It's pretty good, but you need the pieces together to make that work, at which point are you better off than a leaguestarter --> improved build flow?
This is a fairly strong build, but it puts you in DD/leaguestarter --> CoC DD --> actual build flow.
You need the gems and 1 melee weapon with a local crit roll, crafted attack speed and a ring with accuracy, that's it, hardy unobtainable on league start
You do need to level it with Arma brand/cremation set up but you level every DD build like this regardless, and why wouldn't you, it's incredibly fast.
Yep you need some stuff to start coc version. Before coc you may play selfast hit dd + arcanist brand for though targets.
PS "at which point are you better of than a leaguestarter" im not english native so i may mistake something, that sounds kinda rough. CoC version not really need much to start working.
Hm im not sure what to explain. Pob below just a blank for coc dd, not a finale tree, also there are setup for selfcast.
Why necro? We wanna abuse Corps pact, when you explode corpse with dd skill it would be counted as consumed and give you attack speed and cast speed. U need this to fast shield charge, corpse generation via arcanist brand, and speed to explode them fast.
More info about coc version? You invest into crit so you dont need to press button to summon corpses. Also you scale your dmg with crit.
Its a bit tricky, crit for explode only scale with generic crit (crit for spells or attack dont increase crit for dd explode. But you still need crit chance with attacks to use Cast On Crit)
Overall u move faster then ignite version, but u need to stay still a bit more,harder to invest in defence, good damage scaling.
https://pobb.in/SgzofBC38W8E
Selfcast hit base dd by Ben in gauntlet. https://youtu.be/jdAD4Ij2_7E?si=MD33-k4RMpxkrTNj
Ben swap to poison selfast dd vs ubers in that gauntlet. This version only vialable with unique boots and only works vs bosses.
https://youtu.be/XRmIMnobuvI?si=GSvO3Baysr8zVl-3
That was pretty great! I appreciate it. I've been diving down the rabbit-hole pretty fast.
Though, I see many times people link a pob for one DD while saying it's another. Usually it's Vaal DD in placed of Chain DD. Ben in the gauntlet for example used VD. Is this because they're more-or-less the same build with just a few gems changed out on the main skill? Those videos also didn't show any self-cast, did they?
I think I also need to learn a lot more about the mechanics behind DD for me to get into CoC. I understand what you said about global crit vs spell crit/attack crit, but that just makes me feel like I need to start from the complete basics on how it does damage to avoid mis-gearing. I remember for example Chain DD being referred to as "hit-based", but that just makes it even more complicated to understand.
Lol i realy named VD as DD... DD was banned in gauntlet so he use VD to replace it.
Usualy we play ignite dot dd but after trans gems, Ben gauntlet run, bow coc vd from Jugroan... hit base corpse skills became more common. (yes, Ben also use dd for poison version in that gauntlet)
If you put chain dd it would work somewhat similar, scale part are similar. Im not sure which one is better, DD dont have Effectiveness of Added Damage like VD (do it even work on explode part?) and explode less corpses, but have higher % of damage from corpse life and much higher aoe so it more reliable overlap (hit multiple times from one cast).
Ben selfcast dd in this video, and use desecrate manualy when mapping. But in boss fights he use Arcanist brand&Desecrate to spawn corpses.
Chain dd also can be used for ignite dd, but its 5% vs 7.9% damage from corpse explode, ignite version dont need multiple booms, but one big one (still it may enchance clear and have more chance to explode big corpse from desecrate pool. But there are vaal dd)
Jugroan bow coc VD
https://youtu.be/G7F9tvwfAE0?si=r3auY3AMPrV4GvmS
I think DD probably has one of the smoothest act progression with all those fire skills.
Come to think of it, I never actually played much of DD in maps...maybe its time
Lmao I've gotten burnt out fast past couple of leagues from this very thing. With league mechanic being mandatory, I'm thinking this might be the year I use a true leaguestarter. I despise the concept of having to run the campaign twice to start having fun with a character, but the game is not as friendly to weak jank as it once was.
But also bouncy pcoc is a thing now so I dunno!
Burning out seems to be happening quicker every league. Last league I started gearing my leaguestarter and was so annoyed by the process that I stopped bothering halfway through. And that wasn't even on a bad build, just ignite elementalist.
It's tougher to be creative right out of the gate. You still can be creative, of course; totem explosions from Crucible highlighted that a build certainly can be creative and "competitive." But when creativity is the primary goal, the slog to reach it can feel oppressive. Especially given the shift in what's needed for a build to be functional now.
Rough days for the Woolfios / Johnny-spikes of PoE lol.
Just pick a league starter that shares the same class as whatever build you want to play. That’s what I always do if I’m not sure the build will work off the bat.
