ARTILLERY BALLISTA BUILD IS COMPLETE | SCEPTRE SWAP | Path of Exile 2

[@thieukhangnguyen2616]

it seem ballista's stat will change when you change weapon if you look at it in skill menu, but actual stat won't change. Ballista will snapshot the stat when you summon them, if you want to apply stat of other weapon to ballista, you must summon them using that weapon, which is impossible. I tried testing it with widowhail bow and a good quiver to take advantage of quiver's stat, but despite the stat change, the damage remain unchange.

[@toribasher211122]

damn thats unfortunate then, im thinking of swapping to deadeye and using hand of wisdom and action + three dragons mask.

[@thieukhangnguyen2616]

@@toribasher211122 I plan to do that too but didn't swap to dead eye. In endgame we could have up to lv34 ballista (7 from weapon, 3 from amulet, 3 from jewel, 1 from ascend) and its mana cost will be very high. I think I need 30% less mana cost from gemling to make it work. Dead eye still nice though if you can manage your mana. Extra projectile and tailwind is very nice to have

[@cyruslupercal9493]

Ballistas have their own weapon. The only thing they get from your weapon is bonuses to gem level.

[@Sadinar]

Its highly unlikely the sceptre works on them. Do you have any confirmation that it works/tested its attack speed? While totems are your allies, they don't actually use their own offensive stats. They use your own offensive stats. That's why effects you have that say "When you hit, do XYZ" applies to your totems. This is also why Rage applies to your totem (you can verify this in your tooltip - easy way is to link orb of storms with font of rage, and see your totem increases its damage). Rage is a more damage multiplier to yourself, but it applies to your totems damage because they inherit your offensive stats and have none of their own. As such, giving them bonus damage doesn't do anything, because they're using your offensive stats, not their own. This was the way it worked in poe1. Given that rage and on-hit effects are the same in poe2, its very likely that ally bonus damage effects also works the same. Unless you've tested to confirm it? You can however boost their defences via a sceptre, and weapon swapping is still super worth it just to be able to use a shield and recover mana between placements. But you might prioritize other stats on your sceptre instead of offensive stats. You could get a sceptre with a defensive aura which does apply to your totems - Purity of Ice for example would help with your totems being frozen, for example Herald of Ash does nothing, and neither does cannabalism. I've verified that via testing (and that's consistent with how those mechanics behaved in poe1). You should swap to Time of Need and Overwhelming Presence just for a little bit of HP recovery

[@toribasher211122]

I'm gonna guess the sceptre does work on them, I have felt the damage increase for sure.

[@Sadinar]

@@toribasher211122 Curious. I just tested it (I'm playing Shockwave Totem). And Shockwave Totem isn't getting affected by it. I picked up a Fixation of Yix (20% ally attack speed) and a 16% attack speed sceptre. Placing the totem, my current gear/tree gives exactly 7 attacks by the totem and it despawns right after the 7th attack 36% increased attack speed should be a noticeable improvement on the attack speed, but it has the exact same behavior. 7 attacks before despawning right after the 7th attack. Its possible artillery ballista is different (for example, Artillery Ballista benefits from the 2H weapon nodes while shockwave doesn't). But it doesn't seem likely. If you open the tooltip up, does the damage change when you weapon swap? Other modifications to your damage does dynamically update the tooltip. For example, if I gain rage (via Font of Blood or Raging Warcry), that does dynamically update the DPS in the tooltip. Does your sceptre do that for artillery? Didn't for shockwave. Though this doesn't necessarily mean anything, as it could just be that ally effects don't show up in the tooltip.

[@toribasher211122]

@ there’s no way to tell, because when I swap from the crossbow to the sceptre it’s damage goes from 22k to 5k because I’m losing the ele dmg to attacks and +7 to proj skills. So I’m not exactly sure how to test it with swapping weapons

[@Sadinar]

@@toribasher211122 I just respeced my character to test this. Went to A3 cruel beira. Without the weapon swap or the amulet (which gives 20% to allies, and sceptre 16, for a total of 36) the ballista fired 7 shots before despawning on beira. When I equip the amulet, then place totems and weapon swap, there is no change in attack speed. Same 7 attacks before despawning, with no noticeable shift I had to use a lower rank artillery ballista to test this and I don't have any +proj levels so the damage was low, but I just stood between beria and the totems to make sure they didn't get hit. So attack speed definitely isn't working. I doubt +damage is also working - again, attack speed not working is consistent with what I would expect the behavior to be based on totem mechanics from poe1.

[@carryofallcarrieslol5338]

@@toribasher211122 It does. I actually was using sceptre on ballista totems a week ago but I wasn't good enough to go to the endgame without trying to rush my gear. If you pull out your sceptre with attack speed bonus and look at advanced info for the skill you can see that the attack speed increases.

[@tommyVCE]

what's your tooltip damage per explosion, and tooltip "attacks per second"?

