1.3 [Newbie Friendly] GROUNDSLAMMER BUILD
|
A WARNING TO NEWBIES CONSIDERING THIS BUILD
I loved this character. And then I got to Merciless. In Merciless difficulty, you have to start using the skill that this entire build is based around, Enduring Cry and its resulting endurance charges. This drastically changes how the game is played. Your simple high health, high damage run up to mobs and thwack 'em till they're dead strategy is over. Forget it. Now things are slooooowwwwwwwweeeeerrrrr and yet, at the same time, more rushed than ever, because now, you have to be calculated, and you have to always be cognizant of your charge timer, your refresh rate, the health and number of your enemies, and the map. Building up and retaining your endurance charges suddenly becomes priority #1, which means you are suddenly, breathlessly rushing everywhere, and not for any cool reason, not so you can kill faster like the Berzerker in Torchlight, but rather just to survive, just to remain viable. The following should better help illustrate the Jekyll and Hyde nature of this build: Pre-Merciless Jog into dungeon, blithely leap slam into the middle of large groups of mobs or ground slam the same, heavy strike champions and bosses into pudding. Use potions if necessary (usually not necessary). Cackle over the corpses of your enemies. Flex at yourself in a mirror. Pick over the spoils of war. Monitor trade chat at your leisure, sending and responding to several whispers. Go clear another few rooms between replies. Port back to town to conduct trades then back into the dungeon without missing a beat...and all of this while watching Netflix/porn/stock ticker on your second monitor. Merciless Jog into dungeon, see group of enemies, stop -- time to assess the situation -- you have zero endurance charges, that means (despite appearances) that you're squishy as fuck, especially if you took Unwavering Stance, okay lets lay out a plan, are there slow melee mobs walking towards you? If so, wait for those, it's easier to earn endurance charges off of them than it is ranged enemies, wait till they separate themselves more from their ranged bretherin then run around them while evading their swings and casting off enduring cries every 4 seconds until you hit your max number of charges. But what if they're all ranged? Fine, it's going to be a little slower but same principle, run close, cast enduring cry, run away, repeat until you have enough charges to be survivable. Okay, now you've got some orange spheres spinning around you, half a minute has passed since you first walked in the room and it's (finally) time to go in for the kill, slam and heavy strike everything into dust, but wait, did you remember to get off one last enduring cry before you landed the killing blow on the last mob? No? Oh shit, you better book it then because you've only got 8 seconds to find another mob to cast enduring cry on to reset the timer or you lose all your charges and have to start from scratch -- run, run, run -- whew, you barely got to the next group of mobs and you retained all your charges, nice! But wait, could there be a chaos orb in that cluster of crates over there in the far corner of the room? Who knows? Certainly not you, there's no time to be walking across rooms anymore just to shatter some crates or pots. Your crate and pot shattering days are over. But wait, did the four link RRRB armor piece you were looking for just show up in trade chat? Who knows? Certainly not you, you don't have time to scroll up, let alone inspect item properties, you can't be reading trade chat at all, seconds count now which means you don't have seconds to spare, more specifically, you've got exactly 4 seconds to find another mob and recast enduring cry, what are you waiting for? But wait, what about the glittering pile of loot on the ground? Was that a 3L RGB armor piece that you can vendor for a chrom or was it just a 2L RGB? Who knows? Certainly not you, you don't have time to verify links on fucking armor pieces anymore, pick it up or don't, you've got 4 seconds now, what are you doing? Go you idiot, go! Rush, rush, rush....hope your armor hasn't weighed you down, hope you've got some extra run speed on those boots, hope you've got a quicksilver flask equipped, hope you didn't take a wrong turn down a dead end, hope the mobs in this zone are packed close...oh no! You cast enduring cry at the literal last second but that skeleton archer was just a meter out of range, tough shit, all your charges are gone and you're squishy as fuck again, start over... TLDR: If, while watching Lost, you found yourself overwhelmingly envious of the guy who had to push the button every 108 minutes (or something TERRIBLE would happen) while likewise thinking how much better it would be if instead of every 108 minutes he had to push it every 14 seconds...then this might be the build for you. Last edited by Brimstoned on Feb 20, 2013, 12:13:07 AM
|
|
|
sooo dam tru i have start mercyless a hour ago and i die die die and die die, did i forget to tell you i die ? but why i die soo much ? because i suck at endurance charge strategy,( i should rly try to practice it) well atm im not sure if is me was rly noob or this build at mercyless was pretty gear depedent who know, Not me yet.
but i still love it. |
|
|
Once you reach Merciless you simply start to feel the gap in items and gameplay that till this point you didn't even take into account since this build made it possible to rush throu Normal/Cruel acts, sleep-walking.