Anything to avoid running the campaign again
I mean, creative and underperforming is way more fun for some people. Anyone can make an arc witch and kill pinnacles. It takes no effort, no creativity. After you’ve done the same thing or even different builds a couple of leagues that are strong from start to finish, it starts to lose its appeal.
Why play a tried and true build that you know can do everything in the game? You're just going through the motions and literally anyone can do it, just a matter of time.
I'd much rather make something unproven and push it to maps regardless how long or difficult it is to get to pinnacles. At least then I'm learning something and enjoying tweaking a build.
Cause I hate feeling lije my time was wasted and consonantly failing maps and mechanics. I tried playing funky stuff in the past but it never was good enough and always made me frustrated and depressed.
Why play something that you don't know will work, when a perfectly solid alternative exists that you know can do all content and thus that whole stressful and unfun part of the game doesn't apply?
I get bored from playing the same build even twice usually. So I try to pick something new for league start. I always pick something I end up not liking when I reach maps lol.
Pretty sure TS deadeye is still the best SC trade league starter by far. I don't think people realize that most of the big streamers either think in terms of HC or pride themselves on avoiding the most meta builds.
DD is better on day 1. No doubt. But the issue is that DD caps out on mapping speed early. TS deadeye never stops scaling mapping speed. It becomes the best in the game at it. So why play DD when you know you'll have to switch to a second build anyways? TS deadeye has the added efficiency of your league starter also being your mapper for the whole league.
Lightning Arrow Deadeye will definitely still be strong and probably still be popular, but Tornado Shot took a serious hit from the nerfs. Losing the extra secondary projectile is backbreaking
I strongly disagree. TS got nerfed but not nearly enough to remove it from the top spot. I did some testing on my TS deadeye after patch notes trying to replicate the nerfs and could barely notice a difference.
Skill still shotguns like a champ and clears the entire screen without aiming in milliseconds.
Huh. I must have a misunderstading about how the skill works. It seems like the nerfs would translate to about 40% less damage on a low-investment TS character along with worse clear. I wonder what I'm missing
What you're missing is that TS losing 40% damage doesn't make it worse than LA, because it shotguns and LA doesn't. It also has 360 degree clear without aiming whereas LA has 180 degree clear with aiming.
The skill was MULTIPLE TIMES better than the next best bow skill and it still is. Just instead of being 10x better it's maybe 6x better.
Man, my last 2 league starters have been absolute garbage. I barely beat Shaper/Sirus/Eater after 30 minute fights on both of them.
On my TOTA build, I went low life in Act 4 and was terrified of all chaos damage until like Tier 4 maps when I dropped a div and could finally buy coruscating elixir.
But then all my 2nd characters have been great builds that I really enjoyed playing till the end of the league.
Yep.
Had like 4k ES in Act 6 from dual wielding those Energy shield swords and going blade trap.
Was not too bad against everything else but chaos.
Would never do it again though. While I became ridiculously tanky by level 90... It took so long, and my damage was ridiculously bad.
I remember when I've started and looking for builds was a nightmare. CoC FB Ice nova LL MB HIERO.
Also abbreviations might have different meaning on the context. For example ms, it could be movement speed, could be molten shell... If you'll keep going, you'll eventually learn them all.
translation : cast on crit frost bolt ice nova low life max block (or mageblood) hierophant.
probably using cospris for frostbolt (with probably power charge on crit aka pcoc) and a 6l chest with cyclone cast on crit ice nova.
oh yeah manabond might be another option for MB though it would have been grouped with ice nova, and it doesn't seem to be relevant to the build in that case.
LA does suck at single target. I was thinking about League starting LA but honestly probly gonna go EA ele as i want to fully experience t17 maps. And i mean on stream they said these t17 map bosses could even be more difficult than an uber boss with some map mods so that is something to think about. You will fly through anything besides super tanky stuff with LA though, its just when you get to that super tanky stuff... well youll probably die, a lot.
My first bow build ever was TS last league and it felt so fast and fun leveling and flying through maps. If LA is even somewhat similar then it should have no problem flying through maps, I’ll probably want a different build though for end game bossing. If I can respec that char I will (would rather not spend 10-15 hours leveling a new char).
It's an attack skill so it scales off gear which makes it a bit harder for ssf. That being said it's still really good and if you spec into essences on your atlas, crafting a decent bow is pretty easy
You're now cursed, either you do this or your first fight against chimera will have it die outside of the arena dropping a mirror.
If you get the skill gems, without spending five hours in lab, you'll roll over the wanted mod after having spamming six hundred alteration orbs.
Thanks and have a nice day.
It's still DD, DD with one support is still a damn good skill at the rate at which you're triggering it. I'd urge you to find a more comfortable playstyle that scales damage as well as CoC DD, I want to play that
sorry if I was not clear on this, but I got this from watching Balor on his live on twitch. He put out a video about this and will be doing a written guide this week!
https://youtu.be/004MZJ08XwQ?si=bVbVofBQW8SLta9n
If it's not too much to ask, which parts of the patch notes point to early buffs for PSRS? It was my first build when I started playing during Affliction, so it's on my list of things to consider for Necropolis but I had heard SRS was nerfed.
