memnoch998
Limp Gawd
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yeah, it's a really nice feature, the higher up in difficulty you go, the more experience and level the gems will have. it's a great QoL fix.
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Path of Exile
- Thread starter Krieger91
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yeah, it's a really nice feature, the higher up in difficulty you go, the more experience and level the gems will have. it's a great QoL fix.
I was just about to - I killed three bosses leading up to him and then got called away from the game and didn't actually do Malachi. That said, the trio leading to him are pretty significantly tougher in merciless than cruel - harder hitting and lots of life. I've got a cycloner with 4k life, which is ok and 4k DPS, which is a smidge low for most content right at my level (71). I'm sure I could have done Malachi as I built my character for that sort of fight (high mobility and able to tank some pretty big hits) but it would have been slow and I would have needed to play pretty carefully. The main caveat here is that I'm in Warbands so I can play a little more freely as I don't need to worry about losing my character. Your specs sound like you'd be able to take him with smart play but you sure don't want to RIP your character if things are going well for you.
Interesting
I'm now at 6.1K HP and getting more interested in trying although my DPS hasn't really risen much. I feel like i'd want more armour though, with only 4k until I pop a granite. I haven't run the trio yet, mostly cuz i'm scared shitless of piety and her death laser
All fair points. Piety's laser is kind of "cheap" right now and needs some work to make it a little more fair. That said, with the amount of life you've got, you should be able to take a hit without dying immediately, giving you enough time to get out of the way and heal up. But, still, it's a risk.
The lack of physical mitigation is really dicey during the Malachi fight. I have twice as much armor plus Fortify up all the time plus endurance charges plus a granite flask which all add up to making physical damage manageable. Your totem build gives you a the ability to run around and avoid damage while your totems do DPS but, even so, in his last phase there is so much going on that avoiding damage isn't always possible. Getting yourself trapped in a corner surrounded by the "ground damage" and "swirly balls" and then getting hit by the "red ball" projectiles could be seriously bad news.
Best of luck....
Armenius
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Sounds like GGG just set out to make a really hard boss without considering balance.
That's how their new bosses always feel. Watch a dedicated Atziri killer do Apex of Sacrifice runs today and think back to how impossible those bosses seemed when they were first released - it looks like cake. People will learn the mechanics of these bosses and trivialize them eventually. Even after just a few tries at these bosses I've gotten tolerable at running them all. Give me a few more levels and a better sword and I should be good to go.
I mean, your statement makes exactly 0 sense. For GGG to "set out" to make a hard boss they have to consider the balance and make the boss hard in the framework of the game's balance. Without a balance framework, the term "hard" is 100% meaningless.
I will say that malachai felt a tad overtuned, but part of that is lack of knowledge regarding mechanics, part of that has been turned down in normal and cruel, and part of that is OK considering that I've still made it to maps in hardcore and i'm pretty damn awful at this game. The parts that I don't like are mostly piety's death laser that is 100% a knowledge thing and will fuck you up, but is just normal content that everybody is expected to run in the process of levelling.
Merciless malachi is an unknown quantity for me but that is also fine as he doesn't gate any content (in contrast to normal/cruel) and is intended to be a seriously difficult "last boss" to allow a "beat the game" feeling in a game that is essentially open-ended.
chockomonkey
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What good are items which convert damage types from one to another? There's never a bonus involved in the damage done... i guess i just don't see the point.
I have a ring which converts 100% cold damage into fire damage, and some gloves which turn 25% of physical damage into cold damage.
I tried out the ring thinking that I'd be able to freeze and burn people at the same time, but no dice. So why would I ever want to use that with cold spells which have inherent freezing properties which are then worthless?
I have a ring which converts 100% cold damage into fire damage, and some gloves which turn 25% of physical damage into cold damage.
I tried out the ring thinking that I'd be able to freeze and burn people at the same time, but no dice. So why would I ever want to use that with cold spells which have inherent freezing properties which are then worthless?
Drakenfeng
Gawd
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Conversion is powerful because it lets the skill benefit from damage increases from the original element and the new element. So if you had 50% increased cold and 50% increased fire, you'd get a 100% increase on the converted portion. Before they nerfed elemental prolif it was fun to use a converted ice spear to get near-guaranteed fire procs. That being said you usually only spec into a single element anyway.
