Nice video as always. I can't imagine the infinite herald chains not getting nerfed but i guess we'll see. They took my gemling from 'can do breach but it's a little spooky' to 'clears an entire breach in one hit'. And the damage there is high enough to not need ash!
Putting my galvanic witchhunter on the shelf myself. I read in a different comment section that the bolt "jams" were instances of evading a hit the same time a reload was happening, thus causing you to reload for 5 fiscal years, aka the jam. I've died too many times bc of this on breaches. Regardless, I love WH and hope it gets more love later on.
About 250 hours and 12-15ish divs(no big chase items like headhunter/my against the darkness is fire/lightning res) worth of junk on my witch hunter myself and my opinion has also completely 180'd on the ascendancy it's definitely on the higher end(edit: screw it i think witch hunter blows gemling out of the water and is easily one of the best ascendancies for mapping because of sorc ward) imo due to how outrageously cheap it is to be an invincible walking nuke in maps. Not running herald chain personally but the entire screen dies instantly anyway to forking galvanic and zealous. running rondel of fragility and thrillsteel(settled on it over myris because speed good i guess even though myris+decimator clears maps for you with no other gear cost) for uniques because rondel is literally HoWA in your amulet slot for 3 exalts for a good roll if you can afford the ele resist(resist honestly doesnt matter with sorc ward i was at 60 fire/lightning for the longest time and was still washing juiced 15's with multi breaches). Stacking a mountain of attack speed from my gems/gloves/amulet/tree also solves any reload related issues because(the game doesn't say this for some reason) attack speed also scales your reload speed into oblivion. Crossbows also won't shoot if you unlclick and reclick the mouse when you're in the ammo swapping/reloading animation and you have to click once it's loaded if you don't hold it down the whole time which is where i think alot of the "jamming" problems come from. i mess it up all the time when swapping to shockburst so i get it it's stupid. The easiest most inhuman amount of free boss damage you can get for literally two cents and a handshake is to take a 5 exalt bow in your second weapon set and use it as your support monkey. Take all your damage in your first weapon set, socket two shock chance soul cores into the bow, and take ALL of the shock magnitude/chance and mark effect you can in the second weapon set. run stormcaller arrow with shock mag/duration/exposure support and map galv mark to set 2 and you'll be onetapping bosses with shock cap(i didn't know it had a cap of 100% until i did this) and exposure. For pinnacles i've been doing this absolutely moronic and garbage gear swap where i put on doryani's prototype and one min roll lightning res ventor's gamble+min roll lightning res glimpse of chaos+100% damage no res gloves+min roll controlled metamorphosis(i dont map anything with it lol) to have -170% lightning res then use conductivity and a damage banner to instantly kill everything below difficulty 4 for 40-60 exalts(crossbow was a div but potato potato). One thing i've come to appreciate that REALLY makes the ascendancy high tier imo is maxing sorc ward and dropping all of your armor for evasion+ pathing up into that evasion triangle that gives dex+chest evade boost(also lets you allocate dex/atk speed branch and fork boost branch). with a solid evasion body piece and boots+wind dancer you'll have a 4500 point elemental shield and 75+ evasion which negates literally everything that's not a physical slam. Map mod damage goes into the ward, death effects go into the ward, rare mod bonus damage into the ward, you feel invincible 99% of the time. one thing about sorc ward to remember though is that(i hate it so much it needs to be changed, doesn't make it unviable but hinders it slightly) every time your evasion number changes(wind dancer stages) the cd on sorc ward resets so keep that in mind and check the number while you're running around. Oh and another thing if you want to be invincible 100% of the time instead of 99% of the time at the cost of some damage is to swap your helmet for atziri's disdain(preferably highest ES amount+you want a high penetration number to help the ES sustain) and annoint lucidity on your amulet+take 3 damage is taken from mana before life sapphires(preferably with a 3+ roll) to make it so your mana and hp bar will always stay at the same percentage and you will be quite literally unkillable during maps. IF for some reason you actually want to play the game into pinnacles(idk why you'd want to they suck lmao) swap your chest for cloak of flame along with above set up and you'll be just fine on not getting one shot
@@hotflam4 i leave mine at 90% because it's less investment, i'm level 91 as well. But you go +20 qual on shock mark, magnitude nodes in the bottom right, mark effect nodes beside it, mark effect/blind chance nodes next to the jewel socket above it, and path farther up to the mark effect nodes farther above it. with the +75 shock magnitude support gem on stormcaller arrow you're at 90% and a couple jewels with shock magnitude or pathing into the nodes that give shock/freeze magnitude will push you all the way up to 100%
I cant believe I forgot to respond to this. I actually fucking live for comments like these. Hands down one of my favorite things about doing this is learning stuff from the comments. Thank you for taking your time to write this out!
@klovehitch thanks man i really appreciate that you read all that, it means alot. trying to make things work without steering into broken interactions that delete the game as that's when i have the most fun. i like getting recommended content on the game that's not HoWA/temporalis/archmage/Cast on chains wiping a map in 10 seconds, and you give good advice. keep up the good work man.
