Path of Exile

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chockomonkey said:
...seriously... Welp, guess i shoulda learned to play =P
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Heh, it's not every gem in the game (like, a Templar might not have access to bow gems from the NPC) but it's not uncommon to see someone in town simply ask the players in the instance if someone can buy x gem for them (they're all cheap too...no more 5C for Multistrike, etc.). It's just one of a number of QoL additions they've made.
 
Aix. said:
Heh, it's not every gem in the game (like, a Templar might not have access to bow gems from the NPC) but it's not uncommon to see someone in town simply ask the players in the instance if someone can buy x gem for them (they're all cheap too...no more 5C for Multistrike, etc.). It's just one of a number of QoL additions they've made.
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Thanks god. Made no sense to make it a pain to get skills to make a build. Gearing can and is supposed to take time, but the skills themselves? It always boggled my mind.
 
big_aug said:
Thanks god. Made no sense to make it a pain to get skills to make a build. Gearing can and is supposed to take time, but the skills themselves? It always boggled my mind.
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Yeah, definitely a change for the better. Makes clearing out the 10+ tabs of gems I have a pain in the ass though :p You can also buy different levels of the different gems by shopping in Normal, Cruel, etc., which can be helpful if you are trying to minimize the time to level them up or find one low enough level for CWDT or something.
 
Patch notes for Friday's Atlas of Worlds expansion have been released! Cast on Crit and other trigger gems have been significantly reworked, which seems to have caused a ruckus with Standard players more than anyone else. Many underused skills also received buffs. Looking forward to trying out the new multi-threaded client as well. Have a look:

Path of Exile: Version 2.4.0 (Atlas of Worlds) Patch Notes

The Atlas of Worlds:
  • The Atlas of Worlds lets you track your progression through Path of Exile's map endgame. You can also use it to upgrade maps and add mods to the Atlas. It indicates which maps are connected to each other.
  • The map drop rules have been changed so that connected maps and maps you've previously completed can drop from the area you're playing. As you progress towards the center of the Atlas from the four corners, the tier of maps increases.
  • There are four tier 16 maps that contain the Guardians of the Void. As you defeat them, you'll earn fragments of a key that allows you to challenge the Shaper himself.
  • As you complete more types of maps, you unlock a cumulative map tier bonus that is displayed on the Atlas.
  • You can upgrade white or yellow maps by five tiers using a Shaper's Orb, which can be earned by completing bonus objectives on specific maps.
  • You can add temporary mods to the Atlas itself using Cartographer's Sextants.
  • Your progress, upgrades and mods on the Atlas of Worlds are shared between all characters on your account in that league.
  • We've added thirty new maps and dozens of new map bosses.
  • There are thirteen new base item types that can be only be found in specific areas of the Atlas.
  • Most existing maps have been revamped to have more balanced monster composition, layouts, boss fights and rewards.
  • You can trade 20 Cartographer's Chisels and 5 Orbs of Regret to a vendor for an item that allows you to respec the Shaping of a map.
  • You can trade 5 Cartographer's Sextants (of a specific colour) to a vendor for an item that allows you to respec the completion of a map of that colour.
  • You can find out more detailed information about how the Atlas works here: Forum - Announcements - Detailed Atlas Mechanics - Path of Exile

The Essence Challenge Leagues:
Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All of your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and demonstrate your mastery of Path of Exile!
  • With 2.4.0, there are Standard and Hardcore variations of the Essence challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items.
  • In the Essence league, you'll occasionally encounter groups of monsters trapped by mysterious essences. Each type of essence imbues the monsters with different powers, which you'll have to face upon freeing the monsters from their prison. If you are strong enough to defeat these foes, you can claim an essence for yourself.
  • These items aren't just a trophy - their effect is similar to that of the Orb of Alchemy. Using one on a normal item will upgrade it to a rare item but with one predecided property. Each of the 25 essences types guarantees a different power, some of which have never been possible on items before.
  • The top two essences of each type also act like a Chaos Orb.
  • While it's tempting to use your essences to craft items, you can also upgrade your spare essences to their next power level by combining a group of three identical ones at the vendor. The 25 types of essences have between three and seven tiers of power level depending on when they occur in the game.
  • One special type of essence called the Remnant of Corruption isn't used on items, but on the trapped monsters themselves. Its Vaal influence can create many possible outcomes, including special types of essences that can't be created any other way.
  • Each additional player in your party adds a chance for an additional random essence to drop when the monster is killed.
  • Essences ignore master metamods when crafting items.
  • The new challenge leagues include a set of 40 new challenges. When you complete 12 challenges, you receive the Essence Footprints Effect. At 24, you receive the Essence Back Attachment. When you complete your 36th challenge, you receive the Essence Portal Effect. These microtransactions are only obtainable in this league.
  • From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you receive pieces of the Essence Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Essence challenges you completed during the league.

