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[Rufus]

Grab Flammability and either manually curse or use it with Blasphemy.

Get a better Wand or Sceptre. Ele/fire/spell damage, obviously. ID even the shittier base types, throw an Alchemy orb on a good base now and then or just buy something. An upgrade shouldn't be too expensive, given what you have.

For your main link, use Controlled Destruction instead of Increased Area. Your pizza sticks should be able to cover enough space without, especially since you can have two out.

Do Cruel Labyrinth and get Beacon of Ruin next. That will help a lot with 'clean up' and make up for missing area. Then do Merciless Labyrinth and make a tough decision... I'd take Pendulum, aiming for Mastermind once you can do Uber Lab.

On your tree, aim for Shamanistic Fury next, if you aren't already. The pathing could be optimized (potentially allowing you to get Shamanistic Fury already, but that'd involve some respeccing), but someone else will have to help you there, as I'm short on time right now.

 

[iamblades]

Tree looks more or less decent, so you aren't screwed. You need to do your higher level labs for a big dps boost, that's the quickest thing you can do that will make the biggest difference.

your 5 link is not ideal though, you want controlled destruction and elemental focus instead of faster casting and fire pen. swap in conc effect for inc aoe on bosses as usual.

Faster casting or fire pen is your 6th link, i think fire pen is a bigger dps boost, but faster casting probably has better clear speed cause the totem will reach max stacks faster. Might actually be your fifth link for map clearing, depending on what your dps is like.

Mostly just looks like a gearing issue though. Spell totem builds don't benefit all that much from any specific unique, so it's just a matter of getting upgrades. You have a severe lack of +spell damage on your gear in general though, so first thing I'd be looking for is a wand and shield with spell damage.

 

[Dahbomb]

And a lot of your gear has added damage to attacks when you are getting no benefit from it.

 

[suffah]

Thanks guys. Guide I followed really stressed casting speed but what you guys suggested makes a ton of sense.

Will spend some time gearing up a bit and get the labs knocked out.

 

[iamblades]

Thanks guys. Guide I followed really stressed casting speed but what you guys suggested makes a ton of sense.

Will spend some time gearing up a bit and get the labs knocked out.

The way I view flameblast totem is if you don't have enough dps to one shot a pack, more cast speed isn't really going to help your clear speed.

that's where I would balance it anyway, if my totems are popping 90% of packs in one cast, then it's time to focus on cast speed to help them get that one cast out faster.

YMMV depending on playstyle and the difficulty of the content though.

 

[suffah]

The way I view flameblast totem is if you don't have enough dps to one shot a pack, more cast speed isn't really going to help your clear speed.

that's where I would balance it anyway, if my totems are popping 90% of packs in one cast, then it's time to focus on cast speed to help them get that one cast out faster.

YMMV depending on playstyle and the difficulty of the content though.

Makes sense. Tempted to jump out of bed and log in but the wife would murder me.

 

[TheKeyPit]

I died for the first time ever during some stupid-ass prophecy that had enemies all around me casting some white "things" that moved liked snakes all over the screen and they froze or slowed me down on impact.

 

[suffah]

Wow! DPS jumped from ~750 to ~1400 by swapping out 2 gems. Packs are actually one-shotting now.

Will tweak gear this evening. You guys are the best!

 

[Wolf Akela]

So the Act 10 glitch I talked about. I could still WP to the Epilogue, it's just that the game didn't "kill" me like it should have.

What do I do now? I have a few maps, but I'll totally burn through them pretty quick. I'm not getting enough currency to buy maps. Do I just keep running around A10 to get maps, then use them? What are the usual spots for grinding?

May tackle the labs since I only got 4 ascendancy points.

 

[Eridani]

So the Act 10 glitch I talked about. I could still WP to the Epilogue, it's just that the game didn't "kill" me like it should have.

What do I do now? I have a few maps, but I'll totally burn through them pretty quick. I'm not getting enough currency to buy maps. Do I just keep running around A10 to get maps, then use them? What are the usual spots for grinding?