Currently sitting at lv 95 on my witch hunter, playing a similar build and have done most content, lv 82 full atlas bosses, pinnacle's etc, completely agree the xbow jamming is pretty much the only thing that kills me other than on death effects and the occasional preventable 1 shot because i have 2k health 0 armor, 0 ES and 84% evasion after sorc ward. dying to not be able to shoot feels so bad and it felt 10x harder to get to this point than playing anything else so far
Yes, you follow up shock with Shockburst Rounds for single target. But do you also use Plasma Blast? Looks like you're spec'd for it with all that lightning damage. Insane boss fight opener, and you can also use it again every time a boss gives you 3 seconds to charge it. It's also great for absolutely decimating rares in jacked up maps where you don't want to get close to certain rares. It's a God send for mana drain rares, for example, which honestly need to be tuned way down on the degree to which they mana drain you. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about that. Scattershot support gem the skill, and the 3 blasts obliterate virtually every rare from a full screen distance away.
you can avoid the ammo change clunk by running 2 crossbows, load a different ammo in each. Then you can left click for galvanic, right click for shockburst easy
Yeah, I was running this same tech with HVR and Shockburst early on before I figured out my build, but the higher up you get in levels and investment, it becomes a huge waste of currency to keep up upgrades on both. Factor in that you lose arguably the strongest shock-on-demand with Stormcaller bowswap and it's not viable for true endgame at all. Kind of sad that we have to resort to these sorts of tech to make crossbows mimic a fraction of the intuitiveness of bows.
Probably why dmg feels more impactful on a weapon based character is due to how armor works. Hit harder, mob armor helps less, same as it is against players. Note though, that this also makes armor break near worthless, barring as an enabler of a combo.
the xbows jamming breaks my brain as well, I don't understand how/why it happens. Its always at the start of a breach too - you get through the first set of bolds with galvanic, and then it just does jack shit? I don't get it.
if you get a dyad crossbow that loads another bolt this issue basically goes away. You trade off attack speed but it’s so much more fluid with it, you don’t really jam because you have 2 shots and youll clear everything near you.
@@spotLV Yeah ideally you have 2 crossbows, but I think it’s worth the trade off shockburst does a ton of dmg anyway. A lot of ppl die in packs because their crossbow jams.
@KiwiFights I'm running two with exactly the same setup! And was really close to dying in ritual yesterday because it decided to jam again. Is it dodge rolling or whatever jams it I don't know :(
I use a similar set up as you - I run galvanic shard for map clear and rapid fire for single target damage. Rapid fire with fresh clip is absolutely disgusting.
One thing i did struggle with is the weird phase around act 2 - you have galvanic shards that clear very well, but not really something for bosses - i used a bow in the offhand and spammed lightning rods to proc with an orb of storm and galvanic shards but the damage was still bad. It took me around an hour to clear the act 2 boss since he seemed to be heavy lightning resistant (should have maybe tried the normal crossbow shot for him)- after that and once you get shockburst rounds..... oh boy.... oneshottet the rest of the game. So i would just suggest to level with something else until you have shockburst rounds or make sure you have a setup for single target
Thought the same but played minions build after that and oh boy, mercenary is underpowered a lot. Shooting speed is framerate dependent, any minor lag in breach and you dead with your 2k hp, frost mages pack deletes t4 breach boss without any sweat while on merc you have to actually fight boss :)
Yeah elemental damage right now just has so much going for it, while there really isn't much for phys. Especially in the way of auras. The change to vulnerability made it total worthless as a curse, banner skills are horrible, and yeah there just really isn't a great damage aura for phys right now.
Love watching the evolution. Wonder how well our ranks will fare through the upcoming patches. Also thanks for the diamond tip. Glad that most wont even reach this pont, which means my main money source stays viable cuz it stays invisible to ggg. For the perfect jewlers take the biome node on the atlas.
Morior Invictus seems like an easy add to this build after they buff armour they are relative cheap for how much all res + armour/evasion you could get with the 10 % increase global ones.
Nice build, I’m still currently just playing the cruelty acts, Granade witchhunter, and I am taking my time slow and steady while figuring everything out (completely new to poe). I was just wondering, got my first Devine in Act 1 cruelty, what should I do with it? :p I mean I’ve got some decent loot for now which I found but it’s kinda lacking, especially in the defence department. Should I keep a hold on it cuz they are so super rare or would it be smart to sell it for currency for example to have a bit of cash to fund some future gear? I think the currency exchange would give 118 ex for one div, so much moneyyy :p (i think i only had like 10-20 ex in total up to know lol)
I think the jamming thing with crossbows happens a lot when you click to shoot during the middle (or honestly anytime during the reloading phase) the crossbow jams. I can reproduce it pretty consistently by doing this. It’s awful and I hope the jamming mechanic is a bug and not intentional
sadly as a 94lvl witchhunter with +100div invested. End game witch hunter is pretty weak (almost half dmg of gemling). But I love this class and will not change to other weapon.
Gotta love ARPG players. Developers spend 5 years developing a methodical ARPG with required dodge rolling and skill rotations. One month into EA, ARPG players have already trivialized the content. Beautiful.
You're right it doesn't make sense. The game has a good first impression but the endgame is a boring grind with a huge penalty for death in strange places from after death effects or random attacks. In addition, the in-game market is terrible
Actually im testing it lvl 45, im strughle on bosses, u need window to switch for shockburst when bosses are on 26% exposure fir lightning and this window is very short ,i died only on that windows, its frustraring
@@prDx11 not really. you have cross-perk into a bow and use lightning rods. basically combo to kill bosses as witch hunter is Lightning rod->Lightning rod ->Orb of storms->Spray Shockburst rounds into the orb of storm, procs lightning rod.
tl:dr is that if you use herald of ash with helmet, you can use helmet to convert all your fire damage ignite chance into shock chance which proc's herald of lightning and i am going add that if you put polaskin ring, it makes cold damage which gives 1% chill make enemy's count AS IF they were frozen. this auto proc's herald of ice allowing you to do Herald of lightning+Herald of ice for clear.
@@klovehitch another thing i have to say about double herald interaction is that storm weaver ends up abusing interaction the easier. Why you may ask? WELL.... it has this passive where ALL HITS =lightning. why is this good you may ask? Well.... you could massive cold damage rolls on your gear and all of them apply to lightning damage which applies to shock. this means you only need cold damage roll for against the darkness and that is only 1 divine. SO MUCH easier and enough freeze build-up to freeze. i found freeze to be bigger issue over shock.
