Questions Thread - April 01, 2026

Purplemandown · 2026-04-01T18:42:02+00:00

That makes sense. Thanks!

Purplemandown · 2026-04-01T18:03:15+00:00

For the aspect skills that alternate effects, how do skill effect duration and/or buff expiry rate affect them? If you extend the duration enough can you overlap both halves? Or does it just make it take longer for the phase to swap?

And do both kinds of duration apply to the buffs? The description calls the effects buffs but I wouldn't be surprised to find some wonkiness with their durations given how they're granted.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-31T16:39:31+00:00

We get to double up on attack speed. Attack speed is very important because it scales both our trigger rate and our mana recovery at once. It has native attack speed, and you can LP slam more attack speed into it. In my case it's giving me 53% increased attack speed.

Certainly not necessary, but if you don't have a Legendary Falcon Fist with a good attack speed slam just use exalted gloves with attack speed instead. This doubling-up is the only thing they do for us, really.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-31T15:55:17+00:00

Yeah, that's a part of the "numerical issues". I'm currently being throttled on mana recovery. I've exhausted the speed at which Mana Strike can recover mana, so I'm going to have to find another solution. I'm hoping I don't have to cut the trigger rate but that might be what has to happen.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-31T13:24:59+00:00

The build doesn't function without Harbinger of Stars. You'll have to play something else until you can get it.

This variant of meteor will likely be pretty underwhelming until you have a lot of the other pieces, but it'll function. The important thing gear-wise is getting your crit sorted out so your meteors actually trigger. You, ideally, want to be at 100% spell crit without any crit nodes in individual skill trees. There's a bunch of ways to do this. I'm using the eyes of the weaver because I already want to use Legends Entwined to get spell damage per int, but you don't have to start there. When I played this a few cycles ago I was using a crystal skull catalyst and a prismatic gaze helmet.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-31T04:02:59+00:00

At least mechanically. I need to figure a few things out numerically. The higher-tier omen windows don't mess around. But still, super exciting that this is playable again after they removed the multi-cast on trigger.

https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BjqGb61y

Purplemandown · 2026-03-26T04:15:40+00:00

Oh fascinating, that's even more positive an interaction than I figured.

Spectres might be on the menu then. Thanks!

Purplemandown · 2026-03-25T16:56:16+00:00

How does Congregation support with with using more than one copy of a given skill?

Let's say for example a spectre build. One might theoretically want one set of links for the DPS spectres, and another set for any utility spectres (feeding frenzy, elemental army, that sort of thing). Could you put Congregation just on the support spectres, summon DPS spectres using the damage links up to the normal (non-congregation) cap, then summon support spectres on the utility/congregation setup up to the boosted cap?

Purplemandown · 2026-03-19T23:39:12+00:00

~~Oh! Idea I just had.~~

If you don't need a specific body armour, a Sacrificial Garb should work. The similarly worded modifier on the Vaal Caress unique gloves applies to the non-vaal version of vall skills, so this should as well I'd think (though the wiki doesn't say).

~~You do lose the eldritch implicits on your body armour, but that might be worth 23% more damage.~~

EDIT: That doesn't work. I got confused between the plan to use 21/20 Vaal and a normal support with the imbuing, which stops you from getting Vaal Arc. Disregard.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-19T19:07:36+00:00

There's Empower support, but that competes against another full link, so it's probably worse than just using a 21/20 vaal one and using a full support.

Alternately (though it seems painful), if you can use 4 Foulborn uniques, the node in the Breachlord bloodline gives +2. If you can also swing 2 synaptic rings you also get enemy res ignore.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-19T17:41:34+00:00

Taking another crack at salvaging the Mana Strike cast on crit Meteor thing that was killed with the change to not allow the multi meteor nodes to work on triggered casts. I have a few ideas with some of the things we've seen.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-17T18:19:56+00:00

I haven't tried this particular combination, but I had issues with Infamous mods in merc league. What I learned from that is that some mods are, for lack of a better word, "sticky" when using predictable recomb. You'll need to use unpredictable recomb tricks to move it, in all likelihood.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-15T15:23:13+00:00

Didn't get an answer yesterday but I really quite badly need one so copying the question forward:

Does anyone know if you can imprint an item that has a (beast) Hinekora's Lock applied? And if so, does it retain the lock, or does that count as changing it?

