I'm a noob playing the Torment/Bloodlines event. Is there any hope for me?

Despite having registered in 2012 and having played a bit through the open beta, I have very little experience/knowledge of the game. This is my first ARPG and I'm in love with the game, but I think there are key concepts I'm missing.

Since I just started playing for real, I figured I'd just jump right into the event, just in case. I'd love to get at least one of the rewards, is there any hope for me? Currently a bow/cold (mainly ice shot) Shadow level 33, 28/40 encounters done.

Any advice on how to level up fast, or what should I do? I'm assuming I'm really poor, so I probably can't buy nice gear. Currently using only stuff I've found. I have no idea about crafting anything, have been hoarding on all kinds of stones, scrolls and all those (currency?). No idea about trading. Also following some builds from the internet.

I guess I'll figure a lot of stuff in the long run, but for now it'd be nice to get some advice on the event, thanks!

P.S.: I have not been able to kill all the ghosts as they appear. Apparently they are part of the 40 encounters. Am I screwed if I failed some?

Well, if you start burning some midnight oil, 6 days would be enough to get all challenges except the level 80 one. If you had more experience with the game, that one would be fine too but I suppose you'll die a fair number of times just because you didn't know what to watch out for, and sometimes probably not even recalling the color of the truck that hit you, let alone its licence plates.

This bit about challenges might help you and I'll check for you online, might have some leftovers from my playthrough.

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- Get to level 80
This is as simple as it gets and doesn't take a lot of effort nor a strong build, it's not even required to be able to do maps, you can just farm level 67 areas in act 3 merci until 80, but once you pass level 75 it will be significantly faster to do maps.

- Complete 40 encounters out of 46
This would be very tough if you had to complete all of them, but it's not a problem like this, by the time you get to level 80 you will have this challenge, most likely for a long time already. It's totally random so there's nothing much yo ucan do except just play the game like usual.

- Complete 18 master missions out of 21
Now, this one would be fairly tough if you had to do it alone, as some of the missions from the list don't seem to come as often as others, like get spirit from Tahi for Haku, kill mutated Maw for Tora and Vagan has a lot of skill/weapon combos so getting Cyclone and especially flicker can take a while. The solution is to make heavy use of global 820 chat channel (type "/global 820" to switch to it), that's the channel you can use to find a few people to rotate masters with, that will take care of this challenge in no time. Also, if you lurk there a lot and type fast you might get a free run, some players share them when they encounter a master that has a required mission.

- Kill a unique boss
If you want to do this yourself I guess the easiest one to gain access to would be shrine Piety, but you will need to be able to run high maps to have a chance of getting Shrine map. The other solo way is to get lucky and land Shrine, Palace, Olmec's sanctum or Death & Taxes as a Zana mission, that's the way I did it, got Palace twice, as a L74 and L67 map. You might also get lucky (actually unlucky) to randomly spawn Abaxoth from a bloodline pack, can't recommend trying to take him down, the bastard is pure evil.
Of course, the easiest and safest way is to just buy the kill in trade chat, a spot costs 4-5 chaos, which isn't much.

The usual recommendation would be to take your time and slowly get to know the game, however you're pressed for time so following some build guide would be a good idea. The best bow build currently is tornado shot so you could find the one most similar to your current tree and just copy it the best you can.

Looks a bit hopeless, to be honest. Just four days left, I think.

It's no problem to miss some ghosts because you will meet them again, but sooner or later there will only be a few left that you need, and then the chances to meet exactly those that you need are quite small. That means you would have to play A LOT in the remaining days. Still very doable, but maybe not so much as a noob.

You can trade for better gear at poe.trade, things should be very cheap now, and give your char huge boost. Just tag 'buyout only' - to see whether you can afford something, and for nice, quick trades - and 'online only', and maybe set a maximum price, then contact the player in-game.

To level-up fast, all I can tell you is to only engage larger groups of monsters, or magic ones, and run past everything else. You can also do content underlevelled. Your level will catch up eventually.

Thanks for your advice mates!

I do have a fair amount of time to play this weekend, and a bit less in the weekdays, but still can grind some.

Since I already have leveled up skills with cold damage, intelligence and some elemental and physical damage, should I just keep going towards a cold build? I have Ice Shot, Fork, Lesser Multiple Projectiles and Herald of Ice which all seem to work in unison.

I have some of the pricy orbs, and a couple unique items, but I'm very lost as to which items should I be getting. So far my gear has some ice damage, and other added qualities. I guess I should be looking into crafting maybe?

Once again thanks very much for your advice, I'll be checking said websites and build suggestions.

ice shot works well with crit. I like pierce with it but fork could work too

dont forget to take enough %life passives, evasion + Ondars and Phase Acrobatics :)

good leveling gear = gear with life and resists. enough evasion for leveling comes from Grace aura

A cheap recipe for a good cold cast weapon early on is: sapphire ring + orb of alteration + magic (blue) wand or sceptre. Just sell these things to a vendor and you will get a weapon with +1 level to all cold skills in return. All other affixes on that weapon will be erased. You have to socket the gems into that weapon, otherwise it won't work.

Flat damage anywhere on your gear does not count towards your spell damage. It's only for attacks.