Aside from the clunky animation bugs and such with Crossbow, they really just need to allow us to use quivers. That's unironically all they need to do. Being locked out of the offhand slot as the only other ranged attack weapon in the game sucks and is putting us leagues below bow users simply by missing an entire item slot to scale damage and fill out stat priorities and other utility affixes.
@@klovehitch The higher dps is actually much lower because of the fact you have to factor in reload + funny enough the best base for ammunition builds is literally the Bombadier crossbow because of the low base reload time. Dyad crossbows are complete dogshit, along with the projectile speed base. If they really wanted to lean into crossbows being a slower, more damaging version of bows, they need to still raise the reload time floor and honestly double the flat damage that can roll on bows at base. The easiest fix as I said would be to just let us use quivers. Also there really should not be mandatory reload nodes on the tree just to make xbows feel normal lol. Great vid man, thoroughly enjoyed following this series along.
@@sovereignreclaimer Oh okay I see this makes a lot of sense, and I couldn't agree with you more on the bases themselves. The drawbacks are actually ludicrous. I like the quiver idea a lot especially since it would make crit building 10x more viable and yeah I couldn't agree more on the reload thing. Not only are we losing points so the gun will shoot some time today, but we are also sacrificing a socket here and there for things like faster reload, double barrel or ammo conservation. And I appreciate it man, thank you!
maybe adding a crossbow offhand would be nice, but just giving quivers to crossbow would make them insanely broken despite the clunk. Increased quiver bonus is just an insanely broken stat. Lightning arrow is a weaker clear skill than galvanic shards and for bosses deadeyes basically have to use sorc skills lol specifically cast on shock/crit ball lightning otherwise the damage is horrible, meanwhile xbow gets shock burst rounds. Also it would make no sense thematically lol
I must suck incredibly bad because my Merc is total dog water without the 232% damage nodes at the beginning, the Projec5ile damage and Two-Handed damage, plus the Attack damage off to the right. It literally needs those to do any relevant damage at all. Otherwise, I invested into traveling and grabbed Realod Speed as well as Lucky Lightning. Thought I'd go Crossbow nodes next since, again, the lack of damage has made bossing a massive chore. Why does it feel like I need to pump so much damage in? What can I change so I'm not having to do this? I know I'm just smooth brained here
Well you're not smooth brained for starters ;). It sounds like its going to be a weapon issue. Realistically, with a solid weapon and like a couple of 5 links with galvanic shards and shockburst rounds, you should have enough dps for whatever. Now if you are going against mega juiced t18 bosses or pinnacle bosses with max boss difficulty then bear in mind you are probably at a place where you need some fat gear and a rather cracked weapon. The way the game is right now unfortunately, you are just straight up priced out of that gear level unless you are mfing breach, and the reality for a lot of players is that they straight up cannot get gear for their character in the end game. I mentioned it as well, getting that jewel even with just a single damage roll for like 1-2 div will go a long way with damage as well. Also, it sounds like a lot of your nodes are kind of just basic damage nodes, and I would caution against stacking things in that matter because you want things to work together. I.E. we take shock magnitude cause we deal lightning damage, ele pen for that lightning damage, lucky lightning, chance to shock, voltaic mark that sort of thing. You want your damage layers to be playing off one-another. Generally speaking, raw damage nodes like 2h damage or proj damage, unless they are of absurd magnitudes are going to naturally limit your character, because they don't really stack or build well with other types of damage layers. I have a building 101 video on my channel that might help as well, either way I hope this helps!
I do wonder how strong could you make single target with weapon master. Have two cross bows one for clear and one for single target. 48 points is alot. i know totem warrior using just 24 is massive I can switch between 200 + totem daamge and 300% more armour broken so I just totem then swing hammer on shield and watch the world burn. Prob could do something similar here.
88 merc here and i have to say you are only lucky you dont die that often, i had galvanic build full dps no defense and it was good but if i mob only came next to me i was dead....good dps tho until you die lol
The idea would be to take it on the gloves instead of the ascendency because then that way you could take culling strike, zealous inquisition and then two ascendencies for no mercy as well. This would allow you to have the 30% more damage from no mercy while retaining decimating strike, culling strike and zealous inquisition for clear.
Got a bit disheartend that my build simply wasn't suitable for things like breaches and such, decided to give this a go and i can't for the life of me figure out why i'm never procing the Herald of Ice. Like, i know i'm not doing an /exact/ copy of this because i'm switching herald of Ash for Time of Need... is HoA realy that important for this to function?
I believe so yes. With Three Dragons, fire damage is what gives the ability for herald of ice to shock, and we need the 30% damage as fire from immolate support on herald of ice, and I think that when you ignite a target with herald of ash, it gives herald of ice the ingite necessary to get the 30% damage as fire from immolate supp.
@@klovehitch oh, right... three dragons... yea not having that would explain why it wasn't working... (i may or may not have gotten distracted by those gloves and myrm hood)
Gonna try this as SSF, sick of trade league. I've started vaaling all my items because I really don't care about it. Soy boy spark sorc ofc. I wish they had semi SSF so you could team up at times with a group of friends that could trade and interact with each other but not other players, but that's a dream no doubt. Obviously you can leave these leagues at any time already so I'd like to see more available.
