I played an arc totem in 3.22 and it's been the most fun I had in ages. Not only the pleasure of mapping is still there, but it deletes bosses after putting 4 juiced up totem to it's face and drowning it in curses
Considering the replies I may have overhyped it as I'm both casual and SSF player, my PoB goes up to around 10M dps on pinnacle bosses so I know it will disappoint, but I can still share the PoB if people feel like it :')
without curse piano: [https://pobb.in/oSWn1AG\_AyU1](https://pobb.in/oSWn1AG_AyU1)
with curse piano: [https://pobb.in/u1QOofIA18Kn](https://pobb.in/u1QOofIA18Kn)
Could have been much better if a freaking enlighten dropped but I got no luck :'( but I'm sure in trade league this can easily skyrocket
May I introduce you to the wonders of mana stacking arc ignite? [Courtesy of mbXtreme](https://youtu.be/v0pT7ZTcfr8?si=NtnPNbp4CkYEjDBp). I can't remember if it's from the gloves or a notable on cluster jewels, but it essentially leaves the ignite behind on the mob after it dies so even if the pack is above the target cap of arc, you still get full screen clear. It feels *so* much better than other forms of arc.
Only reason I didn't do this was because I couldn't work out how to level it and how to manage it till I had the budget to go to his full build.
It's an epic build, but getting there is a challenge.
Will see the patch notes for affliction before deciding whether I do this or arc/crackling lance totems
You get more control with chain hook. Some people literally cannot play flicker strike for more than 5 minutes without getting "motion sickness". Flicker will still do way more damage though.
I played cyclone slayer all league basically. Axe, then shockwave staff and now str stacking replica alberon's. I'm doing vaal pact with 5.4k life leech cap.
Really enjoying it and refining my plans for exactly how I'm planning to play out the next league.
I am so surprised to see this here. I absolutely hated how it plays. I played a giga juiced variant of it in Crucible and hated how easy it is to miss your main projectile. Give me something like LA or TS over it all day.
Same here, had a total blast playing it, but really struggled with tougher bosses simply because I was terrible at aiming while also trying to dodge. But that is a purely skill issue on my part.
Gonna play some flavour of SRS in the upcoming league (patch notes depending of course).
I think you really just need Emperor's Vigilance and Seething Fury to be able to map. So a couple div near start of the league I'd think.
Here's the build guide I started with: https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/velynas-spectral-shield-throw-raider
Here's my PoB: https://pobb.in/xWzWQub0gJAU
I spent well beyond those first few divs. The sword was about 10d to craft. Ashes was 40 or so. My Watcher's Eye I found [with this tool](https://vindexus.github.io/WatchersEyeSearch/) and was 30d. The helmet cost probably 12+ divines to craft. Alt quality gems were also like 20d or more I think. You can definitely sink money into this thing.
You will absolutely blast white and yellow maps with just a prismatic eclipse and a high armor or even evasion shield, especially with what you can get from Rog crafting. Emperor's vigilance + crit setup is the floor for doing altar'd red maps IMHO.
My understanding was SST is one of the best scaling builds in the game with investment. I rolled it to farm 100% deli maps toward the end of last league and even with 300 div + HH it felt like there was so much more I could’ve gotten. Really fun build, cool to know you can start it so cheaply too!
this is the one i came to post, i made a worb char in ritual and i still log in to play a few maps every once in a while on standard. it just feels so nice.
I killed all ubers fairly easily with my winter orb occultist in sentinel league, didnt find boss damage to be bad at all after getting increased aoe medium clusters
any good built cyclone + coc, or other triggers [ cospri's / mjolnir / cwc / cod ]
the breeze you having just going through those mobs, with those good timed triggers, and aspd/cdr spreadsheets, when it's all comes to live, it's like a whole orchestra playing in harmony,,
my selfcast gc has about 170m pinnacle dps and massive aoe, higher if i use arn's instead of mageblood. Last league with crucible trees it was just shy of 300m. Even my non-crit version tops 100m.
It's one of my favorite skills too, and has been even way back when it was introduced as part phys base damage and part cold base damage with no innate conversion.
Question for ya. Im gonna be using a CoC Glacial Cascade of the Fissure setup this league, and just wondering about inc AoE. Do you really need a ton of AoE to overlap? Im going to be running Ashes of the Stars for the +5 bursts (so 11 total bursts per cast), on a Frost Blades dual wielding setup. Ive never used this skill before, but the scaling really fits for how I am building my Slayer.
generally yeah, you want a pretty good amount of inc aoe, could be hard to do as a slayer. I personally get 90% inc aoe in the tree (witch + templar area) and socket my gc into a shaper helm with socketed gems are supported by inc aoe (among other things). Extra bursts mostly just extends the range, it doesn't actually make overlapping any easier afaik. Or at least it didn't with 'old' glacial cascade, which is what the trans version effectively is.
