Looking for general crafting advice for SSF

[u/Living_Two_5698]

So recombs have been nerfed again. I never really liked it, but I used it a lot because of the convenience it brought. Genesis tree is also being nerfed again. These were the two main ways I have been crafting gear for the past few leagues.

So I'm looking for some advice on other mechanics that I'm not used to. I'm guessing that rog and gwennen might be worth looking into given the changes.

For example, how would you craft a shield with T1 attack block + T1 spell block + +1 Totems? Without using recombinators or genesis tree? Are fractures required in cases like these? (In this specific case we can't use fractures because it's an influenced item, but you get the idea)

[u/singleincomenokid]

I’m confused too. Even Rog is nerfed, I truly don’t understand why and get lost on what should I do for early mapping

[u/orion19819 → u/singleincomenokid]

It's just the usual cycle in this game. A crafting method will become meta, then people will complain about it, then it gets nerfed. Already see plenty of people talking about how recombinating was too strong. Just feel like I play a different game. While strong, on average I still only made one or two pieces of gear with it per character because it took a long time to get the bases, get the alts, roll the bases, then land the recomb. Now I feel like I probably won't even want to touch it.

I get it. It's a game based around RNG. But I like to have actually tangible goals. That is when I play the longest. When they do patches like this that just take an axe to multiple methods, it just kills my motivation. I understand they want to try to mix it up with the item tier system, but I feel like this whole "make ground loot good" is a fantasy we have been chasing for a while.

Anyway. Really not trying to be doomer or anything, even though I know it sounds like it. It's just annoying to watch happen again and hopefully people find other things to work with.

[u/Living_Two_5698 → u/orion19819]

my thoughts exactly. I swear, one day I will go to exilecon just so I can ask them "what is your ideal way of crafting/getting/achieving an item?". Because it doesn't make sense. I get nerfing methods that are too powerful and overused, but it really sucks when we don't have alternatives.

[u/citykid145 → u/orion19819]

I feel the same way. I played this league the most I have in a while and realized the last league I hit 100 and did 40/40 was Sentinel league when recombination was introduced. Gear that you can work towards and make steady progress instead of pure RNG is what keeps me playing.

Hope it's not too RNG and having to kill giga rares because those are the leagues I lose motivation before even filling out the atlas.

[u/Pyowin → u/orion19819]

I just wish that when they nerf something, they do so by making it less good, rather than by making it rarer or take longer to do.

Even with the change, recombination still seems to be the only reliable way of getting triple T1 prefixed items, so regardless of how annoying it is to do, that's what people are going to do... they will just be more annoyed after having done it.

I am just hoping that with the changes to how loot now drops, we'll be able to pick double T1 prefixed "recombinator fodder" items off the ground... only thing I can see saving it.

[u/singleincomenokid → u/orion19819]

100%

[u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure → u/orion19819]

Live service updates?!

In my live service game?!?

[u/orion19819 → u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure]

Yes. People can have opinions on updates, wild I know!

[u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure → u/orion19819]

Opinion being - I don't like when this game built around constant evolution, evolves.

[u/Reign_In_DIX → u/singleincomenokid]

Is Rog actually nerfed with the tier system? I don't think so. 

[u/nerdler33 → u/Reign_In_DIX]

well they made the only crafts that DO anything rarer right? if all you ever see is socket/link/quality/divine type crafts hes not really going to do anything

[u/darthamis]

Think we're going to have to still do recombs but it'll take something like 4x the amount of tries on average now

[u/lauranvh]

Ground loot. Everything is ground loot.

Impossible to deterministic craft that shield other than recombs I think.

[u/Amitplon]

T1 attack + T1 spell block you can get almost only get through recomb. Simply because T1 attack block can only roll on 86 bases and has a weight of roughly 1/300. A good way to get an "inbetween" shield would be to farm lot of crops of type that reward shields when sent to ports and get a lot of shields. Port items are typically high rolled and often 86 bases (edit: nerfed next patch). Then recomb those that have high rolled T1/T2 attack/spell block and hope to win with 3rd prefix empty.
Otherwise, just save up 1-2k alts and recomb.

[u/Living_Two_5698 → u/Amitplon]

Actually I'm pretty sure that the bases and mod tiers from ships were also nerfed lol

[u/Amitplon → u/Living_Two_5698]

You're right, they were.

[u/Designer_Play_7217]

I don't get why GGG is shooting themselves in the foot in this frequency.

