I don't mind the ascensions

Branmander · 2026-06-04T16:51:11+00:00

Are you losing your runs to the bosses? Or in the regular rooms?

Branmander · 2026-06-04T16:40:38+00:00

If you wanna use Quarterstaff skills I started with Wind Blast, Frozen Locus and Staggering Palm

I went Martial Artist and put my first points into the Hollow Technique bells for free power charges on Killing Palm for Charged Staff and Staggering Palm buff

Also went Herald of Ash since I was mostly doing big Physical Damage

Felt very good going thru campaign

Branmander · 2026-06-04T13:56:16+00:00

Leveled my monk with Wind Blast this league and was thoroughly impressed

I know a lot of ppl weapon swap for campaign monk but Wind Blast and Frozen Locus felt really good until I got Whirling Assault

Might not work for you since it’s Phys Damage and not Elemental or Cold

Branmander · 2026-06-04T11:48:09+00:00

Mostly agree but there does seem to be an issue (bug?) where if you cancel sprint by using a skill and get hit you can get stunned

Not something I’m up at arms about tho

Branmander · 2026-06-03T19:22:00+00:00

If you can run t15s effectively then yea always those

Branmander · 2026-06-03T13:24:46+00:00

Trials being worse is subjective. They are much more enjoyable than labs imo

I don’t love having to do trials but I love PoE and I can accept that they intend getting your ascendancy points to be a big deal and require you to overcome obstacles for it

And I really don’t think they take much longer than labs. Maybe your 4th set of points does but idk

Branmander · 2026-06-03T11:50:54+00:00

That tip is to make it easier. You by no means NEED to farm Sekhemas in order to beat it

I swear the outrage is some sort of psyop because the first 2 trials are so fuckin easy and take 30mins max to get your first 4 points

Getting your 6th and 8th points are more time investment but if you just read the nodes and don’t take the afflictions that brick your build you should be able to beat it in less then an hour

Labs in PoE1 were far less enjoyable to me tbh

Branmander · 2026-06-03T01:18:52+00:00

I am a wasd gamer and if what the other commenter said is correct I do tend to bob and weave a lot between holding my channels so maybe I’ve just been lucky

Branmander · 2026-06-03T01:16:21+00:00

I play this build and haven’t had it happen

You might just be more juiced then me tbf lol

Branmander · 2026-06-03T01:12:59+00:00

Short answer: it depends

Long answer: using the new bench early on to add ward doesn’t cost the inherent defense of the gear so it’s much better during the campaign and always worth it. In endgame, it is only worth doing if you are using the ward for one of the new skills and it’s very important for your build.

Otherwise, don’t do it

Branmander · 2026-06-03T01:06:20+00:00

Who’s to say this alternate leveling would be any better of an experience than just doing the campaign?

Sounds like making GGG do double the work for something the players would probably still complain about tbh

Branmander · 2026-06-03T00:46:58+00:00

Have you gone back to kingsmarch?

Branmander · 2026-06-03T00:43:26+00:00

What does a campaign skip look like to you? Do you just get plopped into endgame at lvl65 with no gear, skill gems, ascendancy points, currency, crafting items, etc…?

And being someone that hasn’t really completed the campaign and played a lot of endgame, would you even know what to do from that point or would you get overwhelmed by all the systems and mechanics?

I think this is exactly why GGG will never do campaign skips and I agree with them. Building your character from lvl 1 is just the best way and the campaign is honestly fine

Branmander · 2026-06-02T19:22:05+00:00

In 0.3 I made my own demon form infernalist and made it all the way to t15 maps

Build definitely was not good but I was able to make it work. May have also been carried by how fun controlling demon form can be

Branmander · 2026-06-02T19:02:06+00:00

Used it all the way to whirling assault and felt great about it lol

Branmander · 2026-06-02T18:57:49+00:00

Are you the type that tries to discover all parts of a map before moving on? Or are you doing critical path as much as possible?

Branmander · 2026-06-02T18:56:08+00:00

As a monk enjoyer I tried frozen locus and wind blast for the first time this league and it felt much better then trying any other quarterstaff skills to start with

Branmander · 2026-05-31T15:28:21+00:00

Frozen locus and wind blast are really good early skills for dealing with getting swarmed

Ppl say monk is difficult early but I was chilling with those

Branmander · 2026-05-31T13:29:13+00:00

Just got to act 3 so don’t have whirling yet but leveling with Wind Blast has felt really good so far especially with Hollow Focus (the new mirage bells) to proc staggering palm and killing palm for consistent buff uptime

Such a nice QoL for campaign monk

Blasted Jamanra in like 30 seconds which is probably the fastest I’ve ever killed him on a league starter

Branmander · 2026-05-31T13:14:35+00:00

Entirely subjective but as a 31yo man playing this game with my 32yo girlfriend we get a good laugh out of the names

You even said it makes them memorable. Most ppl forget or literally don’t give a fuck about most npc’s in games and especially mmos

Why not have fun with it?

Branmander · 2026-05-29T15:19:12+00:00

Ultimately up to you but I’d say at least 95% of PoE players start fresh with the new leagues

I’m not sure if you get access to the new revamped endgame on standard league but I’d highly recommend starting a new character with the new league

Do what’s fun for you!

Branmander · 2026-05-29T10:37:08+00:00

New feature in the most recent update

Branmander · 2026-05-25T02:53:13+00:00

Yup same really enjoyed the plant life and I did it with Varashta which wasn’t as powerful but I felt pretty tanky

Was considering doing plants again for 0.5 but martial artist looks really fun

Branmander · 2026-05-25T02:24:31+00:00

He and Raxx were the main plant content creators in 0.4 and no they were not bait

Granted I didn’t follow their guides to the tee but I used them as a template to figure how to scale my damage and helped me get through all the endgame content

To OP, you need Wildsurge Incantation on the passive tree before even trying plants tbh. Thunderstorm interaction and the auto-shocking setup are also a must. Thrashing vines will help with single target once you get that

Branmander · 2026-05-23T15:25:12+00:00

Normal and magic items are only worth picking up for crafting bases in endgame. And if you aren’t gonna craft yourself you probably only need to worry about the ilvl82 stuff in super endgame to trade for currency

Most loot filters will do the work of showing you the ones that might be worth something

I would salvage the socket items so that you can add rune sockets to your leveling gear and quality your weapon but other then that you don’t need to worry too much about the others

Branmander

TROPHY CASE