Character Optimization
in Path of Exile
17 October 2013
Tim Palacios
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This guide is intended for those
familiar with video games, but
have no experience with action
role playing games or Path of Exile.
As such, a basic level of knowledge
is assumed in this document.
Words that may be exclusive to
this genre of gaming or Path of
Exile have been defined
throughout the description. The
intention of this paper is to
describe the characteristics of a
successful character in Path of
Exile so that new players may
understand the necessary
components.
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Introduction
According to the developing studio, Grinding Gear Games, “Path of Exile is an online action role
playing game set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast.” The player character has been exiled
from their own continent and must fight for survival in a strange land using skill, magic, and
strength. It is a vast game with much room for character customization. The player faces many
choices when developing his or her character ranging from skill sets to appearance. All of these
decisions are a factor in determining whether the player has a rewarding game experience or if
he or she is dissatisfied. A successful character in Path of Exile has a high degree of survivability
while being able to maintain a high clear speed in end game content. To achieve both of these,
a basic level of knowledge of the passive skill tree is required.
Survivability – ability to endure in the
game content without dying
Clear Speed – the rate at which a
character can slay monsters
End Game Content – The most difficult
content in the game, undertaken once
the rest of the game has been beaten
Figure 1. The main logo for Path of Exile.
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Surviving the Hordes of Wraeclast
No matter how much damage a character can deal out, he cannot do anything if he is dead.
Therefore, survivability is the most important aspect to consider when constructing a character
in Path of Exile. Many aspects contribute to the resilience of a character, among which are hit
points and energy shield, damage reduction, play style, and life steal.
1) Effective Hit points
There are two types of hit points in Path of Exile; there are the “normal” kind that most video
games have, and there is energy shield. Hit points regenerate constantly, but at a rather slow
rate. Energy shield only regenerates after a character has not taken damage for six seconds, but
it regenerates extremely quickly. When taking damage, energy shield always depletes before
hit points are deducted. The only exception is chaos damage (see below). Adding hit points and
energy shield together gives a character’s effective hit points.
Figure 2. The red box shows the player's hit points and energy shield. She has 2411 HP + 1609 ES = 4020 EHP.
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2) Damage Reduction
When a character is hit by a monster, several multipliers are applied to the damage dealt.
Generally, these multipliers are less than one, thereby reducing the damage done to the player.
The player must balance three separate methods of damage reduction: armor, elemental
resistances, and evasion and block.
A)
Armor
The player must protect against five types of damage in Path of Exile. Armor reduces damage
done from physical sources. Once in game, the character screen will tell you how much damage
you will actually take from physical sources.
Figure 3. A sample player's character screen.
This sample character has 24000 armor. The game tells the player that this is a 74% physical
damage reduction. This means that each time the player is hit with physical damage, he will
only take 26% of the damage inflicted.
B)
Resistances
Figure 3 also shows the character’s resistances. Fire, cold, lightning, and chaos (think poison)
damage are the four elemental damages in Path of Exile. Chaos damage works slightly
differently than the other three; it will completely bypass energy shield and drain from the hit
point pool immediately. The most resistance you can have to any single of elemental damage is
75%. This player has therefore reached the maximum amount of fire and cold resistance; each
time he is hit with either type, he will only take 25% of the original amount of damage. From
lightning, he will take 42%. However, this player greatly needs chaos resistance. Right now, he
has -60%. This means that he will take 60% extra damage from chaos damage.
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C)
Evasion and Block
Evasion and block work slightly differently than armor and resistances. Rather than taking less
damage on each hit, evasion and block allow a chance to completely negate the attack. If a
player successfully evades or blocks, he will take no damage at all.
Figure 4. Another sample character.
The character whose statistics are shown in figure 4 has very little armor. They will take almost
full damage on each hit from a physical source. However, he has 1800 evasion, providing a 40%
chance to evade attacks. Additionally, he took a passive from the skill tree that provides an
additional 30% dodge chance. Finally, he has a 50% chance to block. This character may take a
lot of damage when hit, but he will not be hit often.
3) Play Style
Another contributing factor to survivability is the play style of the player. More reckless players
risk dying more often. The two major play styles are ranged fighting and melee fighting. Melee
fighting is inherently more dangerous because a player must stand directly next to a monster to
deal damage. There Ranged characters face no real disadvantages. This does not mean that
melee players cannot be effective; they must simply focus more on survivability than damage.
