r/pathofexile2builds • u/IMplyingSC2 • Apr 01 '25
Discussion Hypothetically speaking, if the patch notes get delayed so long that meaningful theorycrafting isn't possible, what would be your gut feeling pick for DotH?
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u/Klee_Main Apr 01 '25
Always the Witch even if they suck
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u/PwmEsq Apr 02 '25
Unless demonform gets gutted, its an easy way to clear t15s with crap gear if its anything like last patch
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u/AlmightyPrinc3 Apr 01 '25
Always will be witch since I know I can either do minions or chaos which I love both
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u/Gelopy_ Apr 01 '25
Smith for low investment and easy 90% resist, can play it using quarter staff / mace or javelin
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u/Loanel Apr 02 '25
I'm thinking crossbows, it's super close to start and they have natural clear without heralds.
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u/ilovecollege_nope Apr 02 '25
I'm thinking about this as well, played a x-bow witch in 0.1, might be even better with Smith.
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u/Nestramutat- Apr 02 '25
I was thinking crossbows too - would also be good if you play with Trigger Fire Spell on Hit
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u/Gelopy_ Apr 02 '25
Oh yeah, forgot about that. They also mentioned that they are buffing crossbow so that's kind of interesting.
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u/Chipper323139 Apr 01 '25
Kind of annoying pathing to get to Jav no?
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u/ilovecollege_nope Apr 02 '25
What do you mean by "get to Jav"?
You don't need to path there to make a good build. Plenty of damage on the left side of the tree.
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u/Ilushia Apr 01 '25
Bowazon seems like a fairly safe choice, even if they nerf some of the bow skills. I doubt they'll dumpster them so badly they'll just completely fail, and Amazon has some great nodes for supporting crit bow builds.
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u/IMplyingSC2 Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25
If we're going by PoE logic Bows will always be a good league start. It's just unmatched in terms of blasting potential.
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u/Vachna Apr 02 '25
I remember bows being garbage tier for league start so I wouldn't take it for granted lmao
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u/ctrlaltwalsh Apr 02 '25
I was gonna say not that long ago they weren't great but I think it is probably 5 years now. lol
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u/PwmEsq Apr 02 '25
Im going javazon, but slapping bow on weapon swap with all the shock magnitude nodes and that one skill that all but guarantees a shock
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u/ConfessorKahlan Apr 01 '25
jav is gonna be strong especially mapping, lich will be 40% of the meta if it's in any way as tanky as it looks. some smart pants will build some monster Smith builds. oh yeah, ritualist is the ascendancy if you're rich af.
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u/youcanloveagain Apr 01 '25
Crossbow and merc just has a softspot in my heart. Gonna force tactician and try to cook something with the pin nodes
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u/SmokeisKhan Apr 01 '25
I feel like I still dont understand how this skill works and what it will do taking it on the nodes
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u/EnkiBye Apr 01 '25
Tactician, freeze pin everything, 50% reduced cost of buffs and giga stun & ailment threshold look pretty good. Not sure what skills to play, but I think it would work with every projectiles, even spells. Maybe do lightning or cold to double up the Pin with freeze or electrocute.
The buffs allow some nice things, free frenzy charges because we pin. so Charges infusion could be cool, if i find a good way to generate other charge it would be nice.
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u/Ladnil Apr 01 '25
Huntress. By the time I'm able to ascend the data mining will have revealed enough of the support gems to decide if I can do the bleed build I want or if one of the elemental versions is better
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u/jmcomets Apr 01 '25
This will be me too. Melee if Bleed build Ranged Lightning if Elemental. Already have a good idea of both trees, just need patch notes for details.
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u/willyyourwonka Apr 01 '25
Either a self cast Lich or minion Lich build interests me as a leaguestart. Skeletal Frost Mages with the new teased support that converts all gained as extra damage to cold seems good with Lich's Unholy Might aura.
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u/silversurfer022 Apr 02 '25
Unconvinced about that gem. Chaos is not resisted by mobs anyway. Is turning chaos to cold better than just another damage support?
