Want to keep playing, but I'm hitting frustrating walls...

I supported PoE back in the pre-beta days (got myself a sweet little Kiwi pet) and had a blast playing, until I hit level 40ish. I tried the shop thing, and eventually gave up for over a year because I just couldn't progress. I'm back again, started just as the Talisman league started, and have hit lvl 69. I've purchased a few items through the shop (poe.trade) and have looked into what it takes to sell through a shop, but as a causal player (1-2 hours in the night) have found shops to be difficult.

So here I sit, frustrated at not being able to progress without being in a full group that can kill everything for me. I am looking for some hope that will keep me playing. Something that can help me understand why I'm stuck, and how to get un-stuck and progress.

Here is my current gear:





My spell rotation is usually something like, 4 zombies out with flame golem. Drop 2 flame totems, and firestorm the group of mobs till dead.

It's embarrassing to hear from group members 5-10 levels below you, "you suck" "your DPS sucks" and watch them completely clear an area while I'm struggling with a small blue pack.

I know many of you were/are in my shoes. You've played for a while. You've hit a wall. How do you get out? What am I doing wrong here? or, what am I missing?

*EDIT*
For some clarity, I started my latest which out by following ZiggyD's Caster Leveling setup here.

Basically, you're spread too thin and your gem setups are pretty weak.

• You're trying to make your minions be a damage threat with no passives for them or auras to buff them. That's guaranteed to be underwhelming.
• Your Firestorm, Flameblast and Flame Totem all have pretty underwhelming support gems. The added damage gems are late links, usually 5/6L only. They all need Fire Penetration desperately, and Flame Totem is also saddened greatly by a lack of Faster Casting. (EDIT: following your own edit, that's fine strictly for levelling but that whole setup is meant to be completely replaced by the endgame with whatever you actually want your build to do.)
• On that note, you should really have a 5L by now. It's excusable if you're playing self-found, but since you aren't, go buy a cheap one! Pick a damage skill to focus in on and support it heavily.
• Your skill tree is extremely inefficient. You're investing enormously in defense nodes but also ignoring the hybrid life/ES clusters, you're running down to the duration passives for just Firestorm and then using all these other skills, you're taking power charges with no way to generate them, you have very little actual damage. It really does need a lot of work, I'm afraid. I can suggest full rewrites if you want, but in general, efficiency is the name of the game. You absolutely need to plan your skill tree based around getting a maximum of relevant stats per point spent.
• You don't seem to be running any curses, and they're generally just free damage.

Those are the main points. I could say stuff about your gear, but it's generally reasonable so I don't think it's as much of a priority.

I apologise if this all seems a bit harsh because that is not my intention, but there's an awful lot of stuff you can do to whip your build into shape.

EDIT: Oh man, I didn't even notice Ancestral Bond. Yeah, below poster makes a very good point too. >_<

Just a little reminder that if you're taking the Ancestral Bond keystone it makes you do no damage with direct cast spells like your firestorm.

I'm confused with your tree and gem setup. First, what is your skill setup? From your gear, i assumed you are summoner, but yet, you took power charge node and cast speed cluster. You also take ancestral bond, which is for totem user, and thus, your firestorm and flameblast will deal no dmg. So here's my suggestion:

1. You can go crit flame totem build. Switch your flame totem to 4 link one, and drop flameblast and firestorm. 4L should be like flame totem, faster casting, fire penetration, faster projectile. If you go this route, I highly suggest you get totem mastery cluster under templar, and shaman's domination cluster.

2. You can go summoner. Drop flameblast and firestorm. Add spectre to your gem setup. Drop all power charge, crit spell node, and cast speed node, and allocate those points toward minion clusters.

3. You can go crit spell caster. Drop ancestral bond, and totem nodes that you take. pick one skill (firestorm is decent) and go for it.

I also assumed you going CI or probably life/es. Either case, you need a way to regenerate your es, so I suggest you go for Zealot Oath. You need to switch from dual wield to one handed+shield one since shield can go up to 400 es (max one is 700 es), which will help you a lot in term survivability.

"

Kaicimo wrote:

Just a little reminder that if you're taking the Ancestral Bond keystone it makes you do no damage with direct cast spells like your firestorm.

