(Mercs going core confirmed!)Mercenaries need to go core!
" I don't know any modern up-to date ones. All I did was follow an ancient guide from Crucible League and keep updating it myself so it still works. The gear for me to comfortably melt uber bosses is around 20-30 div(depends what stuff like Awakened GMP costs and Dying Sun, if you buy them early then the build is cheaper). Shoots up to 80 div+ if I really want to min-max and buy a double-corrupted Soul Mantle with +1 to level of socketed gems and +2 proj gems. But that's overkill imo, the dps is enough with all the other essential gear. Its cheap, the capping resists with Annihilating Light part of it while also having just enough attributes is a balancing act which not many will enjoy. At the same time filling your passive tree with 20+ tattoos for Curse Immunity. But I like doing all of that. Its a glass cannon though, at most I can reach 3000 life and my only defenses are Arcane Cloak+blind nearby enemies. Last edited by Toforto#2372 on Oct 16, 2025, 3:51:33 PM
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"Nah. Mercenary league was a success, player retention proves that - despite the rough launch and networking issues -, which is precisely why they'll go core. At the end of the day GGG knows better. It's happening. Deal with it. :) Last edited by Celestriad#0304 on Oct 16, 2025, 4:12:18 PM
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" No, this build did not age well and that reflects in the performance output. It's not good as a glass cannon, nor is it good at taking hits. At best it's good as a league starter to dive into early mapping to make some currency, but that's about it. Even if you go full in and min-max the build is going to under perform heavily. Totems did not age well in modern PoE and I think it's time for GGG to give them a rework, or just nuke them all along the same way they did with melee totems. " Source: Trust me bro? I think this is an example of what you could call an "expert" on a build. Lot's of actual min-maxing to make the outdated build shine a bit more, and not just the attempt to copy a build with the result of missing out on like 80% of what people do. My guess, simply a lack of currency. https://poe.ninja/builds/mercenaries/character/bradok69-4928/V%C3%A9ioDoSatanass?i=14&search=skills%3DIce%2BSpear%26sort%3Ddps " It's already official that they will go core at some point. lol Flames and madness. I'm so glad I didn't miss the fun.
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" Yeah, this is the exact setup I run minus the watcher's eye and zealotry. I prefer Haste Aura and I get my curse immunity from 20x tattoos+1 rare jewel with a 30% curse reduction roll. This lets me use Sublime Vision for Haste Effect to go zoom zoom, and swap to a legion jewel for that keystone that gives 3% more spell damage per power charge for bossing. Like I think that zealotry immune to curses sublime vision is bait now, way too expensive when you can just buy a bunch of tattoos for the same effect. Before we had tattoos it was the best choice yeah. I just don't like wasting currency on items that are overpriced. I also don't wanna touch any crafting related to influences, so I don't use a shaper ring but just a normal ring with a bunch of res. I can easily cap res with double-res+all res rolls on rare jewels, I don't need to spend currency on a 35% inc effect large cluster, so instead I get to have nice notables on mine. The build still works just fine, and I've gotten lvl100 with it in Sanctum twice now. One of those characters I deleted cus it had outdated gear, the other I still kept. My character is just more of a lazy,budget version of this poe.ninja one. I'm still using mostly the same items though, and its dps is still crazy. Like its THE best glass cannon build I've ever played, I still haven't found a build that can melt bosses faster than I can as Ice Spear that doesn't also cost 1 mirror minimum. I die in 2 hits but that doesn't matter when the boss dies in 2 seconds. I've been doing my best to play this build since re-discovering it in Crucible, and I'm really happy with how its single-target feels, especially with how much the items cost. This is just getting off-topic on this thread anyway though, everyone has a preference. There are a lot of versions of this build on poe.ninja, I just made my own personal version of it and I like how I've customized it to my own needs. |
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" This from the guy constantly complaining about T17 mods and game difficulty. “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
