[Not quite 3.7] A Simple Cleaver (Beginner friendly, SSF-viable, Much Explanation)

"

docketamine wrote:

Love the build, nice and fast, simple to play, and tons of fun. Thanks!

Since we already have Maim from our ascendancy, why put Maim as support on Cleave? Why not a leveled Melee Physical Damage (45% or more physical damage vs 15%)?


Also ... how is your single-target boss damage with Cleave in the endgame?

But... Melee Physical Damage is already a Support Gem for Cleave?
It's actually the second strongest after Brutality.

As for "Why Maim" in general: We do have Maim in the Ascendency, but that's actually not important. Maim from the Support Gem on the other hand makes the enemy take more physical damage while he's maimed, boosting your damage more than it would appear at first.
Normal Maim from the Ascendency only has the slowing part of maim, not the increased damage taken.
The total damage boost Maim gives is rather similiar to Ruthless, but I prefer it in the 5th slot, because it's constant, unlike Ruthless which is only every third Cleave, which I will put into the 6th Slot (once I have it).

Boss Damage
Since I upgraded my rare weapons I found/crafted for 2 Scaeva my Damage has been OK in most part.
I played some more, still on a 5L (too lazy to trade for a 6L) and leveled my gems (being at 20/20 now), so my damage increased a bit.
I can't talk about Guardians or T15 Bosses now, as I did not do those (my T15 Rigwald was pretty early done, so I was quite a bit weaker then, and it took me several minutes, mostly because I had to farm flask charges) but T13 and T14 Bosses take less than a minute (I never stopped time, so I can't give detailed answers).
I'm obviously not deleting bosses, but I'm happy with the speed it takes to eliminate them.
Some bosses take longer than others (Warband Bosses generally taking the longest), but most of the time the damage feels OK to me.
On a side note: Sometimes Harbinger Rares can take nearly as long as some bosses...

Could be HC Viable? OFC with some more hp points.

"

Kanses wrote:

Could be HC Viable? OFC with some more hp points.

I don't play HC myself, so I'm no expert on that, but I think it's possible.
You would probably have to change the way you use your points during leveling a bit(more HP early on), and you have to dodge stuff a little more.
I don't play too careful (because SC) but during the story I only died to Act 6 Karui Scorching Ray Totems (too low resistances, and going through the new acts completely blind), to Act 6 Abberath (I was stupid enough to facetank him when he was low HP and ate just one meteor too much) and of course Act 10 Kitava (completley blind, as stated above).
Most stuff I could more or less facetank without worry (even with my low HP).

Another thing to note is, that the last Ascendency gives you a pretty big boost to survivability. It's not mandatory of course, but really notable.

The usual combination of "Cast when Damage taken" and "Immortal Call" (probably with increased Duration) helps somewhat to survive, and with Pantheon and Blood Rage it can actually give you something like an "Emergency Potion" (Increased Recovery after taking DoT and Immortal Call stopping your Blood Rage DoT).

You could also try to fit in Enduring Cry for some Endurance Charges and another kind of "Emergency Potion". Once you ditch Charged Dash you have enough slots to experiment with some stuff. (As HC player you probably have more experience in how to make the build more tanky)

The nearest additional HP-Points you could get are Barbarism, Juggernaut and Thick Skin, other sources of HP I would say are too far out to reach comfortably, and you would probably have to change some more stuff around to reach it.
The best to switch out would probably be Versatility, Duality and Berserking. And of course Resistances, if you have good enough gear.
Something like this could probably be a HC variant of the build. You would lose roughly 20k DPS this way (90k -> 70k) as well as Resistances, but you get about 800-900 HP more. (at least I would with the gear I have)
If you don't care about resistances in your tree at all, you can end up with something like this. You would only reduce your damage by about 10k (so 90->80) and still gain the HP-Boost, but you would, of course, lose all the resistances in the tree, so you would need better gear to compensate.

Thanks for the answer, im trying it on ssfhhc just for fun.

I'm stock on Act6 with the Fire Totem simply blows me away. From what I read Scythless I'm not the only one since I'm a real beginner of PoE. I'm now lvl 48 Glad and I easily clean the mobs exept for thoses Chaos thing that hurt me a lot. Thanks to Ancestral Protector, I can overcome them. But in Act 6, I could easily kill them but they wipe me out so easily. What you could suggest to help me a bit??

Thanks

Currently lvl 60 at act8 con ssfhhc

OMG, I totally blanked on MPD already being in there. Thanks for the reply re: Maim, I didn't notice that the ascendancy Maim didn't have the dmg buff.

