🧙┃mage

[proud swift]

Thank you ❤️

[rough delta]

i was using Woven Flesh for leveling, hit 85 for reduce, but didn't have any Body armor to replace Woven ^^

Now i have got another problem i need to change my boot / glove for Unique, loosing all reduce :/

I just had a Divin Revelation : We NEED SpellBlade Flicker Strike !!!

[harsh abyss]

Sorry, flicker strike exists but it's on Rogue

Lethal Mirage is straight up flicker strike

[rough delta]

So be it ! i'll play Rogue FLicker, but i still need SpellBlade one :p

[unreal blade]

i'd say it's closer to monk seven sided strike in D3.

flicker has no cd iirc

mana strike with teleporting strikes could have been flicker strike, but it teleports the strikes not the mage.

[rough delta]

this node feels so weird when you have played melee MS for hours

don't know if i prefere safer + range or more Mana and melee

[proper hawk]

Safer + range every time, unless the mana is necessary for something

[nimble shoal]

This. And even if you do need mana for something, it's best to try and get that from the mana on crit node and mana on rare/boss hit node instead of dropping the range, if you can (these node are not affected by the -80%).

[rough delta]

Thanks i'll look into it, was in leveling and just felt "Mana strike" doesn't give mana ; )

[unreal blade]

for leveling i'd keep it melee for quite a while. i forget when i finally switched over, but i think it was after i got up to but not including the ranged node, while having 4/4 spark node and at least 2/5 critical mana. all the mana cost reductions in frostclaw are very helpful as well, and you may need to hold off on converging chains on lightning blast due to mana. i picked that up after everything else was in place.

[rough delta]

"added to my leveling tips thanks" ^^ i didn't finished my leveling, don't want to spoil/burn out before 17th ; i wasn't on the spark part yet, your "FC nodes + Staff trick" did the job

[unreal blade]

oh if you are doing FC staff leveling then ignore all that. the above would be for leveling as mana strike/spark the whole way, which i did on my hardcore character i've been playing recently.

[rough delta]

i like to adapt and try a lot of different stuff, respec into spark mid campaign won't bother me

[weary hamlet]

it's not ass in this patch already

rogue had been playing low life ward basically ever since they made the low life ward items back in 0.7

until falconer cause it power crept even something that everybody considered to be immune to power creep

don't worry the next patch will be even worse because even the developers are saying that it will have "some power creep", translated to normal language that means power creep through the roof and a half

I wouldn't bet on any current build being competitive in 1.2

reactive ward used to be fairly widespread on mage builds, no idea about right now, haven't played mage in a hot minute. If anything mage tree is pretty damn good compared to other classes' base trees

the average node from primalist tree: 30 healing every 3 seconds

[rough delta]

i don't understand everything, but seems scary ;'( will our build be bad ? can't be so bad ? right? :/

[weary hamlet]

the average node from mage tree: 50% ward retention

[weary hamlet]

your build will likely be 50% better than now, but chances are new builds will be 50000% better than your build

just how it goes with LE

chances are it's gonna be gutted, together with RM ward retention passives

[rough delta]

ya i'am cool with it, my egoist take is "if i can beat aberroth in HC without getting one shot without reason", it's enought for me

[spare pendant]

every time ive noticed when I don't level with reactive ward, it feels like I am naked. At least up until empowered monos

that first portion of leveling will make you feel supremely squishy if your trying to go fast if you dont go for reactive ward

[harsh abyss]

Interesting, I never feel too squishy, but I prioritize getting a runestone and some other ward/sec and I feel pretty fine usually

[rough delta]

i think we are referring to early leveling / so loot dependent (gonna add runestone ward/sec to my filter 😉 )

[unreal blade]

yeah ritual stone and flame ward on cooldown and i never dip into life pool again until empowered monos. just upgrade ritual stone to rune stone to opulent focus.

[unreal blade]

ritual stone is level 12, and usable as a white item with the high wps it gives for its level. just equipping one usually gives you half your health in stable ward.

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, Ritual stone makes early leveling a breeze as far as HP. I agree that you feel squishy early, but some ward/sec really helps that

In the late game, lots of builds want an offhand that gives you flat crit, but throughout the leveling experience the ones that give you defenses are super valuable. In general defenses are harder to get than offenses in the game, so having a good source of that is nice. We'll see what things look like with the patch.

[harsh abyss]

I really hope not, that early source of ward retention is key for mage builds. Only thing is... I feel like those nodes in the base tree are 'must take' which generally means they're bad design. So I can understand them getting hit. The RM one isn't so bad because it requires a scepter, which is the least desired caster weapon usually.

[nimble shoal]

imo the mage base tree's must-takes are more because there's no decent alternatives more than there's any OP options

but 10% ward retention per point is pretty solid, especially comparing to all the 1 int/pt nodes getting reduced to 2% per point

so I guess maybe that might be a target, but ideally they'd just move some of that power elsewhere on the passive tree

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, I'd probably rework the base mage tree in general, just by moving the different options around a bit.

Only node I'd probably remove is Arcane Current

[nimble shoal]

Both of those nodes need a redo on their effect

5s cooldown on a nothing-tier proc lol

[weary hamlet]

these must be from that mysterious POE2 game I keep hearing about with slow and methodical dark souls grade combat

[jovial pine]

@proven haven from the bottom of my heart thank you for your builds. I was madly struggling to do 200 corr with maxroll frostbite build and now i have zero problems with the spark charge frost claw build

[proud swift]

I am playing Rune Master and going through campaign. Just reached desert area. I just got Reowyn's Fortress with 0 LP. Should i make a build around this item?

[abstract musk]

I can confirm, I've died multiple times XD
Total noob here, reactive ward? What's that?

[rough delta]

Mage basic tree :

[abstract musk]

Yeah, I remember that now

I mean, if it has "no maximum", that can get pretty broken

[rough delta]

it's not broken - it's just very strong when low level, it's automatic shield / potion, with big cd

poeple here recommended me using Ritual and rune stone for leveling, makes you tanky

Those + Reactive Ward should avoid one shots

[abstract musk]

Yeah, I can see how that makes you tanky.
It's basically a big buffer (or can be big) between enemy attacks and your health.

[unreal blade]

it is a great item but difficult to gear around. wouldn't recommend messing around with it in campaign. it's more of an endgame weapon.

[proud swift]

Thanks

[harsh abyss]

Ward decays faster the more that you have. So there's "no maximum" but functionally there really is

The forumla for the decay used to let you get to absolutely absurd numbers, but they changed it a while back to have effectively a soft cap

[crimson meadow]

Hi, i am newbie in last epoch (despite playing on and off on my spellblade for a year) - where i should get some good items, to get my shattering strike build roling.
everyone just says you should get that and this but not where

[harsh abyss]

If it's unique items, you can target farm them at specific monoliths or from the bosses that drop them. If you look them up on lastepochtools.com they tell you which monolith to farm them at.

For exalted items, you can do the same, monoliths have specific "exalted <item>" rewards that you can look for.

If you're still in the campaign, unless a unique is required for a build (like bloody nib for those shatterstrike builds), you can generally get by without uniques

[crimson meadow]

I am currently jumping betwen these islands in the void

[harsh abyss]

That's monoliths, so you're in the first part of the endgame probably

Look for the ones that offer specific rewards. Need a new shield? There are monolith echoes that drop shields

[woven lark]

Hey, I actually wrote the Frostibite Frost Claw guide on Maxroll. While Frozen's build is amazing for sure, struggling to do 200 Corruption with the Frostbite variant is not a build issue. The build easily clears 1000+ Corruption on the proper setup.

I'm now wondering if something isn't explained properly on the guide or if you might have missed a key detail in it?

[crimson meadow]

Yeach now i am trying to get some bonecawler helmet or smth xD

[harsh abyss]

Did you join the Circle of Fortune, or the Merchant's Guild?

If you're CoF, you can get prophecies that drop unique helmets that will make getting it much easier

If you're MG, you can probably buy it off the AH for cheap

[rough delta]

I followed BinaQc's build, (with my old character without stuff) unique Catalyst "Vial of Volatile Ice" was game-changing for damage (went from 100 stack too 350+); for sustain Weaver's will belt+ring for ward were good

[proven haven]

I've heard this feedback a couple times and my guess is just that the Spark Charge FC setup has its power spike instantly at level 51, with low level and low gear vs Frostbite which might take longer, even though the single target (ignoring Static Orb integration) on frostbite scales harder

On a side note, I also think Frostbite FC is more likely to survive into 1.2

[woven lark]

I am in the middle of updating all guides for 1.2, and if something is really missing i would love to know tbh

This might even be valuable feedback for all guides

[jovial pine]

sorry for the flaming, your guide had damage but zero survivabilty, the lack of ward retention made the build really risky.

[woven lark]

The no LP version has 455% Ward retention

[proven haven]

I think a big difference is that the spark charge variant applies its damage instantly and across most of the screen, in echos trash enemies are not alive long enough to damage you

[woven lark]

I was just wondering about the issue at play. At 200c everything is permanently frozen, but for sure before you get Frostbite Shackles the survivability is not amazing.

[jovial pine]

yep my main problem was getting the right gear ad stack cold resist without borking the rest, i spent 20 hours and with the drops i managed to go spark charge without getting any upgrades for the frostbite

[rough delta]

link your build so we can see

here's my ssf hc lvl 90 no glooves : https://www.lastepochtools.com/profile/Kiwi_ikipou/character/Lassaf_Le_Fou

i feel safe at 200c, but was very dangerous without ward items (belt rings relic)

like 4.5k ward, 2k HP, 800 stack on Bosses

(frostbite FC ele nova)

to link you go there : https://www.lastepochtools.com/profile/ and put your name

[proven haven]

I think that is quite a bit less ward than the Sorc version, to be fair. At only level 70 without uniques my HC SSF character already was 4k stable ward:
https://www.youtube.com/live/yayW20yIRRU?si=w-Xsdls9DQUZhkPz&t=1448

[jovial pine]

i had the advanced version
https://maxroll.gg/last-epoch/planner/e62eu0o9#3
unable to do julra for the slams

i had a better sceptre, but could not find any decent chest, worthwhile rings and amulet

[proven haven]

Freeze should help though

[rough delta]

try use this one ? :

[jovial pine]

does not matter anymore I already made the switch and I'm pretty happy
Imho lack of appropriate drop and skills. I've played mage very little

[rough delta]

wanted to point that the build felt underwhelming Offensively and defensively, BEFORE having some key items (coming from unstuff 70 char)

[jovial pine]

i used a T7 frost claw relic instead. wa unable to find a spare one for the slam

[rough delta]

Your relic is better for Attack, mine for defense (won't change in hc i love it - give me 1.5k ward)

[proven haven]

yea twisted is pog

[rough delta]

i have got "only" 4.5k ward, but it generate so fast ! + hp is not "low"

i prefere this way, than Necro wraithlord that can't generate ward for herself

[jovial pine]

i was barely hitting 3k ward but unable to maintain it while dodging the attacks. Also the freeze worked only on mobs, bosses were barely slowed down. The female harbinger fight was an absolute nightmare.
So i just switched, i had all the items already. I do less damage for sure but now i can keep up 6k ward, i can do every boss

so to come clear: i was very unlucky with the necessary drops and, in the end, the game decided for me the build to play

[rough delta]

Most important is having fun ^^ but yeah solo CoF sometime feels bad... chasing items

[harsh abyss]

I dunno I think that's what most people like about COF. You're getting things yourself instead of just buying them

[proven haven]

For people who don't like trade, it is the enjoyable way to play. I don't think most people play CoF just to punish themselves with a "hard mode" though, which it "can" feel like early on with certain builds that depend on specific affixes / uniques, until you get to that critical mass of strength / favor per hour / faction rank / corruption (for rarity to drop exalts), etc.