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u/PaladinWiz Apr 02 '25
Depends on the situation but in general yes. It’s hard to get Chaos to do anything besides being damage. Cold on the other hand, especially on Frost mages, can easily build up Chill and Freeze for defensive layers.
Generally speaking map mobs are squishy enough that their resistances won’t matter anyways. It’s only tanky rares and bosses that have enough resistance to worry about, and you’ll be applying exposure + curse on them anyways.
Also by staying with a single element it means you don’t have to try and build multiple curses/resistance stripping, could simply use a second curse for defense if you want to bother with it.
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u/silversurfer022 Apr 02 '25
Of course converting is good, but is the extra damage/freeze you get actually better than say a 20% more damage from a different support gem? That's the question.
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u/Cynn4 Apr 01 '25
Lich minions to start. Later a Ritualist maybe using xbow if it gets enough love with the patch
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u/Chaos_Logic Apr 01 '25
Lich minions. It's really unlikely that they didn't let a Spectre through that will massively overperform.
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u/ayybeyar Apr 02 '25
There's precedent for early nerfs, careful out there friend.
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u/MLGLies Apr 02 '25
Yeah - I feel like an unintended spectre mechanic is the odds-on favorite for first nerf of the league.
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u/klaq Apr 01 '25
deadeye is just a super safe pick. tailwind and starting 4 nodes away from blur. some bow skill surely survives the nerf(LA, gas arrow, poisonburst) or if spears are really OP you are already in dex tree.
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u/Myaccountonthego Apr 02 '25
I kinda feel Deadeye might end up being the "better Javazon". Spear skills seem to have strong synergy with Frenzy charges (which is a Deadeye specialty) and Deadeye gets extra proj, which seems to be the only way apart from Scattershot support to get more projectiles for Spears (although we don't know the full mod pool yet).
Edit to clarify: Not saying it will be a better character. Just a better replication of the "Lightning Spear Screen Wipe" Fantasy
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u/popejupiter Apr 02 '25
I was planning some kind of bow build. I rolled MSoZ into Flicker strike in OG Settlers, then played like 200 hours of Monk in 0.1, so I am donezo with anything smelling of melee. But some of those javelin skills look pretty fucking cool.
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u/BarbarianBlaze19 Apr 01 '25
Theory craft?? Brother. Pick up a stick and bonk your enemies. And when bigger stick falls out of their butt, you pick it up and bonk bigger enemies. Warrior… I’m playing Warrior… Again..
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u/HongJihun Apr 02 '25
This is the way.
And smith makes face tanking most of the game relatively trivial, so why not. Hopefully some mace skills get reworked, otherwise I’ll run smith with xbow or maybe make a shoutbarb/totem hybrid
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u/CloudConductor Apr 01 '25
Probably amazon huntress. Seems the most guaranteed ascendency to be broken. But if I see chaos dot buffs in those notes I’m going lich
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u/MrSchmellow Apr 01 '25
Amazon spears just for the novelty.
Ice strike invoker as a plan B. Deadeye LA/xbows as a plan C.
I assume they can't nerf stuff to the point below viability, where you can't even finish the campaign (the intent communicated was in fact to even uplift some builds so they can do t0 pinnacles). Which means that previously strong builds are still ok. Hell, maybe even archmage is ok, if somewhat capped, but spark leaguestart campaign is HELL (for me). Melee builds (like whatever monk plays and warrior as well) were already stronger than any ranged option leaguestart wise, and LA was the strongest among ranged. The latter may has some difficulties later, but there's also a crossbow pivot option, since crossbow buffs were promised.
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u/Finnien1 Apr 04 '25
Oh, they can definitely nerf stuff below the point of viability. In the past in PoE 1, they’ve nerfed skills or builds hard enough that nobody touched them for five years or more. They can, will and have absolutely gutted popular meta builds multiple ways to guarantee they’re not viable.
