A Witch's Journey - Hours of Video no one will ever watch

On December 8, 2018, I woke up at 2AM. I wouldn't sleep again for many, many hours. I wasn't supposed to wake up until about 5:30AM; but - the time to win, the time to compete, and the Path to Exile did indeed await.

I began my journey to foreign matter about server wait times, queues, and studying the skill tree that I would be following.

The excitement built, and I journey into the realms of Wraeclast as a Witch.

The first few hours passed easilly enough - familiar lands through a familiar act, with deeds completely familiar - though I paid less and less attention to the plot, in a bid to race forward as quickly as I humanly could.

The video below represents the first part of my journey

As normal, life tends to get in the way of things, and I needed to leave the house for a few hours. Unlike Diablo, the wonderful Path of Exile is not available on a mobile device or Nintendo Switch, which led me to reading about item combination recipes while waiting for life to happen.

As soon as I was done with my deeds outside of the house, I returned, knowing I would only have a short period of time before I needed to go out again, eat lunch, and then, eventually come back to continue my journey with my Witch. She was growing ever-more powerful.

I had a schnitzel for lunch that day, with mushroom ragout, broccoli, and deliciously tender chicken. I consumed every bite knowing that this would be the sustenance to sustain me for the hours to come, and where the bulk of my progress in Path of Exile would come about.

Upon returning home, I was disappointed to hear that Blizzard were apparently undetrtaking a distributed denial of service attack upon the glorious Path of Exile authentication servers, if Twitter is anything to be believed.

I broke up this time by playing STEEM Monsters, and got a four and a half hour epic long session of gaming in. No one will probably watch this in its entirety, but this was the session in which I made good earlier mistakes, obtained additional strength, and tried to not get lost in loot (and inventory) hell.

I had friends due to come around for dinner, which cut this stream short. We talked, we ate, we terrified a few individuals with new and confronting virtual reality experiences using my PlayStation VR headset, and I forgot the wonders of just how good Planet Earth II looks on a 4K HDR tv, via Blu-Ray.

I then returned to my computer for one final push to the finish line, for my Witch's journey should have only lasted for 24 hours.

Sadly, it was not to last at all.

This final, fateful hour, saw me rush through the remainder of Act 3, commencing the climb up the spire to the end of act boss. The new, additional Betrayal content is not exactly what contributed to my undoing, but it was a major, contributing factor.

The witch met her untimely demise. I was stunned. I was shocked. I was shattered. I was tired. I went to bed upset, in mourning, and a broken man. She would never grace the fields of Hardcore Path of Exile ever again.

So why did I do this?

Every time there's a new league released in Path of Exile, @mattclarke throws an enormously shiny pile of STEEM around to those who can survive and outlast the punishing Player Versus Environment setting of the game.

This is what got me started on my own path to exile, and it is a game that I have played on the edge of my seat for nearly 100 hours. (the STEAM client reports I've played 96 hours, so far).

Every second that you survive means that you're a second closer to death. This too, applies to the real world, but you're not pursued by endless creatures, dangerous abominations, and the real, gritty struggle for survival that the world illustrated by Path of Exile represents.

Thanks to @mattclarke for running this contest, and thanks even more to Grinding Gear Games, developers of the title, for making a true successor to Diablo.