We keep dying over and over on maps that are not heavily modded... Can't even spawn Sirus.

Hi, and thanks for reading this. I'm playing with someone else, a veteran player, this league. We are using completely different builds and gear set ups and have invested a *lot* of currency in upgrades that synergize with our builds. I am not the wealthiest player in this league but I've invested at least 30ex on my items alone. (Disclaimer, my own cluster jewels are not finished crafting but do have decent notables at the moment, his are finished). Our life, or ES in my case, seems fine (around 7k). Our resists are overcapped. We are lvl 91 and 92 respectively, and following build guides made for the new changes that came with expansion - guides that were highly rated and received well within the community. We dash, we spam potions, we do our best to play carefully.

Whether we are playing solo or together, we just keep getting absolutely deleted on tier 14/15 maps that are very conservatively modded (by that, I mean I am running maps with Goatmen/PB mods over say, lowered resistances or vulnerability).

At this point in the game; we are both extremely tilted. We've been watching so many videos, and the only people who seem to not struggle with content are using Headhunter. The person I'm playing with is considering quitting because "the game has become Path of Headhunter" and no matter how many changes we make to our gear/passive tree, nothing seems to help. We log in, we go into a map, we die. Making a trade or sale during a map is out of the question, even when solo, as we already know there is a very high chance all the portals will be consumed before we finish the content. And forget Zana missions! The portals are too precious to risk losing with her. One map might go smoothly but the next few are a disaster and all xp is lost, often before reaching the boss.

Also a hugely massive problem are the new "Dominated by Sirus" mobs, which have been 1 shotting us from off screen. I'm not psychic and there is no voiceline to warn my of the impending YEET. I can't say how many maps we've just lost due to stepping into a cleared area and having a mob completely off screen 1 shot us with no warning. Sirus himself, when appearing on the map, gives clear indication of when he is about to do a mechanic. The "Dominated by Sirus" mobs though and their extreme range and overtuning, are a Sirus woops I meant SERIOUS problem! However, sadly, these are only one part of the problems we keep facing.

Content from other leagues we've had no problem completing, i.e. Temples of Atzoatl, Heists, or Safehouses even Mastermind. We are over 2 weeks into the league and can't even get a Sirus kill, again, solo or duo. I can't even get him to spawn, the final fights with the Atlas Conquerers are destroying us. We've done these fights many many times before and understand the mechanics, but our 'high dps' builds paired with what was before considered good defence, well it's just not cutting it.

I'm really bummed and my partner is near quitting PoE, he's played since release and very successfully... We just don't understand what changed so drastically and why we can't progress when it comes to the actual game content.

Sure, we could spend days in delves but we wanted to experience the new league content and fight the bosses that were normally just a part of progression in the game. Is spending days/weeks in content from an old league (delve) or obtaining Headhunter the only sure fire way to progress now? We've watched pro HC players get 2 shotted by the same mechs that are 1 shotting us (though they play much tankier builds obviously, they are still having similar issues). Would gaining a few levels even help, in the grand scheme of things? Something just feels so off and it's becoming really tilting and frustrating. Killing the Conquerers and spawning/killing Sirus used to be a challenge but not impossible.

Any sincere advice would be appreciated. Also, please don't be offended by the "Path of Headhunter" mentions, but I've watched many vids too and these seem to be the main people who are not struggling with content. Before, if you worked hard enough or were lucky enough to get this item, it was a given you'd be godlike in the Game. This league it's feeling like if we don't obtain this item we can't even play, especially to the person I'm playing with who has played Path of Exile for a very long time, since its' release.

Again any help or constructive is greatly appreciated. It's possible we missed something major, but both of us are at a loss as to why this is happening so consistently. Do I have ALL the Best in Slot items for my build yet? No, I have some though, and I have invested every resource I have into upgrading my gear and doing so based on my build and the guides I am following, the same goes for him. We wanted to be prepared for this league and to excel and have a great time doing it, but at this point the tilt from logging in and losing not only all our xp (which almost doesn't bother us anymore as it's always at 0 now)... and losing all our portals to maps... it's just not fun anymore and we so badly want it to be!

We were so hype for this league and the new content seemed really cool, we love the ideas behind the new Atlas content and just want to be able to experience it.

