EphemeralEverAfter – Self found “no regrets” death poll for the 1 month hardcore league

lvl 55 - tidal island - merciless hailrake

good luck and have fun :)

A quick update ...

EEA is now level 43, she defeated Cruel Merveil, and now she's in Cruel Forest Encampment. All Normal difficulty quests were completed and all act 1 Cruel difficulty quests have been completed.

RNG was not feeling much love for EEA when she was running Normal difficulty docks (and later, old fields) to get a master up to level 3 and to find a good Vaal gem or two. Even with regular use of 3 quicksilver flasks it still took about two hours of gameplay to get a master to level 3, to make a hideout. The only Vaal gem finds of note were Vaal Spark (not bad) and Vaal Molten Shell (better than nothing, I suppose). The quest for Vaal discipline, Vaal Haste, Vaal grace, and/or Vaal summon skeletons continues!

Another Living Blood boss was the scariest encounter, as I thought I had moved EEA out of the line of fire of the ground slam, but I had not. EEA's life pool dropped rapidly while I was moving her away from the boss. Luckily, I stopped her movement, downed a life flask with staunching in time, and kept her alive.

Another dangerous moment came about with a Catarina daily mission, as the 2 mobs to be killed chain-cast desecrate on EEA, who has no chaos resistance gear. Brutus was also challenging, as his ground slam chewed away all of EEA's ES and most of her life pool in one hit.

Passives

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Perq wrote:

I love how you write down everything in detail, and "enjoy the journey". Kudos for your OP! ;)
Hope you keep enjoying it, and die at Brutus, so it can end in an epic way! (truth: business is business :-D).

Spoiler

Turnes out you can play self-found, enjoy the game and not complain about it not being exactly fit for your needs. More kudos!

I tried to die to Cruel Brutus, but somehow I missed. Or he missed, or something like that. I'll try again in Merciless! (I hope) :)

"

blubbber wrote:

lvl 55 - tidal island - merciless hailrake

good luck and have fun :)

I am indeed enjoying the game and thanks for the well wishing. :)

keep the updates coming, positive and enthusiastic posts are always nice to read :)

bump.
want to read about you reaching Maps and killing Dominus (Merc).

bump for reep at Cruel Dom :p

don't let people rush you into fighting cruel dominus too early! take your time and just make sure you reach merciless hailrake around lvl 55, that would be great! ;)

hmmm chaos bond drop bears in act2 merc

EEA is now level 47 and has finished up all Act 2 cruel quests, except for Shadow of the Vaal.

Masters in the hideout are currently Catarina and Elrion, who are both about to reach level 5. Haku will be invited when Catarina turns level 5 because getting him to level 4 is a priority, primarily to help with patching up any low resists that EEA might have ahead of Merciless difficulty.

Battles were mostly straightforward. But, EEA had a close call when I was surprised by a "Poisoner" tormented spirit in an Elrion daily mission. I didn't know tormented spirits could spawn in his missions and I hadn't encountered a poisoner tormented spirit before. So, I didn't notice EEA's life orb dropping from chaos damage until it had dropped by quite a bit.


Passives

EphemeralEverAfter died quickly and quietly in City of Sarn at level 48.

A bloodlined pack of lightning arrow archers was ahead of EEA and a normal pack was on her flank, there was a lot of lightning flashing, along with minions doing their minion thing. Some outcasts were also wandering around, as they tend to do in City of Sarn.

Suddenly the number of projectiles in the air jumped up a *lot* and EEA had all of her ES gone and a lot of life gone as well. I tried to move her away, but she was frozen in place. I downed a "Cautious" flask, but more projectiles flew toward EEA and the resurrect button popped up anyways.

Perpetus killed EEA before I even saw him.

I knew I was taking a risk by running with a low life / ES total (a total of about 1500 life + ES in A3 cruel is definitely taking a risk). But, I wanted to let EEA's mana total drift up gradually on its own to the point where I could run clarity + discipline, to make EEA more robust. I figured that I'd manage the small life + ES pool OK, as I had never lost a character to Perpetus before this.

I was clearly overconfident.

Still, as usual, it was fun. :)

Passives:


Items (after resurrecting in standard, obviously):