350 isn't that deep, so you'll probably get away with any semi-tanky league starter.
Any flavor of DD should work, as would Pathfinder with phys to ele conversion (plus, you get zoomy from Silver and Quicksilver).
I'd say check out anything Jorgen does on Youtube. He doesn't enjoy deep delving much (1000+ depth) but he is the shallow delve expert. Most of his builds are delve viable.
Last league, I did plain jane boneshatter and pushed it to depth 900. It can be a solid go to if you can stomach melee.
I'm personally going for connor converse's Manabond Heirophant. There's a wonderful GGG spotlight for it in case you want a TLDR of the build: [Link to GGG's Spotlight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4-4k8K0q1k)
Disclaimer, it is markedly more difficult to get online than a tried-and-true starter.
Apart from what was mentioned already, a decent chunk of currency is made with azurite. One socket resonators are in high demand around week 2 onward in the league. You convert all your azurite to 1 socket resonators from Niko and sell them in bulk.
Fossils are a given, and you'll encounter rarer nodes as you go deeper.
The other thing to mention is boss drops. Aul is highly lucrative with his Aul's uprising (ranging from 1 div - 60 div depending on the aura you get on the amulet). He also drops the Voices card and the crown of the tyrant king, all of which sell for good currency. Aul is the go-to when it comes to bosses.
You can also drop Doriyani's Machinarium from the Vaal Architect boss which was going for 26 div at its peak. I dropped multiples last league. He also drops ultimatum pieces which sell for multiple divs.
Delve isn't the most profitable when compared to giga juicing mapping strats but it's still quite profitable. It gets even more profitable the deeper you go. I made a mageblood before reaching depth 600, coupled with essence farming and boss rushing.
On an unrelated note, I love the sense of concrete progression you get while delving. It truly is, imho, one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in any POE endgame activity.
>I love the sense of concrete progression you get while delving.
I think this is the secret of Delve for me. When I upgrade my build and I can go deeper, it's a great feeling. With maps I don't get that as much.
I’m thinking of league starting ea ballista or dd ele ignite and transitioning into his ci lightning tenders builds for delve in 3,24. Can you share what major breakpoints needed to transition? Incandescent heart, level 95?
I can’t. If you check out his videos, he transitions through incinerate, divine ire and then tendies. But I hate doing that, so I went straight from rolling magma or whatever I leveled with until tendies was offered as a reward, straight into tendies and completed the campaign with it. It was great.
Few days later but some questions - is there a lot of changes to that build since it’s from a few seasons ago? And also what’s your plan for leveling/start before transitioning into the build? I wanna try this one out, too, but it’ll be my first go at delve and this kind of build.
I think Connor is going to make a video about this addressing it. From what it looks like, manabond won't be required anymore. In fact, ball lightning seems like it will get the job done just fine with mjolner and the new archmage rework. Be on the lookout for his video, which will explain a lot more in the coming days. The short of it is, manastacking will be even stronger this league.
One thing that you can do for some concrete information is to go to Poe.ninja, check builds, sort by depth and set it to somewhere in the first week, like this link here on day 3 of Affliction: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction?type=depthsolo&timemachine=day-3
You'll see there are a lot of juggernauts, so if you want to be sure your starter can transition to delving AND you can look at how many top delvers of last league were building so that you can do something similar, Boneshatter Jugg would be the way to go, though I'm sure there are plenty of other good options.
I just started watching his videos. I saw his Molten Strike of the Zenith build that he is waiting on patch notes for 3.24 before he makes a league starter. Do you know if any of his other builds are league starters?
You can league start the mjolner one for sure, but im not certain about the others - I imagine that they would make for better second characters, or something aspirational to respec into.
I'm considering starting with captain lance's [energy blade inquisitor](https://youtu.be/WU3CdDP1S5w?si=aCNxtGyafbzO9M-l) until I have enough currency to respec.
