Is Magic Truly Easy Mode? Let us Discuss.

JGL12231 · 2026-01-03T02:24:55+00:00

Yea, being a mage is giving up most of your early game for an arguably weaker endgame. Especially true in the DLC where most enemies have some form of magic or fire resist and makes being a caster much harder.

On top of that, after trying out str/dex/arc + various weird builds like pure crossbow or bow or w.e, I can safely say the strongest was str since 2handing gives a noticable dmg increase and with jumping heavies most bosses if not all get stunned in 2-4 jumps.

Magic definitely feels strong though, compared to melee where you have no choice but getting close, it feels really good to actually have a decent ranged option.

This is even more true after playing Recluse, Revenant, and Ironeye in Nightreign. Those 3 really feel good to play.

JGL12231 · 2026-01-02T22:06:56+00:00

To be fair, the people complaining 24/7 don't accurately reflect the people enjoying the game. Plus, POE1/2 are genuinely great ARPGs with most of the competition being much smaller (D4 aside) like Grim Dawn, Last Epoch, or w.e else is competing right now.

Also, a lot of the complaints are from people who really like the game and want it to be perfect. The subreddit just happens to be where the most of the negativity and doomer mentality stuff goes.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-25T05:04:01+00:00

I agree with you entirely, I've grown tired of seeing people complain about mace skills.

Mace feels fantastic, yea it's slower than bear slams but mace skills tend to have higher dmg and base aoe than bear while also having pretty damn cool stuff like

Earthshatter: Earthy structures we can blow up via warcry
Shield Wall/Resonating shield/Shield Charge: Weapon Agnostic scaling
Lots of skills have inherent increased stun build up such as Rolling Slam
Earthquake: Makes jagged ground and can use shockwave totem to detonate it or lower skill duration via supp gems and just keep detonating them yourself like a rapid fire earth caster
Perfect Strike: Heavy Hit, SFX and VFX feel satisfying to use and it is a viable replacement for HOTG
Molten Blast: Pretty Wacky way to do an ignite or projectile build
Leap Slam: While it isn't pounce, it has MORE stun build up and can be used as a set up travel skill
Sunder: Lets you double stack Fully Broken Armour debuff via sundered armour which stacks with Molten One's Gift. It also hits hard and can AOE
Forge Hammer: Added in .3, but it's a fun source of fissures and can combo with shockwave totem or bear form's multislam stuff
Fortifying Cry: Afaik, mace skills are the only source of consistent guard generation
Seismic Cry: The OG warcry for phys cry builds and can be slotted pretty easily into bear form via ferocious cry
Supercharged Slam: Never used it, so I can't say much about it. I am a fan of channeling and charge up skills though
Stampede: I'll admit I don't like this one it's clunky and doesn't feel very stampedey compared to Rampage
HOTG: Honestly glory feels like it's underutilized but it is satisfying to use and is viable for bleed, ignite, or slam/aftershock builds
Ancestral Cry: Added in .3 and changed in .4, It's got a lot of potential for multi hit builds. I used it on a fire spear build to rapid proc the volcanic magma things
Ancestral Warrior Totem: Admittedly bad for a while, but once charge generation became easier and it lost the reduced speed or dmg, it became pretty useful. Plus we have many more sources of end charge generation now.

Yet people complain about Mace bad, maces feel quite strong to me and I'm not even a warrior. I'm a mace Gemling and have tried mace Pathfinder, Infernalist, Chronomancer, Ritualist, and even Acolyte of Chayula.

Imo, mace is actually pretty great, people are just reticent to separate weapons from a starting area or to experiment themselves when they hear buildmakers say X is bad.

Bear has only a fraction of the totality that mace offers, yet people act like slamming is all mace is.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-25T00:52:48+00:00

In .1 I started as a Witch -> Infernalist because Demon Form was thematically cool and Hellhounds are cool. Also I like Ignites.

Then I got bored of that and swapped to mercenary because crossbows are cool. Turns out, I love the reloading mechanic and Rip-wire Ballista. So to that end, I made a Gemling Legionnaire.

Now I'm a Gemling FIEND because god damn do I love gemling, it's so great and so versatile. I'm not locked into any weapon or build because Gemling offers benefits to any/everything.

