Why are so many buils behind a paywall?

People watch too much streamers and meta uber killers.
So did I in the past.



I stopped googling those builds and started making "less than" 5ex builds.
It can do most maps. Dominus farming is work of seconds.

My current ARC build cost me 20c on gear, including that cloak... mind over matter vest.
I just had very bad luck linking it 251 fuse for 5 link.
3x zero link dafuk!

Was very playable 4 linked. 5 link just added life leech.

Today I had an Olmec sanctum zana mission.
I expected -10% but actually it raped trough the map, was even immune to the fire totem.

12k tooltip dps but I assure you, I've played 80k-300k dps build and this one clears even faster, just single target is a bit slower, I use tendrils IIR cull 20k dps.

after 2y play I found out tooltip dps is a joke... clearspeed matters.


In short OP... What you see on youtube are meta's and no life streamers. Nobody is going to post his 10k dps self found (ofcourse there are... figure of speaking), well there are literally 100's or even 1000's of viable 20c builds, just harder to find :)

I rarely play Standard so my experience is mostly regarding the temporary leagues. Mostly softcore but hardcore too although i tend to play a bit risky so my hardcore chars rarely make it beyond lvl 75 for an extended time. From that perspective i can tell you two things:

a) yes, the most poweful builds are behind a paywall and if you want the truly strongest meta monster slayer with a mirrored weapon and a 6L Shav's, it will cost you a fortune of several hundred exalts. The game is meant to give people incentive to trade and no-life to truly maximize their characters potential.

b) the paywall for a fun and very powerful (just not THE MOST POWERFUL) build is much lower than many people make it appear. I found the cost for a build that is both great at clearing the highest level maps and still being able to kill Atziri usually to be around 4ex in the temporary softcore leagues. About half of that cost goes to a 6s5L armor, 1ex to the weapon and 1ex total to the rest of the gear.


To reach that budget, i do very little trading. This season i sold a single item for 18c and got all my other stuff from drops, crafting and buying from other players with currency i found (by stuff i mean the gear necessary to make three successfull 85+ endgame map chars and kill Atziri). I hate trading so i do as little as i can but i won't gimp myself to 100% self found.
If you truly want to play 100% self found then you severely limit the builds you can do and especially your first char in a league will have a very hard time. For that matter i would also strongly recommend starting in the temporary softcore league since those usually are the first to iuntroduce mechanisms to get more loot like extra exiles, strongboxes and now the Tormented Spirits. You can keep playing your chars then later when they get transferred to Standard and you already have a healthy few stashtabs of leveling items you colleted.

I play self found for wealth (no selling) and usually spend <20c (gems and maybe a couple pieces of gear) per build and do just fine in HC temp leagues. I don't have any masters at lvl 8 but that has not caused me any issues. Being able to play end game with no or very little trading takes a good amount of game knowledge but is not difficult. Most meta is more hype than reality, especially if you play mostly solo.

Edit: exp. 2h melee is one of the easier build types to reach high maps. My first char this league was a doomsower static strike non crit build with about 30k dps. Granted he is dead but that is because he cleared maps so fast that i nuked myself on bloodlines lightning wave totem pack. Leap slam in, few multi strikes, leap slam onto next pack, died in the air. I started reading the mods after that ;)

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Natharias wrote:

I'm done with boring shit, and anything that is cheap, is boring. And they're few and far between anyways.

That's my impression as well.
It's not about beating Dominus in merci, it's about doing it and having FUN. Because I'm playing a game, not an economy simulator.
Sure I could build a summoner. And then I walk there and do nothing, great playstyle.

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I would alternate between lightning arrow, Fire arrow, and Poison arrow with elemental equilibrium.
And you better believe you can do maps with it too.
I just haven't gotten around to it.

Every build that has "Elemental Equilibrium" in his skill tree is kicked out immediately. That's the reason I don't play any explosive arrow builds, I find it plain stupid to be forced to have a second attack just for stacking damage.
Not using it would mean I loose 50-100% damage which is not acceptable either. So I ignore those builds.

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Solo self found icenova

With 2 uniques that gives you a high defensive boots in combination. Great work. Try it without the armor and the shield and tell me then how it works.

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CI character im making used 1ex to buy

In selffound, you don't HAVE 1 exalt.

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Galgomon wrote:

You're playing the game wrong. This isn't D2 it's supposed to be played with an entirely different mindset. A racing mindset.

I don't care about races, I don't find them interesting in any way.

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BearCares wrote:

As self found player leveling your masters should be one of your highest priorities, particularly Haku and Elreon.

Because leveling masters is not behind a RNG wall, sure.

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BearCares wrote:

Then just find a good item base, alt it until it's good. Regal. And then apply a master craft to it.

That doesn't give me the builds I could go with the build-enabling-uniques.Those are behind a tradewall.

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Earthslug wrote:

People watch too much streamers and meta uber killers.

The last PoE-stream I watched is 2 years ago. That's not the case here.

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Earthslug wrote:

My current ARC build

Arc is labeled as "boring as hell" for me.

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paywall for a fun and very powerful (just not THE MOST POWERFUL) build [...] usually to be around 4ex in the temporary softcore leagues

That's the sort of builds I want. I don't care about mirrored gear or items like that. But 4 exalts IS FUCKING INOBTAINABLE.
I only play temp leagues because the economy in Standard is so broken + the shit with the legacy items the developers came up with is just so fucked up that I avoid that shit as hell.
And the highest I got was 2 exalts by flipping. Because I want to play the game, not the tradegame.
Sitting in trade channel and watching text boxes is not how I want to invest my spare time ..... that's no "game" for me.

