Map Running Economy Guide

1. You are running maps primarily for experience gain and the loot is a nice secondary bonus

2. You realize that Dominus runs are the most effective in terms of profit per hour

3. You are not so in-game wealthy that you don't care about the costs of rolling your maps

4. You realize that running an additional map of the same level is more valuable than overspending on a map of the same level

5. A map and 4 Blacksmith Stones (applied to a Hammer) is equal to a chisel. As such, maps worth significantly less than a chisel in trade should not be run and should instead be turned into chisels. See the vendor recipe page if you don't know this already.

6. The vendor recipe turning three maps into one higher level map is historically always a loss in value.

Reaching levels of 86+ without running maps is a very tedious proposition. Even with maps its an extremely slow process and becomes slower with each level you gain.

Almost all unique items can drop from Merciless Dominus. Refer to this resource for clarification;

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/910178/page/1

In fact, many of the most valuable unique items begin to drop at the Merciless Vaal boss. There are valuable map-only uniques, but in terms of pure Return on Investment (ROI) for your time, nothing really beats killing Dominus once every 5-7 minutes. Granted, its extremely boring, but if your intention is to run maps for value you need to realize that you cannot beat Dominus runs due to the ease of navigating to his boss room.

Yes, it is true that the highest value rare items can only drop in maps due to a limit of item affixes on iLvL 70 rare items from Dominus. However, if you do the math on even one item dropping with three of these 71+ iLvL affixes, you will find that you are talking about a very unlikely rare drop. The odds literally approach 1 in 1,000,000 of rare items when you account for "junk" mods and that is to get only three desirable 71+ mods. The truth is that mirror level rares have often been crafted and are not likely the result of random drops.

What this should make you realize is that map running is not a profitable use of your time in terms of ROI. However, map running is the only way to effectively gain experience and reach the higher levels of character development. Yes, maps have a side effect of generating in-game wealth, but its virtually the same side effect as running iLvL 67-68 zones especially if you can do them quickly and at ZERO operating cost. In fact, running maps of level 69 or lower is inferior to doing the free maps that the game already offers you at zero cost.

Lastly, the cost of a developing (rolling) a map should never exceed the cost of buying another white map of the same level and running it. Realize that you get double the experience and double the item drops by doing two 72 maps instead of one 72 map of 80% quantity. Do not intentionally invest more currency in a map than it costs to simple buy another one. There is also a hidden bonus in doubling your chances of spawning Zana and getting a free additional map (often of a higher level).

Think of this as what happens to a car when it is totaled. The insurance company has decided that its not worth fixing and that its cheaper to get you a replacement car. In Path of Exile you never have to get into the car accident in the first place. You can almost 100% avoid investing too much into your maps by following the advice of this guide.

In order to make wise decisions you must first research the map values of 70-78 white maps. When researching map values you can make use of the following two resources;

http://www.exilebro.com/
http://poe.trade/

You must also research the exchange rates of the following currencies. Checking what people are paying/buying in exchange for Chaos Orbs on Exilebro is usually your best bet. Setting the Chaos Orb as your unit of exchange is what I will be doing to generate my examples;

Alteration Orbs
Alchemy Orbs
Regal Orbs
Cartographer's Chisels
Sacrifice Fragments
Exalted Orbs

Orbs of Transmutation will also be consumed while map running, but for the purposes of value (1/160th of a Chaos) we are going to consider these to be "free". As of 12/4/2014 on the Standard League these items have the following values among active traders on Exilebro;

70 Map = .33 Chaos
71 Map = .5 Chaos
72 Map = 1 Chaos
73 Map = 2 Chaos
74 Map = 4 Chaos
75 Map = 6 Chaos
76 Map = 8-10 Chaos
77 Map = 16 Chaos - 1 Exalted
78 Map = 1 Exalted

You will notice that at higher levels some variation begins to occur. It is not necessary to precisely nail the value of higher level maps because breakpoints in value are all that is necessary to determine currency usage.

Currency Exchange Rates (12/4/2014 Standard League)

Alteration Orbs = .1 Chaos
Alchemy Orbs = .4 Chaos
Cartographer's Chisels = .4 Chaos
Sacrifice Fragments (not Midnight) = 1.5 Chaos
Regal Orbs = 1.5 Chaos
Exalted Orbs = 35-38 Chaos

Once you have this information you can establish what tier of currency you should use and when you should use it. This will be discussed below.

Now that you have your values it becomes a simple matter to understand when you should use Chisels and Sacrifice Fragments. Both of them grant the same quantity bonus and thus both of them equal a 5% value of your map. So the question becomes, when does a Chisel become equal to its value when I use it on a map. That answer, based on the above exchange rates is;

.4 Chaos Value/.05 = 8 Chaos

By looking at the map values, you will see that map chisels become worth it at level 76 maps. If you like chiseling maps and have an excess of chisels, you can justify using them on 75 Maps. However, if you are using them on 74 Maps realize that four chisels are worth 1.6 Chaos for 20% extra drops in the map. Even if you allow for some extra value in item rarity, you are still paying 40% of the maps value for 20% more drops without any increase in experience gain. Over time, you could have used those chisels to just buy another level 74 map for every 2.5 maps you ran. You gave up 40% more experience and item drops, for a 20% increase in rarity on your maps. This is not an economical use of your currency.

So we establish the breakpoint of using chisels on your maps at a level of 75 if you are flush and a level of 76 being a necessity. Don't run 76 maps without chiseling them, because you are losing currency at that point. Let's take a look at Sacrifice Fragments;

1.5 Chaos Value/.05 = 30 Chaos

By looking at our map values we can establish that 77 Maps are a good decision to use fragments with when their value approaches an Exalted Orb (or when you have an excess of them) and that 78 Maps are a necessity.

