Something else came up. Again.

I'm doing my best here, but a series of real life events is reaching its conclusion with a permanent international move. See you on the flip side whenever I get a gaming machine.

Vaal Pact, necessary or even recommended?

I made a 211pdps wand courtesy of Elreon's metamod. For the first time since game start, wanding is actually within my reach. Seeing as I'm in an old-fashioned phase at the moment, CI wander it is.

Since the change to VP went through, I've seen a marked decrease in the number of CI builds using it. That said, I'm way out of touch with CI in general.

build link

Because, well, why not. The alternative is to head down to Ondar's, for a similar point count and some more dex, as one of the CI guides does. A quick poke at the CI wander guides available show that none (out of 3) go to VP; of the HP wanders, two (out of 5) do. It definitely looks like VP isn't as essential to CI as it used to be.

If not for VP, the build would probably do better from shadow start. Guess we'll find out eventually.

Wand marauder

Random thought as I'm picking through the build lists to find wanders. Can you make one (okay fine you probably can) and how playable is it?

Bringing back the good old days

Okay, not really. But Tiurakh is now running an LS build, and LS has pretty much dropped off the map otherwise (Mjolner notwithstanding, and man did my predictions for that item ever turn out badly.) I don't believe LS is all that bad.

I don't have a link to the thread any more, but if you were around in beta you probably know about Invalesco's CI crit dagger build.

updated passive tree

Everything else maybe as listed, maybe not. LS LMP AFD WED would be the 4L, since the latter two affect both melee and ranged sides of the skill. DS, Vaal DS. Maybe possibly. I'd run Hatred and Discipline. Incandescent Heart maybe? Looks pretty good for CI, only the light radius thing, it's like the CI equivalent of Lightning Coil. In any case it's possible to force offcolours now so a good Vaal Regalia will also do fine.

/salute

Well, that didn't work out.

I specced my 67 marauder in SC to this planned build.

Didn't work, not enough DPS. No, not really. DPS was...not spectacular, could clear docks, didn't do as well in maps as I'd've liked but it was more a survivability issue than a damage one. Also the single target sucks.

See that post for skilltree. Links: flicker - multi - prolif - increased burning - WED. Got to about 10k armour with Grace, I think. Realised I rely a lot more on block than is actually visible, most of the time. Tooltip DPS is no good for burn builds, didn't count it.

I tested with splash (prolif gave higher clear speed and takes its place pretty well), never needed chance to ignite, got more straight damage from the combination of WED and increased burning than from fire pen in either of those slots. Tested without multistrike and it was unbearably slow. So much for that.

Vulnerability self cast is too much micromanagement - works fine for stationary type builds like poison arrow, but when you're flickering all over the place it's trigger gem or nothing. Not sure putting it on trigger would work either but it's gotta be worth a shot.

Used blood dance boots, because didn't have a fire leech anything handy. Didn't really matter because I was taking way too much damage. Two ways to solve that, and one might get me killed on reflect because I'm pretty sure the other already hit diminishing returns. In any case, I'm very map mod limited on this build, so it's not much fun there.

Really, the essential problem here seems to be that prolif builds are once and done, whereas a flicker build relies on constant motion. Therefore, I'd need disproportionate DPS to play flicker proliferate.

You know what? This was a non crit build and I can clear docks with it. Might be a crit version has enough damage to manage the other. Gotta plan that one to try. Might be I can put splash instead of prolif because damage is sufficient, and then I'd get the benefit of culling strike.

Finding that perfect balance

not quite my build, but close enough

There was a point in Cruel where I realised my DPS with cascade had dropped sharply. Pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen with absolutely no gear changes...but wait, there was a passive change, I'd taken another AoE node.

Conc.e fixed that real quick.

Character is currently 77, running EB+AA without MoM, no trouble holding his own in a map group. Links are GC - added lightning - conc.e - PCoC.

Oro's Sacrifice flicker multi for HC

What do you mean it won't work, not enough DPS? Try me.