[rough delta]

i was pointing the Limit of CoF "i need my T7 on 2H weapon that never drop", BUT it'll be "fixed" on 17th !

fixed => improved is better

[proven haven]

Possibly, depending on how good the weaver targeting sockets are, how accessible Runes of Havoc are, or any other new things we haven't seen yet (stay tuned for itemization talk I guess)

[harsh abyss]

I think they said that the Rune of Havoc is supposed to be a bit more common than rune of Ascendence?

[jovial pine]

at least this game has a lot of options.. if a build is unreachable but you have hoarded items smartly, another variation is still viable for progress.
I love so much the guides with included progression so actual guides. I had to discard a lot of interesting builds on lastepochtools because people just showcased the finished version without giving out clear directions on how to reach it or stat priorities

[weary hamlet]

people don't usually say "where" for two main reasons,

1. most uniques and all exalts are functionally "global drops"
2. the primary itemization method at endgame is your selection of COF or MG and you are expected to use your faction's mechanic to farm

[weary hamlet]

I'm an altoholic so for me gearing up 20 different builds that I don't even play yet is an advantage

[proven haven]

I feel like thats a pretty big advantage for MG though, since your "wealth" is more liquid you can re-allocate and re-deploy it quicker on specific things

CoF is only great if you know which 20 diferent builds you want ahead of time

[weary hamlet]

eh kinda, although again at that point you are looking at your stack of gold and wondering why you would waste it on playing a meme build

while with cof you already have items laying around in your stash, might as well try

[proven haven]

meme items are probably cheap though

[harsh abyss]

I dunno, I feel like the CoF/MG consideration isn't really related to meme builds or alts, like if you like making your builds in COF you'll probably be just as happy to do it for random alts and uniques that you find.

[proven haven]

I think it is a real consideration for people who are indifferent on trading. If you don't hate it then you could decide to play MG based on your enjoyment of meme builds which will be cheaper

or someone like dr3ad who plays a lot of different builds, who often cites that as a reason he plays MG

[junior coral]

What mage class is best now

[harsh abyss]

We wont have any details until the 11th

Gotta know whats in them patch notes

[junior coral]

i enjoy runemaster playstyle most. one of my fav arpg classes so interesting. but that was over a year ago or something last i played

hope it has some OP builds

[harsh abyss]

I'm 90% sure I'll be starting with a RM build, unless the patch notes are totally brutal for it

[weary hamlet]

not much changed for balance since last year, a couple of most degenerate ward nodes were nerfed and that's about it

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, we just have to see what's changing in the patch notes before we know for sure if there's gonna be anything significant

[crimson meadow]

Ok thanks, will keep it in mind.

[proud swift]

Playing as Rune Master. Found these so far. Still going through campaign. Reached Yulia's base. Thinking of Going rune master volcanic orb build with these. SHould I?

[next lance]

If you enjoy RM then I would just suggest you play that rather than chase what is the most OP at the time

[grave path]

yo guys question what should i do from this point on my character ?

https://www.lastepochtools.com/profile/NedraRubio/character/ZapZap

[unreal turtle]

for leveling a spell blade, what are some good slam options?

i have a 2 LP yruns

[proud swift]

1. If I max out all Mana efficiency node in the Volcanic orb skill tree and also have -3 mana cost from my item then how much does it bring down the mana cost to?

2. Is it worth investing in mana/mana regen nodes in the passive tree? I am playing Rune master. Looking to play Volcanic orb and fire Runic invocation spells.

[fervent ledge]

I really like the builds were you use fire wall and the fire slide skill to max out dps. Feels so active and cool combos. Kind of like what poe2 is trying to do but is actually fun and works lol

For Runemaster

Hope those are still good next patch.

[next lance]

PoE 2's combos work, the issue is the monsters but yeah

PoE 2 still needs some work but that's to be expected

[fervent ledge]

True

One poe2 in playing a Chrono who spams cooldown spells frostwall and frost bomb, after frost curse. Excited to pick up Runemaster again

Love me some good ole rotational mages. Marvel Heroes had something like this too in Dr.Strange

[proud swift]

I was looking at making a Volcanic Orb build for my Rune Master but It seems Volcanic Orb is not very good on Rune Master. I feel like a melee class like Spell blade would benefit way more from it. Am I correct?

[jovial drum]

I have a spreading flames ailment question - several people have told me you can't scale its base fire damage. Can someone confirm that is the case and then maybe explain why since you can scale other ailments that have base fire damage.

[harsh abyss]

Well, you can't scale any ailments base damage in LE. They all have a set value and you only give them increased and more damage, or penetration.

The reason people don't often try and scale spreading flames is, unlike other ailments, you can only apply 1 stack of it

Vs other ailments, you can apply multiple stacks, which is what they may be referring to as scaling the "base" damage of it.

[unreal blade]

check out this video/guide from Dr3adful #🎥┃video-shoutout message

[weary hamlet]

I don't think that it is seriously playable on any spellblade build except for maybe frostbite SS (is that even a build?). But it can be used on frostbite swarmblade

[unreal turtle]

i was just looking for low level items with LP i could use but im loooking for ideas

whatever makes the most sense

[weary hamlet]

I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call the damage of flame rush "working" in any serious meaning of that word, with or without getting boosted by flame wall

[weary hamlet]

spellblade has very limited scaling for spells, also on most builds you will mostly be in melee range especially on bosses so that spell having short range isn't much of a drawback. I'd say that it's better on sorc than on rm but that's just because sorc is better than rm for anything that isn't rm-specific after the last round of balance

[nimble shoal]

Technically 🤓 you can scale ailments with added damage that have the appropriate tag, like "Spell" or "Melee", the typical ailments just don't have a tag like that. None of them are mage ailments, they're mostly curses.

[proven haven]

Flat mana reduction applies before % modifiers.

So base minus flat reduction then the mana efficiency applies off that

[proven haven]

Hold on. You mean added flat? I was aware increased / more could be transfered but not "added"

[nimble shoal]

Yeah, it's fundamental to how (most) curses scale, as well as chained, abyssal decay, and laceration

[proud swift]

Thanks

[proud swift]

Thanks

[proud swift]

Thanks

[harsh abyss]

For anyone planning to do a Mana Guide build, they posted a updated version in a thread on the reddit:

Only 1 LB per second, 50% less armor, but 10% more movespeed than previous

[unreal blade]

i feel targeted

[weary hamlet]

day 0 nerfs

[unreal blade]

dps was already going to be questionable, now 1/3 the LBs 😦

[abstract scaffold]

Wow, they made an already niche item bad? Honestly might be more used as a levelling item for the ward tbh. Unless focus or lightning blast is giga buffed and we just don't know yet

[weary hamlet]

most items in the game are "already niche", that doesn't preclude them from being OP

focus reeked of ghostflame 2.0 but even worse with this

cause you get three layers of DR for free while in it

four I guess with enough points

[harsh abyss]

tbh I think it'll be fine. It honestly just discourages specifically stacking armor, you get so much armor from the node while channeling that you'd be nigh invulnerable by default.

Pushes it towards more of a mana stacking focus

The LB was never going to be your primary damage source during the channeling, but now it's going to mostly just be a lightning aegis generator I think

[abstract scaffold]

If you go for DR tho, you won't be doing any damage. So at that point it's just rebuke but you can move, and with less consistent DR. I can't imagine much use-case for anything but that really

[harsh abyss]

Nah you can get the damage super high and still get a decent amount of defense

[unreal blade]

the defense nerf was justified. having the only damage source while channeling this be cut by 2/3 is a little rough. it already wasn't going to do game breaking damage like a falconer or tornado bear.

[abstract scaffold]

Not that that's bad per-se? Rebuke/tanking skill is good, just miffed you can no longer make a build around it even if you tried

[harsh abyss]

Those are probably bad comparisons since those are probably the highest dps builds and are likely on the choppying block

[abstract scaffold]

I never expected it to do that, just being viable enough to be fun

[unreal blade]

just giving examples of builds that were apparently fine to leave in the game, but this amulet that did questionably viable damage is nerfed already.

[harsh abyss]

"Only damage source" is definitely a misnomer. The thing is clearly meant to build around Energy Overflow

[abstract scaffold]

This is all still speculation though, it could have a combo we don't know about that makes it do the most damage in the game or something, no point complaining yet 🤷‍♀️

[unreal blade]

except it's bad at enabling that, since you must be at full mana to get the damage modifier for lightning waves. and if you are mana stacking to use waves as a damage source, you neglect a lot of defense and tend to get stuck with mana defense, which makes it difficult to stay at full mana, even with overcharge buffer.

[harsh abyss]

Huh, just had kind of an interesting thought, actually. You can stack the Flame Walker fire auras from Spellblade and use them while channeling. Since you're moving, you'll be able to get those going.

[unreal blade]

my build had those, not really for damage, but for lightning res shred.

[abstract scaffold]

And do what with them...?

[harsh abyss]

Also IDK, moving is a huge defense on its own, so I have a feeling it'll be fine.

[harsh abyss]

Lightning shred, but also chip damage to kill little stuff.

[abstract scaffold]

Oh, technically you could make the lightning waves ranged if you use it on a minion, and you'll still be able to move. Mirror image build perhaps? lol

[harsh abyss]

Even without overflow and mana defense, you can still fully fill out one of the -25% damage taken nodes, with some decent +levels gear. Even just one of those is crazy strong.

Someone speculated 4 mages doing it together, all focusing the lightning waves on one person

Kind of hilarious, actually. That person leads and just wipes everything out instantly

[unreal blade]

yes but then where does your damage come from

[harsh abyss]

IDK having like 2000 mana and using Energy Overflow + Unstable Energy? It does a pretty decent amount of damage, especially if you're using things that give More modifiers like Mad Alchemist's or huge damage boosts like Wrongwarp

[unreal blade]

you said no overflow, so i was trying to figure it out

[harsh abyss]

Sorry I meant overcharge, not overflow

was thinking 'mana overflow'

[unreal blade]

then you lose your damage modifier constantly

[harsh abyss]

No, you don't use mana defense

[unreal blade]

curious what sort of defense you'd use then. ward will not be great with such high mana investment, the amulet now cuts your armor in half.

[harsh abyss]

It cuts your armor in half, which just counteracts the bonus from Iron Stance (+48%)

But also, you use Ward/sec or other ward generation methods. With that much mana, Mana Shell is going to be putting in work all on its own.

[unreal blade]

that's not how that works.

[harsh abyss]

You're still at a decent amount of armor, it's not like it kills it entirely

It's effectively 26% less armor and ignore the More armor from Iron Stance

And if you were to go RM instead of Sorc, you could theoretically get the Runic Fortress armor, which isn't nothing.

