PoE mechanics

Some thoughts on path of exile varia:

• Movement speed : Insist on it on boots, don't get on passive tree
• Attack/cast speed : Possibly get on gloves, otherwise use gems (echo/multi/faster attacks/casting), get on tree only if there are juicy nodes near pathing
• Damage nodes : Less important, even if it takes 2-3 casts to kill that is fine, running around takes much longer
• Elemental > Physical : for damage, Fire > Chaos > Lightning > Cold > Physical
• Increased AOE : Almost always worth it if you are pathing even near to it
• Crit vs Damage/Spell Damage : Choose 1, but if you have Crit you tend to have nothing else
• Armour vs Evasion vs Energy Shield : Generally chosen for you once you have a build in mind, but Life > ES > Block > AR > EV+Dodge
• Resists : No choice but to cap or overcap them all, use tree if necessary while leveling
• Curses : Overrated. Useful only for clearspeed if it can more than double your damage per cast. Otherwise, you are better off with 2x direct damage instead of curse + direct damage. Same logic for 3 direct damage vs 1 curse and 2 direct damage - and things should be dead at that point. It has 60% reduced effect on bosses, and is hard to beef up via support gems. Also only reduces the overcapped value of resists
• Auras/HeraldsDepending on the build can be a major source of damage or mitigation for otherwise wasted mana. Generally obligitory in a build
• Vaal gems : Underrated. Good for clearspeed on blue/rare/unique mobs. Easier to beef up with supports than curses.
• IIR : Worth stacking if you can, ideal amount is 200 IIR and 40 IIQ. Worth some gear compromises/a final gem slot to almost double your chance at a rare dropping. Imagine for every rare that drops, two drop in its place?
• Element Penetration gem : Always worth it if you specialize in an element for damage. It will reduce the resistance from the capped max instead of the overcapped value.
• Movement skill : Good quality of life setup that only requires a 3 link and saves on movespeed nodes/flasks
• Cast when damage taken : I can't think of a good one other than possibly CWDT+Phase Run (which I have not tested). Possibly useful to auto-curse if you have an extra 3 link. Exception may be in you need to keep up charges for your build
• Flasks : Always have a seething/bubbling for life. Sort out mana issues beforehand. Resolve your resists on gear. Quicksilver is a good Quality of Life. That leaves: Life / OPEN / OPEN / OPEN / Quicksilver. If you are crit based, get 2 x Diamond Flasks. If you expect physical damage in your zone/map get the Granite/Evasion flask. If you expect a particular elemental damage get that flask. Get suffixes to cancel debuffs (i.e. bleed)
• GTFO No sense in gearing for defense against 50 mobs - use your noggin and if you see something terrible get away from it. Skipping is fine and saves you from 180% life and 200% Armour passive trees
• Movement againSimply keeping moving pretty much negates projectile damage, and without a 20% more damage vs melee penalty

Roast me

Look at this guy here who thinks movement speed is good.

I think that too many people go with CWDT reflexively when Cast on Stun would actually be the better option.

not really sure what the purpose of this thread is.


Also, elemental damage only beats out physical early on. Early in a league, high ele dps weapons are cheap, and easy to scale to get high damage. However, they cap out fairly easy too, and it becomes difficult to get a better weapon. Phys on the other hand is much more expensive and requires more currency to get the same dps as the elemental version of the skill, but can be pushed to easily have 50% more to double the dps of the elemental version with enough currency. It all depends on the league situation and personal wealth.