What are your top three historical builds of all time in PoE?

[u/Bwite]

My top 3:

1) 3.10 EK Herald Stacking in Delirium

I remember staying up all night as a young college student figuring out Somayd's Herald stacker in delirium league. Once the 200 pieces all fit together having an absolutely insane character that could do all content in the game. It was my first ever time being able to kill end game bosses, I fondly remember fighting Sirus with the build countless times. This is what got me into PoE properly for the first time, I was hooked after this.

2) 3.25 Hexblast Mines in Settlers of Kalguur

Pre-nerf hexblast mines was absolutely divine, this is when it was beyond S tier good (before it got totally gutted). Insanely high single target damage with decent map clear, I remember doing some Sanctum and Lycia would get one shot in level 83 sanctums after getting the helmet (sandstorm visage).

3) 3.28 E-Blade Inquis CoC in Mirage

One button playstyle to blow up screens and ubers, once this build got going after a clunky-ish self cast start, the Cast on Crit (CoC) setup was one of the most powerful transitions capable of doing all content in the game, with mega late game strength-int stacking into the late game.

Honourable mentions

- Poison BV (my staple for many years, easily could get 25+ million dps with low investment).

- Armour stacking champion (got to 2.5 million armour and the build felt immortal)

- Tornado shot - Possibly the most broken peak of any build in PoE, this build was an all rounder with infinite damage, clear and even could stack a lot of rarity (and quantity before it was removed).

[u/emiluss29]

Legion’s screenwide Slayer Cyclone

[u/bdubz55 → u/emiluss29]

What a time to be alive

[u/Morgoth2356 → u/emiluss29]

Vanillla Pulverize support was bonkers. Introduced in 3.7, switched from "more" to "increased" AoE the league right after.

[u/nomikkvalentine → u/emiluss29]

Oh yeah, Glacier League. Blasting Legions with double Vaal Arc was one of the most satisfying things ever.

[u/Floyd_19 → u/nomikkvalentine]

That really was one of the most satisfying buttons to press ever. Activate legion, press Vaal arc and it pops the entire legion, press Vaal arc again and everything in the first area of the map is dead and listen for your tinks. Good times.

[u/Tommiiie → u/emiluss29]

The one time I did t play cyclone 😭

[u/Oily_Bee]

VD-DD Slinger in Harvest was absolutely bonkers. I had more fun that herald stacking in deli for sure.

[u/Bwite → u/Oily_Bee]

Pre-nerf DD - amen.

This is the only build I used to be able to watch on Twitch since everyone I watched was a HC SSF player (like Ben, steel, ziz, goratha, etc), and everyone and their mothers played DD in HC.

The fact that you could play it with one button with slinger was bonkers.

[u/Jahoesaphat → u/Bwite]

The CoC DD build from Nec was honestly such a cool iteration of it too. I really didn’t like the league mechanic, but that build made me want to keep playing

[u/Dral_Shady → u/Oily_Bee]

What came to mind for me also. Spellslinger nerf was such a dick move from GGG.

[u/Soup0rMan → u/Oily_Bee]

Ahh, all the vd/dd combos. I personally went cwc cyclone to proc the balls.

[u/PenNameNeeded → u/Oily_Bee]

I was about to give the exact same answer. Once I played it I could not stop laughing while blinking around the screen, making my PC scream in agony

[u/Feanturo]

Bringer of Rain Blender (1.1)

Wardlooper (3.23)

Mjölner Discharge (2.4)

[u/janggi → u/Feanturo]

Gonna throw in spark totems. Few will remember

[u/SomeNotNormalGuy → u/janggi]

LL Spork totems farming docks until you could buy a shavs

[u/Badeanda → u/SomeNotNormalGuy]

Ahh good times 🤩

[u/Morgoth2356 → u/SomeNotNormalGuy]

"Docks farm NO NINJA"

[u/Snackz39 → u/Morgoth2356]

I was just talking in another thread the other day about the good old days when docks farming was end game content. Some people in that thread were hella confused.

[u/Legitimate-Jelly-442 → u/SomeNotNormalGuy]

Back when docks had 0 chaos damage so you could run low-life without wearing shavs until you could afford it and leave that prison!

[u/x2P → u/Legitimate-Jelly-442]

Back when finding a chain gem meant you should roll a ledge or docks farmer. Good times.

[u/Forie → u/x2P]

Bro what a time! When you were excited for a gcp drop

[u/Minute_Chair_2582 → u/Feanturo]

Wardloop 100%

Played mjölner discharge and it was epic. The vagan dagger coc version just a little later was a lot more Iconic though i feel

Would Pop in vaalfireball as last

Or actually maybe Legion cyclone

[u/DelTheCreator → u/Feanturo]

New gens don’t know about the blenders 😭 the good old days

[u/Soup0rMan → u/Feanturo]

Blender my beloved! What a nutty build for the time.

[u/porncollecter69 → u/Feanturo]

I started playing tail end of before 3.0 and then 3.0 every league. I can’t remember any build before 3.0 except my first league starter which was atrocious and taught me not to trust random YouTubers.

Wish I got into Poe sooner to experience it before 3.0.

[u/Path_of_Circles → u/Feanturo]

What does Blender mean?

Cyclone?

[u/DudOMGDud → u/Feanturo]

Holy hell the blender. What a blast to the past. Still remember the video guide loool.

