Path of Exile free to play in about six hours.

[MonTy]

Still trudging through, leveling slow. I played my marauder last night, got him to level 50.

If you want some help, all my old Marauder's gear is available for the taking. I already deleted the 72 in SC, so I have no use for it. It's listed here.

Question!
Zealot's Oath - Life Leech Applies to Energy Shield Instead of Life.
I've been thinking about this Skill a lot the past couple of days. How much Life Leech do you think you would need to keep up your ES well?

You would need a lot. If anything I'd wait until much higher level where you have higher DPS, or if you happen to find that spiffy new unique chest. Until then I'd continue to focus on life. Chaos Damage is a huge problem for ES builds.

What do people think of the Ele Resist flasks? I have a couple of them, including a Chaos Resist one.

I like them, and have used them to great success in Hardcore. Especially that Fire flask for Merciless Piety. Her fire form is brutal, insanely high burst dps and she gets to you immediately. It's saved my life several times. Also may want to use Fire against the General fight in A3.

Other flasks I've used are Chaos in certain A2 zones. I have a high quality Chaos flask that has +movement speed, which I used instead of my quicksilver flask in A2.

I've always found Merveil easier in Merciless than other difficulties, so I never needed the cold flask there. Piety's lightning in the first A3 quest can hurt if you get hit with the lightning storm & ball, so may want to equip the lightning one there.

I assume everyone uses Granite flasks at all times in A3 Cruel and onward. Those with +% armor are a must in every build. A lot of people run two Granite flasks even.

[shoju]

If you want some help, all my old Marauder's gear is available for the taking. I already deleted the 72 in SC, so I have no use for it. It's listed here.

I appreciate it, but I think I'm probably going to be retiring him. Not sure if I'm going to delete him, but for now, the templar is just more fun, and almost caught up to him in levels.

I'll probably be stripping out his gems and what not for now, and using them in the templar as I can.

That being said, I'm definitely interested in the Chaos Resist ring you have for sure. Let me know what you would want for that bad boy.

You would need a lot. If anything I'd wait until much higher level where you have higher DPS, or if you happen to find that spiffy new unique chest. Until then I'd continue to focus on life. Chaos Damage is a huge problem for ES builds.

That's what I thought. I think I'm just going to focus on getting to Resolute Technique for a while, I didn't mind/notice missing so much, but now... It bugs me. I'm going to grab the life node, the Chaos Node, and then head down to get Res Tech before I head back to the next Shield Node.

It also works out, since I'm going to be headed down to Marauder territory for the Endurance Charge, 15% resist, and life nodes down there.

That chest is.... Well... Insane. Negating the pain of Chaos Damage, is worth it alone.

There are a few Uniques that I wouldn't mind picking up, I just don't seem to have anything that people want for them.

Koam's Sign
Aegis Aurora (fits right into my plan for the build later on. Blocking for ES? Yes Please)
The Supreme Truth It's a little less weapon damage than what I have right now, but the EXP increase, the Gem increase, the Ele damage increase all work in it's favor.

I like them, and have used them to great success in Hardcore. Especially that Fire flask for Merciless Piety. Her fire form is brutal, insanely high burst dps and she gets to you immediately. It's saved my life several times. Also may want to use Fire against the General fight in A3.

Other flasks I've used are Chaos in certain A2 zones. I have a high quality Chaos flask that has +movement speed, which I used instead of my quicksilver flask in A2.

I've always found Merveil easier in Merciless than other difficulties, so I never needed the cold flask there. Piety's lightning in the first A3 quest can hurt if you get hit with the lightning storm & ball, so may want to equip the lightning one there.

I assume everyone uses Granite flasks at all times in A3 Cruel and onward. Those with +% armor are a must in every build. A lot of people run two Granite flasks even.

That's sort of what I was thinking. I have been toying with using a Granite Flask, I just haven't yet. Sometimes, I do stupid things, and going 2l/3m on the flasks is helping right now, but I'm starting to consider carrying them with me. Now that I hit Act II in Cruel on the Templar, I'll probably start carrying the Chaos one with me for sure, and probably a Granite Flask. I'd like to get a Cold Res Flask, but sadly I can't seem to track one down that is just base, and not already decked out with Baubles, and magic'd. I even have an extra Topaz Flask I've offered to trade people for it.


