I'm stuck at 87

This is going to be whiny. I apologize in advance. I am very frustrated.

I have a duelist Cleave + Shield

tree:


Gear:


The toon runs around with Blasphemy+Poacher's and Hatred. I have very little mana left, but it is enough for Cleave as Poacher's produces mana. I have 3 Frenzy and 5 Endurance charges. These power the IC and Onslaught. My special move is Leapslam which is linked to Fortify. A Fire Golem provides a little extra DPS and generates a useful amount of aggro. I have a common CWDT + Blood Rage + Molten Shell + Immortal Call dealio too.

The gear is not GG, perhaps, but it is overall decent, I think. I have 76/75/75 resists. The Axe is over 300dps. When everything kicks in, I produce about 42k DPS of AoE damage. I have about 4600 life. My armor and evasion are ok. I have a high block percentage, something like 51%.

My issue is that I cannot proceed past level 87. I have 10 deaths (or more) in this level. I am currently back at 0 exp.

I don't think I'm a terrible player; I don't think I have terrible gear. But I died a lot (today's frustration? Haast popped out of nowhere and killed me twice. I simply had no defense against his spammy ice spear.)

I'm playing Tier 7 maps. The bosses on higher maps are killing me; The Piety Abomination in the Malformation map got me twice; the torture chamber boss (Shock and Horror) cooks me in no time with the laser beam. One death erases all exp earned in a Tier 7 map. (I don't know what map tier I should be playing for full exp but it is probably something like Tier 12.) The list of failure goes on and on.

Of course, the trash mobs on these maps are not a problem at all.

If anyone could look over my build and offer suggestions I would appreciate it. I'm about to rage quit.

Hi,

Your gear looks fine, might want to get some more life on your gloves and shoes but otherwise it looks okay. Regarding lvling I would like to put some advice, it helped me getting past lvl 90 (currently lvl 92 in talsiman).
1. If you are dying from lags and stuff, try running maps solo as parties adds lag. If you can run in parties smooth then its OK.
2. The deaths you mentioned, shock and horror boss and malformation bosses, they are most rippy bosses. No build can survive shock and horror boss lazer beam. The tactic is to wait for her to fire beam and hide behind pillars, after that you can go and attack her, there is time delay between beams, you need to attack her during that time and hide behind pillar when she fire beam that cuts of the beam. I usually avoid malformation boss when lvling in mind cause its pretty easy to rip there. So main point is understanding boss mechanics before going in for fight. There are many videos on YouTube on this.
3. Avoid double damage mods on maps, like vulnerability with added dmg and stuff, pay attention to map mods and see if its worth risking dangerous map mod. Prefer Temp chains and enfeeble over vulnerability and ele weakness.

If you take little bit precaution death can be avoided. Always remember there is nothing like true tank build in PoE, no matter your defenses coupled with deadly mods even most tanky builds can be one shotted. Take care, have fun out there :)

I think it's just a case of experience and practise.

You have everything you need to do well and achieve 90+. Your dps is fine, life is abundant, defence is sound, but you are experiencing the endgame maps for the first times.

You have no problems up until the boss, so i suggest that you conduct some research on the boss you're facing by watching videos of other players to get a feel for their moves and timings.

Also, look into things like their damage types and prepare accordingly. Such as knowing that the Crematorium boss deals in mostly fire damage so to prepare, you can equip a ruby flak and perhaps a purity of fire to solidify your protection against her damage.

There is also knowing what map mods are dangerous with a particular boss, such as ele weakness or minus max resistance with the Crematorium boss.

I wish you luck!

From a tree standpoint, it's fine, but I would drop some of those DPS nodes in favor of jewels and more block chance.
Something like this maybe?

As for gear, you're also fine.
That being said, Aegis Aurora isn't terribly expensive right now, and it might help a with survivability.

The most important thing is being able to recognize what you can and can't do. If you're not sure you can do a certain set of map mods, just reroll it.

Above is what my suggested skill tree would look like for someone of your level. Personally I tried out Daresso's Defiance earlier in this league and really didn't like it with any passive points allocated into endurance charges as I felt like I always had onslaught up, though granted I would also probably drop either your chest piece for a much better one or get a different weapon type as they both end up providing you with the same buff.

Another thing that I feel is kind of bad is taking resolute technique and then going to the right side of the tree as you just don't get the necessary defensive stats that you need in a non crit build. Also since you're using blood rage you can drop poacher's mark for temp chains for a slightly more defensive setup.



Above is a bit less drastic change to your build that I'd recommend as a start and then maybe work your way from there for whatever feels best for you.

Thanks for the suggestions! I am digesting and trying to understand.

Keep it coming!

Ding 88

I did some minor re-speccing, stopped alch'ing maps, skipped 'rippy' bosses, and tried to be more cautious.

I had a rough night a few nights back, however - I had 4 or 5 deaths. 2 of them came when Zana sent me to Poorjoy's Asylum. I didn't know what it was. I should have abandoned it immediately when I got an Achievement for simply entering!

And I was rewarded tonight with a few chaos and an exalted.

Ding 89

Ding 90

Gratz on getting passed your issue. Only ten more levels to go! :P Keep it up.