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4) Life Steal
Life leech and life gain on hit are very important stats that are almost mandatory to survive in
end game content. Life leech gives you hit points back equal to a certain percentage of damage
done to enemies. This life regeneration is applied over time, up to a maximum of 20% of a
player’s total hit points per second. Life on hit is slightly different. For each enemy hit, life on hit
will give a player a certain amount of hit points back instantly. For example, if a character had
15 life gain on hit and hit two monsters with the safe attack, he would gain 30 hit points back
immediately.
Conquering the Hordes of Wraeclast
Damage is vitally important to the success of a character. If he cannot do damage, the player
will never progress due to inability to slay monsters. Damage calculation is one of the simpler
mechanics in Path of Exile. The main components of damage are damage per hit, attacks per
second, and critical hits.
1) Damage per Second
Calculating the damage on weapons and spells is straightforward. Simply follow this formula:
This formula will give you the damage per second (DPS) of a weapon or spell.
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For example, this axe has a top end damage of 194 +
52 = 246. It has a low end damage of 119 + 2 = 121.
Average these two numbers and multiply by 1.25
attacks per second to get 229.3 DPS. This formula is
not only for weapons. Applying this formula to the
spell in figure 5 gives 323.8 DPS. Note that the
inverse of cast time is casts per second.
Figure 6. Axe for sample DPS calculation.
Top End Damage – the maximum
amount damage that can be done it
one hit
Low End Damage – the minimum
amount of damage that can be done
it one hit
Figure 5. Spell used for sample calculation above.
2) Critical Hits
While not every player chooses to focus on them, critical hits are a major source of damage for
some characters. Figure 7 shows a sample character. Put simply, this player will score a critical
hit 8.7% of the time. When he scores one, his damage will be scaled by his critical strike damage
multiplier. So when this player achieves a critical hit, he will do 1.5x damage.
Figure 7. The character screen again. Note that this player benefits from life leech and gain on hit.
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3) Damage Reflection
While inflicting massive amounts of damage is fun, it
may become necessary to nerf your own damage in
Nerf – common video game term that
order to survive. This is because some monsters have a
indicates a skill, character, or some
“reflect damage” aura. If you strike these monsters, you other mechanic has been
purposefully changed to be worse
will receive 20% of the damage you inflicted upon the
monster. It is necessary for players to keep this in mind
Aura – a special modifier some
at all times, lest they fall victim to their own spells. The
monsters have
best way to deal with reflection mobs is to use life
leech and strike less frequently. It may take longer to
slay these monsters, but chances of survival are much higher.
Understanding the Passive Skill Tree
Path of Exile sports one of the most extensive skill trees in video gaming. Each small circle is one
1350 nodes from which to choose. With only 120 skill points to allocate at maximum level, the
importance of these nodes becomes apparent. A successful character requires these nodes as a
foundation to combat the forces of evil. Since six classes exist in Path of Exile, it follows that six
starting areas are available on the tree. Each character is aligned with one or two attributes out
of intelligence, strength, and dexterity.
The six characters are Witch (intelligence),
Shadow (intelligence/dexterity), Ranger
(dexterity), Duelist (dexterity/strength),
Marauder (strength), and Templar
(strength/intelligence).
Figure 8. The Path of Exile passive Tree. Each red circle denotes a
starting area for each of the six classes.
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In order to choose the passive skills that will form the basis of a character, the main types of
nodes must first be understood. The three main categories of nodes are attribute nodes,
survivability nodes, and damage nodes.
1) Attribute Nodes
These nodes are the most generic and abundant kind. They will generally form the connection
paths that allow the selection of more powerful or desirable ones. Most gear also has attribute
requirements in order to equip it.
2) Survivability Nodes
These nodes are chosen to increase the “tankiness” of a
character. The four main kinds of defensive nodes are
health nodes, energy shield nodes, armor nodes, and
evasion nodes.
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Tankiness - common game term to
denote the ability to withstand
damage
3) Damage Nodes
Without damage nodes, a character cannot achieve a fast clear speed. As stated previously,
clear speed is how fast a player kills monsters, which is fairly important. The main types of
damage nodes (and their spellcasting counterparts) are physical damage (spell damage), Attack
speed (cast speed), and critical strike chance (applies to all damage).
Conclusion
Prospering in Wraeclast is a daunting task for anyone to attempt. However, there are some core
principles that players must respect in order to be successful. Strong characters understand the
importance of survival and therefore emphasize resilience over tremendous amounts of damage. They
do not neglect damage though, and still maintain an efficient clear speed.
All images are from www.pathofexile.com or are in-game screenshots.
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