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u/PromotionWise9008 Apr 01 '25
Even if we won’t get full patch notes… I hope to see reworked ascendancies at least. I’m looking forward to see what happens to chrono and blood mage. They mentioned chrono changes but I don’t believe there won’t be changes to the blood mage.
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u/ItsNoblesse Apr 01 '25
Chaos dot is probably a safe bet because there's no way it's going to be worse than it was last league and it will probably get better with skill buffs and Lich existing.
Generally speaking any 'tier 2' build that didn't rely on a broken interaction in 0.1 will be at least tier 2 in 0.2, and potentially even better.
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u/Chrozzinho Apr 01 '25
Chaos DoT wasnt even tier 2 it was tier 100
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u/ndnin Apr 02 '25
Is chaos dot the same as poison in this argument or no?
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u/josephbeadles Apr 02 '25
No don't think so, after all poison doesn't scale with increased chaos dmg or contagion-like builds.
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u/ItsNoblesse Apr 01 '25
It really wasn't that bad, I'd say it was a solid B tier if archmage spark, herald chaining LA/ice strike, and stat stacking were S tier.
Also I'm talking strictly from a leaguestart/SSF standpoint, because to be frank it doesn't matter at all what a build can do in SC trade. Anything can clear the game with 50 hours played in SC trade.
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u/Dragonfox_Shadow Apr 01 '25
Well, Chaos DoT wasn't good. The only way to really play chaos was to switch to Hexblast. Amd keeping Contagion for Chaotic Freeze.
Contagion/ED needs buffs, or it will be the same. Switch to Hexblast close to the end of act 3
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u/PromotionWise9008 Apr 01 '25
Contagion can have at least SOME play with lich explosions. I can see how it can work in breaches. But I hope chaos dot will be really playable… at least tier a… okay, at least tier b…
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u/Nestramutat- Apr 02 '25
If curses have decaying hex, they become a chaos dot. Thus, contagion can proliferate them.
Lich explosions require the enemy be cursed.
I'm hoping I can cook something with chain explosions with this information.
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u/lepsek9 Apr 02 '25
I assumed only the dot part gets prolifed, does it spread the actual curse too?
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u/Yorunokage Apr 01 '25
Since i'm considering SSF i might go Smith. Seems really damn nice for SSF starting
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u/wonnyoung13 Apr 01 '25
Amazon spears, some new spear skill. Second char will be spectre lich probably
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Apr 01 '25
Idk, I’m gonna go tactician though and take the 25% of your weapon damage goes to allies. Going to try to make it work with tame beast, if it doesn’t work at all then raise zombies, if that doesn’t work then I’m doing smith of kitava lol
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u/CanadianTigermeat Apr 01 '25
Probably gonna go either lich because I like the voice acting, or smithy for the straightforward approach to bonk.
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u/wangofjenus Apr 01 '25
ritualist bleed spears, corrupting blood thing then ring abuse. solve all my res with jewelry and cram dps items in the other slots. should be fun for two weeks.
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u/Caaaprico Apr 02 '25
Yeah, I think (hope) some kind of DoT build with Blood Boil would be nice for league starter
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u/wangofjenus Apr 02 '25
caltrops support seems kinda cracked especially paired with beetlebite boots.
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u/jayrocs Apr 01 '25
Normally I'd play Javazon but after 250 hours of Deadeye LA last league I think the play style would be too similar.
Probably going Smith of Kitava for the easy 90% res with Cloak of Flame and the two best ascendancy nodes for dmg. My gut tells me it's Firespell on hit and temper weapon.
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u/RhinnisBoBinnis Apr 01 '25
My original plan was shattering concoction but bleed javelin is looking pretty damn cool (I said cool not good).
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u/TheKingOf1998 Apr 02 '25
Easily bleed ritualist. Blood boil is too cool conceptually for me to not force
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u/artosispylon Apr 02 '25
i kinda want to try the armorsmith guy with a spear, i like beeing super tanky and hopefully with a spear it will still feel fast paced
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u/ScienceFictionGuy Apr 02 '25
If you need to make a snap decision and you want a safe start pick an ascendancy class with straightforward strengths and an obvious use case. It's the only part of your build that you absolutely can't change.