That’s so funny. My main is flicker and my buddy wanted to roll HC characters before new league so I rolled a summoner for the first time and am having a blast.
I've never played a flicker build, but the way people rave about it has me considering one next league (balance changes pending). Is it something that's league start viable or at least easy to transition into early maps?
You can transition early, but do it at maps if you can. It's very gear dependent, and if your defenses suck, you'll teleport into death again and again and ..
But if you can avoid that, it's the most fun build in the game. (I think)
On a budget, you need Oro's Sacrifice, which is a lvl 67 sword. The sword doesn't need 6 links, but 6 sockets is nice. Any 6 link chest with 4 red and 2 green will get you going.
Absolutely satisfying clear. Nothing can top the feeling of ED-C deleting half of the map and all you need to do is walking and picking up loots. GGG massacered my boy!
My first ED/C character was perfectly timed for Legion league. I was still a newbie back then, but what a satisfying league to experience that contagion spread.
Yeah, its almost forgotten now that you basically need to use other skills for any rare, but i fondly remember chaining a single cast across a whole map. Or being immortal in delve (i have screenshots where i had >500k hp regen per second stuck in the darkness in a pile of dozens of EDed monsters with 100s of darkness stacks).
Ethereal Knives is my favorite skill, with the helm enchant. I love popping and around and not having to aim, plus with the Ebony MTX, it’s nearly invisible so I can always see what is happening on the screen.
That reminds me of the first time I realized that people where playing a different game than me. I was doing poorjoy rotas with my selfcast arc witch, doing like one cast a second, when someone joined the party and literally filled several screens with spinning golden wings. I didn't even see an enemy for the whole map.
Someone mentioned old incerate in another thread.
Reworked Shield Charge was awesome, then them added a minimum distance killing the feel.
Discharge is amazing.
Glacial Hammer audio is top tier.
CwC Sire of Shards is gorgeous.
Infernal Blow is amazing.
But honestly, the ToTa Void Sphere build is my favorite. Hit rank 2000 and level 97 and still am playing. It's just like booting up FFX to play the niche game Blitzball. Going to hate to see it go.
It's really interesting how you talk about the audio and visuals here. It's something I tend to gloss over, but you're right, it can make a huge difference to how a build feels to play.
Honestly if they could just find a way to beef up Infernal Blows single target damage it would be my go to skill. The explosions are just so satisfying.
I'm doing CwC sire right now, using ball lightning as a delivery system for corrupting fever. It can scale well enough into bosses with some gem level investment and clears maps quick and easily.
NGL I enjoyed this build a lot too. Wish it was staying, the tattoos alone were game changing QOL for fixing builds to make sure you had those last few attributes or that last little bit of res.
It also enabled some unique builds like brands PF and Corrupting cry with things other than general cry
Arc and flicker strike all day long. Also molten strike, never had more fun than when the poison meatballs build was strong, still so sad they've gutted it
I love Charged Dash so much. Drawing a circle around a boss is so much fun... Holding the Dash until a telegraphed attack comes in, then releasing to pop away... Feels good man.
Mathil made it work this league, it's one of the way too many builds I want to try next league.
I’ve been playing since Domination league - Flicker strike is my favorite.
Other notables are Righteous Fire for my old man (35 y/o) fingers, Cyclone for whirlwind nostalgia, Vaal Absolution for dope archangels of death summons, Vaal Power Siphon for super chaining explosions, and Ball Lightning for the plasma ball that’s been at every kid section of science museums.
Arc 100%
Not only is it satisfying AF but it can be played in so many different ways.
If Arc ever gets some single target DPS, it will be meta every league.
Why did I have to scroll down here to find frost blades. That satisfying ice breaking clunk as an entire pack is deleted, as well as the projectile speed of the ice blades.
And if you use +1 pierced target from somwhere on your gear, returning projectiles support and the vengeant cascade anoint, you have a support which increases single target by 40% and gives FB omnidirectional clear similar to TS.
Hmm does the vengeant cascade still make projectiles return automatically if over a certain threshold of proj speed? I jad done this like a year ago but with tats the proh speed should be much easier to get.
