Hit a wall at Merciless Labyrinth phase 3 - need to know if I am done for.

outside of the Chest slot, gear needs an item level of 64 to drop the highest tier +life.

this means that monsters of level 64 and higher, can all drop gear with 80+ life. (jewelry has a lower max roll, but also needs lower monster level)


you can definitely find good life+resist gear before mapping even starts.

"

Arractur wrote:

Apologies if it's a rude question, but have to ask. One of main reasons I decided to try the game again was my pal telling me that GGG has rebalanced the system and now it's not about "whatever you want to play, all your passive tree is about grab all +life nodes across, forget there are other slots" and now all defence techs are equal. Was it a load of bull?

If you're going to play a melee-like skill like Frost Blades you will generally need a lot of life. The closer you are to the mobs the more likely you will die. I meant to say this earlier, but you also need better flasks. There is absolutely no way you should be running white flasks in maps. I normally try to have dispel freezing, bleed, and curses. I also like carrying a dispel shocked flask, because heaven help me if I run into a Storm Herald or Lightning Mirage mob and they're off screen. Since I don't one-shot the whole screen those mobs are a PITA.

"

...now all defence techs are equal. Was it a load of bull?

It's true that you can build effective defenses in different ways, but that doesn't mean that slapping together any combination of defenses will work equally well.

This is one reason it's helpful to follow a decent guide.

"

fazlez1 wrote:

"

Arractur wrote:

Apologies if it's a rude question, but have to ask. One of main reasons I decided to try the game again was my pal telling me that GGG has rebalanced the system and now it's not about "whatever you want to play, all your passive tree is about grab all +life nodes across, forget there are other slots" and now all defence techs are equal. Was it a load of bull?

If you're going to play a melee-like skill like Frost Blades you will generally need a lot of life. The closer you are to the mobs the more likely you will die. I meant to say this earlier, but you also need better flasks. There is absolutely no way you should be running white flasks in maps. I normally try to have dispel freezing, bleed, and curses. I also like carrying a dispel shocked flask, because heaven help me if I run into a Storm Herald or Lightning Mirage mob and they're off screen. Since I don't one-shot the whole screen those mobs are a PITA.

I guess I understand, but it's feels really lame. There are hardly any life nodes in Dexterity corner (well there are some but clearly not enough), what's the point of playing Ranger or non-ES Shadow if you still have to run across the whole tree to grab all those slots near the Marauder?

Anyway, thank you all very much. Will give it a lot of thinking.

Life is rough on the right-side of the tree. If you try to get some ES instead, then Acro knocks on your door asking to take away from you his 30% share of pie.

Wind Dancer and Kintsugi appear to have good synergy with dodge/evasion builds, but only on the surface. Because dodge/evasion only protects you from attacks unless specifically mentioned it dodge spells, then all it takes is one hit from a spell to remove that defensive layer from Wind Dancer / Kintsugi. How common are spells in white mobs these days? Can ask yourself how many times you've seen the skeletal mages that cast sparks and the flame/frost sentinels in solaris/lunaris fanatic map mods. And then there is dodge chance reduction map mods too.

You can get almost 65% spell dodge by combining Phase Acro, Atziri's Step and Elusive (this buff you get from assassin ascendancy, Withering Step, Nightblade Support, or the expensive rare boots). However this still means 1 out of 3 spells would still hit you so you need to kill the boss before your luck runs out. If you insist on playing SSF then I guess it's easier to go with gladiator and easily get over 75% spell block.

You are almost pigeonholed to equip Kaom's Heart if you don't want to die from random one-shots in every few maps. And again, the challenge is to get this armour in SSF.

One hint, check PoE lab each day and do your run when Izzy has his 2 hander equipped, this is, in my opinion, the least dangerous of his forms.

Just for the record - thank you everyone again, got my 3rd couple of accendancy points yesterday. As I thought, my only problem was the chrages mechanic on Izaro, and I thought it was hardwired in Merciless. Yesterday he spawned fonts and conduits and I downed him in a single go without getting hit once, followed by Kitava in the similar manner (1 death). Started maps, more or less fun. Having troubles with Temple because rare mobs there regenerate life at ridiculous rates. Carefully waiting for when I hit the wall again.

Thank you all for advice, you are really great.

"

Arractur wrote:

rare mobs there regenerate life at ridiculous rates. Carefully waiting for when I hit the wall again.

Thank you all for advice, you are really great.

If mobs are regenerating life on you, then you're not only hitting that wall, you're backing up and hitting it repeatedly.
It sounds like you're dps is extremely low if they are regenerating it faster than you can kill them.
Something isn't right here. Even a character that is put together badly can kill a map boss in a minute, 2 minutes max.
A well put together character that reached maps should be able to kill a map boss in less than 10 seconds.

the lack of dps comes from 1 pretty glaring issue:

the supports on your frost blades. if you only have 4 links, you really need them to be damage links. Onslaught and Mana Leech are not good supports (cold pen is fine).

unfortunately, as a melee, some of your best supports are going to be RED gems.
if you swap the above 2 with 'melee phys' and 'elemental damage with attacks', you will DOUBLE your damage.



i'll explain melee phys, which will also lead into 'weapon choice'. frost blades does damage based on your weapon, including the physical damage of them. even though it converts most of that physical to cold damage, you still gain damage by getting more physical damage. any good phys damage sword is a good frost blades sword. you dont need to have %cold damage on weapons at all, like your offhand.

My two cents...

You are coming back to the game, which means you are likely not an expert at it.

Yet you are trying to do SSF, which is HARD if you are not an expert.

You are trying a Melee Ranger which is HARD if you are not an expert.


Put these two together, and its a recipe for a BIG FRUSTRATING STRUGGLE.


When people say you can play anything in this game, they don't mean all things are equally easy.
Some stuff is just harder, and you have chosen a VERY HARD PATH.

At the very least, I would recommend you migrate your toon out of SSF, choosing the option to take your stash with you.
Then buy some cheap gear to upgrade your dps.

If you REALLY REALLY want to play SSF, then probably melee ranger is not a good choice, until you become expert at crafting.

If you want to do SSF Melee, do Gladiator, so you can easily get max attack and spell block. Or do SSF caster or summoner, which is just easier all around compared to melee.