This is a more complex subject and has some room for personal preference. The first thing you need to establish is how many map mods turn the map into "junk" for your map running character(s). My main map runner is currently a Righteous Fire character who is well geared and can handle all map mods except for three.

Blood Magic (.669% Suffix 1/150)
No Regen (2.007% Suffix or 1/50)
Minus Max Resistances (6.689% or 1/15)

This gives me odds of about 1/10 maps being rolled with a Suffix or combo thereof that makes it junk. You can lower this further by having a second character capable of doing these map mods.

There are also some combinations of map mods that I just will not do.

Shoot me in the Head: Temporal Chains + Icy Patches (1/17 and 1/15 = 1/250)
Mobs Die too Slow: Fire Resistance + Immune to Curses (1/38 and 1/18 = 1/684)
I Die from Righteous Fire: 50% Regen + Vulnerability (1/15 and 1/17 = 1/250)

These are rare occurrences and in the long term don't really effect what currency I choose to use on my maps. I will also admit that these are not PRECISE odds. Yes, I recognize that for precise odds I would have to take account for maps that are being rolled magic, Rare with 4 Mods, Rare with 5 Mods and rare with 6 Mods. However, these odds are close enough for me to make my decisions and the same method will be good enough for any player to identify their "No Go" map mods and figure out how often they are likely to junk a map.

Typically if you identify the mods you can't do and add their % chance of occurring, then round up to the nearest whole number, you will come close enough to determining your % chance of ruining a map for your character.

This is an important point to make because your recovery cost on a map is an Alt Orb for a magic map and a Chaos Orb for a Rare Map. I can count on one of every ten maps rolled rare to cost me a Chaos Orb and one out of every ten maps rolled magic to cost me an Alt Orb. So my recovery costs are one tenth of a Chaos per rare map plus the costs of making the map rare.

What this means is that I should not use Alchemy Orbs on a map that costs you equal to or less than a half a Chaos. The Alchemy Orb costs me .4 Chaos and the recovery charge over time is .1 Chaos. There is also the consideration that for the same value I can roll that map 5 times with Alt orbs to get a nice magic map. You will be surprised how often a magic map can be superior to a poorly rolled rare map.

The point at which my RF character should start using Alchemy Orbs on a map based on this logic is level 72. My 70 and 71 maps should be rolled with Transmutation Orbs and then "recovered" with Alteration Orbs. If you take into consideration that you can more cheaply chase desirable mods with Alteration Orbs, you may personally want to roll your 72 maps as magic.

So based on the above I have determined that with my approximately 10% failure rate, I want to roll 70 and 71 maps as magic and 72+ maps as rare. Simple and done, right?

Not so fast...

You will notice a sharp increase in value for level 77 and 78 maps. At this point you should consider a different path for your map rolling. For level 77 and specifically 78 maps your goal should be to make the most out of them as you can. Rolling them with Trans/Alt Orbs to get two great Affixes and then rolling them with a Regal Orb to hopefully get a third good Affix can be a superior path. Many high level mappers agree that this is the ONLY way to roll 78 maps.

Keep in mind that recovery cost on a bad Regal Roll is a Scouring Orb, which is basically the same value as a Chaos Orb. However, the up front investment of many Alts and a Regal is significantly higher than one Alchemy Orb.

Obtaining the Pack Size Mod and a high Quantity second roll, or two high Quantity Rolls before the Yolo Regal roll is a good way to make sure your ROI for the map is decent. It should be noted that rolling higher level maps is almost always a loss of currency. This is why Cartographer Strongboxes in high level maps are so sought after. Usually you are not going to gain back the value of the map you have given away by running it. However, if you want to level your character beyond the limits of the "free" high level game maps (67-68), you have little choice.

Once you achieve the maps of level 78 and probably 77, your greatest interest should be to stay in that tier. There is one mod for 78 maps that multiplicatively helps you stay in that tier and that is greater pack size (of Hordes). The same is true of level 77 maps, however Magic and Rare monsters can also help here. Magic and Rare monsters do not help you achieve the next higher map tier when there is no next higher map tier. You pretty much always want the pack size mod on your 78 maps.

So you roll your map magic until that mod pops up. If you have just the Hordes suffix, you Augment it to add a prefix. Then you Regal it and hope that the map doesn't drop out for you. If it does, you Scour it and repeat the process. Now you have a map that you want to run. This map should have been chiseled already.

If your hordes is say 35% more monsters, then understand that its not additive. Its multiplicative. If I have 35% more monsters and 67% Quantity on my map that's 1.35 x 1.67 or 125% more drop potential. This is not precise math due to "of Hordes" having less of an effect on certain maps. However, more monsters will always spawn via this affix and it still has a multiplicative rather than additive result.

You can also use one of two Zana mods to help keep you in this tier. One being the aforementioned Onslaught mod. If you like to play it risky, but with hopes of a big payoff, you could also choose to roll the map with the Ambush mod for 4 more strong boxes and hope you get a Cartographer's. Personally, I use the Onslaught mod for my 78 maps.

It should also be noted that if your goal is to squeeze more experience out of your high level maps then you should seek More Magic and More Rares. At higher levels, the increase in monster level has more payoff than killing white mobs. I, personally, prefer to run more high level maps and like to maximize my odds of getting 77+ map drops. If your goal is to get experience faster then you will want to Alt/Regal for those suffix results instead.