Siege Ballista

I use Siege Ballista not as mains kill but as fire support for my Point Blank Ice Shot burner (Pyre).

For a main skill this sounds promising but the current execution is lacking in reality.

While the totem damage is not a big problem (it scales both from weapon and totem passives)
and can be achieved either by investing into Ranger nodes or by the way to it through the Duelest area.

The main weakness are the totem defenses (HP/resists) and play a bigger role in later difficulties because of increased Monster/AOE/Splash damage.

So if you want to play a serious dual/triple totem SB build you will end having much wasted travel/filler nodes when aiming for the Important (build enabling) totem passives (Ancestral Bond,Ironwood,Totemic Mastery).

Obvouisly the important totem stuff is on the VERY other side of the tree.

I've always wanted a more actual Projectile Turret build (Totems are okay but they're more Magic-Themed) My biggest issues were as people have mentioned the slow attack speed and charge-up generally causing it to miss targets early on.

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gandhar0 wrote:

The main weakness are the totem defenses (HP/resists) and play a bigger role in later difficulties because of increased Monster/AOE/Splash damage.

So if you want to play a serious dual/triple totem SB build you will end having much wasted travel/filler nodes when aiming for the Important (build enabling) totem passives (Ancestral Bond,Ironwood,Totemic Mastery).

I disagree.


As an update to my earlier post, where I found Siege Ballista fun, dealing acceptable damage, but feeling lacklustre compared to other totem builds, I have tweaked my build considerably and find it performing admirably, no longer feeling lacklustre.

There is absolutely no need to invest in any of the totem specific clusters apart from Ancestral Bond so long as your Siege Ballista are either lethal enough or knockback frequently enough (or both) to make their defenses and replacement speed modifiers largely irrelevant; While they will take damage and die against ranged opponents or if you place them right in the middle of a group of melee opponents, you'll be able to replace them swiftly enough without bonus replacement speed. This means that enough points are freed up to make a powerful crit-knockback build. (Not that the totem clusters wouldn't be nice to have, but they aren't needed.)

I use this now - Lioneye's Fall in the west-most jewel slot, Rain of Splinters in another, good but not great jewels in the remaining slots (life + 2 damage increasing mods, jewels with 4 good mods being too expensive), and Siege Ballista -> Faster Projectiles -> Slower Projectiles -> Poison -> Added Chaos Damage (-> Void Manipulation)

Hitting around 40k dps (when including the poison over time damage) per ballista (60k+ in point blank range) and having the ballistas and the main attack that creates frenzy, power, and endurance chages all knock back on crit (80%+) while spending all mana reservation on Grace and Arctic Armour rather than offensive auras and using good but not great equipment and a 5L is surely enough for anybody.

Very frustrating skill at low levels, with crude/short bow w/o attack speed on items, 5% attack speed from tree, no totem duration nodes, the totem shoots like 4? times per totem lifetime. w/o lmp it miss like 'always'. After trying to kill some leaping goats all you want to do is throw the gem out the window.

Even if you're using it right its still very disappointing. The skill effectiveness isn't comparable even with overnerfed flame totem.

IMO it should be moved to lvl 8, and skill description needs a line 'use it with LMP, punk'

50% LESS attack speed is my biggest problem. The current sequence of events causes the totem to miss often:

Target Enemy -> Charge Animation -> Fire Projectile -> Repeat

I suggest that the order of the sequence mentioned above be changed to make the totem more "accurate":

Target Enemy -> Fire Projectile -> Charge Animation -> Repeat

In the suggested sequence, the projectile is fired instantly upon acquiring a target. The charge animation then functions as a period of time during which the totem is unable to target or fire.

So which Ascendancy class works best with them?
Assuming either Soul Mantle or the new Bow?
I was thinking about the unique Bow and a static Electricity Jewel, and obviously rain of splinters, and I can't quite decide whether to go Ranger or shadow, and if either which Ascendancy class.
If I went for crit, deadeye + 100% pierce are obviously friends, as will farshot, but the assassin with bleed, poison, maim also sounds interesting...

If you're going for Ranger I'd probably go something like this:
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAICAQBeAO4FtQYjBqAILgiJEMwT2hUgGY4ZtCF2Iuoj9iSdJT8qTSu2LOktgzBxMHwx-jKUNZI31DnUOkI64TwtPydHfkrIS3hNkk3jUUdTz1jlWfNaK1uvXWhiWmSEZU1l02aeaU5uaW6qcUNxoXIPcql1y3b3exR9dX8CfyuDX4PMhrOGzoxGjX2Nv49PlLiVBZXMmvGbjaCfoaSj8qZXpuCn1KvSrKqxAbEwtQi18rc-u-O9Nr6nwTPDE8SixPbGrsqp037UI9X41orYvdnG2o3dDd2o4dvo1upi7T_tg-968kX2o_iT-WP5vf4K_o_-uv7I

Picking up Deadeye as you suggested. If you can get alot of +DEX items Iron Commander will really outshine a Rare Bow.

Misses too often and is far too slow. got 4 running atm.

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Skellimancer wrote:

Misses too often and is far too slow. got 4 running atm.

Faster Attacks is a huge quality of life gem. Not sure if you are running that or not. late game their fire rate is perfectly fine and they don't really miss anymore.