I hear you on trade right now lmao. And I do think that will be a thing eventually. They have private leagues that are exactly what you are asking for in PoE 1.
how do you level/build your WH for campaign? im on act 3 normal and i do no damage at all, currently at the azark bog boss and struggle due to no damage
Okay, here you are! mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/83a9ba82-e124-4560-a7a8-593c5d0d2464/builds/6583ebbf-56ff-425f-b66a-6672789540b8 I will point out that this is just after finishing the heart quest for the +2 passive points and then I went back to kill the witch. Generally, in every act, I will always rush the + Passive points and then go back and do the additional areas that have a power increase from the boss. If the boss is in the area (Like blackjaw) for example then I will just do them since it would be a waste to come back, but any time they are isolated, I.E. Azak bog, its definitely not necessary to kill them immediately. Especially on witchhunter where we don't have a lot of use for the extra spirit. Hope this helps!
mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/83a9ba82-e124-4560-a7a8-593c5d0d2464/builds/1efb994a-3999-4614-be1b-854fcbadd269 Here is the guide for it! To answer your herald question, that will come from against the darkness. I have one with 4% Fire/Lightning which is an insane amount of damage.
What happened to Sorcery Ward? Did you just ditch it cause you‘re zooming around for defense and it doesn’t prevent deaths from (FUCKING) on death effects anyways?
I know on lower maps it does but I stop playing after james on this char. I know my ES chars because I sold out takes about 9 k damage from on death effects so a max ward may be able to save you at the cost of alot of evasion and armour that already split in 1/2
The latter part of the statement is the real reason I haven't ran it or tried it. The only thing I need defense from is those god damn on death effects. That being said, sorc ward has a few issues. Firstly, anything that scales off of a stat that it halves is a bummer out the gate. That being said, I do think once the game is more well tuned and not totally ridiculous, you will actually stack a lot of defense on the character, and by that time you would be able to afford sorc ward for damage mitigation. Another issue with sorc ward is just where it fits in the ascendency. While its true witchhunter does fall off a bit late game, until you have insane gear, you are so reliant on the damage from your ascendency, despite it falling off you really can't afford to lose it. It might be the case that way later on you drop decimating/cull in which case you could go sorc ward, but by the time the herald nerfs come around you will more than likely need Zealous Inquisition. Overall, its just a hard call as to where/when to fit it in, and like I said I just don't feel that it solves any of my current problems.
Stopped watching when you said nobody cares about single target early game. Up there with dumbest things ive heard about this game since the Elon video. So you're pretty quick!
Well, you do you of course. But to elaborate for the sake of addressing my comment, what I meant when I said that, was because bosses scale in the early part of the game, and they are unbelievably weak compared to their max difficulty counter-parts, simply having a somewhat decent weapon with a 4 link in shockburst rounds should cover your single target automatically with no real necessity to even think about it. And for most generally capable builds, this seems to be the case universally. Especially against the difficulty 0 bosses that are on early maps that are white/blue. Also, the amount of time in the game you spend actually fighting bosses vs clearing (outside of campaign) is like 5% to 95%. Finally too, the bosses in maps are just bosses from the campaign that are relatively easy after you have fought them a few times, so on top of them being quite weak, you should feel comfortable fighting them as well, even if it is for a little bit longer due to somewhat lacking single target.
Love the way you talk and explain your thought process. Very educative! Thanks man
Unironically….
Nice video as always. I can't imagine the infinite herald chains not getting nerfed but i guess we'll see. They took my gemling from 'can do breach but it's a little spooky' to 'clears an entire breach in one hit'. And the damage there is high enough to not need ash!
Ya they were so much fun, but I agree Im sure they will be history soon. :(
but without this merc cant be compared to minions or mage builds and still kills bosses not as fast
Putting my galvanic witchhunter on the shelf myself. I read in a different comment section that the bolt "jams" were instances of evading a hit the same time a reload was happening, thus causing you to reload for 5 fiscal years, aka the jam. I've died too many times bc of this on breaches. Regardless, I love WH and hope it gets more love later on.
yeah also attack speed depends on framerate =( and with
I think the jamming issue was just resolved in the patch a few hours ago
@@apcrol i don't think i got a terrible pc, but yeah. when pc chugs on breach or savannah, im already expecting to die to bc of the frame drop
@@jacobhall6801 nah it still jams
No loot filter gigachad
just like Elon Musk
All console players are gigchads. I knew I be one, one day.
Lmaoooo its like the very first loot filter released and I just haven't been bothered enough to update it 🤣🤣🤣
About 250 hours and 12-15ish divs(no big chase items like headhunter/my against the darkness is fire/lightning res) worth of junk on my witch hunter myself and my opinion has also completely 180'd on the ascendancy it's definitely on the higher end(edit: screw it i think witch hunter blows gemling out of the water and is easily one of the best ascendancies for mapping because of sorc ward) imo due to how outrageously cheap it is to be an invincible walking nuke in maps. Not running herald chain personally but the entire screen dies instantly anyway to forking galvanic and zealous. running rondel of fragility and thrillsteel(settled on it over myris because speed good i guess even though myris+decimator clears maps for you with no other gear cost) for uniques because rondel is literally HoWA in your amulet slot for 3 exalts for a good roll if you can afford the ele resist(resist honestly doesnt matter with sorc ward i was at 60 fire/lightning for the longest time and was still washing juiced 15's with multi breaches). Stacking a mountain of attack speed from my gems/gloves/amulet/tree also solves any reload related issues because(the game doesn't say this for some reason) attack speed also scales your reload speed into oblivion. Crossbows also won't shoot if you unlclick and reclick the mouse when you're in the ammo swapping/reloading animation and you have to click once it's loaded if you don't hold it down the whole time which is where i think alot of the "jamming" problems come from. i mess it up all the time when swapping to shockburst so i get it it's stupid.