Engine Multithreading:
  • This patch introduces the new multithreaded engine features that should significantly improve game performance for most users. They were previously an opt-in beta test.
  • To disable this feature, change "Engine Multithreading" in the Graphics Options to "Disabled". It is automatically disabled if your CPU has less than four hardware cores.
  • Frame rate increases are most significant when there are a lot of entities in the scene. This means situations with large amounts of combat should have much more stable frame rates. Do not expect significant increases in frame rate in non-combat situations.
  • If you are GPU-bound, you shouldn't expect significant increases in frame rate.

Other Technical Improvements:
  • The particle effects system has been optimised, especially for CPUs with AVX capabilities. Particle simulation is now up to four times faster if you're using a modern CPU. This can translate to double frame rate in high-particle situations such as Burning Ground.
  • We've added new texture compression which will improve loading speed and download size.
  • More assets have been added to the preloading system to prevent micro-stutters.
  • Reduced memory usage (and hence background loading times) by a further 300mb.

Major New Features/Content:
  • Added 22 new Unique items, including nine designed by supporters of Path of Exile. Eight of these new uniques can only drop from the Guardians of the Void, and four can only drop from the Shaper himself.
  • Added four new Divination Cards, including one designed by our Russian Path of Exile community.
  • Added a new type of Strongbox: Diviner's Strongbox.
  • Updated the Hall of Grandmasters with about a dozen additional Grandmasters and some replacements.

Minor New Features/Content:
  • Medium-size hideouts can now hold four Forsaken Masters rather than three. Large-size hideouts can now hold seven Forsaken Masters rather than four. Navali and Leo both bypass these limits.
  • The party user interface now shows what area your party members are in if they're not in the current area. Players who have recently disconnected are shown greyed out for a few seconds so that you can see that it occurred.
  • Added 3d art for Vis Mortis, Widowmaker, Frostbreath and the Alternate Art Demigod's Stride.
  • The "Create" button is now disabled on the character selection screen if you have no available character slots. This prevents the situation where you only find out after attempting to name a character.
  • Flask buff icons have been remade in a consistent way.
  • The spirit standing next to Haku now flies upwards when you complete the mission and get your reward.
  • The "Intruders in Black" quest in Cruel now also offers a Bismuth Flask as a reward. "Mercy Mission" in Cruel now also offers Stibnite and Silver Flasks as rewards. "Mercy Mission" in Merciless now also offers Basalt, Aquamarine and Sulphur Flasks as rewards.
  • The Rock Elemental pet now sometimes rolls when it moves.
  • Zana, Master Cartographer has a new voice actor.
  • Forsaken Masters that point to their objective now also have an arrow on the ground in that direction.
  • You now automatically receive the next waypoint when you kill the Vaal Oversoul (like other act bosses).
  • Significantly improved the Alien Grass in the Belly of the Beast.
  • Flicker Strike no longer causes you to drop Haku's spirit.
  • Added some additional dialogue to Maramoa.
  • Renamed the Labyrinth item "Orb of Elemental Essence" to "Orb of Elemental Dispersion" to avoid confusion.
  • Cut-throat leagues now have their own league flag art.
  • Descriptions of damage ranges have been changed from "x-y" to "x to y" so that it's more clear when examining the ranges of mods that an Essence can add.
  • Emerging spiders now emerge more quickly.
  • Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

Channelled Skill System:
  • Added a channelled skill system. Incinerate, Flameblast and Wither are now channelled skills.
  • Unlike other skills, which are used once and quickly finish, when you use a channelled skill, it doesn't finish until you release the relevant button/key. You continue performing the same skill.
  • You need to pay mana repeatedly to keep the skill going. The channelled skill's mana cost must be paid again to maintain it with a frequency determined by the cast time. If you can't pay, the skill will end, just as if you'd lifted the button.
  • Dying, being stunned, and other game mechanics that interrupt the use of skills will cause channelling to end as well.
  • Effects which trigger when you use a skill will only trigger when you initially start channelling - regardless of how long you maintain a channelled skill, it's still the same use of the skill. You need to stop channelling if you want to use it again.

