Build of the Week, Season 2 Episode 2 Build Submission Thread

Character name: Brennen

I made this character when open beta started, it's fun to use and at the same time simple, fairly powerful once it kicks it into the gear and doesn't need fancy gear or gems. Cheap, effective and can get to endgame blindfolded.

It's a blood magic incinerate marauder, main gems for it you will get from quests and others are inexpensive and can be easily traded for. Gear is fairly free to choose, you will want it to have as much life as possible, some resists and that's about it, if you have problems with resists you can always use those nice templar shields that have implicit 24% resist all. For your main hand you can use a good scepter with spell damage and cast speed or, even better, a dagger.
Your dream weapon is Cybil's Paw, enjoy the taste of immortality.

Gameplay is simple and fun, cast flammability, place your totem, fire up incinerate yourself and fry the damn cockroaches until they drop dead. Totem serves to initiate blind more then to do damage

Gems:
Incinerate - LMP - iron will - life leech - if you have 5 links add faster casting
Flame totem - LMP - faster projectiles - blind
Shield Charge/Whirling Blades - keep at level 1, use for bailing out
Cast on damage taken - Molten Shell - Enduring Cry
Flammability
Fireball - IMPORTANT!!! a backup skill you keep levelled and switch in instead of Incinerate when dealing with lightning thorns

Passive Tree:
Grab BM and all health/regen nodes you can get your grubby cybil paws on, everything else can wait.

Back in those days where auras looked so amazing...

This is a submission for one of the upcoming builds of the week:

Explosive Arrow Marauder by Slaydemkidz (lvl 94)

First of all some things you need to know:

- This build is meant to be played in Hardcore!
- Explosive arrow has a pretty interesting mechanic: you can stack 1 - 5 arrows on 1 target that will explode after you stopped shooting at that target with explosive arrows for 1 second. the more arrows you stack the more dmg does the explosion.
- Burning dmg scales with the dmg of the fire hit that caused the burning. That makes the burning of a 5-stacked explosive arrow extremely strong, almost op.
- Explosive arrow's dmg can ONLY be increased by the gem combination and 'increased fire dmg by %', 'increased burning dmg by %' and 'area dmg increased by %' on gear or the skilltree
- As the damage is extremely high with the right gem combination there is almost no need for dps nodes. That's why you can focus on defense in the skilltree.
- The downside of Explosive arrow is Elemental Reflect, it can oneshot you if you play BAD. There is no excuse if that happens. You failed, reroll an easier character. If you know that you loose focus often you shouldn't even touch this build. It's extremely tanky, as tanky or even tankier than EK but it's for experienced players, NOT for new players!
- The build runs NO auras because it's Blood Magic. you will need some gear to fix that you don't have any aura but in the end this build doesn't profit a lot from auras anyways.
- If you play this you are a high dmg TANK. You are supposed to run into enemies, blind them, blow them up and watch survivors burn to death. Keeping your range is only required on extremely hard maps.

My Skilltree: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAdwCcQSzBS0SaRLhFE0WbxccGS4ZhRo4G_odFCSqJd8n7Sj6KS4ppS3SMgk1kjbpOtg9_EGHQapHfkp9TdhOKlBQVElVxlhjWfNbr18_YEthIWVNZp5noGqTbEZuaXF5cmxyqXTteA1673y4fNmBb4LHgziE2YTvh3aI8Yx2jM-PRpBVmK2drp48ogCkGacIp4SpbqvFrFmsqrXytkG3PriTud2-ir6nwA_AGsbYz2XQ0NJN1I_V7drd3Q3fv-Lq42rnUudj6-7sOO8O73zwH_Pd9kj3Mvjr-ej60vzF_gr-jw==
Going for more life nodes in the middle when I lvl up.

I will go further into some decisions I made in my tree:

- Blood Magic: Allows me to not use a Blood Magic gem on my Explosive arrow and is probably the only way to play this build as the manacost is 119. with BM gem it's even more and hard to sustain if you shoot like 5 arrows per second.
- Elemental Equilibrium: I have cold dmg on one of my gear pieces and i use a split arrow - chain combination so i can apply Elemental Equilibrium on enemies with the split arrow to reduce their resistance for fire (I will go into this even more later)
- Resolute Technique: Missing an arrow while stacking them up would be bad for your dmg and crits are bad for you too as they will oneshot you on reflect. In conclusion Resolute Technique helps this build with both of its effects
- Iron Reflexes: I have some Evasion on my gear and when somebody has Grace it gets even more useful. Its not that important but just 1 point away.
- The skilltree contains almost all the Intelligence and Dexterity you will need for lvl 20 gems. If you have Some of those stats on your gear you might change a few points.
- Life Regeneration: I have 700+ Life Regen. The reason for that is, that I don't have life leech on my explosive arrow. So most of my life gets regenerated. I have life gain on hit on my Split arrow - chain combination to heal up fast if necessary
- Attack speed: I have close to 5 attacks per second allowing me fast life lech with split arrow and fast stacking of explosive arrows

My Gear and gem choices (I tested a lot and this IS the best choice of gem combination you can make):

I use quill rain because, as mentioned earlier, there are no bows that can increase my dmg more. The attack speed helps to stack up my arrows extremely fast, i just need 1 second to stack 5 arrows.

