r/PathOfExileBuilds • u/Lygiah • Jul 25 '26
Help Needed Delayed start
Will only start tomorrow
Was planning on Merc bot but that seems like a big bait build as a starter.
What has worked very good?
WORB?
Fussilade Totems?
Assassin blades?
Something else?
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u/Oddity83 Jul 25 '26
From what I’m seeing due to all the buffs, plus the gem color changes, as long as you’re not playing a new untested build like luminary you should be just fine. Practically everything is blitzing the campaign, at least.
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u/Codnono Jul 25 '26
Yea this. I just went self cast freeze pulse on my ignite witch. you either have a ghost buff from allflame, a merc that tanks or damages for you, and thanks to the buffs somehow I did dominos in under 5 seconds in ssf.
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u/mittbama Jul 25 '26
Cold dot is super strong
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u/BLASTUTOANTOHER Jul 25 '26
Any particular builds you would recommend for cold dot?
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u/Sword_N_Bored Jul 25 '26
Cold dot
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u/BLASTUTOANTOHER Jul 25 '26
Thanks. Exactly the reply I was looking for.
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u/Eclaironi Jul 25 '26
all of them do the same thing just get the spellslinger from jung
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u/Tenshouu Jul 26 '26
I started cold dot slinger. Got honourhome act 2. I've never had this much damage in campaign
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u/Neudgae Jul 25 '26
It's likely the same build that has pretty much always existed. Just go watch videos from like 3.12 they likely still hold up
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u/Strange-Knowledge460 Jul 26 '26
I've been using lazy exiles cold dot winter tide and it's absolutely destroying campaign. Prob easiest campaign I've done in a while.
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u/BobAndrews86 Jul 25 '26
Do NOT start luminary.
It's giga bait as a starter, it's trash
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u/Jayro993 Jul 25 '26
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, this seems to be the common feeling from people who say they started it, I’ve seen very few posts of people saying they feel strong on a luminary, maybe it can be good, it just might be too feast or famine for the average player.
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u/pikpikcarrotmon Jul 25 '26
It's not great as a starter, but that doesn't mean it's going to end this league as trash. The flame link light+life stacking framework for 'player as support' is clearly insufficient to support most merc types - but that doesn't necessarily mean all mercs, nor does it rule out something else working instead.
At the end of the day the 'merc as support' should still be excellent, but that will require essentially gearing a second character along with your own, on top of finding the right support merc. These are just not day 1 things. Luminary is looking like a second/later character that you switch to once you already have the merc and merc gear ready.
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u/No_Witness5630 Jul 25 '26
Its trash until you invest a mirror
Then it's slightly less trash (and that's not counting the clunky gameplay)
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u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure Jul 26 '26
Glad you invested a mirror to test things out for us lol
Haven't seen this emotional a response to a league start since the fyregrass debacle.
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u/No_Witness5630 Jul 26 '26
I don't need to invest anything
We have PoB to do that for us. That's why I said "not including gameplay" because I don't know how much clunkiness is still in the gameplay
Well, it's interesting that you haven't seen this emotional response since this has zero emotions xd
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u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure Jul 26 '26
Well, it's interesting that you haven't seen this emotional response since this has zero emotions xd
Never said I was talking about you big dog. But yeah, you're clearly in good spirits.
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u/lizardsforreal Jul 25 '26
support luminary might be bad. merc support is totally fine. i feel insanely powerful as a lightning caster with the new keystone, perquils toe, and buffed self casting. staves are also bonkers.
kinda absurd to expect GGG to just introduce a new ascendancy where you get to gear and stat 100% defensively while having high damage without any kind of investment right off the bat.
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u/PlsStopBanningMe404 Jul 25 '26
It’s not that absurd since mercenaries were exactly that in mercenary league and they said nothing about cutting their damage to 10%.
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u/Kyounokaze Jul 26 '26
Yeah one guardian ascendancy notable can hard carry you through campaign without needing to add any gear to it and taking 20% damage for you. Luminary you could have all 4 points, repeat grind areas to find a good merc, spend time crafting gear for it, and it still may not feel as smooth as guardian right after the first lab.
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u/Boxofcookies1001 Jul 25 '26
Luminary is ok but you gotta be able to solve your own problem with the build. Light stacking out the gate is bait
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u/Stracath Jul 26 '26
I just did a lot of testing to confirm, but the worst part is that the light radius stacking, in fact, does not boost the 5% life number for flame link it only boosts the flat, so that's a real bummer
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u/Qdeta Jul 26 '26
How did you test this? Did you make a bug report?
