FireSkulls&ArcyArcy - 1M SC+HC 8/8

So, decided to go with SRS for the 1 Month SC league - will NOT be using it for the HC league, that's for damn sure.

RNG has been spotty, found these:



Of which only the Raindbow Strides have been useful (thank god for the extra resists). I also purchased a Reverberation Rod, because I needed to take the multi-strike from the Library Archives missions and the Rod was cheaper than buying a Spell Echo gem (ha!).

Finished Act 3 Merciless off at level 64, and went straight into maps. Planning to run 66-68's until Level 75, then will move into Shore/Underground Sea/Strand.







What Next?

I'm going to transition into a 5-Link staff as soon as I can find a decent & affordable one, and once I ditch the shield I will be working on getting my resists capped. Core to that goal will be obtaining a chest piece with 500+ AR and 300+ ES, with some decent resists/life. Also need to decide if I want to get an Alpha's howl, go for an AR helmet, or look for a decent AR/ES one. I need at least 4 green sockets for Vaal Haste/Desecrate/AA so I need to fit them in somewhere.

Once gearing is done, I will switch over to EB/AA (unless I complete all the challenges by 80).

Thoughts on Bloodlines?

Love it! Love the variety, love the challenge, love the "Oh Shit" factor when I get blown up by something. I have died 10 times so far (terrible, absolutely terrible), and the main thing that gets me killed have been the totems and storm explosions. Phylacteral Link is bloody awful for SRS/Summons, but its not as frustrating as I thought it would be. However, because of that I won't be going SRS for HC (plus it has been a bitch getting my resists sorted due to my RNG). I am thinking I will try Arc, seeing as I have never done it before and it is supposed to be easy(ish) to gear for.

Thoughts on the 1 Month?

Love it! The Tormented Spirits are a bit 'eh', but I've been playing with them for 5 months so its to be expected that I'd be bored of them. But with the combined challenge of the Bloodlines packs, the realistic challenge goals, the short timeframe, the fresh economy, and the option to do both the HC and SC league for different prizes, this is a format that really needs to be looked at as an ongoing addition to the line-up.

So, we've hit Level 75 and done some gear upgrades:



I am REALLY wishing I had picked up a Granite Flask early in the game - haven't seen one since I started needing it. Will be upgrading the AR/ES chest to a higher level of ES (and AR if I can find one cheap).

Resists are all maxed out for now and have switched over to AA - sitting at almost 4k HP which is quite nice for level 75. AA is leveling slowly, not providing a ton of mitigation yet, but once I get a granite flask I should be able to avoid spike damage deaths.

Will be trying to upgrade the rings to include Mana Regen (and hopefully cast speed) if affordable.



All Challenges Completed for SC

1 Month Hardcore Arc Witch

Current Level: 53

Thoughts:

Stressful. I'm no good at this game, I am no good at Hardcore. The only way I have survived so far is purely down to luck and overleveling by between 5-10 levels.

Christ I am not looking forward to Merciless :(

Still alive, are we?

Yep! Now level 70. I know, right, I am as amazed as you are.


Anyways:



Ignore that granite flask, I stupidly decided to try and up the "increased armor" roll on it and ended up running out of alts. Will roll it again when I get home.

EDIT: Rerolled it:





Thoughts So Far

Okay, okay - I am actually having fun now. I am totally planning to ragequit once I die - I'm going to blame Desync and personally call out Chris on the forums then post in Tech Support bitching and moaning about wanting a character restore or I'll be calling my lawyers. Should be fun, looking forward to it.

But yeah, if I manage to survive long enough to get the challenges then I will retire this character and never EVER touch HC again. It's been awesome, but I love playing fast and loose more than I enjoy the constant fear :)

What trouble you bring now?

Current Level:75

Have respecced the tree a little based on advice from Boem (cheers brah!), and made a few gear changes to try and increase survivability. Switched over to EB, am now running Tempest Shield (extra block until I level AA more), Discipline (feeds AA), HoT (purely DPS), and Clarity (feeds AA and new Arc setup).



I swap the lightning penetration gem into the Arc setup when I am running maps, but I also run a bit of docks for masters, so just use the added lightning damage there.



Slowly getting there. I'm pretty sure I will end up ripping before 80 (I'll do something dumb), but I hope I won't.

Level 80 at last - and we're all done 8/8

That's almost the exact Arc tree I used to get to lvl 80 in the one month HC (just a little more optimized - 12% energy shield node by Witch start means you can drop 3 int nodes, 8% elemental damage node by Elementalist and 3% cast speed node by Light of Divinity are inefficient). Did you find that you were squishier than you expected? Even with a lot of life, some armour, and a lvl 18 AA, physical damage was a problem for me (although I did go dual wield for the damage instead of wand + shield). Luckily being ranged kept me alive.

Man, you got a lot of unique drops. I got maybe half that between the two leagues.

I found HC stressful too. Not a convert.

Gratz on the completion!