POE2 Crit Comet Bloodmage Early Mapping Gameplay & Tips

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• Video

[@zeekin]

in this video: pohx regretting his choice of ascendancy

[@TheWall96]

Yeah, I honestly don't get the design philosophy behind "Sanguinomancy". It would have made more sense to give it either full blown Blood Magic (Which... I mean... given that the Ascendancy is literally called "Blood Mage", would have been thematic) or something along the lines of "50% of skill mana cost is paid in life", instead of giving it, basically, double the spell cost lmao

[@LOLAP95]

Youre delusional

[@LOLAP95]

Sanguimancy literally means blood magic and using your fallen enemies life force to generate more health and in turn damage is exactly that

[@ryanm4811]

your gear is crazy, best ive seen yet

[@andresrodriguez9841]

streamer client classic kek. na but seriously he is great at crafting AND he is also lucky so yeah, thats why

[@hf4040]

@@andresrodriguez9841 i mean there is no real crafting.... its just slamming .. very unsatisfying

[@ToadMagic]

@@andresrodriguez9841 what crafting?

[@arkcantoscreampsnpc7274]

@@ToadMagicyou can craft the exact mods you want with new essences but you have to get lucky to get t1

[@hypnogri5457]

@@hf4040i think the game expects you to identify eeeevery magic item on the ground for crafting. If you do it with every magic item then after picking up dozens upon dozens some day a good craft will succeed. And ofc also pick up every good base normal item to use up aaaall of the essences

[@JtotheDoubleL]

yo this build is actually so sick

[@Mugi-v7w]

Phox and Ben showing us how insane they are at this game damn

[@CJHub]

been waiting for you to upload your latest build lol. this is amazing!!

[@GMScorpio]

Sanguimancy should split the cost 50/50 not full cost for both imo

[@Blemx]

I wanted to play either Bloodmage or what ever Pohx was playing, didn't look anything up made my bloodmage. I am happy to find out that I can combine both! :D

[@celestial321]

Sweet knowing that this will actually work makes me more committed with the struggle early on rn. I never look up builds until I do them myself and see if others have made something better. Gonna take a little from ya but with a lightning version. Currently act 2

[@drakenmoore]

wow this looks so nice and fun build! Giga big comets :O Loving it!

[@romanboiko9576]

11:40 shattered a monster in the air, nice one

[@staesti]

bloodmage has been absolutely brutal to get through the campaign. The first ascendancy makes shit so difficult compared to making us stronger

[@harklandpaul]

Added so much unnecessary difficulty to the witch...especially during boss fights. I'm still using chaos / curses and my enfeeble takes 125 health every time I cast it. I literally am just killing myself the entire battle with no way to gain health back aside from using a potion.

[@wolvie90]

I pretty much stumbled into this kind of build myself and it's just miserable. I had to overlevel by 8 to complete Ultimatum and even then it was sketchy as fuck, I have put literally every single passive except 3 into damage and my damage output is absolute ass. Bosses is fucking hopeless because freeze build up is slow and Comet is too slow to cast with CoF on a single freeze proc.

[@harklandpaul]

@@wolvie90 so brutal. It’s somewhat manageable when mapping but it makes boss fights drastically more difficult for little to no benefit. Someone in game mentioned a melee witch (blood mage) build with a mace that does crazy damage…but I didn’t ask many questions bc he first told me that I “should probably learn basic game mechanics before opening my mouth” 😂😂

[@wolvie90]

@@harklandpaul Ignore those people. If your response to honest feedback is "lol skill issue git gud" then I will not listen to a word you say. I can see Bonk Mage working, but only with twink leveling gear because there is absolutely nothing supporting that on the Witch starter area.

[@harklandpaul]

@@wolvie90 Oh absolutely. I've been playing games like this my entire life...there's nothing that caters or encourages a bonk build as a witch..especially early game. With that said, chaos / curses (prior to hexblast which I haven't gotten yet) literally makes you feel like you're playing in slow motion. Any time I'm in a party...by the time I get my 2-3 dots up, the mobs are typically chunked down to nothing by everyone else lol

[@RetroHoodie82]

That's a dope ass build Pohx! ✌🏾

[@nickc1290]

That build looks sick with the meteors

[@frankcoley1537]

Pohx QUALITY YOUR WEAPON Quality increases the mods on the weapon now so it's a good thing. It's like using a Gem cutter and a wheatstone in a way. Although more like a Gem cutters.

