"Storm Conduit" = one hit = death

well mobs dmg rly can be nerfed

also https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3420064

"

Also you clearly don't understand what that Battle Brothers Dev (And literally any other game dev ever) meant

It is tip on loading screen. It says: "Loosing is fun". Probably they meant that loosing is fun. At least I do not try to overthink clear messages.

"

In life you'll find that humans rarely value anything that comes easily and often dismiss or take such things for granted.

My experience: people value anything that comes easily. Cause dophamine. They want it, big more and now.

That's what I found.

"

It is tip on loading screen. It says: "Loosing is fun". Probably they meant that loosing is fun. At least I do not try to overthink clear messages.

Yeah so its a cheeky quote that you're taking overly literal. Losing allows winning to be fun. Its why games like Darksouls have such a following. Its also why notoriously hard games have a special place in the annuls of gaming culture.

"

My experience: people value anything that comes easily. Cause dophamine. They want it, big more and now.

That's what I found.

Do you get dopamine when you successfully breath? Or do you get it when you hypothetically successfully get out of a jujitsu hold and take a breath? trivial tasks don't give significant dopamine hits, buttering your toast every morning doesn't make you proud of yourself unless you're 4 or something.

Without the possibility of losing there's almost no value assigned to the win. This is basic human psychology and it surprises me to find someone who doesn't intuitively understand the truth of this.

Why do you suppose SSF and Ruthless and HC exists in POE? I don't think you've examined this question very deeply. I expect you're very young and hopefully this helps a little.

"

ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate wrote:

It's casting Divine Ire. The skill has a multiple second charge up time and doesn't track very quickly; I've literally never been hit by this when I wasn't standing still.

That being said: yes, it hits like a train. At any remotely high TotA rank, it is not survivable. If I'm up against Valako, I make sure to take this totem out FIRST.

Whats your TOTA Rating? How many Tournaments did you play? How many Storm Conduits did you even see (its a rare unit)

I can confirm, that they are offscreening. So how you can evade an "Instant" beam will stay a miracle.

For me and I am sure all others who get offscreened by the Beam = you see it when you are already dead (If you did not Block/Dodge). On top of that, I think it is multiple hits.

Because with 75% Spellblock + 75% Spelldodge I get killed always (MoM + CI 1 HP build)
And with my build I can instantly tell if something hits multiple times or not.
There is no way in terms of Statistics, that with 75% Spellblock + 75% Spelldodge I always die unless they have a hidden "cannot be blocked/dodged"

"

Do you get dopamine when you successfully breath? Or do you get it when you hypothetically successfully get out of a jujitsu hold and take a breath? trivial tasks don't give significant dopamine hits, buttering your toast every morning doesn't make you proud of yourself unless you're 4 or something.

Breathing? No. Winning in videogame? Yes, a lot of dophamine. That's how it works.

"

Why do you suppose SSF and Ruthless and HC exists in POE? I don't think you've examined this question very deeply. I expect you're very young and hopefully this helps a little.

Some people are "endurers". Their programm from childhood tells them something like no pain no gain. So they can not enjoy existing without bending over.

Still, the most people are not. That's why difference of population in SSF, Ruthless, HC and not abovementioned.

"

xX999Xx wrote:

Whats your TOTA Rating? How many Tournaments did you play? How many Storm Conduits did you even see (its a rare unit)

I can confirm, that they are offscreening. So how you can evade an "Instant" beam will stay a miracle.

For me and I am sure all others who get offscreened by the Beam = you see it when you are already dead (If you did not Block/Dodge). On top of that, I think it is multiple hits.

Because with 75% Spellblock + 75% Spelldodge I get killed always (MoM + CI 1 HP build)
And with my build I can instantly tell if something hits multiple times or not.
There is no way in terms of Statistics, that with 75% Spellblock + 75% Spelldodge I always die unless they have a hidden "cannot be blocked/dodged"

I've been 2k for a while now, my dude... maybe you should check my post history if you don't recognize my name. But we're on the internet and talk is cheap, so I ran a quick tournament. Here you go:


As for how many tournaments I've played... god, I have no idea. I've bought silver coins by the divine more than once, spent all of those, farmed thousands just naturally from other content, spent those. I've probably played and won about a thousand total tournaments at this point, and I've done it on an actual build which kills enemy chieftains multiple times per match, blows away titanic shells like dandelions, and has literally never finished a tournament outside of first place.