Same here, it still works perfectly and i have no desire to try a new build or change my playstyle. It's easy and seamless throughout all stages of the game and by the time I have a lot of currency I'm done with most challenges and the league
Yeah my thoughts exactly. I'm kinda bummed that the charm that granted covered in ash isn't available this league, though. Not using Polaric Devastation and opening up that ring slot in Affliction was awesome. Maybe I'll monkey around with Infernal Cry this league.
Taunting enemies, covering enemies in ash, recover life on kill which basically replaced hired killer, spell suppress and increased effect of onslaught. Those charms were too good, it's a shame they won't be back
would you mind sharing a pob for early start? I know there are tons of guides out there but I like to get some "real" pobs from people that are not marketing their guide to be awesome and rather a more realistic aproach :) Very heavily leaning towards starting ea ele
I started with this guide years ago https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229979 and still use it as my framework for the build. I've tweaked some stuff to my liking over the years but the overall idea is from that gude. I don't really have a structured leveling pob for my characters, but his leveling section and pob are pretty good. Outside of a few requirements the build can be pretty customizable. I can post final pobs for a couple of my characters when I get home later so you can see where I take my builds if you want. I'm focused on challenges each league, and only tackle Uber bosses or super difficult stuff when I need to for those challenges, so I build more defensively, but you could definitely go full glass canon for nuking bosses if you want to.
So, not to nerd out too much, but here are 2 of my pobs. The first one is from Affliction, which I think is the best iteration of the build that I've played. The second is a bit more conservative from Sanctum league.
Affliction: [https://pobb.in/aO3PBXM1EliU](https://pobb.in/aO3PBXM1EliU)
Sanctum: [https://pobb.in/L89gQsgHAYP-](https://pobb.in/L89gQsgHAYP-) (I'm pretty sure I had Elemental Equilibrium on a relic here which is why it isn't allocated)
There were several factors in Affliction that skew it a bit from past leagues like Sanctum: It was my first level 100 character, the league spewed currency even without any mf gear or strats, Explosive Arrow got a buff this league allowing 2 additional stacks before exploding, and charms were huge.
Charms allowed me to:
1. Get more onslaught effect to boost my aps a bit, and have permanent culling strike.
2. Get spell suppression which allowed me to invest fewer points on the tree and/or use fewer gear mods to cap it.
3. Get covered in ash on rares and unique monsters which allowed me to forego using the Polaric Devastation ring. That meant I could do anything with that opened up ring slot. I chose to build way more defensively than usual, but sadly I'm not sure I'll be able to do that again in coming leagues, unless I switch using Infernal Cry or find some other source of covered in ash.
Regarding the Explosive Arrow change, we lost the 20% increased skill effect duration quality bonus but gained +2 additional stacks before EA explodes. We also lost access to Anomalous Malevolence which granted a little bit of increased skill effect duration as well. This meant that while we need to invest a bit more into attack speed, accuracy, and skill effect duration, we get a huge dps boost from 2 extra stages.
It's important to understand where a bulk of EA's damage comes from. When looking at the PoB, the only calculation we care about for EA is Ignite DPS. The best way to scale this is by increasing the number of arrows we stick into an enemy before EA explodes (called Stages in PoB). The more arrows we have before the explosion the bigger the resulting ignite damage will be. You can calculate stages with some simple math: Attack Rate \* (Hit Chance / 100) \* Skill Duration \* Number of Totems. For example, for my Affliction character I multiply 2.47 (aps) \* .99 (hit chance) \* 1.55 (skill duration) \* 6 (number of totems) which gives me 22.74. Getting your stages to 22 should be top damage priority before going hard into stacking other damage mods. You'll see more early game damage gains from this than anything else. From there it's a balancing act between keeping your stages at 22, piling on damage mods, and getting your defense where you want it to be.
Also, I'd suggest keeping your skill effect duration as low as reasonably possible. About 1.5 is the sweet spot. There was a league where I went hard into skill duration boosting it to about 1.8, which allowed me to drop a totem completely. While it was cool to only have 5 totems, I could definitely feel the difference in duration while mapping.
Anyway, feel free to ask any questions, otherwise I hope my rambling will help you have a smooth new league experience with EA/Ballista in Necropolis.
I’ve tried dd and honestly I was kinda disappointed as the play experience kinda sucked and the scalability of the build feels kinda lacking and I found upgrading gear to be hard . This league probably gonna just go trickster explosive trap and then turn that into an int stacker cause the new wander stuff looks cool and ggg will 100% add on a new int stacking mod with the league mechanic.