May tackle the labs since I only got 4 ascendancy points.

Maps drop while you're running maps. At the early stages (tiers 1-5), using a transmutation orb on each map you run should give you enough maps to never run out. Running around A10 just for map drops doesn't seem worth it at all to me.

Here's a pretty good guide for some good tips about mapping. It doesn't go too in depth into shaping the atlas or using sextants, but it's been pretty helpful for me.

And yeah, running the 3rd lab is a pretty good idea for those ascendancy points.

 

[Maledict]

So the Act 10 glitch I talked about. I could still WP to the Epilogue, it's just that the game didn't "kill" me like it should have.

What do I do now? I have a few maps, but I'll totally burn through them pretty quick. I'm not getting enough currency to buy maps. Do I just keep running around A10 to get maps, then use them? What are the usual spots for grinding?

May tackle the labs since I only got 4 ascendancy points.

You can buy maps from Zana very cheaply, and a ton of low level maps will drop once you start running them. General advice is to run magic maps up to level 5, then start using alchemies to makre them rare. Don't use chisels until very high level maps, and if you get a low level map that's rare don't ID it as you'll get big bonuses and there's nothing on the low level maps that can really kill you.

Once you've hit the epilogue there's zero reason to go back to the campaign unless you have a prophecy to fulfill. I've never once run short of maps, and Zana effectively gives you a map a day at the very least as well plus the ones you can buy from her.

 

[Hoffelcopter]

Wow! DPS jumped from ~750 to ~1400 by swapping out 2 gems. Packs are actually one-shotting now.

Will tweak gear this evening. You guys are the best!

I highly recommend downloading path of building. You can plug in gems and mess with skill trees and gear combinations to find out how big a dps upgrade is before you buy something.

 

[Rufus]

I highly recommend downloading path of building. You can plug in gems and mess with skill trees and gear combinations to find out how big a dps upgrade is before you buy something.

You can also import your entire character, tree and equipment.

Spoiler

Or anyone else's, provided you know their account name and their profile is public.

 

[Eridani]

Are garbage 6-link weapons worth anything? Because I just had one drop but the stats are pretty terrible (+2 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems, Adds 1 to 9 Lightning Damage, +25% to Cold Resistance, 1.12% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life). Considering how hard it is to 6 link things it seems kind of a waste to vendor it.

 

[HashtagLapsed]

Are garbage 6-link weapons worth anything? Because I just had one drop but the stats are pretty terrible (+2 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems, Adds 1 to 9 Lightning Damage, +25% to Cold Resistance, 1.12% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life). Considering how hard it is to 6 link things it seems kind of a waste to vendor it.

Yes. Sell them to vendors for 7 jewellry orbs.

 

[Maledict]

Are garbage 6-link weapons worth anything? Because I just had one drop but the stats are pretty terrible (+2 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems, Adds 1 to 9 Lightning Damage, +25% to Cold Resistance, 1.12% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life). Considering how hard it is to 6 link things it seems kind of a waste to vendor it.

If its a 6 link, not a 6 socket, then gods yes. Remember it can always be scoured down to nothing then recrafted.

6 socket's should generally be sold to vendors for the currency, but 6 links are worth a lot more than that generally. The cheapest 6 link weapon you can currently buy on PoE trade is 8,.5 chaos for example.

 

[Maledict]

Yes. Sell them to vendors for 7 jewellry orbs.

Its a 6 link, not 6 socket...

 

[Eridani]

If its a 6 link, not a 6 socket, then gods yes. Remember it can always be scoured down to nothing then recrafted.

6 socket's should generally be sold to vendors for the currency, but 6 links are worth a lot more than that generally. The cheapest 6 link weapon you can currently buy on PoE trade is 8,.5 chaos for example.

Thanks. And yes, it's a 6 link.

 

[rickyson1]

sold that doctor card for a full inventory of chaos

that was amusing

 

[Dahbomb]

Cheapest a 6 link can be is the price of a Divine Orb because that's what you get when you Vendor one. I think a Divine Orb is like 8-9C on HSC.

