So, 63% of playerbase are playing with two skills (arc, bv)

I tried Cold Occ with the various new/changed Cold skills. It was garbage, at least as a starter. But part of that has to do with how overtuned Syndicate encounters are - it seems most Witch starter builds struggle if you dare to approach league content while leveling.

I switched to MS Jugg to facetank leveling and had my first death in Act 8, compared to about 20-30 deaths by that time as Witch.

"

ffogell wrote:

How many are playing GGG suggested builds ? aka :

1- a cold occultist
2- an heriophant totem
3- a champion steel something


I mean they literally told us what we should play this league, honestly I was baffled when I saw that announcement.

i do 'play' in standard and..

lance/shattering steel are.. meh. mathil put it nicely: they shall work ok if you actually ignore all this impale gimmick and stack flat ele. just like Scourge Arrow :)


hierophant totem got seriously neutered with ascendancy rework: that 'summon two totems but you have one less max' was a mistake. most players end up with 3 totems that way. playing two skills with totems is garbage experience

brands might be nice but they are so vaguely described and difficult to 'feel' that i feel detached. thus - no brands for me. they might be strong.. just might.

cold skills.. well. numbers are finally there but..

ice nova is unusable as a standalone skill. cast speed kills it
vortex is nice

both are very very cool when played with frosbolt.. but.. wait for it.. but.. why play 2-skill combo if you can just spam frostbolt?

'cold damage over time multiplier' gimmick is forced gimmick just to make Cold Snap and Vortex usable (still fail tho)

ice spear.. lol. it absolutely needs standof range. without it it is garbo.
arctic breath? the worst looking skill in the game. completely unintuitive 'moving snow patch' mechanic. numbers are there but.. well.. just no


what is nice about all this cold stuff: you can pretty much stop the world with chill/tempchains and that might make cold occultist cool. but it is not good enough to be a reliable defence and offence is.. well. sub-par


on the other hand you have Arc. skill that deals obscene AOE, good single target and AUTO AIMS (the thing that actually makes it strong)

"

insilopeh wrote:

Arc isnt all that great on single target due to having a maaaasive cast time, but its pretty neat at clearing stuff. BV on the other hand is just ridiculously strong. Not only does it deal more damage than any other spell (maybe firestorm / icestorm under the right circumstances or dark pact), it also allows you to deal damage while moving, which no other skill with the exception of winter orb can achieve.

• cyclone
• shield charge
• mirage archer
• ect.

Arc's a league starter. It's safe, good for clearing, and farming currency/items to transition into a better build.

Couple leagues ago, I decided to play Ngamahu Cyclone, as my starter. What a terrible idea that was. Couldn't get a Ngamahu's Flame to save my life. I ended up switching to mines just to farm some currency.

Most of the people playing Arc will get some Exalts, and transition over to a new build. They'll clear up to T5 maps pretty easily. But post T6, without investment, will start to struggle. Some will stay with Arc, take it all the way to Shaper. Others will jump ship and move on.

If the numbers are the same two weeks from now, then yeah, we have a problem. Until then, can we just calm down a little?

- Raiz has been destroying content with armageddon brand
- Nugi has been destroying content (including syndicate) with cold occultist, since yesterday (lvl 86 right now)


So if anybody wants to go the "brand suck"/"cold occultist suck", you are doing something wrong.




But BV and ARC Are the brainless very high dmg output safe choices, there is definitely a problem with Arc imho (with BV too still, but the stat-stick nerf should have made it slightly less OP than before I gues.)

"

PsychoIntent wrote:

Most of the people playing Arc will get some Exalts, and transition over to a new build. They'll clear up to T5 maps pretty easily. But post T6, without investment, will start to struggle

T6 ??
Arc traps can pretty much clear all tiers, they don't lack damage, they don't lack survivability, they ignore reflect/cb .... it just destroys everything, and not only until t6.

You know that recently a guy killed shaper with a less than 24h /played character on purely self found gear ? (he was given the fragments, he found all the rest himself and got enough power to beat shaper, in like ~22 hours I think. Uber Atziri too).
With arc traps + lightning spire traps, very easy to fit in the same build.

"

ffogell wrote:

How many are playing GGG suggested builds ? aka :

1- a cold occultist
2- an heriophant totem
3- a champion steel something


I mean they literally told us what we should play this league, honestly I was baffled when I saw that announcement.

2 of my friends are probably each going to be playing one of those builds.

"

MrsDeath_ wrote:

Blame streamers xd they market them and casuals do it.
Well i too play arc but it was my starter for 3 leagues now.
Another reason could be ; players dont like to experiment. For example i do have a set of build i do every league and i create 1 maybe 2 new builds at most.

Some people do like to experiment, but GGG policies around trading make it painful to experiment. It doesn't work very well to change from gems that are already levelled to one's from vendors. So that means having to engage with GGG's awful trading system. Usually one changes more than one gem at time - at least support gems, and may also change a few items to support gem changes. So "experimenting" turns into an hour of time wasted time "trading". By which time I don't feel like playing any more.

I mostly don't even bother selling because the trading system is so awful, so my experimenting is further limited by my very low budget. The item I have most recently been trying to buy is a basic yellow sceptre with lightning penetration. There are a few on trade, but none of the sellers are responding. So, given I can't get the item to test whether "Damage penetrates 13 lightning resistance" improves my toon, how am I supposed to "experiment"?

This league is particularly bad for those who like to experiment rather than take a canned build. The changes to sockets and the difference in difficulty between trash and progress mobs. They really should have upped the difficulty of the trash so the trash could at least be used for testing gear and gem changes so players can prepare for the harder mobs. Particularly since GGG are making some the harder mobs non-optional by positioning them so that they cannot be avoided if you want to progress.

It's not the fault of streamers that GGG has designed a "canned build" game and has a philosophy around trading that pre-dates even the dinosaurs.

It's a shame, because the game-play is mostly great. But the trading system just sucks all the fun out of experimenting, and is particularly bad this league. Normally it takes me about six weeks to quit a league, but I think I'll probably quit this one before the end of week one. This game is designed for canned builds, and following some-one else's step-buy-step instructions on where to put my points, what gear to buy and what gems to use isn't my idea of fun.

Why don't you use Heavy Strike or Viper Strike though?

#BUILDDIVERSITY

Because i got bored of ARC i changed to Frost Blades which i am bored of now as well...

4 Totems/Mines + player with ARC might be fun for a few hours....

Path of Exile is getting boring to me...

Grim Dawns update is around the corner...

Two skills I literally never use. Minions or die