so what's a good starter that not everybody else is playin?

i love minions, skeletons or zombies would be awesome, guardian a bit more tanky than necro maybe but i haven't played a witch in a long time. see some meta starters, idk, last time i played zombies was in the blight league... would be nice to have a kickass 100 mil+ dps real minion build after i tweaked it out, but something nice to start with. ghazzy the man with them, but his guides usually go into cluster jewels and stuff which are hard to roll.
:-/ , liked my blazing salvo inquisitor last league - assassin something i haven't played in a long time, seems winter orb is the one people are all gonna flock to. wish i could make my own builds, but they always fall short of my desired dps while having subpar defenses.

Vaal flameblast elementalist by jungroan.

CasualDan's Minion Army build felt good last league. It's a league starter and is (or has) a budget build. It's the happiest I've been with a build all year.

You can find it on PoE Vault's website.


https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/minion-army-necro-build-guide

good ideas guys, would love to make use of atziri's staff sometime that looks hilarious :), and \hell yeah, i will look up that guide and fit it to this league, thanks for the non-meta ideas :)

I doubt you could do better than guardian Summon Raging Spirits if you want cheap, tanky, deadly, fun.

I did it last league because i've been meaning to do SRS for many leagues, never had done srs OR guardian so it seemed like a good idea. I started last league super late anyway, and didn't copy a build or focus on ninja, didnt know it would be soooo meta this league.

Get red covenant head (gives SRS like 200% dmg, and the reduction in max spirits doesnt matter cuz until u get unleash u dont wanna waste time summoning more than 5 anyway) and then socket srs+minion speed+melee splash into a bitterdream mace at lvl 32

I just did so, and a single spirit killed an essence rare and all it's minions in under 1 second, and I wiped dominus' entire rooftop of guys in moments, dominus in literally a few seconds as well, using trash including white and blue items. only things i had which i didnt find on the ground were the bitterdream (1 or 2 c) and the red covenant (gift from friend) and the wanderlust (gift too)

I think there is cool potential to do some sort of essence drain + contagion build with the new gems that allow blight to spread via contagion (and contagion to spread on hit not death) but havent given it any time tbh.

SRS guardian would be a good idea, doesnt need fancy gear, very easy to build and play, does almost all content easy... last league on a very modest budget mine had something like 480,000 eHP (pob said almost 5 million but i think a lot of that was on-block effects and shit, pob depends a lot on settings) and 32-35m real dps, super fast, super super tanky, and easy bossing cuz u can just let your minions do the killing while you focus on dodging stuff and staying safe, only need to summon srs and use your buffs every once in a while...

Later on, forbidden rite cast on crit chaos innoculation occultist is fcking amazing and since its off-meta-ish isn't pricey for how stronk it is (ci, aegis aurora, etc)

P.S. Any chaos skill can be ultra affordable league start as Cane of Unravelling is perhaps the strongest per-chaos weapon for early league... for like 1c (as you dont need it linked, as the effects arent only for socketed gems but all your char) you can get up to like 60% chaos dot multi, 30% chaos dmg, +2 to all chaos gems (and chaos skills scale mostly off of level and dot multi), and more...

So if you want off-meta, affordable, fun, and lots to scale later, i'd consider doing a bane occultist with cane of unravelling, and you can transition into a forbidden rite coc cyclone char later on if you want. Bane occultist is amazing fun, and you can basically have a delete button as bane will have a big aoe, good dmg, and whats nice is that you link it to curses, each of which not only applies the curse automatically, but acts like a support gem, giving i think like 30+% MORE damage per curse, so its like a damage support gem with the added free bonus of applying that curse.

Bane + Despair + Temporal Chains + Void Manipulation alone with cane equipped will be extremely strong, and if you add in things like increased AOE, intensify, or enfeeble, it gets even stronger...

Penance Brand. If you enjoy delayed explosions. Or insane single-target damage thanks to the transfigured gem.

I only main one class all league and did SRS Guardian. Great starter but no matter how much currency you sink in it you don't get much more out of it. Its a starter not a dump currency and push it far end game build.

Very popular this league just because streamers all made videos of it and started it this league because they didn't have the balls to try it last league.

Just like streamers are not jumping into new gems. They play the same old boring builds because they play video games scared.

Hexblast Miner Sabo…. I have never played mines before and yes it’s a two button set up but I have been melting bosses and rares and it feels soooooo satisfying.

Super SSF friendly too.

He asked for non meta and you say srs guardian and hexblast mines... It just begs to be called something a support would remove.

The frenzy-stacking Ice Trap Trickster I have been playing for the temporary events from last season was only further buffed this patch with the new quality for Ice Trap (15% chance to trigger an extra time). It works from almost nothing, can scale well into endgame and is a well balanced character that's a fast mapper but also has good bossing

I cannot recommend it enough!