My honest opinion
|
Hello everyone, my name is Manuel and I am playing Path of Exile since the middle of last league Domination. I am an active reader of the official forum but due to my introverted and shy character, I do not usually talk much or share my opinions.
The first congratulate this young company “GGG” by the great game that is developing and making evolve continuously. I consider myself a classical player because I like the characters as the typical tank (my favorite class) with 1H weapon and shield, mage or ranger. Still, I love the wide variety of possible constructions that this game offers. The reason for writing this post is because of the recent expansion of the game, which seems to be, that has raised the difficulty level much more than they should. Before anyone jumps to the neck to criticize me, I have to say that I've tried all the game modes so far: Standard (where I usually help the new people when they need help and I can offer if I'm playing), Domination / Ambush (a brilliant league, for now) and Nemesis / Invasion (a league if anything harder than before, but that now causes me no great satisfaction for the reasons I will describe below, which apply to the game in general). I do not include the Cutthroat mode because I do not like and I never saw sense to kill other players, I'm more of playing in a group, if possible. As I was saying, the problem is not the new game content, if not the significant increase in the damage of many monsters, whatever kind it is, causing an alarming increase in deaths per 1 hit, either by immense critical damage or impossible to avoid / mitigate / dodge or block massive damage. I'm not saying I want an easy game, I like difficult games but not impossible. I want clever, intelligently designed encounters that are difficult. Unavoidable major damage spikes are not "difficult", they are un-fun and I don't like to run away skipping game content because it’s impossible to kill as melee player. Some corrupt areas are simply impossible because of the insane mods they contain. Put as an example, my current tank, level 60+ in Ambush. The massive change in the area of Marauder surprised but not shocked me as much as the first day that I came into the game and saw the tree passive… I love planning my characters before playing so I got to work with POESkillTree. I do not usually pass level 85, so I plan first with 70 points and wide to 100 later. As the league usually progresses also make use of "poe.xyz.is" to find equipment if I'm not able to find an improvement on my own. My personal passive tree for the tank: I finished the Marauder and Duelist area, I'm on my way to completing the Templar area. I still need to refund the Blood Magic key point plus some strength nodes too. I know auras are important. I do not think my equipment is so good, there is still much room for improvement, especially in the need to increase much more the character's life. Anyway I like what I have at the moment. I apologize for not putting a picture with my stats, so I will describe it best: Class: Marauder •Life: 1834 •INT: 84 •STR: 338 •DEX: 122 •Armor: 6700; Damage Reduction: 60% •Evasion: 540; Chance to evade: 15% •Resistances: 61% Fire, 67% Ice, 76% (135%) Lighting, -36% Chaos. •Chance to Block: 41% •HP Regen: 82.5/sec •Run Speed: 12% •Endurance charges: 5 •Critical Damage Reduction: 20% Using x3 level 60 20%Q HP potions with Insta recovery on low life + Dispel Frozen/Shock/Burning or Bleeding Using x1 Granite flask 14%Q with extra 80% armor Using x1 Quicksilver flask 20%Q with extra Charges and +21% extra run speed. Other things I use for distraction / luring / survival: Decoy totem level 15, Vaal Molten Shell level 16 + Increase Duration + Fire penetration (30% actually). (16 seconds dealing 800-2k fire damage is very nice against melee pack of mobs). Cwdt + Enduring Cry + Ice Nova + Blind / Cwdt + Summon Skeletons + Minion life + Immortal call. From my point of view, I think I'm up defensively speaking, but how is that great multitude of monsters now ignore everything I have, and I die with 1 hit k.o.? I have read and I have in mind all the mechanics of the game in terms of damage, their order and how it works. http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/11707/page/1 I never stand still, I am bringing the monsters in little groups if I can, to use my AoE attack, I have learned the patterns of many bosses, and still to die on 1 hit, and lose 2 or 3 hours of game that is experience for the character not feel very well. Of course, the recent change in Life Leech has a lot to do too, and that has left many of my characters completely useless. Due to this change of only being able to leech of the highest possible pool of damage dealt I can no longer play any of the builds that I would like to play. I have tried using the new Vaal pact skill and it just isn’t good enough to keep me up anymore. I know there are going to be people out there that will say: "There is plenty of OP builds out there just go play one of them!" or "Game too hard for you noob?” It’s not that, it’s just the builds that I enjoy playing and fit my gaming play style are just not cutting it in end game maps anymore. Life Gain on Hit is not the solution for a slow hard hitting tank maybe for the beginning but not later in my honest opinion. The de-synchronization is secondary, which has ever caused 1 death or 2, but nothing out of the ordinary. I’m used to counter it. I'm very frustrated right now therefore I think to stop playing for a couple of days. Although not sure anything will have changed when I return. I thank all those who have had the patience to read my wall of text and want to give constructive feedback. Best Regards. Last edited by GloomyAgony#0823 on Mar 22, 2014, 6:29:33 AM
This thread has been automatically archived. Replies are disabled.
