Hitting a wall with noob Herald of Agony Build (SSF)

Good day fellow exiles,

So this is only the second league I've played and I am a little stuck with my Herald of Agony Juggernaught. I generally play ARPG as a single player so SSF was a no-brainer for me; however, I realized a little late that there are so many mechanics in the game that I don't know what the best way is to grind for the uniques to make the build work. I've been following TbXiE's guide https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/herald-of-agony-juggernaut-build-guide?page=22# to the best of my ability, but I am getting smoked in T10+ maps. I don't like the idea of trading, but if you have some suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Hoirweath

PS: I just recently reset a bunch of my gems for 20% Quality ones, so please disregard that. ;-)

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Orthello wrote:

Good day fellow exiles,

So this is only the second league I've played and I am a little stuck with my Herald of Agony Juggernaught. I generally play ARPG as a single player so SSF was a no-brainer for me; however, I realized a little late that there are so many mechanics in the game that I don't know what the best way is to grind for the uniques to make the build work. I've been following TbXiE's guide https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/herald-of-agony-juggernaut-build-guide?page=22# to the best of my ability, but I am getting smoked in T10+ maps. I don't like the idea of trading, but if you have some suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Hoirweath

PS: I just recently reset a bunch of my gems for 20% Quality ones, so please disregard that. ;-)

Can you unhide your characters tab so we can see what you're working with? Profile > privacy settings > uncheck hide characters tab.

When I started, my first build ever was one on that site by TbXiE. It was not it. I think they just update little things to keep traffic to the site. Not many HoA Juggernauts. PoE is a game where you have to learn the game, mechanics and a lot of stuff before going SSF. High % of people never make it through story on trade league. They get stuck and just quit.

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chrischoi wrote:

"

Orthello wrote:

Good day fellow exiles,

So this is only the second league I've played and I am a little stuck with my Herald of Agony Juggernaught. I generally play ARPG as a single player so SSF was a no-brainer for me; however, I realized a little late that there are so many mechanics in the game that I don't know what the best way is to grind for the uniques to make the build work. I've been following TbXiE's guide https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/herald-of-agony-juggernaut-build-guide?page=22# to the best of my ability, but I am getting smoked in T10+ maps. I don't like the idea of trading, but if you have some suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Hoirweath

PS: I just recently reset a bunch of my gems for 20% Quality ones, so please disregard that. ;-)

Can you unhide your characters tab so we can see what you're working with? Profile > privacy settings > uncheck hide characters tab.

When I started, my first build ever was one on that site by TbXiE. It was not it. I think they just update little things to keep traffic to the site. Not many HoA Juggernauts. PoE is a game where you have to learn the game, mechanics and a lot of stuff before going SSF. High % of people never make it through story on trade league. They get stuck and just quit.

Thank you for your reply, chrischoi. My bad for the character settings. I thought it would have been public by default. It should be corrected now.

As for SSF not being for beginners, I can definitely see that. PoE isn't my first ARPG, but there is still a lot that I am learning as I am playing. Even just doing a few yellow maps is still very enjoyable. I'm hoping to get further into end-game territory.

Much appreciated!

Hi, I am a longtime Herald of Agony player and I saw your post. (I've been playing HoAg Jugg for seven leagues straight, I league start it every league and I've played it both trade and SSF.)

I've looked at your character and I have a few suggestions:

1. There doesn't appear to be many life rolls at all on your gear. Try to get life on every piece of gear: Helmet, Gloves, Boots, Body Armour, Rings, Amulet, Belt and Shield. Go for 70 life items to start, then try to upgrade to 80-90 life roll items.

2. The tabula rasa you're wearing is probably hurting you, as you don't get any life or defenses off of it. You'll probably do better with a high armour or armour/evasion chest piece with a good life roll and some resists, even it it's only a 5-link or even a 6-link. This build thrives off being tanky and able to last in a fight, over killing the enemies quickly.

3. You're using Void Manipulation Support, which is not an optimal support as the agony crawler only deals 40% of its damage as chaos, and 60% as physical. The links I would use would be:

1) Herald of Agony
2) Minion Damage
3) Damage on Full Life
4) Pierce (swap to Vile Toxins for bossing)
5) Vicious Projectiles
6) Depending on colors, either Withering Touch (Green) or Predator (Blue). The best 6th link is a level 4 Empower, but you are unlikely to get this in SSF.

4. You have the Runebinder keystone allocated, but you don't use brands. If you continue to use Cyclone, spec out of this node.

5. You are specced into the Eternal Youth Keystone. The build guide you are following is probably using a Timeless Jewel to convert this keystone into something else, but you do not have this in SSF. The Eternal Youth keystone is very, very bad for your build, as it halves your life regen. Spec out of this immediately.

6. The Golden Rule unique jewel is something you'll want to get for your build. Every Viridian Jewel you find, hit it with a Vaal Orb. This gives a chance of turning it into a unique Viridian Jewel, and if you keep doing this, you will eventually get the jewel.


Feel free to ask me any questions about Herald of Agony Juggernaut, it's my favorite build. You can take a look at my many Juggernauts on my account and maybe this'll give you some ideas.

I recommend you take a look at my character "Theta_HanSoloSelfFound". It's a little project I did in SSF at the very end of last league and is the same level as your current character:

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/theta40/characters

My league character name is Theta_ScorpionCommander, if you see me online, say hi. :)

Amazing theta40! Thank you so much for the suggestions. I have found that with the Tabula Rasa I have become more of a glass cannon. I melt mobs much easier, but as you said, I took a huge hit in survivability.

I used storm brand with poison support early on and forgot to unspecc the runebinder keystone. Thanks for reminding me.

I focused a lot on res capping since I figured not taking damage in the first place outweighs a health pool. I'll start looking for life on my gear more diligently.

The build guide IS using a timeless jewel , for which I was debating speccing my atlas for legion in hopes to get one. Based on your comment, bad idea?

The viridian jewel hack is super useful. I'm going to give that a try in my stash of jewels!

Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Will definitely also have a look at your characters. Thanks again!

No problem! The timeless jewel I am assuming is Xibaqua to give you Divine Flesh? My recommendation on Divine Flesh is that it is not worth it anymore. I used to use it, but ever since all the +max elemental res got added to the tree, I've found it better to invest in this and divine flesh is not worth the investment. Divine Flesh is really only good when you add small cluster jewels that give extra max chaos res, which is a lot of points.

What I recommend instead is path to the Prismatic Skin notable, which is only 3 passive points for you. Ditto the Soul of Steel notable, as well as the Annointed Flesh notable if you went to be even more tanky.