[@Dharbourbc]

Good to know, I have been not using whetstone on my wand

[@truedps8]

What? Quality does not increase mods. The hell did you get that from?

[@zZLydaniaGamerZz]

​@@truedps8ALT hover over the word quality, weapons with skills like sceptres and wands get gem quality to their inplicit skill, sceptres also get more spirit with quality my man

[@rusudenes8549]

@@truedps8 it dose

[@Elunae]

Quality for staff works different now. Quality = more DMG for the spell from the weapon, such as the ice shard

[@Azqalihm]

7:09 I'm pretty sure magma barrier is bugged tbh. Or at least overtuned. Not as bad as the extra ES mod, but noticable.

[@Silasftww]

Yeah I don’t get it, I can’t kill anyone with that barrier, is it a special strat or something? :P

[@Epsiz]

@@Silasftww nah the magma barrier value is probably a bit overtuned so it's hard to break but when it's on CD you deal your damage normally

[@Silasftww]

@ ​​⁠ok but how does it work? I attacked a rare with it for like 1 Min and it didn’t take any g dmg at all, I waited 20 sec and it looked like a stagger bar went down, but nothing happened when the bar was gone either :(

[@restinginn9906]

Hey dude thank you for the inspiration. There is also a nearby "critical exploit" node path only 3 or 4 nodes away from the beginning of the tree if you perhaps didn't see it

[@brandondavid55]

Omg broooo yout build is so gooooood i go tonuse thisss ty❤

[@KyokujiFGC]

It feels like the ascendancy isn't really doing anything for you right now. Seems like you would've just been better off as a stormcaller.

[@dakotawoodruff2622]

I don't think you understand the multiplier for the life, 4k life = 100% crit damage multiplier and crits spawn health orbs which keep your life up higher.

[@KyokujiFGC]

@@dakotawoodruff2622 The orbs also tend to spawn in melee range on bosses though. Hard to even pick them up without putting yourself in danger. Also, he mentioned himself that he doesn't feel like gore spike is doing a lot at his current health level.

[@wolvie90]

@@KyokujiFGC They literally spawn INSIDE larger bosses. It's complete fucking trash.

[@dakotawoodruff2622]

@@KyokujiFGC You can spawn health orbs off your ice wall in range

[@siemacotam5356]

Iam pretty sure gore spikes doesnt give any crit bonus atm, it doesnt increase damage on gem tooltip

[@SilverReaper7]

I found frost wall is absolutely insane to get freeze. If placed on larger enemies, aka every boss, they auto break the walls and take insane freeze buildup.

[@Rewlim]

Frost wall has been incredible for me. However as a side note you mentioned it might have been useful against that devourer boss but unfortunately frost wall is kinda bugged with devourer mobs specifically and cannot hit them. It can still be good for blocking their projectiles though

[@cantfindnameXD]

Did you drop that staff or craft it because bother that's wild for early game. Mines kinda similar but it's only +2 to cold spells

[@kashashk]

The game is barely two days old, it's gonna get patches based on feedback, that's the entire premise of "Early Access". It being not amazing for everyone right now is to be expected, the payment to play early and beta test was completely optional as the game will be free later.

[@SimplyEagle]

This is the biggest thing that I feel like people have ignored or forgotten.

[@Dharbourbc]

I agree, so many people whining about problems. This is the whole point of ea, to find the problems

[@Venant91182]

@@Dharbourbc If only they would 'fix' detrimental problems like the life cost issue as quickly as they fix abilities deemed to be too strong.

