PoE - Asynch Exile Team

[Miguelito]

Hello
being out of (even somewhat successful) pitbosses I felt inspired by T-Hawk's and Kylearan's exploits in Diablo II to port the concept to Path of Exile.

So the basic idea is to solo play one character of each (base) class, progressing through the campaign at the same pace, and sharing the loot. As I reported elsewhere, I found the Ruthless mode quite fun, and it seems to be just what's needed to make the concept interesting through the acts. The new league that starts tomorrow seems like a good a time as any to get it rolling

Rules:

• Leauge: Crucible (?) Ruthless SSF HC. go slow.
  
• In case of one character unfortunately dying during act 1, I reserve the right to let a new exile wash ashore
  
• Every living character must have finished the current act before any starts the next one. The exception is the scion, who will only run acts 1-3 after all other characters have finished act 3, as Innocence intended
  
• After all characters have finished an act they can exchange items before starting the next one. The scion can help herself at leisure during acts 1-3. Need to organize the stash somehow to make this work (I'm not sure if I own 7 individual Premium Tabs), but it should be doable.
  
• If we make it past Kitava, we can make up new rules.
  
• I don't care for full clears, but overleveling is good in Ruthless
  

Is there any interest in seeing this reported? Would anyone be interested in taking over one or two characters? I have ideas for each class but of course you'd do your thing, we only should coordinate (SSF wouldn't work, but we'd just run in the regular league and stay honest).

[Boro]

could be interesting. I've been trying to get into Path of Exile, but the knowledge I feel I need to have to get enjoyment out of the game is always too daunting.

[Brian Shanahan]

I'd follow this. It's nearly two years sinceI last played and could do with something to show me how everything is reworked.

[Miguelito]

I'd follow this.  It's nearly two years sinceI last played and could do with something to show me how everything is reworked.

could be interesting. I've been trying to get into Path of Exile, but the knowledge I feel I need to have to get enjoyment out of the game is always too daunting.

Glad that there's interest

In Ruthless mode there is not as much content, so you can start with less knowledge (if you pack patience). But really I feel like you can get into the game if you accept suboptimal results the first few tries. There are a lot of subsystems, because every 3-4 months with a new league a new gimmick is introduced, and most get folded into the main game. But they get introduced over the course of the campaign, and you can ignore any you don't want to deal with yet. Important - if you try to read up, poewiki.net is your friend. The older fandom wiki still comes up first in searches, but it's unreliable and out of date. I'll try to explain jargon where I use it, but there surely is better introduction material around than what I could provide.



Brian - I also had not played since 2 years ago. At that point I had stumbled into a super OP build in Explosive Arrow when I found a six link Quill Rain from a metamorph. Killed the (then) new end boss Sirus and Uber Elder, and I was like 5 rooms away from the Delve final boss (?) when the patch came in and the skill was nerfed to nothingness. And then Pb59 started. So I'm also discovering new stuff - mostly a few new gems and the reworked skill tree. Apparently a lot has happened in terms of endgame and league mechanics, but this project probably will not get close to any of that .



As for the Ruthless mode, you mostly get a lot less item drops, less currency from vendors, no support gems other than from drops, and skill gems only as quest rewards and drops but not from vendors. Also next to no movement skills at all, and most auras are drop only. I quite like it. Usually I'd spend two weeks doing campaign (I'm slow) and then stall out at some point in maps, or lose a few HC chars to dumb errors on the way. This way the fight for survival starts from act 1, and the game is always engaging. Downside is I don't get to see all the new stuff and so far  barely even interact with the current league mechanic (it's dangerous, and I don't think the rewards are very appealing - apperently there are no loot explosions, just upgrade to items?).





The team has assembled, all having made it to act 2 and the forest encampment:




ATE is for Asynchronous Team of Exiles because character names have to be unique across all leagues and servers. I hate myself for not coming up in time with the evident and much better Exile Asynch Team.