Here is some gear

The top is what My templar is currently using. Don't mind the mess that is the gems, I'm in the process of testing out what I like better, Lightning, or Frost, so i'm sure the gems make absolutely no sense.

The second section, is what my Marauder is/was wearing. I'm wondering if anyone would care? Should I bother trying to trade it? Or just vendor it if I do delete him? The gems in there, will probably be migrating over to my Templar as I meet req's for them, (and they make sense, like Life Leech, and Life on Hit, etc...)

And then finally, some stashed goodies. I've just stashed 4l"s for a while, not sure what to do with them. Some people say they are worth good trade, others, not so much. So I've just stashed them. I've tried to sell them a few times, but don't get much interest in an already flooded market. So I figure I'll stash them for now, and maybe find someone later who is interested.

[MonTy]

I'll be doing the party races both Saturday and Sunday, if anyone wants to join up. I usually get on Skype with one other person, we would welcome anyone else. We're trying different strategies and they don't always work, one of us usually dies about half the time. But we're getting better. I've finally had my name appear on some of the progression zones- fun getting the lead for a bit :)

Let me know if you'd be interested. Check out the schedule at the following link: http://www.pathofexile.com/seasons. You can play any build you'd like, we're not elitest, just enjoy the challenge.

[Frag]

Sounds great Monty, what times are you gathering for them?

[MonTy]

Sounds great Monty, what times are you gathering for them?

Usually twenty minutes before the race, so if you can make today's race it would be 11:40 EST.

Will be on Skype most of the day. Hopefully see you then! (my Skype is monty2b if anyone wants to add me).

[shoju]

Guess I shoulud have made sure the link worked.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/113210

[shoju]

So I started a Ranger just to see what they were like, haven't died yet, and I've cleared the fetid pool this morning... I was really worried about this, since I'm not a fan of ranged, but this is working out well.

[Chesspiece_face]

So I started a Ranger just to see what they were like, haven't died yet, and I've cleared the fetid pool this morning... I was really worried about this, since I'm not a fan of ranged, but this is working out well.

I've not played a great deal, but the only time I've died on my Ranger was in Act II against the bandit that constantly leaps into your face crushing off half your health.

I played a ranger up to late 40s way back in the beta when Poison Arrow (name?) was crazy broken. I'm low 20s on my current Ranger and using the Ice Arrow thingy which I find to be much more engaging than Poison. They are extraordinarily powerful.

[MonTy]

So I started a Ranger just to see what they were like, haven't died yet, and I've cleared the fetid pool this morning... I was really worried about this, since I'm not a fan of ranged, but this is working out well.

I think Lightning Arrow Ranger is one of the strongest builds in the game, mainly due to being able to dish out a ton of damage from off the screen. If you pick up LA right away and link it, you'll have issues with mana, especially if you go for Auras (blood magic rangers are popular). I'm going to restart my Ranger, but go for Exploding Arrow instead of LA. We'll see how that goes. While LA was strong, it's not the kind of play style I'm looking to bring into end-game. Think I'm on character #15 now :P

BTW Frag, thanks for joining us in the race, that was a lot of fun. Hope other Loungers join sometime in the near future :)

[Chesspiece_face]

BTW Frag, thanks for joining us in the race, that was a lot of fun. Hope other Loungers join sometime in the near future

I might be able to set aside some time to do this. It's been a long time since I've dedicated much effort to PoE though, so I don't know much about the current meta state of the game.

Would be interested in recording the sessions as well if other players aren't against it.[/quote]

[MonTy]

I might be able to set aside some time to do this.

That would be awesome, it was fun gaming/speaking with you in the past. I think races would be really exciting to stream, you're always on edge and constantly near death (doesn't that sound fun?).

Since you're thinking of recording, it would probably be best if I did a test run with you, so I can go over the basics of racing. It's a much different approach to the game if you're racing with a team. It's probably the most fun I've had in an Action RPG. Just let me know if you'll be interested, I'm usually on every day after 6pm eastern.

[shoju]

So, I'm finding that I've made my Templar a god when it comes to staying alive.




BUt.... He's not very good at the Dee Pee Ess.

