[CLASS BUILD] Lady of Pain - High-speed, heavy-armored DPS Fighter

[aweigh0101]

correct! i'm pretty sure half-mast is the only magically unique pollaxe in the game, too. too bad it's a fairly late acquisition, as you need to reach the bottom level of Caed Nua and talk to the adra dragon as a requisite.

another thing about most of these unique weapons from the soldier focus group is that you can get them all relatively early. You can get the The Temaperacle great-sword as soon as you reach ondra's gift, then go and buy Tall-Grass over at Dyrford village, along with The Hours of St. Rumbault.

let's talk about estoc's tho, cos I've been using the following ridiculousness in this current playthrough:

Drake's Bell estoc, which has the 3 DR "rending" enchantment, which of course stacks with the estoc's natural 5 DR bypass; tack on another 5 DR bypass from Vulnerable Attack, and finally ANOTHER 3 DR bypass from the Vambrace Bracers which you can get really early by making a bee line to the alpine dragon and sweet-talking him (resolve 17). 

that adds up to 3 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 16 DR bypass...

sure, it ain't no fancy prone/stun on crit effect, but 16 dr bypass per swing is no laughing matter!

[AndreaColombo]

Indeed Half-Mast is the weapon I use as backup for the Blade of the Endless Paths. It is the only very good pollaxe in the game, and it conveniently shares the same Weapon Focus group as the Estoc, on top of the sweet Overbearing enchant. I did not mention it explicitly as most blights you encounter in the game are actually in Caed Nua or early side content in Act II, so you won't have much use for Half-Mast after you get it (though, come to think of it, there are a few Rain Blights in Elmshore and with the Ethik Nol.)

 

An alternative to the strategy I described would be to refine Half-Mast with Durgan Steel, bringing its recovery time down to roughly 25 frames (I'm eyeballing it; didn't test) and using it as your primary weapon for the Overbearing property; Blade of the Endless Paths would be your backup weapon against particularly high-DR foes (and you could get away with no Durgan Steel on it; it would be slightly faster than Half-Mast and you'd save ingots for other pieces of equipment.)

 

Or you could use Durgan Steel on both weapons and switch as you saw fit, though Blade of the Endless Paths would have higher DPS so I'd end up using it all the time anyway except against Rain Blights ('sides, I generally prefer to spread Durgan Steel around rather than to invest most of it just on my main.)

Edited October 31, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[Renal Bloodscalp]

Greetings AndreaColombo,

 

I was referred here by your response in a thread I made, and after reading through all this I wanted to take a moment to say great format and great information - PoE can have such a wealth of depth, and your guide is helping to digest it all.

I'll echo Deus2015's comments.  It's been helpful in breaking down the relationships in the game and how/where to find the components one needs to stack the benefits you expect characters to exploit.

[aweigh0101]

indeed. this build, regardless of the thing tiself, is well formatted and informative of mechanics. not many ppl have the patience or discipline to effectively structure information in a way that communicates broadly. 10/10 would read again. this thread is also where i first learned of the sanguine plate and the shod in faith boots 

personally i only really learned the game's mechanics when i first played POTD. i'd finished it once on normal, and had abandoned halfway through a Hard playthru when i decided to say, screw it gonna do PotD. it obligates the player to read bestiary entries, pay attention to resistances, immunities and afflictions, and forces the player to often make strategical use of their consumables, such as potions of endurance for the many, many emergency heals on PotD fights you'll be doing, potions of recovery to mitigate the constant onslaught of afflictions, and at least for the first half of the game promotes cooking some food to get an edge. i'd never ever done a single one of those things in the normal or hard playthroughs. it was like playing an entirely new game.

so i recommend playing potd if you want to learn to game. now's the perfect time to start a new run, what with 2.03 patch and the slew of new immunities.

Edited November 3, 2015 by aweigh0101

[Crucis]

Indeed Half-Mast is the weapon I use as backup for the Blade of the Endless Paths. It is the only very good pollaxe in the game, and it conveniently shares the same Weapon Focus group as the Estoc, on top of the sweet Overbearing enchant. I did not mention it explicitly as most blights you encounter in the game are actually in Caed Nua or early side content in Act II, so you won't have much use for Half-Mast after you get it (though, come to think of it, there are a few Rain Blights in Elmshore and with the Ethik Nol.)

 

An alternative to the strategy I described would be to refine Half-Mast with Durgan Steel, bringing its recovery time down to roughly 25 frames (I'm eyeballing it; didn't test) and using it as your primary weapon for the Overbearing property; Blade of the Endless Paths would be your backup weapon against particularly high-DR foes (and you could get away with no Durgan Steel on it; it would be slightly faster than Half-Mast and you'd save ingots for other pieces of equipment.)