And yeah just craft it and use it yourself.

 

[rickyson1]

what's the process for getting mods with 8 mods? just vaaling rare maps?

I know I could just buy them or go into that 820 chat but I would rather get them myself

 

[Rufus]

Yup, vaal a rare map.

Crit Ball Lightning is going to give me hearing damage. It's worse than Molten Strike. Thank god you can adjust loot filter sounds separately...

 

[Yoshichan]

if I started playing again (new season), will I get to play with dahbomb and get carried?

 

[Hellshingu]

if I started playing again (new season), will I get to play with dahbomb and get carried?

Rushing does not work very well in PoE unfortunately. So unless he starts a new character to play with you and level with it won't work out too well for you.

 

[Rufus]

He could give him leveling gear and feed him waypoints, maybe even kill bosses for him. :B

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

Could use some build advice-


https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/dadozer/characters


Feel like I've hit a bit of a wall in tier 5-6 maps, and my strategy to kill bosses comes down to "throw up Ancestral Warchief and run". My DPS is ~18k on Consecrated ground and I can tear up normal/magic packs and most rares, but I still feel very squishy. Is there something obvious I'm missing that would increase my survivability? (Beyond "get better gear" in general, totally SSF up to this point. Not opposed to buying stuff, just never felt like it)

I think I'm going to swap to 1-handed once I hit 75 and buy Doryani's Catalyst, what would be a good shield to go with it? (I have 1 exalted orb and about 2 dozen Chaos)

 

[Hellshingu]

Could use some build advice-


https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/dadozer/characters


Feel like I've hit a bit of a wall in tier 5-6 maps, and my strategy to kill bosses comes down to "throw up Ancestral Warchief and run". My DPS is ~18k on Consecrated ground and I can tear up normal/magic packs and most rares, but I still feel very squishy. Is there something obvious I'm missing that would increase my survivability? (Beyond "get better gear" in general, totally SSF up to this point. Not opposed to buying stuff, just never felt like it)

I think I'm going to swap to 1-handed once I hit 75 and buy Doryani's Catalyst, what would be a good shield to go with it? (I have 1 exalted orb and about 2 dozen Chaos)

Your characters tab is private. You need to go into your account privacy settings and make sure that the box that says 'Hide characters tab" is unchecked.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

Your characters tab is private. You need to go into your account privacy settings and make sure that the box that says 'Hide characters tab" is unchecked.

Oops, fixed!

 

[Dahbomb]

if I started playing again (new season), will I get to play with dahbomb and get carried?

You can play with me (as I am looking to make a new character soon) but you can't get carried in this game like you can in Diablo for instance. But there are definitely some perks to having someone with you who has gone through the game once as they have unlocked Atlas and Masters.

My steam is: dan_the_badass

 

[Leezard]

Could use some build advice-


https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/dadozer/characters


Feel like I've hit a bit of a wall in tier 5-6 maps, and my strategy to kill bosses comes down to "throw up Ancestral Warchief and run". My DPS is ~18k on Consecrated ground and I can tear up normal/magic packs and most rares, but I still feel very squishy. Is there something obvious I'm missing that would increase my survivability? (Beyond "get better gear" in general, totally SSF up to this point. Not opposed to buying stuff, just never felt like it)

I think I'm going to swap to 1-handed once I hit 75 and buy Doryani's Catalyst, what would be a good shield to go with it? (I have 1 exalted orb and about 2 dozen Chaos)

First of all to get some more damage: Get rid of totem elemental resistance gem and the added cold damage gem from your warchief, replace them with ruthless and main. You might also want to get rid of the added cold damage from your glacial hammer link and replace it with ruthless. For boss killing you want to replace melee splash with concentrated effect, which will give you a huge damage boost.