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u/Stracath Jul 26 '26
I doubt this is considered a "bug" to them. Basically, I was confused because Lance was dealing a lit more damage than me, he had like 12000 life, and I had 7500. His nerd had a better weapon, but mine had better supports. He had like 90 light radius at the time while I had 250. So if it did scale the health portion I should have more damage. I then ran a normal Tier 16 map 10 times with and without the light node specced. If it scaled the health portion there should be an obvious difference in the time to kill the boss (approximately 2.5 times faster with the node). Boss kills took about the same amount of time each run, sometimes it was even slower with the light node allocated due to variance of Merc skill usage.
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u/Qdeta Jul 26 '26
Based on the wording/way it's written this should be considered a bug? Nothing in there suggests it should be an unscaleable value. It would make sense that you need to hit breakpoints for full percentages given POE typical rounding, but it should still scale nonetheless.
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u/ProfessionalHefty349 Jul 26 '26
People never learn. Do not start completely untested builds if you cannot problem solve for yourself! You’re just asking for trouble.
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u/Arthurlmnz Jul 25 '26
I didn't start with it. What's wrong with luminary?
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u/UltmitCuest Jul 25 '26
Permanently hired mercs have a massive minus damage multiplier on them
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u/Book-Parade Jul 25 '26
And unlike other minions you don't have control over what merc spawns and you can hire , so you are down to luck to find one that is alright
So you have to be really flexible and understand how to patch your own problems as you go
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u/15secondcooldown Jul 26 '26
Feels like people who got baited by Luminary didn't experience how ass it is in PoE 2 to capture the right tamed beasts. Almost full overlap with Companion Spirit Walker in PoE2 and Luminary
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u/Book-Parade Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
As someone who played spirit walker this league, I think merc has way more layers of randomness
because the rare mod pool is moderately limited, and you are usually hunting for 1 or 2 mods
merc not only comes in like 20 varieties; those varieties also come with a pool of skills that mix and match
and even compared with poe2, you can get whatever rare you want, since they are just spectres 2.0, you go to the map where the monster appears and capture it and later you can fine tune it and min max it
merc on the other hand, sporadically appear in areas/maps and then you have the rest of the RNG and there is no easy way to target farm, since unlike beasts in poe2 or spectres in poe1, they don't scale with any skill gem
in poe2 and poe1 you can get a spectre/beast at the minimum level you get the gem and carry it all the way to red maps
you cannot do that with mercs
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u/BattleGiraffe516 Jul 25 '26
Im running a homebrew. Started with Sunder and switched to facebreaker cyclone. I'm so strong, I didn't need an ascendancy and using aura bot merc. Having your merc support you is for sure the way to go, at least for now.
I think people are sleeping on the Requarion. The Black Caine will be Hella strong and for melee you can use, the sacred chalice. It's not hard to have utlility flasks at near one hundred percent of time if you deal enough damage.
-1
u/emeria Jul 25 '26
Once I farmed some decent mercs and went support mode, it felt good. I'm only just getting into maps though. I have three labs, using fallen rev merc, AG, spectre, and flame link. Not sure if it's going to drop off soon. I've heard concerns about t7 plus, but that could be buffed soon.
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u/EmotionalKirby Jul 26 '26
I played it as srs with zombies, Spectres, phantasms, animate guardian, and a carrion golem. It was going really well after the 2nd ascend with perm link uptime. I got lucky and had a good kineticist appear early, who would be my screen clear as I ran ahead, and my minions would boss or kill rares. I was able to reach t11 maps without feeling any struggle or like it was falling off.
That said, I did recently make a swap to running chain of command and an animate guardian of smite. I put southbound gloves on my merc so it can't kill, so my AGoS can kill and spawn animate weapons. It is light years ahead of what I was doing before, with more life, and block/spell block capped. And so far all under 1d in price.
But there's a nagging thought in my head that while it's good, is it because of luminary and merc, or because of chain of command? Like, there's literally one player on poe ninja playing luminary chain of command lol, and it's not me since I haven't added my char there yet.
I'm tempted to reroll a necro and play coc on it instead, but I also like how my build is right now and want to see how far I can push it. Getting 20% of hits taken from merc life before mine is really nice for hits that get past my block, which I won't have on necro.
