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Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.
I'm really looking forward to the open beta even though I've only been playing the closed beta since last week when I finally got accepted into it. I had tried the free weekends previously, but the game never really grabbed me until I decided to try out something other than melee to start. I've found that for me casters help with the early game tedium due to their mana regen and aoe spells. I think this past week I've tried close to 10 builds through act 1, with taking roughly half of those to the next difficulty, and I still can't decide what I'll be creating for open beta. Those characters did help me understand the passive tree a lot better though, and I'm eager to try creating a fresh build once the open beta passive tree and patch notes are posted.

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Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.
I finally transitioned my tanky marauder into using bows midway through act 1 cruel. It's pretty loving fantastic. My only concern is my damage falling off later on due to not picking up any damage nodes on the passive tree until much later in my build. If anyone has any advice my builds are below. I'm using Ice Shot with Lesser Multiple Projectiles now, and it was my original plan to use it, but I'm thinking of trying out some other bow gems tomorrow.

Current Build - Headed toward Iron Reflexes currently

Core Build - What's not shown is the Armour Mastery Nodes and the Leather and Steel nodes. I'm not sure which one I should be getting. I figure that it should be L&S, but I was hoping someone could confirm that is the better choice if I plan on being str/dex hybrid as I'm not familiar with the forumulas when converting with IR and L&S.

Vizrt fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Jan 26, 2013

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

Count Uvula posted:

Characters also get stat growth per level of the stats they're based around, e.g. +2 int per level for witches, +1 int +1 dex for shadows.

There is no natural stat growth. The only stats you get are from stat nodes or gear.

pixaal posted:

Well the +11% all resists ring and the node I picked up increased it on the character sheet when I tested it a few days ago (which is a few patched ago :v:)

I just checked with a prismatic ring with +% all resists mod. Chaos resist is not included either on the mod or the implicit value.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

RosaParksOfDip posted:

edit: Anyone know how the passive skill that increases the effect of buffs on you works? Would it say, make clarity give you more mana/sec, damage auras make you do more damage, etc etc?

Yes, that's how the Increased Effect of Buffs on You nodes work. I'm playing an aura summoner, and the Inner Force cluster is working great for Clarity, Purity, and Discipline.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.
That race was awesome. I never did any in closed beta, so it was my first time. From the ladder on the race forum, I'm showing up as #31 overall and #19 shadow. I slowed myself down a bit in Western once I hit my goal of 17 because I absolutely did not expect to place in the class points. I think next time I'll try pushing myself harder for level 19.

I'm curious what everyone is planning on for tomorrow's three hour races.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

Budgie posted:

I always die just after the point of no return in races. Sigh.

Sorry to see you die man. It was fun grouping though. I definitely learned a lot about party racing in that run. We ended up just farming the zone after Vaal because we had no time for docks. I'm thinking it might be better/faster for a solo or small group to kill Vaal rather than all 6. That was crazy. I'm going to have to check out some of the streams for the race and see how other people handled the quests and zones.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.
I think I like the two hour races the most. The party one just now was pretty fun with just freeborn and I running duo. We ended up hitting level 25 after a slow act 1. We got pretty close to placing in the class points #27 and #21 in our classes.

There's another two hour party race tonight. I'd like to find some people to make a full group. If anyone is interested, hop on IRC before the race (10pm est, 3.5 hours from now) and get a hold of me, or in game same name as SA. I'll probably be running my templar again.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

Shinino Kage posted:

I'd be interested. Can you teach me how not to be a slow-rear end? :p

I was going to do some practice runs up to Brutus and maybe Merv to get better at templar. If you want to join me, just hop on IRC to coordinate. I'll probably be starting in around 45 mins or so. That goes for anyone that's interested in practicing act 1 as group or for the 2h race tonight

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.
We've been discussing the races in IRC, and I said I would post some race videos that I used to learn quite a bit about the strategy for them.

Panda's 3 Hour Race Video Guide

I watched this prior to the start of season 1. While some of the stuff in the video has been changed (Phase Run is currently removed from the game), it still has a lot of good info.



Nugiyen's 1 Hour Solo Race Win
Kripparrian's 1 Hour Solo Race Templar Win - starts at around 1:57

For the current season, these videos are where I learned most about the strategies behind solo racing. If you're interested in the longer solo races, you can also check the video archives to find the videos for those.

3 Hour Party Race on Nugiyen's Stream - starts at around 2:57

This is a good video showing off how groups try to coordinate during the party races. I believe there is also some strategy discussion earlier in the video before the race starts.


I hope these videos can help anyone that was interested in learning more about how to speed up their runs during the races. Without racing prior to this season, I've still been able to place decently for a few of the races utilizing a lot of the info from the videos and with a little bit of practice. The races I've participated in have been a ton of fun, and I was able to place at #32 overall and #7 templar on the most recent 3 hour solo race.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

forge posted:

So who's going to join me for the 1 week race. I don't care that you are not playing 24hours a day after it starts on sunday. The main goal I want to have is getting 3-5 of us to at least mid cruel on Sunday night. I consider the lower levels the shittiest ones anyhow. Oh this is hc btw if you already didn't realize.

