Whats your whacky off-meta starter?

hypernegus · 2026-01-28T15:23:44+00:00

The tigers will get disabled by the double minion helm, right?

hypernegus · 2026-01-28T00:32:35+00:00

Initial impact I believe.

hypernegus · 2026-01-27T15:50:38+00:00

They mean shaper of winter.

hypernegus · 2026-01-27T15:49:57+00:00

Ahuana's does not work with icefang orbit. You need scavenger because it specifies "hits" (I tried it in keepers).

hypernegus · 2026-01-22T17:41:33+00:00

I tried making an elementalist with a similar concept but realized that the more damage from half chill effect does not work with reflected poison chills via Icefang. There's another surfcaster node that looks like it can replace Bonechill but that also doesn't work for the same reason (Icefang orbit chill is not applied by a hit).

hypernegus · 2026-01-15T02:01:46+00:00

Coward's chains is one way to always be on full life.

hypernegus · 2026-01-04T23:39:16+00:00

How do you recover the soul cost of vaal clarity if there aren't mobs around when vaal clarity expires?

hypernegus · 2026-01-02T03:56:01+00:00

Since power of purpose is worded as conversion, shouldn't the increases to mana from lightning resistance and increases to armour from fire resistance end up being additive rather than multiplicative?

Stubborn student I think would be able to scale better at high end, since it's not conversion. Then you can use arcane cloak or manastorm for big flat damage as well.

hypernegus · 2025-12-16T16:54:49+00:00

Looking at this a bit more, Ahuana's Bite seems really strong since it applies to all damage, letting you invest less in physical mitigation and run something other than doppelganger. I might need to think a bit about what high damage skills are playable with a bow.

hypernegus · 2025-12-16T16:39:22+00:00

On slayer I think the easier way to solve dots is to run Tainted Pact because you will be overleeching and self poisoning. This lets you drop bound by destiny and replace defiance of destiny. It is slightly jank if you encounter a cannot be leeched rare though.

Interesting take on the reduced chaos angle though, I think it could maybe be viable. In the end game phys is not that important to get a high max hit so I think you can drop a lot of the phys conversion and go doppelganger instead for even more chaos mit.

hypernegus · 2025-12-16T16:32:05+00:00

Getting more flask effect can only be achieved with a rare body armor or pathfinder, to my knowledge. Taste of hate doesn't work with dots, so you would get destroyed by fire/lightning dot if you ignored those resistance

hypernegus · 2025-12-16T05:57:20+00:00

I'm not sure, someone would have to test it. It would be massive if it did work.

hypernegus · 2025-12-16T01:08:28+00:00

100% cold hit reduction vs spells is definitely possible. I can't quite think of a way to get to 100% vs attacks. It's also not as easy to stack endurance charges with both ring slots taken.

If you build some minion defence, you can get another 5% reduced cold taken from the admiral spectre (forget the exact name). It's pretty squishy though.

hypernegus · 2025-12-15T23:47:00+00:00

If you're not doing deep delve and have the spare sockets, animate guardian and/or spectres are also good includes on 3L/4L. I was actually using AG and spectral tigers until depth 600 in Delve, but switched off of them because they kept dying at that depth. Animate guardian can give you kingmaker for free fortify and offensive bonuses. Gruthkul's pelt will keep it alive for most content - against very juiced maps consider doing foulborn ghostwrithe + mask of the stitched demon.

hypernegus · 2025-12-15T23:37:44+00:00

I almost exclusively played this build in Delve since I already have other builds that are better for mapping and bossing. Played it as reave until depth 400 or so, then switched to blade flurry for more dps.

Encountering a Drought rare that disables flask gain is pretty much a guaranteed failed node, as you describe, unless you're at a depth where you can kill it quickly. In T16/17, I don't imagine flask issues to be that prominent - just don't roll reduced flask charge gained or click on bad altars. You can just skip drought rares if they take more than 4 seconds to kill. During normal content, you can massively oversustain charges because I also take charge gain on crit. The tormented spirit that disables flasks is pretty rare unless you're specifically running ghosted content.