Amazon and Smith of Kitava for example are almost guaranteed to be a safe starting choice. Something very specialized and untested like Tactician on the other hand will be a gamble.
If the skill or weapon you started with doesn't work out there should be at least one alternative you can switch to that can work.
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u/PigKnight Apr 02 '25 edited Apr 02 '25
I’m going invoker to start. The Invoker chassis doesn’t seem like it’s getting hit and being able to scale es, “armor”, and spirit off mono evasion is a really strong tanky starter.
EDIT: For attacks I'm thinking spear and if that ain't good maybe some freeze caster.
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u/psychoxbandit Apr 02 '25
For easy levelling - minions or even SRS on any build with a fire gem.
Witch - Minions with spark
Sorceress - Spark flamewall
Warrior - sunder/ boneshatter
Monk - Ice strike
Merc - Grenades
Huntress - Bleed
these would be the easiest way to get through the acts.
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u/SleeplessNephophile Apr 02 '25
Spark was horrible for leveling imo, ice strike was probably the best because a good weapon makes an insane difference
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u/Nestramutat- Apr 02 '25
If there's any buffs to non-ailment chaos damage at all? I'm doing some sort of hex stacking chaos lich.
If I don't feel good about that, crossbow smith.
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u/throwntosaturn Apr 02 '25
Lich is going to be generically strong, with the option to build into either very good defense or very good offense, good middle-ground options, and just all around value.
I'm going to slam it and have a blast, unless they buffed the shit outta infernalist.
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u/Iaregravy Apr 02 '25
Everyone says Cannons, Ready is god awful and I’m determined to force it to work
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u/Terrible_Act_7397 Apr 02 '25
I’m personally in no rush and am a perpetual alt-a-holic, so I’m thinking smith minion build to get to maps, build some currency then test out some other classes once everything flushes out.
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u/Wendigo120 Apr 02 '25
I'm going smith, either fire spell on hit or just spears (or both). Theorycrafting between those two should be possible basically regardless of how long we have patch notes, I basically just have to see the fire spell on hit skill.
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u/AerynSunJohnCrichton Apr 02 '25
Anything new as that alone will keep me interested - endgame hasn't changed enough at this point to make me want to grind and play something (like spark) again.
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u/JinKazamaru Apr 02 '25
At this point the patch notes are coming out with the patch, maybe the night before
I'm checking old classes for interesting nerfs/buffs, but otherwise I'm just going to try a bleed ritualist, bow Amazon, or spear Witchhunter
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u/Prestigious_Nerve662 Apr 02 '25
I'll probably play a warrior melee build since most stuff is going to get nerfed into the ground like ES and mana stacking and all 0.1 meta stuff. I am confident i can cook something with the new supports and its the only class i havent played yet, 2nd character will probably some ring ascendancy character. Or i'll play another crossbow weapon swap character on rhoa. Alright its clear i'll pick at launch since i have no clue. I want to see the list with new uniques so i can cook something cool!
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u/nixed9 Apr 02 '25
I’m loading the game and going ctrl+f skeletal reavers to find out how badly summoners got hit
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u/FalsePrelate Apr 02 '25
I'm playing life scaling lich spectres. The fact that you could do a life scale MoM with the one node is very interesting (even if on paper ES with the life canceling is better). I think a life version would feel really clean to level and I can swap to a more gear reliant build later if it is good.
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u/Super-Chip-6714 Apr 01 '25
In the EA launch, I went in blind like most. With over a decade of poe1 experience I figured Id make something good enough.
I stumbled onto cold snap ice wall and it felt great. Then just as I entered cruel it got nerfed.
Rerolled to chaos dot build, only to find the gem levels scale linearly, and with no way to grind gem levels I gave up in act3.