The split arrow - chain - life gain on hit - blind combination allows me to permablind EVERY enemy near to instantly, leech life extremely fast (if you shoot at a large group with 5 attacks per second you get like 5000 life in 1 second) and of course, as I have cold dmg on 1 part of my gear, it allows me to lower the fire resist of enemies by 50%.

Some people might think Flammability would be better than Elemental Weakness, but it is not. It reduces the fire resist of enemies by 10% less than Elemental Weakness does. I can ignore the ignite chance increase on Flammability because i already have 74% ignite chance and as i use Elemental Proliferation i only need to ignite one target.

The combination here is obvious, I always get free endurance charges and molten shell. I keep the trigger gem on lvl 1 to get those skills casted as often as possible.

Rest of my gear:

The Ruby Flask might save your life when you shot into a reflect pack as it reduces the dmg you receive by a lot.
I know the gear is crazy, but you need some decent gear to be resistance capped in Elemental Weakness maps without Purity.

Now the most important part: How do you actually play this character? How does it work? In which order do you use your abilities? Why do you use cold dmg to trigger Elemental Equilibrium and how and when do you do it?

So what I do is:

1. I spot an enemy / enemies to kill
2. I shoot 5 Explosive arrows on one of them, trying to hit an enemy that is in the middle of the group
3. during the time it takes the arrows to explode, I curse them with Elemental Weakness
4. Before the arrows explode i start shooting Split arrow to blind them, leech life, and to trigger Elemental Equilibrium with the small amount of cold dmg i have on my quiver. I chose cold dmg because there are not that many cold dmg builds out there. During the time I shoot split arrows i give the enemies 25% additional cold resistance and reduce their lightning and fire resistance by 50%. This helps my dmg and the dmg of any lightning dmg build (and there are a lot of those out there). In groups you can support a bit with Elemental Equilibrium that way.
5. The explosion itself triggers Elemental Equilibrium too, so that the monsters get 25% additional fire resistance during the time they burn. Because you don't want that to happen you continue shooting Split arrows until like 1 second after the explosion so that the burning also profits from your Elemental equilibrium

Of course this has to go really smooth and needs some training.

That was a full rotation, that you can do on any boss or any monster, just care about reflect and you'll be fine. If you see Elemental reflect just don't stack 5 arrows on them, try to shoot 2-3 arrows but not more.

If you receive too much damage, just spam Split arrow, there is almost nothing that can kill you when you spam it.

If you happen to be in a -max resistance + Elemental Reflect map try to replace your burning dmg gem with a ranged attack totem gem to be safe. Don't dare to stack arrows in a map like that!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. You can also ask me ingame for some live footage of my build ;)

Have a nice day!

Slaydemkidz

Character name: NowItsBig

I'm currently making an Ethereal Knives Marauder, in nemesis, levelling it up as melee until I get to necessary intelligence and dexterity noteables on the tree.

The build doesn't require much to make, but as it's a marauder it has no access to iron will, so levelling up a templar and taking that reward to use on this character would be useful. I think that'd be a good introduction to new players on how to get certain gems they need easily without having to trade.

Also because I'm levelling it as melee it'd be a good way to show that you don't need more than a few respec points, enough to get from questing, to change the build you're playing. Here is my build now:


And here is the build I hope to someday have:
Of course at around level 50, that build would look more like this:


I got lucky and found the unique Ezomytes Peak, which combined with a rustic sash, cruel oak reward and path of the warrior noteable passive will do a lot for my EK damage. This would also be a good way of showing the differences between melee, weapon-specific and global physical damage increases. The combination of unwavering stance and ezomytes might be worth mentioning too.

Another note is that if the player already has enough resistances, they can lose some of the resist nodes to instead take the whirlling barrier noteable if they're using a staff, as it's pretty damn strong. Blood Magic could also be dropped at some point to use auras, though I don't want to bother.

I'll be sure to have my character all respecc'd out within the day!



e: since levelled and ready to show off. its a good starter build!

I'd like to offer my Ultimate Beginner's Tanky Blood Magic Bow Ranger!



However, I wont have a backup for it in time for you guys to copy. Ah well, perhaps another time.

I am currently running a wander in Domination.

Character name: Fera_Corda


Normally, wanders are very gear dependent, requiring top of the line stuff to even be viable. I found a solution to this with the introduction of the new, stronger, auras.

The current (level 54) tree

The planned end game tree

I chose to be a shadow because I didn't want to be a scion like everybody else, and also the positioning lets me grab eldritch battery and the aura nodes pretty early. The idea is to get a large amount of elemental damage just from auras. I get nearly 100% increased effect from auras from inner force + the aura passives, and can run wrath, anger, high level clarity, and potentially more later on as I level up the reduced mana support gem.

