3.9| Stress-Free PoE - TRIGGER HAPPY |SSF the Atlas w/ 1 Button & Any Gear|Dungeon Crawl PoE!

Oh right! I forgot in my previous post that Close Combat doesn't give any damage in PoB. So Bladestorm's initial hit and it's Storms do a lot more damage than I stated.

Thank you so much for sharing your amazing builds!

I do have defects in fine motor skills, reaction time, hand-eye-coordination etc. because of ms, but of course I don't want that to keep me from playing games. Your builds are really helpful with achieving that!

However, I don't seem to be breezing across the atlas, I feel quite stuck at 2 watchstones per citadel. I've given up on getting any xp while doing atlas on account of dying all the time. I level in the delve on depth 100+ whenever I filled up my sulphite, damage is less surprising down there.

I feel I am very undergeared, but not quite able to play the content that might give me better gear. I am sadly still running around in my tabula rasa, because I can't get my astral plate with 2400 armor six-linked. Tried with 5 links, but it's way too little damage.

I did not take the vaal pact node because no regeneration at all did not go well for me. I instead got some more life leech from other nodes. I even got a belt that prevents 30% crit damage, but I still get one-shot a lot. Resistances are not ideal yet but not completely bad either. It is quite vexing that there is no combat log available, so I never know what I die of.

I'm also not that happy with my damage output, but no idea what can be done about that without getting into the more difficult content.

I sadly have no idea how to link my gear here, maybe someone can give me a hand with that?

Any idea how to get over that snag?
I'd really like to get to the real endgame for once, since I haven't seen that content at all yet.

"

Elocara wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you so much for sharing your amazing builds!

I do have defects in fine motor skills, reaction time, hand-eye-coordination etc. because of ms, but of course I don't want that to keep me from playing games. Your builds are really helpful with achieving that!

However, I don't seem to be breezing across the atlas, I feel quite stuck at 2 watchstones per citadel. I've given up on getting any xp while doing atlas on account of dying all the time. I level in the delve on depth 100+ whenever I filled up my sulphite, damage is less surprising down there.

I feel I am very undergeared, but not quite able to play the content that might give me better gear. I am sadly still running around in my tabula rasa, because I can't get my astral plate with 2400 armor six-linked. Tried with 5 links, but it's way too little damage.

I did not take the vaal pact node because no regeneration at all did not go well for me. I instead got some more life leech from other nodes. I even got a belt that prevents 30% crit damage, but I still get one-shot a lot. Resistances are not ideal yet but not completely bad either. It is quite vexing that there is no combat log available, so I never know what I die of.

I'm also not that happy with my damage output, but no idea what can be done about that without getting into the more difficult content.

I sadly have no idea how to link my gear here, maybe someone can give me a hand with that?

Any idea how to get over that snag?
I'd really like to get to the real endgame for once, since I haven't seen that content at all yet.

Hey Elocara!

Thanks! I appreciate your post! I'm happy to have helped you out and that you found something that works with your limitations. I'm sorry you're having a rough go with some aspects of the build. Now let's check out your character.

By default, with our pathofexile.com profiles, our characters are private. So I can't check out your character. Make it public and I'll check your character out as soon as I see your reply.

In general, this build, though it isn't the hardest hitting, isn't starved for damage either. I do all content comfortably with this build so we'll see what's missing. It could be nothing is missing at all and we just have different ideas to "pretty damage" is. One thing to keep in mind is that Bladestorm in itself doesn't hit too hard. The build does great damage when the trigger skills are being activated too. Instead of having all the triggers as support skills that buff Bladestorm, I have them set up as individual damage dealers as well.

Anyway, once your characters are public, I'll go to town.

Thanks for the kind and honest post.

Hey Wrecker_of_Days!

Thanks so much for your kind response and willingness to help me out. At this point I am too stubborn to not try and continue.

The character should be public now, so you can have a look.

I wonder if I over-leveled some support skills and they don't go off? And how do you level Bladestorm to 38? Mine is at 20 (max).

My biggest issue is survivability, so I must have made some mistake there. Blocking seems to be at maximum, I try to go with lots of armour and life. But I go by "a good offense is the best defense" because I feel I am giving the boss too much time to hit me with crits.
Unlike the resistances, I can't see if I have my blocking over-capped, so I might have too little in maps with 20% less blocking and armour.

I have to admit I am also not exactly a pro at crafting good items, I just hope for good rolls on rares most of the time and add the one extra mod at the crafting table.
I got a Majestic Plate of Crafting that can have 3 crafted modifiers, sadly not a Glorious Plate. Also hoping for the Fated Connections prophecy, because I just keep wasting all my fuses on the one piece that won't get six-linked. And is not the ideal base either. But such good armour:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16vpQ3q_PWowN53wDxnzf9rCT3m6abHZx
Is it worth to keep pursuing it?

