[Outdated] Lancing Steel Raider | SoftCore | Not league starter viable anymore

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drunkydragon wrote:

Leckarion, thanks for you guide.

I started leveling just to see how it looks like and...here is your mistake:

Your Leveling PoB for Ranger: https://pastebin.com/5AgFPtv8
...cannot get along with the gems you suggested in your Gem links: Leveling section (the ones that should bring us to lvl 28 where we can start using lancing steel).

Reason for that is that you suggest Toxic Rain, but on your PoB you go to 'Fatal Blade' wheel-nodes, which are all about crit and crit multi for swords!

I just had trouble to kill The Weawer. Took me probably 5 min, with the links you suggested:

Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Lesser Poison
&
Shrapnel Ballista - Cance to Bleed


Then I went to Oak, and it was impossible to kill him because damage done by TR, with nodes wasted on sword passive points, is very low!

So... would you mind suggesting some other leveling skill (up until lvl 28) that wont be a torture?

Thanks!

Thank you very much for the feedback! Well, I suggested toxic rain and caustic arrow because they scale a lot more from supports and level than from passives. The reason I set the passives in the tree like that is to have people not have to spend regrets to change the passives when swapping to Lancing Steel. I made a SSF character today after reading a previous reply and was able to get to act 3 in under a hour, which is reasonable, and those were the exact gems I used. Maybe I had luck with equip drops, but I surely didn't struggle like that. :/
With that in mind, I'll do as suggested and change the leveling skill after some brief testing since I don't want inconsistencies. I will update the guide as soon as get it done, for the time being I'll remove the act 1 and 2 walkthroughs.

I'm really sorry that you had to go through a bad experience.

Thanks for your reply Leckarion. No need to apologize.

I was playing Toxic rain Ranger (pathfinder) for last few leagues, and I never felt such struggle like I did with The weaver or Oak. I concluded that it must be because of the passive tree. I knew where these passive points are going but I thought 'its a new char, so maybe it wont matter much this early, its just few passive points'. But then I felt lacking that dmg with Oak. It was like his HP not dropping at all.

So out of frustration, I disconnected from the game and decided to let you know about it. :)

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drunkydragon wrote:

Thanks for your reply Leckarion. No need to apologize.

I was playing Toxic rain Ranger (pathfinder) for last few leagues, and I never felt such struggle like I did with The weaver or Oak. I concluded that it must be because of the passive tree. I knew where these passive points are going but I thought 'its a new char, so maybe it wont matter much this early, its just few passive points'. But then I felt lacking that dmg with Oak. It was like his HP not dropping at all.

So out of frustration, I disconnected from the game and decided to let you know about it. :)

Heya! No problem, I just finished rushing a character through acts 1 and 2 and Frost Blades appears to be a more pleasant experience. I opted for a 2-handed sword early on because of the higher damage and ease of upgrade before getting Ambidexterity on the tree. I do not recommend Splitting Steel though, it had a really slow clear and is clunky that early in the leveling because of the low attack speed.

Thanks for replying and giving me feedback, I was able to make adjustments quicker thanks to that.

Hi,

looks very interesting but also expensive.
When did you change to Raider?
Will you play this build in the league again?
Is the Lioneyes Vision also good?

can this build starter?

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Snowbliz wrote:

Hi,

looks very interesting but also expensive.
When did you change to Raider?
Will you play this build in the league again?
Is the Lioneyes Vision also good?

Heya! The build is not expensive in the low budget versions and you can upgrade little by little through the league. I'm going to play this again this season, but will probably start as duelist and then create a new ranger afterwards.
I changed from Deadeye to Ranger after getting the first large cluster and my Offering to the Serpent(the ones on my gear, paid 1 exalted for them and used the whole season). The cluster I crafted spamming fossils.

Lioneye's Vision is also good, didn't mention that body armour because it's price can fluctuate at league start and consistently stayed above 430c(6-link) through Ritual League according to Poe Ninja, even reaching 6ex for a 6-link. Besides that it is actually a good alternative because of the Free Pierce it gives you, this way you can use a 5-link instead of a 6-link for some time.
I updated the guide mentioning that chestpiece.

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dboySasha wrote:

can this build starter?