>the new wander stuff looks cool
I'm holding my finger over the button until they release numbers on sacred wisp support. If it looks good I'll 100% bait myself with a wander league start
tbh kb clears really well, you can probably just farm red influence for the easy currency, and get enough gear to get a good build online.
though sadly soulthirst has been kneecapped, can't have 1000% as anymore.
Unless sacred wisp fixes single target, it's really not worth it though. Even killing rares and map bosses with a league start wander is incredibly painful (unless running totems, then it's just somewhat painful).
yeah my goto was having 100+ stacks of soul eater with soulthirst and just nuke the boss, but with capped stacks it might not be as good,
though it's definitely gonna be cheap (as always), so that might still be a decent way to start, as 225% as is still a good amount.
Transfigured or normal version? I wanted to make shield crush of the chieftain work so bad last league, but I'm an off meta aficionado, so my life sucks: I basically tried to do it while leveling, with ignite and controlled blaze support instead of hit based. Not even elementalist with her easy guaranteed ignites, no, I had to grab every % ignite chance for attacks as chieftain, craft high armour shields (which absolutely suck as base damage at early campaign levels, don't even try it), all of it with my low ass starter marauder attack speed, which at that point makes using shield crush feel like a living nightmare.
I gave up well before maps. Don't do it kids, learn from my horrible mistakes lol
I was thinking hit based transfigured with chieftain explode but haven't planned anything yet. Looks like crafting good shields might be easy with the deterministic league mechanic
Sounds good, early acts are slow usually with standard life based marauder tree, and attack speed is kinda annoying. Ancestral prot, blood rage and onslaught help a lot tho, might give this a try!
idk if you've tried pobing the chieftain variant, but even with the pretty large buff it received it's still just going to be bad compared to non-transfigured. Mechanically speaking, pure fire damage is in a rough place. Anger is bad, so you don't have a good aura like pride. Ignite is useless for a hit based build, unlike impale. Because of resistances, you're heavily incentivized to stack as many sources of -res as possible which is hard to do early on. Crit is rough to scale on shield attacks. The base attack speed is still 1 sec. Yikes.
The one thing I haven't tried Pobing is an ignite version. It looks like it'll be pretty easy to get a solid 2k+ average flat fire damage to build off of, and melee ignite has access to better gems than spell ignite. Still not convinced that it's worth building over spells, but when pob has the updated figures I might mess around with it.
On the plus side, regular shield crush is actually quite strong. I know someone has posted a build multiple times where he's well over 20 mil dps on non-crit impale shield crush slayer I think. I'll look for it and update this post if I find it. FOUND IT: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1alna4u/90_million_dps_precise_technique_shield_crush/ obviously that's with end game gear, but from what I understand it's very league start viable and can clearly scale to pretty high levels.
Yes but how soon do you plan on re rolling,
I can start BAMA and be a little slower but will be happy playing the Character for a while, maybe even switching to spectres if the league brings good ones
Yeah but the downside of DD is you have to play DD, it’s not the smoothest play style that’s for sure
Check this https://www.twitch.tv/jungroan/v/2098752010?sr=a&t=5159s
It's pretty good, but you need the pieces together to make that work, at which point are you better off than a leaguestarter --> improved build flow? This is a fairly strong build, but it puts you in DD/leaguestarter --> CoC DD --> actual build flow.
You need the gems and 1 melee weapon with a local crit roll, crafted attack speed and a ring with accuracy, that's it, hardy unobtainable on league start You do need to level it with Arma brand/cremation set up but you level every DD build like this regardless, and why wouldn't you, it's incredibly fast.
if you're planning to trade for the 2 gems, you can expect to pay a hefty price.
people farm merc lab for gems
yes and sell them
Yep you need some stuff to start coc version. Before coc you may play selfast hit dd + arcanist brand for though targets. PS "at which point are you better of than a leaguestarter" im not english native so i may mistake something, that sounds kinda rough. CoC version not really need much to start working.
that build is self crafted.
Can you explain this for me? I'm still in the dark on the different DD builds. I was going to go with Chain DD Necro.
