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January 25, 2013 By Jack Jones 1 Comment

Path of Exile Mechanics Guide – Skills, Flasks, and Attributes

Skills

Skill Types

There are two types of skills: spells, and attack skills. Skills that use weapon damage are attack skills. Everything else is a spell skill.

Attack skills – Effected by your weapon’s DPS. Attack speed, accuracy, and bonus damage from gear(ex. 1-7 lightning damage on a ring) are applied to attack skills.

Spells – Spells are not effected by weapon DPS. Percent cast speed, percent elemental damage(cold, fire, lightning), percent spell damage, and critical strikes effect the damage output of your spells. Bonuses such as 1-7 lightning damage on gear does not factor into your spell’s damage.

Support Gems

Support gems work very intuitively. For example a skill that causes direct damage but has no area of effect will not benefit from a support gem which increases the area of effect of skills. Similarly a skill which has no damage component will not benefit from a support gem that adds lightning damage.

Gem Quality

Gems can have quality bonuses just like items and flasks. The quality of a gem can be improved by using a Gem Cutter’s Prism. Gems with +% quality also drop from mobs and can be very valuable(so pick them up!). Here’s an informative spreadsheet detailing the bonuses given by increased gem quality to every skill gem available. The quality of a gem has dramatic impacts on the skill’s effectiveness and this should not be overlooked as a path to upgrading your character. For example a Lightning Strike gem with +16% quality will increase the physical damage % of Lightning Strike by 43% more, compared to a gem with +2% quality which increases the physical damage % by only 3%. Increase the quality of your primary gems whenever possible.

Skill gem experience gain

  • Gems gain experience equal to 10% of the experience you gain.
  • Gem experience is independent of the number of gems equipped. Your skill gems will level up at the same rate whether you have two skill gems equipped or twenty.
  • Gems do not lose experience when you die.

Flasks

There are four types of flasks: Life, Mana, Hybrid, and Utility.

Life, Mana, and Hybrid flasks

When used(by hitting the 1-5 number keys) these flasks grant you life or mana regeneration. How much life or mana you recover is denoted by the Life Recovery and Mana Recovery labels. Hitting maximum life or mana before the full effect of the flask has been used will cause the life or mana regeneration effect to stop prematurely.

For example: you are at 100/300 life, and 150/200 mana. You use a hybrid flask that has 400 Life Recovery, 200 Mana Recovery, and Recovery Time of 8 seconds. After 2 seconds, you will be at 200/300 life, and 200/200 mana, and the mana recovery effects ends. The life recovery continues, and at 4 seconds, you have reached maximum life, and the life recovery effect also ends.
Flasks can have magic modifiers that provide bonuses while the flask effect is active, for example increased movement speed or resistances. These bonuses end when the life/mana recovery effect ends.

When multiple flasks are activated the effects are queued and not cumulative. For example if you drink two health flasks they will not grant double health regeneration. Rather the flask with the highest health/second effect will take effect first and when that effect runs out the regeneration effect from your second health flask will kick in.
Utility Flasks

These flasks give a temporary bonus for a set duration. Unlike the other flasks, the effects are not queued, each effect has its own timer that can overlap with other effects. The default effects of the flasks will not stack. For example:

The default effect of a Granite Flask grants you +4000 armor. You can find magical Granite Flasks with more properties, such as +25% movement speed. If you drink a regular Granite Flask you will gain +4000 armor. If you drink another Granite Flask with a 25% move-speed mod while your regular flask is still active you will gain the +25% move speed but not an extra +4000 armor.

Flask Charges

Drinking a flask consumes flask charges. Mouse over a flask to see how many charges it uses per use and the maximum number of charges that it holds. When you or a minion(totem, zombie, trap, etc.) kills an enemy ALL of your flasks gain charge.

Normal mobs grant one charge. Blue monsters grant three to five charges each. Yellow mobs grant six charges each.

If you had three flasks with 20/40 charges and you killed a yellow mob all three of the flasks would gain six charges and be sitting at 26/40.

Attributes

Life and Mana per level

Each time you level your character gains +6 life, +4 mana, and +3 evasion. This is the same for all character classes.