Yes, it can be used as league starter. :)

Anyone facing issues loading the POB for the leveling https://pastebin.com/5AgFPtv8 ? I can't seem to find the leveling gems or items listed

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qihan wrote:

Anyone facing issues loading the POB for the leveling https://pastebin.com/5AgFPtv8 ? I can't seem to find the leveling gems or items listed

Holy Molly! I forgot to update the PoB with the gem links. Not including itens in that PoB since it was meant more as a passive tree and skill gem progression guide, for that I recommend checking the gear list section in the build guide. Thanks for the reply!

Hmmm I saw some videos today and they got me thinking... should I go for Champion, Deadeye or Ranger on SSF?

Maybe I'll have a better time going for Champion because I feel like it's less dependent on items (thus more suitable for SSF), and maybe it does better single target? What do you think?

Also I'm a bit confused about my progression path.
I'm thinking of following this plan:

Reach level 80 > start following the "Lowest Budget No Cluster" tree > Craft Cluster Jewels mid 80's and transition to "Lowest Budget With Cluster".

Then, with "Lowest Budget With Cluster" tree:
Reach level 90 > Improve Gear in early red maps > Kill/farm Sirus > obtain Thread of Hope and The Savior > switch to the "Mid Budget with Cluster" and turn into Raider. From there, I'll be able to do any content in the game with ease.

Sounds like a good SSF plan to you?

Regarding swords "pre-Saviour": anything rare with high PDPS will do, right? Do we need any specific/very important mods? Aside from foils, what is the best base in your opinion? I'm asking this because I won't have easy access to Beltimber so I'll probably have to craft my own swords start farming early red maps and kill Sirus.

Thanks for the help! Also, SALVE! kk

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guidulove wrote:

Hmmm I saw some videos today and they got me thinking... should I go for Champion, Deadeye or Ranger on SSF?

Maybe I'll have a better time going for Champion because I feel like it's less dependent on items (thus more suitable for SSF), and maybe it does better single target? What do you think?

Also I'm a bit confused about my progression path.
I'm thinking of following this plan:

Reach level 80 > start following the "Lowest Budget No Cluster" tree > Craft Cluster Jewels mid 80's and transition to "Lowest Budget With Cluster".

Then, with "Lowest Budget With Cluster" tree:
Reach level 90 > Improve Gear in early red maps > Kill/farm Sirus > obtain Thread of Hope and The Savior > switch to the "Mid Budget with Cluster" and turn into Raider. From there, I'll be able to do any content in the game with ease.

Sounds like a good SSF plan to you?

Regarding swords "pre-Saviour": anything rare with high PDPS will do, right? Do we need any specific/very important mods? Aside from foils, what is the best base in your opinion? I'm asking this because I won't have easy access to Beltimber so I'll probably have to craft my own swords start farming early red maps and kill Sirus.

Thanks for the help! Also, SALVE! kk

SALVE, MANO! Thanks for replying!
In a strict SSF environment I think Champion gives you a lot more resources to build from nothing. You'll get extra free mana(since banners wont reserve mana) that may allow you to use skitterbots, you'll get extra impales from passives and free fortify. Also, Champion scales really well with armour. I plan on league starting as a Duelist Lancing Steel this season, as soon as I flesh out the passive tree progression I'll post the link here.

About the swords, besides the uniques I mentioned, you can got for Ichimonji, Scaeva and Prismatic Eclipse as placeholders. When it comes to rare bases, the best is by far Jewelled foil, but you can use worse thursting swords if you don't get one, a Gladius or a Eternal sword. The priority when it comes to mods is flat Phys damage + increased phys damage, attack speed, crit multi and crit chance, you don't actually need anything special in your rare swords besides the standard stuff for phys builds. You can try using essences of greed until you hit a nice increased phys damage and craft the other mods you need for a decent sword. Also, since you're planning on going for Champion, maybe Grelwood would work better than Beltimber.

You can definitively follow the progression path you decided, but I don't recommend dodge if you're going for Champion, you may as well get Soul of Steel instead of Acrobatics in the passive tree to maximize your armour. Also, remember to take Ramparts since you'll have Fortify 24/7, it'll give you a nice early bonus.

Deadeye would work as welll because of her extra projectiles and free chain, Raider is more gear dependant imo, she gets free onslaught and frenzy on hit, but those stats work best with good base damage.

Hope you liked the build and have fun! Stay sane!