Concept: flicker multi with Oro's Sacrifice. It's been done before, though there are no 1.2 updated builds.

skill tree

RM - Grace - Herald of Ash?
flicker - multi - splash? - prolif? - increased burning or WED, or both, or chance to ignite, or fire pen
CDT - the usual
Vulnerability, that leech curse, TC, enfeeble

- Current tree doesn't do AA, but we'll see, some way of getting around increased damage taken would be cool
-  Lots of HP nearby if this proves insufficient

- Ideally I want something with fire leech. If I can corrupt the sword to something useful, like fire leech, so much the better.

- Multistrike isn't nice, considering loss of damage, but it's probably a necessary sacrifice.
- I have no idea how to level this character up, but I bet it will be fun! Fire traps probably.
- 5L dropped for me in the right colours, so I'm planning for a 5L

Mostly I'm thinking about the links after flicker strike. If splash gives multiple frenzy charges with Oro's the way it does with power charges and Voll's, then sustainability is not an issue and multi is not necessary. Probably. At the cost of attack speed. There's 15% chance to ignite on the tree, 20% more from the sword, 10% from a q20 increased burning if I'm doing that, 40ish from chance to ignite but let's try not to go there.

Oh well we'll see.

Nothing is legacy any more. Almost nothing.

This has consistently been one of the most popular previous posts. I'm glad to say it's no longer relevant.

Most recently, with Forsaken Masters patch, Zana offers the chance to run maps as though you were in a previous league - including legacy drops from that league. Recently confirmed, though I've suspected something was up from day one of the patch when Shavronne's Revelation was updated in patch notes.

And hell, I'm glad they did something about it. I'd rather see my "investment" values dropping than not, because of what it represents. I don't know that people will consistently run anything but Onslaught and in 6-groups, considering Nemesis costs 2ex, but prices are easy to tweak, and even if they aren't tweaked, when headhunter prices go high enough people will start trying.

As usual, GGG has come up with a better solution than I could ever have thought of. Major props to them, and this is why I'm a player and not a dev. 

Oh, we're just winging it...

...the guys who actually planned their builds are over in room 7.

True story from guild voice chat. I decided on my skill of choice when looking at the quest reward selection. Mostly I did it because apparently FP got a buff and I already knew what the skill gems were. I finally sat down to make my plan at level 49, with 5 points to allocate and with a decent idea of how much %HP to aim for.

proposed skill tree

FP - GMP - LL - something something. It's been lovely so far.
IS - increased crit damage - PCoC - increased crit chance? Got ICD from act 1 normal reward at Merveil, found out it freeze-locked really well, never looked back. The others I don't know about. In particular, I hate having to deal with power charge generation by single target.
Herald of Ice has been awesome. Might run Clarity, might run Discipline, go for AA, the usual EB MoM thing.

I have a problem with the skill tree update.

If you're reading this, you probably got here from one of my two guides on the main forum. They've made it through multiple skill tree revisions more-or-less intact, though the original classes they were posted under are no longer the optimal ones for them (go figure). When I respecced characters for it, I went with the ones who were already geared up, so I knew the stats both before and after.

And now I have a problem. 

With the same gear, the former 220%~ HP and the new 160%~ bring me to roughly the same number, which is about 4.5k. I'm short 150-200HP from before. This is a bit distressing, considering I'm using a legacy Rain and some really good HP gear, but there's always that circle below Scion and there's DW block there too.

I specced my ranger with all the easily reachable HP nodes, and am down 600HP from before. (The difference was in the nodes below and in duelist, my builds are fairly similar otherwise.) Whoops, 3.5k, not going there. I guess there's still that circle below Scion, gonna take a bit of juggling to get there though.

"There's always that circle below Scion." Why do I have to go for that? This isn't a complaint post about having to change, because change can be good; it's a complaint that I now have to stretch further to meet the same requirement, so I lose flexibility in other areas. I've already taken all the HP-relevant nodes in the areas I pass by.