For survivability: get new boots first of all, you need more life. Kaom's Roots are good boots. Other than that, get new rings that give you more health. Additionally, use some respec/regret points on the large number of passive points you use to go to the top of the tree for some health, and spend them on going to the Scion life wheel to the right of the Templar/Marauder area instead. You will get much more life that way.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

First of all to get some more damage: Get rid of totem elemental resistance gem and the added cold damage gem from your warchief, replace them with ruthless and main. You might also want to get rid of the added cold damage from your glacial hammer link and replace it with ruthless. For boss killing you want to replace melee splash with concentrated effect, which will give you a huge damage boost.

For survivability: get new boots first of all, you need more life. Kaom's Roots are good boots. Other than that, get new rings that give you more health. Additionally, use some respec/regret points on the large number of passive points you use to go to the top of the tree for some health, and spend them on going to the Scion life wheel to the right of the Templar/Marauder area instead. You will get much more life that way.

Thanks, I'll go try the gem swaps right now. That reminds me actually - if I get this jewel:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Winter_Burial

Can I replace melee splash altogether? Is it mechanically the same?

 

[Leezard]

Thanks, I'll go try the gem swaps right now. That reminds me actually - if I get this jewel:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Winter_Burial

Can I replace melee splash altogether? Is it mechanically the same?

Oh, yeah. You should get two of those and then you should aim for a weapon with lots of physical damage instead of elemental damage. With a total of 100% physical to cold conversion you can scale the Glacial Hammer attack much better with melee physical damage/concentrated effect/weapon elemental damage/ruthless. Multistrike is ok too. Cold penetration is another gem that might be useful since you will deal 100% cold damage.

 

[Rufus]

There's a lot of room for optimization there. Personally, I'd just switch to Ice Crash, but the threshold jewels should do you fine, yeah. Allowing you to ditch Melee Splash for a damage gem will help considerably. Keep in mind that once you have those, Elemental Damage with Attacks will probably be your biggest damage boost.

So Glacial Hammer - Ele Dmg w/ Atks - Ruthless - Multistrike

Couple other things, in addition to what the others have mentioned:

• You only have 83% inc life. The minimum for a life build should be 160%, even on softcore. (I'm assuming freezing your enemies has kept you alive so far?)
  
• For conversion skills like Glacial Hammer (and Ice Crash), you're better off scaling the base damage, rather than only the converted portion. For 2H maces, nodes like Blunt Instrument and Wrecking Ball are amazing, but the latter is in the Duelist's area, so, that's out.
  
• A crit Inquisitor should, under all circumstances, take the Inevitable Judgment ascendancy. It makes it so your crits ignore your targets' elemental resistances. That is a gigantic boost. You will notice the difference with resistant rares and bosses especially.
  
• You desperately need a better weapon. More phys also means more converted cold damage.
  
• Assassin's Mark auto-curse setup using Herald of Ice - Curse on Hit - Assassin's Mark. For power charges mostly, but additional crit chance and multi against cursed targets is also nice, no?

Anything else would involve a lot of respeccing. And I mean a LOT. For that you'd need to reach level 86 though. (And I assume Ice Crash or a not fully converted to cold Glacial Hammer for this, anyway, so...)

Man, I can't stop fucking with this... Assuming full conversion can change the tree a lot less, but Fangs of Frost keeps calling out to me.

This version the best I could come up with, preserving your tree best as possible and assuming you're fully converting to cold via threshold jewels. You're still looking at 40 to 50 respec points though...

 

[Xyber]

Sold off my 6-linked chest for 550c today and bought a 6-linked starforge, respecced half of my tree. Expensive, but good lord did the damage go up. It also gave me quite a bit more health, which was needed.

I finished up everything just 20 minutes before the maintenance now so couldn't really try it out properly but the t9 map I tried could've been a t1 map because it felt just as easy.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

Well I have 11 Respec points and another 12 Regret Orbs so I don't think that tree overhaul is realistic at this point, lol. I'm one trial from unlocking Eternal Lab so I'll just wait for the last 2 points rather than wasting 10 respec points on that for sure.

