This time around we only had a couple show up so I thought my odds where decent. As it so happens I was quite wrong.

Many were talking about playing a witch summoner and I thought to myself great I’m not going anywhere near that class. They can go duke it out among themselves and I’ll just get to Act 5 on a Duelist and see where things take me from there.

Duelist

I’ve played this class now a couple of times and I’ve become familiar where I excel at it and when I need to put on the breaks. I’m not a speedrunner or anything like that so I just took my time and enjoyed the night for the most part.

I started off with a basic Ground Slam with Onslaught setup and transitioned into a four-socket Sunder one with Maim and a couple of other skills. This time around I thought I would give one-handed axes a try. Sunder can only use staff, ax, mace or scepter. As such that is where I also focused on the tree hoping to get lucky with some decent ax drops.

This time I did not have a day of getting acclimated to the game again and it had been a while since I’ve played. As such for the most part I went with being on par or two levels higher than the current zone level. While not the best experience in the world for leveling I wanted to ease into things. The last thing I wanted to do was die to spikes or something silly a few hours in.

As far as triggering and running any of the league stuff during the hardcore race I just said –nope. While they can help most of the times on day one they can be a bit overpowered and kill hardcore character dead before they count to 1. I still don’t know anything about them other than they look interesting.

It was oh so tempting to want click on it. I really wanted to take my ax and just pop that yellow sack with the vines around it. Every so often you would hear Sister Cassia voice like a siren trying lure you in. Oh just come over here and trigger this event. NOPE!

Act 1

At least for me once I get a couple of pieces of armor no matter how bad they are. Any dangers lurking in Act 1 are void. I could run it in my sleep and just not worry. I would not even say there were any near close calls even.

I did pick up Ancestral Protector which is a totem based garden that can lure in some attacks if it’s the closest. I can kite a little with melee if needed using it while waiting on life. I did not find myself needing that till much later. Brutus and the rest fell quite hard without too much dancing around them on my end.

Act II

When it comes to this act I really only care about getting two things. My two-stone rings for resistance along with saving bandit Alira for further resistance. With decent resistance, the game becomes quite easier and I could make it decently into the game with just that.

Since we were racing in Solo Self Found (SSF) there is no trading with other players. This means keeping an eye out for anything you can vendor for currency and using any vendor recipes you know. The game thought it would be funny to give me 4 Chaos Orbs which are great for trading with other players. I would have preferred Orb of Fusing for linking sockets or Jeweler Orbs for forging sockets. I did get a couple of those to drop as well but not nearly enough.

While it’s tempting this early on to start burning currency you never know between luck and just missing stuff dropping how things are going to end. As such I gamble on trying to craft a couple Two-Stone rings. I got a decent hit from rolling one and then upgrading it into a rare.

I was not getting any decent ax drops so I needed up crafting my own at this point. I combined a Rustic Stash, Blacksmith’s Whetstone and the ax I wanted to use at a vendor. This gives the item an ok physical damage roll. I didn’t sink any more currency than that into the item. It was just a placeholder. One of which is somewhere lost in my bank or maybe I sold it.

Act II’s boss Vaal Oversoul seen in this acts screenshot went down without much of a fight. I was over-prepared and keeping up on getting healing flasks among other things still. I even had picked up some other skills for more damage such as Harled of Ash.

Act III

Outside of unlocking The Library which I did Act III for me as always been that middle child act. Not much went on here other than crawling through the sewers.

I even skipped thinking about any gear upgrades. I felt comfortable enough. So I moved on with quick speed.

Act IV

It is at this part of the game I start to keep an eye on the zone level and my own. I started slowing down a bit and if I can be up by two levels for some added protection I tend to aim for that.

My biggest fear for getting killed is always Kaom’s fire zones (red square) which one of them can be seen in the screenshot above. I had 50 or higher across the board for resistance. While I was hoping it would be better it was more than enough. The biggest issue is all the ranged damage that can stack up. You could run into a patch of mobs suddenly it’s a near-death experience with heart-pounding reactions.

I had a couple of close calls in this act as I expected I would have. Thankfully I lived otherwise that is where this would have ended.

Since I had a decent amount of armor for Daresso’s zones (blue square) they where easy. So that is where I did some grinding just to play it safe. I had made it this far and was getting rather tired. The night was still young but the last thing I wanted was to start over again if I got killed.

