Wrecker of Days' One-Stop-Shop: Stress-Free Builds (& Filters) (1-Button, HC SSF, Pure Item Freedom)

Hi Wrecker, big fan, thank you for great guides and advice.
3.10 patch note is out, what do you think about your builds here? I'm particularly interested in the RF build. Is it buffed in this patch, with all the notables? Do you think single target damage is becoming any better?

Thanks in advance.

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mr_headcut wrote:

Hi Wrecker, big fan, thank you for great guides and advice.
3.10 patch note is out, what do you think about your builds here? I'm particularly interested in the RF build. Is it buffed in this patch, with all the notables? Do you think single target damage is becoming any better?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks mr_headcut!

You're very kind! I appreciate your encouragement :).

I have posted 3 out of 4 of my guides for 3.10 including the RF guide. I revamped the build a bit so the new cluster possibilities were simply bonuses, not required. I added a minor changelog at the top of the guide for returning players. Basically, I added Incinerate to do damage on top of RF and removed EE.

If you play it, let me know how it goes! Thanks again for your kindness.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2784997

Bruhhhh

Thank you for your guides, i've been playing Path of Exile for a bit of a while now, it's been my turn-to stress-alternative. It's been relaxing, but somewhat consuming as i felt some of its magic being drawed by the game's mechanics.

Right now playing your Block Chance Duelist, my way... the flexibility your guide gives is huge!

Your guides changed that by a lot, it's no longer about farming chaos to get uniques, it's more about just chillin, chilling around in the maps making quests and just laughing and all...

I thoroughly enjoy it and i'm glad you ever decided to make guides. Thank you!

"

Jatred wrote:

Bruhhhh

Thank you for your guides, i've been playing Path of Exile for a bit of a while now, it's been my turn-to stress-alternative. It's been relaxing, but somewhat consuming as i felt some of its magic being drawed by the game's mechanics.

Right now playing your Block Chance Duelist, my way... the flexibility your guide gives is huge!

Your guides changed that by a lot, it's no longer about farming chaos to get uniques, it's more about just chillin, chilling around in the maps making quests and just laughing and all...

I thoroughly enjoy it and i'm glad you ever decided to make guides. Thank you!

Jatred! You rock. Thank you for taking the time to be so kind and encouraging. I'm happy that my guides help you enjoy the game and relax as well. It's great to hear!

I really appreciate your post. It's posts like these that help me know that my style of PoE isn't that much of a minority and helps keep the guides going. Thank you very much. :)

Hi Wrecker,
I found your guide in delirium, gotta say I like the approach to stress free play! so I went ssf this league, I played a diff authors build to start and found I really needed a koams heart for it to shine, so made a toon to farm kar forest for cards (as volcano map drops in ssf was so fubar for myself!)

I chose the RF build you modified and could instantly see around mid 50`s that I would enjoy the gameplay...
Here in the UK we got blessed with unheard of sunshine mar/april/may so focussed my stress free time in the garden(decorating my hideout) and gave up in delirium.

I am yet to get a lvl 100 Toon

So gonna focuss next league on the RF build (gonna play trade league but with a ssf mindset mainly) will only treat myself to items with currency farmed not sniped in trades ect)
You have definatly given me a differant and at the same time more enjoyable way of lo0king @ pathofexile. And I thank you for that!! (truth)

I will keep an eye out for any changes YOU may make (if indeed you feel it is warrented still as a strong build for the upcoming league..)

All the best
And I hope you and yours are safe and anyone reading this and those close to them, in these times...

"

Sminky1 wrote:

Spoiler

Hi Wrecker,
I found your guide in delirium, gotta say I like the approach to stress free play! so I went ssf this league, I played a diff authors build to start and found I really needed a koams heart for it to shine, so made a toon to farm kar forest for cards (as volcano map drops in ssf was so fubar for myself!)

I chose the RF build you modified and could instantly see around mid 50`s that I would enjoy the gameplay...
Here in the UK we got blessed with unheard of sunshine mar/april/may so focussed my stress free time in the garden(decorating my hideout) and gave up in delirium.