Oh, we're changing up how HP base and skilltree interact, so you should have less worries about taking HP in the skilltree, and can take damage. Turns out the exact opposite is true, isn't it? I have to reach more HP clusters to get to the same value of HP as I did before. Reaching more HP clusters takes travel points too. Before, I was able to more-or-less pick and choose which clusters to take and what my routes should be. Now, I have to take all of the reasonably reachable ones, and some unreasonable too, and work the rest of my build around them. (Which I'm aware is how most regular HCers always did things, yes. Those builds regularly made 300% HP. My point stands and you can use logic to work out why.)

What gives, GGG? Don't you have someone who can do math?

A build working against itself

It's the last couple weeks before another big reset, and I have a couple of characters to play with. One's a witch and I specced her to a CWS setup. Link to example

Might notice that's an old thread. Specifically, skill builds are gone. I decided to try something else - stun goes through whether or not the damage is blocked, so I figured I could do a high block build and take minimal damage. What damage I did take, I figured I'd leech it back, or use other methods like Shavronne's Revelation, Aegis Aurora, Zealot's Oath, etc.

It might have worked, but for the fact that Aegis's effect requires armour to function effectively. More armour = less stuns. GG Kiri.

In other words, I can't realistically do docks, even with auras turned off. I've been stunlocked to death on an Aegis character (including Grace Determination) on 74+ vulnerability maps with 5k hp, so it's not completely impossible, but this is the first character I've made which has a lower level limit of zones rather than an upper one.

Getting triple shockstacked in Barracks helps, but not nearly enough. I'm thinking I should go for a Shackles of the Wretched.

I could just drop the Aegis idea. Got a shadow hanging around, and enough pure ES gear to give it a shot. Meh.

Wait, there's a comment spam filter?!

I just clicked the tab on my email that I never click on, by accident, and it turns out all the comments have been going to spam and I didn't even notice. Goodness. Turns out to all be spam, but still, I didn't even notice!

Meanwhile, I've been poking around back in the game. Computer's not fixed yet, but I've found a workaround - it's been stable throughout my 1MHC play time, so hopefully it will stay that way! Life is good right now and I'm really looking forward to 3MHC...and yes, I'll probably start posting again. Soon(tm).

If you're wondering why those two updates are concurrent, it's because I checked my email when my guild leader told me to. Yeah. Round of applause for current #1 and #2 in 1MHC, by the way. They're crazy, but awesome. Edit: RIP

On leave

My GPU is acting up, and it's gotten to the point where I can't play Path. My screen blacks out occasionally and it's cost me a few deaths in SC build testing. And by occasionally, I mean reliably.

Have you ever tried playing Path without looking at all, relying on your last glimpse of the screen to control your character for 5 or 10 seconds? The screen flickers back into life for half a second, allowing you to readjust your strategy, and goes dark again. Repeat ad infinitum. That's not playable by any definition.

I'd fill in the blanks with theory, but what good is theory crafting? There's a whole backlog of Things Kiri Wants To Try, already, from over the months. I'm tired of doing theory all day and never getting to test it, not even when I'm right here at my computer. I'm not even any better at it than anyone who's got a build thread up - and there are a lot of those - I just got here first.

In short. What good is this whole blog thing if I can't play the game I enjoy?

Where are all the mana nodes?

I put the gear back together for my dual-claws character, now a level 83 duelist, and started joining random map parties. Bought a ring or two, too. But at almost 10 aps with dualstrike, I'm running out of mana all the time.

No problem, take out a couple of points, put into the two mana nodes right near duelist start.

Still running out of mana. Maybe 2% leech isn't enough, maybe now I need 4%. The difference is small but noticeable. So is the difference when I take off my amulet, the one with the 30 int and 30 max mana. Hmm...guess it's time to do math, for the first time in a year. Mostly I don't bother doing exact calculations for this game.

Math:

8.57 aps, divide by 3 for multistrike, multiply by 66 mana per cast, is 188.54 mana per second.

