[0.3] Chronomancer Megathread. WIP.

Small advice for early game, once again.

Focus on getting +2/+3 staff asap. Any element will work, but i strongly recommend Fire. Getting lightning or Cold infusion before Snap in cancerous in comparison.

Living Bomb with Magnified clears entire packs, be it with firebolt or fireball.

Super easy to have Fire Infusion stacks.

Ember Fusillade does all bossing damage we need.

So yeah. I had a very easy act 1 right now with +2 to fire.

Later, it doesn't matter. Any element will do after getting more skills, so just check vendors for +2/3 whatever is stronger.

lving bomb does seem much better by default..

however, "overabundance" support seems almost mandatory for orb of storms. limit 2, and 50% less duration, makes it spawn remnants far more reliably. and 2 at once.
(lving bomb also benefits from it)

frost bomb does not. the CD breaks it.

(still dying alot, and not having a ton of fun. cooldowns, and 35seconds of combo cast times, while getting overrun by abyss mobs. all the while, I can't see shit. entire battlefilend is orbs, flamewalls, etc.. )

Haven't been able to log due to heavy work schedule, so from what I ve been reading Fire seems the better choice atm with +lvl staff.
Anyone tried leveling with Chaos dmg spells? Thanks

So inevtiable agony.

it sounded cool at first but:
a) long duration, which makes it useless for clear. Is investment in reduced duration worth it?
b) if its not good for clear, is it good for bossing? Curses have waaaay less effect on bosses so u need investment in curse effect - is it worth it?
c) there are less duration and effect nodes so u can get both but you loose dmg nodes due to investing in curse - is that worth it?

either way you invest into the curse heavily, which makes sense when you want to be a curse bot of course but idk....

"

Void_xy#2904 wrote:

So inevtiable agony.

it sounded cool at first but:
a) long duration, which makes it useless for clear. Is investment in reduced duration worth it?
b) if its not good for clear, is it good for bossing? Curses have waaaay less effect on bosses so u need investment in curse effect - is it worth it?
c) there are less duration and effect nodes so u can get both but you loose dmg nodes due to investing in curse - is that worth it?

either way you invest into the curse heavily, which makes sense when you want to be a curse bot of course but idk....

Nah, it's just a tool for party play on its current lvl. If GGG made it apply ailments, then yes, it could be good. Atm it is irrelevant for solo play, at least, before some big brains make smth.

Edit: I forgot about Agony + Impending Doom + Cursed Ground + Spell Echo tech. Might be viable, but i dunno.

~~~

For the 1st Ascendancy point, my choice was Sands of Time. Most useful one, if not bother with CD. Surprisingly, not that bad in the early campaign. Still, I'll swap it to Apex right after I get the Blasphemy.

Swapped to Lightning at the end of Act 2 bc I got a sweet +3 staff. Fire with +2 staff started to fall behind.

Also, still using Frost Wall for defensive purposes for now. It can be infused with lightning, so it seems ok.

I haven't bought anything yet, but lvling feels...not as good as before. I don't quite like the lightning element in comparison to bomb/wall+ardura in past.

So far, I've played fire and lightning elements. If I get a decent Cold weapon, I'll try smth with it.

Btw, anyone tested Frostbolt + Snap? Can it chain, or does it explode just 1 bolt?

"

StazwXp#0432 wrote:

Haven't been able to log due to heavy work schedule, so from what I ve been reading Fire seems the better choice atm with +lvl staff.
Anyone tried leveling with Chaos dmg spells? Thanks

Not necessary at end game. but as a starter.

living bomb is far and away the most functional early game skill.

It hits hard, aoe, with no CD. its very easy to prime and pop, quickly.
only might need to put pierce on whatever you are using to pop it. to ensure, your target gets hit, and not body blocked.

Flame wall's damage is anemic. Giving it a crit%, I thought it was going to hit in .3. but doesn't seem to. Flame wall also has the problem of not stopping enemies. so they run through it, and onto you, preventing you from using it as projectile support.
(rattling sceptre goes a long way here)

orb of storms also, anemic damage. basically nonexistent. needs shock mag, etc to shock. Overabundance support is huge in making it a lightning infusion generator.

Frostbomb. they broke it. 6s cd is just busted, and almost practially unusable. 4s duration also is annoying for cold infusion generation, and for damage.
note, the 20+2% per pulse also, DOES NOT hit its 50% cap in a single cast.
it hits 32% over its 4s duration. damage is lower too of course, doesnt hit hard enough.

spark. mostly the same. cold infused spark is pretty massive. vaal spark basically.
lvl3 spark: 1-17 lit damage, 5 proj. cold infused spark, 14-20 cold damage, 1-17 lit damage, 15 proj in a circle.
thats a 150% damage increase, and 200% projectile increase.
having to rely on frostbomb for cold infusions early game however is balls. as noted, they CAN be generated out of combat though. prepped..

frost nova. mostly the same. can also use cold infusions to 200% more damage, and leave chilled ground. same problem. relying on frost bomb.

Frost jarts are interesting. weak by themselves. but have a few notable things going for them. 1. 3 projectiles fired in a barrage. note, listed dps is PER proj.
this multi proj means it scales with added damage and the like well. flamewall..
also, it cannot freeze or chill itself. when hitting a chilled target, it spawns 2 more proj that strike in an aoe around the target. (frost nova sets this up well early game. bomb does not.)
this enables it to deal decent aoe. cold infused, this is an chain gun. it will obliterate packs and bosses.
its like a mina eye of winter in that regard.
prep frost bomb infusions.
orb of storms+lighning infused flamewalls, frost nova, and then frost jarts on a boss. chucks them down 25-50% in a single volley.
the simple version is just frost nova+frost jarts for "mapping". probably not as good as living bomb. but its something.

fireball. is fireball. consumes fire infusion.. so pairs with living bomb. easy peasy.

snap at level 5(14. ehhh. ok. so I see the problem with flamewall now. the flammablity change means flamewall does NOT ignite right away. this is why it feels so weak now. it takes like 10econds of damage to proc ignite on a target. so, this huge delay also make it suck for procing snap quickly. (obviously, mid-late game you could boost flame magnitude/fire damage to make this work better)
orb of storms for shock. similar problem. its ok, but not super fast.
frost nova. this works actually pretty ok. a single hit is not enough to buildup freeze, to cast snap. but 2 usually is. and then snap giving cold infusions powers up the nova more. the problem.. nova killing the tarets outright, breaks the cycle..
so, at level 5, snap is probably not worth grabbing. its a bit hard to manage.

"

monik390#5560 wrote:

Also, still using Frost Wall for defensive purposes for now. It can be infused with lightning, so it seems ok.

Btw, anyone tested Frostbolt + Snap? Can it chain, or does it explode just 1 bolt?

woah. Hadn't looked down the line too closely yet. lightning infused?!

AND, "80% less damage if destroyed within .5 BY SOMETHING OTHER THEN YOU"

hey, now. that is completely different then advertised.

that lit explosion is weaker then the cold, and less crit rate. but if the walls are going to be mostly dealing full damage when we pop them with coc+comets, etc instantly, then thats all good still.


Comet

10% chance to repeat with quality. wow.

fire infused comets are not very impressive. actually deal LESS cold damage.
lvl 11. 223-335 cold damage. 279av fire infused -149-233(191av) fire and cold (382 av total). 37% damage increase. (slightly larger base aoe.)
so, if you are heavy into cold damage, without conversion this could be a dps loss even.

Playing Sorceress this patch is the real torture xD

"

default_mp3#9394 wrote:

Playing Sorceress this patch is the real torture xD

Not only Sorc, btw. Reddit is whining hard (as usual tho):

https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1n41u5o/bro_isnt_having_fun_lol/

From my PoV:

Basically, no trade for 3 acts, just got to act 4, opened a merchant, and will upgrade something after a break.

Overall, it wasn't thaaat bad. Definitely not as good as even in 0.2, where the leveling stuff from 0.1 still worked.

