I have a few questions regarding endgame income streams. This league is the first time I have truly played the game (tried once a long, long time ago in HC and had a very frustrating experience for numerous reasons), so I am basically brand new to the endgame.
Current build/gear via PoB:
I can't reliably do all mods at this point without SIGNIFICANT gear investment (10+ ex per piece, and with the possibility of redoing all of my gear due to resists etc. it is realistically closer to 100ex for a full set of new gear, weapons aside which are 50-100ex each). I have maybe 25ex to my name according to Exile Diary, and that would require liquidating everything in my stash (realistically, I have about 500-600 chaos worth of liquid currency).
I have been told that crafting is basically worthless for reliable profit, and it has a huge currency barrier to entry. My independent research has pretty much confirmed this, would you guys agree?
Regarding mapping, I have several questions:
- Is it always worth it to corrupt red-tier maps, even if I have completed the Atlas Bonus for it already? IIQ gain and potential profit seems fairly unreliable per Alch/Vaal and with T15/T16 I am bricking maps due to bad mods more regularly.
- Is it more profitable to run lower tier (11-13) red maps and crush through them really quickly, or to take my time and methodically and carefully clear T15/16?
- Should I be rushing Sirus? I have yet to meet the per-requisites (20 total watchstones socketed), and have thus far been taking my time, but I am getting impatient with the tiny trickle of currency I am currently getting.
- Any big pro-tips on endgame mapping in general that a newbie might be overlooking?
- Should I be prioritizing a given master? I run Zana whenever I can in the hopes of faster Atlas completion, and then Niko for Sulphite, and then Jun/Einhar for crafting mods - I have basically ignored Alva because the incursions are extremely dangerous in my experience and I wind up losing hours worth of XP whenever I decide to fuck with them.
I would like to delve more often, but Niko's Atlas missions are frightfully few and far between, and I am currently getting walled by very high Sulphite costs. Is there a good strategy for Sulphite sustain that I might be overlooking?
Other than slamming maps and the minuscule amount of currency they seem to provide, I am at a loss for how I can make any real money that leads to better gear without hundreds of hours of time investment at this point. Is this a common wall? Should I be looking at a different build that has a better currency -> power translation (if such a thing exists)? I have seen a lot of talk about Spectres being much stronger than Skeles so I am tempted to jump ship, and could do it at least from a refund/Regret standpoint - I have yet to look into the raw currency cost in terms of gear yet.
Maybe it's just time to put the game down and find something else until next season? Help me, fellow Exiles!!!
Edit: Couple of questions about physical skeles, for those who may know, as well:
- For my own durability, is there any reason to target ES over raw HP? (More for how I should prioritize my last few skill points before 100.)
- Do I need any armor, or should I continue largely ignoring it and targeting pure ES gear as much as I can?
- Stacking To Dust seems like far and away the best way to juice my DPS at this point - does that sound right?
- Do Ghastly Eye Jewels with +% chance to blind/taunt on hit stack? Is it worth having more than just one with decent rolls?
- My Carrion Golems seem pretty fragile, should I consider Fortify over Brutality?
I am not a Summoner main but I can try to help as best as I can.
Just looking at your POB, I can see some glaring issues. From the surface, I can guess based on your gear that you don't have much trouble doing damage but you are a bit fragile. First thing I look at people's gear when they are struggling are their flasks.
*You need to reroll the Suffix on your Quartz Flask to something better, like Curse immunity since you don't have any flask with curse immunity on it.
*You have no Bleeding immunity on your Seething flask! It's very easy to get it on your current flask, just take it to the Bestiary and get a Staunching mod on it.
*Throw an Augment on your Quicksilver flask as well.
The next thing I notice is that you only have 178% increased life from tree. Necromancers can easily go for 200%+ on tree since they don't need that much damage from the tree to start with. You have A LOT of points invested in minion damage along with other random stuff. I would at the minimum spec out of Faith and Steel (generally a node taken by ES users, now Life MoM users) and grab the Devotion life nodes just below it (and grab the jewel socket on the way). You are also missing out on the 2 point jewel socket below, jewel sockets are MASSIVE for Summoners due to Abyss jewel stacking.
I think I know why your gear is so expensive to upgrade... you have maxed out to 75% Chaos resistance (most people unless going for a specific build don't go past much 0% since the game is balanced around that). Honestly speaking since your Chaos Resistance is already so high, I would straight up recommend getting a Xibaqua Glorious Vanity Timeless Jewel and slot it near a useless Keystone to gain the Divine Flesh keystone. For you, you can get the 3 point jewels near the Resolute Technique keystone to get the Divine Flesh keystone. If you are able to slot this jewel into your build then your tankyness will go up INSANELY HIGH.