I've been dying lately, because I'm just not killing efficiently. I go through all my pots, I go through all stuff, and in the end, I'm still running for my life, because I'm not doing enough damage. Granted, a fair bit of time passes before I succumb, but I'm just not killing stuff in a timely manner.

I Think I know what the solution is. It's just going to take me some time to get to the solution. I had relied on Accuracy, and as I've leveled, my accuracy raiting/% has stayed the same (my dex wont allow me to up the gem any higher, and I don't have much accuracy on gear), and now I'm just not hitting enough. This means, as I level, and the req's of things get higher, my accuracy is going down, and I'm not connecting.

So I'm planning on getting Resolute Technique... ASAP. I went into Chamber of Sins on Cruel, and I'm just not able to kill enough fast enough to make a dent in several spots (I ran into a room that was double Magic Lich, + Magic Zombies.... That sucked.)

I've also switched to Infernal Blow from Glacial Hammer. At this point, Blow is doing more than Hammer. I'm still using Ice Nova for my AoE.... I'd like to replace that, but I don't feel like I have very good options for AoE at this point.

I have
Lightning Strike (sort of AoE)
Shock Nova (Man... that's underwhelming for melee)
Ice Nova (currently using, just seems to be a little weak, even against mobs that aren't resistant.)
Freezing Pulse (not dedicated AoE, since I generate no Power Charges)
Ground Slam (Maybe? I've never been a big fan of it, but maybe it's time to break it out)
Fire Trap (eh... Not sure if It's worth it. I'm just now getting the hang of traps on my ranger.)
Detonate Dead (I've been having fun with this on a Witch I made... Is it any good at higher levels?)
Firestorm (I'm not a huge fan of the "on mouse pointer" AoE's, but I could try it)
Molten Shell (I've thought about dropping Freezing Pulse for this, it would at least "boost" my current AoE)

And... that looks to be it.

Should I stick with Ice Nova? Swap to Ground Slam? When I hit 45, I will be able to add a +Life on Hit to Ice Nova, which could allow me to live Even Longer I guess, but It wont solve my pitiful DPS. I'm thinking that Resolute Tech is about the only way to go at this point, and it's 4 points away, and It'll probably be levels that get me the points, since I don't seem to see any +skill point quests in Act II that I'm going to be getting to in the near future.

[shoju]

Was able to use some banked respec points to ditch the recently acquired Chaos and Life nodes to get to Resolute Technique. Thank god. Life is so much better. Smashing through things, hit 45, got into Chamber of Sins, and +Life on Hit on Ice Nova is great. I'm definitely pleased with how the changes worked out. Now, the plan is to crash through the rest of Act II, and get back into Act III, which, I think is my favorite storyline of the three Acts.

I am a little worried about what I'm goiing to do against Vaal Boss. The elementally resistant, has me thinking I should use Heavy Strike on him and suck up the DPS loss, as I think even with the DPS loss statistically, I think it will be a better thing overall.

We'll see. I definitely feel better right now, on my templar than I did with the Marauder.

My Current Gear I got the chest in Chamber of Sins from the 1st level boss. I spent a lot of Orbs to get it to 4s, only to giggle as I got the 4l on the first try, and then 5 orbs to get it to 4 red. Thank god, I've got about 20 Alterations worth of junk in the stash to part with, and build back up my stock on jewelers.

Is there a level req on getting more than 4s? In.... 30? Jewelers, I didn't see anything but 1 2 or 3 sockets, until I got the 4.

I've seen dropped gear with 5s, but nothing yet with 6s, and I've yet to put jewelers on a chest and end up with more than 4.

[MonTy]

So I'm planning on getting Resolute Technique... ASAP.

Most Melee characters bee-line to Resolute Technique. It's quite a big DPS boost, along with the satisfaction knowing every hit will actually land. Great way to tell if you're lagging, too.

I've also switched to Infernal Blow from Glacial Hammer. At this point, Blow is doing more than Hammer. I'm still using Ice Nova for my AoE.... I'd like to replace that, but I don't feel like I have very good options for AoE at this point.

Infernal Blow can have some nice DPS while Glacial has the freeze/chill utility. I personally prefer the damage from Heavy Strike. If you stick with Glacial or Infernal make sure you get Catalyse talent in the Templar tree.