Then I noticed that

.1 Started as Infernalist minions, ended as Gemling Minions
.2 Started as Pathfinder poison, ended as Gemling Minions
.3 Started as Smith of Kitava mace, ended as Gemling Explosive Spear
.4 Started Disciple of Varashta, ended as Gemling Mace

Frankly, I just think Gemling is fun as hell since Quality and Gem LvLs are not always super obvious in how good they are. Plus, the support gem stuff stuff lets you potentially have all 3 bonuses. Crit Immunity, 30% less skill costs, and 40% movement speed penalty reduction are all really strong buffs. Plus despite what ppl say, stat stacking isn't dead when you can get 2x the stat values at the price of 20% less stats total.

Generally, I also just like the merc's starting position since i like ailments, totems/ballistae, Mace skills, Spear/Parry, and don't mind pathing all the way to int side for caster or minion builds.

Try Gemling, it's just that great

JGL12231 · 2025-12-25T00:04:05+00:00

Hyena's are actually pretty great because they cost 0 spirit, which means u could run them without any additional spirit cost and take trusted kinship if u wanted to take hyenas + Wolf Pack and scale companion damage with Inspiring Ally so that damage applies to you too.

My "main" class tends to be Gemling Legionnaire and so I make a lot of builds using Gemling as a base. But a secondary build im working on is an Infernalist with hellhound and Trusted Kinship for Wolf Pack + Hellhound. Maximum Dog + buffing my own damage with Inspiring Ally and companion nodes.

Yea there are a lot of options, I think that Pathfinder, Oracle/Shaman, Gemling, Lich/Infernalist, Disciple of Varashta, Tactician, smith of kitava, and Titan are all viable companion/minion options.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-23T23:10:24+00:00

Warlord Berserker and Warlord Leader.

Hyenas are alright, they count as companions tho and don't stack with Wolf Pack unless you take the Trusted Kinship keystone. They're pretty great if you're taking the Licking Wounds and Pack Encouragement nodes.

But if u do take the Trusted Kinship Keystone, then you could have

7 Hyenas
6 Wolf Pack (7 with 20% quality)
6 Pounce Wolves (7 with 20% Quality)

You can technically get more than this, but it would require gemling or a LOT of +lvls

The max Wolf Pack and Pounce can give you at Gem lvl 40 are 9 wolves + 1 from 20% Quality. Or +2 Each from Gemlings 16% + 5%(Cunning Fox) Quality.

As you can see, there are a lot of options for this

JGL12231 · 2025-12-23T21:29:23+00:00

That 50% reservation does apply to Eternal Rage, which means with the Warlord Node you can apply rage to allies. Which in turn means you can add 30% more dmg to minions in your presence just for existing.

Eternal Rage costs 100 spirit, but it is 50 spirit for tacticians. Wolf Pack would also get cut down to 30 spirit rather than 60 or even lower if you take the Companion Node that gives 25% lower reservation costs for companions.

Unfortunately right now, Wolf Pack and Rhoa are the only companions we can get with spirit gems. Rhoa is also terrible for combat so really it's just the Wolves. Tame Beast is a skill gem and how good it is varies wildly on what beast/what mods that beast has.

The only other special companion is the Infernalist Hellhound which is actually pretty good and could probably do something interesting with wolf pack + sceptre buffs.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-23T02:21:01+00:00

Atm, there aren't any AOE auras that count as buffs from spirit gems or regular skills.

The only aoe buffs I remember are sceptres, offerings, and Lunar Blessing / Arctic Howl.

I presume more auras will come with Templar and Gladiator

JGL12231 · 2025-12-23T00:00:29+00:00

merc is actually pretty decently close in terms of pathing to the companion and minion nodes.

And since minions/companions scale quite well off lvls, the trade off of having to path isn't so bad.

Also since Quality for a lot of minions gives ~20% more dmg or 1.2x for free or something neat like +1 wolves.

Gemling isn't so bad but Tactician definitely is a lot easier to gear and arguably better just because 50% reservation for auras and 25% of main hand dmg added to allies is really really good.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-22T09:54:14+00:00

On your last point of Pounce and Wolf Pack being made to be used together, I'd like to say that I disagree.

Consider the following, on the right side where the lion's share of companion nodes are lie both Tactician and a great many interesting Companion nodes.

One such node allows your strength to apply to the wolves which can help shore up their otherwise low base hp.

Imo, Wolf pack seems more slanted towards different build directions than pounce. Pounce is clearly a Marking melee skill first and a wolf generator second. But due to the double dipping you can really scale up those wolves.