Yeah I was thinking that, too.

This build is beyond saving, for all the reasons the previous posters mentioned. Make a new char and use a good build that other people have tested. Nothing wrong with learning from other people.

Your first char got to 40, next got to 69. Your next will get even higher. That's how it works. No failure here, just a learning curve.

If you like zombies, here's a summoner build:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1388991

If you like totems, here's a totem build:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1510181

"

Just a little reminder that if you're taking the Ancestral Bond keystone it makes you do no damage with direct cast spells like your firestorm.

OMG.... I have no idea how I did not see then when I took the skill... This is probably contributing to my frustration!

"

but yet, you took power charge node

This is a source of confusion for me. I read up on power charges on pathofexile.gamepedia.com, which says, "Power charges are a temporary buff associated with intelligence and represent an increase to concentration and arcane energies during combat. They are visualized as glowing blue orbs surrounding the character. Gaining a new power charge resets the duration of all remaining power charges. Bonuses granted by power charges:" That seems good to have, but nowhere does it say how to get them. I assumed you get them as you hit monsters...

"

This build is beyond saving

I think if it's this frustrating, you are all probably right. Restarting, and will post back in a week or so how I'm doing and what I decided to go with. Thanks guys

You don't get charges of any types except by doing something that specifically grants them to you. For power charges, the two most common ways are using the Power Charge on Critical support gem or the Assassin's Mark curse, although there are many more. See the same wiki page you quoted for a full list. Also note that you start out with a maximum of three charges of each type, not zero.

"

but yet, you took power charge node

This is a source of confusion for me. I read up on power charges on pathofexile.gamepedia.com, which says, "Power charges are a temporary buff associated with intelligence and represent an increase to concentration and arcane energies during combat. They are visualized as glowing blue orbs surrounding the character. Gaining a new power charge resets the duration of all remaining power charges. Bonuses granted by power charges:" That seems good to have, but nowhere does it say how to get them. I assumed you get them as you hit monsters...[/quote]


See more info of power charge here: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Power_charge

To sum it up, power charge give you an increase in critical strike chance. Note that all charge require some effort (passive tree or gears) to make a good use them. Power charge is for crit build, and the common way to generate it is to use assasin's mark curse or link PCOC (power charge on critical strike) support gem to your main skill.

Yeah, it might be that you're trying to travel too far on your skill tree. An ancestral bond/summoner combo can be good, but make sure you invest in minion passives to make your minions stronger, and totem passive to make your totems stronger. This setup worked well enough for me that I was able to make it to Act 3 in merciless without dying, and without any help (I'm a solo player). https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwUABAcEswagES0WbxcvGF0aOCSqKU8qEyycMtE1kjbpPC1Bh0NjQ8hFR0rITLNPBFWpVdZXlFjlWfNaK15dZIRk52ZUZp5o8moBa9ttGW6qcU1yD3KpfIN9GH31gKSCm4Nfg8yIQIx2kDOQVZRvl7SaO5rPnjyiAKPypqynCKeUrKqt8bXytzG3PsBmxPbGrtH91abYvdrd4XPjauvu7IrtPPAf-b356PrS_go=
I'm eventually going to work my way to the northern part of the tree, picking up shaman's dominion, heart of flame, unnatural calm, and death attunement. Always be thinking about how to get the most out of your skill points for the least amount of travel. And power charges are kind of useless for minions.
On another note, forget about when people criticize your gameplay. A lot of players talk about their DPS, etc., the same way guys talk about their dating prowess: they lie. POE is a tough game, and, while it's become substantially easier at lower difficulty levels, it's still fairly tough and takes a long time to master, especially for us casual players. Don't compare your progress to other people. Some of us don't have the time or commitment to be able to "farm six link Lightning Coils" or whatever the fart people do with their limitless free time.

"

unassassinable wrote:

It's embarrassing to hear from group members 5-10 levels below you, "you suck" "your DPS sucks" and watch them completely clear an area while I'm struggling with a small blue pack.


*EDIT*
For some clarity, I started my latest which out by following ZiggyD's Caster Leveling setup here.

It's kind of shocking to hear that. Pub parties are such a mess with all the zombies and firestorms that its nearly impossible to tell whose doing what damage.