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static strike

Have a 2h templar with it at lvl 46. Boring. And renders Sweep Skill totally useless (but GGG was never the company that cared about balance so whatever).

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CommodoX wrote:

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Natharias wrote:

I'm done with boring shit, and anything that is cheap, is boring. And they're few and far between anyways.

That's my impression as well.
It's not about beating Dominus in merci, it's about doing it and having FUN. Because I'm playing a game, not an economy simulator.
Sure I could build a summoner. And then I walk there and do nothing, great playstyle.

Its comments like these that make me think you just have very little game experience, no matter how long you have played. Summoner is one of the most involved play styles, regardless of whether you think it is boring. And cheap=boring is just silly, it doesn't mean anything. Think about what you enjoy and don't enjoy and actually articulate it.

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CI character im making used 1ex to buy

In selffound, you don't HAVE 1 exalt.

Dah fuk man!? I have 2 self found ex in BL and maybe 20ex of mixed currency and i have sold a grand total of zero items. And im casual! No lvl 8 masters and never 6L a thing.

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BackwoodsS wrote:

Its comments like these that make me think you just have very little game experience, no matter how long you have played. Summoner is one of the most involved play styles, regardless of whether you think it is boring. And cheap=boring is just silly, it doesn't mean anything. Think about what you enjoy and don't enjoy and actually articulate it.

Summoner is NOT one of the most involved play styles. The most involved play styles are the one where you ARE involved in the direct combat, where you don't have 15+ summones as a meat shield.
I know that a summoner curses here and there, resummon his zombies and stuff, uses the flasks and speeds them up via the auras and everything. I had 12 buttons on my Diablo 2 summoner and uses them frequently. But it was boring as shit, only good for MF, I'm done with that sort of game style.
I WANT TO HIT THINGS. WITH A WEAPON.
Articulated enough?

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CI character im making used 1ex to buy

In selffound, you don't HAVE 1 exalt.

Dah fuk man!? I have 2 self found ex in BL and maybe 20ex of mixed currency and i have sold a grand total of zero items. And im casual! No lvl 8 masters and never 6L a thing.

And?
What has your drop luck to do with my drop luck?
"Oh I found a Shavrons, why don't you have a Shavrons too? You filthy liar!!!!" - get some logic into your arguments.

I never 5L a thing with 200+ fusings because of fuck RNG, I never had a master above lvl 5 or 6 because asking around in channels who found a master is the same as the trading game - fuck that.

And I like the term "fuck" a lot. Cursing in english is so much fun.

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BackwoodsS wrote:

Its comments like these that make me think you just have very little game experience, no matter how long you have played. Summoner is one of the most involved play styles, regardless of whether you think it is boring. And cheap=boring is just silly, it doesn't mean anything. Think about what you enjoy and don't enjoy and actually articulate it.

No, it's comments like ^ this.

And I did articulate what I don't like. Cheap does translate to boring. Sometimes weak as well.

Summoner? Cheapest but least viable. Can't do most content. (Pure SRS is a summoner but not a "true" summoner)

Incinerate? Second cheapest only to summoners but boring as all hell and what I've been doing ever since I started this game. Only exception was my first character, which was flicker.

Searing Bond? Cheap but boring. Not very survivable.

Flame/Shockwave Totem? Cheap but boring.

Trapper/Miner? Cheap but boring and not too viable. You rely on avoiding damage and since damage avoidance was destroyed by GGG, it isn't worthwhile.

CoC? Not too cheap to setup with "good" gear. You essentially require a Tabula Rasa with PCoC, a minimum five-link Voll's Protector (which limits build choice horribly), or Romira's Banquet. Even then, this build's survivability is gated by gear that you need to either chance (find or gamble for) or trade. All of which are expensive options. But even then, I clear faster with Incinerate than I do with a 40% base crit chance CoC using Barrage + GMP + CoC + PCoC + Arctic Breath + Freezing Pulse.

Pebcak or troll thread. Gl with the search for happiness

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CommodoX wrote:

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Natharias wrote:

I'm done with boring shit, and anything that is cheap, is boring. And they're few and far between anyways.

That's my impression as well.

Cheap doesn't necessarily equate to boring, but it's true that the wealthier you are, the more fun you can have, assuming you derive fun from trying out new items/builds or steamrolling enemies. Unique items enable builds, so they're required for the type of fun I like to have. Yes, it sucks that so many builds are locked behind a paywall, and I would happily pay GGG a flat fee to play offline and experiment with whatever I want, however I want (mods/Steam Workshop would add a whole other level of replayability)...

But that's not the type of game we have. We have a f2p game designed to keep you addicted and grinding away for as long as possible. The longer you spend in game, the more likely you are to make a purchase. On a less cynical note, GGG moderating all game activity helps to create a more tight-knit community.

I hate the grind and exclusivity that this game is built upon (race rewards, mtx you can no longer find, items that will probably never drop, build-enabling items that the vast majority of players will never be able afford), but I'm still here because I'm so impressed by the devs' creations (artwork, skill tree, abilities, unique items, balance with all things considered) and the game's sizable active community.

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BackwoodsS wrote:

Pebcak or troll thread. Gl with the search for happiness

If you don't have any arguments, go the troll route. Well done.