[@toribasher211122]

@@tommyVCE 22k dmg not sure for attacks

[@tommyVCE]

@@toribasher211122 so I'm finally starting to get a lot of int, and this build has blown away all my expectations. I'm just nuking every boss in lvl 80 trial of chaos/trial of sekhema like it's nothing. I'm at 40k damage per, 4 per shot, and 1 shot a second. so 160k dps per ballista. I do so much damage I could sell 4th ascendency carries and this build still has a ton of room for growth. I have a terrible 40% minimum roll ingenuity belt. I updated the maxroll a tiny bit

[@victorscutera7833]

​@@tommyVCE htf you have reach 1 atk for second?

[@tommyVCE]

@@victorscutera7833 corrupt HOWA gives 4% attack speed per 25 dex

[@tommyVCE]

@@victorscutera7833 howa gives 4% speed per 25 dex

[@miqueltielen6089]

Would deadeye or titan be better to reroll? Why is titan so good for this build?

[@toribasher211122]

@@miqueltielen6089 better start on passive tree

[@miqueltielen6089]

@ i made a deadeye but do u think titan will be better bc of the talent tree?

[@TheMaxxsj]

hey sir , i have been also brainstorming on my warrior and came up with a bow/crowwbow warbringer. gas explosion with the balissta , you could like take points away and make it weapon set swap , for the totems , as they snapshot the stats anyways , you can take out the totems and go more block for u when ur in sceptre or something also i just want to tell you its maybe even better to not go avatar of fire , as ur dps goes down

[@toribasher211122]

@@TheMaxxsj artillery ballista isn’t a detonation skilll

[@TheMaxxsj]

@@toribasher211122 no its a totem ... and maybe u could take points in totem since ur very close to it ;) free AOE laso triggers cast on minion

[@arnfriedrittermeier6380]

I really want to play artillery ballistas, but they can't compete with shockwave totems. They count as melee skill, which can be obtained on 2H mace, and we can equip two of them. Also there's an option to get another +2 on gloves. Now I have a cheap setup with lvl 37 totems, and even without concentrated effect (used for bossing) they have near 65 k damage on tooltip. Nine levels is too much. Will wait for ballistae boost.

[@Vulgaels]

I am running this on titan :) its fantastic, started as ancestral warrior molten blast build but the dps is dependent on ricochet for real end game nuke build. So the artillery is pretty good and the scepter set up helps survavbikity

[@fafnirymd]

been trying this, but I think deadeye is perfect fit for this build since, it its passive affects balista

[@toribasher211122]

Yes I’ve been leveling up deadeye

[@tinutube3858]

Which passive?

[@fafnirymd]

@@tinutube3858 the middle line, endless munition, all the passive there affects balista, increase speed, additional projectile (whcih crossbow doesnt have) and also the extra damage,

[@sarutjaru3413]

increase area and increase area atk power passive it improve to totem too sir ?

[@toribasher211122]

Yes

[@sarutjaru3413]

@@toribasher211122 ohh just to knoww thank sir and then atk speed % it increase to totem same?

[@toribasher211122]

@ yep

[@Cosmicgarou974]

can play this build in low level?

[@toribasher211122]

@@Cosmicgarou974 no

[@Prototype9988]

you can, run a single gas grenade and the big piercing round for clear or you can use galvanized shotgun for help on clear till you get your points on the totems to do the damage on their own

[@eselpipi]

Whats your tooltip DPS?

[@toribasher211122]

20500 for explosion I think and for artillery 7000?? maybe

[@victorscutera7833]

Malice proc too?

[@toribasher211122]

nah, I can't crit because of resolute technique, though If I were take it, it would probably be okayish, but I have a 88% chance to hit, so im losing out on 12% dps so I take resolute technique.

[@GMurph2336]

You could do full conversion to cold damage with blue flame bracers and equip polcerkiln ring which lets you shatter chilled enemies. Slap on herald of ice for the lulz. Idk if it would improve the build but it’s what I’m working on. Oh and War Banner for bosses. At max valor stacks (50) you gain 30% “more” attack damage.

[@stevenbarnes9013]

Let me know how that goes I’m curious

[@GMurph2336]

@@stevenbarnes9013 I edited the original post but, I also added war banner for bossing. I just run around with it on and it accumulates stacks. Then I plant it when the boss becomes damageable and it adds another 30% attack damage because it’s “more” damage.

[@toribasher211122]

@@GMurph2336 what level of maps can it clear?

[@tommyVCE]

tried to post a link but youtube deleted my other comment because of it. anyways, it's maxroll /poe2/planner/cj10ur0v for the howa three dragons ES build you asked for. wrote some notes in it too

[@toribasher211122]

for some reason the link wont work

[@tommyVCE]

@@toribasher211122 are you replacing the space with a period gg? I can't post the whole thing or it will get nuked

[@toribasher211122]

@ oh I got it, thanks