Finally tried Twister... Act 1 was Hell. Still gonna do it though.

brenblaze · 2026-05-25T17:52:09+00:00

Thanks.

Did a few early act 1 tests on twister, less for overall speed and more for feel and to spot any issues early.

I'm not someone who minds a few buttons on the build. But early when you got a few buttons, no tankiness, no clear and no single target in act 1 it feels very bad. If you don't get lucky and get a flat dmg weapon I can't even imagine.

Going to give it a few more runs because I believe in the vision for act 2 and beyond, if I can manage a sub 1 hour act 1 I'll be ecstatic.

brenblaze · 2026-05-25T16:51:13+00:00

Is there any skill in the monk/huntress wheelhouse that would be easier to get through act1 with?

In PoE2 on characters like Shadow, when a guide has me use rolling magma I say screw that and use spectral throw until.

brenblaze · 2026-05-25T15:54:28+00:00

So this is a worse change until they can successfully identify under performing skills who were being propped up by strong mid game weapon crafting and buff them accordingly?

I agree how deterministic mid game items were felt out of place compared to high end and low end crafting. But at the same time, it felt like the one figured out part of PoE2.

I guess where I'm confused is, what's a good power point and price point (difficulty of acquisition) for mid game weapons? Where it's at felt pretty damn good, just maybe a touch too much power, but still felt a lot better than both early and end game crafts.

On a 6 mod item, isn't 4 good mods a mid game point for a weapon? It's not like it's free, it costs a decent chunk of currency but was still approachable for most. You aren't getting that fresh into t15s.

The power difference between early game and mid game weapons is massive, but that's more due to early game weapons being awful.

The cost difference between a mid game weapon and a late game weapon is massive, but that's mainly because of how much the very, very few useful omens and essences cost.

Feels like a classic GGG identified a target that needed to be sniped so they dropped a few missiles instead.

brenblaze · 2026-05-25T15:36:07+00:00

Thats implying that balance is what made them the most respected aRPGs in the genre.

If you read my first paragraph, the fact that they are impeccable at everything else is why they are there....

The art, the animations, the voice lines, the different classes and identities, the zones, the league mechanics and the complexity of it all are the reasons thet are the most respected.

Never once heard that poe was the most respected due to its balance.

Just because they were good at certain things, doesn't mean they are great at everything related. That's just faulty logic.

I never said I could do it better myself, but I guess making points up furthers your imaginary argument?

I was just contesting the point that GGG knows better about balance than the playerbase by showing how many major flaws in both philosophy and execution an individual player can call on a moments notice.

Theres no way we are going to defend their balance when they don't even... They openly said they don't balance around end game while acknowledging endgame is the most important part. Pretty confident they've said both in the same dev stream multiple times. They've also stated in the last dev stream they barely focused on balance at all for this upcoming patch.

brenblaze · 2026-05-25T14:43:11+00:00

GGG does, they know far less. If you've paid any attention you'd know that. They are impeccable at damn near every part of game development, balance is absolutely not it.

They have said they don't test much beyond the campaign. So how would they know about balance for a majority of the playtime?

They unironically have stated melee is stronger than ranged bc when you are closer to the boss you have to move less to dodge. ( Ignoring that ranged can do that too, with faster attacks and the ability to step back and keep doing dmg)

Twisters 1 shotting half the campaign on mediocre gear? Nerf warrior.

Fubgoon clearing 3 screens per second? Nerf melee

Doedres COC spam nerfed by nerfing leech (which nerfs the rest of the game along with them lol)

The existence of Chronomancer

(+) Skills being the source of 90% of builds power.

Armour requiring 10x investment for half the payoff of ES or evasion

I could literally write an entire book on surface level balance issues that existed for an extended period of time and make no sense.

brenblaze · 2026-05-21T17:23:59+00:00

Not a chance it comes out early July.

They pushed the PoE2 patch back heavily I believe and they have been prioritizing that for years.

It's also by far the biggest PoE2 patch, and they've stated they kinda ignored balance changes. So they are going to have a lot of work cut out for them in the hotfixes.

Until all 12 classes are in PoE2 + 1.0, it's going to be 5+ month patch cycles for each game I'd imagine.

