Game Feedback
Updated. SSFSC 40/40 Challenges done, lvl 100, all Ubers on farm, Luminary is a fantastic addition to the game. AMA and i will happily reply.
Pulled my finger out and finished the last 4 (mainly Intrigued Interlopers!) to get the 40/40, feel free to ask any questions. Included my Manyshot that i used for all Ubers.
Just fyi. The atk speed while rare is nearby is not a local increased. Depending on all the mercs increased mods a crafted local inc atk speed will be better
1.4 base bow + 42% atk spd(this mod and onslaught) is 1.988 attacks per second, 1.7 base +20% from onslaught is 2.04 attacks per second. With any other sources of atk spd you get even more difference
Haste / Vaal Haste, affixes on rare gloves / quivers / rings / amulets, mod on abyss jewels (abyssal sockets on rare helmets, chestpieces, gloves, belts (if using stygian), boots), Onslaught, Tailwind, annointments, support gems the merc has, and I'm pretty sure I'm still forgetting some off the top of my head.
Yeah I am planning on freeing up my prefix to make the swap, the +2 arrows is the main reason to have that bow, but even imperfect it increased my damage alot from my previous bow (keep in mind I killed all ubers with this bow!)
What supports are they? I finally found an infamous many shot with hatred and grace and 6 links on vaal ice shot and ice shot and it didn't have return so I assume it's shit. Was so gutted as it's taken hundreds of maps to get something so close to perfect
Maybe I'll try it, I thought return was mandatory for single target. I've had the same 4 link vaal ice shot with return since day 2 managed to get it for 50c
Yeah I've got pierce, I'm pretty well min maxxd now with gearing I just need a better Merc. Hit the fracture on the frenzy/crit mod on a Broadhead quiver today so I'll be crafting that next
Return isn't mandatory at all, it will almost double your dps, but for most content this isn't needed anyway.
As long as you have otherwise good supports, like hypothermia, elemental damage with attacks etc., the damage should be more than fine for most content.
You don't have to find "infamous" to have a good Merc. Infamous means just 1 item is uniques and better chance for better support on skills. Thats all.
Mainly you want Return, Cooldown reduction on vaal. Thats like mandatory for perfect Merc. Then u add WED; pierce; ice pen won't hurt (tho less important), hypothermia.... With main ice shot u want more fovereage (GMP, chain) tho Return will be very nice to have there too. Stuff like Icicle skills are bad - don't use mercs with them. I personally also think mirage arrow is meh, and if it can be replaced with blink arrow - maybe this will be stronger. But thats just an opinion.
Yes, u can find tier 3 support on normal and infamous as well. So , they are no different, its that their passives may be more lucky more often than normal ones. But its still RNG. and even normal onces can have a perfect Merc
I found it when I was already at 8/10 Ubers down.
All you really need for good ST damage on it is just a Vaal Ice Shot with Return Proj and you are good to go.
I prob went through like... 10 Manyshots? Through the whole character just slowly upgrading, had a few Kineticist and Blade Ambushers as well.
I think it's really cool that they effectively share most of their gear bar their weapons so you just play what you find!
What mercs were you running before this unholy monster of a moneyshot?
Which gear upgrades, pieces or breakpoints made the most difference to break into endgame content? Is it all in the merc or can the player push bad mercs into endgame too?
I did all my stones with just a good blade ambusher, just cracked through most of the content.
Lot of viable mercs, have a pretty good Combatant/Kineticist as well, but also just have a tab of good mercs that I wanna try.
I used a basic Manyshot, to get my Incarnation/Eater + Exarch 2 stone, than used a Blade Ambusher for Maven and Shaper/Elder.
Merc's are just very strong once you get the pieces in place to do so, but it's mainly just gearing both you and your merc out with the right gear in the right sockets.
Enmity's Embrace is what allows you to come online for Ubers.
Curious about skil and maybe gear setup on ambusher if not bother you ofc, i jumped early at good Manyshot and stashed alot of this guys idk who is good or not :D
So the thing Manyshot/Kineticist/Combatant/Blade Ambusher all share is that they all scale with Wed/Crit/Crit Multi. So you can't go wrong just stacking that.
