The joys of playing a Meta Build, and how badly Incursion can screw you without one

^Ice nova has been trash for ages, EK + hatred deals more cold damage then ice nova's baseline.(at least in the past not sure if it got a "more" buff in recent times, but stack sticks should go "yup" at that)

Trash compared to meta doesn't imply you can't make it function with currency.

Pretty sure you could make a fine ice nova herald of ice crit aoe cleaner with enough investment.

I could make all of those skills function with enough currency. They wouldn't have the best clear speed or damage output though but that's not what i said.

Peace,

-Boem-

Define 'work' then. Because current league is quite binary and if you cannot clear incursions with a setup then it doesnt work. It is no longer question of slower or faster. It is binary now

I wonder how far you can get leveling as burning arrow.. becauee incursions seem pretty junk-skill- unfriendly

Right now poe.ninja shows rather tragic state of playerbase with over 25% using arc. KB is highly underrepresented because it needs 4link to clear compared to power siphon

You can beat classic arc only with mjolnr version with vaal rf on top.

I wonder how happy are designers about their power siphon rework.

everyone is complaining about incursions. this never happend before in breach league and any other past league, so you must do something to improve it!

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sidtherat wrote:

Define 'work' then. Because current league is quite binary and if you cannot clear incursions with a setup then it doesnt work. It is no longer question of slower or faster. It is binary now

I wonder how far you can get leveling as burning arrow.. becauee incursions seem pretty junk-skill- unfriendly

Right now poe.ninja shows rather tragic state of playerbase with over 25% using arc. KB is highly underrepresented because it needs 4link to clear compared to power siphon

You can beat classic arc only with mjolnr version with vaal rf on top.

I wonder how happy are designers about their power siphon rework.

work in your context would mean "succesfully complete the encounter" right?

You can do that with all the skills you listed.

I'm currently doing whispering ice traps which means i am running my incursions with a 2 second penalty(trap 0.5 sec arm time + ice storm comming down and actually killing the targets) and that skill has not been touched by any balance changes since it's implementation.

Only incursion i failed at that i remember recently was a double "allies cannot die" rare stack scenario.
Taking that as a baseline i am sure "instant damage" skills can do it perfectly fine since damage output vs anything but tier15+ bosses has low requirements with the power creep of late.



I'm sure they could all "work", while retaining their "trash status" compared to 2017 and up skills.
I wouldn't advice it to people if they don't enjoy a good struggle or challenge though.

Peace,

-Boem-

edit : to be clear i'm not arguing they don't require more investment and better player control while still not attaining the same efficiency at end-game like the 2017+ introduced skills.
But if that doesn't detract you from enjoying the skill, then you can make them end-game viable.

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Boem wrote:

1) it is entirely possible to create tanks in PoE

Nope, it's impossible (unless you dont consider high-level maps, breaches, beyonds, etc). Yes, you can do "tank" for uber lab, for mid-level maps with easy mods, and even for Shaper. But you cant be reliably "tanky" in high-level maps with harsh mods, incursions, breaches, etc. You'll still be killed, no matter how much you invest into defences.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

"

Boem wrote:

1) it is entirely possible to create tanks in PoE

Nope, it's impossible (unless you dont consider high-level maps, breaches, beyonds, etc). Yes, you can do "tank" for uber lab, for mid-level maps with easy mods, and even for Shaper. But you cant be reliably "tanky" in high-level maps with harsh mods, incursions, breaches, etc. You'll still be killed, no matter how much you invest into defences.

you can get around 60% phys to elemental conversion in the current game state(probably higher with incursion phys=> element conversion helmets)

And like 90+ all resist.

It's entirely possible to create a "tank" to combat all of the end-game.

Will it have any other things going for it? Nope it will not.

Peace,

-Boem-

"

sidtherat wrote:

So everything is fine yet there are skills that just dont work?

Ice nova
Burning arrow
Sweep
Ice trap

Id like one of you 'good game knowledge guys' to make a good build with one of these.
It is simple but requires some currency, isnt it?

I doubt it. Some skills are junk. Power chasm between meta and regular is beyond idiotic and GROWS each patch..

I wonder what people will play after their arc leveling builds. Because thwre are hardly any stronger builds that this 'leveling' setup. Blade vortex? Spectres? Arc should beat them both.

In week or two people will get their arc totemers and others no ivestment 'anyone can be a hero' setups to 90s and will start looking for another build. But then.. surprise! There is hardly anything comparable

Bah, PoE is the only game where I'm certain that if "the right stars align", my character will always, yes I used ALWAYS, DIE. The frustrating part is due to the glorious mandatory always online requirement, doubled by the inoptimisation of the game that still keeps it at a "beta" level product IMHO.

Regardless, picking the current "opie-op meta" skills "of the league" is the best way to experience content as long as you consider your playtime during a league (up to the total 3 months) a "burst session"...

Playing "the wrong way" does superimpose too many penalties these days, as I said before in a different topic, a 40/40 top 250 guildie could level to 100 in less than 7 days of playing less than 24/7 using a "meta" skill and adequate playstyle, while I still ponder the push to 100 from 99 playing PoE the "hard and inefficient way" via single target namelocking melee dual wielding RT Static/Lightning Strike, after a "few" thousand hours of in game REAL playtime...

Sure, I could always embrace the "opie-op meta" and level to 100 in a lot less time and effort, and maybe I'll do that ultimately (before taking a long hard earned break from PoE), but why can't I have just as much "fun" while doing my own "quirky" build - my main char does pretty well regarding itemization, the build also is "up to snuff" regarding DPS AND defense, but I am still locked out due to my decision of severely limiting my damage output, and giving content a chance to ALWAYS fight back, instead of instantly obliterating it. So no, I am not satisfied in the least by the current pigeon holing into "kill vs be killed" scenarios... @#*^ that...

If TencentGGG don't get PoE "up to snuff" regarding danger/reward ratios, they'll NEVER see a dime from me ever again, not to mention the further lack of ANY support or investment... Simple as that... They actually need to make PoE have a lot less "Mariana's Trenches" regarding balance, functionality and technical improvements, not to even mention QoLs, for me to even consider "throwing" $$$ their way...

They might be to a "good start", but they really need to "up the ante" by a lot.

Are zombies meta?

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Johny_Snow wrote:

Are zombies meta?

People use "meta" in different ways. I'm a hipster, personally. Zombies could certainly be meta if they are capable of clearing a screen in 0.5 seconds or fewer. That "survives within the metagame" in that it provides an alternative that is attractive enough to a given set of people to be considered viable, and my perception of that given set at the moment is "people who expect a build to clear a screen in 0.5 second or fewer."

Its true, zombies need 1-2 seconds to clear the screen so they cant be meta.