Honestly the physical to element conversions make a lot more sense because there are already several skills which convert 50% of physical to another element. The conversion stacks so you can convert *all* of your physical damage into an element allowing for interesting shock or burn builds. Status effects are based on the total amount of damage done vs the enemy's total health. The reason why you didn't get any freezing on your nova after converting 100% is because there was no cold damage left. If you only converted 50% with the support gem you'd be able to freeze and burn (though at reduced effectiveness)
For example infernal blow or molten strike with avatar of flame gives 100% phys to fire conversion. Lightning strike / Lightning Arrow with the new lightning to phys. gem gives 100%. Cold is a bit more tricky and requires uniques.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Damage_conversion has a much more detailed breakdown.
Honestly the physical to element conversions make a lot more sense because there are already several skills which convert 50% of physical to another element. The conversion stacks so you can convert *all* of your physical damage into an element allowing for interesting shock or burn builds. Status effects are based on the total amount of damage done vs the enemy's total health. The reason why you didn't get any freezing on your nova after converting 100% is because there was no cold damage left. If you only converted 50% with the support gem you'd be able to freeze and burn (though at reduced effectiveness)
For example infernal blow or molten strike with avatar of flame gives 100% phys to fire conversion. Lightning strike / Lightning Arrow with the new lightning to phys. gem gives 100%. Cold is a bit more tricky and requires uniques.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Damage_conversion has a much more detailed breakdown.
chockomonkey
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Thanks that was helpful. Is there any way to remove knockback from my own moves?
Drakenfeng
Gawd
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There's a new pair of unique gloves that reverses knockback direction. You keep the 'ministun' that knocking an enemy back causes but without the annoyance of having to chase them.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Empire's_Grasp
There's no health or resists on them, but there's enough armor that it's like you're wearing half of another chest piece.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Empire's_Grasp
There's no health or resists on them, but there's enough armor that it's like you're wearing half of another chest piece.
chockomonkey
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Very cool. Thanks again! I'll definitely be grabbing these when I'm the appropriate level.
Never played this game, and not even familiar with it. But reading up, it sounds pretty cool.
I thought Diablo ]l[ was ok, much preferred Diablo ][, and really liked Torchlight II. So would this Path of Exile sort of be like those type of games ?
Does it have CoOp so my two Brothers can play along side with me too ?
Do I buy this in stores, or get on like Steam ? And there's a new DLC or expansion that was just released this month ?
Thank you
I thought Diablo ]l[ was ok, much preferred Diablo ][, and really liked Torchlight II. So would this Path of Exile sort of be like those type of games ?
Does it have CoOp so my two Brothers can play along side with me too ?
Do I buy this in stores, or get on like Steam ? And there's a new DLC or expansion that was just released this month ?
Thank you
TheCommander
2[H]4U
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It is the same style type of game; I prefer Path of Exile to Diablo 3 though. You can do co-op but not local coop. The game is free and can be downloaded at their website.
Armenius
Extremely [H]
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It's also available to download through Steam, if you prefer. Downloading the standalone client requires you to create yet another account to keep track of, while it links to your Steam account seamlessly if you download and run it through Steam. Something to keep in mind if that is an issue for you.
All content is added through the regular updates, so there is nothing extra for you to download to get all the content.
PoE is more similar to D2 than D3 in aesthetics and game mechanics. The skill system, though, is analogous to the materia system from Final Fantasy VII, while the passive skill tree is similar to the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X.
TheCommander
2[H]4U
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Ya the atmosphere of POE is more similar to D1 \ D2 than D3 is to those games. I'd say there is also a lot more planning when building a character in POE than in D3.
chockomonkey
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So it seems to me that with how armor and mana work in this game, there is really zero incentive to ever go attack speed.
First you have the increased mana consumption that you have to deal with, which you don't with increased physical damage nodes. And secondly, if Armor is still calculated the same way, then the smaller hit the more damage gets mitigated, making increased physical damage again superior to attack speed.
Would you agree? What are your thoughts on attack speed? Does it pair with anything specific really well?
I would expand on this and say that there is a lot more planning when building a character in PoE than in D2, even.
First you have the increased mana consumption that you have to deal with, which you don't with increased physical damage nodes. And secondly, if Armor is still calculated the same way, then the smaller hit the more damage gets mitigated, making increased physical damage again superior to attack speed.
Would you agree? What are your thoughts on attack speed? Does it pair with anything specific really well?
I would expand on this and say that there is a lot more planning when building a character in PoE than in D2, even.
chockomonkey
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double post deleted
With respect to attackspeed
first, the armor calculation only applies to physical damage and many builds do at least half if not more elemental damage. Even pure phys builds usually have hatred and maybe added fire damage that ends up adding about as much elemental damage as they do physical in the first place.
Next, most mobs have quite low armor values, even in merciless. While technically one hit for 2 dmg is always better than 2 hits for 1 dmg, the difference is usually smaller that you'd think vs mobs.