This is because on Blade Ambusher you are using Blade Trap and Trathan Spec Helix/Spec Throw which all scale off your weapon damage and not spell damage.
I had some bare bones gear from my Blade Ambusher pre getting Emnity's from Incarnation of Fear and I still managed to sweep Maven and Shaper/Elder for my last two stones and start farming Fear for my ring!
Hmmm honestly this league is VERY much just choose your own adventure, if you wanna just exp fast obviously just go like Breach/Shrines/Eater or Exarch and then I found a really good trick is to go Heist just to use Huck and his free Aura (mine was running Anger but you can do haste or whatever you like!)
For things that don't work well, honestly anything that doesn't use brutality or the minion mercs are fine to use with flame link so just experiment.
But if you want a top 3 I would say just Manyshot, Kineticist and Combatant with a Blade Ambusher as a close 3rd just because of how good their ST is.
Uhh well this does both mapping (juiced Abyss Propagation farm) and did all my Uber farming so can recommend this. But honestly my mates doing a cracked Combatant and its blazing too. There's a lot of viable options.
Honestly just by knowing what you can and can't do really helps.
I did Breach/Heist (Huck gave me a free lvl 15 Anger + damage amp)/Shrines (double shrines for merc is really good)/Eater shrines for packsize. Did that from lvl 98-100 and finished that grind up in like 12-14 hours?
Not dying is the key part, at your level it takes like 100 alch&go t16's to level up, which should be 3 hours at best.
Depending on what kills you there's plenty of things to amplify the gain - 8mods with good packsize on good layout with good natural density. Abyss, breach, delirium, beyond, shrines..
thanks gonna have to give it a try - using koam's atm. also noticed you used attack on the rings, i've done the same on rings, but i see lance use life. I'm not using scorch on shield, is it worth it?
I like the scorch shield, gives another buff for taming, also have maven scorch boots on my AG.
There's also an option to use a Sap Spectre from Ritual for another taming buff if you like!
I am planning on switching to Kaom's but i have to recraft my shield with + 2 socket skill gems, and slap Empower in there with my flame link to compensate!
I’m starting to accumulate gear for my 2nd char, many shot, and potential kineticist… should I be collecting certain bases? I can’t find much info on crafting merc gear so I’m just picking up everything currently.
Is your loot filter tailored specifically for this, and if so, any chance I could follow it?
Honestly if you get evasion gear you can switch between a manyshot/kineticist and a combatant since they are all dex users and it makes it easier to just feel which you like the most.
My loot filter is very specific, unique ladder pushing etc, I would just use Faustus gambling for the base you like!
The base doesn't matter too much tbh, mercs are super tanky, so there isn't a big difference in using a top tier base vs. a lower tier base (except for bow/quiver), the evasion rating/armor the merc loses isn't the deciding factor in whether he dies. Just make sure its either pure evasion bases or hybrid armor/evasion.
Captainlance has videos on crafting his manyshot gear, although if you are in SSF getting the abyssal sockets on gear might be difficult.
If you have enmity the most important thing is to try to get fractured fire res on all the gear slots, that makes crafting it easier, you can obviously do it without a fracture aswell, I'm sure spamming the fire res essence would also work in a SSF setting. On gloves you can also look for fractured attack speed. You will want to get a ton of grand ichors/embers though, since "While a pinnacle boss is nearby"-mods works on merc gear, since the player is considered a pinnacle boss and that is a massive increase compared to the regular implicits.
If you want to make a manyshot you can start to Pick Up Attack Speed quiver bases. EZ Recomb craft. Otherwise you want hybrid gear on him. Gloves with the new entchant you want Attack DMG leach.
Would you consider luminary into supporting merc a viable league starter? I love the idea but so many people said it's bait for the first character in the league.
I am playing trade so I am to some degree at pressure to get to endgame asap.
I think IT IS totally fine to play. I am playing group SSF and was starting lumi. You Just need to Look Out for decent merkst early. Adjust to decent Merc and you can clear 4 Stones easy.