The easiest most inhuman amount of free boss damage you can get for literally two cents and a handshake is to take a 5 exalt bow in your second weapon set and use it as your support monkey. Take all your damage in your first weapon set, socket two shock chance soul cores into the bow, and take ALL of the shock magnitude/chance and mark effect you can in the second weapon set. run stormcaller arrow with shock mag/duration/exposure support and map galv mark to set 2 and you'll be onetapping bosses with shock cap(i didn't know it had a cap of 100% until i did this) and exposure.
For pinnacles i've been doing this absolutely moronic and garbage gear swap where i put on doryani's prototype and one min roll lightning res ventor's gamble+min roll lightning res glimpse of chaos+100% damage no res gloves+min roll controlled metamorphosis(i dont map anything with it lol) to have -170% lightning res then use conductivity and a damage banner to instantly kill everything below difficulty 4 for 40-60 exalts(crossbow was a div but potato potato).
One thing i've come to appreciate that REALLY makes the ascendancy high tier imo is maxing sorc ward and dropping all of your armor for evasion+ pathing up into that evasion triangle that gives dex+chest evade boost(also lets you allocate dex/atk speed branch and fork boost branch). with a solid evasion body piece and boots+wind dancer you'll have a 4500 point elemental shield and 75+ evasion which negates literally everything that's not a physical slam. Map mod damage goes into the ward, death effects go into the ward, rare mod bonus damage into the ward, you feel invincible 99% of the time. one thing about sorc ward to remember though is that(i hate it so much it needs to be changed, doesn't make it unviable but hinders it slightly) every time your evasion number changes(wind dancer stages) the cd on sorc ward resets so keep that in mind and check the number while you're running around.
Oh and another thing if you want to be invincible 100% of the time instead of 99% of the time at the cost of some damage is to swap your helmet for atziri's disdain(preferably highest ES amount+you want a high penetration number to help the ES sustain) and annoint lucidity on your amulet+take 3 damage is taken from mana before life sapphires(preferably with a 3+ roll) to make it so your mana and hp bar will always stay at the same percentage and you will be quite literally unkillable during maps. IF for some reason you actually want to play the game into pinnacles(idk why you'd want to they suck lmao) swap your chest for cloak of flame along with above set up and you'll be just fine on not getting one shot
What’s your ign having trouble getting my shock to 100%
@@hotflam4 i leave mine at 90% because it's less investment, i'm level 91 as well. But you go +20 qual on shock mark, magnitude nodes in the bottom right, mark effect nodes beside it, mark effect/blind chance nodes next to the jewel socket above it, and path farther up to the mark effect nodes farther above it. with the +75 shock magnitude support gem on stormcaller arrow you're at 90% and a couple jewels with shock magnitude or pathing into the nodes that give shock/freeze magnitude will push you all the way up to 100%
I cant believe I forgot to respond to this. I actually fucking live for comments like these. Hands down one of my favorite things about doing this is learning stuff from the comments. Thank you for taking your time to write this out!
@klovehitch thanks man i really appreciate that you read all that, it means alot. trying to make things work without steering into broken interactions that delete the game as that's when i have the most fun. i like getting recommended content on the game that's not HoWA/temporalis/archmage/Cast on chains wiping a map in 10 seconds, and you give good advice. keep up the good work man.
Currently sitting at lv 95 on my witch hunter, playing a similar build and have done most content, lv 82 full atlas bosses, pinnacle's etc, completely agree the xbow jamming is pretty much the only thing that kills me other than on death effects and the occasional preventable 1 shot because i have 2k health 0 armor, 0 ES and 84% evasion after sorc ward. dying to not be able to shoot feels so bad and it felt 10x harder to get to this point than playing anything else so far
Loved the video. Hoping to see you push out more Witchhunter content in the future.
Yes, you follow up shock with Shockburst Rounds for single target. But do you also use Plasma Blast? Looks like you're spec'd for it with all that lightning damage. Insane boss fight opener, and you can also use it again every time a boss gives you 3 seconds to charge it. It's also great for absolutely decimating rares in jacked up maps where you don't want to get close to certain rares. It's a God send for mana drain rares, for example, which honestly need to be tuned way down on the degree to which they mana drain you. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about that. Scattershot support gem the skill, and the 3 blasts obliterate virtually every rare from a full screen distance away.
if you have the spirit for it, wind dancer procs the heralds too so if you get melee'd in breach you get clear lol
Great video and entertaining!
Great take
Great video. Glad to see some fresh perspective.
WOOOOOOO finally here
you can avoid the ammo change clunk by running 2 crossbows, load a different ammo in each. Then you can left click for galvanic, right click for shockburst easy
Yea man but u need 2 really good crossbows that's a big investment for qol but I see what ur saying
Yeah, I was running this same tech with HVR and Shockburst early on before I figured out my build, but the higher up you get in levels and investment, it becomes a huge waste of currency to keep up upgrades on both.
Factor in that you lose arguably the strongest shock-on-demand with Stormcaller bowswap and it's not viable for true endgame at all. Kind of sad that we have to resort to these sorts of tech to make crossbows mimic a fraction of the intuitiveness of bows.
Probably why dmg feels more impactful on a weapon based character is due to how armor works. Hit harder, mob armor helps less, same as it is against players. Note though, that this also makes armor break near worthless, barring as an enabler of a combo.
the xbows jamming breaks my brain as well, I don't understand how/why it happens. Its always at the start of a breach too - you get through the first set of bolds with galvanic, and then it just does jack shit? I don't get it.
this right here, this and lag is the only reason i die, ONLY REASON!
if you get a dyad crossbow that loads another bolt this issue basically goes away. You trade off attack speed but it’s so much more fluid with it, you don’t really jam because you have 2 shots and youll clear everything near you.
@@KiwiFights dyad is nice for explosive arrow. The rest of the skills? I don't know.
