Path of Exiles Competition : Top Ranger Bounty Won!
The Path of Exiles competition put on by @mattclarke finished up in the wee hours of this morning Australia Time. He did a great job putting this on and you can read the official write-up HERE but regular followers of my blog might recall that I sweetened the pot during my 1500 Follower Celebration post by putting a 10 STEEM DOLLAR bounty on my head for anyone who could beat me to become the best Ranger in the comp.
It’s a new game for me and I was never expecting to get close to the Top 3 Finish, but I thought this extra bounty was a good way to set myself a personal challenge and still have fun with the competition. When I started I thought I would be lucky to survive the week, but I had done a test run on Softcore with a Ranger up to Level 36 before coming up against Dominus at the end of Act 3 (where I had died multiple times) so that was my target. Get up to Level 36 and not push the envelope by taking on Dominus….
I went with a Glass Cannon type of build, relying on Dexterity, Evasion and Elemental Resistance to stay alive. Using the Grace Aura Gem was pretty helpful for boosting Evasion too but I still probably relied on fast movement and fast attacks for survivability too much. I focused on doing a lot of ranged damage with Burning Arrow and Volley Support for ripping through crowds, then Puncture and Bleed Support for taking down the bigger nasties. I learnt very quickly to avoid those big red faces on the radar but that was not always possible. I had a few back-to-the wall heart attack moments with those and some of those Strongboxes were also a bit nasty (I didn’t even think to use Scroll of Wisdom before opening them!)
Coming out of the blocks at lightning pace was @alannapendragon and @gamingchimp who both fired up Ranger characters to Level 30+ in the first day or so. I was a bit shocked at first by the rapid rises and then @alannapendragon died, fired up another fast rising Ranger and then died again. While @gamingchimp seemed to stall on Level 33 and was instead focusing on his Slayer character which was pushing for a Top 3 finish. I thought I saw an opening so I was grinding steadily through the week. My main competitor became @ratticus and the lead switched between us a couple of times. He was a great sport and even helped me with a few tips. Thanks man!
On the final night (last night) @ratticus had opened up a 3 Level lead on me and I stayed up until after midnight to catch up to him and tie the contest. But when I woke up this morning the @gamingchimp Ranger had come back to life and dashed to the front while we were both asleep. Such is life. Congratulations to @gamingchimp for getting my Top Ranger bounty and 2nd place overall.
There is some talk by @mattclarke of doing another PoE comp when the next Hardcore race starts. It’s a lot of fun if people want to get involved, the learning curve on the game is not too bad and I don’t think I’ve experienced the rush of near-death in a game so severely or frequently in a game before. I actually have some experience from a long time ago of running gaming comps for engagement and participation so I have some ideas and would be happy to help promote a PoE competition again.
Thanks a lot, @buggedout!
Honestly, I started that Ranger to have a fast farmer char and to compete with you and all other ranger players :D Spectral Shield Throw seems pretty underpowered at the moment, that's why i stopped playing until the last few hours. I don't really recommend playing it. Rather than playing it, I decided to start using bow skills with levelling uniques and it got me 9 levels in just 1.25 hour of farming Dried Lake.
(Actually I didn't do any vaal side area in the whole week because I was scared of their bosses, lol :D)
Gotta love the vaal gems though. The right one can be a game changer.
My marauder is rocking vaal molten shell, and its exploderific, even at low level.
My favourite ones are vaal haste and vaal lightning trap, both are very useful for a lot of builds
Haven't used either. I reckon I found vaal haste once but never gave it a run. Unlimited mana for a short period of time from memory. Didn't seem particularly useful, since I rarely run out of mana. I guess you could load up on auras.
Oh yeah, Vaal Clarity is pretty nice too. Mostly high cast speed builds run one like Blade Vortex or something like that, because with high cast speed - comes great mana costs :D Vaal Haste is just a great clearspeed and damage bonus overall, Vaal lightning trap is basically 50% increased damage. If you ever find those you could use them on basically any build since they're awesome. :D
Just lost that marauder. Level 32 I think.
Opened a strongbox with a rogue in it. I actually found vaal glacial hammer and had some fun with sweep and a big fat maul, I was kind of using it defensively too.
Turns out that rogue exile's arc went straight through my frozen wall.
Two zaps and I was toast.
Looks like a lot of fun ^_^
Great to have you join in.
I'm glad it went as well as it did.
Sometimes you just need to try these things to know.
Reach out with thoughts and suggestions for next time. I like the idea of separate pots for different classes, and might explore that a little more.
A player restarting after a death might check what others are playing before jumping back in. It'd add a layer of strategy.
Now that I know you're on Discord I will hit you up there. Anything that adds a layer of strategy, encourages engagement/participation or even distributes the pot amongst more players is going to be a positive thing.
Talk soon! :)
It was great fun. If it hadn't been for your Ranger Prize, I'd have played a Melee character and done poorly
nice game . how do i playing.
I like it very nice game
Game is looking very dangerous 😂 but how we can play would you guide me @buggedout
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