Wow guys thanks for all the advice! What an amazing community, I'm truly impressed, a good reason to get hooked!

I mainly use fork with ice shot because it is what I've found. Thanks for the advice on crits, I was kind of neglecting it.

Is it ok to experiment with the skill tree? Or should I go for proven builds?

Regarding resistances, should I focus on this? I've noticed fire hurts me greatly.

And one last question (for now he he!), I've noticed that sometimes areas have other areas sometimes, whether corrupted or small quests that I don't always do, but then when I come back I can't find them. What's the deal with this?

Thanks again and I am very grateful for your support!

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Serkr wrote:

Is it ok to experiment with the skill tree? Or should I go for proven builds?

If you're in a hurry to get things done before the league ends like you are now, definitely stick with proven builds. Otherwise, proven builds are probably good to start off with anyway just so you can learn what DOES work and get a better feel for what you need to do, but it is also good to experiment a bit and see why your own ideas DON'T work too.

As for the rewards, just playing the game normally through to A3 merciless was enough to get all the encounters for me. The master missions weren't hard to get either, but takes some time which you probably won't have enough of. Level 80 also isn't THAT hard, but probably more time than you have. The unique bosses are definitely not something you will be able to handle at this point unless you get extremely lucky with getting a zana mission with a lower level version of one and even then, you'll need to reach at least a halfway decent level very quickly.

If you just want the armor effect though, you could always pay someone to kill atziri for you(there were plenty of people selling kills for 5 chaos or so earlier...not sure if prices have changed since it's so close to the end). Not nearly as satisfying as actually earning it yourself though.

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Hodari wrote:

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Serkr wrote:

Is it ok to experiment with the skill tree? Or should I go for proven builds?

If you're in a hurry to get things done before the league ends like you are now, definitely stick with proven builds. Otherwise, proven builds are probably good to start off with anyway just so you can learn what DOES work and get a better feel for what you need to do, but it is also good to experiment a bit and see why your own ideas DON'T work too.

As for the rewards, just playing the game normally through to A3 merciless was enough to get all the encounters for me. The master missions weren't hard to get either, but takes some time which you probably won't have enough of. Level 80 also isn't THAT hard, but probably more time than you have. The unique bosses are definitely not something you will be able to handle at this point unless you get extremely lucky with getting a zana mission with a lower level version of one and even then, you'll need to reach at least a halfway decent level very quickly.

If you just want the armor effect though, you could always pay someone to kill atziri for you(there were plenty of people selling kills for 5 chaos or so earlier...not sure if prices have changed since it's so close to the end). Not nearly as satisfying as actually earning it yourself though.

Haha yeah, I've pretty much given up on getting level 80, I'm just level 39 and leveling has gotten pretty sloooooow! I only have like 10 more encounters to do, so I'm hopeful about that.

I'd definitely be willing to pay for the Atziri kill, do you know where can I get this?

I'm mostly following a build from the internet, but have made some slight variations to suit the gear that I currently have. I should probably be looking into crafting and trading soon, but I'm really lost as to what to get. I tend to get attached to the uniques and rares that I've found, but apparently some regular items are better than some uniques/rares? Is there a website with an item guide or something?

Thanks for your help.

I just finished 3 out of 4 challenges in the Torment/Bloodlines event, in just 6 days; all except the "reach lv 80" one. A lengthy chat with a comrade from my guild established my strats to complete challenges. Main points are:

1. Get to Act 3 in Merciless. This is the most important advice. Along the way, you will find lots of masters' missions and ghosts/bloodline packs. Some of the encounters only spawn in areas above lv 60, so getting to Act 3 Merciless is pretty mandatory. Zana also only spawns in maps, so if you want to complete Zana's missions while playing solo, you need to get the Eternal Laboratory first. At the very least, you need to get to around lv 66 in order to build a character strong enough to tackle maps.

2. Rotate your masters. By the end of Normal difficulty, you should have gained access to all masters, except Zana. Get one to level 3, gain his/her hideout. You can invite another master into your HO. Level the original master to level 5 in order to gain bigger HO, while rotating the other one with the remaining 5 masters. This way, you will get 6 daily missions per day, a sure way to enlarge your chance to get required missions for challenges. I personally recommend to level up Elreon, he's the easiest to gain XP.

3. Farm bloodline packs and ghosts in the Mud Flats in Act 1 Merciless, as soon as you're able to. This area contains the highest density of ghosts/packs and fairly easy to navigate. It's open space and bright, making it easier to tackle most of the packs. For Frozen Sky and Voidspawn packs, I recommend farming in the Docks (Act 3 Merciless).

4. Buy Piety Empyrean Kill by joining such groups from Act 3 Merciless board. Only costs 4-5 chaos. This is the easiest of all required bosses. You don't even have to enter Piety's chamber. Just wait right outside the portal to her chamber in order to get the credit for the kill.

5. If you really want to get to level 80, join groups running maps. Lots of ppl offer them for free. This is the only way to gain XP fast after level 70. I personally stopped at 3 out of 4 challenges because I don't have the time to grind from lv 70 to 80. Just be carefull of deadly bloodline mods such as Herald of Obelisks, they become much more deadly with additional number of ppl in groups.