Path of Exile | Hardcore Race Update Day 6 And 7
What an amazing time but the road ends here for me. Two deaths within 11 hours of each other. A level 48 followed by a 42. I told myself the fourth one would be the last (or was it?!?) I was prepared to go till the end but it seems I get to enjoy some sleep! I really pushed fast in last one trying least finish off strong.
Day 6
I pushed Freezing Pulse+ added cold damage + faster casting to its limit in the Lifespring Driftwood Wand I had looted to its limit. The last fight I used with it on day 6 turned into an extremely long dance. Dodging in and out of attacks, spells, and creatures. Pulling range to recover and going back in to lay down some hurt, furry, and spells.
As mentioned in day 5 I needed to switch some skills, and gems out and that is what I spent part of the day working on.
I really do enjoy the longer range, quickness, and animations of Freezing pulse and that is why I choose to level some way up with it. I’ve played a few screen cleaners in my days I wanted something different this time. I would not clear an entire screen in one go but it had amazing more power to get me past the bosses where such builds can struggle.
I looted a 4 link helmet that was intelligence so it was easy rolling one of the sockets to green and having the other 3 blue for my new main skill. Blade Vortex with Physical to Lighting, Increased Critical Strikes, and Concentrated Effect. It has a bit of a wind up time but I have so far enjoyed it.
I needed some other upgrades so I ran most of the Blood Alters I had. In hope for some decent drops that were also linked.
I really expected some of these fights to be tough as they were not pushing overs to capture in the first place. They seem rather toned down for the arena fights. I only used my flasks out of habit and not for necessity.
Some of them ended so quickly I did not even get a screenshot off in time to capture the battle. Here we just see the aftermath this one had spawned a few adds but they were no match.
If you think those don’t look very impressive for my rewards you are correct. I ended up selling them to the vendor as they were not worth investing the currency into trying to make something out of nothing. I guess I should have expected that with how easy these fights where.
Ah, Kitava hit me before I could get out my way down to just a sliver of health and then it just was over before I could even react. I have almost a freeze frame in my mind of that moment of just a sliver of life left and me pressing the key for a life flask. It was over by the time I pressed that key.
I'm just not used to playing such short range and in your face setup. I also did not pick up the gems for this set up right away when I was high enough level. So they were a couple of levels short. I really did like this build however so I gave it one last try for this race.
Day 7
I’m not sure when I had a dislike towards Shield Charge. A long while back they made some changes to it if I recall. I wish I had given it fair chances sooner. Flame Dash soon became a distant memory of being slow and not how I wanted to play this final run.
So forward I Shield Charge at full speed.
To try and deal with issues I had using Blade Vortex I switch out Concentrated Effect which reduced the area of effect for Controlled Destruction. It felt like it made enough of a difference that I really enjoyed running and clearing with it.
I was dropping bosses and events so fast; meanwhile, zipping past the zones I did not even stop to take any screenshots. Until this final one.
Character And Currency
Four Strike outs total over this completion. That is just hardcore for you though-- no forgiveness.
The RNG gods, in the end, gave me a couple of Chaos Orbs. Shame I can’t take these to Softcore Bestiary League!
Which is where I’ll be starting fresh after a short break as this hardcore was a bit wearing. I honestly just love to run maps in this game. Having to start over and over and over and over and over is well not running maps!!!! Perhaps if this is done again in the future for another league I’ll give hardcore another run for its money.
Special Thanks
Thank you @mattclarke and @ratticus for collaborating and creating this competition on Steemit! I had an amazing time.
One last more for my homies. After all, I needed to make another toon to get the last screenshot. No survivors were left behind!
Information
Screenshots taken and content written by @enjar. Recap of my day 3 for Poecomp.
Screenshots from Path of Exile a free to play game developed by Grinding Gear Games.
Previous Blogs:
If you would like to know the results you can find them here— Recap Of My Hardcore Experiences.
Looking for more Path of Exile content? Check it out at my new site Enjar Games | Path Of Exile.
Fantastic to have you in the race, buddy.
Keep an eye out for announcements in the lead up to the next league.
Get some rest. You've earned it :)
Thanks you again it was fun. It got me to go out of my normal playstyle and made me become a better player. I will sure keep an eye for the next time a new league is about to start!
Great run overall! Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed :)
Thanks, next time I’ll try and remain on the board by the end of it!
Good game! I used to play Diablo a long time ago, I never ever bothered to try and play hardcore mode because I knew I would be pissed off after putting hundreds of hours into a character and just have it die.... lol
That is one reasons I never played hardcore in D3 along with their servers just seemed to have “issues” a lot more then PoE’s. I remember how many times I just had zone lake playing softcore and getting flattened and I was thankful I never did play hardcore in D3.
Path of Exile is great fun if you’re looking for something better. I’ve not looked into news for Diablo for a while. Even if they gave us a brand new game I’m not sure I would take the leap and buy it. Little disappointing the state they left the game in.
Every couple of months we get a new league and it has something different to offer us as a way to shake things up a bit. I have so many hours into it and I’m still feeling like a noob. I still have newer things I’ve not gotten to. Maps is a big area I love getting to but it’s also something i still have yet to have a play though that gets extremely deep into it.
I've had very few issues with D3 servers in the last year or so, but I still don't tackle HC as much as I do in PoE. Part of that is the 'soft' HC that PoE has, where your character is resurrected in Standard/Softcore, so you could keep playing, but it's not in the current league either, which is also more fun to plan.
I'm also yet to make it to maps in PoE, but I'm getting closer. I've got a high 50s level guy from last league in the standard softcore area that I could get there pretty easily, but even with nearing L60 there's a whole heap of content that I haven't seen
It's been fun watching your progress, and I was surprised to see that both III and IV had died when I was checking things yesterday. I'm hoping to get some play in on this final day of play, but am wary of the close calls that I've had (and the sudden increase in my ladder position...)
Well maybe if you just hold and pray lol. Ya many are dropping like flies. Thanks for coming around and reading. I wish you luck!
Played a bit. Got to level 38 and the waypoint in the tower (scepter of the gods?). I'm significantly under levelled, but still struggling. I have boosted my resistances a bit though. Still need to do more to them. I expect Dominus would kill me so going to sit back and wait now I think
Least stay on the scoreboard with so little time left! I've been completely wiped off haha. It was tempting to just to make a level one but that seems a bit distasteful on my part.
I hope you had lots o fun! I made a toon in softcore beast league this afternoon. He is up to level 29 now.
I'm considering doing this also. I need less stress in my gaming, and this HC challenge while fun has certainly had me stressing way more than I'd like.