Last league I played was Betrayal. What did I miss?

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xFrancis wrote:

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Crimvaal wrote:

You missed both Harvest and Ritual, arguably peak Path of Exile. But on the other hand you can't miss what you never experienced so that's a blessing for you. Game is in a good spot though and the Atlas tree alone is worth checking out.

Yeah! You are right.

Any input on my other questions?

Thank you!

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Crimvaal wrote:

"

xFrancis wrote:

"

Crimvaal wrote:

You missed both Harvest and Ritual, arguably peak Path of Exile. But on the other hand you can't miss what you never experienced so that's a blessing for you. Game is in a good spot though and the Atlas tree alone is worth checking out.

Yeah! You are right.

Any input on my other questions?

Thank you!

Let's see. Also sorry for the formatting in advance, I'm on mobile and these forums still run on software from the last two decades or so I feel.

What changed?
The biggest change, in my opinion, compared to back then is that you want atleast one defensive Aura (think Determination, Grace) paired with other layers of defense. Block, Recovery or Spell Suppression. The latter is basically the new dodge/spell dodge (dodge is still a thing) but constant, reliable mitigation. You'll find it mostly on the right side of the tree and on both Raider and Trickster.

Back then you could get by with just decent life and res cap - that also is no longer the case. Chaos resistance is super valuable now.

Also, they reworked rare monsters and you'll find all and every one of them has new modifiers. You can read up on those here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Archnemesis_modifier

Another thing is the great nerf which happened in 3.15. Compared to back then you'll find mana costs are higher, a lot of gems both main and support have lower numbers across the board.

Flasks are arguably better now since you can enchant them and their mods are tiered now. Results in less flask piano but unique flasks are also weaker compared to back in the day.

Without listing all that changed this is about what I would read up on if I were to start after a longer break.

Important mechanics from past and current leagues I shouldn't ignore?
Legion, Blight, Metamorph, Delirium, Harvest, Heist, Ritual and Expedition.

Legion appears in form of monoliths in the map. Think of them as an inactive Breach - you activate it, kill the inactive statues and once the timer passes whatever you killed becomes active. Rewards you with splinters which can be made into a fragment - there are 5 different types. Putting these fragments into the map device gives you an instance called timeless conflict where you can slaughter a fuckton of monsters for potential decent loot. Some of the Unique Jewels from this mechanic can be build enabling or very powerful for existing builds.

(read: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/List_of_unique_timeless_jewels)
Clearing a timeless conflict with all five emblems also rewards you with a 5th slot for your map device.


Blight is PoE's attempt at tower defense. It can appear on maps and it also comes in the form of Blighted Maps which are basically a session of tower defense on their own. Rewards you with Oils (https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Oil) and stuff you can also find elsewhere in the game like currency, essences, gear and so on. Oils are pretty powerful due to annoints (https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Oil#List_of_anointments) which allows you to grab a passive tree notable of choice on your amulet without having to path / allocate it yourself.

Example:

I annointed Savagery on my amulet here which gives me an extra frenzy charge I otherwise couldn't have gotten on my passive tree.

You can also annoint both rings but those exclusively help you when engaging with Blight content. Some hate it, others love it - I'd give it atleast a try since it is both profitable and reliable.


Metamorph is straight forward. You kill monsters in the map and at some point get to assemble your own boss based on the organs you looted during said map. It rewards a little of everything, you can chose the reward type, but I felt it is worth mentioning for its own reward which is Catalysts.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Catalyst

Catalysts are currency items that add quality to jewelery and belts. They come in many forms and I suggest you read up on them since they can signifcantly boost your jewelry in a deterministic way. Be it resistances, attributes or life - they are nice. On a side note, Metamorphs can be brutally strong and overwhelmingso approach with caution if you happen to play hc.


Delirium is similar to Breach but not not quite. You walk into a Delirium mirror and from there onwards get more monsters in your map and increased rewards for slaughtering your way through. Can become overwhelmingly difficult in later stages of the game but overall it is very fun and worth doing.