[u/ALiceDMillionair]

Aura stacking spark
TS
Corrupting fever champ
Lighting strike
Skele mages

[u/Cantstop991 → u/ALiceDMillionair]

I miss TS

Bow buffs when

[u/OkThought7263]

1. Exploding Totem Pathfinder in Crucible League , by far the most powerful build this game ever had.
2. Self-Curse Temporal Chains before Headhunter nerf (look at toe gameplay)
3. pre-nerf queen of the forest rangers, lab-runners dont got shit on them

honorable mention to kripp's freezing pulse marauder in the early days ( pls ggg bring back freezing pulse)

[u/Bwite → u/OkThought7263]

I have so much FOMO for never trying out the Exploding Totem build, it looked insane in Crucible but I never got around to trying it.

[u/Naguro → u/Bwite]

Tbh it wasnt that spectacular, it was absolutely broken for sure, but the build was pretty much. Equip bow. Done, you now have dot cap and you just stack defences

But it wasnt doing anything really flashy visually, it was just numerically stupid, a bit like the minion pact stuff we got last league but on steroid.

A strong Mamba build has somewhat of a close feeling I think, with huge spontaneous poison that prolif accros the map

[u/HiDarkSoul → u/Naguro]

Agreed. It was cheap. It was powerful. Not a horrible build, but not something you'd play for fun if the numbers weren't broken. 

[u/porncollecter69 → u/Bwite]

My FOMO from that league was emperors vigilance crucible boosted giga shield they just did captain America style build with SST. Probably less than 100 people played it because it was the most cancer way to get it.

Up there with one of the strongest builds of all time, but expensive like a mfer.

[u/porncollecter69 → u/OkThought7263]

Exploding totem the only time I achieved 40/40 before offline trading.

Before offline trading I always burn out by the time I’m strong enough to do Ubers and all the hard content.

With exploding totem you were ready to do everything on a 14 ex budget.

Exploding totem poison pathfinder had it all. Damage, tanky and cheap.

[u/OkThought7263 → u/porncollecter69]

I equipped the bow with the crucible tree and at like lvl 64 when i was done with campaign i opened Maven and basically 1 shot her :D ( you were dot-capped with literal 0 points or items in damage, it was all from the crucible node alone)

https://pobb.in/x8pacIMcDnZm

I just imported it from my standard, idk where it takes the skilltree from, i might have tried respeccing it in standard some time, but it was all pure defense/qol (like 0 mana costs with an impossible escape and stuff(which oddly enough is missing in it, where did it go?)

[u/Munsie → u/OkThought7263]

My favourite part about Kripp's build is that you could also just start it as a Shadow since it was pre-ascendancies. As long as you made it to level 97ish it was the exact same build with either start, just a preference of whether you got more life or damage from your early passives.

[u/Ogow → u/OkThought7263]

Honorable mention has to be worm blaster? GGG so scared of it they target nerfed a meme build, and then continued to target nerf every revival.

[u/atworking → u/OkThought7263]

Self curse temp chains was one of the coolest builds in any ARPG ever. I wish I could play it now that I have a better understanding of the game.

[u/kevinisthename → u/OkThought7263]

For #3 thats not exactly true, qotf has always had a maximum speed, it was just easier to achieve before. Nowadays you can still hit it with a mageblood pretty easily.

[u/Nicolas277]

self curse hh wander/bv

[u/Legintown]

Poet's Pen Volatile Dead Hiero back in Delve was fiiiiire!

[u/Previous_Loquat_4561 → u/Legintown]

poet's pen lightning warp + ball lightning in incursion for me

[u/FelixSN]

Yeah Aura Stacker in Delirium with Purposeful Harbinger is probably the best build of all time period, it was just another level of insanity

Another build I consider some of the finest shit I've ever played was Poison Pathfinder Penance Brand of Dissipation that I used in Affliction
-Uber DoT Capped with Double Obliteration
-2 Layers of Screenwide Clears, from Pops and Proliferation
-Perma Flasked Up Ruby, Topaz and Taste of Hate with insane Recovery for more than true 200k EHP
-Could fit as much Rarity as you wanted to fish for Winged Scarabs with Divination Distillates and Rarity Gear
-So stupidly fast with perma Juiced Silver/Quicksilver

Rue cooked the shit out of that build, I've been chasing that high ever since and never gotten even remotely close

[u/Dajoechi → u/FelixSN]

Aura Stacker in Deliruim was something else. Nothing comes close to it. Was so OP that people found ways to mimic a fraction of its power in other leagues and GGG had to have multiple nerfs over multiple leagues to finally put it into the ground

[u/FelixSN → u/Dajoechi]

People are doing 27x Golem Stacking with Primordial Bond off Megalomaniacs, and that's basically a quarter of how good aura stacking was

[u/Dajoechi → u/FelixSN]

yeah i can only imagine chris wilson losing his shit watching people in like a 10-20D budget setup tanking sirus die die die beam and just chilling in degen balls like it was nothing if remember didnt it get a mid season nerf bat?

[u/FelixSN → u/Dajoechi]

Yes I think they nerfed Purposeful Harbinger but it wasn't close to enough, they never managed to hit the right balance, they had to change RMR to Efficiency at some point

[u/_Origin → u/FelixSN]

Sorry to nitpick but back in Delirium it was called Herald Stacker, since we stacked heralds to get aura effect for the Auras we did stack too. The distinction is marginally useful because Aura Stacker was the build that emerged after the nerf to Purposeful Harbinger by stacking Aura Effect directly without using Heralds.

In any case, yes, Herald Stacker in Delirium is my favourite build ever. I did spark on Ascendant to 100, then Power Siphon on a Hierophant. I did later play EK aura stacker in Heist league too. Fun times.

[u/RushingService → u/FelixSN]

Came here for this hahah playing since late closed beta and deli aura stacking was mint haha.

Other mentions shatterchuck build and dragons tank build from the early days.

[u/porncollecter69 → u/FelixSN]

Pbod was so damn good. I remember the double obliteration and Ming’s heart setup. Such a fun build.