Simply put, once you hit Merciless, shit gets real, so no more Leap in and Sweep travel till the end of the zone. It's the same for every other class/build, just stick to it and it will get better quickly once you've got some new items/levels. |
|
|
@Brimstoned
Normally new people aren't able to pass normal Merveil with shit equipment. I've made a guide they are able to pass Merveil and run maps with the same shit equipment. And you still complain you can't face-tank critters? This is PoE, you simply CAN'T face-tank critters. All things you complain about - they concern ALL builds. What is more! They are bigger concern in other builds, because of low survivality. Well, did you run in cruel for gear? All builds has to, to make Merciless doable. Merciless isn't forgiving. You have to have AT LAST decent gear on your shoulders. Having problems? Gear up! This is Merciless! Highest difficulty! It has to be hard! It is! Oh... Wait... But you have no problems... You just want to go take a coffie while facetaking swarms of blues. Yea sure. It is no gear-dependant build. It is Merciless which is highly gear-dependant. This build is the most gear independant I could figure out. You have to concentrate only at one mod: health one. If you fail this, don't even try more sophisticated and truely gear dependent builds like EleBow. Warning for newbies? Sure. Show me better build http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/73928 <-- [Newbie Friendly] Marauder Melee Build IGN: NinjaArabStrategist Last edited by NinjaArabStrategist on Feb 20, 2013, 1:58:30 AM
|
|
|
this build is good, but its still gear dependant.
normal was easy :) did it all the way with the gear i got from drops now i reached act 1 of crue and im getting raped instantly there. means i lost a HC character and now playing normal i get pwned by 3 normal mobs mostly at the same time. so as advice (probably has been said before alot) get some gear on, before you go through cruel and probably even more so in merciless i dont know how im going to progress my character yet, because atm im getting slaughtered. probably will have to farm somewhere to get enough gear :) | |
|
Do you define "gear dependance" as inability to play game naked?
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/73928 <-- [Newbie Friendly] Marauder Melee Build
IGN: NinjaArabStrategist |
|
|
I think people just get surprised by the sharp ramp up in gear dependence in late cruel, so they think the build stops working when really the build has made up for your crummy gear the whole time but now it can't.
Normal is faceroll the whole way through, act 1 cruel you have to start thinking a little bit while playing and start to pick up some better gear (resists for example because of the -20%), act 2 cruel it gets worse and you want to make sure you have at least decent gear in all slots. In act 3 cruel you stop levelling fast enough to stay ahead of the gear requirements, so your shitty gear that you picked up in act 2 or act 3 normal can't keep up any more and you really need to pick up gear. So the real problem is that the build is too good :D It allows you to progress very far without improving your gear, so when you hit the point where you need new gear you really feel it. I made it to act 3 cruel (level 52) with this gear and build, and now I really need new gear. I can kite mobs and stuff but some affixes really trip me up, and if I mess up a single cast of Warlord's Mark or Enduring Cry I get way behind on my HP and I have to keep popping life flasks to stay alive. I need way more +life/+LGoH/+leech on my gear (sitting at about ~1800 HP with no ES) as well as chaos resist (-14%), damage is pretty good though (nearly 800 DPS on heavy strike, ~400 on ground slam).
Gear
Btw. Thanks for this build! I was having a terrible time of it playing a fireball/firestorm templar and progress was very slow, but after switching to this build PoE has been awesome fun. | |
" Thank you for a great guide. I have been reading this thread for a week and it really helped me alot. Not only the main post, but also the insights of other players as to what to do and when later on. Currently i`m at level 29 finishing act 2 normal (yup i know i`m a bit slow, but i rather be safe than sorry. The build is really great and i only find myself in trouble when i actually forget to do what is said in a guide (forget to use spells and rather just doing normal attacks) etc. Recently i found this weapon (that`s probably the only mace which was dropped and suitable for me within the whole gameplay):
Spoiler
Is it good as a weapon for my level or I rather should look for something to buy? Thanks again! | |
" Gonna agree with Brimstoned here. I made it to A3 Cruel with zero problems, got to the Sewers, and I literally hit a brick wall in all of 15 minutes. I took down Piety in the Crematorium with no effort at all, cleared the Slums, etc...got to the Sewers, and that was all she wrote! I lost over 60% of my XP gained over the next hour as I died about 7 times. And I wouldn't think my gear is all that bad...hell, I do over 1200 DPS with my default attack (Heavy Strike) and have over 2000HP, regen ~62 HP per sec and besides Chaos, my lowest resist is Fire at 60%, rest are all capped. But again, like Brimstoned mentioned, that wall comes so fast and it ramps up so quick, looks like I'll need to hustle the endurance charges and grab some better gear...because I STILL have to head through Piety's Temple, and ALL of Merciless yet... I figured it would get difficult, but it just crash-halted so fast. But no worries. I'm all about a game with a good challenge, so it's all good. I'm still going to make it to 70+ with this build (which I thank Ninjarab VERY much for), it'll just take me a bit longer then anticipated. Last edited by Faction3 on Feb 20, 2013, 4:20:05 AM
| |
" That's a solid weapon for your level, champ. That should get you to almost level 33 or so. Hit me up in-game when I'm on if you play Default, I have a great weapon for you, level 32. In-game name: Cadillac Last edited by Faction3 on Feb 20, 2013, 4:27:13 AM
|