Lightning Strike is mediocre damage, but is a pretty big change in spec if you go for this. Will want Iron Grip and Static Blows.

Freezing Pulse is amazing, but again, different spec. You'll want LMP, spell damage, projectile damage, faster cast speed, etc.

I personally like Ground Slam, most people find it boring. Templar's increase area of effect passives help this skill as well.

I used Molten Shell for progression, but once I started Merciless farming I got too used to not using it that I couldn't go back. It does provide nice armor and dps boost if you need it. Saved my life once or twice for sure.

Should I stick with Ice Nova? Swap to Ground Slam?

I suggest making a decision now. If you go with Ice Nova you'll want +spell damage. If you go for Ground Slam you'll want more +physical/higher physical damage weapon. Going too in between will leave your character too weak for Merciless, IMO. If you have incredible gear you could possibly pull it off, but for limited resources pick one or the other and supplement its strength.

I spent a lot of Orbs to get it to 4s, only to giggle as I got the 4l on the first try, and then 5 orbs to get it to 4 red

Hah, grats! I've spent 50 fusings trying to four link an item. But I've also got five link in a few tries. So I'm sure RNG will get you back ;) In the future you'll want to try four-linking items with five sockets, and to try and five link items with six sockets. Being able to link gear does have level requirements; see below.

item level 1 - max. 2 sockets (except the starting weapons)
item level 15 - max. 3 sockets
item level 28 - max. 4 sockets
item level 35 - max. 5 sockets
item level 50 - max. 6 sockets

[shoju]

I'm sort of holding out hope on this new cyclone ability to be released this week. I saw that in the video they are using what looks to be a templar with a mace and shield.

Resolute Technique is probably my favorite Keystone right now. I could finish off this templar into merciless, and not see another keystone that I think is as vital to my gameplay as Res Tech.

At this point, I've been using Infernal Blow, Ice Nova, and Firestorm (trying to get the hang of it) as my damaging abilities. I like the idea of using Infernal Blow for single target (because it "can" have an AoE damage component), and Ice Nova for my AoE, as Large packs are when I feel the most vulnerable.

Thanks for the tip on Catalyse. I had overlooked it. Probably because I've been pretty focused on rounding out my defenses so much, after having such a debacle on the Marauder.

This is where I'm at now.
This is where I'd like to end up After considering your mention of Catalyse. Though I could be swayed to not go into Marauder Ground any further, and start picking up more offense.

I will need to get 5 respec points / Orbs to correct my bungling at the beginning of the tree, and then I figure 72 Skill Points will probably put me around 60-62, maybe a little higher. I'm guessing a little, as I'm 7 points ahead of level right now, and I'm assuming I can pick up 5 more skill points along the way.

I do have a question. When something says "X% Increased Elemental Damage" Is that Spell Damage as well?

Like... The tree that I have linked as my "Goal", The tampermonkey script I run says that it will increase my elemental damage by 41%, and my elemental damage with weapons by another 50%.

So will that first 41% get added to Ice Nova? What about the Sceptres... Do they get Ice Nova as well? ? I've been using the "10% increased Elemental Damage" Sceptres, because I've seen them with nice +%Physical Damage Modifiers, while the 20% Sceptres, I've not seen the Physical Damage Modifier. I picked up a rare 20% sceptre last night, that had tons of ele damage on it, and the 20% modifier, but looking at the DPS on the Char Sheet, The Lead Sceptre was almost double the DPS on Infernal Blow.

Am I right in using the Ele Sceptres for this build?

Thanks about the chest. When I rolled it, and it came up with +75 Life (which was more than double the other chest I was wearing), I decided it was a good enough upgrade to toss some stuff at. I'm trying like mad to get more life on my gear (even though I'm comfortable over 1600 HP right now).

So far, I've got:

Helm: 21 (would upgrade if I could find an already rare item, or a 4s with at least 3L to tinker with)
Ring 1: 54
Ring 2: 79
Chest: 75
Belt: 29 (but it's got Chaos Resist, so I keep it)
Boots: 70

Leaving my Weapon, Shield, and Neck, as the only pieces without it. The Neck has Chaos Resist, so until I can find one to upgrade from with CR, I'm here. I've been rolling all the Ceremonial Kite Shields (that's my shield of choice until I hit 55 and the Angelic Kites) that are Magic or Rare, to see if I can roll one that has life, as my current shield is "Ok", but a good shield one with Life, would be an upgrade.

