The Go-To Gem Combos

That's true, but starting with the "stronk combos," especially ones that are either universal or fill a general archetype well is still reasonable. The fact that everything is build specific is sort of implied just by how the game works.

I thought the point of this thread was to list globally-general combinations. I feel like a lot of these posts are getting too specific. This isn't the thread to try to advertise your "super creative unique build nobody has thought of," eh?

I don't mind if some of them are specific, so long as they fit into general build archetypes.

For example, the {Frost Wall + Curse on Hit + Temporal Chains} combo is something most archers or ranged casters could probably make use of.

That was one of the things I was getting at, yeah. A lot of folks have their own spins on the 'Mainstay' combos. [Movement Skill] > [Faster Movement Skill], for example, is a basic building block of virtually all builds, but the things people do with that basic framework are all over the place. [Melee Moveskill] > Faster Attacks > Fortify is a standard...except these days people are standardizing on Shield Charge a lot and you're seeing as much SC > FA > CoH > [Curse] as you are Fortify. Both are valid, but each is suited to different builds, players, and playstyles. You're seeing a lot less Fortify in modern builds, a lot of folks who consider it helpful but mostly unnecessary fluff, when before it used to be considered an absolute requirement.

Remember the days when Champion Ascendancy was considered blatantly overpowered for giving players permanent Fortify for free? How many Champions do you see these days, and how many of them are held to be overpowered?

Trying for a list of universally useful combos is both difficult and somewhat misleading, since the best players will discard those 'Standard' combos as they deem necessary to figure out what works best for their build. I understand the idea behind the thread, as a sort of "this is how you do builds in PoE" primer for people less experienced with the game. I'm just not sure it's really possible, outside of arbitrarily declaring a couple dozen support sets as "Standards".

The game shifts over time, new options are added, older options fall out of favor, even older options come back into favor. A better idea would be to teach folks why certain basic building blocks (movement skills, Orb of Storms, CWDT) are basic building blocks and why people use them in their various and sundry permutations on so many builds.

I definitely agree. Looking at some of the combos can itself be a teaching tool. Emphasizing the importance of using what suits a particular build best will definitely be necessary, and I think you have a well worded disclaimer in your post, so I will probably quote you if I can get a proper list together, because the main idea behind it is to just give people an idea of what sort of combos can be strong.

Blasphemy style ( without mana reservation ) :
CWDT > Blade Vortex > Curse on hit > [CURSE]


Ancestral Bond builds (You can't deal Damage with your Skills yourself, BUT you always hits targets ):
Cyclone ( or other AOE skill) > Life gain on Hit > Culling Strike >

Fast Lightning Warp :
Lightning Warp > Faster Casting Support > Less Duration Support

CWDT > Molten Shell > Immortal Call > Increased Duration

All right, all right. If you won’t take “it doesn’t work that way, reeaaally it doesn’t, and trying to convince players it does is a mistake!” for an answer…let’s do this.


– Movement –

SHIELD CURSE
Shield Charge > Faster Attacks > Curse on Hit > [Curse Skill]
Used for both rapid movement and for cursing enemies, as Shield Charge hits in a decently-sized area both while moving and at the end of the charge.

FORTIFEET
Shield Charge/Leap Slam/Whirling Blades > Faster Attacks > Fortify > Blood Magic (optional)
Which movement skill the player uses depends on their weapon set-up. All ‘Melee’ tagged movement skills are generally configured the same way, however. Movement skills easily trigger Fortify for high and easy defensive buff uptime, with Faster Attacks improving the speed of movement. Blood Magic is optional but a popular choice for players that use their movement skill rather than normal movement to traverse maps.

FLAME BUFF
Flame Dash > Faster Casting > Arcane Surge (lvl. 7)
Some builds (wand users with Inc. Duration in the tree) have no access to movement skills other than Flame Dash or prefer Flame Dash to their other options for movement. Those ones often use FD to trigger Arcane Surge as well, since they’re forced to used a subpar movement skill in the first place.