Next, attackspeed is a multiplicative DPS increase. Your damage per second is your damage per attack times your attacks per second. While you can never have as many attacks per second as you can have damage per attack, it's still intuitively obvious that 4x4 is larger than 1x7, which means that it's most cost efficient to raise both parts of the equation equally rather than to focus on one variable (in this case, to have both attackspeed and damage rather than only one or the other).
In addition, a lot of builds utilize flat damage bonuses on gear such as "adds 5-10 physical damage to your attacks" rolls on rings for example. These flat bonuses help you more if you have a higher attackspeed.
Lastly and possibly most importantly, PoE uses a forced-animation engine. What that means is that when you begin an action, you are committed to that action for the duration of the animation including the backswing after completion. As such, the slower you attack, the longer you are forced to stand still. If you attack once per second, every time you attack you are held in place for a full second no matter what, which is dangerous. if you attack twice per second, you can re-position or re-target in between attacks and this affords you far greater safety. There are some situations where you can get in an attack precisely because it only takes 1/4 of a second, whereas you never could attack if it took a full second, regardless of how much "more" damage you'd do.
Mana is an issue yes but every build has to solve mana in some way and you can almost always solve it. Hell, with mana gain on hit (difficult to get admittedly) faster attackspeed can be better for your mana.
first, the armor calculation only applies to physical damage and many builds do at least half if not more elemental damage. Even pure phys builds usually have hatred and maybe added fire damage that ends up adding about as much elemental damage as they do physical in the first place.
Next, most mobs have quite low armor values, even in merciless. While technically one hit for 2 dmg is always better than 2 hits for 1 dmg, the difference is usually smaller that you'd think vs mobs.
Next, attackspeed is a multiplicative DPS increase. Your damage per second is your damage per attack times your attacks per second. While you can never have as many attacks per second as you can have damage per attack, it's still intuitively obvious that 4x4 is larger than 1x7, which means that it's most cost efficient to raise both parts of the equation equally rather than to focus on one variable (in this case, to have both attackspeed and damage rather than only one or the other).
In addition, a lot of builds utilize flat damage bonuses on gear such as "adds 5-10 physical damage to your attacks" rolls on rings for example. These flat bonuses help you more if you have a higher attackspeed.
Lastly and possibly most importantly, PoE uses a forced-animation engine. What that means is that when you begin an action, you are committed to that action for the duration of the animation including the backswing after completion. As such, the slower you attack, the longer you are forced to stand still. If you attack once per second, every time you attack you are held in place for a full second no matter what, which is dangerous. if you attack twice per second, you can re-position or re-target in between attacks and this affords you far greater safety. There are some situations where you can get in an attack precisely because it only takes 1/4 of a second, whereas you never could attack if it took a full second, regardless of how much "more" damage you'd do.
Mana is an issue yes but every build has to solve mana in some way and you can almost always solve it. Hell, with mana gain on hit (difficult to get admittedly) faster attackspeed can be better for your mana.
chockomonkey
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Good points I hadn't considered the flat damage ranges per attack. Where can one get mama gain on hit? Does it exist in the skill tree?
There are i believe 2 nodes that grant +2 mana on hit (which is very small but with stuff like split arrow + chain can resolve your mana issues pretty comprehensively). You can use the search function on the passive tree page on the main site
I think you can roll it on jewels as well? again in very low quanitities but it adds up fast.
Poachers mark (the curse) grants mana and life gain on hit I believe.
The new "maraketh weapons" claws (Gemini claws and lower bases of the same type) grant life and mana gain on hit in more substantial quantities (14 i believe for the top base).
And lastly some uniques grant it, the one that I can think of off the top of my head being Thief's Torment, the unique prismatic ring that disables your other ring slot (basically takes up both slots).
So yeah its a bitch to get but it's one solution to your mana. Others include mana leech, potions, general regen, bloodmagic, etc.
I think you can roll it on jewels as well? again in very low quanitities but it adds up fast.
Poachers mark (the curse) grants mana and life gain on hit I believe.
The new "maraketh weapons" claws (Gemini claws and lower bases of the same type) grant life and mana gain on hit in more substantial quantities (14 i believe for the top base).
And lastly some uniques grant it, the one that I can think of off the top of my head being Thief's Torment, the unique prismatic ring that disables your other ring slot (basically takes up both slots).
So yeah its a bitch to get but it's one solution to your mana. Others include mana leech, potions, general regen, bloodmagic, etc.
