Low survivability in maps (just starting, lvl68), please critique my LS-build and equipment

Hello,

i just started doin maps.
On every other one i get into serious trouble and quite often i'm unable to kill the boss because of my low survivability.

Damage is ok, no problems there.

Here is the data:
Life: 2579
Armor: 2747
Resists: 79/80/61/-60


my build:


My equipment:


What can i do better?
Do i have to use endurance charges (i don't use them at all).
Are there glaring issues with my build or equipment?
Is static blows worth the skillgrimage i'm undertaking to get it?

Thanks!

First of all you've invested A LOT of passive points into Armor/ES nodes yet you lack any kind of energy shield on your equipment.
The body and soul nodes are great because they improve both armor and energy shield at the same time but when only using one of these they become pretty weak compared to other stuff you could potentially pick up.

Your health pool is extremely small, it would be small for a ranged character but you are a melee and to make things even worse even a Blood Magic melee.
You need to improve your health pool since this appears to be the most crucial flaw in your build.

You should've invested the points you used to travel to the middle of the tree in some survivability instead especially the marauder starting area offers nice opportunities which you've completely missed out for some reason.

Static Blows is a nice pick up imo but I'm really wondering why you didn't grab Divine Thoughness on the way to it and imo you've wasted a few points due to your bad pathing to it (you've spend 3 points where you only would have needed one).

Also I'm kinda curious why you missed out the elemental damage nodes right at the templar starting area...


To sum it up:

Your equipment is actually pretty decent of course there is room for improvement but you should be fine with that still it doesn't fit the decisions you've made when it comes to your choice of passives.

You didn't grab enough survivability on the skill tree and made some minor mistakes when pathing over the tree like heading to the mid instead of just focusing on the marauder area.

Hey, thanks for the reply :)

"

First of all you've invested A LOT of passive points into Armor/ES nodes yet you lack any kind of energy shield on your equipment.
The body and soul nodes are great because they improve both armor and energy shield at the same time but when only using one of these they become pretty weak compared to other stuff you could potentially pick up.

Would you suggest respeccing the Armor/ES-nodes for pure armor-nodes or try to get some armor/es gear instead?

"

You should've invested the points you used to travel to the middle of the tree in some survivability instead especially the marauder starting area offers nice opportunities which you've completely missed out for some reason.

I did this for Iron Grip. Many people told me the damage bonus to the LS-projectiles was worth the investment (i have about 370 strength). Do you disagree?

"

Static Blows is a nice pick up imo but I'm really wondering why you didn't grab Divine Thoughness on the way to it and imo you've wasted a few points due to your bad pathing to it (you've spend 3 points where you only would have needed one).

Divine Toughness will be the next thing i take (i was curious for Static Blows, that's why i took it first).
I took the longer road for the opportunity to get Galvanic Hammer (10% Mace damage 20% elemental damage) later on.

"

Also I'm kinda curious why you missed out the elemental damage nodes right at the templar starting area...

As far as i know mace nodes (or weapon specific nodes in general) scale better with LS than elemental nodes. That's because they increase the damage BEFORE the split into physical/lightning damage (and thus apply to the whole LS-damage), while elemental nodes only apply to the lightning part of LS (and thus to only about 50% of the damage, not counting the use of conductivity).

I will post a build with improved survivability.
I don't know much about LS as I never used it.
These are sort of general guidelines.

Some main points to be made:
- Life is your first priority.
- If you have Blood Magic keystone, take all life regen nodes within reach, do not skip them.
- DO not take 8% damage nodes or 4% damage + 2% Attack speed node unless they lead to a noable like Bone Smasher for example.
- optimize distance traveling to the minimum number of +10 STR/DEX/INT nodes
- I removed Iron Grip since I don't feel it's necessary now if you have survivability issues, you can take it later if you want.
- Iron Reflexes Keystone + Armor/EVA armor will give you some big Armour values, coupled with 100% increased armor from passives.

86 points build: link
This can be adjusted ofcourse.

More life: +60% life
More life regen: now you have 4.4% life regen, before you had none
More armour: Iron Reflexes(try to use Grace aura also), 100% armour in 6 points instead of 10
less mace nodes, no Iron Grip: can be taken later

This will improve your survivability considerably, without lowering your damage to much.
The things I removed you could take at a later level, though I don't recommend going to the center of the tree for Iron Grip (too many points that could have been spent elsewhere). Also there is Iron Grip support gem.

EDIT:
On the LS part I would use attack speed and LMP/GMP. Pure physical damage mace. Lose chain :D Try GMP+Pierce. I've seen it and it really rocks, with high attack speed(that would be hard on a 2H Mace though).

Hey, thanks for the input!
The build is great!

But i'm loosing over 100% damage increase (with maces).
I will do less than half the damage i do right now...
Does the added survivability offset this (and the added time needed for every map run)?

Two other questions:

Regarding chain: most people seem to prefer chain because (while lowering the damage considerably) it always hits. This offsets one of LS worst disadvantage: hitting targets in an environment with many obstacles and targets which are not clustered tightly together.
Another advantage is: chain is only 1 gem, LMP+pierce are 2. So i could go for chain+multi hit (after the next patch) for example.
What is your take on this?

Regarding Iron grip: i would be interested in some in-depth analysis of how great of an impact it has on the damage. Because i kinda fear loosing a great deal of my damage, considering that most of my dps comes from projectiles.
Do you know of any deeper analysis of this? I didn't really find any.

Im doing this same build right now and sweep seems twice as good as LS right now.
The worst part of this build is the fact that you cant focus the LS beam width like freeze pulse.


gear



and my passive tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABLMFWw9UE1sUTRZvGF0ZLhmFGjgabCSLJKon7SlPMok26TrYPC09D0RyUFBUSVXGVdZX4lhjXp9fP2TnZ7135Xy7fVN99YKbgziExIp0i4yMz49GkFWTHZuhnYCdrqIApwinhKloud3EFcT2xq7G2M9l0NDUj9rd3QXhc-Nq5CLnUudj7BnsOO5v7w7wH_Iv8kXzcfZI_go=

Heading for RT right now since the chance to hit has gone out the window in the last few levels

and yes chain is 100% a must over LMP right now since there is no control over where the beams go.

Just throwing it out there as an alternate view. If your survivabillity "sucks" with those stats your damage might acctually be too low. View LS more as a ranged attack than as a melee attack and then you realize that you should be able to kill most mobs before they have even come into your screen.

And yes - ditch chain. Get a good quality LS gem and go for (in order of importance):

1) WED
2) LMP
3) Faster attacks
4) Increased crit or if your build don't use crit - added fire dmg

2579 hp wt can u expect . . .
most magic or rare mobs can 1 shot u when they crit