Out of curiosity... what's everyone thinking they'll league start in 3.25?

Part of me really wants to get home out of the office, update Path of Bonking, and see if an Elemental Hit of the Spectrum Warden can be done on a normal-person reasonable budget. Hecc, might even see if it can be Quill Rain'd, though I severely doubt it. Would be hellaciously fun if I could get respectable DPS out of it though, especially a Barrage Support version. Hold down the button for SUPPRESSING FIAH!

But when that inevitably fails because nothing fun is ever viable, eyeballing an Animate Weapon of Self Reflection Necromancer or possibly Frost Blades Deadeye. Touch of Anguish and White Wind are both generally dirt cheap and can do enough damage, especially given the hefty crit boost both base weapon types got and the obvious superbuff to the skill gem itself. Feels like Deadeye's 30% wall chain could also really help Frost Blades in single target i.e. its usual failing. At least, in arenas with walls. Heh.

Reave Berserker but mainly because of the buff to the gem and changes to melee.

Probably take Oak too for the extra life. I am not sure there is that big of a life % buff for one point anywhere else in the tree (respectively).

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infinitedraw wrote:

Reave Berserker but mainly because of the buff to the gem and changes to melee.

Probably take Oak too for the extra life. I am not sure there is that big of a life % buff for one point anywhere else in the tree (respectively).

It helps (at least, to me) to think of it in terms of what gear affix, if any, the bandit choice can replace.

40 flat life is twenty percent less than the Life mastery that offers 50 of it, and is a distinctly mid at best roll on most equipment. Life is also broadly available on just about every piece of gear, with body armor especially being able to contribute over five times the value of flat life as Oak's mod. Is that worth giving up a skill point? Given how often I don't bother with the 50 flat life mastery until very late, I don't generally think so. Sure it'll help during early leveling, but the value of the point falls off very quickly in lategame.

8% movement speed is, again, a "meh" to bad affix roll, though in this case it's partially saved by there being very little access to movement speed outside of tree allocation or the one-odd affix you can get on boots. Usable, but asking most people if they'd pay one passive point for eight percent feeties speed is a great way to get laughed at in PoE circles. Absolutely no one is willing to invest in conventional movement speed, especially by itself. It's one of those "luxury" stats people just don't really care about, even though higher feeties speed is quite helpful in a lot of cases and getting used to moving with your Chevrolegs instead of abusing the everloving disgusting monkey hell out of Travel skills is a good life skill to pick up prior to Path of Exile 2.

Alira's +15 all elemental res, however, is a pretty high roll on the comparable gear affix, and is 45 points' worth of resistance in total. That's a large chunk of resists, and resistance is also the only stat of the three you can get "enough" of - once you hit resistance caps and/or overcaps if you want to be immune to certain curses (personally strongly prefer getting the Defense mastery that prevents resistances being lowered by curses, dramatically reduces gear pressure), there's no sense in investing in more outside certain weird builds. You need 405 points of resistance to normal-cap your elemental resistances, and that ends up being a smegton of suffix pressure. Alira can meaningfully help with that, providing just about eleven percent of the necessary total on its own, on top of giving you a solid boost through the campaign. Even replacing one single elemental resistance affix with an equivalent* Chaos resistance affix is a healthy upgrade to your defenses.

I'd take Oak basically never, Kraityn if I was going to strongly favor movement on a given build, Alira for many characters now that it only costs a single skill point, and the second skillpoint from Murder Everybody on characters that are absolutely screaming desperate for every last point.

Crit Spectral Shield Throw Bleed Gladiator POOOOG

Shield Crush Slayer or Dual strike Bleed Gladiator.

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1453R wrote:

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infinitedraw wrote:

Probably take Oak too for the extra life. I am not sure there is that big of a life % buff for one point anywhere else in the tree (respectively).

40 flat life is twenty percent less than the Life mastery that offers 50 of it, and is a distinctly mid at best roll on most equipment.

Perhaps I'm misinformed, but the patch notes stated:

"The Life Passive Skill Mastery that provided +50 to Maximum Life now provides +30."

(Just trying to be of help, it probably doesn't change your overall point)

So it does. Welp! Guess that mastery point is freed up on all my builds because ain't no way in any hecc a girl cares to name that thirty measly points of flat health is worth a whole-ass skill point, heh.

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1StepCloser wrote:

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1453R wrote:

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infinitedraw wrote:

Probably take Oak too for the extra life. I am not sure there is that big of a life % buff for one point anywhere else in the tree (respectively).

40 flat life is twenty percent less than the Life mastery that offers 50 of it, and is a distinctly mid at best roll on most equipment.

Perhaps I'm misinformed, but the patch notes stated:

"The Life Passive Skill Mastery that provided +50 to Maximum Life now provides +30."

(Just trying to be of help, it probably doesn't change your overall point)

I went back and re-read the patch notes. I guess I heard what I wanted to hear during the live reveal that it was a %life boost vice it being flat numbers. Yeah... the life mastery beats that or that they boosted what a T1 + to maximum life can give on items now.

Meh, opportunity missed I guess for an alternate bandit to be useful finally.

I appreciate the swift and proper kick to remind me to REALLY read the patch notes. Cheers.

I will try a totem build this time, either frozen pulse/ice spear or shockwave totem hero.

I might try a melee build later but the various melee attack speed nerfs make me nervous about the current changes. Attack speed was extremely important for the 2 melee builds I played before, boneshatter and herald of agony. They only felt good once a minimal attack speed was attained.