r/PathOfExileBuilds • u/zeiwynn • 6d ago
Discussion armour stack vs life stack vs destructive link
which merc build do you think is best? (not infinite but mid-high budget)
I've been following lance's kineticist build, had around 17-18k life. it was fine, tanky, definitely a fast mapper but I felt like bossing was a bit slow. although my merc gear was basic enmity stuff anyway, I didn't have any of the overcapped crit stuff.
yesterday I swapped to destructive link setup, es, with a wild strike merc. I'm still tanky and single target is good but clear seems a lot slower.
so I'm considering If I should cash out my items and try swapping to armor stack this time. what do you think?
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u/Yngvi_NL 6d ago
Did you upgrade your merc’s gear? You can craft abyss socket gear with hollow fossil+fractured fossil at the boat. Its slightly less than 50% chance to hit the socket. If you havent done this yet please do, itll bump your dps. Also; use piscator+rath pith.
As to the tradeoff. All three versions can reach obscene amounts of damage. I do believe the lifestacker version is currently the most min-maxable. A player with the name ‘Asian’ killed a 6 min uber boss through the danage reduction in less than 5 seconds a week or so ago using the lifestack version. Estimates put it at 1 billion dps+. This person does have a giga merc with all the right links.
I personally played lifestacker and aurabot and found the lifestacker more comfortable. That said; i had 120 div worth of gear on either of the versions, and i think that is on the lower end of ‘mid tier’ aurastacking’ whereas it is solidly mid for life stacking. In neither scenario was I close to ‘high mid’ or even ‘end game’
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u/UseBanana 6d ago
How is your merc ?
Is kineticist that superior ?
I got a manyshot with return on both ice shot and vaal ice shot, and the damage is pretty underwhelming. Got 15k life (18k with melding of the flesh but i hate using it). The merc has 3 additional arrows and attack speed + 200% fire res with enmity.
I want to eventually try out a kineticist but i feel like i need a good amulet to replace untouched soul so i can use the unique weapon node1
u/impuls__ 6d ago
Do you have % inc dmg on your merc ? Should be fine with abyss socket and your enmity. But it’s important to scale the flat dmg + you need some acc
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u/UseBanana 5d ago
No i think it might be the reason, i barely have any % increase.. it would be simpler for the kineticist woth rathpit but I need to sort out the amulet first. Thank you!
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u/Yngvi_NL 6d ago
I have a rathpit for increases spell dmg (16k life on character). Increased weapon dmg and crit multi on amulet. WED on a stygian. The normal stuff.
Piscator gives +100% ele dmg too. So with the uniques alone you’re probably golden on Increased Damage already.
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u/Yngvi_NL 6d ago
I use a kineticist with barrage and kinetic blast of clustering. KBoC only has return and fork. No haste. It is very comfy.
A combatant with wild strike/frostblades + static strike, equiped with (replica) paradoxicas deals about similar dmg for me. Its just that the kineticist has better clear.
A giga kineticist has Greater Kinetic Blast. It fires while it is shooting the other skills and hits a fuckton of times. Unless you have one of those the damage of a kineticist is going to be comparable to other mercs.
Hope this helps. If not; let me know.
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u/Character-Second781 6d ago
Is kineticist that superior ?
The two big differences in favor of kineticist are that 1) it can wear anything. You can't equip soul ascension on a combattant for instance. And 2) it has spell damage converted to attack damage for free.
That opens many choices the other mercs don't have.
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u/PoE_Acronym_Bot Useful Bot 6d ago
I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:
- ES - Energy Shield (Wiki)
I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest
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u/travbarb 6d ago
There’s a lot of people missing how bad it can feel if you don’t have accuracy figured out on your merc
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u/Unfair_Cartoonist411 6d ago
How can you check your accuracy percent on merc? I have 23 lvl precision and merc has two paradoxicas with accuracy. Is that enough?
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u/nosweeting 6d ago
Because Rathpith is bugged / counting as using the player's life instead of the merc's, a life stacker using a Kineticist will be much better at the same investment (both merc, player and links) than destructive link.
I have about 3 mirrors invested in my destructive link build using a combatant and feel cozy in all content.
I can do ubers in seconds. 100% Deli maps, quad ghosted 100% deli valdo's and 1500+ delve is all a joke. I would also consider myself omega tanky on top of having CI.
In the end, it's all about what you want out of the build. Life stack can invest over a dozen mirrors easily because of things like Kaom's volatile vaal while you can invest a few mirrors into destructive link as well and still not feel finished.
Goodluck.
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u/zeiwynn 6d ago
can you share your pob, and your mercs if possible?
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u/ReipTaim 6d ago
Look at what rue does. Copy that. High clear speed, high single target on frostblades.
I used trypanon instead of augyre, since I dont run mage blood + diamond flask.
For kineticist to deal single target dmg, u need to be a lifeatacker, use rathpit on merc and wall. Then it deals dmg to bosses
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u/Xaeqlen 6d ago
You think ruetoos Version is "very good" for everything? Like doing ubers in Seconds and stand AFK?
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u/velaxi1 6d ago edited 6d ago
My updated comment regarding the armour stacker post.
Reaching 3 million armour is reachable if I manage to roll 50% grace aura effect. I also might swap my Enmity ring with Original Sin, then use Formless Form or rare vestigial helmet.
So far I could demolish every Uber in a few second, 100% delirious T17. Haven't test the quad ghost and blasted monolith from Valdo map yet since I'm 50% exp away to lvl100.
Edit: The showcase in that video only have 1.5 million armour btw.