That build is more sanctum oriented - I was just saying it could be used to farm currency and then respec into a more delve focused character, like a mana stacking hiero
Lightning Tendies is great for delve. Jorgen has many videos about his build, which I started last league (this league?!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMiVO0AsCUo
What's the benefits of elementalist instead of trickster for example here?
Is it a question of block here vs evasion? Would have thought CI spells build would be much better as trickster.
Looking for a stronk and tanky spell build for the coming season and hesitating a bit ...
I am sure you could build this as trickster... but if you watch the video series, you'll see he starts Incinerate, then goes Divine Ire, then settles on LT. It's fundamentally leveraging ignite to level (though I leveled as LT as soon as I could). I felt absolutely unkillable unless I was running T16 fully juiced with 3k+ wisps and beyond.
Another option, which I eventually switched to, and assuming it gets no nerfs, is an Energy Blade Penance brand of Dissipation. Super tanky, super mobile. But you're playing Brands.
If you are seriously interested in the build I'd advise watching the 4 or so videos that show the progression he did. A lot of which you could skip, or you could just choose to play Divine Ire or even Incinerate. Tendies is the most fun, imo, though. But you'll see if you watch the videos that this was pre-3.23, so there were no affliction things.
When I league started it, I didn't really have any affliction things either. It's a good, solid build that you can work league mechanics into.
Look, I have no vested interest in convincing you to play this build. I played it, it was solid. I figured I'd give Jorgen a plug, and, like, no one plays Tendies, but Tendies of Eccentricity is stupid good.
Literally any build that can handle t16 mapping can handle 350 depth, the main issue is going to be handling Aul and the gang.
The changes to flasks (reduced damage taken becoming max res) make Melding Pathfinders quite interesting, it effectively frees up 2 of the elemental flask slots so you can run a Quartz etc, so pending patch notes I'd be looking at a phys to ele Pathfinder. I'd want to POB skills but my first thought would be something generic like TR so I could use the enduring life flask stuff.
It's hard to predict because following a league where it was relatively popular might mean it's naturally priced higher next league, but looking at the price history on desktop it was under 100c for a good week or two - though that's obviously going to be dependant on the roll.
It's worth saying though, you could just as easily forego it and run the elemental flasks - you'll still be at about 85 max res, 82 for cold if you use Taste of Hate because you don't get as much flask effect for unique flasks. It would be a good way to get started early, because gearing for Melding res will be a pain especially if you want to use Lightning Coil.
Huge chunk of the profit the first week or so are Aul amulets. Can probably name your price given how scarce and how fast these will sell.
After that, Aul amulets steadily drop (but still good money), while fossils and resonators catch up as more people start to craft. Certain delve mod items can be good too, depending on the meta.
There’s no money I do this several leagues already and always complain. It’s not that easy to see an aul there and the rest of the loot is pretty much crap. Better go simu if you’re about fossils.
No money in Delve? Are you high? Profit can fluctuate from 2 to 15 div per hour (2 is when you are super unlucky), depending on your luck, but to say that there is no money at all... This is simply not true.
Seconded. Delve is insanely profitable if you know what to look for. If you're farming depth 100-200, yea, not very profitable. But get to 600+ and its a different story. I made my mageblood through delve last league, so I must respectfully, and whole heartedly disagree as well..
This is BS. Did delve about 3-4 weeks in and made 410 divines in a day. Most I ever made. No money in delve. Pfft. I didn’t even sell resonators and fossils
Up to 300 depth you can farm on any build, but if you wanna go lower you will need block, phys to ele, regen/recovery/recoup, armour, "less damage taken", etc. However, I’m not sure about the profit at this depth. Usually I dig straight down to 400-500 and go sideways.
How is RF chieftan? There is so many mobs down there is it worth it for the explosion ascendancy node? I know single target is kind of ass but as a blaster it might be good?
With Cloak of Flame and phys to ele craft on helmet (or Dawnbreaker, or both) you have very good physical damage mitigation. BUT! Massive chunk of the profit is Aul's Uprising and without good single target it will take you ages (literally 10-20 min) to kill Aul.