Prophecy Changes
  • The Prophecy system (previously a challenge league) has been added to the core game. You can now find and rescue Navali in The Climb.
  • Navali can now be invited to your hideout and she doesn't consume a slot that would be used by a Forsaken Master.
  • When seeking Prophecies from Navali in your hideout, the difficulty used is now the latest difficulty in which your character has ever accessed the Twilight Strand.
  • Silver Coins now drop less often than before, as Prophecy is not the main league mechanic now.
  • The sealing cost for most Prophecies has been slightly reduced.
  • The highest level that some Prophecies can spawn at has been reduced.
  • The Normal difficulty version of the "The Forgotten Soldiers" prophecy has been made easier.

Immunity Improvements:
  • Immunity to debuffs has been reworked to be consistent. In all cases where a player gains immunity to a debuff, they now also have that debuff removed (as opposed to just not allowing further application).
  • "Cannot be" stats do not work as immunity. For example, Fairgraves Tricorne prevents you being shocked, but does not remove shock.
  • In most cases, this change will not change how existing game elements behave. However some game elements have been reworded to clarify how they work.

Triggered Skill Improvements:
Since we introduced trigger gems, players have been able to trigger their skills faster and faster with each update. The performance and gameplay consequences of this extreme skill spam have finally justified a redesign of how some trigger gems work.
  • For Cast on Critical Strike, Cast on Melee Kill, Mjölner and Cospri's Malice, only one skill can be triggered per trigger event. The damage of Cast on Critical Strike and Cast on Melee Kill has been increased, as described in "Active Skill Gem Balance" below.
  • The spell that is triggered is determined based on the order in which it is socketed, and will cast supported spells in sequence, even across multiple attacks. These items and skills also have cooldowns which limit how often a skill is cast.
  • All unique items that trigger skills, now and going forward, follow the rule that if a skill is triggered, it can only be used by that trigger and cannot be directly cast by the player as well.
  • Previously, only the trigger support gems limited the use of the triggered skills this way, while skills triggered by unique item properties could be self-cast.
  • Null's Inclination will not be affected by the Cast on Crit changes and will still trigger all minion spells on kill.

Active Skill Gem Balance:
  • Frost Walls created by you or your allies are now no longer considered enemies for the purposes of projectile collision detection (your projectiles will not collide with your own Frost Wall). This intentionally fixes the exploit case where a player stacks many Frost Walls around a boss and uses a skill like Piercing Lightning Arrow to trigger an excessive amount of hits.
  • Cast on Critical Strike now has a 500ms cooldown, and will now only trigger one spell per frame when you critically strike. It now has 100% chance to trigger casts when you critically strike. It now has 20% more spell damage at level 1, tapered up to 39% at level 20 (1% per level). Note that the changes described above in "Triggered Skill Improvements" affect Cast on Critical Strike - spells are chosen in the order of their sockets.
  • Cast on Melee Kill now has a 250ms cooldown. Cast on Melee Kill's increases to spell damage have been replaced with 20% more spell damage at level 1, up to 39% at level 20 (1% per level).
  • Many skills have had their damage increased. The increases start out low at lower levels and taper upwards. Here are the increases at gem level 20:
  • Fireball: 50% more damage.
  • Ice Spear: 70% more damage.
  • Arctic Breath: 35% more damage.
  • Cleave: 19% more damage.
  • Sweep: 15% more damage.
  • Ground Slam: 15% more damage.
  • Sunder: 9% more damage.
  • Viper Strike: 11% more damage.
  • Double Strike: 13% more damage.
  • Heavy Strike: 5% more damage.
  • Glacial Hammer: 6% more damage.
  • Dominating Blow: 6% more attack damage (not minion damage).
  • Frost Blades: 15% more damage.
  • Lightning Strike: 9% more damage.
  • Wild Strike: 19% more damage. It now also gains 1% increased area of effect per level.
  • Static Strike: 16% more damage.
  • Reave: 12% more damage. Reave's base area of effect has been increased by 21%. Its per-stage area of effect has been reduced from 30% to 20%. It still has the same area of effect at the fourth stage.
  • Vaal Reave's area of effect has been updated to match changes to Reave.
  • Lacerate's 30% Less Attack Speed drawback has been reduced to 25% Less Attack Speed. This is a buff.
  • Ice Crash's attack speed penalty is now 20% less (down from 25% less). Its secondary stage damage penalty is now 15% less (down from 20% less). Its third stage damage penalty is now 30% less (down from 40% less). This is a buff.
  • Static Strike now gains 1% increased area of effect per level.
  • Earthquake's aftershock damage has been reduced from 60% more (at level 1, tapered upwards) to 50% more at all Levels. Its mana cost has been increased from 6 to 10. Its aftershock area of effect has been reduced by 12%. With the wide-ranging melee buffs and adjustment to Earthquake, we expect to see a much more balanced use of melee skills.
  • Blade Vortex now has a stack limit of 20 (down from 50). It now deals 63% more damage at level 20. The number of hits per second causes substantial performance problems. The skill was also deemed too strong against bosses.
  • Magma Orb can now be affected by projectile speed modifications.
  • Discharge now deals 35% less damage when triggered.
  • Vaal Molten Shell now causes an explosion when it prevents any physical damage, rather than when it takes any hit.
  • The trap/mine behaviour of Bladefall has been made more consistent with other traps/mines. The blades fall from the mine itself, not targeting the location where the monster is. (They will fall in the direction of the monster though).
  • PvP T-values have been set for Contagion, Essence Drain and Vortex.

