Needing help with something

Jewel sockets are very useful and should be picked up. If you don't have access to usable jewels then they can be low-value, but in many cases, jewel sockets are more efficient than other nodes on the tree.

General rules for not getting one-shot: at LEAST 3k life+es, preferably 4k+. 6k life is generally on the high end for softcore. Ensure your elemental resistances are capped - the game is balanced around you having 75% resistances. Chaos resist is important but not at low levels so don't worry about it for now. Futher options for defences include armour, evasion, block, spell suppression.

Typing the names of notables like Survivalist into the search bar will highlight them, and is usually how people reference particular nodes or clusters of them. It's easier than saying 'it's the evasion + resistance cluster of 1 notable and 2 small passives kind of above the rightmost jewel + frenzy charge cluster'.

Quick note about uniques: unique items aren't as good as in other games. They usually have 1 or 2 good mods, and unless they are very good for your build or they have synergies with other mods/items, you would just use a rare item. Your amulet, rings and belt would probably all be better as rares.

You should work towards a 5-link chest in early maps, as this will be a good amount of damage.

I disagree on the jewel sockets comment. While they can be very useful if you have strong jewels (at least 3 useful mods), people often forget that it costs on average 2 points to get to a socket (there are some exceptions and it can also be more). I often see new players slotting in jewels that have 1 useful mod and that is nowhere near the value of 2 points.

The key question to ask yourself is, "Is this jewel better than 2 points on the tree?" If the answer is no, don't take it.

I'm thankful for the help and I'm hoping that this will potentially help other people, be they new to the game or new to making their own build, figure out the best way to spec their build. one thing that I'll be doing is putting 4 points into a trap mastery only for the 50% efficient mana reservation for skitter bots. If that works how I think it does then that will cut my mana cost for skitter bots in half and I'll be able to use other skills a bit more. I can say this for defensive skill I'm using Arcane Cloak and it's saved me a couple of times especially in a map with a Hunt mission where one of the marks was able to teleport right on top of me.

one thing's for certain to keep from dying so much I need to know when to activate arcane cloak and that is usually when my 1k energy shield is nearly depleted.

I do agree that I need to find either a 5 linked or (preferably) a six linked blue socket armor piece so that I can set my Arc mines up to be more efficient at deleting enemies in maps.

cause 25% lightning penetration would be quite good honestly and higher crit chance would also be good for the arc mines.

problem is I've not been finding any decent armors that reroll to give me 6 blue sockets and more so reroll their links to be 6 linked.

As for Jewels. I agree so far all the jewels that I've found haven't had any worthwhile benefits and I can just spend points towards something more useful and potentially useful. If I get jewel sockets at some point in the future I would likely need to go for health, mana, crit damage, flat damage, and the like (effectively jewels that would work better for my build) to even be bothered getting said jewel slots. Otherwise yes jewel slots are useless because they don't really give any upfront benefit.

As far as other things with my build I feel like I've got a good enough build atm to be pretty decent, it's not amazing but it does what I need it to do for the time being.

As for the uniques. They do have their place in builds, for example a unique ring I recently got that had a socket in it that removed mana reservation from aura skills that are put into it... however it does have a pretty glaring down side... blessing auras can't be used, and apparently skitterbots classes as a blessing aura... I suppose that makes sense honestly.

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Dekrosna wrote:

I do agree that I need to find either a 5 linked or (preferably) a six linked blue socket armor piece so that I can set my Arc mines up to be more efficient at deleting enemies in maps.

Six socketed chests seem to drop with regularity, but finding an all blue one will be rng. Finding a 6 linked one is not going to happen. To 6 link one yourself, if you are lucky, might happen after a few hundred tries. Sometimes it takes a lot more than that though. You'd probably be better off buying one through trade. Use the Chaos recipe to collect the currency to buy your first 6 link chest. If you are poor, start by buying a 5 link. You might need lots of Chromes to get your 5 or 6 blue sockets depending upon the type of chest you buy. You want one that is Intelligence based.

good luck

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ChanBalam wrote:

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Dekrosna wrote:

I do agree that I need to find either a 5 linked or (preferably) a six linked blue socket armor piece so that I can set my Arc mines up to be more efficient at deleting enemies in maps.