[@Epsiz]

@@Venant91182 i'm playing gaz arrow and the last hotfix to nerf me is painful but entirely deserved, so far the three nerfs are very justified. The life cost thing on bloodmancer is probably harder to balance and i doubt it's still an issue in end game. Looking at pohx gameplay it's not that much of an issue for him anymore and he's barely starting maps however it's extremely build breaking to pick the ascendancy too early so there is definitely something to fix, but it's not a simple task imo

[@KujieSama]

@@Dharbourbc they had closed alpha and beta though and supposedly did thorough testing, Early access is NOT supposed to be testing but limited access of the game. We came to accept it as beta testing sadly.

[@yatsuman]

Have you thought about a 0hp build with tons of life shield? Especially when combined with the mana-to-life-cost passive. I think this class must play around those.

[@ellrr]

I;ve enjoyed the freezing shards from the staves over using eye of winter to proc my freezes purely because it doesnt cost mana so im not permanently fighting my life bar, i dunno if its better though just more comfy

[@grraul2871]

Where did you get so much spirit from? I saw something on the armor piece but what about the rest? Cuz i Can`t get enough spirit for cast on freeze : / Also using minion sceptre for more spririt does not seem to work with cast on freeze as it states I dont have enough spirit but I am way above the threshold or you need the specific shard staff to trigger cast on freeze? If anyone could explain i`d appreciate it

[@Epsiz]

three quests in act 1, act 3 and act3 cruel for a total of 100 spirit. If he has more, it's from the gear (amulet can roll it iirc)

[@grraul2871]

@@Epsiz so I assume that you can`t use the spirit from the scepter : / damn - I switched to something similar on what he made and I am so happy I did - minion build is just awful...

[@ToadMagic]

do u think ggg is gonna kill this build? im finally having fun xdd

[@radumotrescu3832]

PSA: Unspeccing Bloodmage Sanguimancy (Life Remnants) eats linked support gems

[@KMGZbis974]

Damn Phox vibing in map already, me still struggling against boss act 1. xD

[@siemacotam5356]

Cold snap+unleash slaps

[@ThanhLai5]

it's funny that i'm not the only one that get to maps with only 4 Ascendancy points. Trials are overtuned badly.

[@ДенисАлександрович-д5н]

Love u Pohx!

[@yorkshirelad3133]

I'm using a somewhat similar setup on sorc with cast on freeze comets using spell echo so you get 2 comets when they freeze, very powerful, I'm only level 43, destroying the campaign to pieces haha

[@Psycorde]

Pohx entered his Scorcher 3 phase

[@mihai.13]

Did they mention crafting in any of the interviews people had with the devs? I feel like if we could hae the bench back many problems would be solved.

[@jwei444]

Hey Pohx, have you considered the inevitable situation where Comet gets nerfed? Theres no way it isnt getting the bonk

[@ToadMagic]

i mean blood mage doesnt have any other way to function, if they wanna just delete the 5 bloodmage players from the game they can, ill just quit lmao.

[@stevenrock4820]

Hey great vid - two questions. 1 Is blood magic not better than all the mana investment? and second how does cast on crit compare to cast on freeze?

[@Epsiz]

blood magic is certainly an option that is worth exploring in some setups but 1) it would consume most of your overflow life so you have an overall weaker defense and 2) it's super far in the tree and may lack interesting nodes close to it to warant spending on so many +5 to attributes

[@MrMulaaaaa]

Is there a hotkey to turn of Auto Cast (for when we face bosses) and then turn in back?

[@qxetr2964]

Привет! Явввляюсь твоим. Поклонником в плане работы над пое в целом. А стартовать в Крите этом можно?

[@SenatorBanana]

oh god is that what the loot in maps looks like?

[@artemonstrick]

WHAT LOOT? WAHT LOOOT? WHEERE?????

[@morfea123]

Its Ruthless gameplay, loot and skills balance.

[@kashashk]

Although I agree with your sentiment, this is basically a T1 modless (aside from default) "map". But the loot definitely needs some update/rework.

[@blakecorkill]

L take​@@nomad8503

[@MirrorBlood]

​@@nomad8503they put in full end game though the devs skipped campaign acts to bring in full end game

[@theoogy8265]

What did you use for clear before unlocking eye of winter?

[@alexbeliy5131]

What do you think about blood mage build where you have 3-4 aura curses and spell that explodes applied curses on enemy?