I am yet to get a lvl 100 Toon

So gonna focuss next league on the RF build (gonna play trade league but with a ssf mindset mainly) will only treat myself to items with currency farmed not sniped in trades ect)
You have definatly given me a differant and at the same time more enjoyable way of lo0king @ pathofexile. And I thank you for that!! (truth)

I will keep an eye out for any changes YOU may make (if indeed you feel it is warrented still as a strong build for the upcoming league..)

All the best
And I hope you and yours are safe and anyone reading this and those close to them, in these times...

Hey Sminky1,

That's a wonderfully kind message. Thanks for taking the time to be so thoughtful and encouraging. I'm happy to have helped you enjoy the game and am glad the Stress-Free approach is to your liking. By no means is their a right or wrong way to play PoE but I find it so much more fun the more you let loot be apart of your build.

Pending the 3.11 changes being announced in a few days, I'm actually planning on a ... well, it's not big, but it's not small... change to the RF build. Two links are changing and I'll be changing the tree a bit. It'll be easy to switch to if you're playing Standard.

Thanks again for your kindness and generosity with your time. I too hope all is well with you.

(I have a bit of a "green thumb" myself...though not in my hideout ;).)

Hey, hope you're well. I wanted to thank you for single-handedly bringing me back into the game with your guides. It's been very frustrating in the past, when all of the guides and build guidelines I'd find were so zeroed in on the economics and min-maxing.

I'm currently working my way up the Occultist and enjoying the wiggle room a lot - no need to have a Frostbite Blasphemy I'll never use, but a Frostblink to take shortcuts through gaps is damn nice to have!

But more specifically, I'm curious about your thresholds? If that's the right word. I haven't ever really made a successful build on my own, and while my restrictions aren't quite as tight as yours (in terms of button count, primarily), I'm 100% on board the whole any-gear, own-pace playstyle. So, have you written somewhere about other builds that you see potential to run this way? Or maybe better yet, what are you looking for when you look at a naked character
with only their 5L and the Tree in order to gauge whether it'll have a future?

(I would very much like to run a non-conversion Elemental Equilibrium Elemental Hit archer. Or just... Archers in general. Contagion looks like a cool skill. The Brand playstyle feels great. You know. Lots of ideas that I can't find built to the "can do content, is not meta-optimized" standard.)

"

Pixelsummoner wrote:

Spoiler

Hey, hope you're well. I wanted to thank you for single-handedly bringing me back into the game with your guides. It's been very frustrating in the past, when all of the guides and build guidelines I'd find were so zeroed in on the economics and min-maxing.

I'm currently working my way up the Occultist and enjoying the wiggle room a lot - no need to have a Frostbite Blasphemy I'll never use, but a Frostblink to take shortcuts through gaps is damn nice to have!

But more specifically, I'm curious about your thresholds? If that's the right word. I haven't ever really made a successful build on my own, and while my restrictions aren't quite as tight as yours (in terms of button count, primarily), I'm 100% on board the whole any-gear, own-pace playstyle. So, have you written somewhere about other builds that you see potential to run this way? Or maybe better yet, what are you looking for when you look at a naked character
with only their 5L and the Tree in order to gauge whether it'll have a future?

(I would very much like to run a non-conversion Elemental Equilibrium Elemental Hit archer. Or just... Archers in general. Contagion looks like a cool skill. The Brand playstyle feels great. You know. Lots of ideas that I can't find built to the "can do content, is not meta-optimized" standard.)

Pixelsummoner! You rock!

Thanks for taking the time to be so thoughtful and encouraging. I'm very happy to have helped you enjoy PoE and stick with it. Guide writing the way I do takes a lot of time and effort and messages and effort like yours are the reason the guides are maintained and continue league after league. Thank you.

I hope you enjoy the Occultist. The build is a lot stronger than is seems. I really like it. (Don't feel like you have to though ;).)