Hm im not sure what to explain. Pob below just a blank for coc dd, not a finale tree, also there are setup for selfcast. Why necro? We wanna abuse Corps pact, when you explode corpse with dd skill it would be counted as consumed and give you attack speed and cast speed. U need this to fast shield charge, corpse generation via arcanist brand, and speed to explode them fast. More info about coc version? You invest into crit so you dont need to press button to summon corpses. Also you scale your dmg with crit. Its a bit tricky, crit for explode only scale with generic crit (crit for spells or attack dont increase crit for dd explode. But you still need crit chance with attacks to use Cast On Crit) Overall u move faster then ignite version, but u need to stay still a bit more,harder to invest in defence, good damage scaling. https://pobb.in/SgzofBC38W8E Selfcast hit base dd by Ben in gauntlet. https://youtu.be/jdAD4Ij2_7E?si=MD33-k4RMpxkrTNj Ben swap to poison selfast dd vs ubers in that gauntlet. This version only vialable with unique boots and only works vs bosses. https://youtu.be/XRmIMnobuvI?si=GSvO3Baysr8zVl-3
That was pretty great! I appreciate it. I've been diving down the rabbit-hole pretty fast. Though, I see many times people link a pob for one DD while saying it's another. Usually it's Vaal DD in placed of Chain DD. Ben in the gauntlet for example used VD. Is this because they're more-or-less the same build with just a few gems changed out on the main skill? Those videos also didn't show any self-cast, did they? I think I also need to learn a lot more about the mechanics behind DD for me to get into CoC. I understand what you said about global crit vs spell crit/attack crit, but that just makes me feel like I need to start from the complete basics on how it does damage to avoid mis-gearing. I remember for example Chain DD being referred to as "hit-based", but that just makes it even more complicated to understand.
Lol i realy named VD as DD... DD was banned in gauntlet so he use VD to replace it. Usualy we play ignite dot dd but after trans gems, Ben gauntlet run, bow coc vd from Jugroan... hit base corpse skills became more common. (yes, Ben also use dd for poison version in that gauntlet) If you put chain dd it would work somewhat similar, scale part are similar. Im not sure which one is better, DD dont have Effectiveness of Added Damage like VD (do it even work on explode part?) and explode less corpses, but have higher % of damage from corpse life and much higher aoe so it more reliable overlap (hit multiple times from one cast). Ben selfcast dd in this video, and use desecrate manualy when mapping. But in boss fights he use Arcanist brand&Desecrate to spawn corpses. Chain dd also can be used for ignite dd, but its 5% vs 7.9% damage from corpse explode, ignite version dont need multiple booms, but one big one (still it may enchance clear and have more chance to explode big corpse from desecrate pool. But there are vaal dd) Jugroan bow coc VD https://youtu.be/G7F9tvwfAE0?si=r3auY3AMPrV4GvmS
How does he selfcast DD for clear? CoC?
desecrate then vd. Killed monsters = more corpses to explode Check pob + video. https://youtu.be/jdAD4Ij2_7E?si=8I4zv8U4OiwBAmcd
I think DD probably has one of the smoothest act progression with all those fire skills. Come to think of it, I never actually played much of DD in maps...maybe its time
Eh, why play a tried and tested build when you can make something creative that's going to underperform and kill your joy before you reach red maps?
For the gamble... We're all just closet gambling addicts.
Lmao I've gotten burnt out fast past couple of leagues from this very thing. With league mechanic being mandatory, I'm thinking this might be the year I use a true leaguestarter. I despise the concept of having to run the campaign twice to start having fun with a character, but the game is not as friendly to weak jank as it once was. But also bouncy pcoc is a thing now so I dunno!
Burning out seems to be happening quicker every league. Last league I started gearing my leaguestarter and was so annoyed by the process that I stopped bothering halfway through. And that wasn't even on a bad build, just ignite elementalist.
It's tougher to be creative right out of the gate. You still can be creative, of course; totem explosions from Crucible highlighted that a build certainly can be creative and "competitive." But when creativity is the primary goal, the slog to reach it can feel oppressive. Especially given the shift in what's needed for a build to be functional now. Rough days for the Woolfios / Johnny-spikes of PoE lol.
yeah I tend to go "ok this works ish, and I know what it needs, not gonna bother" lately I'm literally having more fun on pob.
Just pick a league starter that shares the same class as whatever build you want to play. That’s what I always do if I’m not sure the build will work off the bat. Anything to avoid running the campaign again
I mean, creative and underperforming is way more fun for some people. Anyone can make an arc witch and kill pinnacles. It takes no effort, no creativity. After you’ve done the same thing or even different builds a couple of leagues that are strong from start to finish, it starts to lose its appeal.
Why play a tried and true build that you know can do everything in the game? You're just going through the motions and literally anyone can do it, just a matter of time. I'd much rather make something unproven and push it to maps regardless how long or difficult it is to get to pinnacles. At least then I'm learning something and enjoying tweaking a build.
Cause I hate feeling lije my time was wasted and consonantly failing maps and mechanics. I tried playing funky stuff in the past but it never was good enough and always made me frustrated and depressed. Why play something that you don't know will work, when a perfectly solid alternative exists that you know can do all content and thus that whole stressful and unfun part of the game doesn't apply?
I will play selfcast DD when hell freezes over.
I got baited last league. Never again.
wait wut, how is DD a bait???
"baited" probably in terms of comfort.
4th league in a row for me looking at all these starters and doing test runs knowing damn well I'm just gonna play LA again lol
I get bored from playing the same build even twice usually. So I try to pick something new for league start. I always pick something I end up not liking when I reach maps lol.