 

Or you could use Durgan Steel on both weapons and switch as you saw fit, though Blade of the Endless Paths would have higher DPS so I'd end up using it all the time anyway except against Rain Blights ('sides, I generally prefer to spread Durgan Steel around rather than to invest most of it just on my main.)

 

I've never been a big user of poleaxes, but I do find it a little annoying that there are so few unique ones, as well as clubs, in the game.  I that the Devs would rectify this by looking at the list of unique weapons and backfilling any unique weapon types that are in short supply.

 

And BTW, it's even a little worth worse when you consider Half-Mast since it can only be gotten by killing a certain character, which if you made a different choice along the way, you might legitimately choose not to kill.  It'd be nice if there were 1 or 2 more unique poleaxes in more general locations, i.e. treasure chests or stores.

 

 

 

 

On a side note, it bugs me that poleaxes aren't reach weapons and quarterstaffs are.  IMO, this is 180* out of phase.  But the situation would still be a lot better if Qstaffs remained reach weapons, but poleaxes became reach weapons.  It seems dumb to have 2 two-handed weapons in the Adventurer group without one of them being a reach weapon, particularly when historically (I think) one would always think of pole axes as very long (aka reach) weapons.  Also, it bugs me that Qstaffs are reach weapons, because that's just not the way that staff fighting is ever portrayed.  It seems to me that true reach weapons are long, pokey types of weapons that you hold down near the end of the staff/pole, whereas Qstaffs are fought by holding the staff around the middle, which would pretty much negate any use of whatever "reach" it might have.  Meh.  Regardless, this is just a pet peeve of mine.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Crucis

[AndreaColombo]

Rejoice!

[wbc889]

If I have to hazard a guess here, pole-axe is not a reach weapon for reasons of balance. All reach weapons have a single mode of damage. Pole-axe's slash/crush modal is already incredibly flexible. If it has reach then there will be few reasons left to chose any other reach weapon, to the point where it would be oppressive to weapon diversity and player choice.

[Crucis]

If I have to hazard a guess here, pole-axe is not a reach weapon for reasons of balance. All reach weapons have a single mode of damage. Pole-axe's slash/crush modal is already incredibly flexible. If it has reach then there will be few reasons left to chose any other reach weapon, to the point where it would be oppressive to weapon diversity and player choice.

 

wbc, I guess that my problem here is that poleaxes are what they are.  They ARE long weapons.  That's just a fact.  They're not in-close melee weapons, and trying to say otherwise doesn't pass the laugh test.  They can (if they so choose) claim balance issues.  I don't care.  Poleaxes are LONG weapons.  Period.  Longer than legitimate quarterstaffs.  And at some point reality shouldn't be so casually tossed aside on the bloody alter of game balance.  Balance around the reality of poleaxes, don't just ignore it because it's too inconvenient.

[Mocker22]

Does anyone have a recommended party set up for this build? I just started a new character, planning on focusing on a crit build with St Rumbalt.

 

So far I'm planning on priest, wiz, and cipher. Not to sure what else will compliment this build well?

 

Sagani is a favorite of mine and does incredible damage at higher levels. Also considering Hiravas and Kana because I haven't done a full play through with either of them.

 

Opinions would be very welcome.

 

 

P.S. can St. Rumbalt have superb + lash on it?

[AndreaColombo]

Hi Mocker22,

 

my favorite party composition for the Lady of the Pain includes KDubya's Juggernaut Monk to help in the front line (conveniently, Zahua's attributes are very close to the Juggernaut's), a pure-support Priest, a DPS/CC Wizard, a ranged Cipher mostly for CC/ranged DPS, and either a Paladin if you want more focus on the front line, or a Druid (Hiravias does perfectly well) if you want more focus on casting (plus a well-built Druid can be pretty powerful in melee when Spiritshifted.)

 

Hours of St. Rumbalt can indeed be made Superb and have a lash. My bad for not thinking about it—clearly an extra 25% damage is a must on this build You may even want to skip the talent Bonus Knock Down (seeing as many enemies now appear to be immune to the Prone affliction; guess 2 Knock Downs per encounter are enough) and go for the elemental talent that matches the lash of your choice to get another 20% damage on top of it.

 

The only issue I see is that the Corrode lash's green glow is going to look positively hideous with your red armor ahah

Edited November 4, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[Mocker22]

Ya a green sword would be a large problem to say the least haha.