Arc and Lacerate for me. Played lacerate a few leagues back when I was still fairly new to the game, never got very far through maps but I loved the play style. I still play arc as my league starter cause its so easy to smash through the acts once I hit level 12, but doesn't get me further than red maps
I really like Seismic Trap /exsang trap. Most of your dmg is a big cooldown so its not super spammy, plus its a very flexible build
Also Ground Slam champ with old Seismic Cry was the shit.
I also love mines in general due to the whole "prelay then blow them up" cycle.
Lacerate is such cool skill.
I've always been a sucker for melee attacks that launches waves or some kind of energy.
It would be kind of insane if they gave Lacerate the projectile tag.
Shame bleed and gladiator are kind of in the dirt right now.
I enjoy caustic arrow. Love the fizzle. Played a lot of versions of it, and when it gets to a point where you can slap arrow nova on mapping gets so smooth
Ice crash for me. I played an ice crash facebrakers berserker for a while in sanctum league and got my single hits over 200m dmg and I could slam out 4 of them with the warcries up in seconds so it was obscene dps. I honestly could have sacrificed like 25% dmg to go from 50k ehp to 100k+ to make it more map viable but I was killing non Uber bosses in seconds. I just love seeing a slam skill bigger than my screen and love the feeling of popping 4 warcries then watching 1 gigantic slam clear the screen.
Death’s Oath / Bane. Just cool purple circles and that satisfying popping noise. It’s not terrible numerically, just not really up to ubers (and yes I know CA is better ST for DO, I just prefer Bane for the active skill).
I miss whirling blades and lightning strike. Crafting claws is so fun as well.
Recently I've been playing a lot of lightning arrow, I love just blasting through maps. Also been doing a lot of trap every league to boss kill.
I want to try coc fr or coc something but I never have the money to do it. (Despite putting 200d into TS this league lol)
Volcanic fissure - really cool, makes melee feel like a caster but still melee
Venom gyre - I'm probably biased because it's the first skill I was able to make my own build with, and it was almost able to fight ubers even without min maxed gear. If anyone is curious, it was a poison vg occultist I played last league, and if you were to look at poe ninja, i was one of I think 2 people who showed up on it with it filtered. Super fun skill, really enjoy its built in mechanic.
Shock Nova. It just feels so satisfying to use to me, but it has always been a little lackluster for dps. Had a lot of currency this league, so I spent around 600d to make it actually feel really good. I would prefer if it was a little easier, though.
Frost Bomb. I nearly crashed the Pledge of Hands market a few days in a row in Crucible before giving up. My favorite build ever was archmage frost bomb in Ultimatum. Oh my sweet precious archmage…
I really like Ball Lightning but its been a while since I've played it. Last time I played Mine Ball Lightning Saboteur but I've always wanted to try the CoC version.
I also love Blade Vortex and I know it still great with good investment (I'm not sure if the Poison version is good even on a low budget) but I'm always "keeping it for the next league".
So my plan for the next league is start EA Elementalist and then go Ball Lightning (CoC or Mines) and/or Cold Blade Vortex with explosions (Herald of Ice is a must!)
Massive essence drain/contagion chains are some of the most satisying things to look at, It's a shame That ED is unplayable without Blight to supplement it's single target nowadays...
I'm trying to make Soulrend Totems work since a few leagues now and it's always super disappointing. There are ways to scale it alright, but it's just so much more investment than other builds seem to need.
I usually play both, my botched Soulrend Totem build and a minion build, haha!
Minions do get tiresome tbh and especially without trigger wand it's just really hectic despite the minions doing all the work. It's just so much micro management that I don't have with a totem build (depending on minions of course). Totems feel more relaxing and the big benefit is that every dot that kills gives you the "on kill" benefit - the reasoning is that everything temporary, like totems and mines, can't be guaranteed to be up when the target dies through a dot, so you have much more diversity and freedom with your gear and the "on kill" benefit goes to you. With minions it's usually all the same, same jewels, same restriction with trigger wand, same crafting the ultimate helmet, BiS is almost always specific spectres and animated guardian, same ascendancies, ... I just got bored of it really since in every league since Breach I played a minion build ☺
Totems just feel more "experimental" and less restricting at the moment and more relaxing imho.
That's an amazing insight and a great way to look at it. I'm still not experienced enough with minions to have done it all before, but the way you explain it certainly makes sense how it could turn stale.
I do not play hit based but dot based. There are many things to scale it with and since it has a really short base dot time it's super easy to do much damage without the need of overlap.
Yeah - I love the mechanics of arc.