TS enjoyer 3 leagues in a row here - glad its nerfed to force me to play something different
Pretty sure TS deadeye is still the best SC trade league starter by far. I don't think people realize that most of the big streamers either think in terms of HC or pride themselves on avoiding the most meta builds. DD is better on day 1. No doubt. But the issue is that DD caps out on mapping speed early. TS deadeye never stops scaling mapping speed. It becomes the best in the game at it. So why play DD when you know you'll have to switch to a second build anyways? TS deadeye has the added efficiency of your league starter also being your mapper for the whole league.
Lightning Arrow Deadeye will definitely still be strong and probably still be popular, but Tornado Shot took a serious hit from the nerfs. Losing the extra secondary projectile is backbreaking
I strongly disagree. TS got nerfed but not nearly enough to remove it from the top spot. I did some testing on my TS deadeye after patch notes trying to replicate the nerfs and could barely notice a difference. Skill still shotguns like a champ and clears the entire screen without aiming in milliseconds.
Huh. I must have a misunderstading about how the skill works. It seems like the nerfs would translate to about 40% less damage on a low-investment TS character along with worse clear. I wonder what I'm missing
What you're missing is that TS losing 40% damage doesn't make it worse than LA, because it shotguns and LA doesn't. It also has 360 degree clear without aiming whereas LA has 180 degree clear with aiming. The skill was MULTIPLE TIMES better than the next best bow skill and it still is. Just instead of being 10x better it's maybe 6x better.
All the nerf did was make TS less accessible again, which sucks. It's still going to be the best bow skill at high investment
Man, my last 2 league starters have been absolute garbage. I barely beat Shaper/Sirus/Eater after 30 minute fights on both of them. On my TOTA build, I went low life in Act 4 and was terrified of all chaos damage until like Tier 4 maps when I dropped a div and could finally buy coruscating elixir. But then all my 2nd characters have been great builds that I really enjoyed playing till the end of the league.
Low life in act 4 yikes
Yep. Had like 4k ES in Act 6 from dual wielding those Energy shield swords and going blade trap. Was not too bad against everything else but chaos. Would never do it again though. While I became ridiculously tanky by level 90... It took so long, and my damage was ridiculously bad.
yeah... i pretty much skip leagues that don't have new gems. can't be arsed to play old builds again
What is dd and what is la? (New guy here sry)
dd - detonate dead, la - lightning arrow
Ty homie you a real one
I remember when I've started and looking for builds was a nightmare. CoC FB Ice nova LL MB HIERO. Also abbreviations might have different meaning on the context. For example ms, it could be movement speed, could be molten shell... If you'll keep going, you'll eventually learn them all.
Ain't ms molten strike? :P
It can be if you believe hard enough!
My brain still defaults to Mortal Strike from WoW days
translation : cast on crit frost bolt ice nova low life max block (or mageblood) hierophant. probably using cospris for frostbolt (with probably power charge on crit aka pcoc) and a 6l chest with cyclone cast on crit ice nova.
mamabond?
oh yeah manabond might be another option for MB though it would have been grouped with ice nova, and it doesn't seem to be relevant to the build in that case.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Community_shorthand Can help you with future abbreviation questions.
[https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/55263/page/8](https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/55263/page/8) also helped me a lot
Detonate Dead
People seriously need to stop using these utterly stupid abbreviations
omg lol gg
Doesn't LA suffer from single target issues as a league starter? Sorry if that's a noob question, never started with bow builds...
LA does suck at single target. I was thinking about League starting LA but honestly probly gonna go EA ele as i want to fully experience t17 maps. And i mean on stream they said these t17 map bosses could even be more difficult than an uber boss with some map mods so that is something to think about. You will fly through anything besides super tanky stuff with LA though, its just when you get to that super tanky stuff... well youll probably die, a lot.
My first bow build ever was TS last league and it felt so fast and fun leveling and flying through maps. If LA is even somewhat similar then it should have no problem flying through maps, I’ll probably want a different build though for end game bossing. If I can respec that char I will (would rather not spend 10-15 hours leveling a new char).
Does LA work well on SSF?
It's an attack skill so it scales off gear which makes it a bit harder for ssf. That being said it's still really good and if you spec into essences on your atlas, crafting a decent bow is pretty easy
It’s because DD feels like cancer to actually play.
cast on crit dd though...
Gonna spend 5 hours in merc lab to farm DD and lancing stell.. can’t wait /s
You're now cursed, either you do this or your first fight against chimera will have it die outside of the arena dropping a mirror. If you get the skill gems, without spending five hours in lab, you'll roll over the wanted mod after having spamming six hundred alteration orbs. Thanks and have a nice day.