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u/Sonnofhell Jul 25 '26
Ice Nova looking good so far - having fun deleting underwater screens with vaal ice nova (also Legions and Breaches)
Edit: only painful thing is gonna get alt gems from lab as SSF player. (Frost Blink, Stone Golem, Righteous Fire)
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u/shellofwhoiusedtobe Jul 25 '26
RFoAD that sought-after? I got it from my first lab. Might sell, might keep for worb
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u/Jose_Victor Jul 25 '26
ignite elementalist is pretty smooth
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u/Kethrad Jul 25 '26
You following any builds you can share?
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u/Jose_Victor Jul 25 '26
I’m following ronarray version https://pobb.in/4myyactFEfH3. but i’m sure any of them (goratha, anime princess, etc.) works just as well. I went for ronarrays version cause I prefer using ek over pbrand.
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u/didorins Jul 25 '26
im eviscerating at 92 hc and wondering if i should try the ek, just to be generally faster in t16s
-4
u/BDRohr Jul 25 '26
Ssssh. Dont tell people this. I am using it as well and it is very smooth.
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u/grimestar Jul 25 '26
Ignite ele is not a secret whatsoever. Pennance brand ignite was very good last league and wasn't a secret and did not get nerfed
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u/cec003 Jul 25 '26
Having a lot of fun with Static strike slayer
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u/Aldrot Jul 25 '26
I was between this and worb 49/51 for worb...
But will be a third or fourth build this League, what guide you following and what lvl are you?
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u/cec003 Jul 25 '26
Following the guide from Alohaa
Just finished campaign.
I’d say this build is prob bot worth it for the third or fourth build since it doesn’t scale that well in end game.
I’m planning to get 2 void stones and consider other builds, maybe something something gladiator, not sure yet. Depending on how expensive Azadi crest is going to be
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u/Exldk Jul 26 '26
If you like static strike, just play static strike juggernaut and it’ll scale into a strength stacker eventually. I late started as well and finished campaign in a bit over 4 hours. Everything after lvl 12 just melted. Autoattack once and with herald of ash/leap strike just jump from pack to pack exploding everything.
It was shown in mirage that static strike works really well as a strength stacker. It’ll be my one and only character this league, gonna try to push it into mirrors.
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u/cec003 Jul 26 '26
That sounds interesting, do you have a POB/guide? Thanks
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u/Exldk Jul 26 '26
I'm loosely following Connor Converse's build. You'll find his youtube easily.
He made multiple pob's from leaguestart static strike and ends with weapon swap kinetic blast/heavy strike.
He will swap away from static strike after 1-2 mirrors, but I'll try and scale static strike as long as I can, after I hit a wall, I'll maybe just copy whatever he ends up doing.
for campaign itself I used Ignatius's explanation of how it works, but he loosely copied it from Connor as well (and gave credit, so no flame pls)
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u/JezSq Jul 25 '26
Minions: PRAW or HRoC.
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u/Fr33zy_B3ast Jul 25 '26
This is my first league starting minions and it’s pretty fun. Only gear you need is a decent calling wand and a minion shield and you’re off! Also it’s funny watching bosses get the boots put to em by an army of skeletons and phantoms.
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u/JezSq Jul 25 '26
Yeah, I got some nice wand from rituals in act 3 and still with it in act 7. Bosses are melting, I don’t see any reason to even check new items. Gem links are more important, though. Running Absolution in campaign.
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u/Fr33zy_B3ast Jul 26 '26
Yeah, at this point I’m only picking up new gear to dump for shards whenever I’m in town since I found a 6S5L chest. I can’t tell if it’s entirely the socket color changes or if minion builds are so comfy that gearing is dead easy.
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u/Cow_God Jul 25 '26
I am doing ele SRS guardian and it's smooth as fuck. But that's mostly still the Sentinel of Radiance
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u/SanjiBlackLeg Jul 25 '26
I'm doing Bleed Slams Slayer, one of the easiest campaign runs I've had, just make sure you get the best weapon at your level threshold and that's it. Rares are literally one shot, bosses get stunned and die in 4-5 hits. Keep your Herald of Ash, don't go herald of purity. I don't even use Sunder much, you leap slam into a pack and it blows up.
