Trying to decide who to level next while I give the Templar a break. Debating between Shadow and Duelist, as I have a shitload of equipment for both. Tried Witch and I don't really like where she starts on the tree. It's pretty boring outside of minion stuff I've been grabbing.
Path of Exile (Diablo 2's real sequel)
- Thread starter Necronic
- Start date
Dave
Staff member
I just made a Shadow that I'm leveling as dual-claws. Holy hell! I thought someone said the Shadow was hard to play! I'm kicking serious ass! I'm already 18th level and in Act 2.
My current build: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-...AIuomlS5FPWVO51VLbWxte39_koCaF7MOtUjN6ujW_5M=
Think I'm going to Acrobat? Hell no! I'm headed for Spirit Raker! I don't want to give up my 150+ Energy Shield!
My current build: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-...AIuomlS5FPWVO51VLbWxte39_koCaF7MOtUjN6ujW_5M=
Think I'm going to Acrobat? Hell no! I'm headed for Spirit Raker! I don't want to give up my 150+ Energy Shield!
Claw Shadow is insane, yeah. That's what I've been working on also. The only issue I have right now is mana consumption is really high with how fast he attacks.
Necronic
Staff member
The problem with a claw shadow is the lack of a good AOE or fast move. You can AOE with LS + LMP (which will give you insane LoH btw), but you really have no gtfo button.
I'm trying to put together a dual claw + Vaal pact + blood magic build, but it looks like its easier to start from the duelist tree for it tbh.
I'm trying to put together a dual claw + Vaal pact + blood magic build, but it looks like its easier to start from the duelist tree for it tbh.
Necronic
Staff member
Sorry, just used to talking on the Path of Exile forums, I'll define them:
LoH = Life on Hit
LS = Lightning strike, common attack due to having multiple projectiles. Synergizes really well with LoH.
LMP = Lesser Multiple Projectiles (this is one of the best support gems you can get), it will add 2 extra projectiles. So for LS it will bring it up to 5 lightning blasts.
LoH = Life on Hit
LS = Lightning strike, common attack due to having multiple projectiles. Synergizes really well with LoH.
LMP = Lesser Multiple Projectiles (this is one of the best support gems you can get), it will add 2 extra projectiles. So for LS it will bring it up to 5 lightning blasts.
GasBandit
Staff member
The little woman told me PoE is the most boring game she's ever watched me play, and has no inclination to play it with me. I can't find a way to explain to her why I'm playing.
I WAS feeling overpowered, and then I got trashed by the vaal soul guy thing at the top of the pyramid. Holy shit.
I WAS feeling overpowered, and then I got trashed by the vaal soul guy thing at the top of the pyramid. Holy shit.
Necronic
Staff member
Flicker strike is a good one, but you will probably wan at least one AOE later in the game.
Anyways, meant to mention this. They are currently running a 1 week HC race right now. It's a bit absurd to actually try and keep up with these guys. In 4 hours they were already lvl 40. But if you play HC then races are amazing because the drop rates are increased. In the first hour or so I got 2 chaos orbs.[DOUBLEPOST=1362420131][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh yeah Vaal will one shot you with that hammer. Be careful.
Anyways, meant to mention this. They are currently running a 1 week HC race right now. It's a bit absurd to actually try and keep up with these guys. In 4 hours they were already lvl 40. But if you play HC then races are amazing because the drop rates are increased. In the first hour or so I got 2 chaos orbs.[DOUBLEPOST=1362420131][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh yeah Vaal will one shot you with that hammer. Be careful.
I've fought Vaal as a Templar and a Shadow, and both times he was ridiculously hard. I'm terrified to try him on the next difficulty.
As for my Claw Shadow I've got Ice Nova on him, and that seems to do the trick for AoE.
As for my Claw Shadow I've got Ice Nova on him, and that seems to do the trick for AoE.
Necronic
Staff member
Man I never thought of ice nova for claws....that's fucking brilliant.
Just started cruel on my marauder after cruising through normal. Silly amount of health and health regen. Just mashing Ground Slam and Sweep with health on hit while my 1400 health regens at warp speed. I did die, so, it happened, but it only happened because I was staring at the minimap rather than the huge blob of enemies that happened to have a relatively dangerous yellow mob in it.