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" Yes, I ignore t17s and sell them in bulk because rolling them is not fun. The base game is just fine when I do t16 alch&go strongbox strats. Why would I do t17s when they're just a slog? Better off making a few hundred chaos from selling em, and now with merchant tabs I don't even need to sell through TFT anymore which is gonna be amaaaaziiing. T17s is the only thing I've complained about, because their mods are ridiculous and disable entire builds. I love farming T16 Mesa maps though, because normal map mods are actually reasonable. The build works perfectly fine in the normal base-game content and I can farm uber bosses on it, the only things it can't do are T17s and any type of delirium orb strat or simulacrum. Which I don't care about. |
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" There are actually not a lot of versions. The only big difference between the few listed builds is that some use two one handed wep, some do use the exarch staff, and very few do some attribute stacking shenanigans. But the first two options do use about the same basics and the only massive difference between "your" version and what people play is that you went full budget on everything. If you compare "your" version, which is essentially just below budget of what others play, and compare it to a really min-maxed version it is just highlights that "your" version is far away from being a "min-maxed" build, or a mastered expert build. And you do openly share the shortcomings of your build quite often across multiple topics. It's like claiming you're an expert in running a several mile marathon, but any skilled athlete outpaces you, by a lot. " It's not just t17 maps, a lot of other content is also on the complain list. I think this really does highlight the real performance of the build. Even more if you account the fact that the build is in dire need to buy 50% or more of the challenges due to the lack of power in the build. Playing a bad build is fine, but people shouldn't act like they have the most giga min-maxed chad build, while in reality they don't. Flames and madness. I'm so glad I didn't miss the fun.
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" I mean, ok I guess. I'm still having fun playing my own version of it, its powerful enough for me to do all the things I want to do. That is good enough for me lol The only challenges I buy are gimmicky "kill boss in X way", t17 completion, uber boss kills cus I'm too lazy to kill one myself even though I've killed 6/7 on this build and other random endgame grind ones that would take longer alone. And RNG-heavy challenges. I do most of them on this build just fine. Its just my min-maxed version, and I don't like throwing countless divines at items that aren't worth buying in my eyes. Everyone prefers to gear up in their own way. To me this is about the gear a casual/average player would be able to buy. Its a great build for the things I wanna do every league, which is all that matters to me. And totem playstyle is fun, I love leaving all the combat to static minions while I hide and run. I don't like comparing myself to other builds anyway lol, if someone wants to spend tens of divines on excessive gear they're welcome to, but I don't prefer that. Even without bottled faith,fancy jewels etc. I still have insane single-target. The tldr is just it works anyway so why would I spend an extra 100 div just to kill a boss 1 second faster? I'd rather spend my currency on other things. Mapping is fun and bossing is fast, that's all I care about. |
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" A build being good enough for your needs is not the same thing as telling another player that a build is good. The expectation for a "good" build is that you can do meta content, i.e T17, juiced 16.5, deli etc. You decision to limit yourself is weird, but your choice, but do not inflict this on others. “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
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" I honestly don't know how much people care about running the hottest new strats,t16.5s or delirium orb 8-mod maps etc. etc. I just know I don't wanna go anywhere near those lol, simply doing a nice scarab selling session every few maps and selling other stuff like t17s is a nice profit on its own. And selling the occasional lucky drop for a few divs. It's not that I'm limiting myself, I just do regular af t16 alch&go strongbox whatever strats because those are the most chill and fun to me. And I think a build is still good if it performs exceptionally well at 1 or 2 specific things(like fast boss-farming,Sanctum farming,Heist,Strongboxes). You can be extremely specialized in a narrow direction instead of trying to do it all. I find actual meta builds to be too expensive/hard to follow and crafting just isn't fun. And since I can't craft, all the items are far too expensive for a normal player like me to ever buy lol Like I never expect a build to be able to do it all no matter what guide I'm following. If its got great,satisfying aoe clear and fast mapping I'm totally fine with bad boss dps and so on. |
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