If you are STILL having tankyness issues then I would recommend giving up the 2nd wand and get a shield. Then get a Shield Charge/Faster Attacks/Fortify set up going to have fortify and maybe also invest in getting a Rumy's Concoction flask for more armor and block chance. Maybe get a Guard skill like Steelskin/Molten Shell into your build somehow as well.
If you are still having issues then I would recommend getting some inspiration from PoE Ninja for builds that are similar to yours. I have filtered to show builds that use Skeletons, Shield builds with Rumi, MoM. There are even 3 Necromancers with Glorious Vanity slotted in them (with the above filters also enabled). Play around with the filters to see what other people are using successfully:
Sample build on POE Ninja
Now for the generic questions:
*You kinda missed the early boat on crafting. Now we are in the mid to late game of the league and the crafting that is in demand is high end. Earlier on in the league you can craft some Jewels for profit that will sell if they have some life and two damage mods (or ES with two damage mods). High end crafting is mostly for rich boys and you have to be willing to gamble away loads of currency. Generally crafting is only really done to make gear for yourself even though 90% of the time it's cheaper to find stuff online, sometimes you want really specialized combination of affixes that the market isn't providing at a good enough price. Thing is that for you, you are using the 2nd most played build in the game right now (top build on SSF) so your items and upgrades will cost more on average than other builds and the higher you go the more the prices will skyrocket. Generally speaking, it's very difficult for you to craft gear that will be upgrade over what you have but the easiest way to get your feet wet is throwing some Bound fossils on some good minion focused bases.
*Vaaling maps on average is very profitable (you will almost always get back the Vaal you invested in the form of some other currencies) but you still need to be able to run them. You should specify which mods you have trouble with. If you are having trouble with stuff like Vulnerability curse mod then the aforementioned curse immunity flask can help greatly with that. Combined Vaaled maps with Sextants, Scarabs and maybe even Zana mods for more juice and returns. I wouldn't Vaal every map but my T15-T16s hell yeah. I would recommend first making some changes to make your build tankier and then try a few Vaaled maps to see how it feels.
*I would at least try to do T14 maps. The combination of higher map tiers as well as better base drops makes it far better to run them if you are able to. However if it's taking you too long to do them then there is no shame in running lower. Remember that you can sell maps and by this point you should be swimming in them, always list your unwanted high tier maps. If you can farm up a bulk of a specific type then you can charge a bit more. You probably need to read up on how to set up your maps to sell in bulk.
*Sirus lvl1 isn't very rewarding based on general consensus but Sirus lvl8 is VERY rewarding on average. Unless you play super often and your goal is to farm Sirus for currency, you don't really have much benefit to rushing Sirus.
*As far as end game currency gains tip goes... the best gains are done through acquiring smaller but higher quantity of currencies. All those 6 socket armor/weapon pick ups add up over time. Reliable currency is better than trying to bank on big ticket items. There is no real shortcut to gaining currency, you really just need to play a lot and efficiently. You shouldn't be spending too much time tinkering around with loot, whatever you get in a map you should dump in a Quad tab and then run the next map. Come back to the Quad tab after like 20-30 maps and then sort loot in search groups (you will find that it's easier and more efficient to do all at once rather than one at a time after every map). Always chisel your red maps, alch everything yellow and higher etc.
*For me Jun/Syndicate end up being very profitable. It's a very complicated system to get max gains out of but you can target specific stuff with it like IT the Fled in research head to get Pure Chayula breachstones which can sell for a lot. Scarabs are always sellable as well. Most Masters are great, I would say that you can just try to save up on Masters while running maps if you don't want to put time into them. Bank a bunch of the same time then chain run the same ones in a row. It's fine to skip Alva. Delve is always profitable as well and a nice break from mapping. Also don't underestimate prophecies, they can get you some nice stuff now and then.
As far as build to currency ratio goes... you are playing one of the best builds at that. This league is all about boss killing and Metamorph slaying for potential returns. Even big time mappers like Empyraen and Grimro have swapped from using fast mappers like Tornado Shot to Necromancer boss slayers because it's so profitable. Maybe Specters are better but it's not a massive jump. If you want a massive jump then look into the Strength stacking Zombie Necromancer builds that can get like 15+ ES with really fat Zombies. These builds do a ton of damage and are insanely survivable for their investment.
There are probably a million different tips I can give but I would focus on getting better defenses and then try your luck at the higher tier maps and bosses again.
