Right, you get 8 total ascendancy points from running the four different versions of the lab.
Did you enchant anything? Each time you go through the lab, you get to enchant an item (Bateau was talking about a way to get more than one earlier)
Huh, look there, the Labyrinth. I thought that was just PVP stuff up the stairs, and I never went up there since they added it I guess :)
I did the low level one without problem, but I’m sure there are tips to get more keys. So many secrets and hidden goodies in there, but you need a good block of time to do it all thoroughly. Now to try the next one (after I clear some stash space).
NOTE: GG has just started a big sale on many types of stash tabs, including bundles!
Honestly, when I’ve done it, I’m just trying to get to the end without dying for the upgrade points.
They actually improved loots drops in the labyrinth quite a lot; some of those chests now drop treasure keys for opening more of the fantastic chests at the end of the lab. Also the lab is probably the best source for quality gems other than buying them. And the ones you’re buying probably came from the lab in the first place. You do have to be willing to work through some of the more trap-laden puzzly types of areas. Once you’ve done the puzzles a time or two they’re easy enough to breeze through and then you can get some pretty good loot out of the Labyrinth.
If I have a character that is based on regen so the traps aren’t much of a big deal I like to actually run the lab a couple times now just to level and get loot. Before 3.0 though I was like Misguided and only ever did it to get my upgrade points as I’m not really that good at maneuvering through the heavy trap areas.
Heh. I guess I just got unlucky then. There was nothing worth picking up in the 3 chests I opened. They each had one yellow item that I didn’t need, and whole bunch of blue trash. No rings, no belts (I always keep all rings and all belts). No currency.
To be fair though, my “Increased rarity of items dropped” stat is only +47% now, since I swapped out a bunch of stuff to get more life.
Still, it’s not like having a higher number was helping me much. I still haven’t found a single unique item. And none of the rare items I’ve made have anything special. Even the B-B-B-R chest piece I’m using for Fire Nova Mine I had to buy on PoETrade.
Yeah, there was a shrine that said it could be used on gloves. And there was a stash nearby. So I picked some ES gloves and took them over there, and enchanted those white gloves. And they got enchanted with a property I didn’t understand and have never seen before. Just one property. So I think the gloves are still white and can be turned into yellow? I’m not sure.
I find that this often happens in the two lower Labyrinths. You might get lucky, but more often than not the loot isn’t all that great. Which is OK since you mostly want to get those ascendancy points. Once you get to the Merciless and end-game Labs, the loot gets much better.
Enchantments are yet another layer of item mods. As far as I know, yes, you can still use Alchemy orbs or whatever on enchanted items, and it won’t affect the enchantment. Generally people take stuff that’s already pretty good - uniques or good rares - and try to make them even better with the enchantments.
In my continuing quest to find the build that allows the laziest person ever to play, I am now trying out that Righteous Fire Berserker build I referenced above. I switched over from using Sunder to RF at level 38. To get there I had to:
- pick most every regeneration node I could get my hands on,
- purchase a bunch of low-cost uniques that offer regeneration (Springleaf, 2x Kikazaru and Shaper’s Seed)
- use Stone Golem for his additional life regeneration
- become a Berserker and choose the ability that heals you for 25% of your life each time you use a warcry, and
- macro my mouse to call the Warcry every 4.25 seconds (the ability halves the cooldown, so it’s a 4 second cooldown)
I’ve got a rejuvenation totem for backup, or when fighting bosses.
With all that (sans juve totem) I’m juuuust about to the point where I’m in a steady state without the warcry. The warcry tops me off. In a tough battle throwing down the totem and/or taking a health potion drink fills my life back up just fine though.
So I spend my time shield charging around the screen and then walking hither and yon to kill stuff.
One more point and I’ll have Combat Stamina (1% more life regen) so that will definitely push me over the edge. Six points after that will be Shaper (1% more) and when I hit 65 I’ll swap to the Rise of the Phoenix which should allow me to swap out my rings and/or neck - I think!
Though it sounds like I’ve bought a bunch of stuff, I’ve only spent like 3-4 alchemy orbs, 1 chaos orb, and 1 orb of fusing to get all this, so it’s not terribly expensive to get going. The nice thing is that aside from a 4L for the Righteous Fire and a 3 or 4L for the Shield Charge, there’s not a whole lot of other linked skills you need to use. I suppose I could do a Cast When Damage Taken + Stone Golem to make sure he’s out all the time. And I guess eventually I’ll use a Vitality aura since in a RF build life == damage.
