[3.7] [NEED HELP PLEASE] Dutch Summer Scion (Vaal earthquake Ngahamu's)

good morning, afternoon, evening wherever you are in the world!
my names Brian, so call me that if you want, im a fairly new player to PoE (581 hours currently) and delving so far is my favorite part of the entire game.

now that that introduction has been made, let me ask my noob questions in the hope that you brilliant nasa scientists can help me out here.

even though I don't like the program ive started using path of building and I stumbled upon something fun that Id like to try out but before I toss in the hours (im already demotivated as is, I work in mysterious ways) im gonne need to hype myself up for it, that said

https://pastebin.com/GSyfrUsj V0.1 of the build (pre workover by Pi2rEpsilon, thanks for the awesome work!!!(
https://pastebin.com/WU1em6w0 V2.2 of the build (post workover, he really did alot to help out!)

the weapon of choice is https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ngamahu%27s_Flame
skill of choice is Vaal Earthquake
max spending, 2 exalts

from what PoB calculated I have :

3.9k damage from normal earthquake
8.1k from the aftershock
2.6k from Vaal earthquake aftershocks (if you don't know how it works, you cast it and it automatically casts aftershocks wherever you walk, it stacks really fast so im expecting this to be up most of the time)
and a 20% chance per hit of earthquake to do 7.6k GMP damage around me
this could potentionally be 22.2k damage on a single hit if everything hits at the same time

new damage is around 150k in v2.2

now as I said, im a noob, but I didn't forget surviving to actually do these hits so to live through damage (its not much) I have
2k HP and 2.8k ES which is about 4.8k life, im also using shavronnes so chaos damage doesn't penetrate energy shield

I have 2 abyssal slots left on my boots which I could use to up my resistances (I have a buddy who helps me with these things) 2 ring slots a belt slot and 5 sockets and flasks left to fill but im okay with switching out items as long as the core and fantasy of the build stays alive,

if you have any hints, tips revisions alterations anything, please post the PoB, an answer to why you changed the thing you did, and what I could do to make it even more effective

I hope you all have a great day, afternoon, night, and hope to hear from you (the person reading this) soon!!

1) As a general rule, don't make skilltrees for level 100. Make them for level 90, or at most, 93. If they don't already work extremely well at 90, they aren't worth trying to level up further.

2) You are too enamoured by +10 travel nodes and bypass a number of important notable nodes on the way (e.g. Golem's Blood and the jewel next to it). This is bad unless you are playing a dedicated stat build, and despite using Shaper's Touch, you aren't. Stats are great for a Shaper's Touch build, make no mistake, but there's a limit to what you should bypass.

3) Assigning ascendancy passives to pick up 1 extra skillpoint in each of the two branches takes you to 127 skillpoints. You should choose to allocate both of them in one of the two branches giving you an alternative start and +3 skillpoints, for 128 total (and at level 90, which is what I urge you to build for, 118.)

4) Burning Damage support only supports skills that hit enemies and those that inflict burning damage directly. You've linked it to Anger and Herald of Ash; Anger doesn't qualify, I'm unsure about HoA.

5) You are dead meat. You are going hybrid ES/Life with ES regenerated and Shavronne protecting life, but you've got a low maxES% (194%) modifier so your ES won't ever be impressive and a low life% modifier (79%) so likewise. This isn't going to work well in the higher red maps.

6) Mind over Matter combined with a small base mana pool (after mana reservation) with slow mana regeneration is waste of a skillpoint. Get rid of it. And get rid of the skillpoints you've invested in Dynamo as well. You are strapped enough for skillpoints as it is.

7) Exiting the Scion start via the melee damage route is bad; go via the life regeneration route instead and pick up an extra jewel. (You are paying for Zealot's Oath to get regen working on ES, after all, so you do have some interest in regen, and a jewel is a jewel)

7) Occultist? Interesting choice. I'd have thought Elementalist or Templar would make a better option. (And with Templar, make sure to use the Templar alternate start and slot a Pure Talent jewel, for +25 all stats from Scion start and 6% elemental penetration from Templar start)

8) Templar has Sanctity, Discipline & Training, Precision, Divine Fervor, and Holy Dominion in a tight cluster than you really should take advantage of.

