The Summoner Compendium

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PyrosEien wrote:

"When to take CI?" This is a very common question and the answer varies depending on the people you ask. However it is my opinion that you should only consider CI once you have at least twice as much ES than Health. Potentially even more. That will make it so that once you have CI, your total health won't move but by becoming immune to chaos, you're slightly better off. The lack of regen can be concerning though, so I'd make sure to have the ES cooldown nodes. If you spec CI and feel it's too soon, don't hesitate to use a respec point or an orb of regret to remove it. For me I speced CI at around lvl 50, so you're in no hurry.[/spoiler]

Usually the safest marker for any build to move to CI is when your ES is at about 1-1.5k, this point usually comes around the end of Cruel or halfway through Ruthless (before you face any chaos damage mobs in Ruthless).

I invest in the 9 health nodes around the witch tree up until I have enough ES/Get to Act 2 Ruthless and then respec out of those nodes after I get the last 2/10 respec points I need from clearing the fetid pool in Act 1 Ruthless.

This is a matter that is clearly explained in Invescalo's ES Crit Dagger Shadow build on the forum and I have used it for reference since and it hasn't failed me yet :P

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PyrosEien wrote:

I tried a Fireball thingie for a bit but not a big fan so far. The main issue is even though everything burns, the ignite dmg isn't very high even with vuln since the base fireball hit isn't very high due to lack of dmg and so on. Might work better with better gear maybe.

It was also beyond obnoxious when I was doing river crossing because the monkeys and the bandits kept running away. I mean that's nice for CC but goddamn that was annoying cause I couldn't kill anything and they'd all spread out. I hate the fear on ignite to be honest, it ruins firestorm just the same and since it doesn't work on everything you can't even make like a fire CC build or something.

In comparison, one or two EK and the whole screen is almost cleared and that's without chain. Only advantage of the fireball build was on rares where I could get next to them and 3x fireball in their face for strong dmg.

I don't know I'll try again later but wasn't convinced, I need to get a chain before I try again though.

I suggest EK hands down over fireball if you don't have chain, I took my chain off to see what it was like without it and i agree it was lack luster!

With chain however I like it alot, and it does require a wand like mine or 2 to make it worth while since so much of our passive are spent elsewhere, but as I have the core of the build completed, and now am able to start picking up an easy +50% fire dmg, it is turning out to be more and more effective.

On your fleeing debacle, yes, fleeing is annoying, but, I am not a diehard min/max'r I find monsters running in fear of my zombie horde set ablaze adds to the ambiance of my build, im playing this game for the laughs not the loots (well I love loot).

I will concede that EK over Fireball in 99% of the time has the edge. However, I have a gut feeling that fire will be buffed soon as its Chris' favorite damage type in this type of game and it has to punch his buttons that everyone is talking down on it!

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ProtectorOfFaith wrote:

Usually the safest marker for any build to move to CI is when your ES is at about 1-1.5k, this point usually comes around the end of Cruel or halfway through Ruthless (before you face any chaos damage mobs in Ruthless).

I invest in the 9 health nodes around the witch tree up until I have enough ES/Get to Act 2 Ruthless and then respec out of those nodes after I get the last 2/10 respec points I need from clearing the fetid pool in Act 1 Ruthless.

This is a matter that is clearly explained in Invescalo's ES Crit Dagger Shadow build on the forum and I have used it for reference since and it hasn't failed me yet :P

Well i wonder how u get that much es that early on. Maybe it's because my witch is my only char but i'm sitting at 1.6k es in merciless (w/o ci specced atm).
Is it just my crappy gear or did i miss something?

You want Discipline and Inner Force I'd say, gives a ton of ES. Otherwise yes it's just gear, finding good ES gear is pretty hard if you don't have a bunch of orbs to craft yourself a good set.

I will change the CI description though, it's actually better to wait for 1k+ than double your health, even though in most cases that'd be about when you get double, if you don't use corals, health nodes and use like a chain belt and get a bit lucky, you might be tempted to spec CI at lvl 30 with the way I worded it and that's a ticket straight to default if in HC. Granted it doesn't really matter much in Default, you won't die that often anyway.

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mhm

as its written in wiki inner force increase buffs and auras arent buffs

Actually...

http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Buffs

See under "passives".

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Lostfish wrote:

Well i wonder how u get that much es that early on. Maybe it's because my witch is my only char but i'm sitting at 1.6k es in merciless (w/o ci specced atm).
Is it just my crappy gear or did i miss something?

Well if you have 1.6k ES without CI specced into it then that means you have the green light to specc it into your build, its your total ES including with Discipline, sorry if i didn't make that clear.

It doesn't take amazing gear to get 1k-1.5k ES before Merciless, You can farm Thicket chest in cruel if your HP cant take the chaos damage in A2 ruthless or you can farm Thicket in ruthless if ya can :P

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ProtectorOfFaith wrote:

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Lostfish wrote:

Well i wonder how u get that much es that early on. Maybe it's because my witch is my only char but i'm sitting at 1.6k es in merciless (w/o ci specced atm).
Is it just my crappy gear or did i miss something?

Well if you have 1.6k ES without CI specced into it then that means you have the green light to specc it into your build, its your total ES including with Discipline, sorry if i didn't make that clear.

It doesn't take amazing gear to get 1k-1.5k ES before Merciless, You can farm Thicket chest in cruel if your HP cant take the chaos damage in A2 ruthless or you can farm Thicket in ruthless if ya can :P

Yea i guess i just didn't farm enough :)

Specced ci yesterday and i'm doing well with it. Just getting to 61 before taking on Vaal merc.

I will be making a life/es summoner most likely now with word on CI changes (noticed how i didnt say uber nerf) I will probably sacrifice dual totems and dual curse (but keep permanent curse) and take those 11 points + the 2 points to get CI and take those 13 into relavent HP nodes. for gear choice, I will now probably want armour/ES gear.

Build at estimated lvl 63


Build at estimated endgame (act 3 3rd difficulty ends about about lvl 70 + 18 sp since ill take oaks stuff or kraitans.)




As a note, I intend to play hardcore, its why I will spend alot of points on hp and defense, even late when I dont really need the, because if I die, then it will be have been for nothing :)

On your build, I would do a few variations. Drop the 2x 8%mana nodes on the side, don't think this is necessary in most cases even when running Clar/Disc/Purity as long as you don't lvl clarity(which with all the mana regen % is probably pointless anyway). Also dropped the spell power nodes(elementalist and the 2 at the witch start). I also dropped one 8%life at Divine Toughness, one 8% in the templar area and the 1% regen and used all these spare points to grab shield stuff and the other Fitness. Gives 7%block, 12%block applied to spells and 30% elemental resists(that's what it was changed to on alpha at least). The resists I feel are pretty useful because you won't have to gear specifically for resists quite as much with 30% and that means you can get your mana or health back more easily from gear that doesn't necessarily have good resists. Also the block/spell block don't hurt.

Total loss: 28%spell dmg, 6%health, 1%life regen, 16%mana
Total gain: 7% block, 12%spell block, 30%resists, 10int, 30str



As for my build I'm not sure yet, I'm interested in the spell balance changes to see what I'm gonna do first. Might run a crazy triple curse, double arc totem, firestorm trap summoner though or something like that.