Need help understanding how to scale damage.

I don't see how i can scale insane damage, like i am seeing.

I am at end game level 78. 3 days 15 hours in. And it just feels trash if i am honest. The best skill i have does 6k dps i may as well be blowing bubbles at them at this point.

I understand that "increased" is just added, While "more" is multiply. There is no more notables on the passive tree for the merc at all.

And seeing as you can't have duplicate supports gem's on separate skills you are shooting yourself in the foot with the one button loot vaccum shite.

Saying the game would be more accessible to new players is a flat out lie, the accessiblilty comes from having 10 years prior knowledge of PoE. Only reason i stopped playing that game, was because i refuse to follow a build guide, and the end game result was holding 1 button one shotting everying.

The thing is a destroyed the "leveling" part of the game. I got to maps with 10-15 deaths.

So just tell me this is normal at my level to be taking 6-8 mins clearing a map Or have i just wasted another 40 hours getting to the end game, with my sub par build skills.

If so why can't you have rough estimates of damage needed, which can optional for the more dedicated playerbase.


Thanks for reading.



TLDR. More damage please.

Few things.

First, as a merc depending on your ascension you can use the same support on more than one skill. If you didn't go gem, you can't, but if you did, that is def an option.

Second, while there are more nodes on the tree there are also extra nodes (as in 5% of damage as extra cold damage etc), which has a similar affect and there are quite a few of those near the merc starting point.

The more parts usually come from support gems, and there are alot of ways to do that/add that. You want to have additional support slots on whatever you are using the most (Even and often especially your basic attack).

Basic attacks btw cost no mana, no matter how many supports etc you add on them. You can get weapons that have auto chain etc, or use support gems that make your basic attack pretty freaking amazing. I personally love a cold focused basic attack for my merc with herald of ice going, it really thrashes groups of enemies.

There are other ways to scale damage, such as crits, getting a high crit chance and multiplier takes work, but can often be very worth it (especially for certain ascendencies..although none of them happen to be merc ones currently).

Your base equipment REALLY matters as well. A really high base physical with added physical to it, 20% quality and hopefully I high Damage % boost on your weapon can make a huge difference. Late game when you have enough base physical damage on your weapon the 20% increased physical runes can be more effective and let you boost individual attacks elemental damage more (since they do elemental damage based on your total physical damage).

You can also toss onthe support gem that adds an extra 25% of physical damage as elemental damage. You can do 1 for each basic attack and Mercs that go gem can actually have 2 fast attack support gems (one for each basic attack if you want and then have 1 basic cold attack and 1 basic lightning attack for instance (or 1 cold and 1 stun/daze).

Specializing in a specific element is another way to boost damage greatly, but quite often you need to do specific combos with skills, like auto crit with sunder vs enemies that are heavy stunned with broken armor....which can do insane amounts of damage.

The highest damage setups usually require a combo like that, but another option is just to freaking destroy everything by having:

High base damage/dps with 1 type (at least) of very high elemental damage.
Very high attack speed
Decently to great crit chance and multiplier.

That combo isn't as hard as it sounds to accomplish and works great vs mobs and bosses as well. Deadeye for instance (Ranger ascendency) is GREAT at that. Mercs are a bit more focused on combinations (have not played my merc in awhile caus eI love my deadeye so much, but I DID play it before and enjoyed it...and had high DPS for sure.

I remember it was really helpful to get the nodes that reduced reload time and after that I didn't even notice the reload anymore, it really didn't slow down my attacks. I think, if I remember right, I focused my MERC on lightning damage mainly, and I had a very strong beam attack that I would open boss fights with (huge build up to shoot it though so not good in constant combat). That really thrashed mobs though, and then I would pummel em with mostly lightning attacks.

I def did not have a damage problem with him, but.....he didn't move nearly as fast as my deadeye *I heart my deadeye*, and I also attack SO FREAKING FAST with my deadeye compared to mymerc, that I just can't go back.

Still mercs are great, can get very high damage, good defenses (evasion primarily for me) and have good ascendency powers. Not (to me) as good ascendency choices as Deadeye (favorite char followed by blood mage), but still strong and a great ranged character choice.

Best of luck to you!!

Oh, btw, the reason my deadeye attacks so fast are 2 nodes, and you can totally take them as a merc as well. If I was going to make a new merc (or maybe i'll re-set my passive tree on my current one), I would consider doing the same with him. He will never sadly move as fast or be as defensive cause no tailwind, but a Gem merc does get other bonuses.

Anyway the nodes are simple. You want 1 node that gives 1% attack speed per 15 dex, and another node that gives 1% attack speed per 250 accuracy.

They work great together in combo with a very high dex (which you happen to get some nodes right nearby that boost dex greatly.

With the right equipment setup late game you can have 300+ dex and 3000+ (without even taking many nodes for it) accuracy. That is 20% faster attack speed from one node and 12% from the other (32% attack speed right there) along the way though you get multiple normal attack speed nodes so without bonuses on equipment etc, you easily will have over 50% attack speed bonus. You attack.....FAST.

That is, in effect a more.....more.

So More damage is multiplied after all the other damage increases are added together.

Faster attack though just makes you straight up attack more often and is an additional modifier.

So say your attack normally has a total of 580% increased damage. If you have supports etc that boost that by 100% more that would double that to 1160% damage, now if you have 50% increased attack speed THAT end number is increased by 50% dps......to 1740% damage.

Basically you destroy everything fast. It boosts stun buildup, freeze buildup, causes shock faster/more often, and works great in combo with things like herald of ice to destroy packs of enemies super fast even if you don't have any chain/fork or multiple projectiles.

Attack speed rocks!!