So suffice it to say that I know what I'm talking about here.

To return. You should ALWAYS check the enemy force composition before the match starts, especially in later rounds where you're guaranteed to have at least one T3 unit on the other side. Because my build is so incredibly focused on scaling critical hit damage, Valako is probably my hardest matchup and I always look at that team more carefully than I would against one of the chieftains which I find easier (Ikiaho, Utila, etc). As such I know for a fact that he almost always has exactly one storm conduit on his team after the first three rounds, and literally always has exactly one on his team in rounds 6-8. Most tribes work this way: they get their first T3 unit in round 3-5 and will then add others from other tribes in later rounds. So you really couldn't be more wrong about the Storm Conduit being rare... it's exactly as common as the Titanic Shell, Blackbark Demolisher, or any other T3 unit. I can think of two explanations for you thinking this, though: either you don't seem them much because you aren't making it to the end of the tournament, or you're beating teams with conduits on them without even realizing it because THEY MISS ALL THE TIME and aren't actually a problem. I don't even buy them for my own team; they're objectively a bad unit and I'd much rather have two thunderbirds for the same price. Same thing as the Titanic Shell, really: if you buy a T. Shell instead of buying two Goliaths, you have no idea what you are doing and fundamentally do not understand the TotA mechanic.

So, to answer your third question: I've fought against Storm Conduits hundreds of times, killed them thousands of times, and have probably been hit by that beam less than 10 total times. And, it's worth noting: always when I was either afk at the arena exit or when I was channelling on an enemy totem myself. I have NEVER been hit by this skill while moving; it simply does not track well enough unless you're running directly towards it. Which... I mean, that's on you, if it happens. You're playing chicken with a train.

My point is that if you're against a Storm Conduit - which you should KNOW, because you can't start the match without seeing the enemy team - you should also know not to stand still and get blasted from the other side of the arena. If you move, it will miss.

"

ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate wrote:

So, to answer your third question: I've fought against Storm Conduits hundreds of times, killed them thousands of times, and have probably been hit by that beam less than 10 total times. And, it's worth noting: always when I was either afk at the arena exit or when I was channelling on an enemy totem myself. I have NEVER been hit by this skill while moving; it simply does not track well enough unless you're running directly towards it. Which... I mean, that's on you, if it happens. You're playing chicken with a train.

My point is that if you're against a Storm Conduit - which you should KNOW, because you can't start the match without seeing the enemy team - you should also know not to stand still and get blasted from the other side of the arena. If you move, it will miss.]

How are you channeling totems "if you never stop moving". Mate, you just made your wall of text ad absurdum.

"

BambulaGTS wrote:

"

Do you get dopamine when you successfully breath? Or do you get it when you hypothetically successfully get out of a jujitsu hold and take a breath? trivial tasks don't give significant dopamine hits, buttering your toast every morning doesn't make you proud of yourself unless you're 4 or something.

Breathing? No. Winning in videogame? Yes, a lot of dophamine. That's how it works.

"

Why do you suppose SSF and Ruthless and HC exists in POE? I don't think you've examined this question very deeply. I expect you're very young and hopefully this helps a little.

Some people are "endurers". Their programm from childhood tells them something like no pain no gain. So they can not enjoy existing without bending over.

Still, the most people are not. That's why difference of population in SSF, Ruthless, HC and not abovementioned.

I'd recommend reading up on "denial of reward" psychology and game design. These are all well understood facts that can help you understand why game designers (always) make games with fail states. Do you really think you're smarter than literally every game designer ever and every one of them is doing it wrong and should have no fail states? Automatic wins in every game?

