Perz' Reave Shadow

Guys I've been monitoring this thread since official v1.0 launch and read all the arguments, they both have a point. I speak for myself and my own experience so far.

I believe we can all agree this built is awesome end game with the balance of fast clearing with high survivability as well as immunity from chaos dmg/stun/frozen. But to enjoy all these benefit, the price is the prerequisition of the mandatory items of alpha hole and the Ammy that grants immunity from stun. Let's be real, like someone said earlier u can't want everything for the price of nothing. So commando isn't wrong to say the built is dependent on the 2 items to work, the rest I believe can be flexible. Damageincooperate is also right to say all builds find a way to deal with stun/ frozen other builds use Passives to deal with the problem of stun/frozen. So the issue here is how do we deal with the game mechanics of being stun/frozen it's either with Passives or items.

Now, I building this character from the ground up so I started with an empty stash. I'm at level 40 just beginning act 1 of cruel and I have to say it isn't easy. I just use what drops for me so far and have not done any trading. I cleared normal solo all the way up to dominus. Cruel requires me to kite a fair bit before engaging unlike normal where I can face tank almost all packs of mobs.

Don't know how far the build can go with self found. Will have to see, haven got much wealth other then 2 chaos orbs that dropped for me. I'm going at a relax pace will likely farm abit more in zones to prepare myself for further content.

"

behling wrote:

Guys I've been monitoring this thread since official v1.0 launch and read all the arguments, they both have a point. I speak for myself and my own experience so far.

I believe we can all agree this built is awesome end game with the balance of fast clearing with high survivability as well as immunity from chaos dmg/stun/frozen. But to enjoy all these benefit, the price is the prerequisition of the mandatory items of alpha hole and the Ammy that grants immunity from stun. Let's be real, like someone said earlier u can't want everything for the price of nothing. So commando isn't wrong to say the built is dependent on the 2 items to work, the rest I believe can be flexible. Damageincooperate is also right to say all builds find a way to deal with stun/ frozen other builds use Passives to deal with the problem of stun/frozen. So the issue here is how do we deal with the game mechanics of being stun/frozen it's either with Passives or items.

Now, I building this character from the ground up so I started with an empty stash. I'm at level 40 just beginning act 1 of cruel and I have to say it isn't easy. I just use what drops for me so far and have not done any trading. I cleared normal solo all the way up to dominus. Cruel requires me to kite a fair bit before engaging unlike normal where I can face tank almost all packs of mobs.

Don't know how far the build can go with self found. Will have to see, haven got much wealth other then 2 chaos orbs that dropped for me. I'm going at a relax pace will likely farm abit more in zones to prepare myself for further content.

imo being not strong enough and improving your gear and gameplay through all acts is a major (and fun) part of the game. if you could just smash through all difficulties, there would be, at least for me, no challenge. this build actually just describes the end-game and everything you do before that is for everyone himself to be discovered. :)

added a bandits section and an explanation why i went for attack speed instead of dmg.

This is my Gear, Im Level 49 and ALWAYS dieing in Merci Act 1.. What can I do?

Skilltree:

"

Escalin wrote:

This is my Gear, Im Level 49 and ALWAYS dieing in Merci Act 1.. What can I do?

Skilltree:

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABbUMjQ1JDkgQexEvEZYV_Ra_GtsbrR4aKCorCi9vMFQ94j7PQFVHBkjuUUde-mcean5vV3BScLuH242_j_qZV5manaOmf6c0sbO0xbVItve3073mvjrAUcEAwuzWB9fL2RPbGtvn44TrY-1B7XbvoPPq9Uv5Y_yr_5M=

get es! i see almost no es on your items. you should get 150+ from shield, 250+ from armor, 100+ from boots/gloves etc..

I'm level 51 in act3 cruel mode.

I'm playing in self loot (no trade) and it's quite hard.

my stat :
550 dps
500 life
1100 ES (with discipline)
and very poor elemental resistances (i change rings when needed)


I easily tank normal ennemies (even in group) and some rare ennemies/little boss in 49 level zones.

But it's very hard to deal with chaos monsters !!
I don't know what to do !?!

I think i'm going to save 7 skill points to take the CI node and the shield nodes behind it.

(Or I'll try to refund the GR node so that I leech life instead of ES ??)




