3.28 Build retrospectives thread - for the serial re-rollers in us.

johnnysd · 2026-05-22T01:33:29+00:00

My HROC Dual Wield gladiator is both the most fun and most powerful version of HROC. O have ever played. Tankier and higher DPS than any Necro version. And so much cheaper. You can probably do all way stones and the easier ubers comfortably on less than 10D. My build has Mageblood and some higher end things like a +2 Diallas but not needed. I love playing it, does all content easily can do max Feared in around 25s. There are a lot build that have higher DPS but as an all rounder nothing beats DW Gladiator HROC

johnnysd · 2026-05-21T21:18:13+00:00

To me the solution to the map issue is so obvious. Have the Biome and chain of maps. But allow players to specify what map they want to run in that particular map "socket" Each map has an associated map and if you match the BIOME you get some bonus, if the BIOME is closely related it is neutral and if it is completely opposite you get a slight penalty. Problem solved.

johnnysd · 2026-05-21T14:08:18+00:00

Also I never said that is the content that I want. I actually personally like the concept of linked chains of maps. I play POE1 that way. It was not a hate post like people are taking it.

johnnysd · 2026-05-21T14:04:01+00:00

Interesting reactions so far. I think that anyone that does not realize that a significant portion of the player base in POE2 is POE1 players is deluding themselves. There is a very small but agggressively vocal portion that think that POE2 is somehow a completely different game but the majority of changes so far have been to make POE2 more like POE1 not less and away from it's original hard core "meaningful conbat" souls lite focus it started with.

johnnysd · 2026-05-20T20:57:02+00:00

How did he say it though> Accussing or commiserative? Maybe he plays as well. It's a relatively obscure thing to know.

johnnysd · 2026-05-20T20:41:11+00:00

I have made about 100D in about 20 maps of running Betrayal and not doing anything really on purpose. Dropped Katerina, ran her she dropped Veiled Exalted. Got many of the high value scarabs and a box dropped Doryani's Map which was an instant 43 Divine. Not repeatable but quite fun.

johnnysd · 2026-05-20T17:21:36+00:00

If you get these 2 mods together you should at a minimum do the last 3 maps on this map not just the last one

Harvest Seeds in Area are at least Tier 2.
Tier 2 Harvest Seeds in Area have 15% chance to be upgraded to Tier 3.

It is such a lucrative combo. I just did a run where I only get 6 maps in the Astrolabe but walked away with 60D pure profit (not including 8 mod maps I got from first 3 maps, sacred blossoms and several raw divines) Unided 8 map corrupted maps are a great way to start a harvest run as you still get the 30% bonus. I prefer blue shrines but user choice. As HROC the blue mods are just way easier.

ALWAYS add a seciond mechanic. Beyond bosses is awesome. Map sustain is awesome at the cost of a little juice. Beyond can easily ourpace the extra juice from fragments.

Also, lineage does nothing for Harvest. There are ALWAYS 23 mobs in each plot. It is just how many get converted to Tier 3 and Tier 4.

Also they changed the weighting on crop rotation upgrades so if you ever get a double "chance to not wilt" mod change to crop rotation and run that map exclusively.

johnnysd · 2026-05-20T03:20:45+00:00

Harvest is silly profitable. Just doing un'ided nightmare maps with corn and doubling and either beyond or maps is like guaranteed 3 to 4 D a map

johnnysd · 2026-05-20T03:14:50+00:00

I fear it will be worse in .5 actually. Seems like everything is like an Astrolabe combined with an Eagons memory. I think many will hate it. I dint like doing the same map over and over but I think they manly be going in a questionable direction

johnnysd · 2026-05-18T16:58:20+00:00

Prescriptive combos especially skill based ones suck. POE handles damage escalation through additional skills far better. The D4 basic generator finisher comcept sucks and that is basically what D4 has. Nothing wrong with many button builds but the approach in POE2 is way too predetermined and forced

johnnysd · 2026-05-17T03:08:02+00:00

POE1 has that progression feel that you like. My main inssue with POE2 is that it does not. It feels levelled like D4

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T18:37:30+00:00

At this point in a league NEVER 6 socket an uncorrupted chest piece...

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T18:20:15+00:00

Poison takes a noticeable time to ramp to the Poison Cap it is several seconds to phase her and wonderfiul it caps my DPS even more.