[@VividlyViciousGaming]

Lookin good! Cant say my Ranger looks that strong yet haha.

[@GlosnikG]

the spell lech dont fork ? (meby go for the extra pchysical dmg node ) ang u cone gos physiscal mana and lilechh

[@giannis4446]

who needs layer of defenses when you can roll all the damage away

[@nyghthawk00]

Hyena boss, activate the fight, run off his ledge, into the open, let the fight reset, he won't do any of his moves after reengaging.

[@TheUptex]

How do you deal with life cost of skills ? How do you sustaint without leech ? After few spells, i'm out of life and mana !

[@rothaarshanks4401]

i lovve the game so far. it feels like a mix of Diablo 1 the atmosphere and boss fights. and a mix of ruthless poe 1

[@sPARTANeMPEROR]

Does reduced mana cost of skills work ??? Are they different

[@TheSLAUG]

Well, by chance we both started with the same build!! since day 1!! Although I don't know when I can get the first ancestry since the life consumption per spell ends up killing me in booses! could you help me

[@Morganaplays]

Ars you gonna do rf build?

[@polybius9089]

Rathbreaker dropped me an Unique Helmet that automatically insta-ignites enemies around me, which essentially works as Righteous Fire. Maybe you want to farm it and bless us with an RF build :D

[@metaminerx]

the blood orbs need to heal wayy more if you have lost health. they should remove the mana cost once u go blood mage or convert mana to life or mana regen applies to life? it just feels bad right now from the first 2 points.

[@twistn4393]

is there no mobility spells like frostblink or something? will it always be that "slow"?

[@kikatchu1087]

Just swapped to eye of winter, any way to fix mana issues ? I already use inspiration

[@TheCobaltJay]

Been playing a very similar build and literally had to refund my ascendancy points to remove the first node to beat act 3 Viper Boss, the health costs just seem so ridiculous compared to the orbs that drop

[@Dem0n123-w4m]

Looking for something bloodmage to swap to i tried making ed/contagion.... Brother my spells to set up a single ED cost me 1000 life. Unspeccing the ascendancy at this point would be a huge improvement. I was having to do pretty much all cruel bosses until maps on no hit or i run out of life flasks to cast.

[@XBluDiamondX]

Yeah, I did ED/Contagion with Blood Mage. It's complete ass. When I looked at both ascendancy, it looked like GGG gave the big middle finger to chaos damage as I felt there was nothing that really supported a chaos build. The leech node does barely nothing, and most of the boss fights I die to is because I just run out of charges on my life flask and I'm like, "whelp, guess I'll just die now."

[@MarceloDarkBlaze]

40 sec gang rise up

[@Kathylnz]

What's your atlast build ??

[@eak3425]

Where does spirit gem level 8 start dropping for cast on freeze? Currently end of act 3 and have not found one

[@alexpridham6759]

There is a guaranteed drop in act 3 against the boss in the bog that gives you the extra 30 spirit.

[@Moshca]

Man, cold spells look cool in PoE 2

[@wellendowedplatypus9024]

They sound even cooler. Practically freezing.

[@radumotrescu3832]

Would you see any other type of build played with bloodmage early? I tried doing something with physical spells but it was basically impossible to progress with. I almost level 40, even just normal cold spells feel zdps against bosses.

[@mewea]

I'm playing frostbolt coldsnap since act 1 and it feels fine, just needs a lot of gear, good staff included

[@Kuriboh-ec1me]

Why persistence on frost bomb ? It takes too long by the time it's exploded no one's in the area, I've been using fast forward in replace of persistent. Why choose persistent over fast forward ?

[@alexpridham6759]

Its not for damage but exposure which is done on the pulses and not the explosion.

[@evindtv]

Once I realized Blood mage cannot ignite, I just deleted my level 44 character and starting fresh

[@JezzyHsu]

Why can't they? stormweaver doesnt seem to add anything related to that

[@evindtv]

@JezzyHsu It's under the details of life remnants (when pressing "G"). The first line after the description simply says, "Cannot ignite"

[@JezzyHsu]

@@evindtv wouldn't that just mean life remanants cant ignite? In any case, why is ignite important for cold mage? I also just retired my level 27 blood mage to restart as stormweaver. I was following Pohx, but seeing even he just has 2 ascendency nodes (and I'm much more of a noob than he is), I rather have 2 of stormweaver nodes than get stuck paying life for spells. I wanted blood mage cuz eventually you can leech and have progensis, but not sure if that's worth it right now, and stormweaver might be able to go archmage/MOM.