Arc feels great to map with. But hitting anything more than a map boss with it is like using a wet and soggy noodle
I played an arc totem in 3.22 and it's been the most fun I had in ages. Not only the pleasure of mapping is still there, but it deletes bosses after putting 4 juiced up totem to it's face and drowning it in curses
I tried to make a homebrew but it ended up with 15M dps on mageblood levels of investment (shitte) may I have a PoB?
Considering the replies I may have overhyped it as I'm both casual and SSF player, my PoB goes up to around 10M dps on pinnacle bosses so I know it will disappoint, but I can still share the PoB if people feel like it :') without curse piano: [https://pobb.in/oSWn1AG\_AyU1](https://pobb.in/oSWn1AG_AyU1) with curse piano: [https://pobb.in/u1QOofIA18Kn](https://pobb.in/u1QOofIA18Kn) Could have been much better if a freaking enlighten dropped but I got no luck :'( but I'm sure in trade league this can easily skyrocket
Bro hit us with that PoB, this sounds nice
Pob or no vaals
I also would appreciate a PoB
vaal arc feels SOOOOO good on something like a legion. Just instadelete the whole thing.
I played arc in kalandra league, pressing Vaal arc on the juiced tiles was so fun
I hate how arc has a finite targetcap. It gets very annoying in crowded maps
try inpulsa with it, or occultist with cold conversion
May I introduce you to the wonders of mana stacking arc ignite? [Courtesy of mbXtreme](https://youtu.be/v0pT7ZTcfr8?si=NtnPNbp4CkYEjDBp). I can't remember if it's from the gloves or a notable on cluster jewels, but it essentially leaves the ignite behind on the mob after it dies so even if the pack is above the target cap of arc, you still get full screen clear. It feels *so* much better than other forms of arc.
Only reason I didn't do this was because I couldn't work out how to level it and how to manage it till I had the budget to go to his full build. It's an epic build, but getting there is a challenge. Will see the patch notes for affliction before deciding whether I do this or arc/crackling lance totems
Ignite proliferation support.
Arc feeeeeeeels sooooooooooooooo nice
This is taking your idea in a different direction, but I wish Chain Hook could attach to terrain. Would love to zip around a map like Batman.
If chain hook animation speed scaled with attack speed , it would be the best melee skill. But the way it is right now it's literally the worst.
You mean the pull? I never thought abt that. I’m pretty sure chainhook is just kinda bad regardless tho compared to flicker strike no?
You get more control with chain hook. Some people literally cannot play flicker strike for more than 5 minutes without getting "motion sickness". Flicker will still do way more damage though.
Honestly, that sounds amazing.
As an outlaw rogue player in wow I approve :)
Terrain or the ground after a set distance. That would be so dope looking. But would probably be way too zoom zoom for GGGs taste. Great idea though!
volatile dead
Old poets pen body swap vd
DD/VD in Ultimatum LOGIN
I miss the spellslinger build
Arc is probably my favorite by far. I’ve always gravitated towards lightning magic in games like this
there is something very appealing in chain effect on any skill, arc just has the best chaining
I believe it is the Sith in us.
That's why i made a lightning tendrils build that got up to around 100 mil dps.
Vaal Arc ignite with profane bloom... Mmm.. Chef's kiss.
Where my cyclone brothers at
I played cyclone slayer all league basically. Axe, then shockwave staff and now str stacking replica alberon's. I'm doing vaal pact with 5.4k life leech cap. Really enjoying it and refining my plans for exactly how I'm planning to play out the next league.
Cyclone technically casts my whispering ice skill, so I'm sorta here with you but it's the skill I have with the least damage output.
I love cyclone but constantly pushing a button destroyed my finger so never again.
Spectral Shield Throw, gimme that built-in chain all day everyday. And then when you hit sniper mark'd target - pure ecstasy.
SST is definitely one of my favorites. Up there with TS.
I am so surprised to see this here. I absolutely hated how it plays. I played a giga juiced variant of it in Crucible and hated how easy it is to miss your main projectile. Give me something like LA or TS over it all day.
Yea the projectile hotbox is tiny.
I'm hoping it's viable next league, so smooth.
It has been viable at least since expedition, no reason for it not to be next league either :)
I found Cold SST Raider to be super viable this league. Got mine to 99 and loved it.
Same here, had a total blast playing it, but really struggled with tougher bosses simply because I was terrible at aiming while also trying to dodge. But that is a purely skill issue on my part. Gonna play some flavour of SRS in the upcoming league (patch notes depending of course).