Attributes

Your attributes determine what skills and equipment you can use. They also grant passive bonuses:
Strength grants +0.5 life and +0.2% melee physical damage per point
Dexterity grants +2 accuracy and +0.2% evasion per point
Intelligence grants +0.5 mana and +0.2% energy shield per point

10 Strength grants: +5 life, +2% melee physical damage
10 Dexterity grants: +20 accuracy, +2% evasion
10 Intelligence grants: +5 mana, +2% energy shield

Life and mana regeneration

All classes have a base mana regeneration rate of 105% of their maximum mana per minute. “Increased Mana regeneration rate” modifies the base mana regen rate. For example, 20% Increased Mana regeneration rate would result in 105 * 1.2 = 126% per minute.

All classes start with zero life regeneration. Life regeneration can be gained through the passive skill tree and as modifiers on items.

Life gained from life leech is capped at 20% of your maximum life per second. Ex. you 1000 maximum life and leech 600 life with a single attack. The 20% cap says you can only gain 200 max life per second so it takes you three seconds to regain the life you leeched with that single attack. Like flasks the life regen provided by life leech ends when you reach full health.

Mana regained from mana leech is capped at 12.5% of your maximum mana pool per second.

Credit goes to poster Malice who compiled most of this information on the PoE forums here.

Filed Under: Path of Exile

January 24, 2013 By Jack Jones 5 Comments

Cardio That Doesn’t Suck

“I just love spending hours running in place, surrounded by old men who are dripping with back-sweat.”  – Said no one, ever.

The cardio bunny – the only being in existence that makes machine cardio bearable.

Traditional cardio – boring and inefficient

Why would you spend half an hour on the treadmill or elliptical when you can burn twice as many calories in half the time, AND induce hypertrophy on two to three major muscle groups? My philosophy for the gym: work as hard as you can, as fast as you can, for the most results. Anything else is a waste of time. Here are eight cardio circuits that can be completed in fifteen minutes or less, broken down into beginner and advanced categories.

Efficient and FUN cardio circuits

Beginner

The “beginner” term just encompasses movements that are easier to perform and don’t require a foundation of strength or an advanced knowledge of form to perform correctly. It is not a statement on their effectiveness as circuit cardio. I do these movements every week.

  • The Jay Wilson – To ward off the patented Jay Wilson triple-chin
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 20 Bodyweight Squats
    • 20 Crunches
    • Repeat the circuit for fifteen minutes with as little rest as possible between each exercise.
    • Hits chest/tri/shoulders and legs really well in addition to the cardio.
  • The Ironforge Circuit – Performed by the Dwarves of Ironforge for centuries
    • 10 Burpees(click links to see the exercise performed)
    • 1 Pullup
    • Repeat for fifteen minutes with as little rest as possible between each exercise.
    • Hits every major muscle group in the body ontop of the cardio performed.
  • Super Mario Training
    • 15 Jumping Squats
    • 5 Jumping Pull-Ups(Use momentum from your jump to pull yourself up, should be easier than dead-hang pull-up, designed to force blood into your arms/back and not so much build back/bis)
    • 15 Crunches
    • Cycle for fifteen minutes. Intensity – just below the threshold of you wanting to throw up everywhere.
    • This is fantastic cardio, the crunches are your recovery time.
  • Gnome Mercy
    • 50 Lunges(50 per leg)
    • 20 STANDING Arnold Dumbbell Presses(with an appropriate weight)
    • Cycle for fifteen minutes or death, whichever occurs first.

Advanced

  • The Arrhhhhnoold – Grunting and screaming during sets is encouraged
    • 21-15-9 Power Cleans
    • 21-15-9 Push Press
    • 21-15-9 Bent Over Rows
    • 21-15-9 Hang Clean
    • Do this with a barbell, weight should be something you can push press 20 times comfortably
    • You’ll do 21 reps of each exercise for the first set, 15 reps each for the second, and nine reps each for the third set.
“What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women.”
  • Kettlebells – Yeah I’m all out of creative names
    • 25 One-armed Kettlebell Clean(25 each arm)
    • 15 Pushups
    • 5 Pullups
    • Do five circuits with minimal rest between sets.
  • Modified Fran
    • 21-15-9 Front Squats into Push Press
    • 21-15-9 Pullups
    • Run a mile
    • Do the front squats and pullups back to back, then run the mile with a moderately high intensity(about 85% of your max effort).
  • The Murph – Named after fallen Navy SEAL Michael Murphy
    • Run one mile
    • Do: 300 squats, 200 pushups, 100 pullups(I break them down into sets of 15 squats, 10 pushups, and 5 pullups for 20 sets)
    • Run another mile
    • This should take somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes and is not for the faint of heart.