[unreal blade]

yes and lose a lot of mana scaling

[abstract scaffold]

Well yeah, it doesn't kill it, but it certainly does cripple it significantly for seemingly no reason. Again though, this is still speculation assuming focus stays the same

[harsh abyss]

True, but you'd get a GonGonGon invocation, which can give you a decent amount of damage any time you stop channeling. Pop a ball lightning on a boss or whatever and restart channeling to get the More damage from the Brand

I'd still probably go Sorc, but still

[unreal blade]

that was my build, RM with runic fortress with spark charges, frostwall shooting lightning blasts and LLL RI. using those last 2 for thick targets.

the defense was extremely good, now just very good. the offense was questionable, now probably not viable without using the whole kit all the time.

stopping to use those things every pack would be tedious

[eager wharf]

I wonder what they saw that made them nerf both aspects that much

[harsh abyss]

You might not need to, depends on how good the damage from Energy Overflow feels, tbh

[harsh abyss]

IDK maybe they test their game 🤷‍♀️

I hear some companies do that

[unreal blade]

i wasn't using waves for damage (other than to apply spark charges)

[harsh abyss]

oh, that's a very different plan than I imagined then

Then I can't speak to the status of your build, heh

[eager wharf]

Yeah of course, but im just curious what the build was they tested it on

[unreal blade]

~https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BZM3geYQ

[harsh abyss]

Man, swap them boots for Tel'fun's Mirage for a bit less movespeed but free ~20% dodge

[eager wharf]

(not saying i dont trust them)

[unreal blade]

no way lol

[harsh abyss]

Oh I know, it was mostly a jab at GGG 😝

I'm guessing with dev tools they can set up builds pretty easily, if they have a couple 'intended' use cases, I'm sure they try them out. Especially with the delay allowing for additional testing/polish

[eager wharf]

maybe with patch notes it also makes it more obvious

[harsh abyss]

Ah, I see, so it's just all defense all the time for your focus, yeah that's way different than I was thinking.

[unreal blade]

i typically play high defense low to moderate offense builds, at least ones i intend to play for a long time. so this was in line with that.

[harsh abyss]

Fair enough, maybe it'll work out

[unreal blade]

i'll probably shift to the backup plan that's harder to gear but sidesteps this nerf.

not how i wanted to play it though

[nimble shoal]

Mana guide definitely looked super busted, now it still seems strong, just not so overbearing. Certainly deserved, it narrows down its options a good bit though.

[eager wharf]

Yeah.. and better it's nerfed now than during the season

I wonder though, what are some cool uses for the lightning blast proc now? Since its damage potential is much lower now

I guess you could spread chill or other ailments to enemies further away

[next frost]

lightning aegis for 25% DR?

[eager wharf]

hm yeah, and blind I guess

though that doesn't seem very reliable

[nimble shoal]

I'm thinking it might still be good to help with clear speed, and including static in might be worthwhile now to proc more LBs

I still wonder how mana guide interacts with AA, if it works then that's another source of LBs

Granted, that's a ton of specs eaten for it

[eager wharf]

arcane ascendance? You think it's possible this makes it so you can move during that?

but yeah maybe the LB proc can still carry some weight

[nimble shoal]

It's a maybe, yeah. iirc you can use move skills during it like evade without breaking it

But I might be misremembering also lol

[proven haven]

correct, I tried out a perma ascane ascend build in 1.1 with the continuously ramping damage stuff. I think I did flames of midnight and teleport which are separate cooldowns

[nimble shoal]

So AA is likely on the menu

[vital thorn]

I everyone, i will play mage this next season, do you recommend me any build?

[inner oriole]

Wait for patch notes

[unreal blade]

worth noting both of those are instant position transfers rather than movement. i would be surprised if AA lets you move while focus is active.

[quasi wedge]

any builds where I can rotate spells, WoW style?

[weary hamlet]

this game's combat is pretty much direct opposite of wow so not really

[quasi wedge]

I know

[weary hamlet]

like you could try having a runic invocation build and using the rune builders manually but that's gonna suck

[quasi wedge]

but at least something maybe

[weary hamlet]

but it's probably the closest it comes to a rotation based build on mage

[quasi wedge]

I am running rune mage and just spamming fireball
I guess I could be spamming some other spells

maybe closest is RI on CD+nova on CD+glyph on CD?

[weary hamlet]

ah yeah right there are minor synergies with glyph and RI where you can make glyph scale with runes and using runes on glyph trigger RI

the opposite one too where you can make glyph into a charge skill and have RI refund charges, i.e. when used in traversal mode

still this barely constitutes a "rotation" in the wow sense

[quasi wedge]

jeah sadly

[unreal blade]

wild magic runemaster is about as crazy as you can get in LE, and it's even decent. won't be as tanky as in the past, but should be good enough for low corruption to mess around with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFyT9ovcpYc

if you are wanting something like a very specific rotation, torment warlock is probably the best bet. spam spirit plague to build up stacks of %inc dmg, lay down fissure, then profane veil to amp the damage of everything, then repeat spamming spirit plague to reduce the CD of veil and do it all again.

[weary hamlet]

yea but it has fu ck all in common with how WOW plays. Like arcane mage in WOW has (or at least had when I last played it) 4-5 buttons in rotation (compared to 10-20 of other classes) yet it involved very complex sequencing, decision making, and resource management. Playing nearly any build in LE is the opposite of that. And with random bullshit go RI builds you are just rolling the dice mostly as trying to manually sequence spells in specific configurations is highly inefficient in most cases

[unreal blade]

yeah just giving him something that might be interesting that's within the class, then i gave a more applicable example with torment lock.

[weary hamlet]

yea fair

tbh I wish they did something extra for the wild magic/random bullshit go/patriot builds of RM, it's a cool class fantasy that falls flat mathematically

that is not the spoiled unique that kinda rewards you for random sequencing but ditches all the effects of invos themselves

[harsh abyss]

Well, sometimes a build will have a rotation, where you use skill A then B, then C, and weave in D/E as the situation requires

Like I have a build where you Teleport to activate Mana Tunnel, then use RI to Ball Lightning and restore mana, then drop Glyph of Dominion, then channel Lightning Blast. And you have Flame Ward for situational uses

[gritty pagoda]

i AM SO GIGA HYPED

[harsh abyss]

TBH it couldn't have been anything else and made sense

But it's a relief for sure

But also, big nerfed. 1 damage per 2 int is a big debuff. But it makes sense since you can put it on a top tier staff

[gritty pagoda]

yea

should still be more flat overall given way better staff base

[nimble shoal]

Not to mention getting crit chance and multi and whatnot

[gritty pagoda]

yea

[nimble shoal]

If they hit Vilatria, but not enigma, I'll be shocked

Heh

[harsh abyss]

Oh yeah, I'd expect enigma to also get cut in half

If not worse

[quasi wedge]

I've cleared up until empowered monos with my ignite build

time to respec into tri nova 😟

[shell sparrow]

I'm not sure why they felt the need to add the 0.1% shock duration per int

"Oh man, I have 170 int, these 17% shock duration are going to be a gamechanger for sure"

[quasi wedge]

just as when I am about to respec 😛

[harsh abyss]

Theme, mostly. They said they don't want the set affixes to include stuff that you can get on the item normally. And with Vilatria's... the other affixes on the staff are all normal staff affixes so it makes sense. I'd much rather have the shock duration be the 'leveled' modifier than the "percent of meteor damage converted to lightning'

[shell sparrow]

I mean, the affix could have been just about meteor damage conversion

the 0.1% shock duration feels so out of place

[harsh abyss]

It's already on the item

Obviously nerfed for the crafted version, but still

The shard being 100% meteor conversion at all levels makes sense, because it wasn't 100% the shard would be hot garbage whenever it's less than 100%

[quasi wedge]

I would have never crafted something like this in a million years in PoE

yet I craft it here for fun

[weary hamlet]

the biggest point is that you can seal a t1 and still get the conversion and set bonus

[weary hamlet]

now it has very little opportunity cost in some builds, so the nerf is understandable

[gritty pagoda]

ye

[weary hamlet]

basically if you are not using a unique helmet and your build runs an exalted staff, you can now get this for free

I mean not using crit catalyst is opportunity cost but still

maybe if you are on a skill with crit in the tree it's not as bad

and hmmm all lightning spells have crit in their tree, and meteor too

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, it means you could theoretically do Lightning Meteors without needing the whole set to be functional

If you can seal the set on a nice exalted and get 2 strong prefixes on a good base, you'll have an amazing item without even needing the helmet

But also, deterministic 1LP items is huge for basically every build. Guaranteed T7 on anything you slam is huuuuuuge

[weary hamlet]

and you can havoc shit exalts with t7 lightning res into something potentially useful

[harsh abyss]

Yeah

SO many good new crafting options, this league is gonna be hype

[nimble shoal]

Yeah, just sealing that vilatria affix on staff will get you all you want really

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, if you can get a good sealed staff and helm combo it'll be bomb. I wonder what the helm affix is

[nimble shoal]

I'll guess lightning pen + shock chance per int, but hoping for +1 lightning + lightning pen

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, that would be the best

But yeah shock chance per int + lightning pen is probably what it is

[nimble shoal]

Can we do anything spicy with fundamental criterion now with our improved ability to stack strength or attunement?

[harsh abyss]

Cleaver Solution?

Only problem is that it'd be your mainhand

I'd been considering some sort of cleaver solution build a while back, but gave up because of str not being able to roll naturally on mage gear

I cant remember what I'd been planning to do though. You could feasibly do a Mana Guide build using cleaver as your main hand. You'd be giving up a wand/scepter, but your base damage is mainly going to come from mana anyway. And having 100+ strength is gonna be a lot of bonus armor to make up for the 50% less from Mana Guide

Anyone know if with Mana Strike, if you take the Frigid Grasp node (or use Yrun's Presence), does the flat added damage from the Mana Spark node get converted to cold as well? Or does it stay lightning damage?

[nimble shoal]

Yeah good thinking, it would probably need to be something like that or an ailment build of some sort

[nimble shoal]

Is that added lightning one? I feel like there's a good chance it stays lightning, but that's a very new conversion and they've been making them apply to more things lately

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, it's hard to test, I'll toss it in the dev ask channel again

[nimble shoal]

It'll be much easier in S2 if there's no luck in ask-the-devs. Removing damage variance on dummies was truly an inspired move lol

[harsh abyss]

#👨┃ask-the-devs-not-support-no-bugs message It does!

Okay that's actually interesting because you could do a mana stacking cold mana strike version.

[nimble shoal]

Oooh very nice

[harsh abyss]

I had something in mind when I first asked the question, but I can't remember it now.

[nimble shoal]

We have a few days left to abuse shattered lance with it 😂

[harsh abyss]

Maybe it was shattered lance + cold mana strike that I was thinking of

Get huge base damage from mana stacking on cold mana strike. Then use regen as your defense with shattered land to get 1500% increased cold melee damage

Or you'll have 100% crit, so you can use Clotho's Needle for +125% crit multi, using ranged mana strike

[nimble shoal]

Yeah, and regen + damage to mana should actually be solid

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, those paired together would be super strong

[nimble shoal]

Isn't clotho's a 2h?

