Noob needs advice, Hardcore Essence, Scion Bow

Hello! First, let me apologize. I don't most of the PoE phrases, and have mostly kept to myself. Also, I get the feeling that people will look at my build and vomit. Sorry about that. I don't look at guides or anything like that. With all that out of the way, now I'll discuss what's going on.

I'm on Cruel (Hardcore + Essence League), level 56, Scion with a bow build. Armor + Evasion. I'm running into survivability problems. I have 1600 HP, 800 Armor, 1900 Evasion. Fire 63%, Cold 75%(85%), Lightning 31%, Chaos -2%.
I'm currently supposed to go to the Sceptre of God. The problem is, a lot of things do way too much damage for me to be confident going there. Giant skeletons (in the Library for example) take about 60% of my HP in 1 hit.

So here's my stuff: (Let me know if I'm missing something.)

Skill tree:


Equipment:
Spoiler


Skill gems: (Unsure of how to link them. Edit, just noticed they're there. Oh well.)
Spoiler

Siege Ballista Lvl 14 + linked Projectile Attack Damage lvl 11, Slower Projectiles lvl 12

Burning Arrow lvl 15 + linked Life Leech lvl 9, Physical Projectile Attack Damage lvl 12, Fire penetration lvl 11

Lightning Arrow lvl 13 + linked Greater multiple projectiles lvl 3, Life gain on hit lvl 15, Weapon elemental damage lvl 11

Blink Arrow lvl 14 + linked Faster Attacks lvl 11

Projectile Weakness lvl 10

Arctic Armor lvl 12

Summon Stone Golem lvl 11

I also have a Survival Instincts Jewel (+20 dex + 6 all elemental res) and a Poacher's Aim Viridian Jewel (15% chance of projectiles piercing, 10% increased projectile damage


Thoughts:
Spoiler

My AoE damage is fantastic, I feel like. I recently switched from Lesser multiple projectiles to Greater for my Lightning arrows. As long as there are lots of mobs, the damage just chains around and clears most mobs easy enough.

My single target DPS is bad. I'd go as far to say it's trash. There was a Essence League thing Giant Skeleton in the Library with a "Regens life" modifier, and I just couldn't kill him. Ended up walking away. I picked up the Ballista and Projectile Weakness curse a long while ago to try to help that problem. Not much luck.

So the way I've been playing, is I just spam Lightning arrows to kill trash mobs and blue mobs. When I run into a Rare or Unique, I drop my siege ballista, curse, and try to sit back as far away as I can. I let my Golem and Ballista grab the aggro. When that doesn't work, I Blink Arrow away, and drop another Ballista where I blank from. Most mobs will stay there and fight my Ballista or Blink Arrow's clone.

Some of my gear is just trashy stuff that I haven't found a better replacement for. Like my Amulet... I'm really not sure if I like it. It's fun with the little buffs it gives, but I definitely feel like I could get a better piece. I feel like my Quiver is trash as well, but I honestly haven't found a better one.

I'm thinking I'll go towards the Marauder's tree and get Warrior's Blood then "Life and Armor", to boost my HP and armor rating. If I didn't post here, that's what I'd be going for with my next level ups.

I'm planning on just farming up and getting my levels up a bit. Probably gear as well.

I'm not a huge fan of trading to get my gear, and I'm a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to currency. Thanks to the Essences, I usually just drop one of those on a potential upgrade, and hope it rolls good enough.

A final thought; Yes. A lot of my characters die. I have nearly 200 hours in PoE, and I've lost TONS of characters. I exclusively play Hardcore modes.


Any help and/or recommendations are appreciated. Be as harsh as you'd like, as I'm not incredibly happy with the build myself. Still, I'll stick with it until it dies.

Let me know if I missed something, and I'll try to fix it asap.
Last edited by Guartorias on Oct 2, 2016, 12:37:20 AM
Last bumped on Oct 10, 2016, 8:07:05 AM
You need (much) more life on gear. Playing HC that is the most important stat. Use essences of greed to upgrade your armour pieces.
If you can't cap your resistances with gear at least carry a bismuth flask.

I wouldn't use that amulet. Imo the downside of it buffing enemies outweighs the benefits it gives to you in HC.
Thanks for the feedback, Bada_Bing. It's much less severe than what I was expecting lol. But it's something I'll definitely work on.
first things first, you rly need hp on gear :)
- to not waste so much greed essences (not sure how many u have on your lvl) you can spam all other essences on white gear - this way you get 1 guaranteed bad roll (like 10 resist) but you can roll way higher life values and most important - use it more often (cuz you can waste all essences) so finally you get some realy nice pieces of gear (with 1 crappy mod :D )
- since you're not doing any crit-hard here, this 3 crit nodes from scion area seems like waste of points, you can use them way better on dmg/life
- usually it's bad idea to mix arm/evasion beacuse you will never be able to maintain both at high levels so i sugegst going acrobatics to boost evasion by dodge or iron reflexes to get armoured hard
- since you're going around marauder area you can easy get some nice hp from duelist area and sweet hard dmg by using Lioneye's Fall unique jewel
- i suggest getting rid of lifeleech from skill links and getting it on gear (you can buy some nice jewlery on poe.trade for 1 chaos)
- if you're using skill converting phys to elemental dmg (like this burning or lightning arrow) consider linking it like this

burning arrow - added fire damage (added from your base phys dmg before conversion) - physical to lightning (adds some lightning damage to your attacks and converst 50% of damage BEFORE attack conversion which means you have 100% elemental damage right now) - weapon elemental damage (boost whole dmg again)
lightning arrow - greater multiple projectiles - physical to lightning - weapon elemental damage (try switching PTL and WED with added fire damage and physical projectile attack dmg cuz im unsure whih will work better)

you might want use frenzy as your single target attack, as utilizing frenzy charges gives a lot of damage
frenzy - physical projectile attack damage - faster attacks - slower projeciles

hf, stay safe
Last edited by laik89 on Oct 10, 2016, 8:08:19 AM

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info