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

P.S.
If you try SSF Summoner, you will be SHOCKED, just SHOCKED at how easy it is, compared what what you have gone thru as a SSF Melee Ranger.

P.P.S.
Your tree is bad!

Right out of the start, you should path thru the evasion/life nodes, not the dex nodes.

That pathing costs 2 more points, but gains 17% life and 44% evasion, but loses 20 dex. That's a no brainer for 2 skill points!

Instead of going thru Reflexes, you should left instead, to go thru Sentinel and the life wheel of Constitution.

You have specced into Utmost Swiftness.
This is only usefull if you have gear that gives +damage for dexterity.
Points best spent elsewhere.

The only guide I glanced at for Raider Frost Blades, suggested very different Ascendency point allocation. Give up the Phase stuff (4 points) and put it into the Onslaught stuff (4 points) It will cost you 20 regrets, which you might not have as SSF, although you can buy regrets from a vendor.

I have never played frost blade raider, so I dont know for sure about that, but 130% increased onslaught effect, combined with near 100% uptime on onslaught is INSANELY strong.

Sockets are a problem.
As mentioned by somebody else, your supports for Frostblade are terrible.
Cold Penetration is additive with other sources of penetration, and you have LOTS of cold pen on the tree.
It's not bad, but its not that good, either.

The other two supports are TERRIBLE. Mana leech, you should get from the tree or gear, you have one mana leech node on the tree, that should be enough, if you get your dps higher.

Onslaught, get it from "on kill" (gear or tree) or from a flask, NOT from a support gem.
Or when you get Uber Lab, you can take Rapid Assault, and effectively always have Onslaught.

You want multiplicative damage support gems, like Multistrike, or Elemental damage with attacks.

One guide I glanced at for Frost Blade Raider suggests Elemental Damage with Attacks, Multistrike, Fortify, Ruthless, and Hypothermia.
That is 4 red sockets, so hard to get SSF on evasion armor, but you could swap out Ruthless for Cold Penetration or Added Cold Damage. as its easy to get 3 off color with the crafting bench once you get the recipie in Delve.

"

Odif wrote:

P.S.
If you try SSF Summoner, you will be SHOCKED, just SHOCKED at how easy it is, compared what what you have gone thru as a SSF Melee Ranger.

Apologies, won't be quoting ALL good stuff people provided me with, because overquoting is cancer.

Thank you very much again, yeah, I understand that very possibly on a road to ruin, but I intend to finish it, just to see how far can I go.

The "regenerating mobs" problem I only have at Alva's temple - all other content is fine.

I chose SSF because I am not a social person, and frankly play all my games alone. Can you please explain what's so bad about it?

Amusingly, I am pondering a summoner-type character because I have never tried this playstyle in any game before and Eihnar just game me a Tabula Rasa item. But what should it be, Templar on totems? Elementalist on Golems (looks super juicy but I checked guides and my brain imploded of amount of stuff you need to bind and use at once)? Necromancer (looks really easy with all those "buff minions" nodes, but something tells me it's a trap)?

"

Arractur wrote:

[

I chose SSF because I am not a social person, and frankly play all my games alone. Can you please explain what's so bad about it?

Amusingly, I am pondering a summoner-type character because I have never tried this playstyle in any game before and Eihnar just game me a Tabula Rasa item. But what should it be, Templar on totems? Elementalist on Golems (looks super juicy but I checked guides and my brain imploded of amount of stuff you need to bind and use at once)? Necromancer (looks really easy with all those "buff minions" nodes, but something tells me it's a trap)?

The game is balanced around being able to trade.
Without any trading, your gear will be worse, thus your dps worse, your defenses worse.
It's a mode put into the game to provide extra challenge for those who find the game too easy.

You could migrate out of SSF, never play with others except to do the occasional trade. This would make things MUCH MUCH easier for you.


As far as what minion build to try.
IF you go SSF, do not do golem elementalist. They require a lot of uniques to be good. They are not that expensive to trade for, but as SSF would require endless grinding or luck to get.

The way to go for SSF minions, is necromancer with spectres and/or zombies and/or skeletons.

In the league when Sirus was first released, there was a contest, for first Sirus kill in SSFHC league. It was won by a necro skeleton character. Necros very strong for SSF.

There are lots and lots of good guides out there for various versions of necros.
Make sure you read it, to see if it needs lots of uniques or hard to get cluster jewels.