[harsh abyss]

That's why I changed it to Or instead of And 😝

[nimble shoal]

Ah lol

[harsh abyss]

Or you could sacrifice some of the sorc passives and go for RM, and get Sanguine Runestones for 15% of health regen also gives ward/sec. So then you can double dip on regen in that way, even without vessel

[nimble shoal]

Very true, plus the mana endurance stuff

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, with 2000 mana you'd be looking at 600 endurance threshold? Pretty decent

Dunno if it's better than damage to mana and the extra mana that sorc gives though.

Especially since you're using mana strike and for a few points can regen tons of mana with it anyway

[nimble shoal]

Yeah, more damage from sorc might be better to have

Mana strike is very lacking in multis

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, it is. That's one of the problems with it. But between Shattered Lance 1500% increase assuming you can hit it and 300+ flat damage, you can probably do some decent stuff

Your regen presumably comes from suffixes, you don't need prefixes for increased damage or crit chance, so you can focus on crit multi with as many as you can get.

You'll get a decent amount of ward/sec just from Mana Shell (est 200+ ward/sec), you'll have an okay amount of threshold from Arcane Insight and whatever else you do. Your offhand can be a catalyst or shield since you aren't a spellblade...

Oh, and since you can deterministically get a T7 mod onto a 1lp item, getting T7 mana on any of the uniques that give you good mana boosts will be feasible, making gearing for it waaaaay easier

[nocturne temple]

what do we think about mana guide nerf?

is it even possible to have enough hits now to trigger meteors?

[weary hamlet]

you can just spec shrapnel in meteor itself and it will significantly boost your procs

cause while meteor cannot proc from meteor it can proc from shrapnel

[nocturne temple]

yea but then no dmg 😦

speccing LB to same target chain + spark charges might work

otherwise shrap it is

still think it will be really good despite the nerf

[unreal blade]

armor nerf was deserved. LB nerf wasn't.

[viral fox]

is black hole now a real skill??

[plain garnet]

Where are you seeing the mana guide nerf?

[ornate fox]

BH ignite was the main build I used this past season and it was pretty good

not meta, or like 500+ corruption good, but it was fun and good enough to do the content™️

[viral fox]

i would like to go crit with it and not dot

i hope double the damage is enough

[ornate fox]

yeah I dont think the changes they listed will really effect a BH dot build much

[viral fox]

yea only buff

[ornate fox]

I mean free damage is free damage but still

[plain garnet]

The buffs to health and health regen in this season make vessel of strife a really interesting option for hybrid health/ward builds.

[weary hamlet]

doubtful without further buffs

[weary hamlet]

the problem with it is that it's extremely similar to glyph of dominion ignite, except that glyph is actually a decent and fun build

and black hole isn't

also while we are on that page it will be indirectly buffed by itemization changes in the next season cause it's a hybrid build at best and will benefit from hp buffs

[viral fox]

ah man..

[weary hamlet]

I rather wonder whether they will include more buffs for fire disintegrate cause that lightning node ain't doing it for me chief

[unreal blade]

vessel is getting nerfed to compensate for health regen buffs

[plain garnet]

Is it? I didn't see that mentioned.

[unreal blade]

it's been said on dev streams

[unreal blade]

#🧙┃mage message

[ornate fox]

Without doing the math I feel like it's easier to get more ignite stacks from BH than glyph. Glyph giving 6 stacks a sec, with 1% faster application per ignite chance, and BH giving 1 stack of ignite per sec per 10% fire resist as well as 40% longer ignite. Fun is subjective and like I said it was a good enough build to do 300+ corruption

[plain garnet]

Makes sense. Still, if the nerf isn't extreme, I could see it being really good. It was already possible to get enough health regen to get to like 700/sec easily, and adding a bunch more, combined with Reactive Ward and ~2500 hp, could make a hybrid build very interesting.

Traditionally in other ARPGs like PoE, high regen builds have always felt really smooth to play

[weary hamlet]

not only does glyph apply more ignites individually and it's not close, you can also always place two simultaneously and it has massive more multipliers in its tree

and in RI tree too

[harsh abyss]

Also the glyph itself does pretty significant dot damage too

[weary hamlet]

true it's like 20-40% of your total damage without ignite pop I'd guess

[fervent ledge]

How low will ward be now

[harsh abyss]

Itll be fine. Harder to push to crazy numbers but with the new ward/sec affixes itll be strong still.

[fervent ledge]

Nice

[harsh abyss]

5-6k should still be easily doable with the right setup

Pending actual patch notes, of course

But getting a bit of ward/sec from the new affixes should make the campaign very smooth for mages

[fervent ledge]

I remember Runemaster being pretty tanky when I played last over a year ago

[harsh abyss]

Its been nerfed heavily since then, but it was busted OP at that point so its nbd

[rapid hinge]

losing an one button 30% DR shield for sure hurts

[fervent ledge]

So Runemaster no good now? Squishy?

[weary hamlet]

it's still good, just not braindead immortal while also putting out 100 times more dps than the second best class

[harsh abyss]

Nah its fine

[hushed sigil]

bro I just GOT used to runemaster's less tankiness now I have to do it again D:

[fervent ledge]

How is spell blade

[unreal blade]

you can already be functionally immortal with a ritual stone/runestone/opulent focus and some int through the campaign. mage might be the safest class in early game, especially with flame ward there to help when needed.

[weary hamlet]

it has like 3 or 4 builds cause of zero synergy with the rest of mage

but those builds arent necessarily bad

[rugged shell]

Guys it's finally time to play shattered lance with the julra relic

And shatter strike at that..

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, I realized this while leveling a primalist a little bit ago.

[harsh abyss]

You can't combine them because set bonuses can't get put onto uniques. You need a relic for the lance set

[rugged shell]

Aw man

Hopes destroyed dreams ruined

I guess it could be nice to read sometimes

[graceful glen]

have we talked about how broken vilatria's set bonus could be yet?

applied to a good exalted staff

[harsh abyss]

Oh yeah it's gonna be great.

Nerfed in half, but still super strong

[hushed sigil]

other classes really should have some flame ward analogue for their respective defensive layer yeah.

[graceful glen]

it was nerfed?

[pine scarab]

Does the Mage Passive "Silver Rune" effect the amount of ward gained from all sources or just from the "Sun and Storms" passive?

[rugged shell]

Didn't it specify it only affects sun and storm

Iirc

[pine scarab]

er... yeah it does sorry this was a case of not being able to read

[rugged shell]

Me neither dude

Don't worry

[weary hamlet]

1 flat per 2 int

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, half as strong, but still REALLY good since you can just craft that onto endgame bases.

Slap that on a Dragon Staff for good times.

[proven haven]

It does feel like a pretty big nerf to the full int stack setup, but yeah low opportunity cost if you are using a staff already. For the 200 int meteor I did I lose 100 flat at 900% effectiveness, but then gain back about 30 from a better base plus potentially cast speed, crit multi, or whatever.

There might be some niche builds that combine this with Gate Staff even

[weary hamlet]

pro tip: it's highly unlikely that mana spent gained as ward is gonna get nerfed any time soon

among all ward effects

[proven haven]

yeah agree

[weary hamlet]

gate staff's time to shine

[harsh abyss]

That's because it sucks

[weary hamlet]

its pretty good on like one build

[harsh abyss]

Like, give me ward/sec any day compared to mana spent gained as ward.

[weary hamlet]

or maybe two

[proven haven]

it sucks relative to the 1000 per second or whatever you get from lost knowledge

sure

but like, come on

[harsh abyss]

I think the idea is that you should have a variety of ways to generate ward. Some ward/sec, some from passives, some from mana spent, etc.

[weary hamlet]

I mean it's not out of the realm of possibility to also stack it to like 1k per sec or so, how much can you feasibly get between bases and affixes? like 350%?

[proven haven]

I think the idea is that you prioritize the ward gen method that best synergizes with your build choice

[weary hamlet]

but your problem is the downtime while regenning it back

for instance mana strike based builds can churn through like 150-180 mana per sec more or less indefinitely

[proven haven]

problem is most of it is triggered stuff

which doesn't work

for mana spent gained as ward xd

[weary hamlet]

it even makes sense in context of a real build like static spellblade or VO sorc like what dread showed in one of his recent vids

nah its mostly static

it costs 200+ and you can load it up in about 1,5 sec

[harsh abyss]

I might actually try my Shattered Lance Mana Strike build this time around.

[proven haven]

Another one is also the static orb refund with LB thing

but assuming static orb is dead

[harsh abyss]

Mana stacking Static Orb is specifically getting nerfed, so maybe not dead but less strong for sure

I don't think EHG will kill the build entirely

[weary hamlet]

well as much as I dislike it being chronically OP, I hope it isn't completely deleted from the game

[rustic scaffold]

I'm trying to playaround that corrupted heraldry staff thing for VO atm

Hopefully VO gets a bit of love too lol

[shrewd pilot]

what is VO? Im new to Epoch (or rather haven't played since before multiplayer was launched) so im interested in what are some interesting builds out there

[harsh abyss]

Volcanic Orb

There's gonna be a LOT of build theorycrafting happening starting on Friday when the patch notes come out.

[shrewd pilot]

ok. i was looking at that. I played to much d2 back in the day was looking at that to turn it into the frozen orb XD. I gotta learn all the lingo for this game now.

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, one of the nice parts about LE is, if there's a skill that it seems like you can build around, you almost certainly can.

So it's a really good game to experiment with builds and try stuff out

[shrewd pilot]

currently im leveling around disintegrate beam, and buffing lighting blast. I think it's working off of the disintegrate beam without having to have lighting blast on the bar. but im noob just praying XD

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, it should. You can trigger skills when they're not on your bar

You should also be able to see it while channeling

[shrewd pilot]

if i spin the beam around fast enough i notice it, but one thing im not noticing alot of is the bouncing off targets.

[weary hamlet]

not sure if it works or not (probably does) but the issue is that disintegrate and LB have literally zero overlap in scaling, at least if you don't lightning convert disintegrate

then it will have some.. minor.. overalp

[shrewd pilot]

the lightning blast does go off every few seconds for sure. but it just doesn't seem to work as well as if i was using the lightning blast on its own.

[weary hamlet]

yea, cause if you are just casting it yourself, you can easily hit 2-3 casts per second with some cast speed

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, if you're using it to support disintegrate, you'll probably still want to focus on buffing the disintegrate damage, but it can provide some additional value and single target dps.

[shrewd pilot]

so what level is it considered to be out of leveling?

[weary hamlet]

most veterans drop the campaign after retrieving heorot's lancem since that's when you get the full idol slots and passive points, and transition to mono

normal monos is still "leveling" but functionally it's early endgame

especially in 1.2 since you will have a lot more new mechanics starting from normal monos already

[weary hamlet]

that should be around level 45 or so

by the time you hit empowered you are gonna be around 70-75

by the time you are 90+ the leveling slows down drastically so that's the end of any kind of a real "leveling" part

at level 75 you get 20 points in skill trees and some of the most high level item bases have level reqs around 84, so those are some of the final milestones

[shrewd pilot]

Ok. Im currently at lvl 44 but im just working my way to invade the Citadel during the Imerial Age questline.

