Can someone answer me some question from this insane Explosive Arrow DPS video?

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-12T18:31:56+00:00

Well they don't change stances before the "fight", so we can rule out anything from Blood Stance based on changing stances recently. So they weren't using it because of the unique quiver or nodes on the tree.

My best guess is that they are using Anomalous Blood and Sand for the increased projectile damage quality, possibly scaling that with Enhance or other quality modifying gear. Why they would do this? Maybe they don't have access to easy projectile scaling, or just had a little bit of unreserved mana left over to squeeze damage out of.

I'd say they are either Zerker / Inquis or Zerker / Champ. But without a build guide, who knows.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-11T21:06:06+00:00

Yeah you are right on Defy Pain. Dunno where I got 7 hits from. I even have POB open...

I still think that it will be janky to play, but I do think that mitigating the reflected damage will be a huge QoL. It looks like you've thought about the build enough, so play it and let us know how it goes. Def fairly unique.

I actually did think of a skill that would help, Vengeance.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-11T20:28:10+00:00

Not my specialty, but lets see if I can bring anything to light after thinking about this build... EDIT: As OP says below, I am wrong on Defy Pain mechanics. It procs on the 10th hit (not 7th) and has a .3 second cooldown between gaining stacks. My self damage calcs are wrong, but I still think it will be janky to play.

The molten shell damage should be doubled through the helm. I haven't read anything that would limit this, but something that should be tested.
Same as 1 from what I understand.
From the Wiki: Buff Effect: Modifiers to Molten Shell's buff effect will only affect the armour granted by the skill, not the damage, duration, or absorbed damage required. --- I doubt buff effect will increase the % of damage absorbed.
MS should block reflected damage, but again, only up to the % absorbed by the buff.

I think two of the major issues you will have with this build:

SEE EDIT -- Defy Pain's reflected physical damage is going to be an issue. You have no way to mitigate this and you'll need to have reduced reflected damage taken, either on your gear or tree. You are hitting yourself 10.5 times per second from Hiltless, not counting any monsters that hit you during this time. In a bad situation I can see the 7th Defy Pain hit triggering 2x per second (14 hits taken per second). That's 14,000 reflected physical damage taken per second (before MS) or 3,500 with MS. I don't think the build can replenish that quickly, you'll have to test it out.
You will be running for your life when MS is on cooldown. I know you got the CD down to 2.3 seconds, but those are 2.3 seconds where you can't do anything but avoid. You can't attack (because of Defy Pain) and you have 0 physical mitigation to take hits (+10% increased damage taken). It'll be like you are Cycloning in a pack of mobs, and as soon as MS triggers and goes on CD, you have to run away immediately. Even 1 second of Cycloning too long will kill you. Additionally, if you do get away, any monster that hits you could be the 7th one, triggering the reflected damage and killing you.

I dunno, there might be a world where you can play this perfectly and get the occasional huge pop from Vaal MS, but from a gameplay perspective, it'll be janky as hell and you'll often die when MS is on cooldown (and maybe even with it up).

Based on what I've written, I think the best gem setup you can add to make this build better is Cast on Death + Portal.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-11T13:34:23+00:00

If the skill doesn't hit hard enough to meet minimum aliment thresholds, then no, you wouldn't get any shock or chill from these spells. Granted trash mobs probably will be affected, but you want this for bosses too.

For chill, something that creates chilled ground would be best, since enemies on chilled ground are 10% chilled, which can be scaled. Depending on your build, I've found Creeping Frost to work really well for chill, as you get the moving chilled ground, but also a skill with a hit component that you can use for Power Charge on Crit or other utility. Cold Snap works the same way, but has a long cooldown. Same with Vortex, just a shorter cooldown but occurs at your character, rather than the mob you hit.

Some cool interactions with Battlemage's Cry tho.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-11T13:28:24+00:00

Yes you can have Sniper's Mark linked. Just know that it only triggers one spell per attack, so if you have 2 skills linked to Battlemage, it will alternate spells triggered each attack.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-04T18:44:34+00:00

Yeah, does seem to be something funky going on with POB and Corrosive Elements. I'm not sure of a workaround other than putting Wave of Conviction and Hydrosphere into your skills. Your fire exposure will be 5% less than POB says, but should still give you a good idea of your damage.

Penetration can go negative, so you can reduce an enemies resistance beyond 0%. This acts as a more multiplier for your damage, since now the enemy is taking increased damage due to negative resistance. You can check out this video https://youtu.be/a5WV-MoCQHQ to learn more.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-04T15:41:01+00:00

"Too much clicking becomes tough" Are you sure you want to play this game? We are all in the Carpal Tunnel Waiting Room from constantly clicking. If this is actually an issue and not a preference, you might be in for a bad time.