Six socketed chests seem to drop with regularity, but finding an all blue one will be rng. Finding a 6 linked one is not going to happen. To 6 link one yourself, if you are lucky, might happen after a few hundred tries. Sometimes it takes a lot more than that though. You'd probably be better off buying one through trade. Use the Chaos recipe to collect the currency to buy your first 6 link chest. If you are poor, start by buying a 5 link. You might need lots of Chromes to get your 5 or 6 blue sockets depending upon the type of chest you buy. You want one that is Intelligence based.

good luck

I mean there is the divination card "chains that bind" that gives an armor piece that has 6 linked sockets... granted it takes 11 cards but still. It is an option

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Dekrosna wrote:

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ChanBalam wrote:

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Dekrosna wrote:

I do agree that I need to find either a 5 linked or (preferably) a six linked blue socket armor piece so that I can set my Arc mines up to be more efficient at deleting enemies in maps.

Six socketed chests seem to drop with regularity, but finding an all blue one will be rng. Finding a 6 linked one is not going to happen. To 6 link one yourself, if you are lucky, might happen after a few hundred tries. Sometimes it takes a lot more than that though. You'd probably be better off buying one through trade. Use the Chaos recipe to collect the currency to buy your first 6 link chest. If you are poor, start by buying a 5 link. You might need lots of Chromes to get your 5 or 6 blue sockets depending upon the type of chest you buy. You want one that is Intelligence based.

good luck

I mean there is the divination card "chains that bind" that gives an armor piece that has 6 linked sockets... granted it takes 11 cards but still. It is an option

PoE has lots of options for doing and getting things. Div cards is one, but rng is always in play and a Div card 6 link, if you can get all the cards, could well be one that prefers red sockets. Check trade for 6 sockets with at least 5 links and 4 blue sockets. See what comes up. Likely the simplest and fastest way to get one is buy it for chaos.

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Dekrosna wrote:

one thing that I'll be doing is putting 4 points into a trap mastery only for the 50% efficient mana reservation for skitter bots. If that works how I think it does then that will cut my mana cost for skitter bots in half and I'll be able to use other skills a bit more.

Thats not how it works. If you have no other reservation efficiency it will remove 1/3 of the reservation cost - probably rounded down. See: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Reservation

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Zrevnur wrote:

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Dekrosna wrote:

one thing that I'll be doing is putting 4 points into a trap mastery only for the 50% efficient mana reservation for skitter bots. If that works how I think it does then that will cut my mana cost for skitter bots in half and I'll be able to use other skills a bit more.

Thats not how it works. If you have no other reservation efficiency it will remove 1/3 of the reservation cost - probably rounded down. See: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Reservation

See... that makes no sense at all when it says clear as day FIFTY PERCENT if it just cuts it by a third then it should be rewritten to say as such.

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Dekrosna wrote:

See... that makes no sense at all when it says clear as day FIFTY PERCENT if it just cuts it by a third then it should be rewritten to say as such.

There are a lot of PoE wordings/rules that are unintuitive and/or hard to understand.
And in some cases (like the "Your maps have 50% increased chance to contain an Expedition Encounter" in Atlas) the wording is just plain wrong - in the example it means something other than what it says.

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Dekrosna wrote:

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Zrevnur wrote:

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Dekrosna wrote:

one thing that I'll be doing is putting 4 points into a trap mastery only for the 50% efficient mana reservation for skitter bots. If that works how I think it does then that will cut my mana cost for skitter bots in half and I'll be able to use other skills a bit more.

Thats not how it works. If you have no other reservation efficiency it will remove 1/3 of the reservation cost - probably rounded down. See: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Reservation

See... that makes no sense at all when it says clear as day FIFTY PERCENT if it just cuts it by a third then it should be rewritten to say as such.

It is 50% more efficient. That is not the same as cut in half. 100% more efficient (i.e. twice as efficient) means cut in half.