Support Gem Balance:
  • Melee Splash now only has 35% Less Damage to Other Targets at level 1 (down from 50% Less). It now has 26% less at level 20 (from 31%). This is a buff.
  • The damage bonus of the Less Duration support gem has been reduced. At level 1, it has been reduced from 20% to 10%. At level 20, it has been reduced from 29% to 19%. Given the strong utility of this gem, it doesn't need a damage bonus that high.
  • Pierce's mana multiplier has been increased from 110% to 130%. Its damage at high levels only has been reduced. Its damage at level 20 has been reduced from +29% to +19%. Given the strong utility of this gem, it doesn't need a damage bonus that high.
  • Cast when Stunned now also triggers when blocking a hit that would stun.

Unique Item Balance:
  • Rigwald's Crest: The damage of the spectral summoned wolves has been increased by 50%. Their life has been increased by 66%. You know you want to.
  • The following changes do not affect existing versions of these items, unless you use a Divine Orb to reroll them.
  • Reach of the Council: Its added damage has been lowered from (25-40 to 100-115) to (15-30 to 70-95). Its local increased physical damage has been reduced from (50%-70%) to (40%-50%). Given the large number of additional projectiles this bow provides, it doesn't need the incredibly large damage bonus. It essentially has a built-in GMP which you could use a damage support in place of.
  • Voidheart: Its Chance on Melee Hit to Bleed has been lowered from 100% to (30% to 50%). Its Chance to Poison on Melee Hit has been lowered from 100% to (20% to 40%). We feel that this ring provided too much of a damage bonus for one non-weapon item slot.

Ascendancy Skill Balance Changes:
  • Unrelenting now has a 30% chance to gain maximum charges on generating an endurance charge (rather than 100%).While we do want the Juggernaut to be effective at generating endurance charges, this made it far too easy and low-effort. It's still very good.
  • Headsman now grants 15% increased area of effect if you have killed an enemy recently (down from 20%).
  • Impact now grants 10% increased area of effect (down from 15%).These two skills are still the best way to get area of effect for Duelists.
  • Shaper of Desolation now grants different Confluxes over a ten-second cycle: Chilling Conflux for three seconds, Shocking Conflux for three seconds, Igniting Conflux for three seconds and then all three together for one second. Each Conflux means that any damage causes that Status Ailment. Elemental Conflux was too powerful. The new version requires more strategy (and doesn't need a kill to get started).
 
Seems we can't post more than 20,000 characters, so here's the rest of the patch notes:

Monster Balance Changes:
  • Monster life has been increased in tier 4-12 maps.
  • The Life Regeneration mod (and aura) for rare monsters can no longer appear until level 8, to prevent unkillable monsters early where you don't have the tools to deal with their high life regeneration
  • Bosses that had a reduced effect of curses on them now have a multiplier rather than a reduction. Over time, more and more curse effect has been made available to players. With the boss curse effect reduction being additive, the increased curse effect available to players overwhelmed it. Temporal Chains and Enfeeble arguably still trivialise most bosses.