At any rate, the conversion from Sunder has taken root and it’s working!
It just struck me that I’m a dummy for not using a Vitality aura - for some reason I thought it was a straight added HP aura, not a life regen one. Off to get one now!
Nice, glad it’s working!
Level 51 on my hierophant, I think. I have almost no damage nodes yet, so a couple of gear upgrades really proved helpful. Bought a wand with 30% spell damage implicit and dropped a spell damage essence on it (really like the essence system…just wish we encountered them a hair more frequently). Also found a shield with about 15% more spell damage than what I’d been using.
Feels considerably stronger now. When I can hit the lab again and drop two more totems, that should be a huge boost, especially against bosses.
What spell are you using with your totems?
Man, I could not get any maps to drop tonight for love nor money!
Tell you what though, with the Hierophant Ascendancy passive generating my power and endurance charges, switching Orb of Storms out for Vaal Skellies has been a bit of a boon! Linked to Minion Damage, Added Chaos and Spell Echo and the resulting 30 odd minions are a tremendous distraction and reasonable damage boost in boss fights. Also handy for Harbingers, essence monsters, strongboxes, etc.
Also switching out Faster Casting for Elemental Focus with the Ball Lightning totems for boss fights given you pretty much never do enough damage to reliably shock them. That seems to work pretty well too. Go to get off my ass and sell some of my loot to afford myself a 6L.
Lol, I never thought of using Vaal skeletons with spell echo. That’s HILARIOUS.
Edit: spell echo says it can’t support Vaal skills…it makes 24 with a single cast
I’m mostly using blight on totem right now, but will be making more use of wither once I can drop more totems. Those and contagion support my big hitter, which is essence drain.
I plan to get that ascendancy node, but not sure if it will be post 3rd or 4th run (I.e. No time soon). It’ll be either that or divine guidance first. Then again, power charges don’t do a damned thing for me… maybe I will get illuminated devotion instead. 40% increased area on blight sounds like a winner.
Any idea how to finish the Act 5 quest “King’s Feast”? I’m supposed to kill Utula in Ruined Square. I killed all the enemies in ruined square, and didn’t find anyone named Utula, so I went to the Cathedral top and killed Kitiva. And now I’m back at Ruined Square, killed everyone again, and Utula still didn’t show up.
He should be at a long dead end of one of the twisty, blocked streets well away from the square. …
Just checked for me, from the Ossuary start waypoint, crossed the square down two side streets, crossed a bridge, turned another street towards “bottom-right” direction, he is at a dead end in front of a door to nowhere. Maybe he didn’t spawn for you? He has a voice line and speaks to you when you get near, he is a construct, hard to miss.
Thanks. I’m not sure why I couldn’t find him the last two times. Knowing that he should be there, I went in again and cleared the whole area and found him.
Went ahead and did the second labyrinth with my hierophant at 57. Pretty easy and fast (less than 10 minutes?) now that I know my way around the lab a little.
If I can get a guild invite, I have enough points left to buy a guild prem stash tab while the sale is on. (“Only guild leaders can buy this.” it says). I am HazySillhouette
I started up a new solo self found character, haven’t played for a bit. I have to say, my drops have been ridiculously bad. Did they change anything per drops, or am I just getting really unlucky?
Just unlucky, I think. I think they did tweak rates and levels at which 3L and 4L start dropping, but that was probably a while ago too.
Remember to check the vendors, you can sometimes get a bargain and gems are far more readily available from them than way back when.
I played around with a SSF character in the Harbinger league for a while. I felt that the drops were pretty lacking also. It’s definitely more of a challenge. The Harbinger league doesn’t help either - fighting a Harbinger gets you a number of shards, which by themselves aren’t terribly useful for leveling.
I played Sarah SSF up to 70 and I didn’t think the drops were any worse than previous leagues (other than the annoying shards from Harbingers). You get a lot of bad, sure, but that’s how it’s been playing SSF forever. There’s an order of magnitude difference in overall quality between what you find SSF and what’s on poe.trade in the regular league. Not to mention that even “good” drops (for another character) feel bad when playing SSF since they don’t help the one you’re playing.