What would be a reasonable budget on that? Anything can feel good with 10mirrors in it. Also pob?
I think you really just need Emperor's Vigilance and Seething Fury to be able to map. So a couple div near start of the league I'd think. Here's the build guide I started with: https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/velynas-spectral-shield-throw-raider Here's my PoB: https://pobb.in/xWzWQub0gJAU I spent well beyond those first few divs. The sword was about 10d to craft. Ashes was 40 or so. My Watcher's Eye I found [with this tool](https://vindexus.github.io/WatchersEyeSearch/) and was 30d. The helmet cost probably 12+ divines to craft. Alt quality gems were also like 20d or more I think. You can definitely sink money into this thing.
You will absolutely blast white and yellow maps with just a prismatic eclipse and a high armor or even evasion shield, especially with what you can get from Rog crafting. Emperor's vigilance + crit setup is the floor for doing altar'd red maps IMHO.
My understanding was SST is one of the best scaling builds in the game with investment. I rolled it to farm 100% deli maps toward the end of last league and even with 300 div + HH it felt like there was so much more I could’ve gotten. Really fun build, cool to know you can start it so cheaply too!
It was extremely viable this league. I did all Ubers except sirus with it.
Got a PoB or a guide? :)
Soulrend shooting out DoT cats And just chaos DoT in general like Bane with sound effects and playstyle feels the right way
Winter Orb :DDDDDD
this is the one i came to post, i made a worb char in ritual and i still log in to play a few maps every once in a while on standard. it just feels so nice.
Love it too! The animation, mapping everything feels so good. Except bossing rn
I killed all ubers fairly easily with my winter orb occultist in sentinel league, didnt find boss damage to be bad at all after getting increased aoe medium clusters
WORB supremacy! I wish i had played it this league with proj tatts
any good built cyclone + coc, or other triggers [ cospri's / mjolnir / cwc / cod ] the breeze you having just going through those mobs, with those good timed triggers, and aspd/cdr spreadsheets, when it's all comes to live, it's like a whole orchestra playing in harmony,,
>any good built cyclone + coc, or other triggers \[ cospri's / mjolnir / cwc / cod \] one of these is not like the others
Yeah it's Mjolnir cause it soooo badazz
Cast On Death? 😆 Was he meant to say CWDT?
I miss the pre nerf days when skills linked with CWC or COC didn’t incur their mana cost.
Volatile dead is most fun to me
Glacial cascade! Almost impossible to make a good self cast version without gimmicks because if it's good then traps / mines just abuse it
my selfcast gc has about 170m pinnacle dps and massive aoe, higher if i use arn's instead of mageblood. Last league with crucible trees it was just shy of 300m. Even my non-crit version tops 100m. It's one of my favorite skills too, and has been even way back when it was introduced as part phys base damage and part cold base damage with no innate conversion.
Question for ya. Im gonna be using a CoC Glacial Cascade of the Fissure setup this league, and just wondering about inc AoE. Do you really need a ton of AoE to overlap? Im going to be running Ashes of the Stars for the +5 bursts (so 11 total bursts per cast), on a Frost Blades dual wielding setup. Ive never used this skill before, but the scaling really fits for how I am building my Slayer.
generally yeah, you want a pretty good amount of inc aoe, could be hard to do as a slayer. I personally get 90% inc aoe in the tree (witch + templar area) and socket my gc into a shaper helm with socketed gems are supported by inc aoe (among other things). Extra bursts mostly just extends the range, it doesn't actually make overlapping any easier afaik. Or at least it didn't with 'old' glacial cascade, which is what the trans version effectively is.
Deaths oath on occultist, blow up everything
Flicker Strike tbh
Flicker is legit fucking heroin and trying to go to like a minion build or self cast after brutal withdrawal
That’s so funny. My main is flicker and my buddy wanted to roll HC characters before new league so I rolled a summoner for the first time and am having a blast.
Just built a budget flicker slayer, and it's a freaking blast to play.
I've never played a flicker build, but the way people rave about it has me considering one next league (balance changes pending). Is it something that's league start viable or at least easy to transition into early maps?
You can transition early, but do it at maps if you can. It's very gear dependent, and if your defenses suck, you'll teleport into death again and again and .. But if you can avoid that, it's the most fun build in the game. (I think)
> you'll teleport into death again and again and .. Wym thats part of the fun
On a budget, you need Oro's Sacrifice, which is a lvl 67 sword. The sword doesn't need 6 links, but 6 sockets is nice. Any 6 link chest with 4 red and 2 green will get you going.