Other Balance Changes:
  • Tier 1 maps now drop from level 58 onwards in Merciless.
  • Poison now deals 8% of Physical and Chaos damage as Chaos Damage for 2 seconds (down from 10%). While we have future plans to fix Poison (addressing double dipping), this nerf brings it slightly more in line until we can make those changes.
  • Labyrinth Item Enchantments for Storm Call Duration have been weakened. In Merciless, the duration is 20% lower (rather than 30%). In the Endgame Labyrinth, the duration is 30% lower (rather than 45%). Nearly-instant Storm Calls were a problem. It has its delay for a reason. There are still legacy versions of this Enchantment.
  • The extra map drop chance that occurs at the map boss is now on the final map boss you kill, rather than the first one.
  • The cost for Vorici to guarantee three specific colours of sockets has been reduced to 120 Chromatic Orbs.
  • The chance of finding a Unique Strongbox has been doubled again.
  • Tormented Spirits can now only touch up to 50 monsters each. The technical issues caused by "vacuum farming" are causing too many problems for us and we have unfortunately had to disable this playstyle. This will improve server performance for everyone.
  • Tormented Spirits can no longer possess Vagan, because sometimes he cannot die.

Zana League Mods Available During 2.4.0:
  • There's now explanatory hover text on the map mods that Zana offers, so that you can see this data in the game client.
  • Level 2: Invasion (Cost: 2 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, adds one Invasion Boss/Pack)
  • Level 3: Beyond (Cost: 3 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, Beyond)
  • Level 4: Anarchy (Cost: 3 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, adds three Rogue Exiles)
  • Level 5: Torment (Cost: 3 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, adds three Tormented Spirits)
  • Level 6: Perandus (Cost: 4 Chaos Orbs, adds three Perandus Chests, chance for Cadiro to spawn)
  • Level 7: Domination (Cost: 4 Chaos Orbs, adds three Shrines)
  • Level 8: Ambush (Cost: 4 Chaos Orbs, adds three Strongboxes)

One-time Passive Skill Reset:
  • Due to balance changes, every existing character has been granted an optional full passive skill reset.
  • This process will also reset your allocated Ascendancy points.
  • To perform this operation, click the "Reset all Passives" button on the passive skill screen. Note that you must use this before allocating or refunding any other points otherwise the option will go away.

Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed a bug where the Headsman Ascendancy skill prevented Poacher's Mark from awarding players with the correct number of charges.
  • Fixed a bug that could occur if players managed to get -100% increased cast speed.
  • Fixed a bug related to returning projectiles. They can now hit on the way out and on the way back but can't shotgun (where more than one hit the same target) in either direction.
  • Fixed a bug related to how Bear Trap visually fades away.
  • Strongboxes that explode corpses now do so in a wave that emanates outwards from the Strongbox, rather than using Vaal Detonate Dead. This prevents some negative situations that would previously occur.
  • Fixed various problems accessing the Sarn Arena.
  • Fixed a bug where the Tora mission that involves the Infected Beast would complete too early.
  • Fixed a bug where Izaro couldn't be cursed by the same types of curses that his pylons could apply to him as an aura.
  • Fixed a bug where Zana's Tempest mod would sometimes not actually generate a Tempest.
  • Fixed a bug where having "Local Life Leech is Instant" on a weapon would also make mana leech instant with that weapon.
  • Fixed a bug where the Pathfinder's "Flasks gain a Charge every 3 seconds" skill would cancel your attempt to reclaim a microtransaction every 3 seconds.
  • Fixed a bug where the player light sometimes wouldn't be shown (in favour of a much dimmer arbitrary environmental light).
  • Fixed a problem where Elreon's missions could fail to spawn in some areas.
  • Fixed a problem that would cause the ocean water to stutter on AMD graphics cards.
  • Fixed the attack speed calculation for Lacerate when dual wielding.
  • Fixed a bug where you couldn't swap Sealed Prophecies around by clicking one onto the other.
  • Fixed a bug where Leap Slam would do nothing if the target location was obstructed.
  • Fixed a bug where the spinning active aura indicator would either stand still or only spin slowly when at extremely high frame rates.
  • Fixed a bug where a Molten Shell would sometimes not disappear when its owner dies.
  • Fixed a case where players with slow load times could fail Zana's limited portals mission during the load screen while in a party.
  • The storms summoned by the Bloodlines mod Herald of the Obelisk now visually resume playing correctly if you go away and come back.
  • Fixed an issue where some traps (specifically Rigwald's ones) would always spawn on top of each other.
  • Fixed a client crash that could occur in predictive mode related to Molten Shell.
  • Fixed a bug where Frost Bomb Spell Totems would persist even after the Spell Totem support gem was removed.
  • Fixed a bug where Lacerate could hit with invalid weapon types if they're equipped in the off-hand.
  • Fixed two instance crashes.
  • Fixed a bug where multiple Offering Wards could be present at once.
  • Fixed a bug where Tormented Spirits could still drop items when they expire or when they possess monsters (without being directly killed).
  • Fixed a client crash that could occur when rapidly socketing/unsocketing a triggered skill at the moment it is being triggered.
  • Fixed a bug where swapping out certain support gems would not update Blade Vortex's visual effects.
  • Fixed a bug where completing multiple instances of the same cumulative challenge very close together would not count them correctly.
  • Fixed a bug where you could gain permanent Blade Vortex stacks if you had superhuman timing. Or a macro.
  • Fixed a client crash that could occur with Dominus' chilling bond totems.
  • Fixed a bug where the "Kalandra's Craft" Prophecy triggered on chests when it states that it only triggers on monsters.
  • Fixed a bug where you could only have one Frenzy Charge generated from Terminus Est at a time.
  • Fixed a bug where minimap quest icons would reappear when they shouldn't.
  • Fixed a bug where the Dweller of the Deep would leave a phantom glow effect behind after its first form died.
  • Fixed a bug where Tora could spawn blocked away from the player in the Crematorium.
  • Fixed a bug where Voll would drop a Deshret's Banner while still having one visually attached to his body. Now his copy is hidden. The illusion is complete.
  • Fixed a bug where some Grandmasters did not use Shield Charge correctly.
  • Fixed a bug where Scaeva's global critical strike mod applied like a local one (effectively granting an 80% multiplicative crit increase).
  • Fixed a bug where the effect of Blade Vortex would not play correctly if you didn't see it being cast.
  • Fixed a bug where the Bone Roil effect from Bonespire Talisman would be invisible if you returned to the area after it was cast.
  • Fixed a bug where the tracking of several internal states (mostly related to Ascendancies) were incorrectly counted as additional buffs on the player for effects which count or increase buffs.
 