Sweep and Cleave are hilariously good once you've got a nice weapon. I hear good things about Ground Slam, but I haven't used it much.
The best thing about it is even if they don't full-on freeze, they still get slowed, which allows me enough time to Double Strike my way to victory (because Double Strike is insane).
Yeah I heard someone talking about that today. Apparently they nerf drops of orbs if you are too high above a monsters level. Then since the low level monsters have a really small list of equipment they can drop, the chances of them dropping currency items, which are not affected by %rarity of items, is higher than the average monster.
So for basic orbs yes. The higher level ones, chaos and exalted, its easier to farm rare drops and sell those to get them. http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Vendor_Recipes has the recipes. The new patch is supposed to have high item level rares sold like the chaos orb recipe result in an exalted. Im not high enough level to be able to confirm that though.
So for basic orbs yes. The higher level ones, chaos and exalted, its easier to farm rare drops and sell those to get them. http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Vendor_Recipes has the recipes. The new patch is supposed to have high item level rares sold like the chaos orb recipe result in an exalted. Im not high enough level to be able to confirm that though.
I've found all of maybe 6 Alchemies across the 4 characters I've played past 15. Not much luck with Chaos or GCP either (about 8 and 1, respectively). Only gotten one character into Cruel, though funny enough he's not the one that found the GCP (it was my level 10 Witch).
Honestly Alchemy Orbs aren't that big a deal. You're probably going to find so many rares that you won't know what to do with them (I've got the 4 base stash tabs, 3/4 are rares/uniques at this point), and if you don't like the stats you're better off looking/trading for something else or using a Chaos Orb.
Chaos, Regret and GCP are just rare as hell to begin with, so that doesn't really factor much into level issues, and any Orbs worth a shit aren't going to drop much until late Act 2 and beyond, I figure, like Chromatics/Linking/etc. I've just recently found my first Blessing Orb, for example, and have yet to find more than one GCP even working in Cruel.
If you want to farm, your best bet is to wait until Cruel/Merciless and run the Twilight Strand or whatever (the very first map in the game) on Cruel/Merciless. Time-wise it's the most efficient as there's a guaranteed Unique monster plus a couple rares if they're along the shore while you run to Brutus.
Chaos, Regret and GCP are just rare as hell to begin with, so that doesn't really factor much into level issues, and any Orbs worth a shit aren't going to drop much until late Act 2 and beyond, I figure, like Chromatics/Linking/etc. I've just recently found my first Blessing Orb, for example, and have yet to find more than one GCP even working in Cruel.
If you want to farm, your best bet is to wait until Cruel/Merciless and run the Twilight Strand or whatever (the very first map in the game) on Cruel/Merciless. Time-wise it's the most efficient as there's a guaranteed Unique monster plus a couple rares if they're along the shore while you run to Brutus.
Necronic
Staff member
I would avoid using any GCP, or alchemy, chaos or exalted orbs until you look at the forums and see what you can buy for them. If you're under level 50 chances are you can buy gear many times better than what you can make
Edit: oh yeah and the patch last night made some major changes to the duelis tree.
Edit: oh yeah and the patch last night made some major changes to the duelis tree.
Isn't it the opposite? Because the lower level monsters have apparently more probability of giving orbs, it may have been worth it to trade some future chances of getting them for increased chances with those slow level monsters? I guess it depends on the exact quantitative nature of that 'gimping'.
GasBandit
Staff member
Act 3 on my barbari... excuse me, "marauder," FEELS way more grindy than spending an hour on a lowbie alt, when it means more gear upgrades for my marauder in an hour than I've gotten in the last 3 days on him.
Something is wrong with this setup.
Dave
Staff member
The problem is that they are so averse to using gold, they unwittingly have set up an "unbalancable" system. With other games you can't grind low level monsters and make a go of it because they only give like a couple coppers or gold if a gold-only game. Later in game you'll get like 100 gold for stuff so the game can dictate the relative worth of the monsters and the conquest of same. In this game, however, you can be first level, kill a first level monster, and possibly get something that a level 30 character would want to trade you for. That makes no sense. I like the fact that you can use these orbs for improving stuff or trade them to other players for better gear, but it still is terribly unbalanced toward newer characters.