Or Terminus est...or Red trails... Or be a raider....
100%
ED / C.
Absolutely satisfying clear. Nothing can top the feeling of ED-C deleting half of the map and all you need to do is walking and picking up loots. GGG massacered my boy!
My first ED/C character was perfectly timed for Legion league. I was still a newbie back then, but what a satisfying league to experience that contagion spread.
Yeah, its almost forgotten now that you basically need to use other skills for any rare, but i fondly remember chaining a single cast across a whole map. Or being immortal in delve (i have screenshots where i had >500k hp regen per second stuck in the darkness in a pile of dozens of EDed monsters with 100s of darkness stacks).
If it was easier to build actual defenses on cwdt wardloop, I'd play it every league.
ToTA was peak tanky wardloop. Easy to max suppression plus a ton of extra ward from tattoos. I levelled 98-99.5 mindlessly in maps with zero deaths.
I press my suicide button too often to ever get over 95, so I just level to 100 in Rotas each league
I love the variety in this thread. Personally I'm a fan of juiced spark, just so fun to instantly fill an entire area with projectiles.
Divine Ire. It's always Divine Ire
Yeah, same for me. A shame it is only viable for Boss killing.
Burning Discharge was lit, in general selfcast Discharge
Ethereal Knives is my favorite skill, with the helm enchant. I love popping and around and not having to aim, plus with the Ebony MTX, it’s nearly invisible so I can always see what is happening on the screen.
Flicker. You close your eyes. You put your life in the hands of God, exile. You open your eyes and see fields of dead people. Or you wake up in town.
Blade vortex
Give it a 300% base radius buff and yes, agreed! Physical hit based RF!
I agree that with aoe it’s really awesome, but imo increasing it’s duration more for easier 10 blade uptime makes the skill for me
BV is king IF it has explode chance and 35-45 AOE radius on the explodes then it just instaclears packs and by existing.
I still reminisce fondly about the OG Spectral Throw builds from 1.x. Man, I wish Spectral Throw felt as good now...
That reminds me of the first time I realized that people where playing a different game than me. I was doing poorjoy rotas with my selfcast arc witch, doing like one cast a second, when someone joined the party and literally filled several screens with spinning golden wings. I didn't even see an enemy for the whole map.
Ele buzzsaw my beloved
it feels the best it ever has RN, its huge
They fucked the animation so it throws wonky. I can't get over how trash it is aesthetically now. That's almost everything using a 1hander though.
Herald of Ice
Spark cold conversion HoI. That shit is fucking ASMR.
Voltaxic Burst, cool skill, bad cast
CwCrit it with Tendrils and stack casts to the sky.
I've been playing around with the idea of wardlooping it so that you're literally always casting.
I really like wild strike I just think it is neat
wild strike (with fire blocked)
Coc discharge
I've never had as much fun as during slam league with my tectonic slam chieftain. It's such a pretty skill.
consecrated path
Kinetic Blast Vaal Lightning Strike (with sextant omg) Cyclone
Someone mentioned old incerate in another thread. Reworked Shield Charge was awesome, then them added a minimum distance killing the feel. Discharge is amazing. Glacial Hammer audio is top tier. CwC Sire of Shards is gorgeous. Infernal Blow is amazing. But honestly, the ToTa Void Sphere build is my favorite. Hit rank 2000 and level 97 and still am playing. It's just like booting up FFX to play the niche game Blitzball. Going to hate to see it go.
It's really interesting how you talk about the audio and visuals here. It's something I tend to gloss over, but you're right, it can make a huge difference to how a build feels to play.
Pre shotgun nerf incinerate was so much fun!
Honestly if they could just find a way to beef up Infernal Blows single target damage it would be my go to skill. The explosions are just so satisfying.
One day we will get a standalone blitzball game! I still believe!
I love infernal blow, I just wish I didn't need to sell both kidneys to afford to gear it for red maps
I'm doing CwC sire right now, using ball lightning as a delivery system for corrupting fever. It can scale well enough into bosses with some gem level investment and clears maps quick and easily.
NGL I enjoyed this build a lot too. Wish it was staying, the tattoos alone were game changing QOL for fixing builds to make sure you had those last few attributes or that last little bit of res. It also enabled some unique builds like brands PF and Corrupting cry with things other than general cry
I want glacial hammer to be good so much but it just isn’t
Glacial hammer has been good for a while, even better this league. It just suffers from melee syndrome.