Melee was supposed to be buffed... In reality, not so much. Summoners also look to have a harder time with curse nerfs. Might just do my whispering ice build again and hope the new-delayed skills are worth rerolling for.
 
I got my new rig up and running yesterday and POE installed. Wish I could take off Friday lol
 
Servers won't be up till midday EST anyways, I'm gonna try and cut loose early but i have my doubts at that.
 
Been looking at this.. They gutted out CoC builds.. Mjolner builds.. juggernauts.. elementalists.. all kinda in a wierd place atm. The meta will change for sure, but not anywhere towards melee. The 'buff's to melee skills are a joke, actually. Everyone back to ranged/casters.. nothing to see here, move along.
 
memnoch998 said:
Been looking at this.. They gutted out CoC builds.. Mjolner builds.. juggernauts.. elementalists.. all kinda in a wierd place atm. The meta will change for sure, but not anywhere towards melee. The 'buff's to melee skills are a joke, actually. Everyone back to ranged/casters.. nothing to see here, move along.
Click to expand...

I've played melee since closed beta before there was anything other than Act 1 and the Maelstrom of Chaos. It was always gimped, but I did well. I made it through high tier maps and was able to solo most of them (hardcore). That's only when maps went into the 70s though. I haven't played in a couple years.

Melee is gimped, but it's fun. I always loved ground slam marauders. I'll probably play one along with a summoner. Perhaps it'll be worse than it ever was now though. I've always been a glutton for punishment.

I've probably ranted about how gimped melee is in this very thread lol
 
Looks like they know its not enough:

Chris:
We have come to realise that the people asking for nerfs and the people complaining about nerfs are different groups of players (for the most part).

We do have a pretty solid plan for changing some fundamentals of melee play, but it's not ready yet. In the meantime, these buffs do move things in the right direction.

The changes have been tested carefully. Together they make a metagame with a lot more options. The slew of melee buffs may seem small, but they're multiplicative and also scale with the Splash buff. The nerfs don't outright ruin the skills that are nerfed - even CoC is still viable, it just plays differently than before.

Some of the changes were motivated by improving performance. It's a big difference when skills are less spammy.
Click to expand...
 
One thing we can say is that GGG has developed the hell out of the game. It's crazy how much they've changed, updated, and enhanced it. Maybe not all for the best, but impressive nonetheless.