9) I've done a first pass cleaning up the tree and making a 118 (l90) version, that is a considerable improvement on your 127 point version. I axed most of your eastern expansion to free up points, seized the Templar high ground, abused your INT and STR benefits from Shaper's Touch, and slammed in a pure talent jewel. (You are now at 126% increased life and 246% increased ES in this level 90 build, up from 79% and 194% in your level 100 build. Your accuracy is a bit lower, though - worth addressing through gear.)

It definitely needs improvement (though which depends to a large degree on what gear you get for the remaining slots), but you should be able to work with it.

118 points:
https://pastebin.com/XLyhFGiQ

first off, HAVE ALL MY BABIES!!!

second of all thank you for all the advice, I completely forgot about the 3 skill points instead of 2 so went all blank on that thinking, hey, 2 extra skillpoints, why not!

ill go and have a look at what you improved on it, a real close look at that, I want to thank you for taking the time and effort aswell, im not going to use this to clear maps a lot, but im mostly going to delve as deep as I can :D,
this helps me out a lot so seriously, thanks!!

ill post another reply at a later time (as its almost dinner time here and im feeling a little kitava right now)

(added reply)

I didn't even know that pure talent jewel excisted, that's awesome!!, also the minion instability passive was a misclick that had to be removed, so I took that out (which gave me another point to spend) and a 5% max life in order to take Magmatic Strikes (5% of physical damage as extra fire damage + 24% increased fire damage with atk skills)

I also made a gem mistake which was Brutality, it removes all elemental damage and im pretty sure fire is an element (facepalm)

that use of the skill point in the templar starting position with pure talent was also sneaky, I would've never thought of that!, and if gave me a nice buff for the regen aswell,

again I want to thank you for the alterations you made! ill put another reply because im (getting a lil hyped) leveling this now!

My pleasure. You definitely want to get a lot more base ES and life for this exercise to be worth it, since it is something your chosen uniques are low on; So +ES and life on rings, belt, and abyss jewels.

Though do note that the jewel slot by the Utmost Intellect cluster can alternatively be used to convert 100 INT with Efficient Training (INT=>STR) or Careful Planning (INT=>Dex)... not sure either is worth it over an Abyss jewel, depends on how you go with gear.

Frankly, I'm not sold on the use of Crown of Eyes in builds that don't one way or the other stack spell damage heavily, but you tell me. It does provide you with nice base leech, if nothing else.

this is why i put Bated Breath 10% increased damage, 20 int 25 ES 20% ES and 50% ES recharge rate as a possible unique to use, now that ive looked at crown of eyes i agree that there are better items out there, which im gonne find right now :D

once again thanks for the tip, crown of eyes is fun and all but i dont have a heavy spell damage stack to convert, which means its a wasted stat

im debating (with myself) if ill add bated breath, and letting the rest of the items be rare to get the resistances and crafted items that would give me more then uni's can give, or look for more uniques, if you have any ideas for items please lemme know,

maybe obscurantis beause the Ngamahu's balls are projectiles? according to PoB its also one of the higher dps increases i can use

anatomical knowlage in the utmost for more life? sounds like a good alternate option instead of an abyss but again as you stated, depends on gear

again thank you!

small edit, i managed to grab a watcher's eye
4% increased maximum Energy Shield
5% increased maximum Life
6% increased maximum Mana
25% chance to Impale Enemies on Hit with Attacks while using Pride
Damage Penetrates 10% Fire Resistance while affected by Anger

@Pi2rEpsilon

https://pastebin.com/WU1em6w0 this is the updated version of the build with most items (the ones that are made are all already accounted for, meaning we have them in our bank ready for use)

thank you in advance for everything once more!, ill add this link to the first post i made as a V2.2 giving you credit where ita due! <3

Your jewels could use some work:

Your fireborn jewel contributes next to nothing, because the damage types in converts on the nodes you use are already contributing via conversion. This is a waste. Try slotting an abyss jewel with +life/+ES/+resistances

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I don't get the Point of the Essence Worm + Pride.

I note that the Path of Building Watcher's Eye isn't the one you wrote in the post above, and that that one benefit from pride by giving free impalement on 25% of melee attacks, but read up on impalement (which depends on physical damage dealt to enemies you hit), and you'll see that your build - which carefully converts physical damage to elemental - benefits next to nothing from impalement.