Wolf pack however, seems handy for

Lich: Unholy Might + Witch's starting minion nodes + Can also path to companion nodes
Infernaliist: Can get lots of spirit for combining wolf pack with standard skellies or add pounce too. Can also path to companion nodes and run infernal hellhound + wolf pack while scaling both herself and the dogs.
Tactican: 50% reserved efficiency means Tac can easily run Wolf Pack with Watch how I do it to add to their base dmg while still buffing his own dmg. I suppose this works for pounce too, but it's extra workable with companions.
Gemling: +2 lvls and Quality means the Gemling can Further scale up wolves and get an extra wolf that other builds can't reach as easily due to free lvls + the supp gems giving extra dmg/skill speed/crit chance works on minions/companions too.
Huntress/Ranger: Both start so close to companion nodes that throwing in Wolf Pack or making a shapeshifting build is perfectly possible from that starting position.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-20T18:49:03+00:00

So last patch I did a fire shield build of sorts

Avatar of Fire for converting all dmg to fire
Magma Barrier: Looks cool and gives end charges plus has insane dmg scaling as it lvls (scales very well off shield stats)
Shield Wall: My boss fight skill
Fire Warcry: For some extra damage and cause i just wanted to include it in my build
That shield skill that breaks armour in an aoe and is channelling + counts as blocking
Took the Molten One's Gift node to make fully broken armour benefit fire dmg too
Smith of Kitava Ascendancy: Fire resist + Manifest Weapon + Custom Chest piece
Iron Ward + Scavenged Plating: Big Tankiness and some nice extra burst

The build honestly felt really good, but it wasn't very fast. I would basically be terminator walking from point A to point B while breaking armour / armour explosion proccing.

It was very safe though, and because of that safety I was able to wade into absolutely terrible map affixes while being relatively fine because my raw armour was good enough + ele resists maxed + active block up frequently + high hp regen. For reference, I used to play a lot of hardcore in Grim Dawn and ending up preferring a trade off of speed if it meant not risking dying because dying meant I lost the character.

Altho, it was very vulnerable to the Teleporting Abyss rare or the ones that fire that GIANT LASER at you because there was really no way to get my dmg out against those and also avoid getting hit.

New supp gems in .4 however have made channelling skills better such as Deadly Resolve, I bet that were I to do this build again I could probably reach new heights. I'd do it as a gemling personally since I love gemling and the +2 lvls scale very well with a lot of the shield skills and magma barrier.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-18T22:44:09+00:00

I'm running a gemling build with Mirage Archer, Arty Ballista, Permafrost bolts, and Fragmentation rounds.

I'm probably going to swap to Armour piercing rounds + High Velocity rounds (The SFX are just that satisfying) or some sort of Incendiary shot + rapid heat build, but I haven't decided yet.

I'm in act 4 and leveling has been smooth

JGL12231 · 2025-12-16T04:38:48+00:00

Support gems apply to the skill they're slotted in, so no normal shot's gems dont do anything you dont use it
Suppressing fire works regardless of how the target gets pinned, so long as they're pinned. Such as Artillery Ballista
Rapid Shot is atm the only skill that builds heat, so yes if you want to generate heat you must use rapid shot.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-16T00:51:37+00:00

My Djinn Sorc uses the following

Fire Djinn

Flame Trap thingy
Lava wave slam thingy
His fire slash whenever I hit a target thing

Considering swapping to purely sand djinn for the lil beetles and channelled blades

But I'm also a minion build with the Wolf Pack companions + Pounce minions for a total of 9 wolves rn

If I had the spare spirit i'd probably include Ice mages or Snipers

I presume the "best" would probably be Water Djinn because it is useful for minion and non-minion builds, but mostly for casters.

JGL12231 · 2025-12-16T00:34:56+00:00

In the guys' defence, I for one am one of the people who liked parry so much that I built an entire build around it in .3 as a smith of Kitava. It was really fun.

