PoE Ninja stats on Harvest classes and builds (Discussion)

This is just a discussion.

Classes
- 32% Necromancers
- 12% Tricksters;
- 8% Assassins and Saboteur;
- 6% Gladiator;
- 4% Elementalist, Ascendant, and Occultist;
- 3% Juggernaut, Hierophant, and Guardian;
- 2% almost everything else;
- 0.9% Raider;
- 0.6% Inquisitor

Skills
- 16% Volatile Dead
- 13% Detonate Dead
- 10% Raise Spectre

- 90% Spellslinger linked to VD and DD (presumably)

For a community that boasts build diversity, the temptation to jump on the Meta-wagon seems too irresistible. It's a shame, really. I get it... You want to win, so you copy+paste the meta build.

When you play the same build that the majority plays, where is the fun in that? Where is the pride in your individuality, in your ability to destroy this game with your own genius build?

And I understand this too.. that every build is derivative of other ones. Sure, unique builds don't exist at the moment. Okay, we can accept originality is a false notion in PoE, but not in absolute terms.

The degree of ingenuity required to elevate off-meta main skills is severely deficient within the PoE community. People flame others who criticize the lack of newb-friendliness content in PoE, arguing that the amount of time to learn certain aspects and mechanics requires minimal time. Nonetheless, these stats do not lie, and give me the impression that the time invested into choosing to be part of the 32% (almost 1/3rd of builds) required almost zero time investment because there is zero evidence that players mimicking the meta-necro VD slinger builds devoted any time to engineering a novel idea with similar effectiveness in the end-game content.

Analyzing Delve stats for the aforementioned build reveals that many of these players have not come even slightly close to scratching deep delve content (1000,1500,2000+). That got me scratching my head as to why so many players choose the VD Spellslinger Necro.

I know for a fact that my build outperforms their ability to clear and down bosses in both speed and dps. I also know, statistically, that there is only 1 other person lvl 95+ that plays a build similar to mine. There are viable options for players, so I am wondering why is class and build diversity so deficient in the PoE community?

They are cheap safe and require very little skill or effort to play. Players will gravitate towards whats easy and pays out the most even if the build itself isnt particularly fun.

With the waves of nerfs hitting every archetype - spellcasters, melee, bow - minions remains a a powerhouse that requires no gear to perform well relative to other archetypes.

I'm not saying I'm good at the game or ever get very far, but I think it simply comes down to a large portion of the playerbase having no idea how to play the game. They need a build to follow every league because they don't know how to make their own, and they generally pick the best one with the least investment required. I don't think there's a problem with this.

I think the answer was simpler than I had hoped..

GGG has done a terrible job in balancing classes and skills, thereby creating the enormous lack of player diversity indicated by the PoE Ninja stats.

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I think the answer was simpler than I had hoped..

GGG has done a terrible job in balancing classes and skills, thereby creating the enormous lack of player diversity indicated by the PoE Ninja stats.

A good question to ask, and an inescapably true answer - no matter how disappointing it is.

If you want to look deeper, here is an analysis I did on why necro, with it's unconditional ascendencies, is a no-brainer as most popular ascendency choice.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2862510

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grimlock9999 wrote:

"

I think the answer was simpler than I had hoped..

GGG has done a terrible job in balancing classes and skills, thereby creating the enormous lack of player diversity indicated by the PoE Ninja stats.

A good question to ask, and an inescapably true answer - no matter how disappointing it is.

If you want to look deeper, here is an analysis I did on why necro, with it's unconditional ascendencies, is a no-brainer as most popular ascendency choice.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2862510

Well on the point of conditional passives - poor raider only got frenzy on kill or something absurd like that for the longest time. A class whose entire premise relies on amplifying the effects of frenzy charges.

Necro is just supremely powerful with very little investment and extremely resistant to the slight nerfs GGG have done to minions in the past. This will likely not change anytime soon.

My starter was the typical meta VD slinger - honed during Delerium. Tried the VD/Des brander and it was pretty much the same, overall.

Then I started a max-block (glancing blows) Gladiator with Infernal Blow. Very smooth leveling, except... it's single target is atrocious.
Sure, I can survive most fights, but I spend so long on a unique and some tanky rares that it just becomes boring. Until the un-blockable one-shot from off screen, or was not 'telegraphed' (slams that just happen, with no animation, no audio cue). That makes one want to just put the game aside until next league.
Need to figure out what single hander can do enough damage to break these bosses down.

Played vd with poets pen years ago, but never a fan of it due to slow projectile/clear speed. ED/Con is way smoother.

"Why be a click cuck when you can hire an army to click stuff FOR you?" --The person who introduced me to POE, 2 years ago, commenting on how to avoid carpal tunnel

I think it comes down to this. Most people play smart, not hard, by delegating the details freeing them to focus on the bigger overall experience.

And to avoid in-game death (hand-casting or attacking usually means standing still, and that's unequivocally bad for your health); and IRL repetitive strain injury.

So in a world where "Wrongfun isn't allowed", we will take our definition of fun from whatever is the lesser evil.

as for trickster, although it isn't about avoiding direct combat, it is very much about being able to swap skills on a dime and do equally well with ED/C, brands, bow skills, and spellslinger builds.

Why VD? specifically. Well, remember the last time you got DD'd from out of nowhere.

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Nephalim wrote:

They are cheap safe and require very little skill or effort to play. Players will gravitate towards whats easy and pays out the most even if the build itself isnt particularly fun.

With the waves of nerfs hitting every archetype - spellcasters, melee, bow - minions remains a a powerhouse that requires no gear to perform well relative to other archetypes.

Cheap by who's standards? Yours? When the majority of people are playing 1 build it becomes everything but cheap. I decided to go for a new experience this league and go necro for the first time ... I just gave up on it at one point. The progress just come to a halt because the next step of buffing up was at the price of min 2xexalts per slot. In a league where the drops are few the currency is even fewer playing a popular build is like tieing both of your hands behind your back.

Minions requiring no items to be a powerhouse... lol yeah ok sure totally not my experience ;) they are great endgame compare to most builds but start mid game I can give them a MEH. That is just me though