BLINK ARROW
Blink Arrow > Faster Projectiles > Faster Attacks > Culling Strike (optional)
Very fast, very precise long-range ledge-traversal movement skill for archers which comes with the drawback of cooldown time. Some players like to use Culling Strike on Blink Arrow so their clone’s attacks can cull bosses, if they have the room in their links for it.


– Defense –

PANIC BUTTON
CWDT (lvl 1) > Immortal Call (lvl 3) > Inc. Duration > [Vaal Duration Skill]
One of the most well-known and enduring defensive skillgem combos in the game. Excellent at mitigating physical machine-gun spike damage like Porcupine pack deaths or adding a few heartbeats to one’s bleedout time for Corrupting Blood. Also offers some utility in a boosted-duration Vaal skill, such as Vaal Haste or Vaal Lightning Trap. Has lost some of its luster in recent times as elemental monsters and Ludicrous Boss Slams become more of a threat (this set-up is completely, 100% ineffective against elemental damage or single huge damage packets) and players start incorporating Endurance Charges into their regular defensive plan.

PSEUDO-BLASPHEMY 1
CWDT > [Curse Skill] > [Other Stuff]
CWDT Curse is one of the oldest means of auto-cursing enemies. Requires only two skill gems, allowing other gems to be tied to the CWDT trigger as the player desires. CWDT level varies, as do levels of linked gems, based on player’s desires for their specific build. Drawback: low curse level limits the triggered curse’s effectiveness.

PSEUDO-BLASPHEMY 2
CWDT(lvl 1) > Blade Vortex (lvl 8) > Curse on Hit (lvl 20) > [Curse Skill] (lvl 20)
Allows CWDT to trigger low-level Blade Vortex, which curses enemies with max-level curse of choice on hit. Allows CWDT to trigger max-level curses and benefits from CoH’s quality stat for drastically improved curse effectiveness without dealing with Blasphemy’s mana reservation. Drawback: soaks up an entire 4-link.

DECOY TOTEM
Decoy Totem
Decoy Totem.


– Utility –

CURSE BOMB
Orb of Storms > Curse on Hit > [Curse Skill] > [Curse Skill 2]/Inc. Aoe
used as an easy method of quickly cursing packs of critters, or keeping a boss cursed. OoS also usually does other useful things for builds utilizing it. Very common on Elemental Equilibrium builds, triggering EE weakness to Fire for Scorching Ray, Righteous Fire, or SRS damage.

BUFF BOMB
Orb of Storms > Inc. AoE > Inc. Critstrikes > Arcane Surge(lvl. 8)
Triggers Elemental Overload reliably for EO spell builds, pushes mana cost of OoS high via support gems to allow a higher-level Arcane Surge buff. Always ensure Arcane Surge’s trigger cost is equivalent to or less than the cost of casting Orb of Storms once, ensuring that every OoS triggers your Arcane Surge. A level 20 OoS with Inc. AoE and Inc. Critstrikes costs 45 mana, thus final Arcane Surge level of 8 (41 mana to Surge)

UTILITY SHOT
Frenzy > GMP > Curse on Hit > [Curse Skill]
Used by archers and wanders both to quickly generate Frenzy charges while scattering curses through enemy packs. Best with Piercing effects from other sources, but works all rightish without Pierce. Some players substitute Culling Strike for a CoH curse. Other players prefer to Blood Rage all the time via CWDT for Frenzy charges but those players are bad and should feel bad.

AUTOGOLEM
CWDT (lvl 8) > [Golem Skill] (lvl 10)
Many players hate manually casting/recasting Golems. Using a level 10 Golem often provides the strong majority of a high-level golem’s passive buff (i.e. the only reason anybody ever uses golems) while allowing CWDT to recast the golem for them at fairly regular, mostly-reliable intervals.


…that’s all I can come up with on the spur of the moment for even sortakinna maybe-ish semi-universal Gud Combos. And even then, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that folks will argue the point. Especially for Flame Dash and anything whatsoever involving a bow. Or Culling Strike. Or…

Yeesh. This is such a bad idea…>_<

Well, thanks for the effort anyway. =D

For a melee build:

Are there limits (beyond sockets available) to how many CWDT gems can be used?
How do CWDT and CoH differ in utility? COH seems to be used less (or at least it is talked about less). Is there a reason for that?