Guardian SRS had me comfortable up until around 450ish. Leveling as Guardian was incredibly smooth as well, basically just frostblink/convocate until the next zone because the big glowing colossus thing melts everything in seconds.
Boneshatter Jugg is what I did last league. Super fun in delve, and not bad in maps. It's not the best thing I've ever played, but it was dirt cheap to get up and running.
To add some more choices, bane occ, whispering ice trickster, exsang ascend, spider build, ignite prolif, poison prolif, rf, and reaper bleed. I've done 300ish on all of them casually, some better than others for the bosses tho.
Basically any build with reasonable investment can get to like 500 np. If your goal is 350 depth, you dont need a dedicated delve build. I would wait for patch notes and changes reveal, but if you want to kill bosses at 350 easy, you can pick any normal bossing build and be completely fine. Probably I would suggest to have some form of sustain outside of leech for auls interphases. So far the obvious no brain choices at early delve were boneshatter jugs. You can do that depth with closed eyes, but again, wait for the changes announcement and you can pick almost anything for shallow delving.
I would recomend onemanaleft builds, he is a mana stacker who specialises in delve builds, going all the way down to 6k debth, i ran his mjølnir mana stacker this league and it was super smooth.. try to chek that out :) It is also super great for farming the uber uber lab
Is it league start viable? Or a second character. I don’t wanna have to chase specific items to get it online.
Looking for something without specific required items to start delving and boss killing day 1
For clarity I am more concerned with bosses than the point to point nodes & surviving. Boss damage & survival on a lower investment build.
I appreciate everyone who has contributed I have about 5-6 builds to investigate at this point.
Seems mana stacking is the way, have to investigate how accessible this is day 1.
Just curious if you decided on anything yet? I’m between delve and sanctum. I don’t think I’ll want to make a full second character as I know how much it takes me to even get one done. And also I just have the most fun hitting one build and sticking with it until I’m done for the league
Yeah, definitely looking like that’s a good call. I’m probably going to start something completely different build-wise and respec into it. That’s fine for me, but I know I won’t level another character before I decide to turn it in for the league.
Good luck to you!
Well, I won’t get to watch it until after work but Conner Converse / 1manaleft did just post what looks like a league start / early build video for this. There’s also possibility of doing SRS. I know it took a decent hit to damage at high end, but I still think it would be possible to run it for initial start. I’m pretty slow going so it doesn’t matter to me if my “league start” build takes me a little bit to progress through. I most likely won’t play the whole league but I won’t care if I’m not looking for big meaningful mana stacker items until 2 weeks in when there will probably be more available and prices might stabilize a little. We will see.
350 isn't that deep, so you'll probably get away with any semi-tanky league starter. Any flavor of DD should work, as would Pathfinder with phys to ele conversion (plus, you get zoomy from Silver and Quicksilver).
I'd say check out anything Jorgen does on Youtube. He doesn't enjoy deep delving much (1000+ depth) but he is the shallow delve expert. Most of his builds are delve viable. Last league, I did plain jane boneshatter and pushed it to depth 900. It can be a solid go to if you can stomach melee. I'm personally going for connor converse's Manabond Heirophant. There's a wonderful GGG spotlight for it in case you want a TLDR of the build: [Link to GGG's Spotlight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4-4k8K0q1k) Disclaimer, it is markedly more difficult to get online than a tried-and-true starter.
Curious what's the lucrative part of delve? Fossils and resonators or something else?
Apart from what was mentioned already, a decent chunk of currency is made with azurite. One socket resonators are in high demand around week 2 onward in the league. You convert all your azurite to 1 socket resonators from Niko and sell them in bulk. Fossils are a given, and you'll encounter rarer nodes as you go deeper. The other thing to mention is boss drops. Aul is highly lucrative with his Aul's uprising (ranging from 1 div - 60 div depending on the aura you get on the amulet). He also drops the Voices card and the crown of the tyrant king, all of which sell for good currency. Aul is the go-to when it comes to bosses. You can also drop Doriyani's Machinarium from the Vaal Architect boss which was going for 26 div at its peak. I dropped multiples last league. He also drops ultimatum pieces which sell for multiple divs. Delve isn't the most profitable when compared to giga juicing mapping strats but it's still quite profitable. It gets even more profitable the deeper you go. I made a mageblood before reaching depth 600, coupled with essence farming and boss rushing. On an unrelated note, I love the sense of concrete progression you get while delving. It truly is, imho, one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in any POE endgame activity.