Vizrt I think is in from talking on irc.. who else? Also post what you will play. I'm thinking a Firetrap whatever/dual totem or EK non CI build for myself.

EDIT: it looks like the poisen and firetrap nerfs will target lower levels. I think they said the patch won't hit until the middle of the week anyhow. So this likely won't effect anyone starting on time.

I'll probably be doing the 1 week race. I don't know if I'll be on right at the start of it though. I may have something to do on Sunday.

As for what I'll be playing, I'll probably figure that out tonight or tomorrow. I was thinking a caster, maybe dual totem. I can always go LA since it's pretty easy to do well with, but I'm afraid that patch coming up may have nerfs for it. I tried an EK witch in today's 3h party and ended up #11 witch. I found EK to be pretty fun, so I'm considering it as well.

If anyone has strong builds that aren't heavily reliant on specific gear or expensive world drop gems like chain and GMP, please post them. I think those types of builds would probably be the best for playing the races without the intent of going for the top placings.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

Rogue posted:

Is this worth anything besides 7 jeweler's orbs?



Depending on the ilvl, it could be. If it's on HC, I'd be willing to buy it off you whatever ilvl it is, I need a thicket to roll for my new bow build.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.
I will probably be running dual spork for the 1 week race tomorrow, and I should be able to make it online before it starts. My spec is below. I'm looking for input from anyone that has run a totem or dual totem build before. It's a pre-map build at level 72. During maps I can pick up Inner Force, Dual Curse, more life or more damage as options. I haven't looked at starting as witch yet, but it looks like templar gets most of the gems I need for a 4L totem (Spell Totem, Fork, Spork, Faster Casting). The only one I will need to buy/find is Faster Casting if anyone else running the 1 week will have an extra. I'll also probably use faster projectiles if I find a 5L.

I haven't checked the curse and aura gems for templar yet, but Conductivity and Enfeeble (maybe Temp Chains) will probably be what I want to run. I've never run a caster before, so I'm unsure on auras. Right now it looks like Clarity, Discipline, Haste, and Purity. I'm not sure what else for a caster, but probably Determination and/or Grace for defense.

Build

Also, great run to everyone during the 2 hour party race today. I believe we all made top 20 in our class, and it was a ton of fun. I look forward to running with more people during the rest of this season, and I think the week race will be pretty awesome for that.

Vizrt fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Mar 3, 2013

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

forge posted:

I think I'll have a extra.. here is what I am taking, running the same build I did today with ek/fire. Check the shadow tree on any of my trade notes listed and it's yours. I'm only picking up lmp ll etc because those are simply the most valuable. But if there is a faster casting in any of those let me know tomorrow afternoon when we start and I'll save it for you.

I'm on IRC and Mumble now until the race starts. I can probably use one of those hastes. For your added fire on merciless (Mercy Mission), I can probably grab you it earlier, if you can pick up faster casting there.

Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

Washout posted:

To take things even further this is what you should have done.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-...B_yL_Pd9kj60vzF

That build is decent, but there is some inefficient pathing on the way to the templar area.

Here is a pretty cookie cutter LA ranger build. There are some minor variations to this that you can probably find on the official forum, but it should serve as a good template.

Slum Loser posted:

With each race (and some new characters) I see how manageable it can be (with the right build, party, and drops) to get to Cruel in 3 hours. Mind you I haven't cracked the third act on any race, but I've gotten fairly close. If the rewards were a bit more lucrative I could probably talk myself into investing the time. :smithicide:

To think my first character took at least five hours to the second act, probably six... sheesh, good times.

Progression is my main weakness in races. I still haven't practiced much in getting to act 3, but I did manage to hit #2 witch in todays three hour solo by grinding like mad in Western Forest.

Edit: Fixed build link to correct one.

Vizrt fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Mar 14, 2013

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Vizrt
Oct 1, 2009

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brotha', I hurt people.

bebaloorpabopalo posted:

Unwavering Stance really isn't worth 2 extra points on a ranged character with a good HP pool that will have a ton of armor. You also do some bad pathing around Resolute Technique that would require you to spec out of a ton of points if you were to ever get a Lioneye's.

You also neglect to get int nodes which are needed to run Wrath and are only a couple points away and can be easily specced out of when/if you get enough on gear to not need them. There's also a LOT of life, when the build doesn't really need that much. You can save a few points on life and along with the other saved points, get all the int nodes and go up to Iron Grip and get the more efficient set of life nodes and a decent end-game damage boost, as well as the really good projectile nodes at the start of the ranger area.

I mean, it's pretty much nugi's old build. You sacrifice a small amount of life for good damage boosts late-game. You can also just get the 8% life nodes this build leaves out until you have the life on gear to feel comfortable. In the end you should have around 5k health and a ton of armor. This is compared to about 5.5k with the other build.

Ya, it was a bit late when I routed the build, but it was just meant as a quick template to show a build to work off of. The Nugi build linked is pretty solid.

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