Necronic
Staff member
It seems that way sometimes, but the drops later game really do get much better than the early game. I usually can get 1-2 alchemy (or equivalent) on my higher ranked duders, and I don't come close to that in early game. Like, you will never get a rare in early game that is worth anything, and you are far less likely to find Chromatic or 6 socket items (you flat out won't find 6 socket items), or a unique. All told late game gives much better rewards. Those fall out all over the place in late game, you rarely see them early game (and they are pretty useful, you will need them for getting good potions.) And of course all of this ignores the additional issue of not being able to find much +quant items at low level.
I'm not saying that you don't get some crazy streaks early in the game, you totally do, but it's wrongheaded to think that those streaks are superior to later game rewards. Their RNG needs some work, but I don't think it's really broken. I don't see any serious players farming low-levels, and with the kind of min-maxers I play with....if that worked they would do it.
I'm not saying that you don't get some crazy streaks early in the game, you totally do, but it's wrongheaded to think that those streaks are superior to later game rewards. Their RNG needs some work, but I don't think it's really broken. I don't see any serious players farming low-levels, and with the kind of min-maxers I play with....if that worked they would do it.
GasBandit
Staff member
You are addressing late game, and early game, I'm in the doldrums in "mid" game. The low to high 30s. Shit just ain't droppin, yo. The vast majority of gear I've had to get, I bought a white from the merchant and had to use an orb of alchemy (and even orbs of chance once or twice) to get out of having mostly blue gear. Because I'm finding in act 3, even with a few levels above the monsters, blue gear just does NOT hack it.
Until you posted this, I had no idea the vendors acted like a Horodric Cube.
What??? Hmm, better go check. So far the only character I have is a duelist.
--Patrick
Necronic
Staff member
Yeah, Act 3 is really the first test of your build. Also, I've not had too many problems with drops there, but I've definitely had some dry spells.
Duelist got some substantial buffs to their starting area, a lot more double-bonus nodes and some more attack speed/damage nodes. Just respecced my 26 Duelist, going to take him through the rest of A2 tonight and see if he feels stronger. Before the change my Claw Shadow trounced his progression.
I haven't even done one. Plus, the board is flooded with fake buy-my-shit groups. I've done some duoing with my brother, but he got sucked back into LoL so I've been back to soloing.
GasBandit
Staff member
I've done two (and I've seen the buy my shit groups, but they're easy to avoid)... and, well... both times were pretty bad. Sometimes the people in them would make absolutely no effort to even end up in the same place, just wandering around doing their own thing. Two marauders together ends up being "I'm gonna hit that NO I'M GONNA HIT THAT but I CAN'T FIT THROUGH THE DOOR", and all in all they just seem like generally unrewarding experiences. Little coordination, little cooperation, bad communication... just all in all would druther'a been alone. Probably better if you're playing with people you know and are in ventrilo/skype/teamspeak.
I actually had some good experiences with a group last night. It ended up being me and 2 other people going through the entirety of act 2. There was no loot stealing, we stuck together as a group with me being the meat shield and the others making sure to keep killing things and staying close enough that their auras were actually on me. We actually talked about what mission we wanted to do next instead of someone just taking off to go do them.
Most groups though you have 2 or 3 good people and then 2 or 3 people who could care less about being in a group. It is more rewarding for me doing it solo through an act first. Then I replay the act in a group with a second and third character just to see how it goes and because better loot drops when grouping. Plus my poor ranger is too fragile to go it alone
Plus having a few different play styles makes it not be monotonous.
Most groups though you have 2 or 3 good people and then 2 or 3 people who could care less about being in a group. It is more rewarding for me doing it solo through an act first. Then I replay the act in a group with a second and third character just to see how it goes and because better loot drops when grouping. Plus my poor ranger is too fragile to go it alone
Plus having a few different play styles makes it not be monotonous.
Necronic
Staff member
Do we still have a vent server? If so we should jump on comms and play together some. Looks like the guys I play with usually are taking a break and I have no one to play with. Much more fun with others. The one guy I could always count on to play with lost 2 50+ lvl characters in the last day of the 1 week hardcore race.