[weary hamlet]

you will want to get to act 9 of the campaign to pick a loot faction, but you can do that by shortcutting through Temporal Sanctum later when you have a key

or just do the campaign linearly although the parts between the lance and choosing a faction are a slog

[harsh abyss]

Once you get into the rhythm for them (And don't bother too much with sidequests) you can get from lance to campaign end in an hour or two

[weary hamlet]

not when you have to raw dog lagon in process

[harsh abyss]

Campaign lagon is easy though

[weary hamlet]

not if you are like real new

with a wonky build

bad items

[harsh abyss]

That's fair I guess

[weary hamlet]

and no fear of the tentacles

[harsh abyss]

I think it'll be a lot easier with some of the new affixes. Better health, ward/sec and such is going to really help new players.

Also I think brand new players are just gonna play through the campaign and not do all the skips that veterans and build guiders do

[shrewd pilot]

yeah...i've done every side quest so far. skipped the dungeons for so far. but only found a key for 1 of them

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, as you play more you'll determine which side quests you want to skip because they take more time and aren't worth it. It'll cut down your campaign length by quite a lot. But the sidequests do give you a lot of good lore and stuff.

[left carbon]

I've achieved Spellblade, fun stuff lol

[harsh abyss]

I'm definitely seriously considering a silly mana strike spellblade (actually sorcerer) build during S2, I think it's got potential.

[left carbon]

Thing is, I have not much knowledge about ARPGs, not even sure how i would begin building a class lol

[harsh abyss]

You can probably find some good beginner guides online, but the TL:DR is: Your skills have tags. That's what causes them to scale. If you hold ALT on them, it will tell you how they scale. Get things that scale those tags (get intelligence for skills the scale with intelligence. Get lightning damage for skills that scale with lightning damage, etc)

Then also build defenses, which will vary based on the build, but as a mage you generally want to build into Ward, so sources of ward on the tree are valuable defensively.

[shrewd pilot]

i haven't seen any, but there aren't monsters/bosses that are immune to any specific elements are there?

[harsh abyss]

Nope, there are ones that are resistant, but not immune

[shrewd pilot]

ok. i just remember my d2 days and then all of a sudden I couldn't kill anything. just wanted to make sure I didn't run into that here

[harsh abyss]

Nah, I think devs mostly realized that that design sucks

[shrewd pilot]

I mean, there was always ways around it once you were in top gear. I just didn't want to run into it before i planned for it XD

[slender remnant]

Where can I find glacier sorc early game loot filters?

[silk bobcat]

So is my dark shroud/BotFK void flame aura build going to be playable this patch?

[shrewd pilot]

is it common for mages to have over 3k mana at higher levels?

[proven haven]

not "common" but it is possible. I think I did a build with 3.8k ish...? You could probably get more but at that point whatever you are scaling with it is probably already scaled lol

[harsh abyss]

2k is a much more approachable amount. I'd say 2.5 is probably where most builds will prefer investment elsewhere

[abstract musk]

Yeah, diablo 2 on hell difficulty kind of sucked.
Sucked in the sense that it was hard to kill most things

Then there are the zombies who are completely immune to everything, except magic damage.
Hehehe, those were fun with a hammerdin build though

[shrewd pilot]

@abstract musk i played an orb sorc, with a back up chain lightning..and if the monsters were immune to both (fooking nilathok) then my merc finished him off. just had to be patient XD

[abstract musk]

Yeah hahahaha

Farthest I ever made it, was on a hammerdin. Act 3, Hell.

I'd tried perfecting diamonds into a four socket targe (four places for jewels).
It would've added up to 100 resistance, negating hell's resist stuff.

Somewhere, I screwed up the shield, I don't remember how.
But that's where that run ended hahaha

Normal and Nightmare were really fun, though. I had fun as all eight classes. Hammerdin, Zeal build, Necromancer.

One of the builds I never tried out was the bone spear, or the poison ones.

[shrewd pilot]

I mainly did bowazon or the sorc primarily. the bowazon was just to mess around with. but the sorc could do everything and quickly unless the immunities got in the way. but even then the merc was decked out and could kill most things fairly quick.

i wish my d3 teleport was as good as it was in d2 XD

[abstract musk]

I enjoyed the javelin stuff more than the bows. I enjoyed the decoy, and the Valkyrie too.
I liked the sorcereress, for the lighttning spells, and the cold spells too. Fire was ok, but not as much fun for me.

Spamming teleport was one of the funniest things to do though hahaha

[abstract musk]

I don't think I ever really built merc to be so damage dealing. He was more of a tank for me.
So I could run and leave him on his own, and turn around, and have an army of ten skeletons coming to his aid, hahaha.

[shrewd pilot]

fire was all about placement. but the ice (depending on build) was anywhere as was the lightning

[abstract musk]

Yeah, for sure. Teleport was fantastic back then

[abstract musk]

Right, probably why I never really liked fire as much.
Blizzard spell goes brrrrrrr though

Literally, hahahaha

[shrewd pilot]

i put Eth gear on my merc..i spent way to much time farming for specfic gear to give him as much dps as i could while keeping him alive

[abstract musk]

Yeah makes sense, to help your character survive too

Nothing beats a good defense, like offense does

[shrewd pilot]

though if my merc died i had to get out fast. sorc couldn't keep the mana up if he was down XD

[abstract musk]

Yeah XD

One of the sorc problems

You ever accidentally kill the cow king?

[shrewd pilot]

what you mean...accidently? XD

[abstract musk]

Man, farming that was fun. But I could die fairly quickly

[shrewd pilot]

gimmie that cow king loot

[abstract musk]

Hahahaha

[shrewd pilot]

i had a 2nd char that was just for making the cow level for me.

[abstract musk]

Oh, really? Awesome.
I'd level through the game, over and over again.
Reach hell, delete the character, cause the resist stuff was hard to deal with.

Eventually, I made a hammerdin, which I talked about earlier. But act 3 was the farthest I got.

Act 3 Hell*

[shrewd pilot]

i only remade chars at the start of seasons. but i also keep one fully geared non season as well if i feel like showing her off XD

[abstract musk]

Yeah XD

Man, D2 was fun. It's kinda too bad it's past it's prime now

[shrewd pilot]

its still going though. and even looks really good remastered.

[abstract musk]

At least it has D2 Ressurrected now

[shrewd pilot]

yup. i think my best sorc right now (haven't played for a bit) is a lvl 92 non ladder sorc

[abstract musk]

Yeah, some people still play it. I don't know how many, but it's still going solid, even after 20-25 years.

[abstract musk]

That's pretty good. I know it takes a lot to get the character to lvl 100.

I haven't played in years now

Probably....4 or 5

[shrewd pilot]

yea...until this char my max was usually lvl 88...cuz i would get close to leveling...then die once or twice and all that exp was gone XD

[abstract musk]

Yeah exactly hahahaha

You ever try hardcore?

I might've once or twice with a Barb

[shrewd pilot]

not for d2. in d3 i do every once in awhile.

[abstract musk]

Oh, nice

[shrewd pilot]

I do stupid things XD

[abstract musk]

Yeah haha

I don't know if you know of the game Terraria, but hardcore in that game is fun
And stressful at the same time

[true rain]

Someone explain Arcane Ascendance? do i need to cast it then turn it off to get its benefits? kinda confused how to use it for my build

[finite rock]

You need to cast it and cast your attack spells, then you turn it off when you want to move or regen mana.

[true rain]

while its Active? ohhh idk why that was confusing me

my mana is getting drained so fast too

[half pollen]

You can skill Acuity if your build allows it

[finite rock]

yep. Sorcerers often stack their mana very high, think 1000-2000 mana, so that's why it eats a lot. And yes, Acuity is another solution

[true rain]

Oh my so i can pop this turn it off right away and can still have the effects?

ima push for it rn

[half pollen]

once you turn it off you wont have any effects any more 😄
with arcuity you turn it on, fire your 4 spells and thats it. But you wont lose so much mana from the drain

[true rain]

ahhh got it now

[half pollen]

the 12 seconds duration is only for when you activate it and then stand around

[true rain]

its very risky but so strong

wow so strong man

[weary hamlet]

you can add more than 4 to the spell counter in this mode too

with further points

[true rain]

im going need more mana for sure once i use 4 spells im out of mana

[worthy jackal]

Best build for sorcer?

[weary hamlet]

static orb probably at this time

[worthy jackal]

have some guide about it?

was doing glacier

[harsh abyss]

Wait until tomorrow patch notes. Mana stacking static orb was specifically called out in yesterdays post as a build thats getting nerfed

[vapid basalt]

Quick question. are there any Uniques to look out for when it comes to Spellblade? or atleast pointers. all I can see is even for leveling just normal items no Uniques which makes me question if there isnt any good ones

[harsh abyss]

There are tons of good ones, but it also really depends on the build that you're doing which specific ones that you might want to look for

[vapid basalt]

Hm. Issue is even online its hard to find anything for me in terms of Uniques for the class - same goes for builds. but imma try and keep looking regardless. Worst case I inhale the entire unique list xD ty tho!

[harsh abyss]

Generally if you look at build guides, they'll tell you what uniques to look for, but if you use the Build Planner for lastepochtools.com you can easily look at things for specific slots

[vapid basalt]

Yruns Penance doesnt read awful... gonna have to look at that later in terms of Price - could be a good Shatter Strike build weapon until later

[left hill]

Diothaen's Bloody Nib 🔥

Eye of Reen as well

[mortal oxide]

eye of reen getting some nice changes as well

[vapid basalt]

would it be valid to combine that with Yruns Penance with Dual Wield?

or would that be a waste of slot and I should rather just aim for a good Legendary

[mortal oxide]

imo yruns is kinda dog for SS

[vapid basalt]

hm- Fair

Dual wield Eye of Reen it is

[left hill]

mostly, yeah. higher floor, lower ceiling.

[mortal oxide]

im excited to try reen + shattered set w/ crafted exalts

[vapid basalt]

speaking of uniques btw. I had something hilarious just happen while I am leveling

Dropped back to back

🤣

[shrewd pilot]

Ok..i seriously dont understand the weapon comparison to tell how a weapon is an improvement without equipping it first. is there a way to tell before equipping an item or do i just have to equip what i find and see what changes take place?

[vapid basalt]

there is a button to compare - it directly tells you that stat differences on the bottom

as long as you know how your class works/what you need you should be good

[shrewd pilot]

i guess thats my problem. knowing exactly what stats i need in my build. Meh...i'll figure it out eventually i guess.

night all.

[finite rock]

weapon, then it's either spell damage, cast speed, %increased damage for your skill's damage type.
for melee, melee attack speed, +X melee <type> damage, +% melee critical strike chance

but it depends on build, dot builds dont need crit for example.

[weary hamlet]

that's cause most uniques in LE are not that class specific, i.e. Jasper's is clearly a "spellblade item" cause it has three individual bonuses to SB skills, yet it was historically most used on sentinel rive builds

[weary hamlet]

I guess you can play it in frostbite SS but that build had been dead in the water after the nerf (aka "fix") to icicles shotgunning and its generally wonky hitbox, so it's mostly used on frostbite swarmblade

as another example of the above dynamic for you

[weary hamlet]

always been a thing on sb

[jovial pine]

guys i'm leveling dr3ad frozen orb runemaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGb6rl-g5Bo
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/Q9njxNGB
what i'm wondering are the stats priority, because the reference is improvised drops from a solo run and I'm fearing it's not optimized, I'm not doing a solo run.
should i cap spell crit and get as much crit multi as possible even at expense of mana (well at least not going beyond 300) and int? should i also get at least one T6 cast speed somewhere?