I thought my uniques were pretty good for both damage and protection, but maybe I get blinded by the frills.

The lack of combat log is really a problem for me. Do I die of chaos damage all the time? I am glad I got it in the plus numbers, that was hard enough. Maybe time to change my amulet I thought was so good when I first got it, hehe

Oh boy that were many, many questions. I apologize if I'm over-complicating things!

Thank you so much for your help in advance and have a great day!

"

Elocara wrote:

Spoiler

Hey Wrecker_of_Days!

Thanks so much for your kind response and willingness to help me out. At this point I am too stubborn to not try and continue.

The character should be public now, so you can have a look.

I wonder if I over-leveled some support skills and they don't go off? And how do you level Bladestorm to 38? Mine is at 20 (max).

My biggest issue is survivability, so I must have made some mistake there. Blocking seems to be at maximum, I try to go with lots of armour and life. But I go by "a good offense is the best defense" because I feel I am giving the boss too much time to hit me with crits.
Unlike the resistances, I can't see if I have my blocking over-capped, so I might have too little in maps with 20% less blocking and armour.

I have to admit I am also not exactly a pro at crafting good items, I just hope for good rolls on rares most of the time and add the one extra mod at the crafting table.
I got a Majestic Plate of Crafting that can have 3 crafted modifiers, sadly not a Glorious Plate. Also hoping for the Fated Connections prophecy, because I just keep wasting all my fuses on the one piece that won't get six-linked. And is not the ideal base either. But such good armour:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16vpQ3q_PWowN53wDxnzf9rCT3m6abHZx
Is it worth to keep pursuing it?

I thought my uniques were pretty good for both damage and protection, but maybe I get blinded by the frills.

The lack of combat log is really a problem for me. Do I die of chaos damage all the time? I am glad I got it in the plus numbers, that was hard enough. Maybe time to change my amulet I thought was so good when I first got it, hehe

Oh boy that were many, many questions. I apologize if I'm over-complicating things!

Thank you so much for your help in advance and have a great day!

Right on Elocara! Thanks for taking the time to ask questions and figure things out.

So, with this build it does great damage when you're getting hit and your three triggers are going off while you're hitting an enemy with Bladestorm.

Your tree and gems look great. So I think the issue only comes down to gear. Now, anyone can pick apart and min/max anyone's gear specifically. But to compare my build to yours, I only have about 1000 more total life than you. Now, that's a lot, but you're only one or two items away from getting that yourself. That'll be a huge help. Our life rolls are really important because if we don't block a hit, we have NO damage mitigation. So make sure your life rolls on your gear are great. At a minimum, as you grind, aim for 75 or more on all your gear. So, in regards to your body armour that has the amazing armour roll, it has no life roll. So even though it has a great armour roll, it won't be too valuable to 6link. And honestly, though we have some armour increases on the tree, that's just by chance. This build has no focus on armour. We only end up increasing our armour by around 80% in total. Armour builds have well over 200% for armour to have a decent impact later in the game. (Sorry for the bad news.)

Your resists aren't capped. So capping them at 75% is a BIG deal. People can even tell the difference between hits from 70% to 75%. So I'm sure cold is killing you pretty quick as well.

In terms of DPS, there are a few ways to min/max damage. Some rings and gloves have melee damage implicits. But before you go there, your weapon needs improvement. It's cool and has lots of potential, but for this build, a lot of its perks are nullified. What you're looking for is a one-handed sword or axe that has a % increase to physical damage and a flat amount of added physical damage. Having BOTH on a weapon is what makes your weapon great. Anything else is just a perk. My weapon has "156% Increased Physical Damage" and "Adds 17 to 27 Physical Damage". My weapon is pretty mediocre, but it gets the job done later in the game. (Facetanking the New and Improved Minotaur.) Now, if you find a weapon that has only a good roll of only one of those mods and it also has an empty prefix, awesome! You can then craft the missing mod onto that weapon and see how it works.

Don't be discouraged! The rest of EVERYTHING looks really good! Keep any gear you like, but remember the value of resists and life. You're honestly JUST around the corner for flying through the game. Great job!

Does this help at all? Let me know if I missed something you wanted to be answered.

Thank you so much Wrecker_of_Days, this helped answer a lot of questions for me! So excited to go to town with my precious new knowledge! To know that life is so much more important than armour is so incredibly helpful. I might have missed that in your guide.

Very valuable information about my weapon as well. I had suspected I was doing something wrong there (I was aware that crit dmg did not apply).

When I look at the weapon bases, I see that 1-handed swords only have accuracy, which I assume I don't even need because of the Resolute Technique node. Correct me if I'm wrong. So I am already on the lookout for an axe and will pick up and craft a white runic hatchet - the 12% global physical damage prefix does apply, right?

