tried self found but failed.

hey guys kurtcobainsshotgun here. long standing player, some of you may have seen my comedy poe songs, if you want to check them out i will leave links at bottom of post.

anyways, i took a break from poe before 1.3 hit. my love for the game had dwindled.
but once an exile always an exile, so i returned to play my first hardcore char in bloodlines.

this year i have actual real life stuff to do so cant plow ridiculous hours into poe, so i thought the best way for me to now enjoy the game would be to play self found.

this was working pretty well, but i have to admit half way through cruel my char was feeling under-powered, so i caved and bought a shield. i know i failed but this kinda highlights a point.

playing self found is a ball ache. imo getting the right gear from self drops is difficult to maintain as game difficulty increases.

im playing arc for first time with shockwave totem to take agro and val cold snap for opening strongboxes and helping when surrounded. the builds going well but getting items is tough.

so heres the crap uniques i have dropped so far none of which i have used.

EDIT -- just hit merciless and dayumm mobs are hitting much hrder and finding it difficult to cap rez's with the self found drops, and also dropped another godly unique --
still enjoying myself though, theres been some hairy moments in some corrupted zones, ive vowed to enter every one i find, so wish me luck.


heres my gear all self found except the aforementioned shield


and hers the passive http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABAcEswj0CaoNjQ5IEFgRLRGWE54aOBzcHwIfxyL0Jy8reCycLUctizI0MtFFR08EUEJVS1XGXfJfKmHiaPJqQ2wLbRlxhXYRfIN-M4Kbg9uLjIw2jHaQVZo7njyiAKSRsUK4k8AawFTAZsCazfrVptn84XPk7Ovk7DjtPPAf8xH53Q==

hopefully this post will highlight some of the problems a self found player can face, for example, uniques that drop have no correlation to the build being used and low lvl'd ones drop when u have lvl'd past there use.

the drops dont seem to correlate with game difficulty
it also feels like we have to trade, arrggg.

but all in all i am enjoying the self found vibe but i can see im gonna have to trade again at some point.

post your self found fails below . thanks for reading.

heres links to my comedy poe stuff enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfy3SE---uM - the crit song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXgrnGNgQiU - rng so cruel to me song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMdlKZqsKwY - worst hideout of the week.

Self found isn't for everyone. You have to enjoy that feeling of "ok... how can I get through this?"

Buying something is a quick easy answer to that. It does answer it though, I'll give you that.

Just a little tip from a self found player, don't consider unique as required for your build but like an improvment if you find one (ex : the jad amulet karui ward isn't required to play a freezing pulse witch (you may never find it) but it help).

More generally, don't build around unique and don't hesitate to craft a little, it helps.

One thing is for sure, do not expext to do thousands of damage or to clear maps at lightspeed, that's not only unlikely but also... foolish (no disrespect intended for those who can). Personaly i consider to have a good dps if the tooltip indicate about 1000 dps at the start of merciless (it depends of the skill of course).


And for the shield... well it's just one item, and you will probably change it sooner or later so don't be depressed, it's easy to cross the line to the dark side but don't go too far or you won't be able to come back to the light.

SMARTDROPS

Feeling underpowered is part of the self found experience. Progress will be slower and the game will often be much harder, but that just makes finding a good item or getting past a difficult fight all the sweeter.

You're calling wonderlusts and deerstalkers crap while wearing those boots?

It's kind of a pain in the dingus.

You need to cap resists. How do you cap resists? Endless Baal runs. But the best Baal runs, the ones that are the most efficient use of the finite seconds and minutes of your life, are Merciless Baal runs.

With Baal Runs+Masters Crafting, it is possible to play self found now. It's a pity no other area is worth your time, though.

My self-found luck has been alright on this character, so far. (Self-found only alt, rest of my characters I trade on. I have a separate tab in the stash for this guy, all of his currency used is self-found.)

But, it's all a part of the self-found experience. You build around what you find, not what you want. That's half the fun! Sometimes, you can come up with some pretty wacky builds and be surprised with what works and what doesn't.