Builds and Farming [Assistance Appreciated]

Hello, I'm a returning player at the behest of a friend trying the game for the first time.

*Side note: this was made on my mobile, if I was on my pc I would update this with links to my items etc, not that I know how to do that.

In all my time playing this game previously, I have never managed to make it to the end game where I could do any form of juicing or bossing.
I have two general questions in regards to this issue I'm facing. Which are the following:

Builds:
Every time I come back to this game, I struggle heavily with finding a build to follow, as I'm always faced with the problem of deciding what kind of end game content i plan on doing.
In the current Affliction league, I decided that I should start with a league starter capable of doing some end game content and then make a second character that can do the content I want.
From this idea, I decided to league start as detonate dead. It started well but I found the upper limit very quickly, whether it was the limits of the build I was following, or because I barely understood why I was dealing damage in the first place.
After feeling this way, I thought I should pick a build that is relatively strong and plays the same in most leagues. After doing *some* research, I came across tornado shot and thought Id try it.
Now I'm currently level 94 on tornado shot and what I'm noticing is that the build is so ridiculously expensive that I will never reach the upper end of this skill. Furthermore, I've noticed that no matter the investment it feels like I deal no damage all the time and die nearly instantly to everything.

After some consideration, I couldn't come to a conclusion and decided to make this post asking for help on what I should be doing. I want to find a reliable build that I can do next league as my *main* build as I intend to make a league starter first.

Farming:
The second topic of discussion that I'm struggling with, is how am I supposed to make currency in this game. From my understanding, it's possible to make money from anything as long as you keep at it. However, i struggle heavily with making currency.
At league start, I farmed essences and was making like 100c per hour if I was lucky. Moving on from this, I decided to try out blight and expedition. Both were kind of disappointing, blight was enjoyable but gave nearly no profits meanwhile expedition was painful but the most profitable thing I ran in that time because of the currency with Tujen.

After this, I had reached the upper spectrum of my build guide for detonate dead that I was following. I decided to spec into early magic find because it seemed interesting. Long story short, it was the least profitable thing I had done to this point, because my character was weak it was a real struggle to run it at all.

Due to this wall I'd ran into, I decided to make my second character with 25 div at my side from all the farming over the course of like half a month. Unfortunately I didn't realise how expensive tornado shot was and was immediately poor again lol.

Once I was semi-geared up I started to farm harvest as I saw the prices were somewhat high. This led to my highest monetary gains ever, I was gaining roughly 8 div per hour. This meant I was able to greatly upgrade my build but as I mentioned previously in this post, no matter the upgrades, I felt immensely weak.

Lastly, the main point I am trying to make, is how are people farming like 50 div per hour and whatnot? I understand crafting is very popular and profitable but I have 0 understanding on how to see what's going to sell and what to focus on crafting etc.

TL:DR
Idk what build to follow that I can reliably improve without needing to understand quantum physics and be rich. Also, how are people making so much money so quickly? I cannot fathom having that much currency.

Okay, I figured out how to link items so here's what I'm currently running on my tornado shot character:








I can't seem to link the cluster jewels in my skill tree however.

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CheezusCrusty wrote:

After some consideration, I couldn't come to a conclusion and decided to make this post asking for help on what I should be doing. I want to find a reliable build that I can do next league as my *main* build as I intend to make a league starter first.

This is impossible to answer because we dont know which skills, mechanics etc are going to be nerfed next patch.

The way Im handling this by having multiple archetypes/playstyles I enjoy and work well in leaguestart scenario in mind when reading the patchnotes.
One of those happens to be Ignite Elementalist.
So when the patchnotes drop, Ill just do a search for relevant terms such as "ignite", "elementalist", "my favorite skill" and so on.
If there are no negative changes, Im good to go and can start as Ignite Elementalist.

Consequently the best advice I can give is checking out as many league starters as you can (go SSF to simulate a leaguestart). If you like it, keep those builds in mind when the patchnotes drop and go from there.
Id advise to have at least 2-3 potential starters, just in case nerfs do end up hurting your builds.

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CheezusCrusty wrote:

Lastly, the main point I am trying to make, is how are people farming like 50 div per hour and whatnot?

These players are playing on a different level than you do. Its like couchpotato sportsfan comparing himself to toptier athletes and wanting to pull off the same thing.
You cant. Unless you are willing to put in as much time, effort and dedication as they do.


The way to handle this is similar to what I wrote above.
Check all sorts of league mechanics and figure out what you enjoy. Then either commit to any given mechanic early on or check websites such as PoE ninja a few weeks into the league to find out what people are willing to pay for and do that all day every day.

If you arent playing a ton, Id recommend to go for stuff no one else is farming and is therefore in high demand. Right now magicfind is the meta, so you could try to invest into that as well and compete with everyone else or you go for the stuff no one else is doing - like Harvest or whatever else it might be next league.


Its never about a specific build or a mechanic but about your mindset.

Okay, so overall the main takeaway from my understanding is just make sure you have fun.

Find a variety of different builds for a potential league start.

In this case, I have a question about what to do after my league start character. Because I imagine that this character has not been designed or optimized to perform end game content.

How do you go about finding your non League start character?

I treat leaguestarters as throw away builds and dont care about those characters whatsoever. All I want them to do is unlocking the Atlas, farm at least 2 Voidstones and farm currency.
Thats all I want from a starter. Nothing more, nothing less and its overall fairly low hanging fruit.


Determining my real endgame build depends on the patchnotes and on what others are doing. A week or two into the league Ill check what other players came up with and whether Id enjoy playing this specific build or if any of my endgame favorites are better suited for whatever it is I want to achieve in that league.

Ideally the 2nd build would also be a Witch because in that case I wouldnt have to lvl a new character but instead Id simply respec the entire tree including Ascendancy if need be and switch to the 2nd build as soon as Ive managed to acquired the relevant gear.

If I can craft the gear, Ill do that.
If I cant, Ill have to farm currency and buy the gear.
Either way, the goal is acquiring the gear and move on from my starter to the next build.


Which build exactly really depends on my goals for that league, the newly introduced league mechanic (if want to farm and interact with that), whether I want to go for uber bosses or not and so on.

There is no "one size fits all" build capable of doing it all. And even if a build like that existed, Id be bored after having played this build for a league or two, so Id go for something else anyways.
But thats just my preference.


And yes you are right: Its all about figuring out whats fun and enjoyable.
I tried to copy other players - way more successful players I might add - for the longest, always felt miserable and not fun. Not that their approach was wrong or anything, it just wasnt for me and thats fine.

Ill do whatever is most enjoyable, even if its not the most effecient way to do it or whatever else way better players might recommend.
Dont care. If I dont have fun, Im wasting my time and Id rather do something else then.