And I've not seen any low level (less than map loot) weapons with life on them, but I keep looking.

And one last thought / question.

Should I save my Exalts? I have looted a pair of them, and I see people offering mountains of currency in trade for them from time to time, and I'm not going to lie, from a crafting perspective, at my level, the mountain of Currency is worth far more than the Exalts, as I wont be using them for..... 23 levels or so.

I figured I should solicit advice from those who have been in end game, and know the "rate" at which Exalts can be come by at that stage of things.

[shoju]

Took a break from the Templar, and played my Summoner last night. Everyone says that they are hard at low levels... I'm just not seeing what is so hard about them. Level 20, and I only died twice on the way. Once to horrid lag on Fire Fury, where she looked like she was just standing there, and my zombies weren't moving, and once on Merveil, where I was spamming the wrong summon, and wondering why I wasn't getting any Zombies (I was resummoning Skellies... My bad all the way)

It's not incredibly engaging gameplay, but, it's easy, and a break from face tanking everything. I do need to settle on some curses though. With 6 skellies, 1 spectre, and 4 zombies, it's already getting hard to pick out who the enemy is. So far, my favorite spectre has been the bear dog things from Act II. They last a while. I've been thinking about running a rejuv totem just to try and keep them alive until I can pick up a better spectre. I figure if this keeps going the way it is, It should be a breeze all the way to Cruel. The sad part, is that I'm trying to live just on the gear that she loots, and finding it's WAY easier to do this as ranged as opposed to melee. I felt compelled as melee to try and get better gear to improve my survivability. So far, that's not the case on this.

I see now why people wouldn't like to group with a Summoner.

[MonTy]

Recorded a video this morning from the 1 hour race. Please note it was minutes after I woke up and didn't get to grab coffee, so I sound a bit like a zombie :P http://www.twitch.tv/lionel2b/b/378845125

But I feel it gives a decent overview of what to expect for these races. I did ok for the first half an hour, then I slowed down quite a bit. Again, feel free to let me know if you want to join up for the party races. Done one with Frag and some others. It's challenging but a lot of fun!

*edit - Actually got top 20 of my class for that run. Surprised since it was sub-par, but probably got that rank due to it being really early in the day :P

*edit 2 - VOD of my Ancestral race (totems everywhere!). Died before the end though :P http://www.twitch.tv/lionel2b/b/378951656

*edit 3 - ended up top 15 in my class for the 2nd Ancestral race. As I thought range is the way to go!

[MonTy]

Took a break from the Templar, and played my Summoner last night. Everyone says that they are hard at low levels...

I've heard most people say they're just slow, basic, and boring at low levels. Not necessarily hard to play compared to others builds (if anything I would say slightly weak). I leveled a summoner to 20 myself and found her quite easy to play actually. I plan to revisit leveling her after my ranger :)

[shoju]

I didn't even find it slow. I just found gear that had blues and links, and tossed in the gems, and damage nodes, and raced towards minion instability.

Hit the templar today, and I have to say the western forest still just sucks performance wise. I don't know what the problem is, but I always drop to <5 fps in that god forsaken zone. So..... I'll be suiciding Cruel Bandit boss in there next time I play. That's all I have left to do before I go into Vaal.

I did end up with an ABSOLUTE TON of rares, and a couple of flasks. If anyone is playing softcore on anything, let me know.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-th...151/page/1

Anything on that list is fair game. If you want to trade gear, great. If you want to trade for currency, that's fine.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/113210 This is my current gear. There are a few things I would like to upgrade.

[MonTy]

Don't you love it when a build snaps into place? Two things happened at the same level with my Lightning Arrow ranger. First is I crafted a four link rare, and second is getting Blood Magic. Using Lightning Arrow+Life on Hit+Chain+Lesser Multiple Projectiles = tons of AoE damage and lots of life on return (thanks to dozens of hits at once).

Here's his first moments entering A2 Cruel a bit under-leveled: http://www.twitch.tv/lionel2b/b/379492387 - he's going to be very good at AoE farming!