How does melee get + 5k life without perfect gear? and...

Still have any damage or defense left?

It seems recently, players talk like it's really easy to do but with 70-95 life on all gear except one ring (50) and 180% from tree, I hit 4.7k. Even with one more decent ring, I still wouldn't hit it. I invest in block (50% with tempest), life, armor and damage nodes so it seems to me builds with much more health are skipping something to invest like +200% health or something plus have perfect rolls. I have also like near 300% in damage nodes (life as 1-h) so maybe those with this high health don't take as many damage nodes?

So tell me how it is so easy and if you think +5k life is more important than block or armor or damage.

You're talking bout your lvl80 scion Victoria_WB?

She's only 80 and will still grow a bit.
And you can use your jewel slots for +7% life (btw: get more jewel sockets).
And you can always take even more life nodes.
Flat strength from the tree also helps. You walk mostly on dex.

And yes, people with very high life pools usually don't have too many damage nodes, unless they are like level 100 (20 skillpoints more than you).

On my level 74 Cycloner (2-hander), I have 5.3k life while doing around 15k damage. Now keep in mind I don't have much armour (only 20% reduction) or block (no additional block) and am wearing a Belly of the Beast (which you can do as well of course). I don't feel particularly squishy with this setup though. Basically, a huge part of the nodes I took were for either physical damage or life.

Gear is decent but nowhere near overpowered:



So I guess you do have to skip on some armour or block to get that life, that or wear a Kaom's/Belly.

don't worry, just put your next 10-15 points into hp nodes (your tree looks very good, no need to travel for hp) and you'll be 6k+ in level 90 or so.

If you have the currency to buy 5L Belly of the Beast, do it!! :D

levels mean a lot, ultimately, both for the points and the flat life you get per level.

My melee marauder has life on every slot sort of gear, I have 187% on tree, my life is 6,500.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEAAF4B5wIRAwADJwSxBS0ILg2NEuEUIBRNFHEYkRmOGj4aVRuqG60b-iPTI_Yl3ygqLlMvzDB8MbA26D3iPfxDMUSeRNJHfkjuSn1MYEz_TZJOKlBHU7tYY1uvXz9hIWLsYxdlTW8ndO14rnk5eu99dX6afuKBOoIHhNmE74d2iO2K8ItPjM-NfZVml3maap7NouqjiqPnpBmnMKn6tiy2iryfvTa-p7_VwQfBgsRYxILG2MqQy_XSIdNv037UUtd-18vZfNrB3L3h7-Of5FHnD-lG6dXtg-4O7w7yQfZI_Ev8xf66?accountName=Snorkle_uk&characterName=Fat_Steve


the tree has...

187% life

444% physical damage with swords (495% if u include the strength bonus and another 16% from oak reward I think)

86% attack speed


thats not including the jewel slot, I get more damage from the jewel of course. Final outcome defense wise is 6,500 life, 17,000 armour, 13,000 evasion, 42% block chance, 5 endurance charges + soul of steel.

But this is a lvl94 character and that might be why the life total is so much higher. I have no life from jewel slots and only 7% more on my tree than u have. No belly of the best or kaoms etc involved every slot is rare gear, no uniques at all equipped.

Easy answer: Get Belly of the Beast.

If you want to use some different kind of chest, just stack more life nodes. Cyclone is really strong in 2.0 so you can kind of get away with shitty DPS investment and still do plenty of damage, especially with a good 2h weapon.

My level 84 WoE duelist has just over 5K life atm, is pushing 23K effective dps, and doesn't have perfect gear:




It seems to me that if your character has a lot of STR and normal life allocation it's not hard to get 5K+ life.

Getting an item with a strength and a life roll is of course better than just a life roll in most cases.

It's much harder to get 5K+ life with a dex based character using mostly or all rares, which is a little sad considering that side usually is evade/dodge based anyways.

Thanks for your feedback on this.

I think my scion Victoria, is split across Dex and Str gives less overall life than if I had just gone to Mara side of tree for big strength. I think that is the difference and level like you guys said.

I don't have a Belly but I managed to 5L my humble armor so I'll stick with it for now.



I lost 1% damage reduction from what I had to get 22% more evasion.
So I have 50% block, 47% damage reduction plus endurance, 28% evasion...not sure how long that will hold up but it seems to help now.