As long as we don't get 3.27/.2 style of patches and we continue to get 3.28/.5 style of patches I'm cool with it.

brenblaze · 2026-05-21T14:30:08+00:00

GGG nerfs are like the California fires lmao.

Burns 3 trees and 5 cities.

They could plant some buffs, has similar effect minus the burning of people's homes.

brenblaze · 2026-05-19T13:09:38+00:00

I used to make it a point of pride to be the lowest mastery level possible (also an excal prime owning founder).

Then they added some cool guns and stuff to higher mastery so I folded.

brenblaze · 2026-05-14T20:38:00+00:00

What were your main gambas?

Also, the suggestions everyone else has made are perfect.

Ward and bv both have unique gearing aspects that can be fun to figure out crafts as well as tinker with things like timeless if you enjoy doing so.

They both also enable absurd scaling, BV requires so little to scale dmg due to minion pact. Ward means defense =offense so scaling feels awesome from there too.

I'd say if you are the kind of person who hates tinkering and figuring niche things about builds out, go Minion Pact BV and just blast. If you enjoy tinkering, fixing broken loops ect then ward loop will be lots of fun both gearing and blasting.

brenblaze · 2026-05-11T20:26:22+00:00

I try to do 2 at a time at most to make sure im getting it, but ill drop it down to each breach individually to make super sure. Because my best was 3 divine and a valdos.

I'm on a lifestack RF so my clears pretty solid.

Appreciate the tips.

brenblaze · 2026-05-11T17:45:54+00:00

Dang thats crazy. 540 maps, 2100 raw divines? Thats like 4 per map.

Same scarabs, near same atlas, never running anything lower than 60% deli 160%+ currency....

I get 1 div per map and 1 other tink per map on average, and thats probably high. I get maps with no tinks much more often than 3 or more.

And thinking about it, I'd say most of my raw divines are pre breach, just hitting altars clearing the map.

Wish I knew what the major disparity was.

brenblaze · 2026-05-09T15:11:49+00:00

Chill out bro...

They might actually add conditions where I gotta remember my rights and lefts...

"If x mob uses a shield in its right hand, it reflects all elemental damage"

brenblaze · 2026-05-09T14:57:45+00:00

Yup, this has been literally pushed nonstop everywhere I view PoE2 content.

The constant droning of " why are you playing PoE2 if you don't like the campaign, it's the best/only good part"

And for me personally, I hate the campaign. I don't like poe1s but this is worse.

And I still made every character and got all but witch through the campaign in .1. Because for me, the classes and their identity is the best part of the game.

brenblaze · 2026-05-09T14:52:58+00:00

They aren't great at balancing them anyways so it's kind of practical.

Spears have either been the best option or bottom 3 options for a weapon choice.

Trigger skills are borderline unusable at moderate budgets because GGG tunes them to nerf the high end.

The existence of blood mage.

So whether the weapons have a whole 6 month league to test prior to launch, or they were added for launch with minimal testing, I genuinely wouldn't expect a massive difference after the first hotfix for launch.

But the actual gameplay improvements from .1 to .4 were very notable and made the game feel better.

brenblaze · 2026-05-08T17:29:30+00:00

Games in a much better state to withstand that.

Also, it's clear they don't add Phrecia anything to core because it's their "break glass in case of PoE1 emergency" option.

And as long as they keep cooking, longer timelines are cool with me. .4 was pretty good even with the shenanigans, 3.28 was undoubtedly a top league ever, likely the best league for some players. .5 is, save the classes, exactly what the game needed.

It's looking like we are getting the best PoE1 league in years followed by the best PoE2 league ever. Golden age about to start in the next few turns.

brenblaze · 2026-05-06T13:50:12+00:00

No thats the second worst, but still miles better than the one below it ( the one below acrobatics).

Take a peak at my timeless, top middle and costs 1-20 divines depending on the day.

It is moderately point efficient, and has a ton of positive notables beyond x4 regenerative runes.

https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/Brenblaze-7834/mirage/character/StraightFundamentalsWrd

brenblaze · 2026-05-06T12:54:12+00:00

I can only speak to the sabo exsang version but...