[@фанатКуплинова-ь1е]

blood mage can ignite

[@hypnogri5457]

They.. can? I think? Unless I’m stoopid 😊

[@Legitcubano]

Is there a guide with cisuals for the tree ?

[@lockekant9361]

I really need the FAQ or tips and tricks video. I'm still in act 2 and it seems like my boss damage output is a trickle. Like freeze with curse into cold snap barely takes off a tiny chunk.

[@krabbanshandplay2656]

Had that issue on HC getting to act 1 boss twice but not spending enough time getting a better weapon, gear and setup. F me with all the ads getting me stuck in both first and second rey

[@setcamper]

I don't think Freeze is really worth it until you can get Cast on Freeze early in Act3, and auto proc cold snap and use Frost Wall for bosses. Better off just playing Firewall Spark until then. I swapped in Act2 and hated it until Cast on Freeze.

[@hwago123]

Why Bloodmage over Stormweaver? I was thinking about going some kind of melee or battlemage Bloodmage

[@chinnerchilla]

bloodmage is fully spell crit focused so its good for mage dps builds that revolve around crit but its hard to upkeep the buffs at this stage of the game, its still fun tho

[@ChrisKruxed]

Ice op and no surprise Pohx has great gear lol

[@opopop70]

why my cast on freeze does not cast comet every freeze? i get 96% at left corner :/

[@Warrax5]

You get 100 energy when you freeze but comet costs more than that so it casts on every 2 freezes If you want to cast on every freeze you need sources of increased energy (Impetus support, gem levels on cast on freeze, %energy on the tree)

[@opopop70]

@@Warrax5 thanks !

[@sparaaaa]

You dont need vitality siphon?

[@HAEBOM705]

How does mana recovery work?

[@Qzzz84]

Is the loot also so bad in maps ?

[@Garryo_27]

I solved all my mana problems during maps with 2 jewels with each 2% mana on kill and 33 on mana on kill, split on two items.

[@OSik83]

Does leech stop at full hp or double hp for bloodmage ?

[@stevenjohnson7183]

This is the question. Pretty sure it stops at "full", not "overflow"....which sucks

[@thisisMRJAMES]

Can we do a caster warrior?

[@garygordon9243]

Why frost instead of occult? Does dots not give leech?

[@Lostforface]

Im currently ocult witch, experementing and looking for a possible way out :D. Dots dont crit as far as I understand, so no blood orbs or other sinergies

[@stevenjohnson7183]

Leech is on "hits". Dots don't hit, so therefore don't leech. Haven't tested it myself, but it's been this way since forever and in poe2 if you look at the leech mechanic, it still says "on hits" :(

[@garygordon9243]

@@stevenjohnson7183 so do dots crit then? Can you use the rest of the ascendancy skills that affect crit?

[@Ahlong9711]

any early game leveling guide ?

[@koopk1]

anyone figure out how to fix the mana issue yet other than mana on kill? i have a ton, like 80 mana on kill and this build still feels awful, cant fight small packs of mobs very easily, which frequently happens in tight are maps

[@griv87]

Honestly dont know how you dont have mana issues, comet costs so much when it procs and eye of winter is like 10% of your mana when you cast it. I have mana on kill on my staff too and my mana sustain is absolutely terrible.

[@rk-li9ks]

Hey, how did you reach 150 spirit?

[@ToadMagic]

30 a1 30 a3 30 a6 can get 65 spirit from chest and like 40 from ammy

[@nogamenolife705]

Is there a levelling guide for this? Total noob here.

[@Gam3Junkie]

^ Would love to see whats recommended for act 2 etc.

