Bateau
1601
That might be because ZiggyD made a video where he listed that mace as one of the possible offhand options for a Reave build. It’s good if you equip 2 or 3 unique items because you’re very hard pressed for resists then. Either that or the item went up in rarity a few tiers, like some other uniques. I remember vendoring like 10 of these back in Bloodlines.
fdsaion
1602
They changed the rarity of some of the commonly used low level uniques.
That’s interesting. I got Aurumvorax (which also has good all resists) in the Tempest guild, and it worked great for early leveling for my Lazy Pally.
Brightbeak was known and popular in that roll before ZiggyD’s 2.0 video. It was in fact known in that roll before ZiggyD’s previous 1.3 reave video. It’s been a popular leveling unique for ages.
I think fdsain must be right; I had forgotten they did some tier shifting with some uniques.
Sigh. My Bowazon ripped on Dominus, second form, in her mid-thirties (36 or so?). Was dotted and headed to the portal…when I clicked the portal it dropped me to the log in screen, as I guess she had died.
Welp. Dunno if I have the stamina to keep doing this. I can’t seem to get a character that I enjoy very far. The very tanky stuff is ok, but I really like ranged archers/spell caster types, and I simply can’t keep them alive. Hell, I can’t keep tanks alive either for that matter! :) Dunno if I will ever try another bow character.
Sorry to hear that. Maybe try a non hardcore league for a bit? That way you don’t have that total loss feeling when dying.
As for builds, do you create your own from the ground up or use any guides or what? There are a number of good guides on the PoE forums for a variety of builds. Even if you don’t follow a build specifically, there are plenty of tricks you can pick up to help your survival. But I have to say whenever I try a bow build I feel like they’re weak. Might be that I’m bad at building a bow character though.
As for your specific issue, crafting a flask that removes bleed is a great thing to do, and not horribly difficult.
Lastly, if you really are burned out, nothing wrong with putting the game down for a while and doing something else. It’s not going anywhere!
Dominus is really the only bleeding threat in normal. I mean, yes, there are other monsters who cause bleed but it’s generally not a huge issue before him (his second form, rather) due to the damage involved. But I do advise everyone roll a bleed removal flask for use in cruel by a2.
I won’t play non-hardcore; it’s simply not fun for me. Same with Diablo; softcore is a snooze. Much, much rather lose characters than snore through content.
Builds are almost always focused on the end game, and almost always focused on specific gear. I don’t trade (the lack of any actual stores and the need to negotiate through trade channels or boards annoys me) so I always go with found gear (from my stable of characters, or the guild maybe). I do look at general strategies for passives of course. This time, I had amazing evasion and life, as well as very good damage; I even had a bleed flask. But it was the one that happened to be down when I was going for the portal. Full resists too; I had taken very little damage until I died, heh.
In fact, my Bowazon had zero trouble except with two mobs. One in the Solaris Temple, named melee monster thingy, and Dominus. The first was spike damage, the second was that bleeding. What torques me the most is the lack of a waypoint in the Lunaris Temple near the summit, so you have to either power through the first time you get there or start over at the bottom each time it seems. Unless I’m missing something…
I play both, but I understand the feeling. I almost always end up playing more hardcore characters than softcore ones in these sorts of games.
That is a problem, but it seems to be getting better. This dual Flame Totem build is friendly to play without special gear, for instance. It sounded intriguing to me, so I tried it out, and didn’t have any trouble playing only with gear I found or pulled out of the guild stash. I chose to start as a Marauder and use 2-handed mauls (Ground Slam, Heavy Strike) in the early going to support my one totem, then switching to dual Flame Totems in the mid-30s. Playable as a Witch or Templar, too.
Yeah, almost all the boss zones are like this. I assume it’s done on purpose to prevent people from farming the bosses without having to get through the preceding zone. The only one that I can think of with a waypoint right by the boss is Malachai, but to get to him you have to beat up the other three bosses in that zone anyway.
Hmm, gotta try that dual totem thing. Seems interesting. And really, I’m cool with dying; it’s part of the game. I’m not in this to maximize end-game farming, but rather to enjoy the challenge, and dying is part of it. Though I should be less lazy and do more research!
I’m playing the dual-totem build a lot and it melts faces. I throw down both totems and sometimes cast a flammability curse (though not very often) and literally run in circles. This is my 3rd HC one - the 1st one died due to low resists, and the 2nd one died to a named mob in Kaom’s area (one of those submerging/emerging worms that bursted me down). My current toon has very few problems and plows through stuff. Definitely a fun toon to play.
Killed Cruel Malachai without portaling in Warbands. I realize this is no real accomplishment in catass POE terms, but I feel pretty good about it.
PantsVZ
1613
What level? Level is pretty important.
It’s an accomplishment in my book! I’ve only beaten him once on Cruel, and I don’t know how many portals I used, but it was sure more than zero. :)
PantsVZ
1616
I got my ass handed to me at around level 48 because I refused to use my currency to enhance my terrible gear. After almost completely respeccing I took him on at level 49 but this was normal difficulty.
Looking back at my journal, I see that Sarah was level 45 for Normal Malachai, and level 63 for Cruel. It was no easy task either time, especially Cruel, so I can certainly understand why you’d want to be even higher level if possible. Makes Adam’s accomplishment even more impressive in my opinion, getting through Cruel at only 58! My Flame Totem Marauder is level 60 at the Cruel Harvest now, and I think I’ll get one more level (lets me pick up the Constitution notable passive node) then try the big guy at 61.
I really need to learn to back out of haku missions and the occasional other fight (notably certain rogue exiles). My super-safe SRS is now dead when I couldn’t kill the lightning warp totem boss with SRS in a haku mission, just couldn’t get things to target the boss and there was so much chilled ground I couldn’t cast fast enough.
Oh well, on to the whispering ice build far sooner than expected, we’ll see how quickly I can send a several exalt staff to standard where several exalt might buy me a health potion.
For the record, my disdain for softcore is purely a personal thing; I fully respect the time, dedication, and skill that goes into normal builds and play–hell, I’ve never even made it through Cruel on any character. I certainly admire the patience people have.
One good thing about hardcore is that my characters die before I get bored!
Ouch, sorry to hear it. I know what you mean about Haku missions…I’ve nearly died several times to some of his missions with those unkillable totems, especially the lightning ones. He’s not even a very useful Master for the characters I play, should probably just not bother with him. But…I hate skipping stuff. :)