Claw & Skilltree

There seems to be alot ppl complaining about leveling difficulties, so I'd like to give some advices from personal experience:
1st. Get Multistrike a.s.a.p. As Perz said earlyer, it really bumbs dmg/attack speed-> Leech.
2nd. I don't know why Perz hasnt put the Ondar's Guile in early builds, but I'd strongly recommend to take it before starting merci. Bumbs the survivability fuckloads.
3rd. Always try to have rrgg sockets somewhere and use reave-faster attacks-multistrike-melee damage on full on it. I had around 2.5-3k dmg all the way from merci act 1 to 3.
4th. Try to roll/buy potion with 60 charges and remove frozen (I had it in movement speed flask, uses 20 charge of 60). Helps act 1 alot, and generally in others.
5th and final, buy around 150 damage weapon. Srsly, it's not that expensive.

I started with this specc in new league with empty stash, leveled easily to 70.

Perz, I think you forgot an important reason for AS over Increased physical damage from bandits.
I counted the % for the build and you get ~300% IPD but only 80% AS or so (counted yesterday, haven't the numbers in mind).
So 8% more AS has a much higher impact.

i think we discussed that this build is item-dependant. no need to argue about that.

the items needed for this build are not end-game items coz they are needed to solo quests and to reach end-game.

so listen, you need eye of chayula from cruel (cruel act3 at least), ES items in merc act3 (chaos, nuke-potential, frenzy) and enough eva from cruel (archers, fast meele mobs). as well as good dps claw and resists, coz you are just a piece of paper and the enemy will freeze, stun you and make you disappear. so you need these items to LEVEL your character.
i usually switch rings / items to survive different parts of the map.

you usually dont need 30+ chaos items to do that with any build, also if you choose the life based build-variant, you basicly sacrifice dmg for survivability and youll suck end-game (without expensive items) but you save at least half the money needed to level and needed to start doing maps (more str, reduced mana is more effective, you can use 2 auras and 1 with blood magic and you dont need chayula or alpha howl early on). but you gonna have like 18 refund points from quests, so you can re-spec if you want.
most of the ES items needed for CI are not available in the newer leagues or are expensive as fck.
you wont get 160+ ES chest near lvl65 with at least 4L easily..

you need Vaal Pact and CI til merc act2 (2nd-3rd quest), coz youll be one-shotted by almost anyone: chaos dmg everywhere. and without faster ES regen, you are dead.
you can skip CI if you have a friend who can push you through those quests if you dont have enough skill points but i recommend wasting 2 passive refunds point getting and refunding CI - if needed (1 for the INT node near it).

you need about 1.8-2k dps with hatred to survive merc act2 without dying a lot. i have found a claw at lvl40ish, but nothing since then. i even used alchs / chaos to make some white claws viable but abs failed. high dps claws are not cheap, usually 8+ chaos (cheapest ive found but its nowhere near my claw).
if you are brave, pick CI and use blood rage 0-24 but beware the stunner - freezer mobs and macro /oos.

farm felshrine ruins, but grab cold / unfreeze, eva, eva, armor flasks. tons of blue archers with cold dmg and frenzy charges mostly and several golems with cold / fire dmg and faster attacks can be found there and they can 2shot you, really. i gained like 3levels there and 3at ledge. if you are finished and have enough es / eva, you should farm the den (lvl 61 territory). watch out for bears, they hurt and have tons of hp, so grab some eva flasks.
you can gain like a level in 3runs and its faster than farming 5-7x felshrine ruins

as suggested, you should also pick Ondar's Guile earlier, you will face tons of archers in act2 and without proper evasion / es, you are just a clean shot for them and for their explosive shot / cold / other crits. and trust me, youll give them enough frenzy to make those crits happen, they usually gain frenzy when dmgd or when their mate dies.

the beginning of act3 is full of chaos dmg, later on youll only face lightning / fire (docks -> fire and cold, youll farm there a lot). if you dont have enough ES (2.4k : discharger mobs, pack of frenzy meele btches, nukers), ask a friend to pull you through til docks or run thru everything and farm there.

im sorry for saying this, but players without new league exp (with clean economy) usually do not understand how difficulty and expensive is to level a character and how hard is it. they have the perfect gear for every level, and 4x party to sleck in and i think those things just KILL THE GAME AND FUN entirely.
its like: gimme a char with 60 unspent skill points and i can make smg viable. oh yeah and i have 40exalts to spend on gear..
everyone in the new leagues start a safe, not item-dependant char coz they need something with farm potential to grab items, currency.