Here they are one by one, each with as many stats as the UI shows and my favourite item on each of them, and my plans for the character:




I like cleave, and it has had so many buffs that it actually deals a good lot of damage, but he's going to do cyclone (like D2 whirlwind) when he gets there in act 3. That's very fun to play and also helps with not getting stuck in groups of monsters and dying. I first set him up as a super generic physical attack build with passive skills allocated on dual wield nodes, and with Slayer for ascendency, for the busted life leech. But I've done that before only better, so instead he'll go Gladiator and add some bleeding while still going mostly attacks. Projected keystone passive skills are 

• Precision Technique (new!): 40% more damage if accuracy > life, no critical hits
  
• Vaal Pact: much better life leech, no life regeneration
  
• Crimson Dance: more but weaker bleeds on monsters - that should go well with fast hitting cyclone?
  
• maybe the instant warcry one
  

In act 1 Rubén found 3 of the 4 total support gems the team has got (see below), so he takes the MVP trophy for that act.





The shadow gave me the greatest headaches. I was first going to do a mine Saboteur, but the more I looked at the class the less I liked it (and it was reworked just recently ). I played mines in some event way back in 2.x and that was fun, but mines have also been reworked since, and when I tried them for a bit it felt weird and complicated.
I then decided that the Scion would do traps and to develop the Shadow as a spellcaster which the group was lacking yet. I decided for Blade Vortex (+ Blade Blast and Bladefall later on), mostly for style because he's a shadow, so flashy elemental spells feel weird? Was going to do a Trickster and leech energy shield, but it kind of doesn't work out, and to make his survival depend on energy shield in hardcore, in a team that focuses on the campaign didn't seem plausible. So I arrived at an Assassin, as always with shadows, with only a mild focus on crits, but the blades willl be poisoned.
He felt squishy throughout act 1, and it will not get better soon, because it turns out that Blade Vortex is a problematic skill. I actually couldn't kill Merveil (the act boss) with it and had to resort to traps. He desperately needs increased duration for the blades, so he has to race to the Scion area on the skillweb, and only after that (maybe towards the end of act 3) can he focus more on survival nodes. I'll try to pamper him with items - first thing that comes to mind is giving him the Marauder's decoy totem - but it is well possible that he goes down at some point. I need to be focused, and patient, and go slow, we'll see if I can manage that.
I have actually not planned with any keystones for him, but he might opportunistically take Supreme Ego (auras are stronger but only affect yourself, easy choice if I get an aura at some point ) or Iron Will (strength melee damage bonus applies to spells)





Rufus does Holy Flame Totem. He is going to be a hierophant for more totems, and also take the totem keystone. Straightforward, and in act 1 he was already very strong, despite not really dropping anything useful. Lots of keystones for him:

• Avatar of Fire: convert 50% of most damage types to fire but only deal fire damage. Since the Holy Flame Totem skill already converts the other 50% of its physical damage to fire I think it's good. Just don't have to add any cold or lightning
  
• Iron Will (see above)
  
• Ancestral Bond: +1 totem can be summoned, but the character can't deal damage himself. At that point we basically play tower defense
  
• Elemental Overload: 40% more elemental damage for 8 seconds if a skill has done a critical hit, but crits don't do extra damage (good if you crit sometimes but not often)
  
• Mind over Matter: 40% of damage applies to mana before life, and the hierophant ascendancy can at another 10%. I hope I manage to build this right, usually I'd always just reserve all the mana for auras. But since they are hard to get in Ruthless (and can go to ohter teammates), MoM seems like a good way to makeuse of mana
  

--> This post is long already, going to show the other half of the team in the next one. But I have a disclaimer yet, which I was going to put at the start of the post but it looked ugly there :



I had announced that I might restart characters that die during act 1 (those were just nameless exiles, and others washed ashore). I have to admit that I had to make use of that option more than expected. The deadliest zones turned out to be the two after the very first, The Coast and The Tidal Island. Both Fire Fury and Hailrake are pretty tough without a supported skill, or at least so I found. After that the situation usually stabilised with at least some white items and the first few passive skills. The exception was the duelist. One got grilled by Fire Fury, which was fair, then one went close to the end of act 1. He had awesome drops, but still felt very squishy all the time and then was killed against Merveil's firey daughter, in a one on one with no monsters around . After that I still wanted to try the character build I had envisioned, and even though it felt a bit wrong I set up a new one (the great item's he had found all went poof with him, none had been put in the stash). After that, it was all jinxed, and I lost an uncomfourtable number of duelists on the Coast, Tidal Island, the Rhoa zone after that and Submerged Passage. Like 5 or 6 of them. Finally I went with Rubén as you have seen him very slowly, with heavy use of the totem, and beelining the resistance nodes on the skill web, and he turned out awesome.