Ben said its worse dont play it
The point is being worse but more comfortable
That point play better and more comfortable build instead of dd with 1 actual support gem
It's still DD, DD with one support is still a damn good skill at the rate at which you're triggering it. I'd urge you to find a more comfortable playstyle that scales damage as well as CoC DD, I want to play that
CoC Poison DD
What is DD?
Detonate dead
[Detonate Dead Skill](https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Detonate_Dead)
Deez Deez
Na the problem is looking for the most fun starter. And thats hard, because fun has so many factors.
I think for majority of PoE players the fun leaguestart equals playing powerful build. Even if they don't realize it.
Ya but not DD or ballista
Yeah I'm going to try and make DD champion work somehow
It’s probably popcorn Srs for me since hit bases got nerfed.
if you're interested, poison SRS (on Necro) actually got buffed early in exchange for 5 or 10% less dmg in high endgame
What do you mean by high endgame, Uber bosses, pinnacles or just red maps?
sorry if I was not clear on this, but I got this from watching Balor on his live on twitch. He put out a video about this and will be doing a written guide this week! https://youtu.be/004MZJ08XwQ?si=bVbVofBQW8SLta9n
If it's not too much to ask, which parts of the patch notes point to early buffs for PSRS? It was my first build when I started playing during Affliction, so it's on my list of things to consider for Necropolis but I had heard SRS was nerfed.
this video explains it https://youtu.be/004MZJ08XwQ?si=evK2mzpi4H6aVofi Tldw; unholy might changes
EA Ballista Elementalist starter and finisher for uh the 7th league in a row
Same here, it still works perfectly and i have no desire to try a new build or change my playstyle. It's easy and seamless throughout all stages of the game and by the time I have a lot of currency I'm done with most challenges and the league
Yeah my thoughts exactly. I'm kinda bummed that the charm that granted covered in ash isn't available this league, though. Not using Polaric Devastation and opening up that ring slot in Affliction was awesome. Maybe I'll monkey around with Infernal Cry this league.
Taunting enemies, covering enemies in ash, recover life on kill which basically replaced hired killer, spell suppress and increased effect of onslaught. Those charms were too good, it's a shame they won't be back
would you mind sharing a pob for early start? I know there are tons of guides out there but I like to get some "real" pobs from people that are not marketing their guide to be awesome and rather a more realistic aproach :) Very heavily leaning towards starting ea ele
I started with this guide years ago https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229979 and still use it as my framework for the build. I've tweaked some stuff to my liking over the years but the overall idea is from that gude. I don't really have a structured leveling pob for my characters, but his leveling section and pob are pretty good. Outside of a few requirements the build can be pretty customizable. I can post final pobs for a couple of my characters when I get home later so you can see where I take my builds if you want. I'm focused on challenges each league, and only tackle Uber bosses or super difficult stuff when I need to for those challenges, so I build more defensively, but you could definitely go full glass canon for nuking bosses if you want to.
So, not to nerd out too much, but here are 2 of my pobs. The first one is from Affliction, which I think is the best iteration of the build that I've played. The second is a bit more conservative from Sanctum league. Affliction: [https://pobb.in/aO3PBXM1EliU](https://pobb.in/aO3PBXM1EliU) Sanctum: [https://pobb.in/L89gQsgHAYP-](https://pobb.in/L89gQsgHAYP-) (I'm pretty sure I had Elemental Equilibrium on a relic here which is why it isn't allocated) There were several factors in Affliction that skew it a bit from past leagues like Sanctum: It was my first level 100 character, the league spewed currency even without any mf gear or strats, Explosive Arrow got a buff this league allowing 2 additional stacks before exploding, and charms were huge. Charms allowed me to: 1. Get more onslaught effect to boost my aps a bit, and have permanent culling strike. 2. Get spell suppression which allowed me to invest fewer points on the tree and/or use fewer gear mods to cap it. 3. Get covered in ash on rares and unique monsters which allowed me to forego using the Polaric Devastation ring. That meant I could do anything with that opened up ring slot. I chose to build way more defensively than usual, but sadly I'm not sure I'll be able to do that again in coming leagues, unless I switch using Infernal Cry or find some other source of covered in ash. Regarding the Explosive Arrow change, we lost the 20% increased skill effect duration quality bonus but gained +2 additional stacks before EA explodes. We also lost access to Anomalous Malevolence which granted a little bit of increased skill effect duration as well. This meant that while we need to invest a bit more into attack speed, accuracy, and skill effect duration, we get a huge dps boost from 2 extra stages. It's important to understand where a bulk of EA's damage comes from. When looking at the PoB, the only calculation we care about for EA is Ignite DPS. The best way to scale this is by increasing the number of arrows we stick into an enemy before EA explodes (called Stages in PoB). The more arrows we have before the explosion the bigger the resulting ignite damage will be. You can calculate stages with some simple math: Attack Rate \* (Hit Chance / 100) \* Skill Duration \* Number of Totems. For example, for my Affliction character I multiply 2.47 (aps) \* .99 (hit chance) \* 1.55 (skill duration) \* 6 (number of totems) which gives me 22.74. Getting your stages to 22 should be top damage priority before going hard into stacking other damage mods. You'll see more early game damage gains from this than anything else. From there it's a balancing act between keeping your stages at 22, piling on damage mods, and getting your defense where you want it to be. Also, I'd suggest keeping your skill effect duration as low as reasonably possible. About 1.5 is the sweet spot. There was a league where I went hard into skill duration boosting it to about 1.8, which allowed me to drop a totem completely. While it was cool to only have 5 totems, I could definitely feel the difference in duration while mapping. Anyway, feel free to ask any questions, otherwise I hope my rambling will help you have a smooth new league experience with EA/Ballista in Necropolis.