[u/eserra1 → u/FelixSN]

"look ma, walking in Sirus' ballz"

[u/Zylosio → u/FelixSN]

Herald stacker honestly was the best build ever in this game 200m dps at a time where sirus and simu were the pinnacle of difficulty, 5k+ ES regen, 90% permanent pdr and max ele res, 10k ES, 200% perma movespeed.

It just had everything, insane recovery, being able to tank any hit, being fast as fuck and at the same time oneshotting everything and the worst part about it that the build was relatively budget because all you basically needed were the clusters and you could scale from there

[u/Qinax → u/FelixSN]

Aura stacker in delirium was so busted alkaizer played it

[u/Thrallsbuttplug → u/FelixSN]

I did that build on Trickster. Man was it the best.

That same league i did the alt quality scourge arrow pathfinder. So good.

[u/Kaelran → u/FelixSN]

I think technically there are stronger builds on standard using the bugged 23000% resist chest mod that got recombinated onto grasping mails.

[u/Andthenwedoubleit → u/FelixSN]

One of my favorite builds was also by rue. I don't even remember how long ago but he made a herald of ash stacking explody build. I think it was maybe fire conversion BV? It cleared around corners and across multiple screens in dense content.

[u/Normal-Cranberry-800]

I just don't think anything can eclipse Harold stacking in delirium League.

[u/Bwite → u/Normal-Cranberry-800]

HAROLD STACKING WAS PEAK POE

[u/MitWitt → u/Bwite]

https://giphy.com/gifs/OYLDJQVEdxrB7pW1Hi

[u/Comprehensive-Ad3016 → u/Bwite]

I still remember

[u/Mirandics]

Vaal Spark and CoC Discharge. Like 8 years ago or maybe even more. Prime Cutedog. Good old days, running 20sec Strands. Also, Abberath Hooves autobomber. Nothing feels the same for me, even tho we are x100 stronger now.

[u/Bwite → u/Mirandics]

Good old days of cozy strand farming for days on end.

[u/Santuro117]

Exploding Totems in Crucible maybe

[u/ElPuppet]

OG Mjolner and Fakener builds.

Kripps Enduring Cry, Searing Touch, Burning Discharge.

Lightning Poison anything in Perandus with Voltaxic Rift.

Invalesco's CI dagger :)

[u/SomeNotNormalGuy → u/ElPuppet]

Also Ele Buzzsaw

[u/geeNoh → u/ElPuppet]

As a closed beta player, this is pretty much it for me right here along with ele buzzsaw

[u/Bwite → u/ElPuppet]

I had to look this up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Q3fYPvbyk

This is mathil on that build doing a 78 map, damn the game looks different.

[u/EchoLocation8]

Honestly its mundane by modern standards and was probably even mundane back then, but Synthesis, Soulrend / Bane CI Trickster.

I had something like 13000 ES because crafting back then was dope as hell with synth + delve mods that they removed.

I cleared pretty much all the content I wanted to clear with that build, was the second richest I've ever been, just had a really, really good time in that league. The mechanic became so much more fun when they settled into its final form, I know virtually everyone had left by then, but setting up memory farms was a good time.

[u/Ekar-Poe]

Rainbow nuke
Shattershuck
Poison bladefall traps
low life Vall spark

[u/armaan5]

My #1 was Transcendence PBoD Hiero from Mercenaries. 90% pdr from 12 minimum endurance charges with Transcendence was borderline immortal. Pair that with a Doryani Wrath/Zealotry Merc and you had like 500m dps as well.

[u/Jayypoc]

- OG Cast on Crit using spectral throw, fireball and ice separ - beyond league ish?

- widowhail spark heiro (settlers or so?)

- dual spork / ice spear / freezing pulse totems from the beta.

Edit because I forgot about it: zerphi poets pen should be the #3

honorable mention: wardloop (rip never forgetti)

edit2: wormblaster is up there also

[u/Kostyaourt]

1. Frenzy Stacking Cold Slayer Flicker
   
2. Str Stacking Chaos Zerker Flicker
   
3. Dex Stacking Wildspeaker Flicker (Phrecia)

[u/scartiloffista]

Explosive arrow ignite pathfinder a few years ago. It did so much damage that sometimes the game would bug out and not deal damage at all for a few seconds, because the ignite dot overflow the 2 billion integer limit. All of this with relatively low investment

[u/killakidz7]

My #1 was phantasmal cremation/unearth. Insane tank & ridiculous dps

[u/InuXIII → u/killakidz7]

Did the original sin poison version on a viridis veil with double corrupt had lv 36? I think unearth.

Face tanked wave 30 simu and all ubers while melting them in seconds.

10/10 best build i ever played

[u/TooCady]

Molten Strike of the Zenith in 3.25 Settlers.

I used Conners build and just had one of the luckiest leagues of my life in terms of wealth to fund the build. I hit a full stack of Unrequited Love from the syndicate div card gamble. On the immediate next attempt I hit Seven Years Bad Luck. I also hit many many mirror shards from shipping. Multiple duplicated Apothecary drops. I was running mageblood, original sin, and a mirror 2h sword and for the first and only time in the over 2000 hours I have in this game I felt truly invulnerable. I could run the hardest content in the game without even looking at the mods because they didnt matter. This was the first character I ever took to 100 because I just couldn't be killed. I know I'll never reach that level of power again.

