Does /oos evenwork anymore?
If you’re on predictive I presume it still works.
Just use that resource to trivialise the lab content if it does not float your boat. Daily info on all layouts/puzzles/traps/guardians.
And leave it a bit until you are 10 or so levels above the content and you should roll through in 15-20 minutes a pop.
Normal lab is available whenever you have done the first trials. The later labs, Cruel, Merc and Uber, are available from char level 40,50 and 60 respectively, for reference, which should be representative of monster level.
The good thing about lab, at least, is the rewards are solid, so there is a viable reason to keep running it once you hit endgame. Not really my cup of tea, but there is still plenty of map content I have not got to yet.
I hear you, @ShivaX. I dislike the Lab intensely as well, even after the simplification changes made a few patches ago. The all-or-nothing aspect, where you can’t split it up across play sessions, is the worst part. The first and second iterations can be done in 15-20 minutes but the third and fourth are still ridiculously long, even if you do as @sharaleo suggested and wait until you’re overleveled. At least on most characters, I only have to do it three times.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
4L’d it with two jewellers and a fusing.
Not the greatest rolls, going for 3-6C, but I think I’ll keep it for my second toon.
Lost my HC Wild Striker when i bumped the windows key when he was on a lava tile. Finally disabled it after that, never again will the Win key get the better of me. Except now I have to learn how to do things without it as I couldn’t find a turn on/off trick that worked for Win10 so had to just disable it completely with regedit.
Oh well, I found an Oro’s Sacrifice so the new character is Oro’s Flicker Strike. Should be fun.
edit: lucky 6 link in 30 fuses on an ES chest piece means new character is some kind of summoner. Oro’s on the backburner.
The most recent Sarah is level 63 now and merrily slaughtering her way through Act 8. I decided to lean as far defensive as I reasonably could, this being HC. To that end, she’s relying on zombies and raging spirits for damage, with a skeletotem and stone golem for added damage mitigation. I have a spectre gem but it’s not even linked to anything, since the slots I’d be using for spectre enhancement are dedicated to one kind of defense or another. The only real effort I’ve made toward DPS is running Hatred and taking Elemental Equilibrium (triggered by Orb of Storms). Up to this point, I haven’t noticed any DPS issues…of course, maps will be another animal entirely.
A couple of my gem setups are different than what I’ve used in the past. Most notably, I have Cast When Damage Taken linked to Convocation, Vortex, and Desecrate. Lots of folks use Vortex in this spot, and I can see why, as it’s a very nice slow to help you get away from Bad Things™. I’ve always self-cast Convocation in prior builds, and I occasionally miss that ability, but it’s such a great defensive tool when something decides to chase Sarah around. And Desecrate is there because I’m using Bone Offering (with the Mistress of Sacrifice ascendancy node) and thus need corpses to keep that block bonus going. In quite a few boss fights, there are no corpses and I don’t have time (or quickbar slots) to be casting Desecrate manually. Added bonus, mobs tend to run away from the desecrated ground…which happens slowly since they’re in a Vortex freeze pool.
I’m also using Blind on my Skeletotem, rather than Culling Strike. And Temporal Chains (cast via Orb of Storms) for a curse. All damage mitigation rather than DPS increase. So far, so good. She’s gotten hit hard in abyss fights a few times, but thus far the defenses have held up.
Yeah, I opened one abyss on the summoner so far and decided that would be my last for quite some time. I’d love to fit a decoy totem in but the build is already starved for hotkeys and sockets. Probably going to end up not running a golem. And maybe steal some of your CwDT ideas.
I got to the end of Act 8 with my SSF SRS toon and decided to fiddle around with a Detonate Dead Inquisitor. Been using DD and it just started feeling lackluster for single target damage. Fortunately I just hit 28 so I was able to get Cremate which is an awesome single target spell. It’s a been a fun build and pretty smooth build so far.
The rewards in those abyss spawns are solid enough that they’re worth doing, as long as you can do so in advantageous territory. I’ve been fine as long as I have room to move (i.e. no spider nests or prison cells) and am able to clear several rooms around the area. Constant movement is always a good idea on a squishy toon in PoE, but especially so in these abyss spawns. Don’t get stuck standing in those exploding poison bubbles!
The worst-case scenario is when the abyss cracks run into an uncleared area and you get a rare or two added on, buffing all the abyss crap. In that case, just run away and forget that abyss chest! But that’s pretty rare if you’re careful about clearing the nearby area before triggering the spawn.