Your profile is private so we cannot see your character to give you advice. This is not 'path of headhunter' I am playing carrion golem (that was supposedly nerfed) and can do just about everything in the game (Maven, 10 boss invitations, Sirus A8). I did get owned on the breachlord invitation but I had some rippy mods, so I am going to try it on an easier version, but outside of that nothing has stopped me.
If your friend is truly the player you say they are the only possible problem is you are playing builds that just don't work. Switch to a more meta build or one that has worked in the past for you. Don't keep slamming your head into a wall.

My mistake, I didn't realize it was hidden and have changed the setting.

I'm playing a Volatile Dead build, and he is playing Penance Brands. Both of us are encountering the same struggles whether we are solo or together.

I've checked your build in POB and it's the usual view. You have 6,6k hp and max res and that's it on defenses. If you want to stay alive for reasonably long times this is nowhere close to sufficient for red maps.

Using the POB fork EHP tab, you have around 7k EHP against phys and chaos and ~30k against elemental damage. That's glass cannon levels. Any tier 15+ mapboss with physical damage will oneshot you no sweat. Everytime you run into porcupines you are dead. Anytime something uses chaos damage on you, you are dead.

You want at least another 3-5k EHP on all 3 fronts with priority on physical and chaos since your primal aegis should help out on the elemental end + some avoidance on top if any possible. Flesh and Stone aura is very useful for it's blind effect. Push your ES higher, sub 7k for red maps is nothing. You should be at 8,5k+ along with a solid recovery method which you are lacking as well.
You have neither ES leech nor ES regen in meaningful amounts and you are not using Wicked Ward either. Even if you don't get oneshot, you basically have to avoid any sort of damage for 3-4 seconds straight to recover your HP. All you have is Vaal Discipline which isn't always available and therefor not reliable.

Allocate Ghost Reaver and maybe take the Light Eater cluster as well to power up your sustain. Enduring Cry could also help, if only for it's ES recovery effect since you already have Zealots Oath but almost no regen. Use the energy leech support gem instead of controlled destruction. Almost same damage but gives more leech, your current leech cap is low already and you aren't even capped on it. Put in a immortal call setup with second wind and increased duration. It only lasts 3 seconds or so but will help nonetheless. There are lot's of options available and you'll have to experiment yourself to find a setting that suits your style, but you need to do something. Your build as it is, is not suited for redmaps. And wasn't since 3.9. Before that it might have worked because monsters were so weak but nowadays you'll get hit back sometimes.

The problem I had with VD in the past was two:
- Balls taking time to travel to enemies
- Balls covering the entire screen so you can't clearly see ground effects like the ones from Baran mobs. They kill you even in a map without mods.

Primal Aegis gives you a decent pool against elemental hits but the indicator is very poorly placed so it's hard to tell when it is depleted.

I was quite sure it felt better to use Barrage or linking Frenzy to Barrage Support so I'm not sure why your build guide didn't recommend it.

If you can afford Anima Stone (for a total of 5 different golems), dropping Convergence and Shaper of Flames and going with the golem paths can give you slightly better bossing, especially if you slot lightning golem into Malachai's Artifice to trigger EE. However, your partner is using a lightning skill too. Unfortunately, ice golem does mostly pure physical damage and only occasionally performs its icy spells. Update: forget this because you have Anger so it wont work...

Anyway, these improvements are very small. The two problems I mentioned above were enough to make me stop leveling that build. The good news is, converting your build to self-cast DD (with Unleash support) should be fairly easy to make. You can watch some vids of Zizaran's Inquisitor DD to see if you like that skill.

Thanks so much for your suggestions, I will try out the advice you've given me and appreciate it a lot!!

Also, I tried Faster Attacks instead of Barrage for a moment but I have been using Barrage for most of the league. I probably should have put Barrage back in before I posted for it to be seen on the profile.

I'm going to try this out and work out my phys/chaos issues, as well as leech and sustain. Would Doryani's Lesson on my cluster jewel improve my sustain noticeably? (As well as using some new gems and leech nodes on the passive tree)

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LizzyInATizzy wrote:

At this point in the game; we are both extremely tilted. We've been watching so many videos, and the only people who seem to not struggle with content are using Headhunter. The person I'm playing with is considering quitting because "the game has become Path of Headhunter"

Well that's just a silly way to look at the league. FYI a Headhunter isn't all that great for some builds. And it's terrible for bossing in 99% of situations. You'd never use it for the Sirus fight, etc...


Pretty much any skill can and will clear all content but it depends on 2 things: You and how you build your character.
You had some really good advice a post or two above this one, hopefully you can work out the wrinkles and be kickin ass in no time.