~~~

Act 1:

- Farmed my ass for +2 fire staff I saw before moving through Grim Tangle, even sold a couple of skill gems to get it before vendor renew.

- Went with Living Bomb + Firebolt -> Fireball. It was an extremely smooth sail, bc the 1-2 combo shot the pack. Bosses were very easy too bc of the range.

- Closer to the end, Ember Fusillade did an ok job vs bosses.

- Infused Ice Nova + Unleash actually served as a nuke. I was surprised by its damage smh.

Act 2:

- Started to fall behind closer to the middle of the act. I still completed the trial right after Balbala, but overall, it wasn't that good anymore.

- Got lucky drop +3 lightning staff from Keth boss, but didn't have skill gems to switch immediately.

- Closer to the end of the act, got a couple of lvl7 uncuts, got lightning skills up. Besides Mana Tempest, and it was my bad. I should get it earlier.

- Act 2 final boss in 3 minutes. Felt too long, honestly.

~~~

Act 3:

- Didn't die on Gorilla. Still, cold is a lot better on it.

- Set up Mana Tempest + Arc + Unleash combo. Good clear with Multishot, sometimes good nuke on rares/bosses. If the damage roll is good.

- Switched to Blasphemy + Temp Chains + Apex right after Azak Bog.

- Started to feel the lack of damage at Chimera. Final act boss in 3 mins too.

- Viper - 3 tries. During the final try, I found Infused Frost Wall + Arc to be strong.

- Act boss in ~3 mins too. Definitely miss Frost Wall damage abuse on it.

- Single target damage was meh. Clear was good.

~~~

Problems:

- Not sure about passive tree. I really should just grab damage nodes, not bother with remnants, and any unrelated to damage passives.

- Also, I ditched trade. If I bought Effigy and a decent wand, I would just go with crit passives, and it should be very efficient. Basically, I got lost in the passive tree after, ugh, blasphemy switch.

- Mechanically, Infusions are...underwhelming early. Yes, they do smth, but those conditions ain't good. Trying to get Fire Remnant from Living Bomb on a boss feels for too long.

Lightning remnants... Just in case, Arc + Unleash spends ALL 3 infusion stacks. Using Arc w/o 3 stacks on bosses is kinda waste, Infusion on Arc is 200% more damage.

And here goes Frost Wall, which needs one too.

Cold Remnants? Pff.

- I didn't use Snap yet. Not enough damage to shock reliably, and i'm not sure if i want to consume that shock.

~~~

Anyway, I have to say, just go with smth else if you wanna do good.

ED/Contagion, Minions, Melee, whatever.

yeah. in act 1 I was struggling with regular mobs. I was trying lots of stuff. sticking to the elementals anyway.

firebolt+living bomb was pretty simple and effective for white mobs.

Flamewall+frostbomb+orb of storms(overabundance)+frost jarts(peirce/unleash)
obliterates bosses. can bomb/orb of storms to prep and get infusions.
I died more in act 1 then usual trying to use flamewall.
by the count however, I had a rattling sceptre for mini shieldwall, for this overwrought mess. but man does it kill bosses.
as a said before, lightning infused flame wall, adding fire and lightning damage to each proj. frost jarts is 3 proj default, but 3x3 against a chilled/frozen target, and higher damage infused. all 9 projectiles getting that added fire and lightning tears bosses apart. 1 shot the count, and he only poemed me once. frost nova can be added in here for some better white mob control, instead of waiting for bomb.

havnt tested arc, icebolt or ember fuse yet.