|
|
|
A few points: I may agree with your general sentiment, but your build has problems. Less than 2000 at level 60+ for a supposed tank build is very low. I'm guessing you don't have much life on gear.
Investing in shield/block nodes with so little health is pointless. Block is good, but you need to be able to take the hits which go past it. A lot of the damage spikes in the game, particularly when you reach higher-level content, come from elemental damage. You don't have a single +max resist node, you aren't using purity auras, you don't have Saffel's Frame (I'm guessing here). So, to sum it up, you have 75% max resists, no spell block and less than 2000 life at level 60+. I'm sorry, but you aren't a tank by any stretch of the imagination. Builds that are considered almost as glass cannons have more life at that stage of the game. Yes, I know, it's Path of Life. You get to complain about broken bosses when you die by unavoidable elemental damage in 1-2 seconds with more than 80% resist all and 5000 life :P You have to be realistic about these things. Logen Ninefingers Last edited by Bars#2689 on Mar 22, 2014, 6:33:17 AM
| |
|
Two points about tanks:
* endurance charges (maxed) * + max. resist You lack both in your build When night falls She cloaks the world In impenetrable darkness Last edited by morbo#1824 on Mar 22, 2014, 7:04:06 AM
|
|
|
I appreciate the comments.
Considering both, how I can improve my passive tree? I dont like at all the path of life :/ Do you really think 4% over Max resistance is better than losing all my physical damage? The Shield: "Saffell's Frame" seems situational, suitable for wearing in the extra set of weapons, as I see it is pure anti-magicians. It has never dropped to me before so it feels like a lucky drop at higher levels. The stats with the path of life + max res + max charges with no damage:
Spoiler
+352 to Strength
+104 to Dexterity +84 to Intelligence +398 to maximum Mana +936 to maximum Life +6 Maximum Endurance Charge 176% increased Armour 232% increased maximum Life 5.5% of Life Regenerated per Second 21% additional Chance to Block with Shields 40% increased Block Recovery 95% increased Defences from equipped Shield 2% increased Movement Speed You take 20% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes 2% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life +10% to all Elemental Resistances +4% to maximum Fire Resistance +4% to maximum Cold Resistance +4% to maximum Lightning Resistance +8% to Cold Resistance +8% to Lightning Resistance +8% to Fire Resistance 0.2% of maximum Life Regenerated per second per Endurance Charge Your hits can't be Evaded Never deal Critical Strikes 8% increased Melee Physical Damage +2 to Melee Weapon and Unarmed range 8% increased maximum Mana 46% increased Physical Damage with One Handed Melee Weapons 12% increased Attack Speed 3% increased Attack Speed with One Handed Melee Weapons 32% increased Evasion Rating and Armour Ignore all Movement Penalties from Armour +20% Elemental Resistances while holding a Shield 3% increased Effect of Buffs on You 12% of Block Chance applied to Spells +70.4% increased Melee Physical Damage Funny question: how am i gonna kill the mobs?? of boredom?? xD Sincerely. |
|
" First of all, your tree does have a decent amount life for your level, I suspect it's mostly your gear that is subpar, i.e. not enough +life on it. You could use a bit more, of course. Secondly, if you want to play any viable melee char in PoE, you need to either be mostly a tank build, or to have insane gear. It's not only Path of Life, it's also path of damage mitigation for a melee char (what Morbo said: endurance charges, +max resists). If I had to change your tree with the idea of keeping it as effective as possible, I'd mostly remove the block nodes, since block just doesn't work if you don't have enough life