Are glass cannon builds viable at all?

or are you pretty much forced to have as much damage mitigation as possible? From what I've seen very few builds have less than three or four ways to mitigate damage.

Depends on the definition of "viable". With the defensive mechanics you CANT eliminate every risk to get hit; if 'glass cannon' mean you cant take even one (big) hit,then the only answer is NO.

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Mr_Cee wrote:

Depends on the definition of "viable". With the defensive mechanics you CANT eliminate every risk to get hit; if 'glass cannon' mean you cant take even one (big) hit,then the only answer is NO.

I'd say the one big hit would probably be what you were looking to avoid, the question is I suppose does a build exist that does enough damage fast enough so your defenses don't matter all that much?

I'd argue that Mathil's "buzzsaw" build that he used when he defeated Atziri is as close to a glass cannon build as you can get in PoE, and it worked for him. I think it requires good twitch skill and a precise playstyle (and a good computer and connection).

So my answer would be, "Yes, but not for most people."

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Mivo wrote:

I'd argue that Mathil's "buzzsaw" build that he used when he defeated Atziri is as close to a glass cannon build as you can get in PoE, and it worked for him. I think it requires good twitch skill and a precise playstyle (and a good computer and connection).

So my answer would be, "Yes, but not for most people."

Not really, his gear was bad but his build wasn't a glass cannon at all, with good gear it would be as tanky as can be.

So, in the traditional sense - you can't play a glass cannon here, you will get hit sooner or later, get hit a lot and it will hurt. A lot of enemies use movement skills like leap slam, charge, whirling or su I'd say the closest you can get are summoner hybrids, you can skimp a lot on defense if you aren't the only target out there, works best with ranged and semi-ranged setups like spectral throw, max area reave, bows and wands...

Do you have a spare 2L in your gear?

Do you have at least 100 STR/INT with your gear on?

Can you hard cast Decoy Totem (the reason for the 2L and the STR/INT, Decoy+TotemResist) and a curse (Temporal Chains is SO NASTY)?

Can you avoid the temptation to immediately get in the face of every mob on the screen?

Can you accept that, due to choices you have made in regards to your defenses, you will die from time to time and have exp loss as a result?

Can you spare a 4L for Cast on Stun? (this is, IMO, a must have for lower EHP builds)

The builds are "viable", but don't expect to sustain tank damage with zero downtime while speed rushing through areas. Reflect mechanics exist to keep the glass cannon from face melting everything without at least taking time to notice mods.