As Sn0_Man said, comparing DPS numbers is not the only way to go. One of the best examples would be during boss fights when you're trying to dodge attacks and fire off a shot in between: if your attack speed is awful you're potentially going to eat shots that you need to be dodging (I recall reading a whine thread on the PoE forums shortly after 2.0 release where someone was saying Malachai was overtuned because he couldn't stop and get a hit in fast enoughwith his 2-hander...exactly what we're talking about here).
Sorta related: I just realized that they added Onslaught to a couple of notable passives sometime over the last couple of patches. Graceful Assault is absolutely sick for my build: 20% attack speed and movement speed + 25% increased armor (Iron Reflexes) whenever I trigger Onslaught. Oh, and 16% attack damage for a bonus.
Drakenfeng
Gawd
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On the topic of mana, one interesting thing they did was make some tiers of mana pots use WAY less charges than others. For example there's some that use 8, 5, and even 4 charges per use (and have 5-6 uses). Roll instant recovery on a small pooled melee character and it's like having infinite mana without the gem or passive cost. Mind you still need to have enough free mana to attack 3-4 times otherwise it's way too annoying to use.
Blood magic lets you ignore mana completely by taking health regen passives instead, but you give up the ability to run auras (or very cheap ones only) because they reserve health instead of mana.
Eldritch Battery keystone is interesting now because it lets you reserve 100% of your mana for auras while using all of your energy shield as an extra layer of mana on top of it.
Figuring out how you're going to manage mana is half of any build.
Blood magic lets you ignore mana completely by taking health regen passives instead, but you give up the ability to run auras (or very cheap ones only) because they reserve health instead of mana.
Eldritch Battery keystone is interesting now because it lets you reserve 100% of your mana for auras while using all of your energy shield as an extra layer of mana on top of it.
Figuring out how you're going to manage mana is half of any build.
TwistedAegis
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How are the drop rates in PoE now? Loved the atmosphere, loved the skill tree, but don't have the time to grind that crazy anymore to get some fun gear.
chockomonkey
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I feel like ive put in tons of time since the patch came out. Have only found 3 uniques, none of them for my guys. Trading still more than necessary end game id imagine.
This game doesn't try to hand you uniques for your class, which is good because there's not really a certain way to play any class. More often than not, finding a cool unique will either mean you've got some trading bait or you've got a new reason to try out another build. I found a Pyre ring last night, for example, and a little while earlier I'd found an Increased Burning Damage support gem, so now I'm thinking about possibilities...
For anyone playing self-found there are a number of ways to craft/modify your own gear, mostly through the Masters that you level up but also through a number of vendor recipes. Some people complain that trading is too hard but I honestly just look up what I want on poe.trade, check off "online only", and then pick a seller from the list and message them in-game...it's super easy. It's also a good way to price check something you want to sell.
LeninGHOLA
Vladimir Hayt
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Crafting is much improved and there are now far more ways to earn loot. I really like what they've done to the game in the last year.
I did forget to mention my favorite addition: Treasure Gobli--er, I mean, Tormented Spirits!
Seriously fun chasing those guys down and usually well worth it.
chockomonkey
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Yea they are a fun addition.. Easy harder to catch than the treasure goblin too.I did forget to mention my favorite addition: Treasure Gobli--er, I mean, Tormented Spirits!
Seriously fun chasing those guys down and usually well worth it.
What's the mechanic behind them touching mobs?
Hornet
Supreme [H]ardness
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Finally completed my first play through for the new contents. The bosses towards the end of Act 4 were rather difficult. Spend most of the time dodging their attacks while my supporting golem and totem does the attacking, lol.
Seems like we've killed all the trouble makers of Wraeclast at the end of Act 4. Wonder what will Act 5 bring in the future.
Seems like we've killed all the trouble makers of Wraeclast at the end of Act 4. Wonder what will Act 5 bring in the future.
chockomonkey
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Sorry, and thanks. Was viewing on [H] mobile theme and I mistook that for bold underlined cause you were so excited. ><
TheCommander
2[H]4U
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I was wondering that too. They added a lot of important characters from lore into Act 4. Act 5 is probably a couple years out. I think Act 4 took about that long.
LeninGHOLA
Vladimir Hayt
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Subjugation of all those you freed. Tropico style.
memnoch998
Limp Gawd
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my guess would be going to theopolis to fix all the shit dom started.
LeninGHOLA
Vladimir Hayt
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I've always praised the music in this game... the Act 4 stuff is really good. I was doing Belly of the Beast the other day and actually stopped for a few moments to listen.
memnoch998
Limp Gawd
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yeah, the music is one thing they actually nailed. I had the chance to hear it way ahead of time early this year after chaunsing datamined all the pak files.. and as far as nailing it, i mean they still have some minor balance issues to iron out. can't complain about a free game tho
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