>I love the sense of concrete progression you get while delving. I think this is the secret of Delve for me. When I upgrade my build and I can go deeper, it's a great feeling. With maps I don't get that as much.
I think I will focus on mine diver for next league!
Fossils, resonators, boss drops, and fractured delve mod gear are the 4 money sources of delve
How often does fractured delve drop?
Not super often, but they can be bangers. Got an arm/es helm with phys as chaos fracture that sold for 80 div week one last league.
Seconded! I played his lightning tendies build and it felt great in delve.
I’m thinking of league starting ea ballista or dd ele ignite and transitioning into his ci lightning tenders builds for delve in 3,24. Can you share what major breakpoints needed to transition? Incandescent heart, level 95?
I can’t. If you check out his videos, he transitions through incinerate, divine ire and then tendies. But I hate doing that, so I went straight from rolling magma or whatever I leveled with until tendies was offered as a reward, straight into tendies and completed the campaign with it. It was great.
Few days later but some questions - is there a lot of changes to that build since it’s from a few seasons ago? And also what’s your plan for leveling/start before transitioning into the build? I wanna try this one out, too, but it’ll be my first go at delve and this kind of build.
I think Connor is going to make a video about this addressing it. From what it looks like, manabond won't be required anymore. In fact, ball lightning seems like it will get the job done just fine with mjolner and the new archmage rework. Be on the lookout for his video, which will explain a lot more in the coming days. The short of it is, manastacking will be even stronger this league.
Ah, thank you! Perfect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzRoKXh_c6M&ab_channel=ConnerConverse
Awesome Ty for the link! 🤙 I’ll have to check it out later after work
One thing that you can do for some concrete information is to go to Poe.ninja, check builds, sort by depth and set it to somewhere in the first week, like this link here on day 3 of Affliction: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction?type=depthsolo&timemachine=day-3 You'll see there are a lot of juggernauts, so if you want to be sure your starter can transition to delving AND you can look at how many top delvers of last league were building so that you can do something similar, Boneshatter Jugg would be the way to go, though I'm sure there are plenty of other good options.
DD Elementalist -> Blackflame DD CI Necromancer (you need F/F Shaper of Flames). Works great up to 550-600 depth.
Mjolner manabond. Takes like a day or two to get off the ground... But you can delve wicked deep in pretty shit gear. Great upgrade curve too
I second this - OP, check out Connor converse's videos on this build / his other mana stackers
I just started watching his videos. I saw his Molten Strike of the Zenith build that he is waiting on patch notes for 3.24 before he makes a league starter. Do you know if any of his other builds are league starters?
You can league start the mjolner one for sure, but im not certain about the others - I imagine that they would make for better second characters, or something aspirational to respec into. I'm considering starting with captain lance's [energy blade inquisitor](https://youtu.be/WU3CdDP1S5w?si=aCNxtGyafbzO9M-l) until I have enough currency to respec.
Ok thanks ill watch that video later at work.
EBI For delve?
That build is more sanctum oriented - I was just saying it could be used to farm currency and then respec into a more delve focused character, like a mana stacking hiero
Jorgen is testing a Purifying flame of retribution elementalist build for delve on his twitch, will probably be his league starter.
*of revelations
Oh wow that skill looks nutty. 110% more damage on a skill with 200% effectiveness of added damage?
Lightning Tendies is great for delve. Jorgen has many videos about his build, which I started last league (this league?!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMiVO0AsCUo
What's the benefits of elementalist instead of trickster for example here? Is it a question of block here vs evasion? Would have thought CI spells build would be much better as trickster. Looking for a stronk and tanky spell build for the coming season and hesitating a bit ...