All the points I put going up to the Cold cluster at the top of the tree is 20 points though, so I will start there. That's enough to get the whole Scion life wheel, and Blunt Instrument.

Just to clarify, if I 2x that jewel, I'm doing 100% cold damage with Glacial Hammer. That means most Life leech no longer works, right?

That also means I should go full Physical damage as it's all being converted. Would using my one Exalted Orb on a Tidebreaker or a Brain Rattler be a good investment? (and would the phys->lightning conversion on Brain Rattler interfere with anything?)


edit: OK I did it. 1 point still unallocated. Also just found two new decent rings with life, now at 4150 life, 49% armor reduction, and 62/68/69 resists. Chaos is back to -51% though, oh well.
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/dadozer/characters

I have double the life I did 2 days ago.

 

[rickyson1]

disappointing drops all day then I randomly get a xoph's heart out of a breach

 

[Xyber]

disappointing drops all day then I randomly get a xoph's heart out of a breach

At least someone is getting something out of those breaches.. For how rare they are now, they give you fucking nothing in 99% of them. They barely drop the shards.

Wish there was more guaranteed enemies in them, a lot of the time you just run around looking for stuff to kill wasting a third of the breach doing nothing.

 

[rickyson1]

At least someone is getting something out of those breaches.. For how rare they are now, they give you fucking nothing in 99% of them. They barely drop the shards.

Wish there was more guaranteed enemies in them, a lot of the time you just run around looking for stuff to kill wasting a third of the breach doing nothing.

yeah I wish I understood a little better how that worked,i've been doing a lot of breaches the past few days ever since I got zana 8 and sometimes there's huge amounts of enemies in them and sometimes there's like nothing and I don't feel like I have a good handle on why that is(sometimes both of those even happen in the same map)

I guess it's just random?

 

[Xyber]

Well I have 11 Respec points and another 12 Regret Orbs so I don't think that tree overhaul is realistic at this point, lol. I'm one trial from unlocking Eternal Lab so I'll just wait for the last 2 points rather than wasting 10 respec points on that for sure.

All the points I put going up to the Cold cluster at the top of the tree is 20 points though, so I will start there. That's enough to get the whole Scion life wheel, and Blunt Instrument.

Just to clarify, if I 2x that jewel, I'm doing 100% cold damage with Glacial Hammer. That means most Life leech no longer works, right?

That also means I should go full Physical damage as it's all being converted. Would using my one Exalted Orb on a Tidebreaker or a Brain Rattler be a good investment? (and would the phys->lightning conversion on Brain Rattler interfere with anything?)

I personally would not use any exalted orbs at your level. Better off selling them and using that chaos to upgrade your gear. You can probably find plenty of good rings that would be a nice upgrade for you for about 5-10c each. Or maybe get a pretty decent 5-linked weapon.

 

[Tom Penny]

Sold off my 6-linked chest for 550c today and bought a 6-linked starforge, respecced half of my tree. Expensive, but good lord did the damage go up. It also gave me quite a bit more health, which was needed.

I finished up everything just 20 minutes before the maintenance now so couldn't really try it out properly but the t9 map I tried could've been a t1 map because it felt just as easy.

Almost bought a Starforge for 5.5 exalt yesterday but didn't want to spend the currency.

 

[nicoga3000]

Got to Act 5! I was having a lot of trouble with the Act 4 boss, but a little grinding got me a pretty decent upgrade. Progress is always exciting as a new player!

 

[Rufus]

Just to clarify, if I 2x that jewel, I'm doing 100% cold damage with Glacial Hammer. That means most Life leech no longer works, right?

That also means I should go full Physical damage as it's all being converted. Would using my one Exalted Orb on a Tidebreaker or a Brain Rattler be a good investment? (and would the phys->lightning conversion on Brain Rattler interfere with anything?)