Integrate these circuits into your workouts however you like. I will throw in one of the above after a weight lifting session three to four times a week. If I’m really feeling motivated I’ll do something like The Murph on an off-day. Nobody ever achieved greatness by being comfortable and safe.

Filed Under: Featured, Fitness, Health

January 23, 2013 By Jack Jones 10 Comments

21 Tips and Tricks New Path of Exile Players NEED to Know!


Hello new exile! This guide will help orient you to the complex structure of Path of Exile and give you a heads up to some of the more obscure mechanics in the game.

In no particular order, the tips!

  1. HAVE FUN and don’t worry if you’re using the best or most optimal builds! The game is designed for you to create multiple characters and explore different item and skill combinations. Your first character is almost guaranteed to suck. So go with it and just enjoy the ride.
  2. Pick an AOE skill early on and USE it! You can thank me when you’re not 30 levels behind everyone else.
  3. To link an item in chat hold control + alt and then click the item.
  4. You can use ANY gem as ANY class as long as you meet the stat requirements
  5. Some reasons to not level up a skill gem – the mana cost of the upgraded skill may become too prohibitive or you may not have the stats required to use the upgraded skill gem.
  6. Control + click an instance allows you to reset that instance. Useful for farming.
  7. Empty instances are reset after 15 minutes. Keep those town-runs quick, and if you need to be AFK for longer periods of time do so in a safe part of the instance and not in town.
  8. If you die in hardcore your character will be moved to the regular(softcore) league and you can continue playing them there.
  9. Exalted Orbs, Divine Orbs, Gem Cutters Prisms, and Chaos Orbs are the most valuable currency. Best bet is to hoard everything until you get a good understanding of values in this game.
  10. White items can be insanely valuable. This is because some of the best items in the game can be crafted from a white item using the aforementioned currencies. Example: Find a high base quality white weapon. Increase its quality by +20% using Blacksmith’s Whetstones(a currency item), then use an Orb of Alchemy on the item to make it a rare!
  11. Pick up: all currency items, quality skill gems(hover over the gem, if it has a Quality bonus, no matter how  small, pick it up), uniques(duh), items with three color links(ex. red, blue, green socket linked together, these vendor for chromatic orbs, a valuable currency item).
  12. White items to keep a lookout for – any item with 5+ links, 5+ link items are very rare and can be sold/upgraded well. And of course three color link items.
  13. Dual wielding grants +10% increased attack speed and +15% increased block chance
  14. There are now three acts with three difficulty types(normal, cruel, and ruthless). Pretty much normal, hell, inferno. Each increase in difficulty and act makes the game noticeably more difficult.
  15. You need elemental resistances. An easy way to build up resists is through rings. It’s a good idea to carry around different sets of resist rings and swap them out depending on the mobs you encounter.
  16. Path of Exile can be unforgiving for those who neglect defenses(like elemental resistances). Sure you  could make a full glass cannon build. But, would I advise that? Absolutely not.
  17. Be sure to pick up +100% life or energy shield from your passive skill tree.
  18. When making new builds plan for about 60 skill points. No need to get all crazy with a 120 point build. By the time you have 60 you’ll have a much better understanding of where the skill points should be going. Also, this keeps your head from exploding.
  19. Look out for puncture. This is a skill enemies use that does five times more damage while you are moving. You are effected by puncture if you’re leaving a giant trail of blood behind you, and you HP is dropping like a rock.
  20. Don’t know how to build your character? Check out the official path of exile forums for ideas.
  21. You can join other player’s games by visiting the message-board in town. Friends who slay together, stay together!

Sources: http://blackrabbit2999.blogspot.com/2012/07/path-of-exile-loot-guide.html http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Diablo_Players_Guide_to_Path_of_Exile Forum poster IronRooster2

Filed Under: Path of Exile

January 19, 2013 By Jack Jones Leave a Comment

Grab your brews (It’s tea time)

You should be drinking tea—really, you should.

Tea? No, it’s not for grandmas or little girls—you’ve all been fooled.

That keg’s full of green tea and vodka. Pandas don’t fuck around.