Its specific rewards are Simulacrum Splinters and Cluster Jewels. The first lets you eventually run the Simulacrum, a map which spawns monsters in 30 waves with rewards after each wave and can reward some neat unique jewels.

The latter is a whole mini game on its own and basically allows you to min-max a existing build by pathing into cluster nodes or some are straight up build enabling / defining. This is a lot to take in so if you are interested in reading up on those I recommend reading them up or watching a video. Very extensive, very rewarding but also hard to get into in my opinion.

Read: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Cluster_jewel


Harvest is a difficult one. Back on release and later during its first base game iteration it was considered the most powerful league mechanic there is. Basically let you deterministically self craft your desired items to perfection - albeit it was very grindy. Some loved it, others hated it - GGG probably not liking it either because it was deemed to powerful and as of now many consider it a shadow of its former self. Which is a shame, it was such a fresh breath of air for the game and allowed people to basically make any build they wished for, greatly boosting build diversity. But then again since you never experienced it - scratch the above and pretend you didn't miss out.

Harvest in its current form comes with small plots of monsters you can slay for Lifeforce, a tradeable form of currency that fuels the Harvest specific crafting bench. It allows you to have a handful of deterministic crafts which can be useful early on (read: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Harvest_crafting) but the general consensus is that it currently is heavily undertuned and overpriced. As is, it is worth checking out but I probably wouldn't recommend getting invested into it. There is a boss fight gated behind it though you probably won't miss out by skipping that one. (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezq8j_3vWO0)


Heist is something I'd recommend checking out yourself since the playstyle is vastly different from the rest of the game. A more strategic approach, if you will. Can't really comment on it because I skipped that league and barely touched it ever since it went core - though I generally hear that it is very profitable and worth your time if you can stomach the gameplay.


Ritual is what I'd call a mix between Perandus and Breach. You hop into circle, slay monsters for Favour (temporary currency) and then get offered a set of rewards you can choose from. Contains all sorts of items and currency. Reward window can be rerolled a few times and if you are short on Favour you can defer the item you want which makes it reappear on a future map. Nice mechanic, can be decently rewarding.



Expedition is something I hear good things about but similar to Heist I can't really comment on it. Has some specialized npc's that allow gambling for items, haggling for items, crafting. I'd recommend reading up on that aswell.

What do I need to know before I decide on a build?
Getting good damage is a bit harder than back in the days. For a good experience in red maps you'll have to balance both your offense and defense. Archnemesis modifiers can be overwhelming and frustrating early on. If you use PoB check if the build of your choice comes with atleast one defensive aura, decent life (4.5 - 5k for sc is fine I feel) and purely for mapping, something like 2-4m dps is sufficient. You'll probably wan't some more to comfortable farm the new bosses though.

I like fast and chaotic builds like Flicker Strike, Frostblades, Vaal Double Strike. Not really fond of pure magic. Which build should I try? I got around 3 divs.Flicker might be your best bet. Comes in many variants but the most common one is probably Raider paired with Farrul's Fur and Darkray Vectors. Pure melee, as in anything Strike, is considered in a bad spot for a long time. Frost Blades will probably be still fine but people prefer Lightning Strike and Spectral Helix for "melee" playstyles these days.

For good reasons, mind you. Being a pure melee is pain and suffering currently - in my opinion, that is. Which doesn't mean it isn't doable but eh.. it is what it is.

I'm thinking on trying out https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3079012Haven't played it myself but with some adjustments based on your current budget you can probably build that just fine and enjoy most of the games current content with it.

- There are two friends interested on playing. They know nothing, which builds would you recommend for them this league?Something spell based, preferably on the top/right side of the tree. The reason for that is not having to invest into accuracy / crit early and the ease of access for Spell Suppression. Make sure to introduce them into defensive layers early since no one enjoys dying over and over again. Zizarans league starters are probably a good bet / source of info since as far as I know these are made with HC in mind and should provide a pleasant experience in SC while learning the game.

- If I want to support them both, are aura bots still viable?
Yep! Albeit very expensive on the top end. The budget variant runs Scion with Victario's Influence and a lot of other cheap uniques these days. I suggest checking Youtube or PoENinja for specifics.