Will also work on my resits by changing at least my amulet, I assume the perks of the Extractor Mentis are just as useless as the weapon perks. And I'll replace the crafted armour rolls with life. And will exchange my Goliath Gauntlets with a pair of Spiked Gloves I actually have sitting in my stash.
[Edit: nope, can't do that because I would lose too many good stats including life. But I got a six-linked glorious plate with at least 72 life and my resists are more than capped now. Otherwise there's nothing I can improve right now.]


A couple questions I have left:

- Which gems are highest priority to increase quality except for Bladestorm?

- How important exactly is Chaos Damage resistance, how high should I get that? If I understand correctly, Chaos is a dot and doesn't do crits, is that right? As long as I have something to hit, I assume my leech is able to nip that in the bud.

- is my life leech without the Vaal Pact sufficient (disregarding items with extra life leech)? I did pick up a couple extra leech nodes.

- I replaced Culling Strike support on my weapon for Dash because I had a hard time without a movement skill. I hope that is okay, since Tempest Shield is just a supportive skill. Right? That okay?

- if armour isn't that important at all, should I exchange my Brine Crown for a helmet with much more life instead? I only wear it for the armour really. Oh wait, it already has 85 life and cannot be frozen and mana regen. I sometimes struggle with mana regen, especially with a Temporal Chains curse on me. Hard decision.


And the most important question of all: in your video I see you play with a controller!! How did you get a controller to work? I have tried to use my XBox One pc controller with a mod, but sadly it doesn't work and playing with m/kb is a lot harder for me with my decreased motor skills.


Thank you so much again for your help. Especially since you said you don't have the time to evaluate builds, but you did it anyway and I'm grateful for that. You really helped me out!

Hey Wrecker!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say how much I have enjoyed your build. In the 7 years I have played at this game, I have to say that this build is amazingly tanky. I have "played at gladiator" before but never got it to max block and I have to say it makes an amazing difference.

I did change the build a little because Vaal Pact seemed to be hurting my character more than it was helping, and I also went crit instead of Resolute Technique - mainly because it pained me to "waste" 5 skill points climbing the skill tree to take it.

I also wasn't too hot on your whirling blade skill as it didn't have much range (comparatively) so I am instead running Vaal Ground Slam.

I have to also echo what others have said about The Surrender shield - it and a 400 DPS one hand weapon are great end game gear.

Thanks again and best of luck in the future

"

Elocara wrote:

Spoiler

Thank you so much Wrecker_of_Days, this helped answer a lot of questions for me! So excited to go to town with my precious new knowledge! To know that life is so much more important than armour is so incredibly helpful. I might have missed that in your guide.

Very valuable information about my weapon as well. I had suspected I was doing something wrong there (I was aware that crit dmg did not apply).

When I look at the weapon bases, I see that 1-handed swords only have accuracy, which I assume I don't even need because of the Resolute Technique node. Correct me if I'm wrong. So I am already on the lookout for an axe and will pick up and craft a white runic hatchet - the 12% global physical damage prefix does apply, right?

Will also work on my resits by changing at least my amulet, I assume the perks of the Extractor Mentis are just as useless as the weapon perks. And I'll replace the crafted armour rolls with life. And will exchange my Goliath Gauntlets with a pair of Spiked Gloves I actually have sitting in my stash.
[Edit: nope, can't do that because I would lose too many good stats including life. But I got a six-linked glorious plate with at least 72 life and my resists are more than capped now. Otherwise there's nothing I can improve right now.]


A couple questions I have left:

- Which gems are highest priority to increase quality except for Bladestorm?

- How important exactly is Chaos Damage resistance, how high should I get that? If I understand correctly, Chaos is a dot and doesn't do crits, is that right? As long as I have something to hit, I assume my leech is able to nip that in the bud.

- is my life leech without the Vaal Pact sufficient (disregarding items with extra life leech)? I did pick up a couple extra leech nodes.

- I replaced Culling Strike support on my weapon for Dash because I had a hard time without a movement skill. I hope that is okay, since Tempest Shield is just a supportive skill. Right? That okay?

- if armour isn't that important at all, should I exchange my Brine Crown for a helmet with much more life instead? I only wear it for the armour really. Oh wait, it already has 85 life and cannot be frozen and mana regen. I sometimes struggle with mana regen, especially with a Temporal Chains curse on me. Hard decision.


And the most important question of all: in your video I see you play with a controller!! How did you get a controller to work? I have tried to use my XBox One pc controller with a mod, but sadly it doesn't work and playing with m/kb is a lot harder for me with my decreased motor skills.


Thank you so much again for your help. Especially since you said you don't have the time to evaluate builds, but you did it anyway and I'm grateful for that. You really helped me out!

