[help] How to make own build do more DPS?

Just so you have realistic expectations...


One of the biggest issues with Poe is "Poe Math". I'm talking about both in dealing damage and receiving it.


The short answer is there's really no straightforward and simple process to understand improving damage. It's why certain builds are far more popular than others and yet also why those builds only stay popular for a limited duration.

Take the recent explosive arrow ballista totem. The basis starts with stacking explosive arrow fuses on a target. Its this specific skill that enables the potential for high damage ignites.

There are several other aspects you incorporate, like elemental equilibrium, fire damage over time multiplier, attack speed, etc. But what pulls it all together is that the explosive arrow damage scales up well, especially under the right circumstances.

The vast majority of skills don't have reliable methods to scale up well. For example, as far as melee goes, you're looking at just a handful of options. Lightning strike (which isn't "true" melee), cyclone and its cast on crit or cast while channeling variants are mostly what you'd see doing the harder end game content while ranged skills have a bit more variety.

I get not wanting to blindly follow a guide, but I'd also say a lot of what I've learned about damage over the years has come out of guides. Something that works well for a league or two can be gutted into worthlessness. Unless you have extremely in-depth knowledge and are always up-to-date on patch notes, its a lot easier to reference guides to know what's working well.

A lot of what I've learned has since changed and while it may no longer apply directly, it also provides a basis to understanding newer concepts.

Short answer is most of the skill tree builds aren't so impressive you need their help to route passives. After you've read POB passives for a few months. I'm able to better position links of a skill tree probably even better after 1 year of playing, than some many year vets. How to save points for what matters most & route.

So most of the million dps has to do with equipment or support gems. The tree matters if you didn't study the tree for a few months or so. Yet after that your fine for tree building. As long as you know if you want to use cluster jewels, timeless, or not.

Theirs obviously passive synergies. Tho ye ultimately items or supports are what gives a pob melee skill that shows as 2,000 dps to potentially have 2m or 20 million.

Simple answer is paste a pob planner build & take off all the guys armour & items. & You'll see underneath all that fancy equipment is just a regular skill tree plan. Sometimes the pros offer rather weak life % or defenses too. So they fail to mention player gameplay preference, not everyone aspects to need to kite to make the build work.

& ye usually anything over 20m is just abusing a few items that usually all the time require a nerf anyways. Heck many builds over just 10m abuse some op item, like a triple dmg staff or armour stacker for dps, aka dreamfeather. That's for poe ninja.

Usually the builds for youtube are more honest with their approach to how they got a good build or attained millions of dps. Tho for poe ninja, I'd just nerf poe ninja build entirely every week, esp overused chase items.

Favor YT builds, ignore poe ninja.

I've never followed a build guide. Reddit player questions are good enough. Or some slideshows of yt players sharing their league starts.