In addition to running too many auras, the build will also be capable of generating a large amount of charges for the party. This allows the build to be immensely powerful to a group. The best part though, is that the build enables a normally extremely expensive build to be do-able in new leagues with little gear requirements.

The gem set up:

Helmet: Elemental hit, life leech, Faster attacks, Weapon Elemental Damage
Gloves: Enduring cry, cast on damage taken, molten shell, (empty slot)
Chest: Power Siphon, Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Chain (Replace with fork until Chain can be found), Weapon elemental damage, (Life Leech), (Additional Accuracy/Faster Attacks). The 5/6l are not totally needed and can be difficult to find in a new league.
Boots: Haste, Determination, Clarity, Reduced Mana
Shield (try to get + level gems): Wrath, Anger, Reduced Mana
Wand: Free Slots, doesn't really matter.


Game-play wise, the build revolves around staying in the back and dishing out ranged damage.
For AOE, you use chain/lmp power siphon
For single target, you use elemental hit
Use frenzy every 10 seconds or so to generate frenzy charges for your group.

Wish I could post my Avatar of Fire burn discharger but she is still low level :< maybe next time

EDIT//// After some testing I found it more noob friendly to use 2 handed maces instead of dual wield to start out, as the larger cold portion of the attack is easier to achieve thus resulting in longer freeze durations.
Character: Bad_Idea_Walking

Ranger, recommended for Hardcore.

Reasons: While this build can be done just as well with a Templar or Marauder, I find that 1-30 is easiest as a ranger in hardcore due to the early access to Iron Reflexes, large amounts of life and evasion nodes from the start and attack speed.

Skills : Now I understand that the skills involved are not given from the ranger quests, however they all are extremely common.

Glacial Hammer (can be gained from making a level 1 Templar)
Melee Splash (very common low level support)
Frostbite (once again very easy to trade for.)

Bonus: Typically only 1-3 chaos is Multistrike and Elemental Proliferation. Since you will be leveling with Sweep or Cleave until level 30 anyways you can typically find enough currency by then to get these two gems, I did.

Only requires a 4Link : Glacial Hammer - Melee Splash - MultiStrike - Elemental Proliferation

Simply Dual Wield any maces you like with decent physical roles or added cold roles.

How it works: Since Glacial Hammer and Frostbite will give a good amount of chance to freeze, and with the amount of chances with splash and MultiStrike, many of your enemies will freeze around you once you start attacking, this greatly reduces incoming damage and makes it more noob friendly.

Late Game, the build isn't only for beginners, the build will scale heavily with Hatred aura, a 5Link for Weapon Elemental Damage Support, and a 6L for Life Leech in Hard maps, or More Melee Phys Damage for easy ones.
On Gear you can get Inc Weap Ele dmg% on rings, amulets etc.

As far as passives are concerned, get life, attack speed (to increase opportunities to freeze) +100% armour or evasion or combination, about 5-10 Mace damage passives, or 1 hand passives and Life regen.

Too the Developers, I suggest you log on to my character and play it for about 30 seconds in Merc Ledge, there are 2 1 handed maces on the first page of my stash tab and a 2 hander on her.

I liked this built but it needs a bit of rejiggering : http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/445674

Probably move the summon skeletons to a cast on crit gem, replace spell totem with a ranged attack totem and then stick a piercing puncture in there.

Character : Yusheeb

Acrobatics EK Scion in Domination league (Ranger or Shadow would also work, but with more trading for gems involved and possibly a slower start)

Unlike most casters, which either go ES or Iron Will and stack strength, this caster uses Evasion, Block, Acrobatics and a lot of life nodes, making it very tough.

The playstyle is pretty straightforward. For leveling you use Freezing Pulse + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Faster Projectiles, all of which you receive as quest rewards. This skill is very strong, even without passive skill investment, and will easily carry you to level 40.

Around level 40 or so, you start to use Ethereal Knives + Fork + Added Fire Damage + Faster Projectiles as your main AoE attack. These you also receive as quest rewards, Ethereal Knives you can easily trade for and start leveling early.

For added damage on single targets, I use a Spell Totem + Incinerate + Faster Casting + Lesser Multiple Projectiles.

I use a Hatred and Clarity aura, but with the aura changes I'm also going to level a Purity and Grace, to cover different party setups, or possibly squeeze into my level 80 build by sacrificing a bit of life perhaps (heresy, I know). Enfeeble is my main go to curse, with Flammability for backup, but I will also start leveling a Projectile Weakness soon.

Here is the build around level 50



Here is the build around level 80



I've had a couple of clumsy deaths, but that should just be chalked up to me and my careless playstyle (:D), I wouldn't hesitate to use this in a HC league. Any Acrobatics build is really strong now.