Best builds for console play (3.12 Heist League Update)

I couldn't agree more. I've updated the thread title to reflect 3.10 to keep this thread going. Thanks to all contributors so far!

Champion Impale Cyclone.

I've never played it before this league but I'm having fun with the updated animate weapon. Just got to maps with it so we shall see if it continues to hold up.

Hey !

I played on PS4 since the launch (end of Synthesis), and so far, all the builds I tried went pretty smooth.

I played :
- Synthesis : RF Chieftain
- Legion : Cyclone Gladiator Max Block
- Legion : ED Contagion Trickster
- Blight : Frost Blades Raider
- Metamorph : Herald of Purity Guardian (Bladefall with Spectres and Stone/Carrion Golem)
- and I'm now on a Cyclone Impale Facebreaker Champion

Of all these builds, I think that HoP Guardian was the smoothest on console, as you basically just wait for your minions to destroy everything. I went pretty far into Atlas, and failed to kill Sirus mainly because I only tried like 3 times, without knowledge of the fight.

Cyclone main issue is that it's sometimes really laggy, and you can rollback to death. ED Contagion was easy to play and kinda fun. Frost Blades is bad memories because Blight League was awful on PS4 because Blighted Map were bluescreen maps, but the build itself was good. RF was fun, but lacked of dps.

Overall, every one of these builds was playable, even if some of them asked me to do a few tricks to be able to use everything ^^

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I am currently playing a ED Trickster on SSF Delirium (lvl 95) and its pretty good overall. I would say T13+ it gets a lot slower on Boss killing but the clear speed in maps definitely makes up for it.

Also on SSF HC Delirium I am playing a (lvl 87) Gladiator Lacerate setup with and axe/shield. Very good clear speed and so far melting bosses but only up to T9 maps.

Both characters are currently Rank 1 in each league and definitely recommend both of them. My profile is public so you can see my setups.

Just a general note on "build performance" and console play:

There really isn't a hard-and-fast rule, there.

The kinds of changes that GGG can make can drastically impact one's gameplay experience. Some changes/fixes/performance improvements can, perhaps, have a greater impact on consoles than on standard PC play.

I remember playing a Cyclone when I first started playing PoE on console.

"Get a Lion's Roar flask! It's awesome!"

"OK, I will!"

/pops Lion's Roar flask while in a big pack of mobs

/game goes crazy because it just can't possibly calculate "Knock-back" per hit, per mob, and everything turns into a slide-show

But, today, it's a bit different because optimization is much better than it was back then.

And, a Necro build with mass Skellies and Zombies and Spectres, oh my? In earlier Leagues, that would have been ridiculous. If I wanted to turn the game into a painting, I would have decided to play a summoner build during Abyss League.

Today, it's a bit better. Heck, I'm surprised the game does what it does under the constraints of a console's hardware.

Three things really have the most impact in my experience (XBox):

1) The health of your connection to GGG's servers is paramount. Nothing matters more. PoE is very "talky." There's a metric-crapton of conversation going on behind the scenes between your console and GGG servers.

2) GGG's own tweaks, fixes, changes, patches and as many as they do every year, League to League, means that your gameplay experience with the exact same build you had last League may be radically different in today's League. Eventually, no matter the league, GGG will "fix it", more or less, if there's a performance issue. In order to troubleshoot a problem, you have to be able to discount this if you are to fix it. And, if you can't discount that, you have to wait until GGG fixes it. Obviously...

3) When choosing a build and having sometimes experienced performance issues with others, you want to choose a build that minimizes two general gameplay mechanics:

A) Rapid player movements that require frequent updates between server and console.

B) Abilities and effects that stack, are calculated per mob/per group, and have timers. The more effects/stacks/timers/debuffs/etc that attach, per individual mob, the more talky-talky the game has to do.


Last league my more frequently played character was a Summoner/Necro Witch with CoC Offering that had great move speed and tons of minions. (All the wonderful stuff they recently nerfed. :)) I did not have any issues with lag/rendering stutter/etc. In some other League that build may have been impossible to play on a console.