As for the Pride effect itself, it also scales physical damage you inflict, not the base physical damage you convert and scale was fire

Look at the POB numbers if in doubt, it really, truly, doesn't help you anywhere near enough to justify passing on a +life/+ES ring with several other useful stats (e.g. damage, resistances)

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Conqueror's Efficiency is another jewel I just don't understand the value of for this build.

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Get some actually useful abyss jewels on the open market (or are you playing SSF and thus limited to using what you've available?) and before you know of it, you don't desperately need Rainbowstride for resistances either, and can use high ES/life boots instead (ideally also with resistances, str, int, whatever).

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Granted that I'm used to making tank builds and thus may tend to overvalue defenses compared to the average player, running with 2641 life and 3790 ES seems... a doubtful proposition.

Your regeneration and leech are both ES, they are limited by your maxES. So you regenerate 242 ES/s and your leech cap is 379 ES/s. I just don't see how you are going to safely run T14+ maps with these stats.

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A final note. You are using 11 uniques in your build, including jewels.

A high number of uniques is always a warning sign to experienced players, because nearly all uniques are worse for ES and life than the rare alternatives easily available to players.

In other words, as a general rule, uniques should be used a) for their unique twist not shared by rares, and only when that twist is highly valuable to the buil, and b) temporarily while waiting for good rares.

There are cases where using a high number of uniques rather than rare items makes sense - generally those where a player chooses one or two specific game mechanics, and abuses the hell out of them, but your build is not one of them.

Of the 11 uniques, currently only 3 are highly valuable to the build: Ngamahu's Flame, Shavronne's Wrappings, Watcher's Eye with Anger=>fire peneration. Another two are quite valuable, but certainly debatable given the rest of your equipment doesn't play to their strengths: Pure Talent and Shaper's Touch. The remaining 6 you'd be better without.

Rainbowstride and String of Servitude are your attempt to boost resistances but comes at the cost of ES and life on items that can get both ES, life, and resistances. Strength would be nice as well (remember Shaper's Touch?)

Presence of Chayula gives you stun immunity, chaos resistance, and some maxES from life. But you are already tracking near Unwavering Stance so could alternatively go that way and pick up stun immunity and as you aren't evasion based at all the loss of evasion is negligible; you are using Shavronne to protect life, so chaos resistance is a luxury, and your life pool is low so you don't get much maxES from life. Consider replacing it with a good rare amulet with life and ES, resistances and, dare I suggest it, strength as well? Or if you are in market for high quality items, why not look for a Shaper amulet with increases attributes by 10-12% as well as life, ES, strength, resistances....


Again, if you are playing SSF and these items are the best you have available, that is one thing because outside crafting SSF doesn't get rares-made-to-order. But if you aren't, you really should shop around and gain a heck of a lot extra damage, life, and energy shield.


(As an example of a build where using a huge number of uniques makes sense, check my current scionic flametank: https://pastebin.com/TsHnjQvr

I haven't updated the build post in months (as it is a lot of work!) but here is its current state in 3.7 at level 93 with 10 unique jewels and unique weapon, armour, gloves, and boots, for 14 uniques total (plus whatever unique flasks I slot in).



EDIT: Anyhow, been an interesting exercise examining your build, but now I really have spent enough time on it this week. Have fun!

i removed pride + essence worm as indeed they werent adding all that much to my build at all, same for watchers eye, i cant even find that perk in builder at all so i couldnt edit it as should

also removed it as also it wasnt addin all that much
im thankfull for pointing these things out, the watchers eye added the essence worm because of the pride effect, so i dont need worm + pride if i dont use that watchers and the same goed for conq efficiency, it was all weaved so i could use the pride/watchers XD

went from 11 to 8 uniques (in total), going to see what i can do with rares, any ideas?

as stated before, im not aiming for maps with this build, far from it, im aiming to delve and get as far as i can with this build as i can, my own build made with help of others to sort of min max it a little, and then just play the delve part of the game, my friend will easely carry me through maps if the need arises, and i only coop most of endgame in the first place

i am going to focus rare upgrades for now, ill post again once i have more to post, thank you again