Yes, that's a major complication, especially for a crit build*. Most sources specify "physical attack damage." On the tree, the only remotely close (but great) source of general "attack damage" leech for your build is the mana/life leech wheel near the Duelist's area. And when I say 'close', I mean pretty far away. The Duelist area is very juicy though (Wrecking Ball, Fangs of Frost, the weapon range node, the 12% atk spd node, life, life regen), so it'd be worth the trip, but I don't know how much effort you want to sink into respeccing the build. Anyway, Warlord's Mark would be another easy source of leech, but you'd have to Blasphemy it for maximum convenience/safety.

Spoiler

There's also the Life Leech support, but giving up a link for it is really painful and everyone kind of ignores it exists.

*Dun dun dun; relfect! When you crit with Multistrike, all three hits crit. Without any leech, you'll blow yourself up eventually. With enough (read: too much) crit multi, even a lot of leech and Yuguul's Soul won't save you.
Once you're at that point, Sybil's Lament (ring) or Cold to Fire (support gem) spring to ming. Both not exactly ideal, but easier than traveling all the way to Vaal Pact. Reducing your crit multi would work too. I'm sure there's more, but that's all that spring to mind immediately.

That also means I should go full Physical damage as it's all being converted. Would using my one Exalted Orb on a Tidebreaker or a Brain Rattler be a good investment? (and would the phys->lightning conversion on Brain Rattler interfere with anything?)

I'd add Marohi Erqi to that list as the best bang for buck, BUT they all have 5% base crit chance, which rather defeats the point of a crit build. You'd have to use a Crit Strikes gem to make up for it.

The best (and most attainable) 2H unique would be Kongor's Undying Rage. It's cheap and can have up to 7.5% crit chance and its hits can't be evaded (obviating the need for accuracy), but it also removes your crit multi. You'd still get the utility of freezing and shattering mobs, and - provided you respec into that Inquisitor ascendancy, which you should aim to do next - get free cold penetration, but you'd obviously cap your damage potential. But then it might also save you from blowing yourself up... Something to consider, perhaps.



Choices upon choices. Isn't this game great?

I suggest you get yourself familiar with Path of Building. It's a wonderful tool. You can even import your character and play around with everything to see what pays off most, including items and jewels.
https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding

 

[KittenMaster]

Got to Act 5! I was having a lot of trouble with the Act 4 boss, but a little grinding got me a pretty decent upgrade. Progress is always exciting as a new player!

The act 5 bosses are way harder, but better designed IMO. Still, be prepared for a big hurdle that's coming up.

 

[Wolf Akela]

Any value to high quality white life flasks?

 

[Maledict]

Any value to high quality white life flasks?

Save them in your stash, then combine them with other quality flasks so you have at least 40% quality across all of them. That gets you a glassblowers bauble.

 

[Cels]

i finished act 10 tonight for the first time

https://streamable.com/tnn38
that was my only death in the whole act. my first reaction was wow that is BULLSHIT

but reviewing the clip, i'm guessing you can stand on the other side? or can you ruby flask it?

 

[Rufus]

i finished act 10 tonight for the first time

https://streamable.com/tnn38
that was my only death in the whole act. my first reaction was wow that is BULLSHIT

but reviewing the clip, i'm guessing you can stand on the other side? or can you ruby flask it?

Yeah, there's a safe zone on the other end. Ruby would work too, sure.

I'm impressed you ate that cross attack though. How much armour do you have? Or are three endurance charges enough to defuse it?

 

[Cels]

Yeah, there's a safe zone on the other end. Ruby would work too, sure.

I'm impressed you ate that cross attack though. How much armour do you have? Or are three endurance charges enough to defuse it?

4600 armor

it was my first time in the fight, i was running around most of the fight like a headless chicken letting my totems do all the work

i got hit by another one of those cross attacks earlier in the fight too, brought me from full (3901) to 1937 life, that's with 1 endurance charge

with 3 endurance charges in that clip i only dropped to 3043 hp although i was farther away from the center that time, not sure if that affects the damage

 

[Rufus]

Good to know it falls off that much.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

I just spent 400 alt orbs trying to get +2 level to socketed fire gems on a staff for my SRS build and had 0 success.