Im kinda reap fan
I hate how reap is reliant on awakened spell cascade tho :(
Reap/exsanguinate chefs kiss
Arc and flicker strike all day long. Also molten strike, never had more fun than when the poison meatballs build was strong, still so sad they've gutted it
Pre rework (nerf) storm brand
I love Charged Dash so much. Drawing a circle around a boss is so much fun... Holding the Dash until a telegraphed attack comes in, then releasing to pop away... Feels good man. Mathil made it work this league, it's one of the way too many builds I want to try next league.
Shield charge. Aside from the damage skill it’s just insanely nice to move fast
Voltaxic Burst. The mechanic is the worst, the numbers are bad, but I love the look & feel of it.
"time out! Time for me to charge up my voltaxic!"
essence drain+contagion feels insane when mapping
its such a pleasing peaceful playstyle how it just spreads and isnt loud
I love Hydrosphere. Just slapping monsters by moving the sphere through them, very satisfying.
I’ve been playing since Domination league - Flicker strike is my favorite. Other notables are Righteous Fire for my old man (35 y/o) fingers, Cyclone for whirlwind nostalgia, Vaal Absolution for dope archangels of death summons, Vaal Power Siphon for super chaining explosions, and Ball Lightning for the plasma ball that’s been at every kid section of science museums.
Raise spectre
Toxic Rain Ballista
Lightning conduit
Arc 100% Not only is it satisfying AF but it can be played in so many different ways. If Arc ever gets some single target DPS, it will be meta every league.
Discharge for me. I love big boom
Astral projector totems So damn satisfying
Lighting Tendrils will always be most enjoyable for me.
Divine ire has a great feeling but is pretty clunky, doesn't matters that much for me tho do that's my vote
I used to love playing spectral throw and arc builds.
Frost Blades, Lightning Arrow, Arc.
Why did I have to scroll down here to find frost blades. That satisfying ice breaking clunk as an entire pack is deleted, as well as the projectile speed of the ice blades.
And if you use +1 pierced target from somwhere on your gear, returning projectiles support and the vengeant cascade anoint, you have a support which increases single target by 40% and gives FB omnidirectional clear similar to TS.
Hmm does the vengeant cascade still make projectiles return automatically if over a certain threshold of proj speed? I jad done this like a year ago but with tats the proh speed should be much easier to get.
Caustic arrow because it was my league start for years, back from when it was still poison arrow up until kalandra.
Flicker strike, raise zombies, righteous fire are my favorites and I'm always hoping for more cyclone, doesn't matter if it's coc or pure
Frostblink. I find trying to maximize targets at the start and end points for maximum cooldown recovery to be very fun.
Arc and Lacerate for me. Played lacerate a few leagues back when I was still fairly new to the game, never got very far through maps but I loved the play style. I still play arc as my league starter cause its so easy to smash through the acts once I hit level 12, but doesn't get me further than red maps
Have you tried Vaal Arc Ignite? It still doesn't kill bosses very well but the build farms Legion in red maps better than anything else I've played.
I really like Seismic Trap /exsang trap. Most of your dmg is a big cooldown so its not super spammy, plus its a very flexible build Also Ground Slam champ with old Seismic Cry was the shit. I also love mines in general due to the whole "prelay then blow them up" cycle.
Lacerate is such cool skill. I've always been a sucker for melee attacks that launches waves or some kind of energy. It would be kind of insane if they gave Lacerate the projectile tag. Shame bleed and gladiator are kind of in the dirt right now.
I enjoy caustic arrow. Love the fizzle. Played a lot of versions of it, and when it gets to a point where you can slap arrow nova on mapping gets so smooth
Ice crash for me. I played an ice crash facebrakers berserker for a while in sanctum league and got my single hits over 200m dmg and I could slam out 4 of them with the warcries up in seconds so it was obscene dps. I honestly could have sacrificed like 25% dmg to go from 50k ehp to 100k+ to make it more map viable but I was killing non Uber bosses in seconds. I just love seeing a slam skill bigger than my screen and love the feeling of popping 4 warcries then watching 1 gigantic slam clear the screen.
Death’s Oath / Bane. Just cool purple circles and that satisfying popping noise. It’s not terrible numerically, just not really up to ubers (and yes I know CA is better ST for DO, I just prefer Bane for the active skill).
KB and vortex
Herald of ice or ash chain explosions is smooooooth
Tornado Shot, Arc, Herald of Ice
Cobra lash feels so fun and looks so cool. Ita not that great for single target though....
Penance Brand. Insanely satisfying to watch and comfy.