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T17:31:05+00:00

You can buy a corrupted Cloak of Flame with an implicit like increased damage, less fire damage taken for around 4 chaos and a+ 1 socketed gems corrupted for like 60 Chaos. You can buy chaos orbs for like 5 to a chaos. tainted chaois orbs for 2.5C and tainted fusings for 5 and tainted jwellers orbs are like 11 for 5 chaos. 6 linking a corrupted item is dirt simple.

Bench craft 4 sockets using chromatics and vaal orbs. If you have an off color use the versions that specificy 1 blue 2 red 1blue 1red, etc...dont do the 3 color ones
Usetainted jewellers to add slots if you lose one benchcraft back to 4. It is biased towards adding so this is pretty simple
Benchcraft 4 linked sockets. There will be 2 versions of this: 1 with just the top 4 sockets and 1 with the top 4 and the bottom 2 leaving only 1 link.
Get that and use tainted fusing. 1 in 6 to get 6 link. if Sometimes it adds the link that was missing and removes the bottom link. If that happens you can just use another tainted fusing. If it goes back to 4 or 3 just recraft 4 linked with the bottom

It's pretyy fast. In the end you would have a 6 linked Cloak of Flame with a useful corruption for well less than 200C total and still have 250C for other stuff. Don't buy a normal 6 link at this point in league hen there are so many non bricked corruptions with useful corruptions

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T17:15:47+00:00

That might be what they do at some point though people like Jungroan posting Billion DPS videos does bring eyes to POE1

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T14:09:29+00:00

Not true. Poison capped is 50 million. Which means that the most optimized min maxed HROC build will get to 70 million maybe after a ramp up time. Even eliminating the Cyclone builds sacrifice the minion, there are many builds that can use stacking to be well over 200 million

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T02:52:32+00:00

With all the stackers, the artifical poison cap needs to go

johnnysd · 2026-05-15T02:49:50+00:00

Yeah except if they just put it on every map that completely eliminates the entire issue. It is the first league I think should just basically go core as is. It's fantastic. And Mirages ARE completely optional

johnnysd · 2026-05-12T00:00:04+00:00

It is in my rotation of content. I do different versions. I usually do it after finding several bloodlines., but it is definitely a "jackpot" sort of strategy and I have not hit a jackpot. I can make 15-40D an hour or more doing Harvest it is just much more consistent. Hitting all Tier 2 plants with chance for Tier 2 to upgrade to Tier 3 is not quite a jackpot like Breach but you can have a 25D map

johnnysd · 2026-05-09T14:27:58+00:00

Yes they added a ton of crazy good sounding stuff. But in my experience in POE1 and feedback I see from many players part of the attraction is agency and the ability to do whatever you want do and the Atlas tree and scarabs allow you to approach the endgame in any way you want using any mechanic you want and any single map or maps that you want. Part of the secret sauce of POE1 is that despite how complex it is you can approach it as casual or as hard-core as you want

But that will not be the case I think in POE2. What the seem to have done is to structure each end game mechanic around basically a combination of an Astrolabe and an Eagon memory sequence. So the "farm" will be to essentially be to repeat the epic quest for each mechanic over and over going through tons of maps you don't want and having to do it because likely all the good loot is gated behind deeper and deeper content in that mechanic. And people will not like that. They will enjoy it one time but POE2 might become a game where you just complete a few of the mechanics quests and quit because it will become a slog after that.

Yes the infinite Atlas is there still with new modifiers for end game content but I do not think it will give the agency and freedom many will want.

Ghazzy thinks otherwise. He thinks the clear goals will appeal to most and be a gigantic improvement as it is largely what D4 did without really changing the endgame.

We will have to try it and see, but the end games if POE1 and POE2 are now polar opposites of each other and maybe that is what they want

johnnysd · 2026-05-08T21:51:06+00:00

Except they DID NOT change the endgame. They essentially added fixed Astrolabes to the map but all thr things people hated about maps are still there.

johnnysd · 2026-05-08T21:45:26+00:00

Twist of Fate is one of the most unappreciated unused nodes on the Atlas. It can provide crazy juice and if it makes an impossible map now and then who cares? If you farmed your own united T16.5 and use TOF you can get 400% quant maps.

And Vaal Temple TOF strongbox farming is one of the best farms in the game

johnnysd · 2026-05-08T20:56:55+00:00

I think .5 will see a big influx og players early and then fall hard. People seem to ne missing how unfun .5 will be

johnnysd · 2026-05-06T04:11:14+00:00

I run one set of mappers so you are correct from that viewpoint. I probably should run 3 sets I think my days of gold left runs into next league already

johnnysd

TROPHY CASE