@@spotLV Yeah ideally you have 2 crossbows, but I think it’s worth the trade off shockburst does a ton of dmg anyway. A lot of ppl die in packs because their crossbow jams.
@KiwiFights I'm running two with exactly the same setup! And was really close to dying in ritual yesterday because it decided to jam again. Is it dodge rolling or whatever jams it I don't know :(
Bad news, I've been reading that the next 2 classes added will be Huntress and Druid.
God damnit, its like wow thats amazing but I'm so sad because I know witchhunter is going to be cracked tf out >:(
I use a similar set up as you - I run galvanic shard for map clear and rapid fire for single target damage. Rapid fire with fresh clip is absolutely disgusting.
One thing i did struggle with is the weird phase around act 2 - you have galvanic shards that clear very well, but not really something for bosses - i used a bow in the offhand and spammed lightning rods to proc with an orb of storm and galvanic shards but the damage was still bad. It took me around an hour to clear the act 2 boss since he seemed to be heavy lightning resistant (should have maybe tried the normal crossbow shot for him)- after that and once you get shockburst rounds..... oh boy.... oneshottet the rest of the game. So i would just suggest to level with something else until you have shockburst rounds or make sure you have a setup for single target
My only gripe with WH is if I was Gemling or Deadeye I'd be clearing at the same speed while having at least twice as much EHP/Defenses
Yeah it definitely falls off of a cliff in comparison.
Melee fells better then crossbow becuase of the jams. That is the impressive part
Hehe I will find out soon enough!
Thought the same but played minions build after that and oh boy, mercenary is underpowered a lot. Shooting speed is framerate dependent, any minor lag in breach and you dead with your 2k hp, frost mages pack deletes t4 breach boss without any sweat while on merc you have to actually fight boss :)
I wish the physical damage bolts were better, maybe a physical curse and herald would help?
Yeah elemental damage right now just has so much going for it, while there really isn't much for phys. Especially in the way of auras. The change to vulnerability made it total worthless as a curse, banner skills are horrible, and yeah there just really isn't a great damage aura for phys right now.
Love watching the evolution. Wonder how well our ranks will fare through the upcoming patches. Also thanks for the diamond tip. Glad that most wont even reach this pont, which means my main money source stays viable cuz it stays invisible to ggg. For the perfect jewlers take the biome node on the atlas.
Morior Invictus seems like an easy add to this build after they buff armour they are relative cheap for how much all res + armour/evasion you could get with the 10 % increase global ones.
Honestly I think that if I was really trying to optimize I would have probably ended with that chest piece.
Day 1 asking klove for twitch streams.
Nice build, I’m still currently just playing the cruelty acts, Granade witchhunter, and I am taking my time slow and steady while figuring everything out (completely new to poe). I was just wondering, got my first Devine in Act 1 cruelty, what should I do with it? :p I mean I’ve got some decent loot for now which I found but it’s kinda lacking, especially in the defence department. Should I keep a hold on it cuz they are so super rare or would it be smart to sell it for currency for example to have a bit of cash to fund some future gear? I think the currency exchange would give 118 ex for one div, so much moneyyy :p (i think i only had like 10-20 ex in total up to know lol)
I think the jamming thing with crossbows happens a lot when you click to shoot during the middle (or honestly anytime during the reloading phase) the crossbow jams. I can reproduce it pretty consistently by doing this. It’s awful and I hope the jamming mechanic is a bug and not intentional
sadly as a 94lvl witchhunter with +100div invested. End game witch hunter is pretty weak (almost half dmg of gemling). But I love this class and will not change to other weapon.
Stand strong my brother.
brother great video! i was wondering, can you post the build on mobalytics or make some screens of the passive tree/gem tree?
mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/83a9ba82-e124-4560-a7a8-593c5d0d2464/builds/463a553c-77eb-4d05-b45e-3751453d7a9b Right there fren
Can you please list all the gem setups
mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/83a9ba82-e124-4560-a7a8-593c5d0d2464/builds/1efb994a-3999-4614-be1b-854fcbadd269 Here is a guide for the end character!
*Crossbow is ass*
Gemling:
Imma just go Monk
Im lv85 and strugling hard in maps. Ima try this build hopefully wont make Galvanic as underwhelminh as it is rite nw
Gotta love ARPG players. Developers spend 5 years developing a methodical ARPG with required dodge rolling and skill rotations. One month into EA, ARPG players have already trivialized the content. Beautiful.
if developers wanted the slow paced game with dodges and skill rotations then why endgame is all about of hordes of enemies? delirium, breach, ritual?
You're right it doesn't make sense.
The game has a good first impression but the endgame is a boring grind with a huge penalty for death in strange places from after death effects or random attacks.
In addition, the in-game market is terrible
pogging
killing normal mobs at 75% health is insane lmao
Good luck getting that helm, but culling at 70% is realistic to get without to much vaaling.
Recommend looking up the fresh clip build, insane damage & survivability just stacking evasion+energy shield.
Actually im testing it lvl 45, im strughle on bosses, u need window to switch for shockburst when bosses are on 26% exposure fir lightning and this window is very short ,i died only on that windows, its frustraring
Hi, what is the name of the jewel that increase your dps in 20%?
4th ascendency by lvl 56? I'm 86 and have 3
I have 90 lvl and also have 3. As Witchhinter with grenates it is impossible to kill boss on 4th lvl ascendent
@@prDx11 not really. you have cross-perk into a bow and use lightning rods. basically combo to kill bosses as witch hunter is Lightning rod->Lightning rod ->Orb of storms->Spray Shockburst rounds into the orb of storm, procs lightning rod.