[silk pewter]

Runemaster, Level 91

:white_check_mark: This character build is verified

Game Cycle / Version:

Harbingers of Ruin / 1.1.7

Class:

Mage (20) / Sorcerer (16) / Runemaster (68)

General:

▸ Health: 892, Regen: 22.68/s
▸ Mana: 113.96, Regen: 11.76/s
▸ Ward Retention: 364%, Regen: 93/s
▸ Attributes: 12 Str / 12 Dex / 84 Int / 0 Att / 0 Vit
▸ Resistances: 119% / 56% / 63% / 74% / 98% / 185% / 8%
▸ EHP: 1,589 / 1,335 / 1,418 / 2,132 / 1,589 / 1,589 / 951

Defenses:

▸ Endurance: 20%, Threshold: 178
▸ Dodge Chance: 5% (124)
▸ Armor Mitigation: 54% (3,423)
▸ Crit Avoidance: 119%

Damage Types:

▸ Cold, Fire, Lightning / Spell

Buffs:

▸ None

Used skills:

• Volcanic Orb (20)
• Runebolt (20)
• Runic Invocation (20)
• Ice Barrage (20)
• Flame Ward (20)

Used unique items:

• Blood of the Exile
• Eye of Orexia

This build has a guide:

Zero To Hero Arcane Restoration Volcanic Orb Runemaster LE Build Guide Showcase W/Leveling by Dr3adful

[quasi wedge]

https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAwRgzGIOxA

does anyone know if this casts Frost wall at a fixed distance?

[weary hamlet]

yes, a fixed distance before your character

also has anti-qol since it adds a small and slow jump back animation

same that you have in RI with those nodes

how were they called again

upper center tree

[quasi wedge]

ty

[fervent ledge]

Best RM build ATM?

[quasi wedge]

probably frost claw nova from what I've read

seriously

[fervent ledge]

Oh so no cool rotation

[quasi wedge]

can I scale elemental nova via frostbite?

armor shred->frostbite=200% chance to frostbite on hit

frostbite is 50, so 100 effectively

already 5x base damage

[weary hamlet]

frost claw is better on sorc now than on rm, the build is very similar but sorc just got better passives

[fervent ledge]

Oh

How about plasma orb, or brand dot

[weary hamlet]

brand dot is meme, plasma orb should be good although I havent really kept track of it in a while

[fervent ledge]

Ahh

Well I hope good patch today

I warn RM to have his own identity actually want to use the combo stuff

[weary hamlet]

they need to rework it from the ground up if they want to have methodical and situational usage of RI combinations to compete with zoom zoom builds in throughput

[quasi wedge]

what kind of Shock Chance applies to brand of deception?
does e.g. Circle of Elements?

apparently not, unless it was changed

[weary hamlet]

you mean with the Order's Imposition node? The shock chance that shows up in your character sheet i.e. generic shock chance on hit

[proven haven]

Yea it seems like the conditional or shock chance transferred from the skill tree shock doesn't from my testing.

Curious though, what all does apply? Can you apply an ailment from a basically 0 base damage skill with a bunch of more and increased modifiers stacked on the skill, will it transfer to the ailments? Seems to be yes if it doesn't specify more "hit" damage

[weary hamlet]

as for the second question - yes, absolutely. See scorpion poison nova as an example, it's a skill with 0 base damage, poison application, and a bunch of more modifiers in its tree. It works. Probably the best minion build on primalist as of now

[proven haven]

Poggers. If the ailment itself doesn't have the lightning tag for example, would increased lightning damage apply?
https://www.lastepochtools.com/ailments/brand_of_deception

[weary hamlet]

probably not but this looks like a bug and I havent tested this personally

by all reasonable estimate it should have the tag

although electrify doesn't have it either and that, I'm pretty sure, does scale with inc lightning damage

[proven haven]

Easy to test brand with flame ward lightning convert I guess

I'll try that

[plain garnet]

I'm hoping to see some buffs to Enchant Weapon, the skill tree for it is really dated.

[fervent ledge]

Also I always felt spell blade should get most barrier since he is meleeish

[proper hawk]

I don't think it needs the tag because it does the correct damage type. For example, a skill that doesn't have the lightning tag, but has added lightning damage applied, will still have that lightning damage increased. I see no reason the same wouldn't apply for an ailment.

[proven haven]

Oh yea I forgot, this is true

So it makes sense increased spell doesn't apply because that refers to a tag

But the type is still relevant, yea

Lightning pen should apply too

[proper hawk]

Fun fact, the mage prefix for Lightning critical strike multi only applies to the portion of your damage that is lightning, not just lightning tagged skills

that one caught me by surprise lol

but its not "crit multi with lightning skills"

[mortal oxide]

okay yeah there really arent any changes to spellblade still

that's depressing.

[nocturne temple]

bro what are these meteor changes...

[mortal oxide]

the shatter strike changes are nice

10% cull range is cool

[plain garnet]

I am sad to see basically no Spellblade changes.

[grizzled solstice]

Spellblade is basically the same. If anything Surge/lightning spell blade got buffed but its kind of a wierd mix. Definitely got skipped over this patch it feels like

[plain garnet]

Spellblade proccing frost claw did get nerfed a bit, but it's pretty small.

[grizzled solstice]

what it get nerfed on the mana cost?

[plain garnet]

A little bit less ward gained, no longer cleanses ailments, +2 mana cost, and 100% increased mana cost instead of 90% on volley

[grizzled solstice]

Ah ok. I wasn't cleansing ailments with it so i didn't even realize that was an issue TBH. The mana cost is gonna hurt though

[plain garnet]

That's minor and not the main gripe, yeah.

The mana cost hurts

[grizzled solstice]

I think the major nerf for my builds is the fact that set bonuses got nerfed a bit. But i dont think they're enough to really matter other then shattered lance.

[mortal oxide]

like i said tho, culling having some buffs on SS is kind of large.

this is kind of big

at least in my opinion

but also 174 new items is crazy too

[civic crescent]

is there any build that wasn't nerfed and is good for bossing to start with season 2?

[mortal oxide]

like this looks hella fun

[viral fox]

THERE IS CHANCE

PELASE BE GOOD

[harsh abyss]

I'll wait for your report, heh.

[night cedar]

Meteor looks better!

[plain garnet]

Where'd you see 174 new items?

[river silo]

unless you wanted to CoC it 😭

[night cedar]

I love CoC and other procc based stuff so I'm hoping theres something there

[cobalt yacht]

What's base duration on black hole?

[harsh abyss]

I think its 6 seconds?

[turbid dome]

Am i overreacting or does static orb look totally gutted

[civic crescent]

what's the main source damage skill for sorcerer?

[river silo]

well 3/4 of the meteor changes are straight nerfs to proc based meteor, so im guessing its direct cast or nothing for it now

[night cedar]

despair

well I hope there will be other procc based builds

[harsh abyss]

Any glacier lovers confirm how painful the Critical Rejuvenation 10 per second limit is going to be?

[hazy crescent]

Yeah I saw this and got super bummed out. Jank mana strike meteors dying for the sins of the mana stacking builds last patch :/

Oh well

[harsh abyss]

You're not gonna one-shot bosses with it any more, that's for sure.

[turbid dome]

Sad

I put a ton of time into grinding gear for my sorc

[harsh abyss]

At 2000 mana, you'd be adding 100 mana cost (because it's capped at 100), instead of 400, so yeah, big nerf there.

[hardy sparrow]

Hydrahedron changes in the new patch notes ?

[turbid dome]

Shatter strike seems mostly intact tho

[harsh abyss]

Channeled LB is back and (slightly) buffed! Should be a fun season start for me at least.

[dry olive]

holy

[harsh abyss]

Yeah that's really good even if you aren't using glacier

[weary hamlet]

9 months spent on this patch, still no lightning conversion for craterborn

pepega

they are trolling us at this point cause they are also buffing/fixing lightning converted fireball

for real ehg?

[harsh abyss]

I dont think they've ever wanted craterborn to convert?

Since the conversion isn't a part of the skill tree, it makes sense that other sub-nodes wouldn't convert

[fervent ledge]

Is RM nerfed more now?

[harsh abyss]

Nope, pretty much the same as before

[weary hamlet]

this is a downright silly stance and I'm also sure that plenty of other conversions from items violate this "rule"

as well as many conversions from skill trees

[harsh abyss]

🤷‍♀️ It's NBD honestly. Set crafting is gonna make Vilatria insane anyway.

[weary hamlet]

did you see the patch note that ravaging aura now has a fire version? Me neither

add 1000000% more damage to it and it's gonna be insane too

doesn't mean that this is a good design

they are reducing build variety for no good reason

[grizzled solstice]

arent they planning on doing things that completely change the skill trees later on? Maybe thats when they're gonna add conversion

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, Skill sigils or something

[harsh abyss]

I can't imagine a world where Vilatria builds go for Craterborn anyway. Any extra points are going to go for more meteors and you need to fill out the whole tree anyway.

[coral prism]

if you dual weild this does it stack?

[weary hamlet]

because that would not be a vilatria build, that would be a different skill build that also specs meteor for utility

that will also be using vilatria

[weary hamlet]

this is culvinar's right? you can't dual wield scepters

[coral prism]

i forgto most dual weild nodes specify weapon type

[weary hamlet]

all of them do

none allows for double wands/scepters etc

also speaking about nerfs, is it me or did none of the ward effects in mage passives get nerfed?

kinda big for hybrid builds

[real canyon]

theres a new spell leech glove /kreygasm

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, I was expecting more nerfs. I think the main nerf that is tangential is the Invoker ring can't proc infinitely any more

[weary hamlet]

that affects like 2 builds? Also I haven't reached that part yet

[harsh abyss]

any rapid hitting build could use it to proc a ton of ward

But yeah it's pretty localized, not widely a problem

[weary hamlet]

Ring of the Third Eye’s Ward on Crit is now limited to 4 times per Second (from no limit).
yeah I was wondering

16 ward per second for -30% crit multi, sounds lucrative

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, those are the effects that people were abusing to build crazy ward numbers

[weary hamlet]

how do you think I know that

proc spellblade goes straight into the dumpster now

[harsh abyss]

lol

[shrewd pilot]

so what level are yall and what range is this gear dropped in? Im like 63 or so right now myself.

[harsh abyss]

I think most of us are level 0 until the season starts

[shrewd pilot]

Im taking this time to kinda learn this game now so that im not as bad off at the new season start XD

[abstract scaffold]

The only thing that kept spellblade alive (I joke, but this does hurt spellblade bad)

[harsh abyss]

I think the big thing is that until those things are capped, they can't really see how weak/strong things are because they warp the balance so much.

[deft dew]

I told y'all that was a bug. Nobody listens to me

[rugged shell]

;(

[harsh abyss]

what? Did you mean to post that in the acolyte channnel?

[rugged shell]

Was planning to play shattered lance shatter strike

[shrewd pilot]

maybe i'm confused but dont that description belong more in the Acolyte channel than here?