SO DO NOT START THIS BUILD IF YOU DONT HAVE ITEMS OR IF YOU DONT HAVE ANOTHER CHARACTER TO FARM WITH

"

so listen, you need eye of chayula from cruel (cruel act3 at least), ES items in merc act3 (chaos, nuke-potential, frenzy) and enough eva from cruel (archers, fast meele mobs). as well as good dps claw and resists, coz you are just a piece of paper and the enemy will freeze, stun you and make you disappear. so you need these items to LEVEL your character.
i usually switch rings / items to survive different parts of the map.

Not true, I did it without any fancy uniques shown on OP (and still only have rainbowstrides), just watch your resists and keep your eva and es high. ES preferably ~1.9k with discipline (I went by with only 1.8k).

"

you usually dont need 30+ chaos items to do that with any build, also if you choose the life based build-variant, you basicly sacrifice dmg for survivability and youll suck end-game (without expensive items) but you save at least half the money needed to level and needed to start doing maps (more str, reduced mana is more effective, you can use 2 auras and 1 with blood magic and you dont need chayula or alpha howl early on). but you gonna have like 18 refund points from quests, so you can re-spec if you want.
most of the ES items needed for CI are not available in the newer leagues or are expensive as fck.
you wont get 160+ ES chest near lvl65 with at least 4L easily..

I'm running with 2 auras all the time. Just take the 2 str nodes in build, level your reduced mana to 10 and take the reduced talent, should leave you with 6% mana, which is enough with mana leech talent.

"

you need Vaal Pact and CI til merc act2 (2nd-3rd quest), coz youll be one-shotted by almost anyone: chaos dmg everywhere. and without faster ES regen, you are dead.
you can skip CI if you have a friend who can push you through those quests if you dont have enough skill points but i recommend wasting 2 passive refunds point getting and refunding CI - if needed (1 for the INT node near it).

True about CI, take it in the end of act1. I took VP at level 70, dont see the big deal runnin without it, just tank less mobs.

"

you need about 1.8-2k dps with hatred to survive merc act2 without dying a lot. i have found a claw at lvl40ish, but nothing since then. i even used alchs / chaos to make some white claws viable but abs failed. high dps claws are not cheap, usually 8+ chaos (cheapest ive found but its nowhere near my claw).
if you are brave, pick CI and use blood rage 0-24 but beware the stunner - freezer mobs and macro /oos.

Dont make the weps, buy them, its really not hard to find decend 150 damage claw, just search from poe goods, I can tho agree them being expensive. But considering how much chaos orbs one gets just from drops(or then im just fucking lucky), using all of the dropped ones to buy claw should not be a problem.

"

farm felshrine ruins, but grab cold / unfreeze, eva, eva, armor flasks. tons of blue archers with cold dmg and frenzy charges mostly and several golems with cold / fire dmg and faster attacks can be found there and they can 2shot you, really. i gained like 3levels there and 3at ledge. if you are finished and have enough es / eva, you should farm the den (lvl 61 territory). watch out for bears, they hurt and have tons of hp, so grab some eva flasks.
you can gain like a level in 3runs and its faster than farming 5-7x felshrine ruins

Agreed.

"

the beginning of act3 is full of chaos dmg, later on youll only face lightning / fire (docks -> fire and cold, youll farm there a lot). if you dont have enough ES (2.4k : discharger mobs, pack of frenzy meele btches, nukers), ask a friend to pull you through til docks or run thru everything and farm there.

I personally soloed to Piety, from there farmed docks, and later with better gear/more level, soloed piety and library. Needed help in final boss tho.

"

im sorry for saying this, but players without new league exp (with clean economy) usually do not understand how difficulty and expensive is to level a character and how hard is it. they have the perfect gear for every level, and 4x party to sleck in and i think those things just KILL THE GAME AND FUN entirely.
its like: gimme a char with 60 unspent skill points and i can make smg viable. oh yeah and i have 40exalts to spend on gear..
everyone in the new leagues start a safe, not item-dependant char coz they need something with farm potential to grab items, currency.

True dat...

"

SO DO NOT START THIS BUILD IF YOU DONT HAVE ITEMS OR IF YOU DONT HAVE ANOTHER CHARACTER TO FARM WITH

I'd rather say, "this build is doable even if you dont have the items waiting (you still deffinetly want them tho), and for starter, but be warned: It's not going to be easy"

lol. I knew it