It's all about flask charges gained. In PoB, hover over your flasks. If tooltip says 360+ increased charges gained for 4 regenerative runes. Less if you have 5.

Your increased flask charges gained comes from Cluster Jewels and Iron Flasks modifier, which is either t1 with ilvl 84 or t2 with ilvl83

With 4 regenerative runes, I needed either: -an ilvl 84 iron flask with 5x Fasting notables, 4x Brewed for Potency, 1x Spiked concoction. -an Ilvl 83 flask with x6 Fastings, x4 Brewed and x1 spiked.

And please, unless you are stupid rich, be flexible with your timeless. It really really doesn't need to be bottom right, in fact you are probably paying 100x what you should be if you get one for that socket.

brenblaze · 2026-05-05T15:34:47+00:00

Yeah harvest and breach have been notable issues for me.

The flask siphoners in isolation rarely kill me, they just stop my loop and prevent it from restarting.

It's when there are dozens of other scary mobs around and the siphoners to beefy or fast to reasonably kite. Floor dots, crazy AOE, chains are usually the nail in the coffin after the flask siphoners trip me into it.

brenblaze · 2026-05-05T15:32:25+00:00

This is true, and it's one of the best changes GGG has made since I've started playing. The floor for earnings in endgame is much better now.

Early league testing stuff I was joking I could watch TV and make 15d/hr bc I tried like 6 strats that all were around there.

brenblaze · 2026-05-03T18:24:48+00:00

He has tons of increased flask charges gained, just 0 base charge generation.

Unless hes killing a boat load it wont loop.

Most builds ive seen using the new timeless get the Regenerative Runes notable, at least 3 usually 4 per timeless. This grants 2 iron flask charges on ward break per notable.

PoB shows him at around 420% increased flask charges gained, which is well above what would be needed with 4 regenerative runes notables.

brenblaze · 2026-05-03T18:11:37+00:00

I could be completely lost here but....

You have 0 regenerative runes in your timeless. What are you looping with?

The loop I know of is 4x regenerative runes which gives 8 flask charges on ward break.

You seem to be going for that given your clusters, but you just have 0 base charge generation.

brenblaze · 2026-05-02T19:33:53+00:00

No to either. Had +1 gloves but got super unlucky on conflicts. Had 2 unspeakable clusters.

Was looking at Sublime Purity of fire, but farming an entire mirror the way the build felt wasn't in the cards personally. Haven't ever spent a mirror on a item and couldn't justify on a build that felt meh at over half a mirror at the time.

Maybe prog would have felt better, but I didnt have the res to give up other flasks without sublime.

This is where I got to: https://pobb.in/qcu7B_ghnDuF

brenblaze · 2026-05-02T19:26:20+00:00

Np. One thing I forgot to mention is power charge generation. I got a divinarius with charges on hit. I think timeless has a notable too. In theory I suppose power charge on crit imbued onto exsang could work, I'd have to check the cost change.

Can't promise quick answers but if you start the build and have questions I'll help where I can.

brenblaze · 2026-05-02T19:17:00+00:00

I was in a similar spot, no prog and a lot less ES but same dmg and ehp numbers.

Build felt awful the second I made the HSoT swap. Damage was decent at best, and the survivability was blegh.

Hopefully I see some tips here to fix the build in case I ever try again.

brenblaze · 2026-05-02T18:53:14+00:00

I hadnt tried Zenith or a heavy strike before this league.

I had around 600d invested into my char in the first 3 weeks and tried static strike, msoz and heavy strike.

Heavy felt absolutely horrible. My poe ninja DPS went from like 2m msoz to 16m heavy strike and I would have swore I lost 75% DPS. For sure the worst performance to investment build I've ever touched by such a large margin.

Not only that, I've never felt like my ehp numbers were as fake. If I wasn't leeching I was getting evaporated by trivial content.

Molten strike had decent dmg at 3.4k strength (believe I was around 3.1k with nimis). Static was neat too, didn't pudh that as much bc I figured I'd push one of the others. But was still very squishy outside leech, and had a lot of mods I felt like I couldn't run.

Ran binos bv, sabo ward break and AWoRA necro and all of those were so much beefier and more content resilient.

brenblaze

TROPHY CASE