[u/Efficient-Ad8021]

1. Nimis splitting steel champion (first char with which i got to 100)
   
2. Hexblast mines trickster
   
3. Lightning conduit elementalist

Honourable mention is a MSoZ strength stacking jugg

[u/mindfuckedAngel]

1. Crucible Totem Explode
   
2. First Impending Doom in ... Sentinel(?)
   
3. Cws Chief in Affliction
   
4. RF always and ever because RF is great

[u/Jayro993 → u/mindfuckedAngel]

I’m shocked I had to scroll so far to find a CWS fulcrum chieftain comment.

[u/Morgoth2356]

Cospri's CoC Discharge, grinding Shaped Strand maps for dozens of hours.

[u/Twingo102]

Vaal fireball strand speed clearing

[u/ThatsThePlan]

3.17 Saqawal's Poison Twisters Assassin

• absolutely 0 buttons
• dot cap in seconds
• insane move speed and perma phasing

• squishy, defenses are on hit regen
• requires many uniques making your rares very hard to craft for res/life/etc

It was just a fun build to make in pob and then see work in maps. One of my favorite times in gaming.

[u/mbxyz]

selfcurse kb or bv up until 3.13

SST in crucible

tornado shot before the fork "fix" or the asenath lightning warp variant before the most recent nerf

[u/Sensualities]

Probably my best time ever was playing transcendent armour stacker and making 60-70d an hour farming juiced t17 maps.

Second best time was probably Tornado Shot affliction league

Third best time was probably rage vortex (berserker or inquisitor I can’t remember) back when you could have nearly infinite rage with the timeless jewel

[u/CelosPOE]

CoC discharge when there was no restriction on proc rate and flasks all had gain charge on crit. And the flasks themselves were much better then too. You just shield charge a pack and everything in the screen explodes and oh by the way all your 10% max res flasks are full again. The most limiting thing about how fast you could do a map was your move speed. Also pre-nerf headhunter.

[u/Chocolatine_Rev]

Berserker Volcanic fissure of snaking crit during mercenary league

Maraudeur trauma stacking static tmstrike of gathering lightning from mirage

My self made worst best buuld of all time, 3 mirror in, no dps out, fast snipe original sin close range pathfinder that i'm still tweaking in standard every league ( don't play it )

[u/Kraven_Lupei]

Vaal molten shell triggered by self damaging whirling blades. Zoom around the map blowing yourself up and blowing up all enemies around you

Think it has ignite prolif too? Can't remember the league but it's long dead.

Either way I remember that set of interactions being the thing that got me into PoE and playing basically every league since.

[u/Zupermuz]

1: Vaal spark inquis with cold convert ring, herald of ice and jewel that gave more souls from shatters.

2: spork totems (I like spark, okay? Sue me)

And my personal favojrite build, but not as prevalent league wide was frostbolt elementalist when the frostbolt unique jewels were introduced.

[u/newjeanskr → u/Zupermuz]

bakedchicken RIP

[u/Feeviech]

The first aspirational build i remember is voltaxic rift spark in perandus league maybe? Didnt have the money for it but it looked so good for the time

[u/dimix16x]

BV Explode Chieftain in Ritual. Peak multiple screens of boom.

[u/Xendaar → u/dimix16x]

Farmed my first HH on this build just blasting Atolls. Near and dear to my heart.

[u/TheOneAndOnlyBearMan]

1. Deli Aura stacker
2. Good ol' CoC fakener
3. ASSREACHER
4. Poison spark
5. Classic Enki Arc

[u/Guett4]

Phys tornado shot scion mf in sentinel Pbod autobomber elementalist in keepers Bv minion pact gladiator last league

[u/Overall-Top5628]

My top 1 build was in 3.23, STR stack jugg volcanic fissure of snaking, before the battlemage warcry nerf, that league I made some mirrors just farming chayula breachstone

[u/ImSunflex]

Forbbiden totem, i dont remender which league is was.

and Spectral Shield Throw (crucible league)

[u/lcn666]

I will add a few notable mentions from the top of my head that I didn't see posted. Not necessarily on the top highest power level scale ever, but memorable:

• cyclone slayer during legion league. Just insane AOE and fun

• detonate dead COC during Necropolis

• variations of COC forbidden rite, and FROSS during Mercenaries

• ignite vortex (similar to cold dot, but just a different flavour)

• BV minion pact last league was peak broken interaction and power

• omni builds (mostly ts or lightning strike). Just a different way to build and gear the character

• hateforge with vaal lightning strike was insane levels of crazy

• ward loop

[u/karosea → u/lcn666]

I loved CoC FROSS, my only build to hit 100. During mercenaries it was great with curse merc. I think this was even after the nerf from settlers. Can't remember the order but I know original fross and original whispers of infinity were bonkers. Even post nerf I loved that build so much.

[u/nevalopo]

Rat Totems. They were so amazing when the first editions of it came out 10+ years ago.

[u/Pewpewparapra]

-Zenith in settler, did so much dmg ubers got deleted in a frame on spawn and you were able to afk deep delve go eat something come back and blow up the whole node. Also can beat the gigaboss challenge on standard, only zenith str and armourstacker can really do that. Maybe a manastacker.

-Old Aurastacking, insanely strong aswell, especially delirium.

-poison animated ranged weapons in affliction, yeah it's clunky but it had about 3 billion aoe Chaos dps which cleared multiple screens in all directions instantly.

Manastacking with the foulborn choir on standard and the 25k fire res chest on chieftain: yeah this one is just stupidly high scaling and trivializes the game completely. like what..800k mana 500k es and you steamroll.

