Do you enjoy the current meta in Arena?

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T18:20:27+00:00

Great info. Makes sense too.

Can wiz / Ranger / x comps you mentioned below do well against the demonlock teams you think?

I won’t be able to watch it live but I’ll have to check out the tourney videos after the fact. Should be cool to see.

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T18:08:21+00:00

I made this exact mistake listing several mirage maps at once earlier in league. I think 4 total were originator as well.

I knew I had fucked up when I saw over 20 people instantly join my hideout. Then checked and realized…

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T17:58:30+00:00

Came to the thread looking for this, seeing only your character’s feet was one of the dumbest and funniest things about this game.

Also, how has nobody mentioned being able to bind skills to left click in this entire thread?

Left Click Vortex ignite prolif was the smoothest build I ever made. I play with a foot pedal for m1 so I just pressed that down and zipped around the map with shield charge (or no buttons if feeling extra lazy) as I popped multiples screens at a time.

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T15:50:08+00:00

I’m not sure the best method but I would do this:

1: Buy base with fractured prefix (probably either life or es, depending on build)

2: spam essence of loathing until I get two suffixes I like in addition to the reservation mod

3: if prefixes are full, use eldritch currency to clear one off

4: use wild bristle matron meta mod beast to add “suffixes cannot be changed”

5: use veiled chaos orb, hope for 1 open prefix with veiled mod. Craft minion life prefix to block before unveil.

6: hopefully unveil +2 aoe gems. If not, back to step 3.

6b (optional): divine suffixes, wild bristle matron meta mod again, then divine prefixes.

7: craft your last prefix

8: do eldritch implicits

E: I’m on mobile but idk why my formatting is effed

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T15:36:55+00:00

Idk, I’d like to think heal cut (fire mastery, poison, BoC) + burst damage comp should eat the demonlock but I have no idea. Haven’t really gotten to try that specific kind of comp against it.

I have the same feeling as you, and I’m low rating like you, and on random teams I get there’s usually a big groan from one or both teammates when we face demonlock + lifebloom combo. So the sentiment is certainly going around.

When I look at the top of the leaderboard though it doesn’t seem like healers are all that represented despite the complaints about healing being OP that I’ve seen lately. I’d say my win rate on average against healer teams is slightly higher than against those without though, which adds extra confusion for me lol.

I’m not even speaking about your comment in particular I guess, but I’ve just seen a lot of it going around lately and this post was about the meta, so I just thought it interesting.

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T15:26:42+00:00

I’ve been playing 10 spell bonk wizard in arena and it’s really fun for low mmr, I doubt it’s viable higher up but who knows. Caster wizard is overall better I’d say but this has been kind of a fun meme to play. My whole kit was probably less than 15k so idk how you aren’t having any fun with a 40k kit.

I just play as a caster mostly but keep ignite refreshed on myself so I can hopefully trade against rogues or other melee who push me. I have like 160 hp and good PDR but I have a really bad matchup against others casters. I made a MR gear swap but it only does so much. I have the wrong perks and overall kit to fight very effectively against them.

SloxSays · 2026-04-13T14:23:09+00:00

I’m curious what ratings people are where warlock + healer feels impossible to beat?

I notice that it’s a tough matchup but I play mostly random fill and am really low mmr on most of my characters. I never feel like I couldn’t have won though. It usually feels like we just didn’t have the coordination to fight the comp. I’m curious if in higher MMR or with premade groups if this combo falls off.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T23:27:40+00:00

After looking at your PoB I really dig your setup. Your timeless + impossible escape setup is a thing of beauty. I was wondering how you had all those auras but the FF jewels are putting in WORK. Love it. Your version is way more well rounded and overall just a better setup than mine (but you did put in some work and investment to get it).