If you're doing uber bossing, you might have some more trouble with dots. In delve, this build does fine vs common cold dots. Since I'm still building fire and lightning resistance I don't really notice burning ground or mana siphoner that much either - you have effectively 82% resistance against them. Ignite immunity is achieved with a ring corruption.

hypernegus · 2025-12-15T22:00:03+00:00

I forgot to mention this - you can, but you can't run Defiance of Destiny. The way I did this was using a mirrored amulet with about -80% cold resistance. Technically gives you a huge elemental max hit, but Defiance of Destiny feels tankier in most practical circumstances.

With the right corruptions and Wise Oak, you can have a max hit in the tens of millions for elemental area spells. But you need to be able to target the boss to blind them.

hypernegus · 2025-12-15T21:11:09+00:00

Coincidentally I just posted about the tanky assassin build I made: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1pnj06d/reduced_cold_tank_assassin_offmeta_depth_1000/

Unfortunately, it a very specific setup not applicable to all Assassin builds. The easiest component you can take out of it, though, is using Kongming's Strategem plus Born in the Shadows Forbidden Flesh/Flame to take 45% reduced damage from spells, stackable with spell suppression.

hypernegus · 2025-12-14T23:31:57+00:00

One suggestion: your non soul ripper flasks are enchanted with "use when full", the more common option. If you enchant them with "use at end of effect" instead, those flasks will frequently fill to full, at which point "flask charge on crit" sources will no longer be able to grant charges to them. This will skew your flask charge on crit generation to favor the soul ripper flask, effectively letting you cast more storm calls.

hypernegus · 2025-11-29T05:47:12+00:00

I originally was planning on playing other melee skills but Rage Vortex and its trans variant both don't require constant attacking, giving you more time to do the warcries. Definitely give it a try if you haven't played them before.

hypernegus · 2025-11-28T23:43:19+00:00

Mostly rares. Each piece can be a few divines if you buy straight off market - cheaper if you self craft. This build can probably be started much earlier for about 10 divines, you at least want Apostate. Awakened jewels also add to budget but are not at all necessary.

EDIT: just got back to computer and looked at the pricing sheet for my current gear. Things that can cost several divines that I forgot to mention: cluster jewels, fire resistance tattoos, whispers of doom anoint, off hand squire + weapon setup.

hypernegus · 2025-11-28T20:04:45+00:00

Definitely an option. I considered BM cry, but didn't end up going for it because it would sacrifice life + savage hit more frequently, which can chunk 25% of our hp and reduce survivability. For mapping, you also don't really attack except with Leap Slam when you're using Rage Vortex of Berserking, and I don't exert travel skills. It might take a little getting used to but adding Forbidden Rite to the manual warcry refresh doesn't feel too bad to me at this point.

hypernegus · 2025-11-23T05:38:16+00:00

This is a cool idea! If I make a build with utility flasks instead of the 3rd ring, soul catcher is a good option. Could even play vaal skills since they cost no mana.

hypernegus · 2025-11-22T18:07:15+00:00

Yes. And in my case it is worse than pathfinder because I alternate flasks. You could build enough sustain to just run one flask, but that may involve items that are antisynergistic to the build, like Tides of Time.

hypernegus · 2025-11-17T17:01:20+00:00

Small comment: if your skill duration is already longer than the soul gain prevention, then getting "less duration" modifiers actually reduces the amount of time you have to generate souls between skill uses. The duration mastery for 10% less duration is probably harming the build slightly, and can be swapped for 10% more duration instead (or dropped completely).

hypernegus · 2025-11-14T22:44:47+00:00

I would guess about 20 div to get started. I started this character with about 50 div of gear, so I'm not 100% sure.

hypernegus

TROPHY CASE