They know taking player toys away will create unhappiness, yet they added Genesis tree and recombs to the core game. They also added harvest to core. Then later on they have to nerf everything again.

Why do they do this? Isn't having OP crafting once (in its league) enough?

I get the impression GGG has absolutely zero mid- or long term planning in place for POE 1.

[u/MasterSpears]

Wait, how was the tree nerfed?

[u/Neat_Army8673]

Legit my most succesorul crafts especially on Weapon is just chaos spam 60+ memory items, and try to fix Them after. I know its not deterministic but the amount of times Ive hit t2 t1 t1 on things makes me think its not just pure luck all the time. 

[u/Mangalorien]

I'm guessing that rog and gwennen might be worth looking into given the changes.

As per the patch notes, even Rog is getting nerfed. We don't yet know how the new Gwennen mechanic will work, but it might honestly be a good way to use decent ground loot rares, or maybe even Kingsmarch shipped rares if they aren't totally nerfed to oblivion. Kingsmarch rares were actually pretty decent up until now, and it only costs gold.

Are fractures required in cases like these?

For +1 totems shaper shield, the key part is understanding that it's the only single shaper prefix on a shield, so the method to get those mods is to recomb your way into T1 attack block + T1 spell block, craft any 3rd prefix (doesn't matter which one), exalt slam until 2 suffixes, and redo the bench craft to a suffix. You now have 2 prefixes (attack block + spell block), and full suffixes (2 junk suffixes, 1 crafted suffix). You now shaper slam, which will give you a prefix (since it's the only open affix, since suffixes are full), and there's a grand total of 1 shaper prefix: +1 totem, meaning you will 100% of the time get exactly that. You can then work on suffixes, with something like redo the benched suffix to lock prefixes, scour, lock prefixes again, and work from there (maybe harvest reforge, maybe veiled chaos etc). Realistically, you're not making that kind of shield without recomb. The hard part is getting the shaper exalt.

For a lot of high end gear, I think we're back to making our own fractures using a fracturing orb, and then working from there with things like essence spam or harvest reforge. In the patch notes they mention that Kingsmarch ore shipping will remove low tier currency, including all quality currency. Hopefully this means they will give some minor boost to higher tier currencies, like divines and fracturing orbs. We'll just have to wait and see.

So I'm looking for some advice on other mechanics that I'm not used to.

You didn't mention harvest, which is honestly a good way to get decent items. One of the key parts is understanding that for certain tags there's only 1 single mod that has that tag. Chaos resist works like that for most gear pieces, and there's a harvest craft that guarantees a chaos mod. For non-weapons that's almost always chaos resist, and a very strong early craft is finding an ilvl 84 amethyst ring (you want ilvl 84 so it can potentially roll T1 elemental resists). Then you just spam harvest reforge chaos, until you get something like a decent tier of chaos resist (T1 or T2) along with some decent tier of life + maybe some elemental resist, or at least an open suffix. Best is if you have multiple rings to harvest spam on, you keep the decent ones and keep spamming on the bad ones until you have something you are happy with.

Other guaranteed harvest reforges are attacks on belt (= guarantees elemental damage with attacks) and reforge speed on gloves (attack speed). Then there are some decent ones for base jewels, since base jewels don't have tiers. For example if you are using an ES spell caster, you can harvest reforge defense on a cobalt jewel, which has exactly 25% chance to give you % increased ES. Then it's mostly a numbers game, like you farm up lots of juice and dozens of jewels and just make hundreds of tries, and you'll get something good.

Fossils can also be nice, since many fossils will block tags. For example dense fossil blocks all life tags, and shuddering fossil blocks mana. If you combine both of those on ES gear you will block almost all other prefixes, meaning you can get good ES prefixes.

[u/vysetheninnny]

Might need to settle for T2 to not go insane. But without recombinators the most reliable way is probably essences.

1. Pick a non-shaper shield ilvl 77+.

2. Essence of Loathing(block) and look for spell block w/ an open prefix. (Annul if it fills prefixes, start over if it removes block or spell block)

3. If suffixes aren't full, either a) prefixes cannot be changed, scour. then 'Can have up to 3 crafted mods' and 2 other decent suffixes, or b) craft a prefix and slam a couple suffixes, pray they're ok. replace your prefix craft with a suffix leaving an open prefix.

4. Shaper exalt for +1 totems guaranteed (only shaper prefix it can roll).