11.5k pdps, multiply by 0.02, is 230 theoretical mana leech per second, assuming 100% efficiency. Before the changes to leech, this was sufficient provided your max mana could handle it. Since there is a noticeable difference between 2 and 4, I'm assuming 100% efficiency is not the case, at least in the former.

690 max mana, multiply by 0.125, is 86.25 mana leech per second capped. Huh. Let's try that again, and this time factor in base and increased mana regen. 690*0.14=96.6, approximately 100.

Is that right? I'm losing about 90 mana per second, which drains my 400~ unreserved mana in about 5 seconds total. Yeah, that looks about right.

In order to reach the equivalent point, 14% of max mana should equal about 200 mana. Give or take. Thus, I would need 1430~ max mana to sustain this kind of attacking indefinitely.

I'm looking at about 420 base mana, excluding items. (581 mana at +32% without gear, and there's a flat +mana node at shadow.) The easily available mana nodes are 3 at duelist for +32, 2 at ranger for +16 but separated by Primal Spirit, 2 near point blank for +16, and 3 near Charisma for +32. Plus travel nodes. Total of +96%, with +100% mana regen. I'll still need about 700~ total base mana, or +260 from gear, which is unreasonable when one considers the rest of the gear requirements. This solution is also very skillpoint intensive. EB is much easier, if you don't mind finding endgame-tier ES gloves and belt. Assume rainbowstrides.

I suppose there's a good reason Exalton went soultaker on his offhand. Several good reasons.

Quick and dirty: Cyclone takes 131~ mana, so with a reasonably long cast it'll be sufficient. Reave takes 37~, so all of a sudden we're looking at easy sustainability.

edit: Clarity is probably the answer here, but I'm not going to math it. 

No such thing as an original idea

thread link


It's rather different from most of the RF builds in the guides written for it. It's also rather expensive, like wait why do you need to MF when you have a 6L shav, but other than that the gear requirement is actually really reasonable.

Every post-patch RF setup will be a bit different from how it's currently done (most of the time anyway), since snapshotting will be removed. Well, the above linked won't be, but that's out of my reach too.

I'll likely put Purity of Fire in a +2+1 wand with RM and Empower, to cheat it to 20 from 16. The classic spectre-summoner method of reducing resists applies, which is ele weakness + flammability + EE, and shockstacks on top of that. After all, I'll need all the damage boosts I can get.

The passive tree shouldn't change too much, but I'm holding off on that until post-patch because it might change again. (Grr. I get why they do it, but who likes change really?)

previous post link

How do shrimp and gobies find each other?

It's been a while since guilds were introduced to Path, to great acclaim. It's a good thing, in the sense that more ways to connect with people is good for a multi-player persistent environment. It also serves a unique purpose that was previously absent of in-game support, that is, connecting groups of more than two people in the long term. Even better.

But there is another side to the story. Guilds have a large overlap of functionality with every other form of player interaction. This leads to the situation in which many players, upon finding a guild in which they fit, rarely or never interact outside of it.

All well and good, if that's what they want.

If it isn't? Well, global chat is full of trolls and rarely gives a good answer to anything, and good luck holding a conversation in there. Besides the PCs and things that should rightly belong in /trade. The public party board is full of trade parties, and anyway the docks and map parties are generally full of people who tend to either die or take ten thousand years to clear a map - or worse, get their partymates killed along with themselves. Trade chat is trade chat, no more need be said. Everything else involves the use of third parties, be it forums, reddit or even RL.

It wasn't always this way. My first few friends, other than the ones I already knew from other games, were out of /global. That was way back when. I also got a couple of good ones out of the friends-list network, which was the only reliable way to build a solid map group. Those were proto-guilds, back in the day, only infinitely more flexible.

The point is, a lot of people who had previously sought interaction by other (in-game) means are now confining themselves to the guild. Means the other channels of social interaction are becoming wastelands. Even if you wanted to make friends there, it would be pretty hard to do, since nobody else does.

