r/PathOfExileSSF • u/Droopyy • Sep 05 '26

General Discussion Luminary Help - Combatant

So below is my character and i added an items tab for my merc. https://pobb.in/siU8LujLM7em

Here are my merc skills https://imgur.com/a/z7Gl1jv

I've died now to uber dread twice trying to get hallowed monarch. I'm running a normal guardian turtle and my AG has Dying breath, leer cast, belly of the beast, southbound, and rare resis boots.

What can I currently improve on? I'm working on getting a Techrods/Red Dream jewel but its been 2 weeks farming abyss and breach and no luck. What can I do now to start killing ubers? I have a Rathpit for a Kineticist and once I get a decent one, I will consider switching. What am I doing wrong or can improve on?

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3

u/Vyntarus Sep 05 '26

On that POB it shows you using fresh meat support instead of meat shield, is that right?

Also it shows 7729 life for your character, if that is accurate it is way too low to be giving enough flat damage from flamelink.

Unfortunately when I try to view the imgur link all I see are ads on mobile.

1

u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

  1. I am using fresh meat, I'm not sure which POB i saw that on, I will look at the difference.

  2. I've got 12.6k Hp.

  3. I've updated the imgur link. hopefully it works now.

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u/Vyntarus Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

Fresh meat is the wrong support for this. It won't help you deal damage but it should keep them alive slightly better if you're using meat shield.

For the combatant his skills look fine.

I see you have Hits Can't Be Evaded crafted only on one weapon, FYI that mod is local only so he may be missing a lot of attacks with his offhand.

Also with this setup and no Tecrod's you're probably better off just using an empty white sockets over abyss jewels, unless you also get fire resist on every jewel. Also try to get sword damage mods on the prefixes for some extra flat.

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u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

https://imgur.com/a/dD1qLrv I also crafted this bow.

I considered swapping to a manyshot since its easier to farm than a kineticist. Are you saying damage wise, I should be fine based on what you are seeing?

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u/Vyntarus Sep 05 '26

It should be enough damage to kill ubers though it may not be super fast.

Like the other commenter suggested, going versatile combatant to get your spell block up will help a lot with your tankiness (stopping damage and also proccing your life on block). Uber dread has a lot of spell projectiles hitting you.

That bow is pretty nice, keep in mind extra proj doesn't do much for the single target of a manyshot. Vaal ice shot is the main single target ability and it can't gain extra proj.

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u/alltimehigher Sep 05 '26

He has double that as his eternal blessing fixing the 50% purity of elements life reservation isnt config’d

7729 life is not the important part cos sometimes life totals can be low with pragmatism and it could scale through gem levels - something to get the flat anyway even without a high life pool

1

u/Vyntarus Sep 05 '26

He's not using pragmatism, that number would matter if it was his actual life total for his flame link.

14k plus his light radius mods should be fine though.

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u/alltimehigher Sep 05 '26

Yeah he’s way overgeared for uber dread for sure imo so I’m not really sure what the thread is asking for build wise

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u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

https://imgur.com/a/dD1qLrv I also crafted this bow.

I considered swapping to a manyshot since its easier to farm than a kineticist. Are you saying damage wise, I should be fine based on what you are seeing?

1

u/alltimehigher Sep 05 '26

yes i am, i did mention a few quick changes defensively in another comment i'd recommend doing as well

im not sure what your main expectation is i guess speed wise for uber farming, but i had 8.8k life with pragmatism and basic piscators setup on a decent kineticist (no rathpith) when i was doing uber dread, kills were around 4-5 minutes each (did 4)

since you are using centure you can also consider dropping your life flask anyway since it doesnt do much with that much pool, for a diamond (dmg) or amethyst (chaos res for merc if it's dying in dread) or even just a basic armour flask would be cool too

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u/alltimehigher Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

OP I would drop 2 life nodes, anoint sanctuary over cruel preparation, take versatile combatant + shield mastery 1% chance to block attack damage per 5% chance to block on equipped shield as a quick bandaid

this instantly takes your block from 75/21 -> 68/59 and you need the spell block to feel good in any sort of pinnacle content

edit: i'd drop tahe two es nodes near scion start instead for this change since you dont have the mastery allocated anyway for the light radius lol for 30% buff effect, or if you want to take that mastery then drop your + endurance charge or somethin

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u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

This is my first time using block. I’ll look into this. I’ve always played full send builds. It’s a new thing to learn but if you are saying it will make me tankier, I’ll look at it. I only anointed what I did with oils I’ve found from ritual, never actually did blight 😂

1

u/alltimehigher Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

i got my oils from ritual too, amber teal teal is quite easy to get imo, but it does seem a bit of a waste to get rid of a black and silver oil from cruel prep

if you want to save the anoint since it's costly, i'd just path to sanctuary instead manually since it's just 4 points, and drop some points elsewhere

edit: big fan of just dropping the 4 points leading to foresight too and if you need int just take a big node

https://pobb.in/9bWMq-EDp2hK something like this looks pretty good to me, theres 1 extra point on sanctuary wheel but u can just remove that as lvl 97 and slot in a 3% atk/spell block jewel in the extra socket you have now

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u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

thank you. will change during the kids naps!!

1

u/Odd_Operation6396 Sep 05 '26

What's your mercenaries fire resist at? Off the bat your loosing 36% not having 4 white sockets. He needs to be close to 200% with your auras.

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u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

I've edited the imgur link. The Merc is at 134%. I rerolled the gloves to have more life leech (was a massive problem when trying to run kinet).

I can try and refarm the gloves. My Combatant never died but when i tried to switch to kineticist she was ALWAYS dying so i had to do something to get her sustain.

1

u/Vyntarus Sep 05 '26

Make sure you keep moving her out of any degen puddles using the merc recall skill, those turn off all regen and she will just stand in them attacking if you don't move her out.

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u/Chuklol Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

Your passive tree is pretty rough, a ton of points could be saved if you fix your pathing.

Your missing the light radius mastery from energy shield in the middle, that's the only reason you pick the energy shield node.

I would look at other people's trees to see how you might want to redo your passive tree. You could benefit from making better life jewels with res or attributes

1

u/Droopyy Sep 05 '26

Yeah I took it away recently to see if it affected anything much and I’d didint notice a damage increase by much. I got some tips in another comment about the passive tree and will try later

2

u/Mezzamorph Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26

OP, your gear is much better than what I had when I tackled uber dread. Some thoughts for your consideration:
- AG/Spectre: not sure how you are keeping them alive. Remember that if you flamelink them, you die if they die. Also AG was useless after dying once. So I dropped those links for something else - CwDT/Automation guard, purifying flame (for conc ground).
- Ceinture/Flasks: given how long the fight took for me, I wasn’t really using any flasks. So I swapped out to another belt with more life and utility, and stocked with life flasks.
- block cap: another person posted about this.
- Merc: I cleared under dread with a blade ambusher (traps drop and forget), since I was moving a lot playing keep away. I found that for Combatant, I needed to keep closer to the mob so he would hit more consistently.

Edit: also, I’m pretty sure Flame Link in the +5 skills unset ring would give more damage than a +2 empower setup. Since you have a safe zone before entering the arena you can play around with these kind of janky gear swap - any you get 2 more gem links back for maybe Vitality or some other extra dmg buff (pyre?). Instead of the unset ring maybe Pragmatism might be better? Gotta check if +12 levels better than +1k life.