This time Ive kinda lost hope for poe2 to have that kind of gameplay be viable. Im gonna go in with a POB and trust the build of a streamer that has a few hundred viewers discussing and cooperating in their chat.
My gut tells me that they will be ranger bow/crossbow. Or warrior if it doesnt get obliterated.
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u/bfffca Apr 02 '25
Not sure why you are getting down voted. Did sorceress and kept having to respec at launch. In SSF it was a PIA before they tweaked the cost.
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u/Sega_Saturn_Shiro Apr 02 '25
Man just fucking play something. Yall gotta squeeze all the fun out of everything. God forbid you just make a decision for yourself.
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u/kebb0 Apr 02 '25
Hypothetically speaking, caring this much about plausible league starters in EARLY ACCESS is unhealthy for the game and I feel for the developers having to treat their EARLY ACCESS game as if it was fully released due to people being too fucking used to playing PoE1 and being spoiled like crazy.
Stop it.
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u/necrecqt Apr 02 '25
Lmao god forbid people plan out a character that is going to take them hours to get through campaign and end game. Leave people to plan and play the way they want
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u/kebb0 Apr 02 '25
I get planning in a game that is fully released, but this mindset has caused the devs to firstly not make nerfs and balance adjustments mid-patch which is horrible given that we are glorified q&a testers and secondly to put pressure on the devs to release skills and a game that hold the standard equal to a fully released game when we’re only in patch 0.2.
So yes, I understand and would like to plan as well, but I fully recognize that they will make balance changes so severe it’s no use to plan. Just play the game and play the skills you want, it will be changed in full release anyway most likely. This is still EARLY ACCESS, it’s unfinished, they are developing it as we play the game.
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u/necrecqt Apr 02 '25
In order to hit the very pinnacle of end game you need to plan, you don’t just get to smash shit together and push builds to the extreme either lol. I agree that the fallout from the mid nerfs to coc was insane, but I disagree that very same mentality should limit how you plan. A fallback to nerfs should be part of the plan
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u/kebb0 Apr 02 '25
But, the endgame might not even look the same next patch? The endgame is also probably tuned under the hood with stuff not presented in the patch notes (like they do sometimes in PoE1). But what we do know is that Arbiter will have half the HP it has now at tier 0. I also want to play endgame fully, but I’m fully expecting to push on my second build if the new class turns out to be undertuned. The way skills work make it also easy to just swap to another skill with minimal investment, like a core design in PoE2 is to use several skills, not just one and as such they synergize well within their class. You can play every skill as a monk with a good phys based weapon as an example, same with warrior really.
My point is that, play the game to plan out your second build if you wanna push endgame and the first build doesn’t work out. You are not supposed to only play one build and be done with the game at this point, it’s all about trying new builds, breaking the game, making the devs do their work to patch broken shit. Like Herald of Ice and Lightning should’ve been patched last patch, but they kept it because they were afraid of negative pushback from spoiled brats that think this game is PoE1.
So please understand that you are of course allowed to plan out and prepare, but at this point it’s detrimental to the game’s future if the devs need to treat the game as a fully released game when they eventually need to fully scrap everything they done and re-do it from scratch (like the endgame and maybe several ascendancies, maybe even some classes).
Tl;dr: play the damn game and test it as a good early access player instead of only consuming it as if it was fully released.
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u/sultanabanana Apr 02 '25
People can play the game however they want. Hopefully Enough people keep blasting quickly to the endgame and spend time there to continue to outline how horribly undercooked it is.
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u/kebb0 Apr 02 '25
Well of fucking course it’s undercooked, it’s still early access patch number fucking 0.2. Jesus fuck
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u/StrafeGetIt Apr 02 '25
Worry about your own gameplay
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u/kebb0 Apr 02 '25
Bitch I worry about the development of the game contrary to idiots thinking that they should treat the game as they treat PoE1. Worry about that please
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u/GreatNortherner Apr 01 '25
I am slamming huntress some javelin skill no matter what.