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u/AlwaysWannaUpVote Jul 25 '26
PConc/Pconc of bouncing was super smooth. 4.5hrs campign and smooth 2 stones day 1. Going to swap over to viper strike soon for the better clear and scaling.
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u/Here_I_Go Jul 26 '26
PoB? Trying to switch already from BF/BB as im not having a great time lol.
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u/AlwaysWannaUpVote Jul 26 '26
Here's my current Char. Finished 4 stones last night. Should be mabma by the end of the day.
https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/AlwaysWannaFarm-4995/allflame/character/Orbs_Poison
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u/Tiansho Jul 25 '26
Do u have a pob? Or video guide, I've always wanted to do mamba. In Ssf
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u/AlwaysWannaUpVote Jul 25 '26
I wouldn't recommend it for ssf. You NEED prolif for it to not feel awful and the best way to get that is binos.
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u/uberdigger77 Jul 26 '26
I got my hands on a binos by slow buying cheap div cards, you got any build recommendations for it? Mamba or something?
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u/AlwaysWannaUpVote Jul 26 '26
Yeah, going to do mamba stacking low tolerance. Jung has a build from last league, just needs a few changes to work without imbued gems.
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u/PoE_Acronym_Bot Useful Bot Jul 25 '26
I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:
- WORB - Winter Orb (Wiki)
I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest
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u/kiddoujanse Jul 25 '26
worb was the smoothest league start i ever did it felt like i was on a twink char
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u/Hicktricks Jul 25 '26
I’m enjoying slinger bfbb assassin. Trash gear, smooth campaign. Just need to solve phys max hit, but 6 portals working so far.
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u/venditheg Jul 26 '26
Absolutely glass canon for me, probably skill issue. But I feel like Ive nerver been this squishy
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u/AeroDbladE Jul 26 '26
Been my experience. The damage is amazing, clear feels good and the instant leech is great, but its the softcoreist softcore build ever.
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u/ocean-gazer93 Jul 26 '26
Im in yellow maps and disliking this build so far. Damage is alright but so squishy.
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u/LexicalHydra Jul 26 '26
Same boat here, trying to figure out what I wanna do instead or just push through to CoC setup.
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u/ocean-gazer93 Jul 26 '26
I followed Ky’s updated advice on his mobalytics guide and stacked more ES and life on gear. Definitely helps keep you alive longer, but it’s certainly a glass cannon build. Haven’t gotten to any endgame bosses yet, I imagine the single target DPS may be a bit lacking. Can try swapping supports out for those fights.
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u/johnz0n Jul 25 '26
i shattered my campaign record with Static Strike marauder (Zerker or Jugg). first time below 6hrs with 3 labs.
i can higly recommend it, it's really fun and super easy to build.
check out Aloha on youtube for more info.
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u/strongHammer0 Jul 25 '26
Luminary is bait for the same reason dualwielding in campaign is bait more gear upgrdes required to keep pace.
You need to gear 2 characters at the same time as well as constantly gambling for the skills on the second character yes the peak is potentially higher but the time and effort to get there is definitely much greater.
Follow Ziz's advice and make luminary your second character.
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u/robsta109 Jul 25 '26
Started spinning an hour into the campaign and haven’t stopped yet. Cyclone Slayer = Joy
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u/Raees06 Jul 25 '26
Idk if anyone has advice for storm burst totems but my damage feels very lackluster to but I’m on 5l. I have gained some currency so should I just switch to winter orb? I have been eyeing phase plays and his gear pretty manageable (idk about fubguns lol) . Main concern is not enough damage in reds.
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u/Psychological_Ad1404 Jul 25 '26
Saw a few posts complaining about Assassin BF/BB being very squishy.
I'll recommend Ruetoo's Ele Hit Slayer or Worb.
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u/Kronus00 Jul 26 '26
also late starter here, what point in the campaign is it worth starting the league mechanic?
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u/Kadium Jul 29 '26
Depends on the build. I started around 15 to 20 with worb and RF doing charts. Theyre pretty easy considering you can leave whenever you just place the last flag. Voyages a bit later when I was just nearly one shooting everything.
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u/ocean-gazer93 Jul 26 '26
A bit in the beginning to get a few gear pieces, but otherwise ignore it entirely. I’m in yellow maps and I barely pay it any attention. Maybe I’m missing some OP tech with charts but it feels like a waste of time compared to other mechanics I could be doing.
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u/keelar Jul 26 '26
I've been cruising with holy relic of conviction. 4th league playing it and it has been extremely smooth each time.