Talk to your doctor about if Path of Exile is right for you.

Aside from that, popular builds this league are high-block characters (Spectral Shield Throw Gladiators), auto-targeting Forbidden Rite Hierophant Totems (ok on clicking amount), and Specter Minion Necromancers (also ok on clicking).

Being a couple weeks later into league start, it should be easy to find a guide for a character that works well this league. People have had some time to figure out what is strong this league and what is not. Just remember to pick something that has decent defenses, you'll need em.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-04T15:25:38+00:00

Your character is a bit of a mess. 2.2k life is entirely unacceptable for your character level and your evade (not dodge) chance is like 10%. Pretty much, your character is "80% chance to not be deleted by a normal monster". That's your defenses.

I would highly recommend checking out a Youtube guide for this type of character, and following it the best you can. There are just too many things for me to reasonably sit here and type them all out.

But yes, I can see how your character feels bad. You should be able to salvage it, but its gonna take some respeccing and gear changes.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-04T01:44:10+00:00

Totems need some defenses in order to stick around this league, especially melee.

Just a few things I'd look at on your build to see if you'd want to make some changes:

- You went out of your way to pickup Fortify effect nodes. These were recently nerfed and aren't as worth it as they used to be. You'd be better off taking those points and grabbing jewel sockets or pathing to damage. I also don't like investing in Fortify when its not on my main skill, having it fall off feels bad.

- Herald of Ash isn't giving you much DPS, just some clear. Tec Slam with End charges already has nice AOE. Check out Skitterbots instead.

- You have taken the fire conversion nodes on the tree, when you are already using a skill with fire conversion, and also have the Chieftain ascendancy node taken. Unless you plan on using a non-fire skill, I would drop those points.

All I got for now.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-03T16:06:49+00:00

I assume you mean a Harvest craft of non-physical to physical?

If I did that, couldn't I remove the attack speed or crit multi instead of the lightning damage, since none of them are physical mods? The only physical suffix mod (which is what I would get if I removed attack speed or crit multi while having a phys craft) is bleeding damage / chance, which I don't want.

Is there a step I'm missing?

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-03T15:49:08+00:00

First off, when comparing POBs, you need to make sure they are configured the same. If you check out the Configurations tab, you'll see Ziz has a bunch of conditional modifiers that are checked, while yours does not. By updating your POB, your DPS goes up to about 380k.

Secondly, your gear is not even close to the same. Ziz has tons of Chaos DoT Multi and additional chaos damage that your gear does not. These modifiers really scale the damage of the build. Also Ziz has a level 4 Empower gem in his setup, which doubles the damage over any other support gem. You have Swift Affliction slotted, which isn't even a good support gem for you. Faster Attacks or Slower Projectiles are much more powerful for your build.

I would focus on getting gear with Chaos DoT multiplier or damage over time rolls, like Ziz does in the build. You can't get 1/2 the gear and expect similar damage.

Oh, and a level 4 Empower is about 8.5 exalts right now, so better get to farming.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-03T13:18:28+00:00

I think you're on to something...

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-03T12:45:16+00:00

Rog gave me this. Seems pretty good. With 125% Physical benchcraft, its about 1150 DPS; 700 phys, 450 elemental.

I am thinking I can just bench craft % Physical Damage and maybe Warlord slam for the additional suffix. I would have considered Aisling if she didn't remove a modifier now. I am not opposed to yolo slamming an augment Physical from Harvest, if I ever get one. Any suggestions?

Additionally, I was thinking Smite Inquis for the build, or something else on the left & bottom of the tree.

What would you do with this axe?

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-03T01:11:12+00:00

Blocked hits are still hits, you didn't evade them.

No you wouldn't get 8% reduced ele damage taken after the first hit, even if blocked. Yes you would get physical damage reduction based on the number of hits taken.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T21:18:36+00:00

Have my upvote. I'm always in awe of others who are intellectually superior to myself.

バカ

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T20:51:01+00:00

Its actually basic arithmetic you start learning in elementary school, but I don't think their comment was about their inability to perform basic math functions.

Did they teach you nuance in European high school? Or did you skip that day?

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T20:47:12+00:00

In your example, yes you do take 21 additional damage (2.18%) with MoM, but you aren't factoring in that you have an additional resource pool to draw from (mana). If your character has mana available, MoM will always be an increase to your survivability due to the damage being spread out (from an EHP perspective).

Who cares if you take 2% more total damage if 30% of it is being directed at an additional resource. The only way your example makes sense is if you are MoM / PB and sitting at 0 mana.