I've hated on POE my fair share, but I'll give credit where it's due. I wish other games received as much attention and constant, significant updates.
 
Never have played the game. Learned about it two weeks ago so been waiting for new expansion to release before I try it. I figure start off with the newest version. I like archers so hoping the ranger is a good choice to start with.
 
Yes, melee is in a bad place. Aug, give earthquake or sunder a shot. Ground slam is a bit dated..

Skott, give a look at the official forums and check classes/builds.. look into a tornado shot ranger. they're pretty straight forward.
 
lilbabycat said:
I cleared out like 20 stash tabs on standard...only ~100 to go :-(
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Yeah, cleared out about 70 or so yesterday. Finally decided to sell all the level 1 gems I've been hoarding since before they became buyable at vendors too. Sold over 1,200 gems lol.
 
I have some very old legacy gear with quantity stats on them that I hope I didn't vendor
 
memnoch998 said:
Yes, melee is in a bad place. Aug, give earthquake or sunder a shot. Ground slam is a bit dated..

Skott, give a look at the official forums and check classes/builds.. look into a tornado shot ranger. they're pretty straight forward.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll look into that.
 
lilbabycat said:
I have some very old legacy gear with quantity stats on them that I hope I didn't vendor
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Yeah, I have a few things like that floating around. It's frightening how easy it is to lose stuff in all the tabs. Someone brought up the point in game the other day about how easy it would be to mistake a fated unique for a normal one and sell it, god that would be horrible :p
 
I kinda care about losing that stuff, but in reality I never play standard so I shouldn't care. I don't really have any super-rare legacy stuff like a mjolner (RIP, btw) or shav's.

So, I dunno if its "too soon" or not, but when I heard Gene Wilder died I immediately got on PoE and reserved the character names: GeneWilder, WilderGene, and RIPGeneWilder.
 
Well, I'm leaving early today to get home at 4:45 and I took tomorrow off. Haven't been excited for anything in a while let alone a game. Feels good to be back in action.
 
My last build was a vortex DoT build. It was a little squishy though so hoping to find a build with lots of health and armor this time around.
 
I'm trying to find a different build for a Shadow or templar (just to knock out the leveling achievements and for variety) but most of what I'm finding are either Blade Vortex junk or "must have shavs" stuff that isn't suitable for a new league.

So atm here are my candidates:

Shock Totem Templar (Forum - Templar - [2.4 Video Guide] Cheap Beginners Crit Shockwave Totem Build [HC/SC] - Path of Exile)
Incinerate Templar (Forum - Templar - 2.4 [Lighty] HC Hiero Incinerate Totems - Path of Exile)
Shadow BV (Several of them to choose from) (Forum - Shadow - [2.4] [HC/SC] [20 Blades] Tankster Blade Vortex MoM Poison [crit/non crit] [Atziri Farm with 4L] - Path of Exile)
Templar Kinetic Blast Wander
 
Is Righteous Fire still viable? I had a RF Maurader, but iirc Templar would have been just as good for the role.
 
I'm planning on playing a crit Shockwave totem build using Hierophant instead of going Ancestral Bond. Never played totems before so I thought I'd have a go. I gave it a trial run with an old standard character and ended up with 5k life + 2k ES for a big effective life pool. Combined with the mind over matter node and it seems fairly survivable. DPS was fine and should get better with smart gear choices.

Have fun folks.
 
that reddit auto-media formatting is really annoying btw, anyone know how to disable that? All I did was paste the link
 
I was thinking of.. not actually playing this league. I dig the incinerate totem build, though. I've done something similiar (believe it was in the first 1month flashback) and it performed very well. You level as flame totem and spec into ancestral bond.. get to a decent level where you can support the links and mana cost, then spec out of AB and into incin totems. It's pretty fun. GDI.. totems again. :/
 
I just finished Act 1 Cruel on my HC Summoner. Soloed the whole way. Used zombies, skeles, and firestorm.

I gotta say, the game is SO much more fun now. There are so many different features from all the leagues that keep it interesting (strong boxes, exiles, prophecies, etc). The new Essences are a blast. It's basically guaranteed alch orb drops that also have a guaranteed property. You get to craft rares constantly through the the leveling process now which is much more enjoyable than hoarding currency for end game.

The game is noticeably easier. I face rolled through Act 1 Cruel. Yea, it was mostly normal but things are definitely easier. I think that's good. Save the really tough stuff for maps. I do imagine Malachai might be a bit cheaper on Merciless and maybe even Cruel.