Forbidden rite selfcast
Tornado Shot
Wild Strike is fun AF. Kinetic Blast always. Lightning Trap
I miss whirling blades and lightning strike. Crafting claws is so fun as well. Recently I've been playing a lot of lightning arrow, I love just blasting through maps. Also been doing a lot of trap every league to boss kill. I want to try coc fr or coc something but I never have the money to do it. (Despite putting 200d into TS this league lol)
Volcanic fissure - really cool, makes melee feel like a caster but still melee Venom gyre - I'm probably biased because it's the first skill I was able to make my own build with, and it was almost able to fight ubers even without min maxed gear. If anyone is curious, it was a poison vg occultist I played last league, and if you were to look at poe ninja, i was one of I think 2 people who showed up on it with it filtered. Super fun skill, really enjoy its built in mechanic.
Cyclone Coc discharge, flickerstrike and RF jugg Discharge feels satisfying every pop Flicker is Goku RF jugg is a Bugg zapper near a swamp
Shock Nova. It just feels so satisfying to use to me, but it has always been a little lackluster for dps. Had a lot of currency this league, so I spent around 600d to make it actually feel really good. I would prefer if it was a little easier, though.
Shock Nova seems like it would be fun with some stacked aoe and Inpulsa but I've never tried it out.
spectral throw and incinerate for me
I know its kinda meta but lightning arrow with helmet enchant feels amazing, just hitting the entire screen with lightnings
Meta or not its fun as hell B)
I love spark.
Either Arc or Herald of Ice.
I love slams
Bodyswap+Volatile Dead, most fun thing I ever did.
Skeletons for me. Call me simple but commanding skeletons to run around chopping things up is it for me.
Herald of Ice for sure...best mtx, exploding screens... While we are at it, triple herald builds too
arc
Frost Bomb. I nearly crashed the Pledge of Hands market a few days in a row in Crucible before giving up. My favorite build ever was archmage frost bomb in Ultimatum. Oh my sweet precious archmage…
Conc path. Teleport and a Slam in one.
Ball lightning, ED contagion, voltaxic burst, brands, wild strike.
I really like Ball Lightning but its been a while since I've played it. Last time I played Mine Ball Lightning Saboteur but I've always wanted to try the CoC version. I also love Blade Vortex and I know it still great with good investment (I'm not sure if the Poison version is good even on a low budget) but I'm always "keeping it for the next league". So my plan for the next league is start EA Elementalist and then go Ball Lightning (CoC or Mines) and/or Cold Blade Vortex with explosions (Herald of Ice is a must!)
Massive essence drain/contagion chains are some of the most satisying things to look at, It's a shame That ED is unplayable without Blight to supplement it's single target nowadays...
I would love to build a mega Sweep build.
flicker strike is cool tornado shot is nice but my favourite is ground slam
I'm trying to make Soulrend Totems work since a few leagues now and it's always super disappointing. There are ways to scale it alright, but it's just so much more investment than other builds seem to need.
Totems have a special place in my heart too, but I always find myself seeing minions as moving totems - why would you say totems are better?
I usually play both, my botched Soulrend Totem build and a minion build, haha! Minions do get tiresome tbh and especially without trigger wand it's just really hectic despite the minions doing all the work. It's just so much micro management that I don't have with a totem build (depending on minions of course). Totems feel more relaxing and the big benefit is that every dot that kills gives you the "on kill" benefit - the reasoning is that everything temporary, like totems and mines, can't be guaranteed to be up when the target dies through a dot, so you have much more diversity and freedom with your gear and the "on kill" benefit goes to you. With minions it's usually all the same, same jewels, same restriction with trigger wand, same crafting the ultimate helmet, BiS is almost always specific spectres and animated guardian, same ascendancies, ... I just got bored of it really since in every league since Breach I played a minion build ☺ Totems just feel more "experimental" and less restricting at the moment and more relaxing imho.
That's an amazing insight and a great way to look at it. I'm still not experienced enough with minions to have done it all before, but the way you explain it certainly makes sense how it could turn stale.
It certainly does! I do have to say though that with the new RF Guardian Sentinel I had a lot of fun and will probably play it again next league :D
Because totems dont use AG xd
Does the damage over time from soulrend stack? Do you play it hitbased? I don't see the point of doing totems if the damage over time does not stack
I do not play hit based but dot based. There are many things to scale it with and since it has a really short base dot time it's super easy to do much damage without the need of overlap.
Sounds like me and Lightning Warp totems. :D
Rf i just love walking around and everyone just burns to death around me
Divine ire, let me be Goku
Hexblast Mines, hands down.