and flat damage mitigation, and get the endurance charge in the Duelist section. I'd do something like this and look for gear with more life on it. Saffell's is expensive and highly situational, yes. It's very good against elemental damage bosses, but very little builds actually run with it all the time. I was mostly using it as an example. Also, if your main problem is not staying alive, it has to be addressed at the cost of some damage. And, by the way, sword and shield builds make good tanks - in lategame, with excellent gear. Shields, and shield nodes, aren't that powerful early on and also severely lower your DPS. Just going for a 2-hander or dual wielding with a lot of life and resists is generally more effective and you can always redistribute some skill points and transition to sword/shield later on, when you have a good enough 1-handed weapon to still deal meaningful damage, plus good enough gear and enough skill points overall to make the 1h/shield thing work well. Something else: pure +armor nodes are not very efficient, because armor does next to nothing against heavy hits (the heavier the hit, the less it reduces it). These damage mitigation figures you see on your armor panel are against weak hits from normal monsters, not bosses. The way to actually mitigate heavy hits is: - endurance charges (they give flat, guaranteed physical mitigation, unlike armor) - getting tens of thousands of armor, it's mostly done by using Iron Reflexes + Grace/Determination auras and combining a granite flask of iron skin and a jade flask or reflexes. You don't actually need these insane values in 99% of the fights, this is only against a few heavy-hitters - evading most hits by block or dodge/evasion.. but, again: you need high life and some flat physical mitigation to survive the hits that connect You have to be realistic about these things. Logen Ninefingers Last edited by Bars#2689 on Mar 22, 2014, 9:09:58 AM
| |
|
1800 life for a 'tank' build simply does not do. To put this in perspective, I had well over 3300 life at a similar level and I have fewer life nodes. It's important to get +life on most, if not all, of your gear pieces if you want to 'tank.' Hell, it's important enough to get +life on most, if not all, of your gear pieces even if you don't want to tank.
Yes, getting +max res is important. Going from 75% resists to 79% resists, for example, is a 16% damage reduction for elemental damage. That's very significant. Endurance charges provide the same, except for physical damage. If you have lots of Endurance Charges you can also use Immortal Call, which is very powerful right now. Thirdly you really need to cap your resistances. Running about with 61% fire resists will not do, especially in maps. -36% chaos is not ideal either. |
|
" A slightly modified version that has more life & more armor, while keeping the same DPS & block. You loose some int & dex, but you should compensate that with gear. Depending on the weapon type you use, you should be able to spec into more DPS, by sacrificing some armor (or resist (diamond flesh) when you cap them with gear) Without seeing your gear not much more can be said. The tree is sound, its probably your gear that is bad / lacking. You should strive to have +life on every piece (yeah, path of life) and maxed resist. When night falls She cloaks the world In impenetrable darkness Last edited by morbo#1824 on Mar 22, 2014, 1:01:45 PM
|
|
|
Along with the rest of the good advice I see here, I'd strongly advise the following as minimum requirements for a 1-hand + shield tank:
* 200% Increased Life (3000+ HP total) * 5+ Endurance Charges and a sure way to get them * 75+% Chance to Block/Evade/Dodge * 75% Resist-All (not including Chaos resist) * Immunity or high chance to avoid freeze, stun, and shock Last edited by RogueMage#7621 on Mar 22, 2014, 2:20:40 PM
|
|