From act 2 on, every death is really actually and totally definitive, so hopefully I've learned my lesson.

[Miguelito]

That quiver is incredible . She does Ice Shot, making use of the cold nodes close by for full conversion. She also has to get additional arrows from passive skills, as I can't count on multiple projectile support gems (spoiler - something dropped, see below). She can also take passive nodes for 100% spell suppression (new mechanic, which gives a chance to halve spell damage). The only keystone is, again, Precision Technique. I don't see her critting a lot, and she'll have loads of accuracy.
Act 1 felt very good, with shrapnel ballistas to absorb some damage, and Ice Shot chilling and freezing. Hope the ballistas keep being useful going forward. She's projected as a Raider, as all my Rangers are. Even for a dedicated bow character I don't see how Deadeye would be better. Maybe some day if I ever try bow bleed or something?



So my initial thoughts for the Marauder were to actually build him for the flame totems, with the Chieftain ascendancy. Except it just didn't really work out, and the hierophant seems much better suited. So I actually went to poeninja and apparently the cool kids these day play Boneshatter: melee strikes, hit hard and get yourself damaged in the process - which then gets mitigated by huge Juggernaut armour. That seems enjoyable and reasonably safe. The pros take the accuracy node with the Juggernaut and then Precision Technique, but I'll just go for Resolute Technique (no crits, never miss), and invest into defense and plain damage. A few keystones:

• Blood Magic (10% more life, disable mana and pay skills with life instead) - I feel that BM is pretty good for low level Ruthless. Usually a big drawback of BM is no auras, but we don't have any either way, and the skills also don't have a high mana/life cost with only few support gems
  
• Resolute Technique, see above
  
• Warcries are instant - I don't really know why it's a keystone, could be a regular notable, but it seems convenient.
  

Oh look coincidence, my mother-in-law is also named Ruth (true story)! This is the same character that I previously reported on during last league, and which had a nice run until she died somewhat mysteriously on Oriath Square during act 5. So Summon Raging Spirit as a main skill, and zombies and skellies for meatshield purposes. I will gear the tree more towards skill duration this time, but else it's pretty much the same, as it was fun then.


So that's the team. I hope I have some variety regarding playstyle and item demand. I'm not fully content with both melee chars going full physical damage, but i don't know an elemental melee skill I'd like to play. I did a silly skillweb for 90% lightning conversion on Static Strike for the marauder, and marching all the way to the upper right corner taking lots of lightning clusters, but I don't think it's going to happen. But I'll likely play Static Strike until he gets Boneshatter in the library in act 3. At least both melee chars can use almost any weapon that they have the stats for, and are not restricted to two or one handed either, so they can take what drops.
The other hole I see is Energy Shield, as no character will dedicate towards it. Of course if something exceptional drops the witch can find a use for it. But ES is always somewhat critical in SSF, and much moreso under these rules. The other issue are small arms (claws and daggers), which the Duelist can't use until he gets Cyclone, and at higher levels probably he and the Marauder will both be too dumb for them.

Actually the best weapons I've dropped all were from that category:


Luckily they obsolete fast anyways during the first acts. Maybe the scion will find them helpful for leveling later on.

Anyway, here's the loot from act1:


I have used one transmutation orb so far and stored the rest. Only get chroms a lot because 3 link items come in sufficient numbers.
I pooled the jewellery from all characters for solitary redistribution. These are nearly all white, only one rustic sash is blue with some useless mods. I think a few of them can have a transmute before going into act 2, but I don't think alchemy orbs will be worth it, considering the low level mods that can be expected.
The most important part of course are the support gems. These are all that this team has found, but some good stuff:

• Arrow Nova: This is a new one. The description says it fires an arrow in the air and 5(?) arrows split into a nova from where it lands. So a bit weird multiple projectiles for the Ranger. I'll give it a try. The question is if I can do without the additional arrows from passive skills then.
  