Have you never used a cheat code for a game and regretted it? This is a common one that shows many gamers why being able to fail is important. I did this with Doom (IDDQD) back in the day and also found it out when I entered a Diablo game and someone had cheated up a pile of all the best items in the middle of tristram. This robbed me of the opportunity to find the items myself, it took away any challenge or uncertainty.

Things happening too easily actually ROBS YOU of the bigger dopamine hits in favor of little tiny diminishing dopamine hits.

which is (partly) why SOOOOO many POE zoomers quit in the first couple weeks of every league. You blast (or possibly RMT, or trade arbitrage) your way to a week 1 MB and suddenly you're bored... because you're too powerful but also you've sucked the potential for dopamine hits out of the game loop, because the game is trivial.

The population differences are easily explained and don't change anything about the dynamic. People who play SSF, HC or Ruthless are more likely to know their reasons why they play, largely people who think super trivial gameplay is automatically better "because more stuff = more dopamine" end up bored in week 2 like Grimro (a well known content creator who's a SC trade zoomer) who's always bored by week 2 or so and disappears until the next league.

He gets bored because he doesn't "know his why" he's playing a mode where its too easy for him to progress too quickly so he gets bored every time for years now predictably. People who like his content even joke about it.

Ofc there are always more people like Grimro who are outcome oriented (partly due to group psychology) and haven't yet figured out that the journey is the part that matters.

"

ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate wrote:

My point is that if you're against a Storm Conduit - which you should KNOW, because you can't start the match without seeing the enemy team - you should also know not to stand still and get blasted from the other side of the arena. If you move, it will miss.

Must admit I find it difficult to believe that you have won every single tournament you have entered, and have played several thousand. But I'm more intrigued in what kind of approach you have to the matches, and how you go about the matches themselves. And what type of build you have (your profile is private).

I struggled a great deal with TOTA at higher ranks (am 2000 now), because pretty much everything in sight can and will oneshot me. When that happens a lot in a match, and several matches in a row, I get extremely frustrated and upset. Downright angry. Because it's so frustrating to feel like I'm just a pawn with zero influence on anything. Oneshot. 30 seconds respawn time. Oneshot 1.2s into a new 'life. 30 second respawn time. (maybe most of your totems are gone now). Oneshot 4 seconds into new life. Etc.

That's why I wonder about what sort of tactics you use, besides just team composition. Suppose it's fairly well-known by now what are the good and bad units.

Kuru for example gave me huge problems due to all those very powerful and hyper aggressive units oneshotting the screen all the bloody time. Lately (before I quit at 2000), I also had big problems with the Tasalio tribe, because there are a million traps everywhere. Maybe that's why it feels like our AI has been turned off in some of those matches. Flankers and attackers do nothing. I try to go on the offensive. BAM, 30 sec respawn timer, due to invisible traps. They even carpet bomb our own half of the field.

In one final Ahuana smashed me into the ground too, and it had the best reward I've ever seen, with 5 divines. That hurt. But when the opposing team have a horde of sunset sages, and I can't do jack offensively, it's really hard to avoid a loss. They smash through totems super quickly! I try to help out defensively (and hope our flankers do SOMETHING), but then the other flank goes down. Or the sages just move 5 pixels and target another totem. Stunning doesn't seem to exist for AI units. Or maybe for 0.2 seconds.

The mode is extremely unfair. But all that aside, I'd love to hear what kind of tactics you or others use that apparently makes this mode so easy with a 'normal' non-cheese build.

(I don't have problems with turtles either for what it's worth, it's the oneshotters that do my head in, like the 4 goliaths on Team Cowshit)

"

Pangaearocks wrote:

Spoiler

Must admit I find it difficult to believe that you have won every single tournament you have entered, and have played several thousand. But I'm more intrigued in what kind of approach you have to the matches, and how you go about the matches themselves. And what type of build you have (your profile is private).

