Path of Exile - Incursion Competition Day 1

Competition Details

This time around, I left all the organizing to @mattclarke and we've got a shorter competition with a larger prize pool. 20 Steem for the best character of each class, and a further 20 Steem for the best overall, bringing the total to 160 Steem. The announcement post was here

Marauder

As I mentioned in my entry post, I wanted to play a close combat character, so I found a marauder build that looked fun that would combine Cyclone and Molten Strike. I was having a decent amount of fun with Molten Strike once I'd found it.

I enjoyed the Incursion league's theme area, with it's easy access from almost any zone. Having said that I found some of the encounters I had a bit too short and they felt like they were over before they began. I also wasn't able to deal damage quick enough to even get to any of the architects (uniques) to have a chance at modifying the temple.

^{The only new load screen I've seen. It's for getting into the full temple...}

I'd read about the temple, and how it's difficulty level should be a couple of levels above the average of the 10 visits, and figured I'd be ready for it. Everything was going ok, but it was a challenge, regularly needing to use healing potions as well as mana. I'd cleared the first 2 areas of what would only be a 4 zone temple run due to not opening doors in my challenges but when I entered the third area I very quickly found myself surrounded and before i could leap to escape, my life was gone and the level 18 Marauder was no more.

Witch

I'd also seen a very interesting summoner, and with none of the other 10 competitors playing witches, I decided to give it a go. It is very much my play style, having minions doing all the work for me, although I am equipped with fireball as a primary weapon as well. The early areas with just fireball were not as tough as expected, and I soon found Summon Zombies, which seem to have quite a decent ability to survive and kill things, especially now that I have 7 of them. I'd only just found Summon Skeletons when I went into a vaal corruption and came out of it with my first of the redesigned vaal skill gems. Vaal Summon Skeletons! Perfect. It can be used as the normal version, and when enough souls have been gathered, the super powerful vaal version that summons an army all at once.

While I've finished the time travel visits to the temple, I've not risked my character with a visit to the completed temple yet. I did however have much better success in my visits, changing at least 3 rooms and unlocking a few doors. I don't have access to the whole temple, but I do have access to most of it.

I ended the first day having completed Acts 1 and 2, and started my way through Act 3. Checking my competitors this morning and I see that there are 4 others now playing witches, some due to unfortunate deaths and some as a second (or third or fourth...) character with their previous ones sitting at a position they see as safe.

^{My current skill tree. I have intentions of expanding into a couple of the northern rings, and then to the south}

Today I'm going to tackle the temple, and hopefully finish acts 3 and 4. I'll be interested to see what happens with the temple after visiting it in the present. It would be disappointing if that's the end of it, as the whole season is supposed to be about the temple. I expect that there will be a reward and then future contact with Alva (the NPC for the season) will start a new temple visit sequence.

^{Upgoats made by the talented @ryivhnn}