[scenic sail]

Well they nerfed the shit out of mage in v1.2, which is really disappointing. I don't think the mage class was all that powerful, but now it's just being made even weaker. I don't think my glacier + meteor build is going to be all that negatively impacted, aside from the huge nerf to Static orb (I'll probably spec a different skill to kill bosses) but so many other builds are just ruined now. Spark charges on mana cost of 40+ is gone completely. Lost Knowledge is half as good as it was.

[fervent ledge]

Wasn't Sorc the most OP

Maybe that was before

[scenic sail]

Sorc was the best of the mage classes, but other classes are better at almost everything. As far as high corruption and doing well in things like the arenas, Mage was actually the worst class objectively. All other classes have higher corruption classes and more powerful overall skills.

[tribal veldt]

I wouldn't call it nerfed the shit out of

the specific static orb setup was hit pretty hard, most other things got a slap on the wrist

[fervent ledge]

Last time I played Sorc was doing 2k but that was like last year

[scenic sail]

I'm curious to hear @proven haven's opinion, because arcane current was a major part of his whole build. It was the reason he was recommending Fragment of the Enigma, now that passive is completely gone. I'm not even sure the build will be viable anymore, certainly not for high corruption.

[fervent ledge]

I hope Runemaster at least has a build doing 1k smoothly

[tribal veldt]

I have something very cursed cooking that might get there

but I'm not sharing it until I know for sure because good lord is it jank

[scenic sail]

Yes, 2k corruption is currently the general limit for a mage from what I've seen. Meanwhile with my rogue I was at 3k in corruption less than a month, and by the look of it it wasn't nerfed anywhere near as much.

[azure loom]

Mage had arguably the most powerful build in the game…

[fervent ledge]

Uhh isn't 2k super good

Did primalist do that too?

[azure loom]

You could get way higher than 2k on mage

[scenic sail]

It was certainly not the most powerful build in the game. Warlocks and Falconers can hit 2-3x more corruption than mages, and the main skill mage had to kill bosses has been gutted completely, it's now going to be less than half as powerful as it was before.

[azure loom]

No shot

[scenic sail]

Please show me an example of anyone higher than 2k corruption as a mage.

I've asked here multiple times

[azure loom]

Once @proven haven is done doing his breakdown of the patch notes I’m sure he can give examples

[fervent ledge]

But still 2k is insane imo

Real good

Does any primalist build do that?

[scenic sail]

No, I've already asked him and he was unable to show me a single mage at or above 2k corruption. We've already talked about this fairly recently.

[main sedge]

Does anyone here have experience with mad ladle lightning blast builds?

[azure loom]

Interesting I thought there as a video of him talking about something closer to 5k being the limit for frost claw

[tribal veldt]

https://youtu.be/E0tXADxlpa8?si=CJAU3NjDXLzLUC4x

10 seconds of googling

[scenic sail]

He did a video with the endless arena at wave 1k, which would be the equivelant of about 5k corruption, but there are a few asterisks, firstly that this was in the Legacy endless arena and when you looked at the corruption scaling for the endless arena I'm not sure that the corruption scaling was the same for legacy as it was for cycle. Secondly, that build is now going to be completely different / nerfed because spark charges were like 50% of his damage.

[tribal veldt]

mana stack static orb was very silly

and used to be even sillier

[azure loom]

Oh totally for 1.2 spark charge isn’t a thing with FC but we were talking about last patch

[main sedge]

You guys seem to know what you are talking about, would any of you mind critiquing my build

[azure loom]

I think FC frostbite build could be good still but it will just require more itemization

[scenic sail]

Well even if it is good, it's still nerfed to high hell. Not having spark charges on frostclaw hits makes the whole FC skill significantly worse. Static orb is also going to be almost useless for killing bosses, so maybe there can be a new usage of the skill that emerges from these nerfs, but it's not going to be anywhere near as useful as it was before.

[scenic sail]

I'm surprised you found even a single one, I looked plenty of times and haven't found any others. I still wouldn't call this a really viable build though, and my original request was to find a streamer who actually streams at such high corruption to verify that they can actually stay alive above 2k, because you can see how builds like this can't actually survive more than one mono at a time, just look at this guy's build planner, this is basically a "Zero HP" type of build. He's generating about 3k ward (which is going to be reduced in v1.2) and has almost no other defensive mechanics at all. Even his passive points are almost entirely spent on offense.

[fervent ledge]

Prima also caps at around 2k. But after nerfs mage might be lower

And acolyte and rogue nerfs too

[scenic sail]

I will certainly be playing Rogue with ballistas in v1.2, as that class didn't receive anywhere near the nerfs that sorc received. I didn't like the intelligence / ward retention nerf, but nerfing static orb, meteor and spark charges is too much for an already underperforming class.

Also, I love how that guy puts out a video that's 55 seconds long and he dies 38 seconds into it.

[tribal veldt]

I don't want to chase a moving goalpost sorry. Zero HP build is the only way to play at that corruption level at all, because no reasonable defensive mechanisms are balanced around that point. It's absolutely viable and getting instagibbed in monoliths is a tradeoff for instantly killing any boss.

[fervent ledge]

Well don't worry prima will be just as bad lol

[harsh abyss]

We'll see how things go, I'm not convinced mage will be bad.

There's a lot more ward retention and stuff available on idols

[plain garnet]

I'd agree with this, there are 0 builds tanking 4k corruption lol

[harsh abyss]

I don't think there's any problem with that tbh. There's a certain point where the only builds that can push corruption are way overtuned anyway. 2k+ seems like a number that they aren't trying to balance around players getting to.

[scenic sail]

My rogue build has far less issues surviving at 4k corruption, and my move speed is easily twice as fast as he is. The only reason he could complete this monolith is because he ran directly to the boss and insta-killed him with static orb, which we know is already receiving a sifnicifant nerf in v1.2, so this strategy is not going to be viable.

[harsh abyss]

Static orb nerfed by ~75% at 2000 mana, so yeah it's not going to be as good as it was

[mild spoke]

Spellblade start anyone?

[harsh abyss]

I'm planning RM start, but spellblade didn't receive any direct nerfs. Should be cool with a couple of the new uniques

[plain garnet]

It got a bunch of indirect nerfs, though.

[mild spoke]

Like?

[plain garnet]

Specifically for proc-based spellblade. FC got hit

Shatter got buffed in a pretty interesting way.

[mild spoke]

Surge should still be okay

Yes I know it’s not the best in slot but man Falcon kicking bosses is just too fun

[harsh abyss]

The surge build that procs Static won't work as well any more. The node that adds huge flat damage only works for direct casts.

[mild spoke]

Hmm I guess we shall see what I can cook

[main sedge]

Does anyone want to have a look at my build? It's pretty much "Oops all dots" lightning blast sorcerer with mad ladle https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BaKnbaYA

[silk pewter]

Sorcerer, Level 100

Game Cycle / Version:

Release / 1.2

Class:

Mage (22) / Sorcerer (50) / Runemaster (41)

General:

▸ Health: 2,008, Regen: 147.68/s
▸ Mana: 257.51, Regen: 12.88/s
▸ Ward Retention: 26%, Regen: 12/s
▸ Attributes: 1 Str / 1 Dex / 13 Int / 1 Att / 12 Vit
▸ Resistances: 76% / 113% / 97% / 91% / 76% / 76% / 102%
▸ EHP: 2,785 / 2,785 / 2,785 / 2,894 / 2,785 / 2,785 / 2,785

Defenses:

▸ Endurance: 44%, Threshold: 402
▸ Armor Mitigation: 12% (310)
▸ Block Chance: 46%, Mitigation: 20% (250)

Damage Types:

▸ Cold, Fire / Spell, DoT

Buffs:

▸ None

Used skills:

• Lightning Blast (20)
• Flame Ward (20)
• Teleport (20)
• Black Hole (20)
• Snap Freeze (20)

Used unique items:

• Mad Alchemist's Ladle
• Defiance of the Forgotten Knight
• Valdyr's Chalice
• Singularity

[main sedge]

Obviously the defensives are terrible, which is what I'd mostly like to improve

[harsh abyss]

What are you planning to use to kill groups of enemies? Just Black Hole and Glacier?

[main sedge]

Just spam LB

That part works reasonably well

it just involves kiting

and getting lucky with the spark charges since they also proc dots

[harsh abyss]

hmmm, could work I suppose

[main sedge]

You don't see any uniques or passives that could boost my ehp a bit? I fear I won't survive past 300 corruption with this

[mild spoke]

Good luck

[scenic sail]

This isn't a real character build is it? All of your items could be improved significantly. I'm sure by the time you're at level 100 you'll find much better gear.

[main sedge]

No this is just something I put together quickly

[weary hamlet]

small brain: playing a meta build on rm
big brain: playing ignite glyph to leverage buffs to health

[main sedge]

But the gist of it is pretty much the same I just don't know what realistic gear looks like

[scenic sail]

Ok cool, well in that case, yea, it's fun to theorize, but the best thing to do is to try things out. Currently I don't really see the synergies you're trying to exploit.

[main sedge]

I also don't know how important maxed resists are

[nocturne temple]

not that important

[main sedge]

It really is just keep moving and spamming LB, kill things by applying every dot in the game

except for spreading flames

[shrewd pilot]

So i see yall talking about doing only 2k dmg so i'm curious as to what level yall are at doing that?

[mild spoke]

Level 1

[scenic sail]

I was talking about 2k corruption, which requires you do like 100k dps or somewhere around that. 4k corruption would require double that. Currently the only mage builds in the game capable of such high corruption relied quite heavily on static orb as a way to kill bosses and monolith rare enemies, but we already know static orb is going to be nerfed to oblivion in v1.2, so that option is not really there anymore

[mild spoke]

Uh not oblivion just purgatory

[scenic sail]

Well we know it's going to be completely different

[shrewd pilot]

ok. so then im doing ok then, but haven't gotten to the corruption aspect of the game yet, but i have s kill with DPS that high.

[main sedge]

Do you have an example of a rare item that looks closer to a real item around lvl 95?

[mild spoke]

Yes but purgatory not oblivion. Only skill currently there is harvest

[scenic sail]

All of the high end unique items in the game have level requirements of 60-80+, like Wrongwarp (level 83) and that wand is much stronger than the Mad ladle. Ladle is only really good if you have lots of intelligence because the scaler on it is based on intelligence, but wrongwarp gives you an additional 30% move speed, 30% cast speed and around 300% increased spell damage when you have about 80% move speed, this is all far more powerful than ladle gives, which is why WW has a very high level requirement. Red rings are also a high level item that are much better than the rings you have, and basically all the items you're picking here are easily replaced by uniques.

[mild spoke]

Now has 200% damage effectiveness (from 160%).
Ummm what. Why buff flame reave

[main sedge]

That makes sense, thanks. I'll spend some time browsing uniques but I do like the all dots gimmick so I probably wouldn't swap out the ladle anyway

[mild spoke]

Firebrand also got buffed so that’s interesting

[weary hamlet]

which primalist build can even do 2k? eq which was dealing like 9 times more damage than it was supposed to be and was also gutted?

[scenic sail]

Storm totem and storm crow builds were at 2-3k corruption, and can kill abberoth in 5-10 seconds. I'm not sure if these got nerfed though, I haven't even looked at the primalist changes yet.

[harsh abyss]

If anything they got buffs because of the new chestpiece unique

[mild spoke]

What do yall think about the Coldfront Surge buff. Maybe viable now?

