Giant's Blood is mandatory.

As of right now there's no reason for playing a 2hander without Giant's Blood.

Giant's Blood is the objectively correct choice in any Warrior build, it's requirements being effectively non-existent as stacking strength is the only reliable way to gain flat HP on your passive tree.

Furthermore, with HP and Armor being the main layers of defense for Warriors and both severely underperforming compared to ES, adding another layer of defense through a shield for block is not a choice, it's an obligation if you want to clear t13+ maps smoothly.

Mandatory "choices" were one of the reasons why PoE2 started development to begin with, especially in regards to sources of HP on the tree. So far, this is still the case with PoE2.

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Beffagorn#1657 a écrit :

As of right now there's no reason for playing a 2hander without Giant's Blood.

Giant's Blood is the objectively correct choice in any Warrior build, it's requirements being effectively non-existent as stacking strength is the only reliable way to gain flat HP on your passive tree.

Furthermore, with HP and Armor being the main layers of defense for Warriors and both severely underperforming compared to ES, adding another layer of defense through a shield for block is not a choice, it's an obligation if you want to clear t13+ maps smoothly.

Mandatory "choices" were one of the reasons why PoE2 started development to begin with, especially in regards to sources of HP on the tree. So far, this is still the case with PoE2.

Start irony: Come on it's not that bad, you can also go life leech with allow you to drop the shield. That is like 2 ways to play./irony end.

Broadly agree with this take. In testing out 1H and shield vs 2H and shield, there's no real comparison, 2H is much, much better. You need a highroll 1H mace to even compete, and it's still not worth it. The attack speed difference is insufficient to make up for the huge damage gap, especially given the fact that single big hits are better at overwhelming enemy armour and inflicting ailments than multiple smaller hits. The attack speed of 2H maces is more than enough to map smoothly, so the 1H options just aren't relevant.

Difference is less pronounced when dual wielding two-handers for damage output, but having access to two of the +6 melee gem level affix breaks that wide open too.

Giant's Blood very much feels mandatory with little opportunity cost - you'd prefer to grab lots of strength anyway for defensive purposes (one of the only ways to get HP and a good suffix on gear regardless) so you don't have to go out of your way to stack it up.

Most of all, there's just not really an alternative strong thing to do, so there's no choice to be made.

It takes quite a bit of effort to get the strength to giant's blood the end game two-handers. I think the expert leaden mace has something like 175 strength requirement, so to Giant's Blood it you need to get 525 Strength... Which is quite the investment.

what other stat than strength would you want to go anyway on a mace build?
I guess int for vulnerability is the only thing that comes to mind.


You are kinda hard stuck in that area of the tree anyway, theres no good options anywhere else, travelling is expensive, going evasion or energy shield hybrid and sacrificing like 20 STR attribute nodes for it doesnt seem worth it

You also cant dual wield 2 different weapon types so that also falls flat later down the line

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raV#3445 a écrit :

what other stat than strength would you want to go anyway on a mace build?
I guess int for vulnerability is the only thing that comes to mind.


You are kinda hard stuck in that area of the tree anyway, theres no good options anywhere else, travelling is expensive, going evasion or energy shield hybrid and sacrificing like 20 STR attribute nodes for it doesnt seem worth it

You also cant dual wield 2 different weapon types so that also falls flat later down the line

Yeah...yeah, i suffered from that trying to fit in a crossbow and realizing it's not really the play.

Now i've just gone full beta tester, levelling one of every class from scratch and making notes on areas/bosses one by one for a big thing later after the holidays are over and devs are back.

Just have fun however you can for now~

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raV#3445 a écrit :

what other stat than strength would you want to go anyway on a mace build?
I guess int for vulnerability is the only thing that comes to mind.


You are kinda hard stuck in that area of the tree anyway, theres no good options anywhere else, travelling is expensive, going evasion or energy shield hybrid and sacrificing like 20 STR attribute nodes for it doesnt seem worth it

You also cant dual wield 2 different weapon types so that also falls flat later down the line

Its not a question of what other stat you'd want, more just HOW much you need to grab. I'm strength stacking on my Titan, which has it easier because it gets 8% increased strength from small nodes and 25% increased effectiveness of of small nodes from the tree for even more, and I still don't have 500 strength. The gear requirements to one-hand the highest tier two-handed maces take a significant amount of gear investment to reach, perhaps even a very juiced up breach ring.

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Amorencinteroph#4321 a écrit :

I'm strength stacking on my Titan, which has it easier because it gets 8% increased strength from small nodes and 25% increased effectiveness of of small nodes from the tree for even more, and I still don't have 500 strength.

Just noting, Hulking Form doesn't apply to the ability nodes where you select an ability (check the info text on Small Passive in the description), but it does apply to the +8 strength nodes and similar.

Is this still the accepted consensus? I find 2 handed weapons cool specifically because they are two handed...

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Amorencinteroph#4321 a écrit :

It takes quite a bit of effort to get the strength to giant's blood the end game two-handers. I think the expert leaden mace has something like 175 strength requirement, so to Giant's Blood it you need to get 525 Strength... Which is quite the investment.

Not really. Look at guides for Warriors they often recommend going for Advanced bases.

I just about hit 400 STR on my SSF Warbringer Earthshatter with an Advanced Temple Maul. I think the difference in damage with Expert base is negligible considering just how lucky you have to be in the first place to min max the physical damage modifiers on the weapon.

For trade it's a lot dumber : you shop for a good 2h mace with the reduced attribute requirement. And because it's trade, you'll find one.