I struggled a great deal with TOTA at higher ranks (am 2000 now), because pretty much everything in sight can and will oneshot me. When that happens a lot in a match, and several matches in a row, I get extremely frustrated and upset. Downright angry. Because it's so frustrating to feel like I'm just a pawn with zero influence on anything. Oneshot. 30 seconds respawn time. Oneshot 1.2s into a new 'life. 30 second respawn time. (maybe most of your totems are gone now). Oneshot 4 seconds into new life. Etc.

That's why I wonder about what sort of tactics you use, besides just team composition. Suppose it's fairly well-known by now what are the good and bad units.

Kuru for example gave me huge problems due to all those very powerful and hyper aggressive units oneshotting the screen all the bloody time. Lately (before I quit at 2000), I also had big problems with the Tasalio tribe, because there are a million traps everywhere. Maybe that's why it feels like our AI has been turned off in some of those matches. Flankers and attackers do nothing. I try to go on the offensive. BAM, 30 sec respawn timer, due to invisible traps. They even carpet bomb our own half of the field.

In one final Ahuana smashed me into the ground too, and it had the best reward I've ever seen, with 5 divines. That hurt. But when the opposing team have a horde of sunset sages, and I can't do jack offensively, it's really hard to avoid a loss. They smash through totems super quickly! I try to help out defensively (and hope our flankers do SOMETHING), but then the other flank goes down. Or the sages just move 5 pixels and target another totem. Stunning doesn't seem to exist for AI units. Or maybe for 0.2 seconds.

The mode is extremely unfair. But all that aside, I'd love to hear what kind of tactics you or others use that apparently makes this mode so easy with a 'normal' non-cheese build.

(I don't have problems with turtles either for what it's worth, it's the oneshotters that do my head in, like the 4 goliaths on Team Cowshit)

Most of the tactics are going to be situational, so it would honestly be easier to talk through a couple rounds I'm playing than give vague, generic tips. But if you're having trouble specifically with Kahu and his Goliaths of Night the best advice I can give you is to never backtrack. Goliaths use Earthquake, and it is not survivable by any build I've ever seen because it's pure physical damage which ignores armor. Maybe like a 20k ES managuardian could eat those aftershocks at 2k rating, but generally speaking you want to never get hit by them. And the best way to do that is do make loops through the enemy position instead of retracing your steps. There is a visual indicator of where the aftershock is going to erupt, but it can be hard to see in the chaos of a match so it's easier to just always move forward.

Re: Trawlers and Fieldmasters, you should try to destroy their traps and walls yourself before they can distract your flankers and prevent them from doing their jobs. Any area damage can break the bear traps before they're triggered, so unless you're playing a summoner just focus on clearing a path for your flankers. If you are playing minions or totems there's not a lot to be done here, you need to be able to manually target or Tasalio is just always going to be a tough matchup. In that case, I'd prioritize bringing down whichever side of the opposing base is furthest from the trawler (mercifully, Rakiata seems to be limited to one) and try to get an overwhelming numerical advantage, but I admit I'm not the person to ask when it comes to Minion Stuff.

Anyway, here's the start of my last two final rounds and some thoughts on why I bought the units I did and placed them where I did. I won both of these rounds in under 2 minutes without losing a single totem.

Game 1:


Game 2:

"

xX999Xx wrote:

How are you channeling totems "if you never stop moving". Mate, you just made your wall of text ad absurdum.

First of all, I didn't say "never stop moving," I said "Storm Conduits won't hit you while you are moving." You might want to avoid using quotation marks when you aren't actually quoting someone. This isn't Reddit.

Anyway, there seems to be a reading comprehension issue here so I'm going to assume English is not your native language and use the smallest words possible to make it easier for Google Translate. How to deal with Storm Conduits:

Option 1: Wait out the beam and then channel enemy totems while it's on cooldown.

Option 2: Focus on fighting the enemy units while your team brings totems down. All you have to do is move every second or so and you won't get hit because the beam charge time really is that long.

Option 3, aka the Galaxy Brain Maneuver: kill the storm conduit and THEN channel their totem.

Option 4: Swarm the Conduit with your escort units. They usually use their basic attack instead of the death beam when engaged in melee, and their basic attack is incredibly weak (similar to a Tidecaller).