I’m obviously nowhere near the folks here in the game. But I am really amazed at having a Maurauder around 26 using sunder and molten orbs with certain support gems. I have two things I use. That’s it. And I melt face. Oh and I use a Vaal gem that fills up and sends out fireballs in a circle. I’m finally getting Abyss boxes regularly. The game has become fun again.
Sarah and the horde laid the smack down on Kitava today, at level 72. I could have gotten there a few levels earlier, but I was in no rush and took the time to do all the side quests, clear a bunch of abyss spawns, etc. When playing hardcore, taking your time is almost always the best option.
Got three minutes? Watch the end of hunger!
For anyone interested, here’s the link to her character page. I’m looking forward to finding some upgraded gear now that I’m headed into maps. Those Rainbowstride boots have been nice, but a good rare with 30% movement and some life would be even better. And of course a +2 to minions helm - I actually did find a Wraithlord unique, but the lack of life/resists on it kept me from using it.
Sunder at ~950 dps. Molten strike at ~535 dps secondary. Elemental resists, fire maxed others near max. Both have life on hit. It’s so damn much easier. Face rolled Daresso. No deaths. Now doing Kaom, no deaths. Crapload of abyss stuff in stash. I finally have a build that is fun all the way so far. Yeah, I know, you guys are pros. This noob is having a great time though. :)
Edit: Oh yeah. New char, three days of play, lev 41. Go ahead. Make fun.
Make fun? No chance. We look forward to your inevitable descent into map addiction!
Essence Drain Trickster is at 60 an in Act 8 I think. I have died a few times, but that’s just me playing softcore, rushing to maps and not taking time upgrading gear. Heck I only just ran normal lab. Last night I bought a Heartseeker, Tabula Rasa and Daresso’s courage to see me through to mapping and finally set up CWDT/Immortal Call and a Shield Charge/Fortify combo for better defence. Still feel a little squishy, but I have held of on grabbing Mind Over Matter in favour of tree traversal to life nodes.
It occurred to me when I started shopping last night that I’d had a pretty good run with currency. I only had a handful of Alchs after spending a couple here and there, but was sitting on 11C, which strike me as a reasonable return on a relatively normal run. Yay Abyss!
I’ve been taking it relatively easy (for me anyway) so far this league. Enjoying the new mechanics and fiddling with the atlas war stuff.
Decided to try the Elder cold w/o watching any videos to see how it would go. Was setting up the map for White Elder to start, but ended up w/ him spawning in a yellow map. Died once to one of the guardians when I got careless. No deaths on Elder himself. Fun fight. I tanked through some of the mechanics that I doubt I’ll get away with on red.
Really liking this league. Not sure I like it more than breach, but it’s damn close and I can understand why some people are the other way around.
What would you guys recommend for playing self-found, and with a fever/flu? Something totem-y? minion-y? Care more about surviving being not-so-alert than fast.
I am curious about the changes, but I want things to move slowly and I don’t want random naps more than being online to trade …
… or should I stick to things with pause buttons. Computer should be beefy enough, no clue on if I’d have net lag though.
Some really safe builds are:
- Flame totem or anything with a totem (e.g., dark pact totem)
- minion builds… zombies or specters or summon raging spirits (SRS).
- sunder builds…its very powerful, so you will kill stuff fast
- tanky builds … The forums have a thread about a Tanky paladin build in the Templar section I believe. Is very durable.
Minions are good in that they will kill stuff even if you fall asleep while playing… Totems are the same but they do expire after a short period.
One thing about self found league is that you might have an idea as to what you want to play but then you’ll find some awesome unique or weapon or high quality gem that will completely change your your thoughts. So be flexible!
I played a SRS/zombie build up to the mid 60s. It worked out pretty well. However, now I am trying a detonate dead build; with that one you cast desecrate or unearth and then blow up the corpses with detonate dead. It’s pretty fun also. Neither of those require any special uniques or fancy gear to be effective.
Sunder/multistrike/life gain on hit/physical to lightning. Wow. Add ancestor totem, much wow. Sounds like a drummer hitting the bass kick to 8/8 time.
Summoner is a pretty safe bet. Scales with gem levels and zone level so you don’t have to worry about updating your weapons for damage, works with generic rares.