I realise this is all a bit exaggerated. Certainly the situation is not as dire as I've made it out to be. And there are plenty of guilds with few or inactive members. On the other hand, is this the kind of multiplayer you want in a game?

(For an explanation of the post title, click here.)

Crit vs non-crit

It's a different feeling altogether, I swear.

I had this one character, an Aegis Rain one. She didn't get her passives forcibly reset, I made like 20% xp getting carried by the Mjolner discharge guy on my fl, and then I got bored of her and used the 1.1.3 respec. Exactly the same build, except where I had taken 1h damage nodes previously, I now took crit instead. Oh, and I went through Charisma this time, which allows me enough free mana to run my skill of choice on mana rather than BM.

Played solo: three maps this round, two before and one after the respec. The first was a nightmare damage map. Shocking ground, vulnerability, extra damage as fire, minus max, rolled cinder elementals. It was a sharp reminder that Aegis does not equal invincible. The last was a spider forest with Igna and Tinevin, call it play testing. Went off without a hitch, at least in the survivability sense. I'm going to have to work on damage some more.

So that's the story. What did I learn?

The noncrit double striker played almost like RF, in the sense that you walk in pressing a button, and their HP goes down slowly but steadily. The crit one was rather choppy - sometimes it moved fast, and sometimes it didn't. I value consistency, so it "felt" worse, even given similar dps.

Crit multiplier is important. Yes, really. So's crit chance, but given enough aps, it'll average out. I'm currently at 9~aps with 6 frenzies, but 150% multi. The route to advancement is pretty clear, I think! Only fear is it'll exacerbate the above mentioned problem.

To do:

Add crit multiplier. And crit chance? I can't really spare a PCoC unless I plan to use the same attack for single and multi target, and I'm bored of that anyway. So...change amulets, see if I can get enough resists from it to swap in a Romira's Banquet. Wonder if Tempest + PCoC would proc. Though I'd have to switch back to using BM for main skill, since it'll eat all my mana and then some.

And where do I go from here?

    From previous post:
    I'm sure there are ways to make aegis blocking characters that don't also bore me to tears. This just isn't one of them. More when I figure out what is, but Cybil's might feature, or something that takes advantage of Aegis WED.

I might start with flickermulti, that's always good for a laugh, at least until new leagues. The final destination probably isn't even Aegis Rain any more. Might be I'll make a LL character with a Solaris. Might make it a CDT/CWS character even. CI with a Lightbane or what the other one was, do a support character with that one sword. Maybe next reset.

If I died in my sleep, you wouldn't know anything about it

but thankfully I'm not dead. Just out of town until end of July. No playtest updates until then. (7 May 2014)

EDIT: Something happened, the details of which I will not share, and I fly back tonight. Date of post has been changed to reflect this. (3 June 2014)

Template for build (freeze lock)

courtesy of Lyralei

I don't always do that much math, but in the case of getting freeze chance sky-high and perma freezing, it makes sense to calculate cast speed, freeze duration, etc.

Everyone tries their hand at the coldsnap perma freeze build at one point or another. Sometimes it works. My attempt was nearly a year ago now, before Romira's, and it didn't. I haven't revisited the concept yet...actually IDEA. What ever did happen to coldsnap trapping? It'll probably work. I hope it will.

Thinking of a lazy MF build

Given that I've already played straight spectre summoner twice, that one's out.

For the new leagues after Ambush/Invasion, I want to make a MF farmer in the HC league. For once I'll actually have the time to put into playing, so a farm character and then some interesting other characters without being severely limited by finances.

After discussion with my theorycraft buddy, we settled on RF because why not. It's easy to level as SB, in theory. And doesn't really get lazier than RF. Maybe I'll do a CWS/CDT build in SC but I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate for HC.

RF - AoE/conc.e - IBD - IIR

Or something. I can usually afford a 1ex major item by level 60~ on a new character, so Phoenix is just about right.