[weary hamlet]

alright alright guys hear me out, the baseline changes to LB is 60% more damage to Focal Blast

they also fixed the damn Spark Nova, finally

the new meta is upon us

[harsh abyss]

I'm starting off with channeled LB + Spark Nova, should be good times

[weary hamlet]

I wonder, is disintegrate going to be at least somewhat decent with the changes to Glass Cannon

being a glass cannon kinda sucks

[harsh abyss]

Also, Focal Blast feels like it does way less damage than just using convergence.

[weary hamlet]

but it allows you to build single beam fire with negligible mana cost

[weary hamlet]

it does but on the upside it's aoe

so the idea is that you use it primarily for clear

[harsh abyss]

Maybe pair it with as many other autocasts as you can, Static, Enchant Weapon, Surge, and Frost Wall

Just run around and never actually cast it yourself and it blows up everything

[weary hamlet]

actually scratch that with some black magic you can hit all the necessary nodes and double beam too

[mild spoke]

Wait shattered lance set can be put onto a crystal sword now

Wait

[harsh abyss]

Yes

That's why it got nerfed

It can also have T7 affixes with it

[proven haven]

I'm sorry guy, but you are completely wrong. @azure loom is right. You can easily get to 2k as the spark charge FC build, like not even a challenge at all. I don't know why you are so adamant on discrediting the arena run I ran and posted hours after you challenged me to do so. The only one claiming legacy arena is somehow different is you, I didn't play 1.1.7.

Plus pushing to 2k corruption is not worth it for CoF, some people have done it using the build, but I never did because XP scaling basically stops at 1K. None of this matters for 1.2 anyway though, iirc the harbinger of stars got giga nerfed too.

[mild spoke]

I mean 1500% is reasonable

What’s the math on how much health degen

[harsh abyss]

You need 3k regen to hit the 1500% cap, which is going to be difficult to get

[mild spoke]

True

But I think I’m going to try a cold SB with cold surge

Might be a bad idea but we will find out

[weary hamlet]

also it me or is the avenged wand kinda good with high flat and "free" 60% mana spent gained as ward?

now that it is at least somewhat realistic to find

[harsh abyss]

I have a silly idea for mana stacking cold mana strike shattered lance build.

Mana spent gained as ward always feels like kind of a bait stat to me.

[mild spoke]

True. But this is why we must cook

[scenic sail]

"like not even a challenge at all." Give me a break dude, you've got some serious ego issues. Apparently you haven't seen all of the people who have struggled with your build at 1K corruption, let alone 2k corruption. Not everyone has +32 intelligence from their red rings, and I certainly could not re-create your build successfully at 2k corruption, and I have yet to see anyone have a half decent spark charge build at that corruption level that actually has some amount of survivability. You can take the example shown earlier today as one of many, some guy got static orb to be so powerful he could actually 1-shot monolith bosses... and he could survive at 4k corruption for a whole 37 seconds.

[vapid basalt]

all I read was a buff for my build and somewhat of a harder nerf but not devistating

which means I can keep playing my current build even next Season

[scenic sail]

Either way, it doesn't matter at all because your build has been completely gutted in v1.2. I don't know what you're talking about with harbinger of stars being nerfed. They nerfed Multi-meteor, which is what I assume your'e talking about? I don't even use that part of the skill tree and I've always discouraged players from using that part of the skill tree unless they absolutely need the damge. I don't see any changes mentioned for Harbinger of Stars so I'm not sure what you're talking about.

[mild spoke]

Everyone chill patch isn’t out yet theories are just that theories

[vapid basalt]

https://tenor.com/jFuo4PKCGRt.gif

awe no gifs allowed

[green snow]

yeah it is

[weary hamlet]

it kinda is for most builds, but for some

[mild spoke]

Huh? No it’s physically not out yet we can’t play it at the moment

[harsh abyss]

uhhhh, wow. So Invoker's Static Touch is craftable on rings and it's flat lightning damage and shock chance. T5 is 7 flat spell damage and you can throw that on every lightning build.

[weary hamlet]

yea for some builds that's like another 10% more multiplier

functionally

although you could already do that with oceareon

[harsh abyss]

Yeah, flat lightning damage on rigns is pretty slick

[weary hamlet]

you just check the weaver idols

fun stuff there

[harsh abyss]

Yeah I bet

I might actually have to put together a couple idealized builds and see what they look like.

[mild spoke]

A lot of fun stuff everywhere

[weary hamlet]

that's what I'm doing rn

checking all the good meme stuff I have on my list to play

fu ck the sweaty guys measuring their di cks over 5k corruption, Ima gonna roll some wacky shit

[mild spoke]

But if your build doesnt hit 5k it’s not a build

[scenic sail]

and what could possibly be more fun than measuring di cks, come on now

[weary hamlet]

I wonder, with the new idols we can reach some fairly absurd levels of damage taken to mana..

[mild spoke]

Did you see what clotho’s needle does?

[harsh abyss]

I was theorcrafting a sentinel that can get almost 90% parry chance

[mild spoke]

Caps at 75% and also why not use it with firebrand? It increases its range

[harsh abyss]

Mostly because I was seeing how hard it'd be to get it that high

[weary hamlet]

also.. is it me or does it look like with the new baseline chains on LB this node is completely dysfunctional lol?

[mild spoke]

That’s fair haha will be interesting as an item

[weary hamlet]

yea but I'm not following what it has to do with damage to mana, and if you mean just stacking it as an extra defensive layer, I doubt that you can get too much mileage of that parry on a mage build

[scenic sail]

What new damage dealt to mana idols are there? I cant seem to find them in the patch notes on the forums

[mild spoke]

I mean it might be worth trying avoiding damage is avoiding damage. Also it’s a weaver item so there is that

[weary hamlet]

it's on 4x1 idols for mage

and I think 3x1 too

weaver's affix

[mild spoke]

I was more just mentioning you just to mention you

[scenic sail]

I don't think the new affixes are listed here in the patch notes? I was using the search function, and I see where they mention the weaver's idol enchanting, but no listed affixes or anything

[weary hamlet]

I've read the patch notes quite diagonally so I'm not sure, I've looked it up on le tools

they have a list and you can check it from the calc

when adding idols

[mild spoke]

I was gonna say LE tools is fully updated so

[proven haven]

Respectfully sir, you randomly trash talk other peoples builds unprovoked, when I engaged in good faith on the various differences in the builds and talked about defensive layers etc, you "flexed" on me your 650 arena as the evidence for why your build is superior and basically said "yeah you can't do this my build is better, gotcha". I then uploaded a 1000 wave (as CoF btw, just saying) as a response to your challenge. You then started essentially calling it fake for some bizarre reason despite mountains of evidence otherwise, and you continue to randomly call out other builds and creators in this channel.

I respect your build, it's solid, but this is not the way to communicate at all. Super disappointed.

Going to block now and keep the channel civil. All the best.

[scenic sail]

If there weren't differences between what I see at 1k waves, and what you see at 1k waves, then I wouldn't have mentioned anything. I do have a wave 1,300 run which you can see on theleaderboard with my rogue, and my mage wave was about 6 months ago...

[opaque mirage]

hey guys, new to LE and want to start as a mage > sorc. no specific build yet in mind.

mainly looking for a flashy build that combos skills. any suggestions? cheers

[mild spoke]

Play disintegrate

[weary hamlet]

doesn't get much more flashy than meteor

you can build it to shower giant fat meteors of death all over the screen

and it's not even like, bad, it's pretty viable

[weary hamlet]

can't say no to this as a disintegrate enjoyer

tbh t3 disintegrate does look pretty good

[proven haven]

For combos there is Runemaster too, that's kinda the combo class

although most people just use the same combo xd

[mild spoke]

But if you really want to have fun play surge Spellblade and falcon kick everyone

[proper hawk]

Focal blast isn't that bad, halo effect inherits the damage mod from focal blast and you have full effectiveness of frontloaded while still having aoe. Biggest issue is probably that spark nova can't inherit shattershock, but if you do a frostbite build you couldn't use it anyways

[weary hamlet]

playing surge: fun
farming the boots in arena: not fun

[mild spoke]

Rune master makes me feel like I’m smashing my head on the keyboard

[weary hamlet]

the bigger question is, does spark nova convert to cold with focal blast?

[mild spoke]

True

[proper hawk]

It does

[mild spoke]

Nice thing is surge still works without the boots

[weary hamlet]

black magic!

so I can build the cold converted channeling LB

not sure why I would

but I could

[proper hawk]

Well focal blast doesn't work with channeling

[mild spoke]

So umm he has a woven echo

https://www.lastepochtools.com/db/items/UAzBsCZQFiA

[weary hamlet]

I've not checked all the echoes now, don't spoil it

you did it you dirty dog

[mild spoke]

I accidentally saw it lol just went to check what the lp chances were

[weary hamlet]

actually

this doesn't look so bad

sheeeeit there we go I must readd surge to my list

I'll put it on the bottom.. on the flip side

[scenic sail]

I think a lot of players will be interested in this affix, I hadn't seen it yet:

[mild spoke]

Haha not everyone is a surge enjoyer like myself I get it

[weary hamlet]

Can be bought Yes (2800 gold, requires faction rank 8)

so you can literally infinitely farm the poor sod

[mild spoke]

Oh boy

[weary hamlet]

the values aren't high but it's "free" so yeah pretty good in my book

[mild spoke]

But I use shields sooo

[weary hamlet]

yea but you can convert it with a node or with a passive from mage tree and take the channeling node with spark nova

[proper hawk]

True

[weary hamlet]

also spark nova procs on the "first" enemy hit so I'm not sure that it will trigger more than once from one focal blast cast, needs testing

would be funny if it does

then the clear might actually be good

[proper hawk]

I don't think it triggers more than once

[opaque mirage]

You had me at meteor. This was my last d4 sorc build. Do you mind linking a build guide?

Is there like a pob for LE?

[weary hamlet]

it shouldn't, but that doesn't mean that it actually doesn't

[weary hamlet]

there is no pob equivalent, LE tools has a build calc that has very limited calculations of various stuff and it's the closest we have

dont have a build guide at hand either but the biggest point is that if you are going to look up guides/builds from the last patch, keep in mind that the meteor belt had just been nerfed into the ground

might still see niche play but it's a different kind of build where you spec into small limp meteorites with shrapnel

not big manly meteor showers

[harsh abyss]

Yeah if I could do lightning focal blast, I might

[mild spoke]

@weary hamlet what’s probably gonna be the “best leveling build”?

[weary hamlet]

I have no idea, on mage you can level up fine with more or less anything

although same goes for most if not all classes

[mild spoke]

True I usually do mana strike or glacier

[weary hamlet]

just spec fireball and go to town

doesnt get easier than that

[harsh abyss]

I always level with lightnin ele nova RM and its fine

[mild spoke]

And now with mastery swap you can level with a mastery the swap when you get gear

[weary hamlet]

also true although it's somewhat expensive at higher levels

might be easier to just level up an alt in the target spec

[mild spoke]

Right but most swaps are around lvl 40

Which is on the cheaper end

[opaque mirage]

Do you guys use maxroll for guides or is there any other?

[azure loom]

Some of the long time content creators for LE put out good videos for builds

[plain garnet]

I'm just gonna make up some dumb bullshit that uses Essence Weaver and we'll see if it works