The Best Starter Builds for the Harvest League and Patch 3.11
 

Patch 3.11 is going live soon, and alongside it, the Harvest League is starting. Once again a vast number of Items, Skills, and game-changing tweaks are getting introduced. One thing's for sure, the pace is slowing down with the Harvest League and you may be seeing more "slower" builds around. Patch 3.11 primarily addresses the Two-Handed Melee archetype, with nerfs to pretty much every other build type you might be familiar with. Also, with the Harvest mechanics, you will see builds that can get their DPS ready before harvesting crops to be quite popular as well. Builds based on Mines, Traps, Totems are surely going to be fit for the upcoming League. 

As usual, we are listing builds that are both cheap and easy to level up but also offer an easy transition to end-game without excessive investments in gear. Most of the builds below are capable of taking down any Boss in the game and will work fine without extremely expensive Uniques and Crafted equipment.  

PLEASE NOTE: The following list is based on our team's overall experience and Patch 3.11 notes, and wasn't tested in the Harvest League yet. Also, we have decided to include at least one build of each of the main Build archetypes, so obviously there are a lot of other strong Starter Builds out there that couldn't find their spot below. This list should narrow down some choices for newer players and beginners, but at the very end, you should simply play what you like and enjoy.

#1

Essence Drain Trickster (3.11 READY) - for a lot of players, Essence Drain is the synonym of Starter Build. Essence Drain offers insane clear speed, killing enemies screens ahead, and its' core Damage comes from Skill Gems and Passives, requiring nearly no expensive equipment. At the same time, with a slightly higher budget which allows you to get Cluster Jewels, Crafting a +3 Bow, allows you to scale your damage to some crazy extent. As a Trickster, you also get solid defensive mechanics and unparalleled mobility. The build itself wasn't affected much by 3.11's changes and nerfs and is as viable as always in the upcoming Harvest League

#2

Sunder Two-Handed Juggernaut (3.11 READY) - Two-Handed Melee fighters get a big buff in Patch 3.11. This type of builds is characterized by high AoE Damage and strong survivability based on Life and Armour Rating. Juggernaut Ascendacy offers very high defensive utility, so in terms of gear, you can focus more on maximizing your damage output giving you a more enjoyable gameplay experience. This is not the perfect example of a Starter build, as you will have to improve your Weapons once in a while, and is more of a gear-dependant build, but with the current buffs you can surely expect this to be very popular and a truly viable choice for the Harvest League

#3

Volatile Dead Spellslinger Necromancer (3.11 READY) - this Necromancer build wasn't primarily built as a "Starter", however, Spellslinger appears to offer one of the best leveling mechanics in the game. You will be filling up your screen with Volatile Dead's fiery orbs and obliterating enemies in no time. At the same time, later on, when you get to pick up all the recommended unique, this build turns into a truly monstrous creation which can take down any Boss in the game while offering extremely smooth trigger-type playstyle

#4

Pyroclast Mine Saboteur (3.11 READY) - Miners, in general, are among the top Starter classes in the game. Even with the recent nerfs to Mine's damage multipliers, you still get to dish out some crazy numbers on a budget, and Saboteur's Dodge and Regen-oriented defenses and clear speed remain unaffected. Also, we predict that a lot of players will play Life/Melee characters, so Low-Life and Energy Shield should be slightly easier to obtain when you eventually decide to transition into end-game with this powerful Saboteur build. Also, Miners will be surely extremely useful when it comes to dealing with Harvest's mechanics, as you can place down your Mines prior to harvesting crops and being prepared to melt enemies with sick upfront damage when they are summoned

#5

Holy Flame Totem Hierophant build (3.11 READY) - Totems, just like Mines and Traps, allow you to prepare yourself for the enemies and Bosses that are yet to come. This build offers amazing DPS based on Physical to Elemental Damage Conversion which allows you to scale it with end-game equipment, while still offering very solid damage on lower levels and when breezing through the campaign

#6

Raise Spectre Necromancer Build (3.11 READY) - Spectre Necromancer is the most popular Minion build in Path of Exile. It offers amazing damage output with great clear speed and a lot of flexibility. Our build revolves around Slave Driver Spectres, but there are a lot of other powerful options out there you can experiment with. Spectres don't require any specific equipment, as you are mainly focusing on boosting your own defenses with it, and it's a fully end-game viable build which shouldn't have any issues with most of the high Tier Bosses

#7

Toxic Rain Pathfinder Starter build (3.11 READY) - Toxic Rain Pathfinder is a truly amazing Starter build which relies on high Attach speed early on to scale DoT damage, but thanks to the introduction of Cluster Jewels and additional Poison/Chaos Damage over Time multiplier sources, we get to actually push this build into Higher Tier Maps and make it capable of dealing with any Boss in the game. Pathfinder offers high Poison Damage bonuses, solid defenses, good mobility, and 100% Flask uptime

#8

Ball Lightning Archmage Hierophant Build (3.11 READY) - This Hierophant was one of the last builds we have played in Delirium League and hence there is no guide for it up, but we should have it up and running for Patch 3.11 in no time. It's one of a few builds that took down Bosses with single-casts because of massive damage bonuses from Archmage and Arcane Cloak Gems. The damage bonuses from Archmage Support got slightly nerfed (approx 20% reduction), however, the base Damage and Damage effectiveness of Ball Lightning got buffed, so it pretty much makes this build's potential unaffected by Patch 3.11 changes

If you have any suggestions about other interesting or solid Starter Builds for the Harvest League, or you would like us to make a different build - for example, based on one of the newly introduced Skill Gems, let us know in the comments below! We always appreciate as well constructive criticism as it helps us improve our content!

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games