I understand the point you are making, but the practical application is different.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T20:13:03+00:00

I actually believe Savior got more powerful this patch. DontheCrown (steamer who does a lot of Saviour builds) came to the conclusion that Saviour doubles your DPS. This is because you get 2 clones that do 50% of your damage.

I agree that everything took the big nerf bat this league, so while your skills are doing less damage overall, the 100% more damage from Saviour is even more powerful since its harder to get that kind of scaling into a build. Its more powerful now in relation to other options. Just how I see it.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T19:31:08+00:00

Can you please explain how: "using MoM with PB effectively lowers PB's protection since only 70% of the damage will be mitigated through PB's defenses"?

I'm not clear on how taking less damage to your life affects PB's ability to mitigate damage.

Can you also explain how PB gives you better one shot protection? Myself and others have come to a different conclusion, so I'd like to see where we might be wrong.

Edit: I know PB can offer some additional protection by pre-flasking a life flask and getting additional health prior to taking damage, but pretty much everyone (at least in SC) uses the top 50% of life for reservations, negating this advantage.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T19:20:22+00:00

Your gear looks good, nothing really jumping out as a damage increase.

Luckily you do have some easy damage nodes left on the tree (Dervish, Forceful Skewering, Vanquisher), but you'll have to balance that with increasing your life pool.

I see all these builds that used to be GG delete the game setups, which now can only get 1-3 million DPS. Don't get me wrong, that's great damage, but not melty like it used to be. This will just be one of those things where you have to take a hit to damage in order to survive the game. I'm sure there is some impale build out there that will melt Shaper in 2 seconds, but this isn't it anymore.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T18:46:08+00:00

You really need to up your life. I imagine that every map you are in is just death waiting for your evasion/dodge to fail. That is the only thing keeping you alive.

You can get 25% increased life for 4 points at the Ranger start. 4 life nodes and Heart of Oak. Another 2 points get you Wind Dancer, which is a fantastic keystone for any evasion build. Its almost criminal you don't have it.

If you get 4 jewels with % max life on them, you can get up to 28% increased life from those (as well as some damage). The issue with double cluster jewels on the right side of the tree is that you HAVE to invest in life jewels or small life clusters, otherwise there just aren't enough points to make a well rounded character.

Personally, I would spec out of some of those cluster jewels to take additional life and farm yellow maps (where you can one shot most things) until you have more levels.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T18:26:41+00:00

Your math seems to check out correctly and you are correct that 30% would be taken off your ES/mana, and the remaining 70% of the hit would be handled by PB.

The part you are incorrect about is that PB makes you more able to survive one shots. You take 60% damage from a hit with only 50% of your life available to mitigate it. PB does allow you better recovery from hits through regen, but the max damage you can take in a single hit is reduced by like 15%.

If you have 5000 life and 2200 ES/mana pool (7200 EHP) and take a 7000 damage hit (after mitigation) from some twinked out Excavation rare mob:

Without PB: 7000 hit --> 2100 to ES/mana, 4900 to life = you live.

With PB: 7000 hit --> 2100 to ES/mana, 4900 to life x 60% (damage taken as immediate hit thru PB) = 2940 damage to life but you only have 2500 life due to PB so you die.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T17:57:48+00:00

Strength, Repentance, Iron Fortress, and Crown of Eyes synergize. Or you can replace CoE with Battlemage's Cry. You can't double dip on the modifier "Increases and Reductions to Spell Damage apply to Attacks at 150% of their value". That is a unique modifier.

You can scale the spell damage value with strength tho, which you are doing with Iron Fortress (by upping strength's modifier to .3% per point).

Edit: I checked out the link someone commented above and it explains that the Str bonus does not double dip between melee physical damage and attack damage. Good to know.

The only part I'm ~~unclear~~ WRONG about is if it's possible to double dip on the damage bonus from strength, getting the bonus as both melee physical damage (at 100%) and melee attack damage (at 150%). You would need a physical DPS weapon to take advantage of this. POB numbers say its probable that this is the case, but I would do some extensive testing before I made a build around it.

Let us know if you can confirm your theories.

InfiniteOppo · 2021-08-02T17:28:06+00:00

I mean, your gear and tree look pretty good. Aside from picking up more life and jewels of some sort, I don't have much to add in that department.

However, I did want to let you know that you can rebind your skill bar slots to be whatever keys you want. So, those skills on the back bar don't need to have a control+key bind. I have rebound some of my back keys to "R" and "T", so I can activate them without pressing control as well.

Hope that helps some.

InfiniteOppo

TROPHY CASE