 

I'm leaning towards shock. I'm considering going with Hiravas(shock wildstrike build) and use Stormcaller on my Cipher. Haven't played with Hiravas much yet so it would be fun to try.

 

I think I'll probably go with a Darcozzi pally for my second tank. Zealous Focus + Critical Accuracy and the +10-20 accuracy from Liberating Exhortion, it just works soo nicely with a crit focused build.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Mocker22

[AndreaColombo]

Shock is very good for this build imo, because the elemental talent also gives +5 DR and Shock DR is your weakest (even though it is true that you're not subject to a large number of massively damaging Shock attacks in the game.)

 

To boost Accuracy, the best combination is Scroll of Valor + Devotions for the Faitfhul + Champion's Boon. That's +45 Accuracy. BOOM!

[Mocker22]

Would those buffs not stack with the paladin buffs...or does it just make them a bit overkill?

[AndreaColombo]

Champion's Boon gives a +10 bonus to PER, which in turns gives +10 to Accuracy so it is an "indirect" buff. It definitely stacks with the Paladin's abilities.

 

Devotions for the Faithful gives +20 melee Accuracy and +20 ranged Accuracy, which means it stacks with direct buffs that generically apply to "Accuracy" without specifying whether melee or ranged. Hence, it stacks with the Paladin's aura; not sure about Liberating Exhortation because, IIRC, it does not buff Accuracy but rather suspend debuffs.

 

Scroll of Valor is a direct bonus to Accuracy, and does not stack with the Paladin's aura. The aura's still relevant in case you run out of scrolls or the scroll's duration expires, though.

 

 

As a side note, QA just confirmed that Dire Blessing does stack with Durgan Steel's hit-to-crit conversion, contrary to what I wrote in my post above. In light of this, you definitely want to spam that spell in every encounter on your crit build.

[aweigh0101]

man, what i hate the most is corrosizelash's super ugly looking drip-drip-drip VFX. it's the reason i never use it. i hate the fact that my rogue's dual sabres are leaking acid all over a poor guy's tavern wooden floor burning a hole to china and no one notices. the varnishing cost alone must drive the innkeepers crazy!

best looking enchants imo are burning (it's aight) and winner is the godlike looking spirit-slaying enchantment, and second place freezing lash.

best looking over all is putting freezing lash then spirit slayer, the spirit slayer's red hue blends very well with the white-hot glow of freezing enchant.

[AndreaColombo]

Note for anyone going for the crit build: The talent Dozen's Luck and Durgan Steel on armors currently work the other way around. Instead of converting incoming crits to hits as advertised, they convert the crits that you inflict on enemies to hits. For this reason, I strongly advise against them until they are fixed (I've already raised the issue in the technical forum.) The increase in DPS from Durgan Steel's speed penalty reduction is probably still worth it in other cases, but a 20% crit-to-hit conversion on a crit build is a big no-no. The talent itself is fairly easy to avoid.

Edited November 5, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[aweigh0101]

sadness... i hate stuff like that. andreacolombo what do you think of the increased threat-zone on engagement, btw? can't provide photographic evidence but there is also an undocumented increase in enemy damage from their disengagement atks.

i approve. fights are more tactical now in the context of PoE-style RtwP. i thought they had succesively made engagement meaningless with each patch but sawyer sure showed me; 2.03 has brought engagement mechanic back to the forefront. visual fx and text pop up and everything oh my!

(to test this yourself andreacolombo easiest way is spawn a lion or a human mercenary and go ahead and test out the range at which the mob will force-pull you into his engagement. you will also notice that due to this careless movement on your part produces more engagement blows than ever before. i had a lion 1 shot durance from like, half a lion's body-length away as durance was kiting the lion; dat claw to the back was glorious and magical. first moment i noticed this change)

[AndreaColombo]

I haven't really tried 2.03 yet, but I've always been a detractor of the engagement system. I stopped using the "Disable Engagement" component of the IE Mod only after 2.0 made the whole mechanic largely irrelevant. If it is now back to relevant, I may have to wait until IE Mod is made to work with 2.04 to do another play through (the bug with Durgan Steel and Dozen's Luck is a showstopper for me, so I'm stuck waiting for 2.04 to fix it.) Alas.

 

I'm rather taken aback by the fact that such an important change was not documented or communicated in any way, however.