"

MRN1C3QC wrote:

I'm stock on Act6 with the Fire Totem simply blows me away. From what I read Scythless I'm not the only one since I'm a real beginner of PoE. I'm now lvl 48 Glad and I easily clean the mobs exept for thoses Chaos thing that hurt me a lot. Thanks to Ancestral Protector, I can overcome them. But in Act 6, I could easily kill them but they wipe me out so easily. What you could suggest to help me a bit??

Thanks

The Karui in Act 6 are more or less made to showcase "Get some resists now", because you're just after Kitava and your resistances have been lowered.
To counter that, you have to increase your resistances, obviously.
If you do not have the resistances in your Tree and do not have good resistances on your items (and you don't want/can trade for better ones), you can switch Grace (or Arctic Armor, or both) with Purity of Fire and/or Purity of Cold.
You'd probably need a bit of Intelligence on your items to level them. Purity of Elements and Purity of Lightning are not good, because they need too much Int.

For Chaos Damage, the best you can do is "be fast", as it's not easy to get Chaos Resistance.
The most prominent things doing chaos damage are the vaal constructs. Either run/dash straight to them, or zigzag your way to them to avoid most projectiles.
Other chaos damage is mostly lingering, like Toxic Clouds, for those, just go out.

"

Kanses wrote:

Currently lvl 60 at act8 con ssfhhc

You can do it! :D

Thanks for the great build guide. This was the second build I tried to SSF HHC past A10 Kitava and it was rather painless to accomplish (with a 4L chest, mind you). Keeping up with resists, nursing the HP pool, and playing smart/safe was my focus throughout, though I guess that should be the focus no matter the build.

Since I accomplished my SSF goal, I migrated to regular HHC and am mapping just fine. I'm taking it super easy with T5 maps right now (I still have more goals, like level 90+) but I'm having very little issue with any bosses thus far. Doing about 65k buffed with a 5L. Loving the build and it's actually tankier than I was expecting, but I don't take that for granted in order to stay alive.

So for those asking if this is HC viable, yes, it is. And this is only the 2nd build I've ever tried on HC.

edit: is conc effect a bad idea on this build? PoB shows a huge boost as the 6th, just wondering your thoughts?

"

vinnyhigh wrote:

Thanks for the great build guide. This was the second build I tried to SSF HHC past A10 Kitava and it was rather painless to accomplish (with a 4L chest, mind you). Keeping up with resists, nursing the HP pool, and playing smart/safe was my focus throughout, though I guess that should be the focus no matter the build.

Since I accomplished my SSF goal, I migrated to regular HHC and am mapping just fine. I'm taking it super easy with T5 maps right now (I still have more goals, like level 90+) but I'm having very little issue with any bosses thus far. Doing about 65k buffed with a 5L. Loving the build and it's actually tankier than I was expecting, but I don't take that for granted in order to stay alive.

So for those asking if this is HC viable, yes, it is. And this is only the 2nd build I've ever tried on HC.

edit: is conc effect a bad idea on this build? PoB shows a huge boost as the 6th, just wondering your thoughts?

Thanks for the info. I don't play HC myself, so I didn't know how well it would go.
Good to hear, it can work for others.

Regarding your question:
My thoughts regarding Conc Effect:
It's a huge damage boost, that's for sure, if you can deal with the downsides.
This build does not have any investment into AoE and it does not have much on the side of intelligence. You will reduce your AoE by a good amount, so it's best for boss swap, but bad to leave it in permanently.
If you do not invest in some more intelligence, or get more int on your gear, it can be hard to level the gem up. For example, my character itself does have ~64 int. That's barely enough for lvl 7 of Conc. Leaving it in all the time would be bad for clearing, so you would most likely swap it out if you're normally running the map. That leaves you with an empty blue slot. There are not many blue gems that work well. Inc AoE of course, but you can't level it full and it does not give damage, also, the AoE is actually ok enough without the gem in my opinion (you're melee, so it's ok, to hit 1 or 2 close groups, no need to hit everything on the screen). Crit-gems are not that great, as you do not have crit investment in this build, so a little bit more crit chance or crit damage won't make a lot of difference. Faster Attacks gives more damage than crit damage, crit strikes gives not really anything.
My recommendation, Ruthless, is the best damage boost just after Conc Effect, and you do not need any investment to bring it to higher levels. If, on the other hand you manage to get a white socket in your 6L you can freely switch between Conc Effect and a good red gem (Chance to Bleed, Ruthless are the best). Although that's probably hard to achieve.