I've got my whole skill tree outlined. I've gone through and gotten all my life nodes except about three. Now I get to start filling in the good stuff. Zombies are already relatively formidable and I only have ONE minion passive at the moment. Adding another 20 skill points, more auras, and tri curse should be sick.

Really enjoying it. Probably more than I ever did in the past.
 
I'll be jumping into this league late, have a stupid dissertation to finish first. Ugh life is hard.

Glad to hear the essences are working well - should be a fun system to play around with!
 
Having a nice run. Hit 76 yesterday and doing maps. Found a 5L. Spectres are amazing. Sitting at like 4k+ life, almost 2k ES and capped resists. Feels pretty comfortable. Most of my gear is total shit too.

Anyone in Hardcore Essence want to map? Need a few people to play with.
 
After a busy weekend, which was interrupted by real life (girlfriend and family, ugh) I managed to hit 85 with a Trickster Crit Blade Vortex. Finished Uber Lab just yesterday after using global 820 to get the last couple trials I needed. Progressing through the maps is pretty cool, keeps things interesting although it sucks doing maps you hate over and over to get the next one in line. I'm sitting at 42% bonus (so 42 different maps completed).

Wasted 500 jewelers 120 fuses trying to get a link new chest for my char. I should just buy a carcass jack, but I wanted to opt for more survivability with higher ES and 100+ life. Right now sitting at 5300 life, 1800 es, %5 dodge, 25% evade, 25% block and MoM w/ 800 mana, so I should have no issues. Also have a Rumi's which is very useful but I still get occasional spurts of hard hits that wreck me. Elemental stuff is rough and I am considering picking up a defensive curse or aura, but that would require losing a ring slot to a unique or some other exotic corrupt or w/e. I guess an amazing Amulet w/ +1 would be best, but the league is only 4 days old.

edit:
Selling stuff the first couple days has been pretty great. I've had multple high dps weapons (multiple T2 mods) sell for 15-30c, plus the usual 1-3c stuff that has really made early wealth acquisition add up. That of course was offset by my waste of all those jewelers/fuses :-(. I'm sitting on 110c right now but don't wanna dump them on anything yet. If I were smart I'd trade them for some Exalts, then flip them in a week for probably 1.5x the chaos. I'm not sure if essences will cause them not to skyrocket in ratio like they usually do though. Which on the subject of Exalts...none dropped yet. Usually I've had gotten one by now.

Anyone in Hardcore Essence want to map? Need a few people to play with.
Click to expand...

Too much of a wuss for Hardcore, sorry.
 
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I RIPed at 77 to Arcade Herald of Ash. Even with capped res the firestorm practically instagibbed me. I'm just playing standard now. I enjoy the new map system a lot and just wanted to play that instead of leveling again.

I might be over Hardcore finally. I've never been able to enjoy Standard. The rush isn't there when you almost RIP, but I also can't relax and enjoy playing my character. Maybe I'm finally over it. It was always a bist masochistic I thought.

I imagine I'll stick with POE a while and make at least one character for the new leagues each time. If I die, then I'll just play in standard until the next league.

There is just too much to do to bother leveling again. Gotta do the Labyrinth and go all the way up the map pool.
 
I really don't know if I want to play this league. I'm a bit burned out from the last season but if someone can tell me if they made end game mapping a bit more fun I'd probably try to get there.
 
cvinh said:
I really don't know if I want to play this league. I'm a bit burned out from the last season but if someone can tell me if they made end game mapping a bit more fun I'd probably try to get there.
Click to expand...

Well, the atlas is fun to mess around with, as there's a clear set of goals you need to work to, to finish it. Basically, though, Everything you know about maps? Is trash. ALOT has changed and it's at least worth checking out. I generally get burned out after playing a league, but I'm actually still chugging along with this one. Give it a shot.
 
The new maps are neat, much more color and variety. New bosses, new mechanics, new combinations of bosses. Its pretty fun. Just a slight annoyance in being locked down to certain maps while you expand your atlas out.
 
I like the sense of objectives and progression along with the structure the Atlas gives. It was much needed.

I need to make a hideout lol
 
Is there an [H] guild setup? Just starting to get into this game. I probably won't have more than a couple of hours here and there to play, though, so I don't expect to make anywhere near the crazy fast progress some of you guys have made already in this league.
 
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