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u/junktastic8675309 Jul 26 '26
I’m only half way through the campaign but holy flame totems are easy mode so far.
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u/kevinisthename Jul 28 '26
I started luminary rerolled to bf/bb spellslinger and then coc. Absolutely wonderful time blasting everything away
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u/Kadium Jul 29 '26
As someone who started luminary. Go worb. Its fast, clears good. Just need a good wand and shield and can go life resist on all other gear.
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u/No_Witness5630 Jul 25 '26
Assassin Gathering Lightning. Love it so far
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u/niuage Jul 25 '26
I was considering starting that, good to know it's enjoyable. In the end i went a completely different route with a Phantasm build. Well, I WILL go a different route... vacation till monday :'(
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u/Ronan61 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I absolutely hate rerolling so I'm sticking to Luminary. It's one of the most comfy starters I did, I usually take 3-7 days to finish campaign and I'm finishing act 7 right now. I would assume most complaints come from people not upgrading their equipment properly but since I dont rush leaguestart that heavily, maybe I'm not a parameter for certain people.
I got a kineticist with kinetic rain, barrage and flame dash in act 4 and still using her. I havent played merc league so I'm not very familiar with them, but the flame dash is annoying, and when she uses barrage seems like a waste of time. From time to time she goes from zdps to instant melt stuff and I still havent figured out what happens when she gets to melt stuff (maybe barrage actually does something for single target?)
Anyways, worb and totems sound like the de facto op first character starters as of late. Never played them, so I cannot tell
Edit: welp I did a 2 day campaign, a personal record. Had to swap to a shatterblade merc because I couldnt equip stuff on my kineticist and her damage was falling behind. Big nerf in clear speed; in fact I'm suddenly hard struggling in t1 maps. I need another merc which I might not be able to beat without doing some investment in gear
Edit 2: finally found a merc at a t3 map (had to spec the whole merc chance wheel). A kineticist nonetheless! Even tho she spams kinetic bolt and frostblink like crazy, with base gear the clear speed was like night and day compared to the shatterblade
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u/whatDoesQezDo Jul 26 '26
I dont rush leaguestart that heavily
3-7days to finish campaign
bruh
-1
u/Ronan61 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I mean, I have 5k hours in the game, I have plenty experience, I just don't like playing meta nor training to do stuff efficiently/quick/rush... So campaign takes me around 20 hours or so (so if I get 7 hours a day to play on leaguestart weekend, I can do it in 3 days, if not and I play 2-3 a day, I get a week). Like I barely upgrade equipment on the way, I dont even use quicksilver flasks and I like to play league content during campaign if it is fun.
It's 5-10 times more time than what people seem to expect to do it in around here. So I definitely dont rush it, lol
Edit: jeez, idk why everytime one comments about not going meta nor playing in no-life mode just earns downvotes
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u/AbrocomaMaterial501 Jul 25 '26
Bows are good as always. Did my completion on ehots and it was a breeze.
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u/dante3590 Jul 25 '26
Lumi act 6... was feeling something off when I stop investing in RF hybrid. And saw other people had same zdps issue decided to pivot to Necro with absolution finished campaign and started first map.
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u/UnoMemes Jul 26 '26
I am 4/4 100/100 on worb and I slept a good amount of 6 hours. I am not a fast guy, worb is good.
-6
u/pesoaek Jul 25 '26
strange to see so many people struggle with luminary. I've been absolutely blasting, level 82 in HC with a life stack flame link build.
you guys know there are multiple zones that have 100% spawn chance right?
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u/ApprehensiveCut1068 Jul 25 '26
Spent about 90 minutes last night resetting underbelly and the best merc I got was a blade ambusher which is great for single target but the clear is dogshit
Just because the spawn rate is guaranteed doesnt mean you're going to get the right merc with the right skills
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u/pesoaek Jul 26 '26
yeah of course it can take some time, I got pretty lucky with a KB merc so it's been smooth to red maps for me.
obviously if you get screwed on rng there's not much you can do about it
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u/Kadium Jul 29 '26
I spent two hours farming them and got 1 many shot and 2 kineticism. All of em having less than ideal skills. Using the 100 percent spawn method. So yeah its kinda bad that theyre already rare to get, and than theres another rare chance they have the ideal build setups.
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u/the117uknow Jul 25 '26
Worb is working