Could you go over the use of the three dragon helm? works well with explosive shot but I dont get the use with Galvanic.
ua-cam.com/video/lG40zcQrICY/v-deo.html Here is the first build diary with time stamp that goes over that interaction!
tl:dr is that if you use herald of ash with helmet, you can use helmet to convert all your fire damage ignite chance into shock chance which proc's herald of lightning and i am going add that if you put polaskin ring, it makes cold damage which gives 1% chill make enemy's count AS IF they were frozen. this auto proc's herald of ice allowing you to do Herald of lightning+Herald of ice for clear.
@@klovehitch another thing i have to say about double herald interaction is that storm weaver ends up abusing interaction the easier. Why you may ask? WELL.... it has this passive where ALL HITS =lightning. why is this good you may ask? Well.... you could massive cold damage rolls on your gear and all of them apply to lightning damage which applies to shock. this means you only need cold damage roll for against the darkness and that is only 1 divine. SO MUCH easier and enough freeze build-up to freeze. i found freeze to be bigger issue over shock.
Aside from the clunky animation bugs and such with Crossbow, they really just need to allow us to use quivers. That's unironically all they need to do. Being locked out of the offhand slot as the only other ranged attack weapon in the game sucks and is putting us leagues below bow users simply by missing an entire item slot to scale damage and fill out stat priorities and other utility affixes.
Ya Its really hard to say that the higher dps of crossbows makes up for the loss of a quiver. It really feels like it does not lmao.
@@klovehitch The higher dps is actually much lower because of the fact you have to factor in reload + funny enough the best base for ammunition builds is literally the Bombadier crossbow because of the low base reload time.
Dyad crossbows are complete dogshit, along with the projectile speed base. If they really wanted to lean into crossbows being a slower, more damaging version of bows, they need to still raise the reload time floor and honestly double the flat damage that can roll on bows at base.
The easiest fix as I said would be to just let us use quivers. Also there really should not be mandatory reload nodes on the tree just to make xbows feel normal lol.
Great vid man, thoroughly enjoyed following this series along.
@@sovereignreclaimer Oh okay I see this makes a lot of sense, and I couldn't agree with you more on the bases themselves. The drawbacks are actually ludicrous. I like the quiver idea a lot especially since it would make crit building 10x more viable and yeah I couldn't agree more on the reload thing. Not only are we losing points so the gun will shoot some time today, but we are also sacrificing a socket here and there for things like faster reload, double barrel or ammo conservation. And I appreciate it man, thank you!
maybe adding a crossbow offhand would be nice, but just giving quivers to crossbow would make them insanely broken despite the clunk. Increased quiver bonus is just an insanely broken stat. Lightning arrow is a weaker clear skill than galvanic shards and for bosses deadeyes basically have to use sorc skills lol specifically cast on shock/crit ball lightning otherwise the damage is horrible, meanwhile xbow gets shock burst rounds. Also it would make no sense thematically lol
@@RathVantas an ammo "belt" or criss cross chest ammo holsters like in the Governator movies or something lol
5:04 YES, holy shit this weapon feels so clunky at times especially in the most dire situations! Frustrating as hell.
Here's my WH guide. Buy a 50 div xbow and you'll be almost an average ascend class
🤣🤣🤣
Bruuuuuhhhhh witch hunter is the s tier top 1 sub class in trashbin
I must suck incredibly bad because my Merc is total dog water without the 232% damage nodes at the beginning, the Projec5ile damage and Two-Handed damage, plus the Attack damage off to the right. It literally needs those to do any relevant damage at all. Otherwise, I invested into traveling and grabbed Realod Speed as well as Lucky Lightning. Thought I'd go Crossbow nodes next since, again, the lack of damage has made bossing a massive chore. Why does it feel like I need to pump so much damage in? What can I change so I'm not having to do this? I know I'm just smooth brained here
Well you're not smooth brained for starters ;). It sounds like its going to be a weapon issue. Realistically, with a solid weapon and like a couple of 5 links with galvanic shards and shockburst rounds, you should have enough dps for whatever. Now if you are going against mega juiced t18 bosses or pinnacle bosses with max boss difficulty then bear in mind you are probably at a place where you need some fat gear and a rather cracked weapon. The way the game is right now unfortunately, you are just straight up priced out of that gear level unless you are mfing breach, and the reality for a lot of players is that they straight up cannot get gear for their character in the end game. I mentioned it as well, getting that jewel even with just a single damage roll for like 1-2 div will go a long way with damage as well.
Also, it sounds like a lot of your nodes are kind of just basic damage nodes, and I would caution against stacking things in that matter because you want things to work together. I.E. we take shock magnitude cause we deal lightning damage, ele pen for that lightning damage, lucky lightning, chance to shock, voltaic mark that sort of thing. You want your damage layers to be playing off one-another. Generally speaking, raw damage nodes like 2h damage or proj damage, unless they are of absurd magnitudes are going to naturally limit your character, because they don't really stack or build well with other types of damage layers.
I have a building 101 video on my channel that might help as well, either way I hope this helps!
I do wonder how strong could you make single target with weapon master. Have two cross bows one for clear and one for single target. 48 points is alot. i know totem warrior using just 24 is massive I can switch between 200 + totem daamge and 300% more armour broken so I just totem then swing hammer on shield and watch the world burn. Prob could do something similar here.
Absolutely. I thought about it a lot, and for sure weapon swapping is a major boost when it comes to single target damage.
I just suck with witchunter because no damage and i die fast , completely disappointed at maps lvl 14/15 and i can't improve it
88 merc here and i have to say you are only lucky you dont die that often, i had galvanic build full dps no defense and it was good but if i mob only came next to me i was dead....good dps tho until you die lol
I don't understand the Decimating strike on the gloves... the build ascendancy already has it. Can someone enlighten me please?
