bunch of prophecy farming today. Just to see what it was like, and most of the time I am farming coins to get rid of prophecies that I can't do that are taking up space. Now I just have a bunch of semi expensive prophecies that I can't do because they require a unique or something along those lines. It's great when you can get rid of several prophecies, but when it fills up with stuff you can't do it's pretty bad.

Caustic Arrow should still be an okay skill - it was nerfed in 2.1 but has stronger support gems to work with now. But if you want a strong skill to use with that bow - explosive arrow might just be the skill for you. It also scales with gem level like caustic arrow does, did not get nerfed at all, and has good synergy with a bunch of ascendancy classes, including the rather strong Elementalist, and also benefited a lot from a bunch of new and buffed support gems. Seems like I am spending more time now grinding coins to get rid of crappy prophecies. My flame totem mf build has finally started to hit it's stride. 6k dps and can do T1-T5 maps with good clear speed.


As for my feelings about Prophecy League, I'm strangely disappointed, mainly because I came into it with rather high expectations thanks to all of GGG's pre-launch announcements.

I first expected prophecies to be more interesting than perandus packs + boxes - but a lot of them aren't interesting at all, and are more tedious than perandus packs - because you have to travel to past zones and often search for specific mobs to complete them.

I also expected a freely available item economy as GGG mentioned they learned from Perandus that players liked having their build-enabling uniques and such more easily accessible, but Prophecy League is actually quite skewed in what it provides. There's a small subset of specific uniques with prophecies which drop them, and those are all cheap. For example, the Astramentis is the cheapest it's been in ages. But for a lot of useful uniques not on the prophecy drop list - they're back to being expensive again.

Finally, the performance enhancements have were supposed to improve the play experience don't really help at all. If I'm only logging into PoE to trade, then the faster startup/loading time is welcome, but otherwise, the faster startup/loading is exchanged for extremely poor performance for quite some time after zoning - combat can actually become pretty dangerous during this early loading time. GGG actually recently enabled an option for players to disable what was supposed to be the performance enhancing change (asynchronous loading) so that obviously shows that for at least a subset of the players, myself included, it wasn't an improvement at all.

With that said, I still think the game's still very good and a lot better than it was in the past and GGG continues to successfully improve and expand the game most of the time.

Thanks for the info. Not sure if I want to do caustic arrow mf build, or something else yet. I think I may actually just try to make a build specifically to farm uber lab.