• Added Lightning Damage: goes to the Shadow, who needs lots of love. The one issue I see is that none of the chars who would really need it will be sufficiently intelligent mid term. I suppose the Witch at least can link it to SRS, even though she shouldn't really need it.
  
• Summon Phantasm: I was at least not aware this existed, maybe it's new. You get projectile shooting ghost minions on kill or hitting a boss. Since the witch is the one with minion boni she seems a natural fit. Although maybe the Shadow has some use for it at least in the short term. I am not sure whether the phantasm work as meatshields.
  
• Maim: Great, just have to decide whether the Marauder or Duelist gets it. My feeling is that Duelist is the better choice, as slowing enemies in the Cyclone sounds good.
  

Also not one pair of boots with movement speed dropped. Which of course helps with the patience requirement.

Finally going into act 2 I have to think about what to do with the bandits (there's a quest where you pick the outcome and depending on your choice you get different permanent character boni as a reward...

• Duelist: Alira would be mostly for resistances (and the bit of mana regen). Oak is no good because no life regen. I have a soft spot for Kraityn, but the boni are objectively pretty weak. So probaby kill them all?
  

• Shadow: Alira, easy.
  
• Templar: Alira would also seem like a natural fit, what with MoM, but it's so out of character for him... he also really has a lot of passive skills to fill, so kill all seems like a decent option.
  
• Ranger: Kill them all, or Alira despite no crit?
  
• Marauder: Oak seems like a quite decent fit. From what I read online I understand that the boni are regarded as weak, otoh they are just what this futuer Juggernaut needs...?
  
• Witch. Same as the Ranger. She also has MoM so additional use for the mana.
  

A little policy change: Since weapons obsolete so quickly especially during these early acts, I felt like it was justified to allow using weapons (but no other items) from characters who have completed the act already. Else the team exchange aspect would not be very useful. That also means that I'll better play the casters first, fine.
I need to do the item distribution fiesta yet, then start on act 2.

[Boro]

Good stuff. I reinstalled a couple days ago, and SSF Ruthless is fun. I'm not going HC and it's been validated when I hit escape to go grab some food and came back to a dead character.

[Miguelito]

Good stuff. I reinstalled a couple days ago, and SSF Ruthless is fun. I'm not going HC and it's been validated when I hit escape to go grab some food and came back to a dead character.

glad to hear! Yes, I actually have lost at least 1 character when I left him somewhere where I assumed it was safe and then some silly zombie came along....

Ruth the Witch is through act 2! (also the Shadow, but I'll report him next time)



been a breeze. The only thing that could be dangerous to her right now would beme getting too cocky. 
I gave her the vitality aura so the zombies almost never die, and both zombies and raging spirits were buffed with Added Lightning Damage Support - not that they needed it, but it had to go to someone sufficiently intelligent and the Shadow was already using Summon Phantasm Support, while the Templar is an avatar of fire... but I'll give it to the Shadow (or Marauder... future plans ) next. 
I started doing Crucible encounters, and she could actually dial up the danger level up into the 80s without getting too stressed (although the zombies would die in that case). As you see, the mods fell just right (20% reduced damage is an ideal fit for a necro ) , and a few are quite awesome. With that life bonus, plus two life clusters and the +50 life mastery and Mind Over Matter allocated already, she feels very safe at the moment. And at the same time, everything including the Vaal Oversoul fell in a matter of seconds.
There's a nice life ring, the leather belt she got for the spider quest rolled a high implicit and mana is also nice with MoM, and the Torture Cage hat is decent (also much needed all blue 3-link), but overall her items aren't too inspiring yet. That chest in particular is concerning, and maybe I should just give her a white chainmail or robe with higher base stats. The first and only movement speed boots though, although that will go to someone else in act 3.

[Boro]

Einhar when around can make crucibles easier.