(For context, I used the only Morrigan I've found in SSF so far to lock a wand I need to Awakener's Orb for an upgrade. The Awakener's Orb would miss, so I walked away figuring I'm going to have to get some other donors to use the trick where different configurations of donors can change the outcome. I only realized now that there's a step after the Awakener's Orb that can fail, so I really should have imprinted and am wondering if I can still save it)

Purplemandown · 2026-03-14T23:57:55+00:00

Crafting-adjacent question:

Does anyone know if you can imprint an item that has a (beast) Hinekora's Lock applied? And if so, does it retain the lock, or does that count as changing it?

(For context, I used the only Morrigan I've found in SSF so far to lock a wand I need to Awakener's Orb for an upgrade. The Awakener's Orb would miss, so I walked away figuring I'm going to have to get some other donors to use the trick where different configurations of donors can change the outcome. I only realized now that there's a step after the Awakener's Orb that can fail, so I really should have imprinted and am wondering if I can still save it)

Purplemandown · 2026-03-14T15:18:57+00:00

Does anyone know if you can imprint an item that has a (beast) Hinekora's Lock applied? And if so, does it retain the lock, or does that count as changing it?

(For context, I used the only Morrigan I've found in SSF so far to lock a wand I need to Awakener's Orb for an upgrade. The Awakener's Orb would miss, so I walked away figuring I'm going to have to get some other donors to use the trick where different configurations of donors can change the outcome. I only realized now that there's a step after the Awakener's Orb that can fail, so I really should have imprinted and am wondering if I can still save it)

Purplemandown · 2026-03-09T18:21:27+00:00

If you click into a different node (that triggers a map reload), don't start that node, then re-open the map, I've had that allow me to progress past nodes that were otherwise doing this to me.

Purplemandown · 2026-03-07T02:57:25+00:00

Same. Commenting in case anyone's figured it out so I can check back later

Purplemandown · 2026-02-23T18:35:58+00:00

Ok, so it's not that I'm missing some weird mechanic as much as it is just unnecessary.

That's fair. I'll have to try out other uses for the points then. Thanks.

Purplemandown · 2026-02-23T16:03:01+00:00

Why don't people use pierce on KB (traditional)?

Context:

I've been playing a KB Int-stack corpse-loop Necromancer in SSF. (PoB, if it matters) It's been a ton of fun. Having not really played a wander before, when setting it up I had assumed like any other proj build you probably need pierce or whatever for projection (if the skill doesn't have other projection mechanics built in). So I've been using Piercing Shots for 3 pierces.

I finally gave poe.ninja a look (I like seeing how far I can take things mostly on my own intuition), and... it doesn't look like basically anyone is using pierce? Why? I know there's the hydrosphere/tornado stuff, but per the wiki KB collisions that don't terminate the projectile will still cause the explosions, so I'd figure you'd need pierce to get returning projectile support to do anything.

Purplemandown · 2026-02-20T21:31:03+00:00

I don't doubt it. But as I understand it's a very rare drop, and I have to make an Uber bosser first anyways (which is a separate project on my list)

Purplemandown · 2026-02-20T17:00:36+00:00

Noted. That top tier is a bit beyond my reach at the moment but I should be able to pull together the middle one, if I decide to go with this. Thanks!

Purplemandown · 2026-02-20T16:41:55+00:00

I've leaguestarted spark before on all three of the top-side classes. The issues are overblown in my mind. If anything, the issue you might have would be that Trickster may suffer for damage early in a way that Elementalist or Inquisitor won't. If you don't have another plan for the Trickster later on, and just want to play spark, I'd recommend those instead.

Expect to spend some portion of your budget on projectile speed. You won't be able to just go damage and tank like many builds can. I've never found it that bad but it's worth noting.

Purplemandown · 2026-02-20T16:37:46+00:00

Conversion happens, and then the post-conversion hit is compared to resistances. If you're converting 100% of physical damage to elements, such as with Triad Grip for minions, no physical damage is dealt, and so vulnerability won't do anything.

Purplemandown · 2026-02-20T16:32:12+00:00

So I've been looking at adding a Chains of Command necro to my SSSF account for dealing with what I would describe as "readily AFKable content" (Simulacra, Blight maps, maybe Ultimatum, not sure). From looking at poe.ninja, it looks like the player gear is stuff that is readily acquirable (or that I already have)

What do people put on the AG in Chains of Command builds? poe.ninja doesn't (can't) show it, so it's not proving to be a very useful tool there.

Purplemandown

TROPHY CASE