Awesome! It's nice to have a 6 link with life.

"

- Which gems are highest priority to increase quality except for Bladestorm?

I would likely put all Bladestorm's supports next. Then go to the Trigger Skills.

"

- How important exactly is Chaos Damage resistance, how high should I get that? If I understand correctly, Chaos is a dot and doesn't do crits, is that right? As long as I have something to hit, I assume my leech is able to nip that in the bud.

Chaos damage can do crits if an enemy is hitting you. DoT versions of Chaos damage (like on the ground) cannot crit you. You don't need to aim for 75% chaos resistance. Just 0%. Chaos resistance is harder to find but you find it and craft it like any other resist. So it's simply balancing your gear and making the rough choices between choosing which gear you should/shouldn't equip. There are some good crafts that give around 15% chaos resist along with another element. Chaos Resist is important. It keeps away some surprise deaths.

"

- is my life leech without the Vaal Pact sufficient (disregarding items with extra life leech)? I did pick up a couple extra leech nodes.

Life leech without Vaal Pact is a lot lower. But it's simply preference. Having some life regen is nice. If you got rid of Vaal Pact, try throwing in a Stone Golem somewhere and see if you like the difference. It's really a preference thing: Some leech and some life regen or great life leech.

"

- I replaced Culling Strike support on my weapon for Dash because I had a hard time without a movement skill. I hope that is okay, since Tempest Shield is just a supportive skill. Right? That okay?

Totally Ok.

"

And the most important question of all: in your video I see you play with a controller!! How did you get a controller to work? I have tried to use my XBox One pc controller with a mod, but sadly it doesn't work and playing with m/kb is a lot harder for me with my decreased motor skills.

Path of Exile is actually on Xbox One and PS4! I love playing PoE on the controller. If you have one of those consoles, you should totally give it a shot.

Good questions! Feel free to ask whatever you like and I'm glad you're having fun. Things are starting to get really busy for guide writers as the new changes are being announced and that means lots of studying and revamping guides. But ask away and I'll respond as quick as I can.

"

Skywalkerfx wrote:

Hey Wrecker!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say how much I have enjoyed your build. In the 7 years I have played at this game, I have to say that this build is amazingly tanky. I have "played at gladiator" before but never got it to max block and I have to say it makes an amazing difference.

I did change the build a little because Vaal Pact seemed to be hurting my character more than it was helping, and I also went crit instead of Resolute Technique - mainly because it pained me to "waste" 5 skill points climbing the skill tree to take it.

I also wasn't too hot on your whirling blade skill as it didn't have much range (comparatively) so I am instead running Vaal Ground Slam.

I have to also echo what others have said about The Surrender shield - it and a 400 DPS one hand weapon are great end game gear.

Thanks again and best of luck in the future

Hey Skywalkerfx!

That's a wonderfully kind message. I appreciate you taking the time to give feedback and encouragement.

Ya, Vaal Pact is a hit/miss for some. Good job playing the way you want. I agree on the Surrender as well. I'm thinking that by Whirling Blades you meant Bladestorm, ya? Ground Slam is awesome. I love it. Ice Crash too. I play with those skills lots each league (in my head). This build works great for all of them. Good call.

I'm glad you enjoyed the build. Thanks for taking the time to be so kind and thoughful.

I was having much the same issues as Elocara, I made it to 89 playing SSF, missing my last ascendancy (couldn't find the stupid trial!) and was hitting a bit of a wall with regard to progress. I was stuck with a 4L chest so my damage wasn't particularly great, but I did end up with some good resists: 75-75-75-35 or so. I really enjoyed the tankiness of the build almost without exception up until the mid/late 80's, where I started occasionally getting one shot, mostly by metamorphs but also occasionally by some mean bosses. I'm guessing my problem, not dissimilar to yours, was gear. I was so close to the 19 challenges for the league trophy that I bailed out of SSF and managed to join a map with the last trial I needed. I went to do the Uber Labyrinth and kept getting eaten by Izaro. I finally just paid for a carry to get my last ascendancy, and someone donated me a 6L. The 6L has helped A LOT with the damage, but I'm still having a hard time levelling because of the one shot situation. I have about 4.3k health, my armor is at 4337 (character sheet says 26% damage reduction), and my block chance is at 74%. I feel like the problem is my gear (more health? more armor?) but I don't feel like I'm getting much in the way of worthwhile gear compared to some of what I've seen posted here. I've spent plenty of Alchemy/Chaos orbs on trying to make nice Tiger Hooks/Reaver Axes/Runic Hatchets. Armor has largely been a crapshoot where I haven't seen much worthwhile, and I feel like I need really good mod rolls on other gear to justify replacing what I already have on.