Started a witch in normal ssf crucible, after my ssf ruthless standard scion, just to see what I'm missing, aand it's a mixed bag so far.

[Miguelito]

sadly Einhardoesn't grace me often
But in act 2 so far crucible hasn't been particularly hard really. Of course I'm cautious, but I can also be patient with upgrades, and the mods are nice. What did you spec the Scion in?



That wand is something! All the added elemental damage isgiving me some pause though with respect to my plan to scale poison here. Maybe just crits and take whatever added damage he can get?

Rudy was off to a very slow start on the fields against Gneiss the unique pile of rocks and then the Great White Beast, but afterwards picked up some surprising speed and was feeling quite nice throughout the act. He also was feeling pretty safe, which I think was rather due to the Phantasms than the totem, although that although helped sure enough.
Until Vaal OVersoul, where I felt all the clunkiness of short duration Blade Vortex again. I was unable to get to it and damage it or even the summoned constructs over pretty long stretches of time and managed to get myself hit by the big slam not once but twice and almost died both times. Pretty lucky there, thanks to all the survival gear from the whole team, but I really need to improve upon that against Dominus or else the touch of god will get to me.
With just Blade Vortex not having something to fight over a distance is a problem, which hopefully will be solved after act 3 with Bladefall (not during, because he will take a trap for the Scion as quest reward, and then she will get him Bladefall when it's her turn). With cast speed and a little increased duration with the node close to the shadow start he gets up to the maximum 10 blades, but they still fade away fast when he has to also kite. Blade Blast was added during act 2 but I have not really felt it being very useful yet.

He also found this:


This one is new to me, and it took some time to wrap my head around that convoluted mechanic. But basically we need hits with an alternating element to do the most damage (two elements are enough), to get a bunch of more elemental damage and penetration. We just have no such build yet. The witch doesn't do damage, the templar does pure fire and the ranger pure cold, the shadow mostly physical, as do the two melee guys. Is it worth changing plans over this? I decided that yes, because after all the charm of SSF is to adapt to what you find, right?
I tried to set out a skill tree for the shadow to convert his Blade Vortex to at least 2 different element (2x 40%) through masteries, but it was a huge investmentand not attainable before somewhere during act 10 I believe. Instead I have decided to make an attempt with the marauder.
Instead of Boneshatter he stays with Static Strike (as long as the skill proves enjoyable, haven't tested it yet), getting 50% physical to lightning, then with a fire mastery he gets 40% converted to fire + 10% physical as extra fire from the nodes leading to it. Now the question is, does this work mechanically? Meaning if I have say 100-120 physical damage, so I'd get 50-60 each of lightning and fire, does it roll lightning and fire seperately, or does it roll a fixed amoung of physical damage first, then convert it, so they both always have the same value (assuming the character doesn't have specific %increased lightning/fire damage, in which case one would always be higher)?
From a reddit thread from 2 years ago it seems like it's the former, both elements would get rolled independently, meaning the higher value should alternate and Trinity should work. I'll try it out when the turn comes to the marauder, fingers crossed. Else maybe the added lightning damage gem and some %increased fire damage can add sufficient variety.

[Miguelito]

....and got everyone else through act2!



Smooth sailing all along.
Right before Vaal Oversoul he took Ancestral something, so now only the totems damage. He even found a second Holy Flame Totem gem that can go to the marauder, who in turn will not need Ancestral Warchief for a quest reward.
In act 3 he'll just continue as before, adding the Flammability curse and after lab a third Holy Flame Totem for what I hope will be significant milestones.