The idea would be to take it on the gloves instead of the ascendency because then that way you could take culling strike, zealous inquisition and then two ascendencies for no mercy as well. This would allow you to have the 30% more damage from no mercy while retaining decimating strike, culling strike and zealous inquisition for clear.
Got a bit disheartend that my build simply wasn't suitable for things like breaches and such, decided to give this a go and i can't for the life of me figure out why i'm never procing the Herald of Ice. Like, i know i'm not doing an /exact/ copy of this because i'm switching herald of Ash for Time of Need... is HoA realy that important for this to function?
I believe so yes. With Three Dragons, fire damage is what gives the ability for herald of ice to shock, and we need the 30% damage as fire from immolate support on herald of ice, and I think that when you ignite a target with herald of ash, it gives herald of ice the ingite necessary to get the 30% damage as fire from immolate supp.
@@klovehitch oh, right... three dragons... yea not having that would explain why it wasn't working... (i may or may not have gotten distracted by those gloves and myrm hood)
Yeah heralds are going to get slapped, no way in hell they don't which sucks becausr its my go to build for my two most played classes
I know, hey at least we got to run them and they were a blast while they lasted!
Gonna try this as SSF, sick of trade league. I've started vaaling all my items because I really don't care about it. Soy boy spark sorc ofc.
I wish they had semi SSF so you could team up at times with a group of friends that could trade and interact with each other but not other players, but that's a dream no doubt. Obviously you can leave these leagues at any time already so I'd like to see more available.
Brother you can just not use trade, nobody is forcing you
I hear you on trade right now lmao. And I do think that will be a thing eventually. They have private leagues that are exactly what you are asking for in PoE 1.
which venom draught should i take on this
The stats one 100% fuck 10 chaos res, this character is a stats maniac
how do you level/build your WH for campaign? im on act 3 normal and i do no damage at all, currently at the azark bog boss and struggle due to no damage
I will get you a mobalytics guide for my campaign witchhunter here in a minute!
@ awesome!
Okay, here you are!
mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/83a9ba82-e124-4560-a7a8-593c5d0d2464/builds/6583ebbf-56ff-425f-b66a-6672789540b8
I will point out that this is just after finishing the heart quest for the +2 passive points and then I went back to kill the witch. Generally, in every act, I will always rush the + Passive points and then go back and do the additional areas that have a power increase from the boss. If the boss is in the area (Like blackjaw) for example then I will just do them since it would be a waste to come back, but any time they are isolated, I.E. Azak bog, its definitely not necessary to kill them immediately. Especially on witchhunter where we don't have a lot of use for the extra spirit. Hope this helps!
@ thank you so much! You’re the best poe2 tuber there is.
can you show your build, please?
how can you make herald of thunder 8K DMG?
mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/83a9ba82-e124-4560-a7a8-593c5d0d2464/builds/1efb994a-3999-4614-be1b-854fcbadd269
Here is the guide for it!
To answer your herald question, that will come from against the darkness. I have one with 4% Fire/Lightning which is an insane amount of damage.
Xbow Shooting and reload, you are slowed. Ranger is only while shooting.
Cade a parada pra copiar a build?
I found it in description ✌️
What happened to Sorcery Ward? Did you just ditch it cause you‘re zooming around for defense and it doesn’t prevent deaths from (FUCKING) on death effects anyways?
I know on lower maps it does but I stop playing after james on this char. I know my ES chars because I sold out takes about 9 k damage from on death effects so a max ward may be able to save you at the cost of alot of evasion and armour that already split in 1/2
curious about Sorcery Ward as well. I run it but my resists aren't capped yet and afraid to spec out of it lol
The latter part of the statement is the real reason I haven't ran it or tried it. The only thing I need defense from is those god damn on death effects. That being said, sorc ward has a few issues. Firstly, anything that scales off of a stat that it halves is a bummer out the gate. That being said, I do think once the game is more well tuned and not totally ridiculous, you will actually stack a lot of defense on the character, and by that time you would be able to afford sorc ward for damage mitigation. Another issue with sorc ward is just where it fits in the ascendency. While its true witchhunter does fall off a bit late game, until you have insane gear, you are so reliant on the damage from your ascendency, despite it falling off you really can't afford to lose it. It might be the case that way later on you drop decimating/cull in which case you could go sorc ward, but by the time the herald nerfs come around you will more than likely need Zealous Inquisition. Overall, its just a hard call as to where/when to fit it in, and like I said I just don't feel that it solves any of my current problems.
Imo sorc ward is complete useless in t10+ they almost do nothing and you would died even more time cause you lost so much eva
Culling strike doesn't stack
Wtf dude straight up elon on loot 🤣
this video didnt age well
40 div And I stopped listening
Stopped watching when you said nobody cares about single target early game. Up there with dumbest things ive heard about this game since the Elon video. So you're pretty quick!
Well, you do you of course. But to elaborate for the sake of addressing my comment, what I meant when I said that, was because bosses scale in the early part of the game, and they are unbelievably weak compared to their max difficulty counter-parts, simply having a somewhat decent weapon with a 4 link in shockburst rounds should cover your single target automatically with no real necessity to even think about it. And for most generally capable builds, this seems to be the case universally. Especially against the difficulty 0 bosses that are on early maps that are white/blue. Also, the amount of time in the game you spend actually fighting bosses vs clearing (outside of campaign) is like 5% to 95%. Finally too, the bosses in maps are just bosses from the campaign that are relatively easy after you have fought them a few times, so on top of them being quite weak, you should feel comfortable fighting them as well, even if it is for a little bit longer due to somewhat lacking single target.
IDK about you but I spend 99% of my time clearing maps and 1% of my time bossing.