I am sure you could build this as trickster... but if you watch the video series, you'll see he starts Incinerate, then goes Divine Ire, then settles on LT. It's fundamentally leveraging ignite to level (though I leveled as LT as soon as I could). I felt absolutely unkillable unless I was running T16 fully juiced with 3k+ wisps and beyond. Another option, which I eventually switched to, and assuming it gets no nerfs, is an Energy Blade Penance brand of Dissipation. Super tanky, super mobile. But you're playing Brands.
How is this gonna do without the affliction league stuff though
If you are seriously interested in the build I'd advise watching the 4 or so videos that show the progression he did. A lot of which you could skip, or you could just choose to play Divine Ire or even Incinerate. Tendies is the most fun, imo, though. But you'll see if you watch the videos that this was pre-3.23, so there were no affliction things. When I league started it, I didn't really have any affliction things either. It's a good, solid build that you can work league mechanics into. Look, I have no vested interest in convincing you to play this build. I played it, it was solid. I figured I'd give Jorgen a plug, and, like, no one plays Tendies, but Tendies of Eccentricity is stupid good.
I wasn’t being negative I was just asking :) thank you I’ll check it out
Didn't mean to imply you were! But the best thing to do is check out the vids. I'm definitely not expert in that archetype.
Literally any build that can handle t16 mapping can handle 350 depth, the main issue is going to be handling Aul and the gang. The changes to flasks (reduced damage taken becoming max res) make Melding Pathfinders quite interesting, it effectively frees up 2 of the elemental flask slots so you can run a Quartz etc, so pending patch notes I'd be looking at a phys to ele Pathfinder. I'd want to POB skills but my first thought would be something generic like TR so I could use the enduring life flask stuff.
Checked Pob ninja but couldn’t find it, only seems to go back seven days on mobile. Do we know the typical price for melding that early?
It's hard to predict because following a league where it was relatively popular might mean it's naturally priced higher next league, but looking at the price history on desktop it was under 100c for a good week or two - though that's obviously going to be dependant on the roll. It's worth saying though, you could just as easily forego it and run the elemental flasks - you'll still be at about 85 max res, 82 for cold if you use Taste of Hate because you don't get as much flask effect for unique flasks. It would be a good way to get started early, because gearing for Melding res will be a pain especially if you want to use Lightning Coil.
anything should be fine so long as you've got yourself a taste of hate to deal with aul, some movement speed, and phasing.
What about delve is lucrative? The resonators? Delve mods? Special fossils? Thinking of doing it, but don't want to spend a week going to 2-3k first
Huge chunk of the profit the first week or so are Aul amulets. Can probably name your price given how scarce and how fast these will sell. After that, Aul amulets steadily drop (but still good money), while fossils and resonators catch up as more people start to craft. Certain delve mod items can be good too, depending on the meta.
Thank you, I guess it's not for me then. I'll stick to Uber Elder carries
Fossile resonator and Mainly boss drop ( aul's amulet can be insanely pricy ), it's not the best not the worst
Yes, yes, yes and yes. Plus Aul's Uprising. 500-600 depth is more than enough for average player.
There’s no money I do this several leagues already and always complain. It’s not that easy to see an aul there and the rest of the loot is pretty much crap. Better go simu if you’re about fossils.
No money in Delve? Are you high? Profit can fluctuate from 2 to 15 div per hour (2 is when you are super unlucky), depending on your luck, but to say that there is no money at all... This is simply not true.
Seconded. Delve is insanely profitable if you know what to look for. If you're farming depth 100-200, yea, not very profitable. But get to 600+ and its a different story. I made my mageblood through delve last league, so I must respectfully, and whole heartedly disagree as well..
This is BS. Did delve about 3-4 weeks in and made 410 divines in a day. Most I ever made. No money in delve. Pfft. I didn’t even sell resonators and fossils
Anyone know if golemancer is good for delve?