[@MirrorBlood]

Dont use a guide just learn the game make mistakes improve do it again become your own guide its new game now its time to learn no rush you got this

[@Silasftww]

I was struggling a lot and found his vod and it helped so much, buy freezing shard staff everytime you can and spam it wirt frostbomb frostbolt and cold snap :)

[@Pizzicrust]

@@MirrorBlood Some people want strong build, rush fast, struggle less

[@gerny0071]

guys the build is broken what do i do now lol

[@k.h.raider9329]

Got to the end of the trial to ascend and game crashed, then placed me back at the beginning of it to do it all over again. Is anyone else having this issue?

[@svinkozdesb]

Why not cast on crit?

[@rinotz7]

Blood Mage sounds great in theory, but in reality, when you play it, it's probably one of the worst ascendancies right now. I've made it to maps but I think going Sorc would have been a smarter choice.

[@opopop70]

why you gave up on spell leech ?

[@maximeegiazarian5075]

Because it is curently not working, you dont get any leech so Its not worth wasting a point

[@grraul2871]

@@maximeegiazarian5075 lol really it`s not working ? broooooooo that was the whole point of the damn build

[@maximeegiazarian5075]

@@grraul2871 yes Its bugged unfortunately But I didnt need spell leech for any acts, you dont miss much honestly

[@760viater]

Yeah finding gear is insane right now lol. I feel like im playing ruthless,

[@Plop_Loggin]

Im not following any sort of guide or anything for my sorc and i feel like im headed in the same direction lol

[@blakecorkill]

Game needs a TON of tweaking

[@JezzyHsu]

Is there cast on crit in POE2? If so would it be better / more consistent than cast on freeze, since bosses get more resistant to freeze as they are frozen?

[@dagorran]

it exists, but would also probably kill him from the life cost of comet

[@NOAH-oq3xb]

I hope they just change life remnants completely. It's so boring and doesn't make me feel like a Blood Mage at all. Maybe if picking up an orb also applied bleeding to our spells or something, it'd be kinda cool, but for now it's just lame in my opinion

[@animehbkscm]

Gearing is an absolute nightmare right now. They need to do something quick because it feels worse than ruthless.

[@cocacolaman7092]

early access ffs

[@bakuguy131]

@@cocacolaman7092 Dude, they had so much feedback during the 3 closed beta tests, this is their vision and it uhhh, it's something

[@FinalFormTV]

@@bakuguy131 If it was their vision to reduce loot by this amount, then they wouldn't of included loot filters cause they wouldn't of been noted. It's defo an early access thing. They could of even decreased loot drops to help with server stability due to the amount of players at launch.

[@musiccoversdk4506]

@@FinalFormTVthis was my thought process it will all be better soon just gotta wait

[@frankcoley1537]

Invest in stats and farm lower areas

[@miracle1496]

Is coc will be better?

[@nelsoncontreras7047]

bloodmage is better for ice build then stormweaver?

[@MrAreYouDeadYet]

Probably not

[@thequilldrop]

ive gotta try this build sometime, holy

[@Jubanen12]

thats definately way more effective than what ever Im doing... Im less squishy but Im doing less damage.

[@Scotteo6]

Man this is very cool to see the Blood Mage do something, but I feel like I’ll just make a sorcerer and shelf my BM at level 40 for now. It’s a pretty disappointing class.

[@nholanl1952]

Is this soft or hardcore?

[@ponjix9429]

Wait, you can only ascend 2 times for max of 4 points ?????

[@FinalFormTV]

not all the acts are out yet

[@alperwal200443]

3 times for sure. 4th you need to check

[@ponjix9429]

@@FinalFormTV would be rly dumb for ggg to skip the third and fourth ascendancy Just BC the original finished acts are Not there yet

[@ghost_m3p]

Im just cuious on why hes complaining about the amount of life skills take as bloodmage without taking the ascendancy that gives 10% of spell damage as life?

[@PohxKappa]

This won't apply to overhealth from the bloodmage ascendancy, also a bit backwards to have to ascend 2 times to fix a problem the first ascention created imo

[@ghost_m3p]

@@PohxKappaYeah, makes sense….lifetap in the first node… its almost like GGG hit the bloodmage first ascendancy node with a vaal orb 🤦🏽‍♂️