I also stopped to craft a new ax. The plan was to spend around half of the currency needed in Act 4 while leaving some to make a second and better one-handed ax in Act 5 for my other hand.

I found an ok one with a little bit of quality on it. I rolled on my physical damage percentage. After that, I used an Orb of Augmentation on it for another magic modifier and sadly landed the reduced attributes which I had zero use for. While I was tempted to start and go and find another ax I just said heck and dropped an Orb of Alchemy on it landing 13% attack speed. After that, I ran into my hideout and crafted on flat physical damage. It was quite a nice boost in damage. It made the rest of Act IV, not a struggle.

Act V

Some times during the night on these races I make it into act V and other times I don’t. This time I did with some decent time left. I forget if it was midnight yet my time or not. The issue, I was dead tired but I know the night is still too young for me to fall asleep. So I tried to press forward a little more.

I made it to level 42. Almost dying to some really stupid things and not having a great reaction time anymore from moving around and healing. I also know Act V is where I have areas I struggle in and will more than likely getting killed with how I was performing. So I call it quits for this character.

Shadow

I use to play a Shadow a lot and I know them quite well. I also had planned to play one just in case things were not working out. So being half asleep and not risking too much I started one of these.

I ended up starting off with freezing pulse which I have never been the biggest fan of. It has a decent range but I prefer a much wider area of attack in front of me when it comes to directional attack skills. After that, I switch over to a fun dropping traps with arc lighting and just watching the field clear of anything moving.

I made it to level 28 and act III. At this point, it’s quite early in the morning and time for sleep. I play these for fun and I don’t see a reason to skip sleeping just to keep playing. I was happy I at least made it without getting killed and that was that.

Templar, Marauder And The Rest Fall

After some sleep and hours later I had some time to play again. I check in on how the other players were doing. It looked like some witches had died or never level up very high. One of the other remaining had a decently high Ranger which I did not see myself competing with. There was also a duelist that was a level higher than I was.

I was hoping my 42 Duelist would have been good enough. Perhaps I had missed it the night prior or it was level up while I was away. Either case I knew I could not go head to head and win against that individual if they came back. I had to think of some other way.

I had that Shadow and I knew if it became contested I’m just not a fast enough leveler either as the other guy is quick. What takes me three hours he can do in one. That’s an issue. There was more than enough to not only do that but pass up any progress I could make in the meantime.

My new strategy was playing a couple of other classes. I was hoping my Shadow would remain off the radar and I could at least get a win from that. Getting some level down on other stuff might also just leave players focusing on easier and lower classes giving me another shot at a win.

Once the other guy logged back in he just smoking the time it would have taken me to level up a Templar and he put some levels on it as well. That was a clear message to me it was not going to happen on that one. I was not expecting to get the win on it either but I thought my plan was working. He was dissertated by other classes.

So I ended up staying on a class I felt quite weak and slow on a Marauder. I had remembered from a few past races that this class sometimes gets little attention. I could not recall if a certain player did not enjoy playing it but I took that gamble. I got it up to 26 and thought I at least had something. I also did not want to make it clear I had a higher level Shadow just in case it was still unknown by logging onto it.

It was then time for me to head out an hour before the race ended. That is when I noticed my plan was falling apart. The Shadow was now being contested and with around an hour left on the clock there was a chance it was going get passed up. It took me a couple of hours to get where I did but I’m not the fastest out there.

I then discovered my fallback the Marauder was not high enough. I was not paying attention to the other remaining player. Who had a couple of levels at the time ahead of me as well when I was not looking. I was already really struggling with the Marauder and was out of time.

Nothing I could do for either. I later returned and discovered I got my butt kicked 4 times in total and lost on all of them. The plan failed. My Shadow got passed up.

Future Content

Hopefully, in a few weeks I’ll have my league guide/overview out. I do not have any plans this time around to write daily updates on my progressing in softcore. I’ve done that a few times and don’t see it adding much value to what I have already done in the past. Perhaps I’ll find something else before in-game to write about.

Have a great rest of the league.

A special thanks to @Mattclarke for hosting this race. It always adds a bit of fun before I run and hide in softcore.

Information

Screenshots are taken from taken and content was written by @Enjar about the game Path Of Exile.