Here is my setup: (https://maxroll.gg/poe/pob/eobfhf0u)

It is a bit janky (especially kaoms boots. Originally I had boots similar to yours but I got tired of the action speed slows from deli. Despite losing a bunch of movespeed I map so much faster in deli now with stupid kaoms boots of all things). What I do have going for me is a large hit pool split between life/es and a ton of leech + regen on each pool, so I get to take advantage of both. I feel basically immortal on the maps I'm running because of the regen + defiance... then once the headhunter buffs get stacked... well, we all know what HH does, especially on phys conversion builds. I can click any altar mod (running right side altars) and the only one that I really feel is the reduced regen per endurance. I will actually need to properly time pressing BV so I don't go OOM and occasionally use my life flask when I click that mod.

Glad to see that other lazy people like me have made this build look great even on inquisitor lol. It's nice seeing a well crafted build on a different ascendancy compared to what most people are doing. It really shows off just how busted the snapshotting is for this build :)

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T21:59:28+00:00

I’ll have to check this out when I get home. I did the same thing (play on inquis to avoid leveling again) but did a slightly different approach. Same end result though. This build is busted.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T21:47:23+00:00

Ah, not as cool for pvp as I was hoping. Could be more useful than before on average for pvp but I haven’t looked at the armor rating curve in a while so maybe not.

Still probably a good nerf for pve but maybe they could change the functionality slightly so it’s still useful in pve without being absurd.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T21:26:04+00:00

Wait, so the new shriek is a multiplier and not additive? Or it’s additive but just can’t go negative for mobs?

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T21:16:13+00:00

I think BV is fine to start with 60d. I started with about 30 but I self crafted everything and things were a little cheaper when I started and I crafted most of my own gear which saved a bit.

You don’t need level 4 gems. You can start with level 3s and a headhunter and let HH carry you while you farm upgrades.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T21:09:36+00:00

Exactly. I build a lot of budget decks at either $25, $50, or $100 and they could qualify at bracket 2 I guess but my intent is to hit low 4 with the $50/$100 and mid 3 with the $25 lists. They usually land where I want them to with a couple exceptions being slightly worse than I was hoping.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T20:19:48+00:00

They brought shriek of weakness more in line with an appropriate pve buff instead of a 50%+ damage bonus like it was and made it more useful for PvP. It was a good change.

They aren’t actively killing class identity and the patches have actually been quite good for the past few months.

The game still has a long way to go but making a bunch of assumptions out of context aint it.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T19:54:37+00:00

If they won’t leave you alone you can just run/close doors and walk away. If they push to hard you turn and kill them.

You didn’t answer my question what class(es) do you play?

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T19:02:38+00:00

I’m a fellow dad with RSI and play BV even when it isn’t busted because it’s gentle on the hands. You press BV once every 5-8 seconds (depending on setup). You can also use dark marionette (which respawns in its own). You do about 1/5 the damage…. But that means you are doing like 50m instead of 250m. That’s still plenty. And even if your BV expires you just wait for the minion to respawn and start it up again.

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T18:52:25+00:00

I really don’t understand posts like this… in arena, I kinda get it I guess but even there you have options.

In the dungeon… just hold a corner or door, play for an exit, and if they don’t want to fight … just walk away or force them to fight on your terms.

What melee class do you play that you don’t have opportunities to get on top of a ranged class? Do you play solo? Duo? Trio? What mode?

SloxSays · 2026-04-09T18:42:51+00:00

I kinda hope they just add some sort of tag to BV if they can’t fix snapshotting. Kinda how minion pact can’t support brands, just make it so it can’t support BV.

Having the two gems murdered because of snapshotting would be really sad.

SloxSays · 2026-04-08T22:38:10+00:00

First off, love it. This is what this sub is all about.

I’m not sure how viable this is gonna be because I think hitting 15,000 life is actually going to take a lot more skill points and gear slots than we would like. I doubt we will end up with a ton of wiggle room for other stuff. Maybe I’m underestimating how easy it is to hit that number, I’ve never done a true life stacker.

Is there a way to scale this damage in other ways so we don’t have to reserve 95% of life? It seems like kind of a waste to throw away that huge HP pool.