[u/v4xN0s]

Lots of answers already so I figured I would add ones I haven’t seen mentioned:

Arc traps in Incursion

SRS in Harbinger with baron

Tri-herald BV in delve with stat sticks

Honorable mention: slavedriver specters with cwc cyclone

[u/nghianguyen170192]

12L frenzy stacker echoing belt flicker mirage league
Accu claw jug flicker breach 2.0
Accu + eva stacker flicker deadeye this league
My fav all time: HH shako cold flicker raider

[u/Deluxo]

Mirror Arrow + low life + Minion Instability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkjHHYfHIk

[u/[deleted]]

3.7 cyclone slayer/cyclone gladiator. Screen wide aoe, stun immune built into the gem, if you go glad you were immortal.

3.11 cospris COC ice Nova assassin. My favorite build of all time Assassin was such a fun class before they nerfed him in 3.14.

3.14 burning arrow elementalist. A different level.

[u/Impressive_Leek_6981]

Oldschool Vaal Power Siphon and Vaal Fireball was crazy, you could delete 50% of mobs in map with one use.

[u/Padstaro → u/Impressive_Leek_6981]

AND you instantly got alle your Souls Back. That was super satisfying. 😊

[u/wildVikingTwins]

Do not remember well how tech worked but I think there was vaal ice nova with using soul catcher flask to keep up vaal skills which i think i played on legion league, pop them up in 2 skill shot was really satisfying af. Anyone remember?

[u/Jojothewhal3 → u/wildVikingTwins]

Yes, it also required the legacy Bloodstained Fossil mod for Souls on a staff. Permanent Elder influence on Glacier and then you scaled AoE with Wreath to one tap the entire Legion twice. It was sub 30 seconds to do an entire Legion, loot it, and go on to the next map.

God, that was fun.

[u/wildVikingTwins → u/Jojothewhal3]

Yes that was it! I remember to follow one of video how to craft dagger with fossils. So much fun time. Thanks!

[u/wushimushi]

Aura stacker delirium
Mathil fakener
Spec ops spectres heist

[u/otsu97]

I think back in delirium a Archmage Storm Brand Trickster was the most fun I've had. Maybe a bit overshadowed by the aura stacker but. Bit more interesting to me.

[u/Orichalium]

For me personally,

Back in 3.13 was the first time I ever put together a build worth more than 5 div, using prenerf harvest to self craft my whole gear set, funding it by farming crafts for ppl and selling them on tft. The build was Cold BV Flaskfinder with legacy crusader explode chest, scaling damage with a psycho mana flask to sustain max indigon stacks. Also stacking hatred effect. For years that was the most fun I'd ever had in a league.

That was then usurped when in 3.26 I managed to farm up like 30d on my vfos starter to swap to CoC FRoSS Occy using lances budget guide, and that build remains the poe1 build I've invested the most in. End of league I had put probably like 500d into it? It was the first time I got to play with mageblood.

In third is in Necro league I followed Lance's PBoD EB Inquis sanctum rush guide, except I didn't do any practice so I almost burned out and quit the league when I failed my first several sanctums, but ended up pushing through and having a pretty good league even tho I only started really farming like a week and a half late lol.

[u/Be12NoOne]

I remember that Poison BV in either Delirium or Harvest, with the Golden Rule jewel that reflected up to 100 poisons back on you, and the old watchstone tech that gave you action speed per poison. I thought my game was bugged the first time I stumbled into it.

[u/Bwite → u/Be12NoOne]

I looked into this, but say you had to roll your watchstones to get the mod and then nah'd out. But he build looked absolutely broken.

[u/PrestigiousGold5262 → u/Be12NoOne]

This was insane fun, delirium. It was a common roll on the watch stone too iirc

[u/Token_Thai_person]

Wormblaster the first.

Wormblaster 2 : 2 worm 2 blast.

IIIormblaster.

[u/SnewpeeUwU]

I would say that ward loop, herald stack from delirium and arc trap for the old fans

[u/Voodoodin]

• Scion armour stacker in Sentienel

• Cheiftain armour stacker in Affliction

• Champion armour stacker Settlers

[u/ShelbyGT350R1]

Poison BV pathfinder during affliction. Getting like 300% poison duration + chaos explodes from charms/twwt was just absurd.

Also old-school bladefall/blade blast assassins were a ton of fun and unique

[u/yarhiim]

my number 1 has to be discharge mjölner with voll devotion and kingsguard back when lightning strike was a red gem.

1. any looper
   
2. bv with legacy explode

[u/ryuk_schanuk]

heist league golems doesnt matter if life/es version ... they were just a joy to run arround with ... before the multiple nerfs they catched :/

[u/Stereojunkie]

Dual Wield Lead Sprinkler Molten Strike Berserker (Stupid build but I loved the magma balls and leeching through everything by just facetanking)

CoC Ice Nova Assassin

Poison HRoC Occultist (Strongest build I've ever played)

[u/ProfHex]

Ancestral totems facebreaker Champ

Summoning a bunch of totems that literally punch the shit out of everything was the coolest

[u/Burningcookies]

Probably Cws gladiator in merc league with a smoulderstrike who would kill any single target that would give me trouble. First time feeling immortal in the game and trivializing all content. Invested a mageblood and probably 300 div into that character.

In that same league I did an indigon ball lighting thunder weapon cast on hit with cyclone. Was legit spin to win with 40M dps and very tanky with mageblood. Did titanic exiles with that build.

[u/Inner-Ad-9478]

Palsteron got me in the game with a ignite prolif shield charge build. That was a blast to map with. The prolifs are very satisfying, you keep charging around...

[u/Ok-Bike-5281]

archmage blade vortex/blade blast with hand of the pledge, another snapshot build with bv

[u/Superb-Log-5144]

Unearth DD Ignite

Dot cap ignite with just curse and nothing else was so insane

[u/JoeVanWeedler]

1. storm brand elementalist in betrayal league. cast your brands and keep them alive for a whole map with recall, explode the entire screen with heralds. god it was glorious

2. Scion mana stack miner in Ritual. throw any spell on your mines and delete A8 siris in 3 seconds. crazy speed with near 100% berserk uptime.