To answer your question about thresholds and such...well...the answer is huge. I've actually considered stopping writing specific guides and simply have tutorial guides for how to build certain playstyles. But that doesn't get people into the game right away. Every build has different thresholds for what a good amount of life, ES, damage mitigation, and damage should be. The beauty of this game is that everything is always dependant on 1000 different factors.

My first suggestion to those trying to do their own builds is to build for defence first. If you're new to some content in the game, it pays off to be able to EASILY stay alive and learn the encounters and have the battles last longer. Once a user feels they have some good experience in the game for all encounters, then they would be able to safely make a more "glass cannon" build that can fly through the game. They'd know how to survive with less help.

In regards to specific thresholds, it really varies. Health wise, if I'm going pure Life, I hate having less than 170% life on the tree. If I'm going CI, never less than 200%. If you're a balanced hybrid, 150% each is good. But really, those numbers have to coincide with the type of damage mitigation you're using and how constant that mitigation is. You can have 9000 life, but you'll still die lots without any damage mitigation. So the idea is to be able to handle a boss's hit and not die so you can find a safe place to heal up. If you're doing a build that has lots of Cast When Damage Taken stuff, you want even more health than normal. If you're blocking, less life is ok.

Each league characters are obviously dependant on the tree. Because I plan defence first (so that new players can play safely and with mistakes), my guides are limited to the offensive nodes that are around the paths to the health on the tree.

Almost every skill in the game can be used the way that I like to play, not needing any specific gear. (Attack based builds are always going to be dependent on your weapon(s).) The big key is finding an Ascendancy that really fits your main skill. For Elemental Hit, it is pure elemental damage. It's not physical converted to elemental. It's also random. So the current Inquisitor has good crit and elemental damage perks along with some good survivability. The Juggernaut and the Raider have good generic damage nodes that match EH as well as good survivability as well.

I'm kind of rambling now but those are the types of things I look for. Defence first (health and mitigation) and then I squeeze in as much damage as possible. I try and find ways to make sure my survivability and damage aren't too dependant on unlikely circumstances.

I have a million more things to say on it but I have to leave it for now ;). Please ask as many questions as you like though. Seriously. (Maybe one day when I have the time to learn how to make a good video, I'll make "do it yourself" PoE videos).

Thank you again for your kindness. I really appreciate it. Sorry my answer was generic and all over the place.

Your answer was great! Also, the game just kind of up and gave me a 6L iLvl 70 Destiny Leather, so I'm currently leveling up a Raider. I'm going for Ice Shot because 100% conversion is trivial (and lets me ignore Physical Reflect) and I couldn't justify trekking all the way to Elemental Equilibrium to make EH work. Maybe I'll try that in the future with a Scion, but I don't want to deal with the mess that will be leveling *that* to Cruel Lab right now for that double-starting-spot. >_>

I'm going for 7 Frenzy Charges to squeeze damage off Ice Bite and benefit from how easy it is to get those on Raider, with Avatar of the Veil for the effectively permanent Phasing and ailment immunity. Eventually I'll get all trials for the last Lab and grab the second Frenzy node. Also got around 160% Life from the tree with Acro and Phase Acro and a little bit of regen and leech, the rest are the surrounding Bow, Cold, Elemental, and Crit nodes.

I would ask a few more questions, particularly when it comes to gem links and such, but I think I can do reasonably well just exploring for now. Also 3.11 is just around the corner, so anything particularly specific I might want to ask could end up being obsolete in a week. Still, thanks for the advice. :)

Firstly, total awesome guides. Thank you.

I've played through with a few different builds, died, a lot, and really like your "take it slow" and "be surprised with what drops approach".

I have a couple of questions:

I know you create a new guide for each major patch but do you also start from scratch with your characters, or just respec them as appropriate?

When you were working your way through to mapping did you run one character all the way, or did you put equal time into each to allow them to pass loot over, etc.?

I see from the comments you used to have more builds, what made you select these four to stick with?

I'm looking forward to playing along and trying some of your builds as they have mechanics I've not tried before. I'm also looking forward to stepping away from the time pressure of the league, maybe this way I'll actually get deep into the end game.