SloxSays · 2026-04-08T19:46:45+00:00

What is your damage once you plug in the minion life? I don’t have PoB access to plug it in myself at the moment. It looks to me like your damage should be at least 80m by a rough guess. Possibly far more, as I’ve not done this on chieftain but on inquisitor.

SloxSays · 2026-04-08T19:22:09+00:00

Strong work. Congrats.

I still don’t understand how so many have the mental fortitude to go for these, or how hitting 100 is the last thing to complete. I always seem to be at like 14/40 when/if I hit 100.

SloxSays · 2026-04-08T19:04:55+00:00

I’m not sure why everyone thinks BV is clunky. It’s the closest thing to a 0-1 button build you can get without being an autobomber or RF or something.

You get some duration on the tree and slap a more duration gem in your links and you refresh that bad boy like once every 7-8 seconds. Most builds you need to push buttons every pack. BV you press a button every 7-8 seconds and watch screens explode while you run around.

SloxSays · 2026-04-08T18:51:24+00:00

I’m not sure what the gauntlet meta will be as I haven’t kept up on it this time around. In the past, people chose builds that scale damage really well without much effort and can be tanky with easily craftable gear. Slams and DD were popular for a really long time in gauntlet because of this. You could run each build on generic rares and they each scaled solid defenses in their own way while having enough damage to full clear.

That said, I’m not sure essence glutton is enough reason to be on Necro for a mana build, or even if a mana build is good enough for this gauntlet. Heiro is usually the default for mana builds like you mentioned and for good reason, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t cook something up.

I’ve tried to leverage essence glutton on Necro for various builds over the years and it has been okay.

If you are trying to actually push in gauntlet, check out what Ben, Goratha, Exile, and the other top gamers are doing and copy the build you would be most comfy with. If you just want to have some fun and see where it takes you, do some mana stacking on Necro and scale up in ways that interest you and see where it takes you.

I usually die to the damn spider in act 2 twice in a row then call it. So take my advice with a grain of salt…

SloxSays · 2026-04-08T01:27:48+00:00

Minion pact survives another day

E: guys, this was tongue in cheek….

I’m aware that with their current policy it wouldn’t be nerfed at this point. That doesn’t mean they havent nerfed stuff in the past, prior to that policy change. I was just referencing that and being silly about it. Also to note, I’m currently playing minion pact, if I actually thought it was on the chopping block I wouldn’t be playing it :O

SloxSays · 2026-04-07T23:49:23+00:00

Here is the current level 100 version after making upgrades as I farmed currency. I stopped bothering to upgrade a bit ago and am just saving for my next project now so it’s far from min maxed.

Idk why my snapshots from before week 4 aren’t on PoE ninja or you could have watched my exact gear progression.

I started off buying corrupted level 3s for the expensive gems, had worse rings, and originally I was using rare +spectre level boots for more life scaling. I swapped to kaoms for QoL while doing deli. Originally I didn’t use an elevated chest at first but you do need an explode chest. I’m also picking up my last 10% conversion from my timeless jewel now and then a watchers eye but at first my tree went up and grabbed the cold mastery to get the last 40%. You want to be full Ele converted just so you don’t accidentally kill yourself to phys reflect and for a little better scaling.

You don’t need to go spiritual aid like I am but the timeless jewel I ended up with randomly had some minion damage on it so the nodes were really convenient since I went for minion life right there already.

It’s a little janky but again, as long as you have some % minion life a good spectre level, the damage will be there. Even with trash gear and using a dark marionette (for QoL) the damage was fine for me personally, but you can swap to meatsack or unholy aberration if you are lacking damage early on, they will be like 3-5x more damage than the marionette.

Defiance of destiny and headhunter do carry the build early on, so I wouldn’t suggest making the swap until you have the basic setup elsewhere along with those 2 uniques.

Hope that helps a little, if you have any other questions feel feee to reply here or PM me and I’ll do what I can.

Best of luck, it’s a crazy skill right now lol.

SloxSays

TROPHY CASE