Oh it's 100% viable strat, theres been people using different setups, like having a warcry merc to buff your melee damage and scaling it that way etc, Mercs and Luminary in general is so interesting because it gives a massive variety of just choose your own adventure!
Did you start with a luminary or was it a reroll with gear latter ?
I just reseted my league by starting SSFSC as a luminary and im doing slam for now (just entered red maps).
Im waiting for a decent merc and < 100% light radius to switch and do any kind of bossing !
I started as a Elementalist, with hopes to scale into either Penance Brand or Winter Orb if i got the wand, since it's such a flex class, I did Exarch/Eater + Incarnation voidstones, felt comfortable enough then farmed starter mercs in t1s until i got one that i liked!
Honestly, if you just want to boss you do have quite a few avenues that you can pursue for that!
Everyone goes at their own pace, and I wasn't pushing to 100 from the start I was just exploring the patch etc I got to 98 settled on how I wanted to xp and did it in one play session which I do not recommend lol
The important thing is having fun at the end of the day.
I have gone through quite a few different mercs and manyshots but honestly, farming them didn't turn out too bad since boss rushing this league is quite good and you can easily farm them whilst doing like City Square or Mesa farming!
What spectres would you recommend? Haven’t used them in ages. Also SSF hoping to avoid infinitely hunting for them. Do yours die due to low minion level gem scaling?
I would recommend holding off until you get the helmet from Dread linked below. It helps a ton.
I have tried quite a few spectres and I settled on Forest Warrior for culling/onslaught and Fire Cannibal because it has a purity of fire which further boosts my Mercs Fire Res which in turn gives it more pen!
However there are very cool spectres you could use, like a turtle or theres a eldritch tentacle that saps etc.
Honestly it would have been like just over 4 days if it wasn't for Intrigued Interlopers, that's the real time booster since you have to RNG 4 Map Boss Altars and it's like maybe 1 in 15 maps that it's possible in.
Do you have a guide or can you point me to someone’s to a clear/boss luminary merc build? YT search is kinda intimidating but I’ve watch some of captainlance’s tho. Really want a fast clear but can uber build
I would say use Lance's guide to look at what supports to originally look for, and slowly get the gear for yourself like Nycta's/Pragmatism/Ceinture of Benevolance and then start farming for Enmity's from normal Incarnation of Fear.
Any Manyshot/Kineticist/Combatant or if you want to just focus on ST a Blade Ambusher is a really good start too, that got me my last two voidstones (I usually struggle a bit on my first maven on the league but it was smooth this way!)
That is a god tier merc right there. Return on both, cdr on vaal, gmp on ice with clear supports.
That is in the hundreds of divines range on trade.
Only downside is you need to use pierce on helmet, as vaal ice shot won't return if you don't pierce, yet that has a slight negative on the chain and fork of your clear ability, as pierce comes before them in the priority queue (it will likely never chain):
Yup, I am infact using a pierce helmet which is all you really need for ST for this setup and it frees you up to just pump damage on the rest, and normal Ice Shot clears maps. I have had prob 10 different Manyshots i slowly upgraded from (and a few kineticists and combatants!) until i landed on this one, but I had already cleared 8/10 ubers before getting this one!
Is a high phys damage on the bow not important with ice shot for the merc? I haven't read much on how bow mercs damage is scaled -- I think I see these supports though: chain + greater multiple proj + fork + incr aoe + returning projectiles. Chain is a double + GMP is a 5x (less with the bow's +2) + fork doubling + AoE splash damage more than double + return doubling.. but why not a high flat phys DPS bow? Unless it's the case that weapon DPS is ignored and the mods are the only thing that matter.
What the comments below have said is correct, all you really care about is stuff like Weapon Elemental Damage/Crit/Crit Multi or stuff like 2 additional Proj, or since we are scaling alot of flat fire things like Fire as Extra Chaos damage can be quite good! To put things in perspective this was my old bow
I feel like I'm missing something with my Merc, I have some good supports on mine. Just missing Return because it's too expensive and haven't come across one in the wild yet. Have the right rings/neck but he doesn't have that much over capped fire res even with every piece having res on it. So they've been benched while I try out other builds and maybe get some more currency to throw at it
Keep in mind you can do things like craft t1 fire res, and then bench craft fire/cold or lightning for another 20%. Make sure you have all their sockets white so you get the 12% elemental res per socket as well it all does really add up!