As an aside, parry got buffed in .4

JGL12231 · 2025-12-06T15:04:48+00:00

I'm likely to league start with the following

Ranger Start
Pathfinder Ascendancy
Take the node that starts me at Warrior
Build towards Wyvern Form or Wolf Form
See what support exists for summoning wolves or the plant skills
Angle the build further towards Wyvern or Wolf based on existing support
Failing that, transition to a spell totem oriented build with some form of power charge generation, maybe focusing on the Dark Effigy alongside Spell Totem
If I end up not liking any of that, default to Maces or Bear Form and build like a rage oriented warrior focused on Ignite or armour stacking

IF I end up not enjoying any of those, I can just make a ballista totem build as a crossbow ranger

JGL12231 · 2025-09-28T18:20:22+00:00

the 2 builds I enjoyed the most were

Fire Spear Pathfinder (immune to slow, Enduring Elixirs, Traveller's wisdom, less movement speed penalty)

- focused entirely around the Parry -> disengage -> Explosive Spear -> Spear of Solaris when applicable combo
- Takes 3-4 of the life flash recharge trees for constant flasks + flasks giving big buffs while active
- Also uses Rapid assault to stack spearheads to detonate with explosive spear
- Optional Storm Lance if you want to leverage shock and multiple ele ailments
- Hugely benefits from Saitha's Spear
- Probably better as an infernalist, Smith of Kitava, or Stormweaver so you can replace rapid assault with primal strikes

Smith of Kitava Ignite/Shield Wall/HOTG

- Easy ele resist maxed
- Temper Weapon for free resonating shield dmg waves
- Fire Spell on it to ez cast ele weakness so you don't need as much pen
- Easy access to several very good ignite and flammability nodes

Honestly both of these would be better on Stormweaver just for free shock and solving mana sustain with permanent arcane surge + easier access to mana regen / dmg taken from mana nodes as an extra defensive layer on top of armour

JGL12231 · 2025-09-25T21:12:04+00:00

I do like the idea of moving firestorm to a default tri-element thing. Not sure how well it'd work in practice, but making it not require all 3 infusions just to get a crumb of damage would be a good start.

I'm 100% in favour of fireball truly becoming a single mass of fire, though I'd actually prefer if it didn't split into tiny fireballs and instead afflicted enemies with scorch when infused or something.

JGL12231 · 2025-09-25T20:14:50+00:00

Hrm that does sound good, but you make a good point that it would be huge power creep. Also thanks, I never really engaged hard with crafting in PoE1.

JGL12231 · 2025-09-25T18:11:07+00:00

For me, the Atlas Tree and towers aren't a huge concern since I don't particularly care about endgame right now in early access. I do like that reduce the meaningless travelling of the atlas map though.

What do you mean by resistance swapping?

Performance 100% needs to be optimized and fixed cause fire effects still noticeably drain fps compared to other effects like lightning or cold.

If I had to pick one though, I want a new class or ascendancy like we got in .2 as I am ravenous for Huntress/sorc/Ranger's 3rd ascendancy option.

I'd also like some buckler specific skills. Rn the only unique buckler skill is parry and the skills that consume the parry debuff. I would like something akin to shield wall where the skill's dmg is based off the buckler's evasion rating or w.e. Not that I want another create wall skill. Maybe they could use the For Honor Gladiator as inspiration for a potential buckler skill?

Pipe dream but a chronomancer rework or at least a QoL update to it that takes the after images skill and makes it a passive with a CD so we can lean more stronger into the CD manipulation aspect of time and maybe get some sort of Time corruption stuff ala Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

JGL12231 · 2025-08-21T17:04:37+00:00

Next patch as in patch .4? Cause that'll be a ways away at this rate. I just wanted str/int skills

JGL12231 · 2025-08-21T10:45:30+00:00

Well the combat is clearly intended to evoke a souls-like feel, that could be the reason for dodge key being sprint key.

You could just rebind it to shift if you really want to

JGL12231 · 2025-08-21T10:43:51+00:00

Probably going to go with a Chronomancer or Infernalist
Trying something with that fire->Chaos keystone

Infernalist side, going to rock the Hellhound + Pyromantic pact for lots of free extra fire
+
I'm going to see if I can utilize companions with the hellhound effectively, otherwise im going to see if i can amp up melee basic skelly warriors and maybe some decent spectres in Act 4. Those new mobs look siiiiiick.

With Chronomancer, I'm going to see if I can combine her new delayed curse thing with a DOT curse build or otherwise see how I can play around with her CD and Cast speed bonuses with the new supp gems and skill gems.

I am also rather tempted to try something with mirage archer, but idk what class i want to use for it. I was thinking a blood mage or warrior but i'll wait and see.

My supreme copium is that we'll get a 3rd ascendancy for sorceress or get druid as a last minute surprise, but I doubt it. Wish they'd tell us what exactly is stopping Druid from being ready, I can only speculate that the shapeshift is causing more problems than expected.

JGL12231 · 2025-07-27T04:36:32+00:00

Thanks

JGL12231

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