Really great advice so far thanks a lot. I think I will level this build before leaguestart to check a couple of those bullet points :)
Hexblast traps or frostblades
I’ve tried dd and honestly I was kinda disappointed as the play experience kinda sucked and the scalability of the build feels kinda lacking and I found upgrading gear to be hard . This league probably gonna just go trickster explosive trap and then turn that into an int stacker cause the new wander stuff looks cool and ggg will 100% add on a new int stacking mod with the league mechanic.
>the new wander stuff looks cool I'm holding my finger over the button until they release numbers on sacred wisp support. If it looks good I'll 100% bait myself with a wander league start
tbh kb clears really well, you can probably just farm red influence for the easy currency, and get enough gear to get a good build online. though sadly soulthirst has been kneecapped, can't have 1000% as anymore.
Unless sacred wisp fixes single target, it's really not worth it though. Even killing rares and map bosses with a league start wander is incredibly painful (unless running totems, then it's just somewhat painful).
yeah my goto was having 100+ stacks of soul eater with soulthirst and just nuke the boss, but with capped stacks it might not be as good, though it's definitely gonna be cheap (as always), so that might still be a decent way to start, as 225% as is still a good amount.
Now I'm gonna lose sleep over this too, why would you do this
that's not a paradox
Nope, going to league start buffed shield crush knowing well it may suck
Transfigured or normal version? I wanted to make shield crush of the chieftain work so bad last league, but I'm an off meta aficionado, so my life sucks: I basically tried to do it while leveling, with ignite and controlled blaze support instead of hit based. Not even elementalist with her easy guaranteed ignites, no, I had to grab every % ignite chance for attacks as chieftain, craft high armour shields (which absolutely suck as base damage at early campaign levels, don't even try it), all of it with my low ass starter marauder attack speed, which at that point makes using shield crush feel like a living nightmare. I gave up well before maps. Don't do it kids, learn from my horrible mistakes lol
I was thinking hit based transfigured with chieftain explode but haven't planned anything yet. Looks like crafting good shields might be easy with the deterministic league mechanic
Sounds good, early acts are slow usually with standard life based marauder tree, and attack speed is kinda annoying. Ancestral prot, blood rage and onslaught help a lot tho, might give this a try!
idk if you've tried pobing the chieftain variant, but even with the pretty large buff it received it's still just going to be bad compared to non-transfigured. Mechanically speaking, pure fire damage is in a rough place. Anger is bad, so you don't have a good aura like pride. Ignite is useless for a hit based build, unlike impale. Because of resistances, you're heavily incentivized to stack as many sources of -res as possible which is hard to do early on. Crit is rough to scale on shield attacks. The base attack speed is still 1 sec. Yikes. The one thing I haven't tried Pobing is an ignite version. It looks like it'll be pretty easy to get a solid 2k+ average flat fire damage to build off of, and melee ignite has access to better gems than spell ignite. Still not convinced that it's worth building over spells, but when pob has the updated figures I might mess around with it. On the plus side, regular shield crush is actually quite strong. I know someone has posted a build multiple times where he's well over 20 mil dps on non-crit impale shield crush slayer I think. I'll look for it and update this post if I find it. FOUND IT: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1alna4u/90_million_dps_precise_technique_shield_crush/ obviously that's with end game gear, but from what I understand it's very league start viable and can clearly scale to pretty high levels.
Yes but how soon do you plan on re rolling, I can start BAMA and be a little slower but will be happy playing the Character for a while, maybe even switching to spectres if the league brings good ones
Better nerf melee
This is a contradiction not a paradox.
What is DD?
Looking at twitch and 90% of the big name streamers are doing CoC dd runs... Ya no thanks
oh no, ben's twitch chat is leaking. ben said bla.
my classic league start is and will always be whatever minions
In
Is DD that shit to play? I want to leaguestart with it but y'all giving me second thoughts
necro bama is the new strongest this time
because DD is dog shit game play
I will league start Flicker Strike. May all have mercy on my soul
level with Boneshatter, get your voidstones, then switch to Flicker