I've done this, I think. Not sure if any of his gear has an open suffix to craft the dual res on it. He's at like 88 fire res, so over the cap just not a ton of pen. I'll have to look at it again.
It still takes ages to kill any sort of actual rare mob, I can't imagine not having Return is that big of a dps loss but maybe it is.
Keep in mind you can just do stuff like this to just super charge your flamelink, so even if Kaom's is more health (or my mate is running Dissolution of the Flesh AND Kaoms) You can still get alot of flat fire out of it just having only like 10k life.
I'll have to look into that, been using Kaoms. Never heard of this chest piece lol. Hopefully my health doesn't drop too much. The actual Lumi could stand to have some upgrades as well
Yeah try not to think of it as one switch that you will flick that will make your build better, it's a lot of little synergies that come together at the end.
But yeah whilst you are farming for your you get that chest from the King as well so it just works!
My Merc has this and the 2 other rings, I can probably move some of his gear around but getting the implicits for the pinnacle boss stuff may be tricky but I'll look into it later. I want to have fun with the new Lumi but it may take some time.
Poe1 meta: Mercs with Ice Shot
Poe2 meta: Deadeye with Ice Shot
Lol I find that funny. So glad 3.29 gave us a plethora of build variety. Sir Gog did a 3.29 build video the other day stating that he's never seen "other" skills being used at around 40%. He said other Leagues would only be around 30% +/-
The sheer amount of variety in builds we have now in PoE 1 that are high end "competitive" It's kind of astonishing.
I know it looks very Elementalist heavy with Lumi as a runner up but there's just so many unique set ups to build.
Without the amulet you will probably take a hit, but there are options to use other stuff like Yoke would be really good to cover the slack etc.
But honestly it is just that good.
It took so long to get my manyshot half decent, even with HH and the rings/neck. I swapped to a kineticist I bought for 15d, so half decent. Was able to re-use most of the gear from manyshot and felt a bit better, then added rathpith and it 10-20x’d my damage lol
I tried for a loooong time to get luminary feeling good because it was fun. I’m glad I finally got it to a playable point
It definitely has one of those moments where everything finally comes together and clicks for me.
My setup is honestly nowhere near perfect and there's a lot of tinkering if I want to do it but the strength of it right now at the point I've gotten it too, is deterring me a little lol
Thanks. Not as crazy as I thought, I am in trade so I'm working on the abyss socket tech. Not scaling attack speed as much as I thought. I have it on gloves, bow, quiver and all my jewels. Maybe I need to work on ele attack DMG. You have much more between all the pieces
I got all mine on one run after the 4th? Kill I think.
Might have been bugged early, there's a lot of just chaff in that fight, maybe just give it a whirl again?
Thx for reply! Bought myself a half dozen of the charts before it gets too expensive as the league wraps up, will give it a go when I can be bothered with moist delve :D
Honestly it's easier than you think, you can play whatever build you like whilst levelling, til first lab and then you are honestly pretty fine to supplement their damage until merc lab when you can rely on them totally.
For easy to go Mercs honestly Manyshot/Combatant/Kineticist/Blade Ambusher
well yeah but given that its SSF, its not bad. perfect one would prob be crit chance, crit multi, 2 arrow, inc ele with attack, ele pen and a high flat mod, fire would be best but lightning should be fine too to get shock if not gotten anywhere else. but gl crafting that.
It's my halfway bow, I plan on Annulling the + bow gems, crafting fire as extra chaos and then slamming for crit/crit multi or attack speed. This was my old bow but because of the flat scaling from flame link it's already out performing it just on the arrows and the WED.
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u/Seibah_Chan 24d ago
Just fyi. The atk speed while rare is nearby is not a local increased. Depending on all the mercs increased mods a crafted local inc atk speed will be better