Though a fun action RPG, Path of Exile is a complex one regarding making your build for the end game as efficient as possible, the complexity in synchronizing your gear, skill gems, and the passive skill tree can make or break your build in the end game each season. Instead of carefully choosing your build milestones and tinkering with every such aspect, most players use builds as a benchmark. Even though build makers spend hundreds of hours perfecting their builds, the fun of personalizing that build is second to none.
This article will discuss ten critical things you need to take care of if you want to go down that road and add flavor to them. Before proceeding with the article, make sure to check out how you can earn ample currency to start your latest season of Kalandra on solid notes.
Taking Path of Building's Help
The massive number of nodes in PoE's passive tree is staggering for most players. To make matters much more manageable, Grinding Games have provided a skill tree tool on their PoE website that players can use to create a custom skill tree for their characters. Though this is a friendly tool and can help you start on sound footing, Path of Building is a much better community-supported tool with many quality-of-life features.
Path of Building allows players to modify each aspect of the tree and see how each additional node can affect the final build. With this tool, you can tweak and share every aspect of the final passive build. You can even check how much DPS each of your builds can dish out, giving you a clear picture of how well you will fare in the end game.
Build with Limited Damage Dealing Mechanics
Simply put, use as few damage-dealing skills as possible instead of multiple ones that will make your build mechanically cumbersome. Choose a couple of skills and add layers of damage-enhancing support to them. This way, you can scale your DD skills much better.
You cannot add, for example, a DD skill, support to scale it, adding further impale or bleed effects, and finally, an elemental conversion in a single build. After you are done with DD skills, you can add different defensive layers to your build to increase your survivability for brutal fights in the end game.
You should also not couple the DD skills with multiple Defensive layers like combining the Mind Over Matter skill gem with Archmage Support. We understand some want to use the skills' offensive and defensive mana aspect, but it would need colossal sustain for mana. When focusing on DD, you can't simply go for that.
Flask are Life Savers
Flask, if utilized well, can make you OP in PoE. All your essential flasks need to have constant ready uptime when needed. They can make it nearly impossible to kill and add sufficient damage to your build. Always start by choosing the Best Slot Flask for your particular build and build around that.
Multiple Defesnvie Layers
For an easy end game and a high chance of surviving boss battles, you should aim for 75% elemental resistances, minimum of 160% life going up to 200%. You can achieve the life percentages by taking a lot of nodes from the skill tree.
When focusing on the skill tree Life passive nodes, don't forget to put a point in Acrobatic keystone nodes as a great source to dodge. Similarly, those classes that use shields should invest as much as possible in the block. Finally, you can invest in energy shields to further enhance your defenses and their regen effects.
Learning About Build Mechanics
The best tool for learning more about build mechanics is online streaming, including YouTube build guide videos. They show you the build in action so you can know beforehand what you are getting yourself into. Add the wiki page to the learning phase, and you won't be scratching your head halfway through the game.
When watching these videos, observe how these players and streamers use their skills and what passives and gear they recommend. You can always use poe.ninja to see which skill aligns with which build and skill gems. The stats on this website are staggering.
Be Realistic for Best in Slot Items
The Best in Slot term means the best gear or item you can get for a particular build, but it doesn't mean it is a must. We say this because you don't know how much you have to farm or grind to achieve that particular set piece or unique. So go for items that are feasible to purchase, scale well with your class level, and especially the ones you can craft. If you can get the BiS item, then kudos; otherwise, keep your equipment fresh while leveling.
Level 100 Should Never be Your Priority
Reaching level 100 takes a lot of time and grind, so don't build your builds around stats and passives targeting that. You should aim for a relative level of 85 as most content can be completed near there, and achieving that is a feat on its own. Focus on passives and gear that will support you towards that journey and keep the build realistic.
Using Jewels to Tweak Passives Skill Tree
Did you know that you can socket jewels onto your Passive tree and change somewhat how the tree behaves? Learn to add jewels at crucial points in the game to enhance the tree according to your build. Most of the time, a single jewel is worth much more than an excellent Tree Node.
If you look at many meta builds on different websites, they use jewels to stack the offensive and defensive aspects of their passives and builds. You can also stack your jewels in clusters to further enhance your strength by literally making the tree according to your liking. You can further enhance this by including a few unique jewels in the mix.
Too Many Unique Items Spoil the Taste of The Build
We all know unique items in the game are the heart of any build in PoE, but stacking more than a critical few, and adding tons of damage, can make you a glass cannon. Higher numbers of unique items significantly lower your defenses. You need to add life, DEF, resistances, energy pools, and auras to your build, and the more unique items you have, the more difficult it is to cap your defenses.
Some of the best builds try to avoid this conundrum, but that is only possible through adding immense Aura scaling and sometimes through mirrored best gear. You should personally avoid this and try to add as many rare but good items into the mix so you can round off your resistances sufficiently for the best.
Make the Build for the Crucial Content
This is probably the most essential aspect of this article because, in the endgame, you need to farm bosses for better chances of completing your build. This means that if you are targeting a build for the end game, you need a pre-req build to get there. To complete the pre-req build, you must cater to which boss or dungeon you will be fighting. Always consider scaling for the best optimum results.
Conclusion
There are a lot of different aspects and activities in PoE going on at the same time that you might get confused with so many things to do and look out for. Even though we have explained most of the crucial aspects to cater to when targeting a build, there is still so much more. If you ever feel overwhelmed and don't know where to go, visit the most expansive Path of Exile Website for the best information.