She's fine, although lacking a bit in the damage department. Or so I feel, although the tooltip says she's doing better than most. Things got really hairy in the Weaver's chamber, where she got pinned to the (locked) entrance by all the swarming spiders. I had to Alt-F4, reenter, Alt-F4 again and another time, escaping with 16 life once, and finally loaded a new instance where she just ran in circles and barely managed to not get surrounded. The one good news is that after lab she'll have permanent phasing, so stuff like that will then be resolved. Otherwise I have little ideas how to help her. One problem being that she has nothing but dexterity, so can't even give her e.g. the added lightning support gem. Maybe she just needs to grab some stats from the tree, but that is not all that easy either.
What is nice is that she is already at 25% spell suppression, and with the mastery granting the lucky roll that's already close to a 50% chance.
She did try the arrow nova support gem, but it feels very situational. So I did not link it to her Ice Shot main skill, but she keeps it on Lightning Arrow for when packs line up favourably.
I hope Sniper's Mark will help her considerably, as she has no other source of multiple projectiles yet, and will not for some time to come, because I preferred to go to the southern part of the skill tree first for life/suppression/that cold cluster, and then there's Culling Strike against marked enemy, which sounds too good to pass up on...
The upper bow had some awesome Crucible rolls, but in the end the second one with better base just gave more damage, so here we are.



Considering he's been working without a support gem, the marauder was doing a surprising amount of damage. The weapons that were waiting for him in the stash certainly helped. One big step ahead that I had not planned for was Warlord's Mark, giving rather easy Rage sustain on top of the endurance charges.
In act 2 I implemented the Static Strike setup with 50/50 lightning/fire damage, and now in act 3 he'll get the Trinity support which was the motivation for it. I tested that the mechanics work, now let's see how muchgood it does him. I also hope for Infernal Cry to provide some fun and help.




I was pretty worried, having a melee char as the lowest life character among the group, but he did fine. I was greedy and grabbed the bleeding cluster first + Crimson Dance, although that will not be all that good before Cyclone (and Ascendancy). With the Marauder finding Cruelty support the bleeding strategy looks even better. In fact, with that and Maim he has excellent supports, and now has to look for a 4 link item to support both an AoE spell (Cleave->Bladestorm->Cyclone) and Double Strike.
Ah yes, he'll take Bladestorm for a quest reward because I want to try it and as a support attack, then the Marauder will mule Cyclone for him into act 4. Hope I won't regret it against Dominus' mobs.

The treasury:


The team made some new transmutes and spammed more on white items. I even used an alteration orb at some point, here is the other one. At some point I may want to try an orb of alchemy, but so far I haven't dared.

Support gems:

1. Chance to Flee - famously useless to detrimental. I will give it a try with the ranger, who should be good picking up stragglers, but I'll probably just let it gather dust in the stash
   
2. Added Lightning - supposed to go back to the Shadow to support Blade Vortex but there's a problem because I also found
   
3. Efficacy, which seems very good for Balde Vortex for the increased duration alone, and vindicates the (fun) plan to go for poison with the Damage over Time portion. But with Summon Phantasm on top we don't have enough links... so either I give the Phantasms to somebody else, or the lightning damage, although I don't really know to whom...  ftr the Phantasms are for safety, but I don't really have a feeling for how much they provide, or if the decoy totem alone might do just as fine.
   
4. Minion speed. Obvious boon for the summoner, but see discussion below.
   
5. Cruelty. More hit damage and more damage over time. To the Duelist, although he is about dealing many small hits, while Cruelty is more efficient with DoT from big hits, but I have nobody who does that.
   not pictured, because they are in somebody's inventory:
6. Infernal Army. This gave me the greatest headaches. I was not aware of it before; what it does is to give minions a fire damage aura à la Righteuous Fire, while damaging them at 40% of their max life per second with fire, so they go down pretty quick. To my shame, I have to look up some builds to recognize that this works well with Minion Instability (the keystone that lets your minions explode when they reach low life). So do I want to convert the Raging Spirits in flying time bombs? Probably yes. It also eases the demands on the passive tree a lot, because all the increased duration from the scion area is not required any longer. Plus it sounds fun and quirky. What to do with the minion speed gem though, if the spirits don't have a lot of time to acutally attack before going boom? I could just give it to the zombies, whom I still want as meatshields. But I also want to see if I can get some resistances on the spirits, such that they expiremore slowly, and acutally get to deal some damage before exploding.
   
7. The ones from act 1, mostly mentioned already: Phantasm (Shadow -> Witch?); Combustion (Templar); Maim (Duelist); Arrow Nova (Ranger)
   

I have to distribute items for act 3 yet. I believe I've found some decent rares, but nothing spectacular as far as I remember. No uniques yet at all.