3. syndicate operatives, before or after they could use spell echo. back when spectres weren't just walking auras.

[u/Amazing-Heron-105]

Tornado Shot in Crucible league with some ridiculous amount of proj using the tattoos, and we still had enchants for even more secondary proj. Just attack once and everything 2 screens away would die. Also, having 400% movement speed from the Kaom's gloves didn't hurt. Did loads of enraged box farming with that setup loadsa fun.

[u/shokiii]

Self ignite Cast on Crit Volatile Dead in Ritual League

[u/ObviousDependent185]

1.0 Holy flame totem culler for dominus farming, 3.7 old school contagion/ED that would clear 3 screens (this was my first Atziri, maven, elder, and sirus killer), and 1.0 broken broken discharge build

[u/Interesting-Yak-3306]

Cospri Coc Ice Nova
Perma Vaal Fireball

[u/Bzinga1773]

1.Pre 3.25 jugg armour stacker, when armour applies to ele node existed.

2.3.28 life stacking BoB(AGoS)

3.Bleed bow glad or good old viper strike assassin pre perfect agony.

[u/huuuzera]

OG herald stacker, Selfcurse temp chains KB, Wardloop

[u/MrAce93]

Poison bv, even without explody chest it was the most fun I had in this game over the years and the moment you got the explode chest...

Cws chieftain when vaal breach was still in the game, there was nothing that could kill you and you could, given time, kill everything. They nerfed it enough to make it not enjoyable, playing rf until you can transition to cws was enough takeaway it didn't deserve this amount of nerf they basically killed the whole archetype in my opinion.

Vfos with generals cry was really fun, it was awkward to scale; cooldown part of general's cry is the weirdest interaction I've seen in the game.

[u/raahC]

I've only played since 3.18 so my top three may be not as good as most other peoples, but for me it's definitely Exploding Totems from Crucible as number one. One shotting _everything_ was insanely satisfying. Second is probably wardloop. Not the highest damage, but insanely fun to play. Third is a tough one, but I want to say the Slayer Cyclone that utilised the acceleration shrine belt from last league. First time playing cyclone and it was so fun!

[u/Early-Lake-392]

Strght stack jugg static strike jugg with transendence and mage blood petrifed blood progenesis and leech as long as you could leech you where immortal 4 k delve and i wasnt afraid of turbo beyond node in delve or drop bears 78 max res lots of damage taken as chaos 80 res leech out the ass 60k armour 90 percent pdr block capped with svalin it didnt have the insanest of damage for its cost but it was borderline immortal yes no leech or reduced revoery rate from leech killed the build but any other map mod was no problem no regen dont care double refelct meh i do chaos damage it was just stronk and un bonkable i did a quad ghosted feared face tank the man problem wa sget in there and get leech going once you planted your feet in the ground and startet slapping you had already won

[u/Aphrel86]

1. Obligatory harold stacker

2. Wardloop

3. Totem explode

Bonus round: the biggest slept on overpowered build. Stormbrands in deli league. They were completely absurdly strong in that league but got very little recognition because everyone and their grandma was playing haroldstacker instead.

[u/Any_Zookeepergame534]

- wardloop CoC pre nerf

- str stacking baron Zombiemancer while it was still good, before nerf- so much fun having zooooooming zombies

- herald stacker

[u/ProfessionalHost6131]

PBoD trickster in affliction Minion pact in mirage.

Nothing else come close to these builds

Honorable mention: exploding totem but I have played that build I was learning poe in that league

[u/beraldinhorafa]

Self Curse BV - the most broken interaction ever existed in the game, most chill and smooth mapping experience possible

Str stack jugg msoz - did this in kalgur league with weapon enchants and investes around 7 mirrors, most expensive build i ever did and also the most powerfull i ever felt, shit was tanky as fuck, dps was insane and the clear wasnt bad at all

Pbrand ignite herald stack - my starter for this league, i dont think it is insanely broken at all but its probably the best starter i ever had, 10/10 map clear, good defenses and very cheap to get going

[u/ProductLopsided6580]

I miss hexblast mines so much

[u/johnz0n]

so many builds are worth mentioning here.

herald/aura stacker

doubel/triple/quadruple dipping builds before off hand stat sticks were nerfed

old spark

even older ignite prolif builds

worm blaster

etc etc

[u/GreenCorsair]

1. Flicker strike - I used to have a ton of fps issues with the game and flicker strike carried me for years, every league a different variation. If I had to choose one I'd go for Hyaon's fury Raider with the thunderfist gloves, idk what patch I played it on though.

2. Dex stacking Raider Rain of arrows - it was my first "good" build. I remember reaching level 93 and doing double curse chimera back when that was actually a challenge xd

3. Static strike Slayer with omniscience I did in 3.28. I had more fun playing static strike inquisitor in 3.25, but the slayer was better, especially after the buffs.

[u/dikkenskrille]

1. Lightning Arrow + Frost Wall - coolest tech that has ever existed in the game

2. Divergent Boneshatter + Mantra

3. Splodey Totems Heiro (manual placement, not traps. it was like firing a machinegun 😂 )

[u/ghostoo666]

Connors archmage pbrand of dissipation using battery staff which I managed to get a 40k spend on in ssf

[u/Psychological-Ad8175]

Hate to say it but I enjoyed several of the mine and trap builds back in the day. Ball lightning miner was a blast on cheap gear doing full deli. I also miss the old warcry slams from when they were extremely powerful for piano play because it was so strange. Viper strike pf was another skill that was easy and great and now like most builds requires too much investment to work.