[aweigh0101]

me too man, heck, even putting aside the ASSUMED damage increase in the Dis-Atk's, as i can't provide proof since the combat log gives no output about DA's at all; it wasn't even mentioned in passing about the addition of a big ole text pop-up that says "Disengagement!" accompanied by an incredibly quick reddish-pink "slash" VFX.

now i have to say that having spent the last 2 days playing 2.03 runthrough, i went in thinking that i would have a brand new experience in the big tough fights due to immunites. imagine my surprise when i now can honestly report that i've barely even noticed immunities, as i'm always packing versatile gear/tools for any situation that might arise, rather it is the increased danger of receving a Dis-Atk and i am positive to report as well that it holds very much true for the player versus the enemy as well. never before have the DA's been so GOOD, and it has forced to put the brain to use in a lot of set-pieces and use choke points differently, to really discipline myself to having an effective party composition and to actually use a tactically-minded formation AT ALL TIMES.

this is the first time EVER that i've decided it is beneficial, and way more fun to create a true and proper rank and file formation in shape of half-phalanx. 2 paladins form the point of the wedge armed with greatswords (dual types for imm's) with backup warhammers for crushing mobs / 1 fighter and 1 rogue 4 meters behind them armed with pikes so as to use the reach from behind the two paladins / 1 cipher and 1 priest 4 more meters behind but spread outwards towards the edges so as to be able to run quickly towards the "center", the hole in the middle and thus be safe. this lessens blockage situations. the rangers pet is my scout, heh, and he does his own thing

kiting is obviously as effective as always, it is a RTWP system and that is inherent in its design, however due to the noticeably increased "disengagement zone" mobs emit you better do your kiting well or get ready to get mauled in the back. i actually had to turn on the option "continue moving on engagement" in the menu just because my usual battle plans of having a scouting unit or a scout team kite enemies back to either a doorway or a wall corner or any place at all that allows to put backs against walls, and they would freaking get force-pulled backwards while running from the disengagement lasso hah. it was mildly annoying but now that i've had time to play and experience this change i can say that it's not a big deal really. it just forces you to be better at the game i.e. you have to plan ahead better and you have to be careful in your plan execution and you should always disable AI and pay attention to your flanks.

sometimes it is much better to just take the Dis-Atk from the mob who is too fast and caught you by surprise in the opn and go get some cover and protect your flanks and your allies as well. also always position with intent to flank the enemy yourself, it is the optimal way to control the chaotic melees in the game and own the space.

one thing i've done a few times with the ranger pet this run is something brand new for me: i send the stealthiest unit, the scout, to engage the enemy and kite them back to the vanguard meanwhile i then send the pet running towards the mob that is being kited as the scout is returning, i.e. the pet and the scout pass by each other and i then send the pent sideways into a completely different direction with the intent of pulling someof the enemies away completely from the rest of my team waiting in position. this serves the purpose of splitting up big groups in an effective manner, and the most optimal usage is to have the pet try to pull away the enemy mages, who are the worst as you all know. it's quite useful because then while 1 half of the enemy mob is busy getting bushwacked by my party set up wherever they were, the other half is busy whacking at the pet. and once they kill it (not always but yeah, it's a suicide mission for the poor bugger) they never have enough intelligence to go on and join their friends against me. they just stand around the dead pet doing nothing, or bugger off. once i deal with the 1st group that was kited by the scout i go and steam roll the half that was pulled by the pet. 

tldr: "Disengagement!"

[Mocker22]

• Any word on when 2.04 may be out to fix the Durgan steel and Dozen's luck problem that Andrea mentioned above. I'm very sad I can't roll this crit build right now.

[AndreaColombo]

Unfortunately not. 2.03 has just come out so I expect 2.04 to take at least three more weeks before the beta is rolled out. This is a guesstimate based on previous patches.

 

For now, QA still need to confirm the bug (which I'm sure will happen shortly; I can repro with 100% reliability.)

 

I'm taking a pause from the game until 2.04 is out and the IE Mod is made compatible with it.

[Mocker22]

Ya that is really a game breaking bug for a lot of classes. Its to bad

[AndreaColombo]

I can't seem to repro the issue in 2.03. Could someone else test and confirm?

[wbc889]

Appears to have been fixed. I had Devil of Caroc attack Eder, who is wearing Durgan steel enhanced 'He Carries Many Scars'.

 

Devil had a crit that was mitigated to a hit by 'Durgan Scars'

 

 

https://imgur.com/YS7F05O

 

 

https://imgur.com/G65hXQH

[Mocker22]

Almost done with a play through with this build. Gotta say I really am liking it. Consistently hitting in the 80-90s range, attack fast, and can tank like a mofo if needed. First really hard fight in a while was the Alpine Dragon. Gotta admit, I spammed Petrify until it landed and just went to town on him but was still impressed by the dmg. Getting to the point in the game where I am ready to try one of the next 1000 toons I want to make so I gotta stay strong and finish this playthrough.