Here are a three reasons why tea should be part of your morning routine:

  1. It’s healthy. And it gathers your focus. We’re not saying that you’ll be a super-hero when you drink tea—but, well, maybe we are.

Tea is packed with antioxidants and a very unique amino acid called L-theanine. L-theanine acts together with the caffeine in tea to stimulate creativity and clear thoughts. Coffee doesn’t naturally contain L-theanine, which is why coffee is more likely to grant jittery energy, while tea provides a more thoughtful, concentrated focus.

History seems to agree. We’ve been drinking tea for more than 3000 thousand years—as a comparison, we’ve been drinking coffee for about 500 years and we’ve been drinking energy drinks for about 10 years.

Here’s more: real, high quality tea is sugar-free, gluten-free, and zero calories. Cheers to that.

  1. Tea is easy on your wallet (high quality tea, that is).

High quality, loose leaf tea (tea that doesn’t come in bags) is a great deal. Let’s put on our top-hats, break out our calculators and do some fancy math.

A single serving of an energy drink under a best-case scenario is $1

A 1lb. bag of coffee at Starbucks is around $10 and yields about 40 servings—that’s $.25/serving.

Crappy bag tea sells for around $6 for 18 bags—that’s $.33/serving. You pay a lot for the convenience of bags.

A 2.75 ounce tin of high-quality, loose tea is around $10, but it yields about 60 servings—that’s $.17/serving.

Tea is so much less expensive because it is so efficient. Tea—good tea—can be rebrewed several times. Each time you rebrew tea, you are halving the cost of the cup. You can’t do that with coffee.

  1. Tea is delicious (and no, we don’t mean sweet tea).

If you aren’t a tea-drinker, you probably haven’t had good tea. You’ve probably been turned off by terrible, bitter, grassy green tea. Or maybe it was the flat and lifeless dust that comes in mass-market bags? Either way, know this: high quality tea isn’t like that. Real tea has natural hints of sweetness. Some carry hints of grapes and chocolate. Others have a deep and complex smokiness that rival a fine whiskey.

We think it’s high-time you consider yourself a tea-drinker. Don’t be fooled—you really don’t need those energy drinks, and you don’t need the coffee. Tea is healthier, better for the environments, and better for your wallet. Huzzah!

This post was written by Tyler Beckett, entrepreneur and founder of Hugo Tea. He has a passion for tea bordering on insanity and prides himself in delivering the highest quality tea this side of the Mississippi. If you’re looking for a high quality tea then definitely check out Tyler’s selection at www.hugotea.com Do it. Go. Right now.

Filed Under: Featured, Health, Nutrition

January 18, 2013 By Jack Jones Leave a Comment

FIVE MINUTE Pushup/Pullup Challenge

The intent of this challenge is to not only help you improve your pushups and pullups, but to help you realize the wonderful and powerful forces behind setting goals, forming habits, and discipline.

The Challenge

To start off test yourself to find the maximum number of pushups and pullups you can complete in one set without stopping to rest. Enter those numbers into this Bodyweight Workout Spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet takes your maximum effort numbers and breaks them down into individual workouts. The challenge calls for performing four sets of pushups and pullups five times a week. These sets start off at only 30% of your maximum effort. The workouts are designed to be easy to complete and take no more than five minutes each day.

What days you do these on are up to you. I recommend doing the workout three days in a row, skipping one day, then finishing with two more days in a row. I’m going to do these on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings.

After six weeks the plan calls for a break and just take it easy this week. When you are fully recovered(have had at least three days without performing any strenuous chest, back, or bicep exercises) test yourself again to find your new maxes. Enter these numbers back into the spreadsheet for another six weeks worth of workouts!

Need a Pullup Bar?

The Iron Gym is affordable and does the trick! Link to it on Amazon.

This seems way too easy…

It seems so… because it is! Fitness is not and should not be some grueling monumental challenge. Incredible results can be had for a very small investment of time and energy. And that’s why I’m so excited about this challenge. I think you’re going to be blown away by just how much you can improve your pushups and pullups in these fourteen weeks and even more so I think you’ll be impressed by how developing good habits and self-discipline with exercise can extend benefits into every other area of your life.

Are you up for the challenge?

Comment below with your starting maxes and then report back periodically with your progress!

Filed Under: Featured, Fitness, Health

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