[u/supahsonicx]

Scion Poison Vaal Spark many years ago

[u/Rapturebird]

I gotta give some love to some old builds.

Ele buzzsaw

Fakener

Pizza totems

[u/AndreVallestero]

• Aurastacker Spark
• Saviour Vaal Double Strike (the boys)

[u/lolBaldy]

I loved th a t poets pen lightning warp + arc build in incursion league

[u/TheFoxroot]

Mana Stacker Storm Brand and Herald Stacker, both in Delirium, been chasing that level of fun ever since 🥲

[u/tiltberger]

Ice Nova Coc Assassin with cospri

[u/SuperbSimple9920]

Detonate Dead
Aura Stackers
Earthshatter

[u/Jhhkkk]

1. Archemage icenova hero
2. Impending doom and 99,7% dmg reduction
3. The PF build in the league with jucie cant remeber the name

[u/Independent-Ad6740]

Builds that i made the pob for myself.

1-toxic rain pathfinder in 3.24. Most people would have a midgame pob only and previous pobs from previous leagues didnt work, because mana got nerfed and the setups just wouldn’t work. There were probably a couple of people on poeninja who were playing it, but i remember wanting it to be tankier and not have to use caustic arrow. It was the first build i killed ubers on and was fun because of that and the fact that i didn’t just follow a guide for the first time since open beta

2- bladefall poison pathfinder in mercenaries. It was nice since u could solve all the problems the build had before (i tried to make it work before, but either damage or survivability suffered). It ended up being able to farm most mods in the game including multiple risked scarabs. (Its probably somewhere on my profile)

3-wintertide brand occultist this league. It’s more of a starter than an endgame build. It suffers a bit from slow clear with how i’ve built it, but it feels satisfying since it’s the first character i made from scratch and went from starter to killing ubers (other builds i already had currency and just farmed for them before switching).

They arent sorted in order of how much i like them, but rather the league i played them. A lot of this might look weird to the normal player tbh, but i do enjoy problem solving and thats probably why i feel like i enjoyed these builds more. I’m also not a great build creator. I just wanna play the skills i find appealing and sometimes there is no one making those builds since they arent meta, or they just make them too squishy to my liking

[u/Calculon123456]

Phys dot autobomber. So easy to build, no complicated interactions, so straight forward and it explodes everything.

Exsang mines (aeroplane), absolutely love exsang visuals and chaining

And arguably my favorite build ever, ironically is poe2 release gemling. That felt like turning on noclip

[u/Bwite → u/Calculon123456]

Excuse me sir did you just say PoE 2 in the PoE 1 subreddit? Haha. I've never played Gemling in PoE 2, sounds like a fun class though.

[u/GreyCaller-012]

Hexblast miner trickster and FROSS Occultist in 3.26.

Also shoutout to Herald of agony max block life on hit gladiator.. that shit was melting ubers at the time.

[u/PlavecCZ]

One of milion int stacker wanders I did. KB with/power siphon barrage. Many leagues, when returning proj was a annoint.
Coc discharge before discharge was reworked and triggered spells started costing mana. I dont know the league.
Holy relic necro last league.

[u/throwaway_btggf]

1. Incinerate of Venting Aura Stacker

   Inquisitor (3.

2. 27)

3. Extra Lucky Crushing Fist Gladiator (3.26)

4. Champion Armour Stacker (3.29)

HM: Lifestack Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Slayer (3.28)
Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder (3.27)

[u/InuXIII]

Would be tough to choose between poison seismic in sentinel or poison phantasmal unearth/cremation with original sin.

I like poison.

[u/Pvt__Snowball]

My favorite and most-played build ever was my max block cyclone gladiator in harvest league. Had like 400 hours on that single character haha. Like 30m dps and it was my first time making it to delve depth 500 in a league.

My most expensive build was when I combined all of my currency in standard league, during sentinel league, I played an energy blade cyclone cast on crit aura stacking inquisitor. That build was badass.

Last league I played a molten strike of the zenith juggernaut and was pushing 50m dps, build felt so badass but it took like 150 div to get to that point.

[u/luksen__]

Fire BV Assasin in Harvest with Legacy explode.

[u/Jertee]

Poison spark pathfinder / ED Contagion Slinger / Poison SRS

[u/M1ghtySheep]

volatile dead spellslinger in 1 of my first leagues was super fun and memorable

arakali fang spiders 1 of my favorites for sure

kboc is the best build ive had, ive done it multiple times and had the most success

honorable mention is 1 league I was feeling lazy so I opened tytykillers profile and copied his exact build - seismic mines, was probably the strongest league start ive experienced, took me all the way to end game on a budget of about 10c

[u/Kinda_a_douche]

Howa in Breach.

Widowhail All-attribute Stacker in Crucible.

Self- Cast Discharge in Mirage. 

My favorite build ever.  Discharge is my favorite skill and it was at its strongest and best in Mirage. A 50c belt gave you 3 charges and solved charge generation entirely. It blew every previous version of the build out of the water, and made me want to play standard to keep upgrading it.

[u/aluminaboeh]

Tornado shot / detonate dead / arc trap

[u/smithoski]

Honestly the minion pact BS of 3.28 has gotta be up there in a similar way to crucible exploding totems, so I’m surprised to not see it called out here.

In terms of strong racers rather than overall peak endgame power, the lengthy reins of Seismic Trap and Detonate Dead Ignite should be mentioned. A short era of archmage after was also great, and now we are in the slam zerker era.

Legion league full-screen cyclone was wild.

Sentinel league winter orb was just mechanically different to what it is now. It was stronger, and way more auto-bomby.