I wrote a guide for spectres plus (Zombie or Skeletons), but it needs ONE unique, so unless you already found it (its common so its possible you have one in your stash) its not the guide for you.
The unique is Triad Gloves


If you have found one, they try my guide
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2883137

P.S.
Since you already have a Tabula, you will find leveling a necro summoner SO SO SO SO easy, like you can't believe its the same game you played on your Raider.

"

Odif wrote:

P.S.
Since you already have a Tabula, you will find leveling a necro summoner SO SO SO SO easy, like you can't believe its the same game you played on your Raider.

Again, my gratitude knows no bounds. Guess I just need to play like every one else.

Apologies for bombarding you with questions, if I overstep with offtopic - I'll quit the flood immediately:
1) Could you hint which uniques a golemancer witch would want? I know Primordial Chain and Clayshaper (if they actually worth it), what else? And should I use Tabula Rasa?
2) There is a curious Ancestral Bond talent near the Templar start, that removes attacks but gives more totems - would it be worth it to try Hierophant with this talent (seems safe - no contact, just summon totems?) or it's actually very difficult?
3) Is Juggernaut easy enough for beginner (and I now understand that I am below noobish, here I thought I at least understand the basics, but like heck)? On paper it looks super easy - HP up the wazoo, more damage, speed and accuracy from being tougher, stuff like Vaal Pact and Blood Magic seems cool. But I already get that in PoE nothing is what it seems.

"

Arractur wrote:

Guess I just need to play like every one else.

No you don't. I've been playing for over 8 years and and have taken one piece of gear in all that time. Someone gifted me a mace when I hit the new player wall. Other than that, I've been playing SSF long before the league existed. The downside of this: The highest level I've attained is 90, but it's all me. I've not killed all of the major bosses, but I've been having fun because I play the way I want to.

"

Arractur wrote:

Apologies for bombarding you with questions, if I overstep with offtopic - I'll quit the flood immediately:
1) Could you hint which uniques a golemancer witch would want? I know Primordial Chain and Clayshaper (if they actually worth it), what else? And should I use Tabula Rasa?
2) There is a curious Ancestral Bond talent near the Templar start, that removes attacks but gives more totems - would it be worth it to try Hierophant with this talent (seems safe - no contact, just summon totems?) or it's actually very difficult?
3) Is Juggernaut easy enough for beginner (and I now understand that I am below noobish, here I thought I at least understand the basics, but like heck)? On paper it looks super easy - HP up the wazoo, more damage, speed and accuracy from being tougher, stuff like Vaal Pact and Blood Magic seems cool. But I already get that in PoE nothing is what it seems.

1) Golemancers use Jewels....LOTS OF UNIQUE JEWELS.
Anima Stone (gives +1 to number of golems, +2 if you have 3 primordial items)
Primordial Might (use one of these to make golems agressive, otherwise their AI sucks)
Primordial Harmony (gives huge damage bonus if you use lots of types of golems, also gives huge golem life regen)
Primordial Eminence (gives big golem attack/cast speed boost)

Some Golem elementalist builds use 10+ unique golem jewels. Not SSF friendly.

There are LOTS of golem guides, read one, they all use LOTS of uniques.

2) Totems are in a weak place right now.
You can do it, but its not that strong. Game is not well balanced in that way.
In years past, Templar Totem builds were very strong.
Right now, Brands > Totems, with the same playstle.

3) Juggernauts are easy to get supper duper tanky.
Juggernauts are hard to get good dps, particularly for SSF
If you dont mind killing everything REALLY SLOWLY, sure, go for it.
It would drive me crazy.
P.S. Don't go Vaal Pact with Jugg (vaal pack negates all life regen), stack life regen with Jugg. Stack endurance charges, and life regen per endurance charge.

P.S.
A better balance between damage and defense, for melee,(compared to juggernaut), for SSF, is Gladiator, focusing on Block and Spell Block for defense, and the special Challenger Charges they get for offense.

They dont need much gear to get max block, and the challenger charges are free.


But in any case, ALL MELEE DPS is dependent on a good weapon, which is HARD TO GET IN SSF.

I do not recommend any melee SSF unless you are an expert crafter, and can craft yourself a high dps weapon.

Spells and minions dps is dependent on gem level, not weapon stats, so much much easier for SSF.

P.P.S.
Tabula is good for ANY caster/summoner, and is even ok for melee as the 6 link will skyrocket your dps, but the lack of defense is much worse for melee, but hardly an issue for summoner (minions absorb a LOT of damage)