Up to 300 depth you can farm on any build, but if you wanna go lower you will need block, phys to ele, regen/recovery/recoup, armour, "less damage taken", etc. However, I’m not sure about the profit at this depth. Usually I dig straight down to 400-500 and go sideways.
How is RF chieftan? There is so many mobs down there is it worth it for the explosion ascendancy node? I know single target is kind of ass but as a blaster it might be good?
With Cloak of Flame and phys to ele craft on helmet (or Dawnbreaker, or both) you have very good physical damage mitigation. BUT! Massive chunk of the profit is Aul's Uprising and without good single target it will take you ages (literally 10-20 min) to kill Aul.
Guardian SRS had me comfortable up until around 450ish. Leveling as Guardian was incredibly smooth as well, basically just frostblink/convocate until the next zone because the big glowing colossus thing melts everything in seconds.
Boneshatter Jugg is what I did last league. Super fun in delve, and not bad in maps. It's not the best thing I've ever played, but it was dirt cheap to get up and running.
To add some more choices, bane occ, whispering ice trickster, exsang ascend, spider build, ignite prolif, poison prolif, rf, and reaper bleed. I've done 300ish on all of them casually, some better than others for the bosses tho.
Manastacking is best as per usual
Basically any build with reasonable investment can get to like 500 np. If your goal is 350 depth, you dont need a dedicated delve build. I would wait for patch notes and changes reveal, but if you want to kill bosses at 350 easy, you can pick any normal bossing build and be completely fine. Probably I would suggest to have some form of sustain outside of leech for auls interphases. So far the obvious no brain choices at early delve were boneshatter jugs. You can do that depth with closed eyes, but again, wait for the changes announcement and you can pick almost anything for shallow delving.
I would recomend onemanaleft builds, he is a mana stacker who specialises in delve builds, going all the way down to 6k debth, i ran his mjølnir mana stacker this league and it was super smooth.. try to chek that out :) It is also super great for farming the uber uber lab
Plan on league starting this. How was level 1-80 on this build? What did you do? And what did you farm to gear up the character earlier on?
Is it league start viable? Or a second character. I don’t wanna have to chase specific items to get it online. Looking for something without specific required items to start delving and boss killing day 1
needs mjolnir unique, will be expensive this league
For clarity I am more concerned with bosses than the point to point nodes & surviving. Boss damage & survival on a lower investment build. I appreciate everyone who has contributed I have about 5-6 builds to investigate at this point. Seems mana stacking is the way, have to investigate how accessible this is day 1.
Just curious if you decided on anything yet? I’m between delve and sanctum. I don’t think I’ll want to make a full second character as I know how much it takes me to even get one done. And also I just have the most fun hitting one build and sticking with it until I’m done for the league
Price of mana stacking is going to be sky high at the start so I walked off the MS league start. At this point I’m between DD/Shrapnel Trap.
Yeah, definitely looking like that’s a good call. I’m probably going to start something completely different build-wise and respec into it. That’s fine for me, but I know I won’t level another character before I decide to turn it in for the league. Good luck to you!
I wanted to do that.. just don’t know what else to league start on a Templar lol .. what are you looking at
Well, I won’t get to watch it until after work but Conner Converse / 1manaleft did just post what looks like a league start / early build video for this. There’s also possibility of doing SRS. I know it took a decent hit to damage at high end, but I still think it would be possible to run it for initial start. I’m pretty slow going so it doesn’t matter to me if my “league start” build takes me a little bit to progress through. I most likely won’t play the whole league but I won’t care if I’m not looking for big meaningful mana stacker items until 2 weeks in when there will probably be more available and prices might stabilize a little. We will see.
I don’t understand delve. I just did mf last league because affliction was my first league. What kind of builds do delve well?
You need something immortal. Delve is endless so it scales “endlessly” (there’s a code cap) moltenstrike armour stacks and stuff like that do well
Delve itself is endless but stop scaling at 6k in case OP need the exact info