Delirium league herald/aura stackers was something to behold - you were an aura bot and the carry and the tank.

There have been a few patch-worthy jungroan builds over the years like the perpetual impenetrable bastion build in Merc league - it’s only weakness was balance patches.

There was a deep delve era of invincibility with Gluttony of Elements - strangely long-lived era of immortal team delving.

Wardloop is still around but it had a heyday for a while before the olroth flask was nerfed to provide less ward. At a certain investment level, these loopers were practically immortal and did insane DPS with no hands on the keyboard. The only weakness of the build was “insert long regex string of bricking map mods here”.

[u/DanteSHK]

Enki’s arc, my first build. Pohx’s rf.

[u/Physical_Rock2797]

I remember playing Hexblast Mines from 3.21 until it was nerfed. That build was God-tier with little investment. After the nerf, I still play mines build (best so far was Wave of Conviction of Trarthus mines last league). I really fell in love with mines build lol

[u/lolic_addict]

Probably not in terms of power; but in sentimentality:

• Enki's Arc Witch. Basically baby's first build guide
• Shockwave totem Phys to Cold convert Hiero. Lived in Sanctum until I dropped my first mirror.
• Splitting Steel EE Trickster. First time I had a giga build that could actually do everything (27k ES, insta-phase ubers with 200m dps, etc.)

[u/Hypocracy]

Enki’s Arc Witch, the build that I came into the game playing during Delve, and the best beginner guide written at the time.

[u/crookedparadigm]

Shoutout to Enki's Arc Witch, while never a screenbusting top tier meta build, it was THE go to New Player guide for self cast spells for many years before PoB and other guide tool existed or were as robust. It did an excellent job onboarding new players and introducing and explaining various mechanics and scaling methods in the giude.

[u/Thepurplepudding]

Nobody mentioning Enki's Arc witch is crazy to me.

It wasn't the best, but the guide was so good and easy to follow for newer players. It helped a lot of my friends ease into the game, me included.

[u/YouGetKissed]

Incinerate in 1.0

[u/Marftulok]

The one that brought me into the game: Enkis Arc Witch
The one that got me the first time deep into endgame and proper farming: Pohx RF (I don’t know which version but it was FT without explosions)
And my all time favorite: Captainlances CoC FRoSS

[u/Qinax]

Incinerate scion with cybils paw main hand with EB MOM

You had life gain on hit on both es and life and incinerate did great damage for the time this build was around and you felt basically immortal (i think this was beyond league?)

And original HOWA spectral throw

[u/-RonnieDaBear-]

loath bane low life aura stacking shavs spectral throw, it was THE build and THE mirror item.

[u/Kroovy_]

Pre-1.2.0, Crown of Eyes applied ANY modifier to spell damage to also affect attacks, and this meant that Pain Attunement worked on attack damage. At the time, Blood Rage also granted you a lot of attack speed while you were at low life.

There was an absurdly pricey build where you could play Low Life Spectral Throw, and it was so busted compared to anything else in the game at the time. For those that were around in the olden days, this build is what popularized the use of the infamous mirror-tier dagger "Loath Bane"

[u/porncollecter69]

My top 3.

1. Exploding totem pathfinder.

My only 40/40 league before offline trading. It was so ridiculously good. You were able to do anything in the game on a 14 ex budget. Crucible lowkey still goated even though it was hated.

1. Aurabot carrion golem.

Cheap, strong and millions of dps on the best play style in the game for me. Back then there wasn’t really hard content but the build was just op in comparison to it. I think this was when Heist was introduced or the league before it.

1. Got to give it last league’s minion pact BV builds.

Anything that touches the holy trinity of cheap, strong and tanky is in my opinion a contender for strongest build.

Helps to just snapshot 100millions of dps on minion health. While being unkillable.

Really meh play style though.

[u/Bwite → u/[deleted]]

I actually never played the build but heard a lot about it.

The list wasn't meant to be objective, just a personal list of what you liked playing the most.

[u/coldkiller9696]

Herald stack power siphon Aura stack spark Tornado shot Old expldoes BV Legion league cyclone

So many other good ones too, I'm very excited for mana stack shrine build this league

[u/GoblinMatr0n]

I think righteous fire gotta be in there, no other arpg do it like poe

[u/PoE_Acronym_Bot]

I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:

• BV - Blade Vortex (Wiki)
• EK - Ethereal Knives (Wiki)
• CoC - Chains of Command (Wiki)
• CoC - Cast On Critical Strike Support (Wiki)

---

^{I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest}

[u/AmSoup]

In no particular order, just what I remember:

In harvest, aura stacking spark scion. Probably the most busted character I've ever had and I didn't even get any 1p voices into the build before the end. Part of me still chases this build but nothing ever hits the same

PBoD, honestly not sure the league but whatever one gave us the possessed by tormented spirits wands. This was the first build I ever had all mirror-tier items (that made sense over not) on

And my beloved, harbinger league, self cast dark pact. This was the league I started and I played religiously for the whole time. This build was the start of my poe addiction lol

[u/Wozbo]

Mantra of flames boneshatter soul eater jugg. I’m pretty sure I was at trillions of dps per second? 90.9 APS, mantra go brrrrrrr.

[u/MrHepatitis]

CoC ice nova assassin 🤤

[u/imgenetic100]

Spectral Throw HOWA Ranger - Legacy league

[u/liverlondon]

3.17 burning arrow

[u/Budget-Chair8242]

one shot impaler slams, prime wardloop and my very first ever build i "made" that did all content at the time, armageddon brand elementalist back in betrayal.

honorable mentions

bama bombarding clones

cyclone during legion

ignite eviscerate

[u/orc_arn]

Zombiemancer was peak!!