Self-Found Gems Challenge (updated for Bestiary!)

So I've refined this challenge (a bit like Ironman in WoW, or something ziggyd did here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVc9EWyqZf4). If anyone gives it a try, put your Character name and public profile as a comment so others can see your progress.

I did this in Abyss and got to 72, someone got to 83 and was still going strong before quitting! Bestiary will be interesting. Not having access to early abyss jewels and stygian belts will hurt, but beastcrafting uniques will be nice!

So what are the rules:

Self found gems: This seems...nuts, right? Well yes, it is. But that's the point! But I've found this immensely satisfying and frustrating at the same time. Your build is evolving as you go so you are making decisions about how to succeed with what you find. It has also forced me to use skills I've never tried (FAQ: you *cannot* use the gem from the beach zombie).

Weapon/Shield/Quiver: You can use any weapon you either 1) find and identify; or 2) find and craft. Reason: since you don't have access to gems until they drop, you need some way to progress early, and because you need to have a way to scale melee/range gems. Otherwise your only real choice is a spell.


Boots: Same as weapon. Reason: Because you may not see a move skill drop for a while, this is something to make the challenge more bearable, and a way to keep you on the lookout for one additional item slot.

Past Leagues: I like to incorporate leagues & past leagues. So you can use a Stygian belt if you find one and any Breach Rings, but I believe both don't drop til maps now. Someone noticed that you can craft talismans. Because they are corrupted and random, I think it's fine, but tier 1 recipe is too easy, so you can craft any "Tier 2 Talisman with Beastcrafting".

Jewels: You can use any jewels (found or from quests).

Flasks: You can use any flasks of any rarity (found or from quests, you can and should alter the mods on them).

All others: Everything else must be a NORMAL or UNIQUE item. You can replace your weapon or boots with Uniques if you choose.

Tips: Sometimes it's a major grind to your first gem, sometimes you get it on the beach. Keep your eyes out for gemcutter boxes and if you have any alt/aug, try to get added items.

Use prophecies around act 3 or 4 to look for uniques. With the addition of Bestiary you should be able to fill out your gear with uniques much easier!

Start with an idea and grind it out, or stay generic and wait til you find a skill to build around.

Starting with a bow or wand is easiest to start killing from range.

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/jolsen26/characters

Got a frostbolt at 8

:)

Scion is a pretty solid start with easy access to jewel slots for Abyss Jewels, and pretty easy access to life, resists, and MoM

Now this sounds really crazy, a way to force you in using some skills/uniques you would never normally use.

At this point in the League I would not have the time and interest to level a new char up to to the 90s, so when my current Juggernaut gets killed I could give it a shot and see how far I can go.

A couple of questions.
I guess it has to be a fresh start (can't use items found with a previous char, not even the currency), right?
Only gems dropped on the ground by killing stuff are allowed (so while you can use quest reward jewels and flasks you can't use quest reward gems), right?

EDIT: When you say you can use any jewels, do you also mean rings/amulets or must they be white/uniques?
Can you buy flasks from vendors?

Yes, I do each character with a fresh start. I play my main characters on SC, so I do these on HCSSF so I can just transfer all to the HC league and start over fresh.

Yes, only gems that drop, so no quest rewards.

Rings and amulets have to be white or unique. Jewels can be anything (abyss or regular), including the quest jewels (so that includes threshold jewels if you get that far). I'm using a firestorm I found, but I have a frostbolt leveling in case I make it to that point.

You cannot buy flasks from vendors, but you can use any you find and you can (and should!) use currency on them.

Posting in this thread brought bad luck to my Jug, he got killed shortly after (T11 Spider Forest, one-shotted by Alira's detonate dead, not very smart by me)

Anyway.. since I have no motivation to level another char to red maps in this League, I decided to try your crazy challenge (char name DuncanSSFGem).

I considered your advice to go Scion, but then thought that without any skill gem I was going to have issues dealing with Abyss cracks and so those early jewel sockets would have been of no use for some time. I know Scion is also very flexible thanks to her starting point... but in the end I decided to go marauder, which is the class I'm most familir with, hoping this would help to stay alive.

Without skill gems the game has a completely different pace, it reminds me of older games like Diablo or Diablo 2 where area damage was a plus (and not the bulk of your attacks). Most people would probably consider it unbearable nowadays, but I can deal with it for now.

I found a very good rare sword in Tidal Island, that helped me quite a lot so far.

I'm level 11 but still no usable skill gems (found a storm barrier support.. not very useful) but I recenlty found my first unique, Sadima's Touch gloves, they added a good amount of dps and they are keeping me going.

As expected I'm having issues with Abyss cracks, I can kite them now but I just don't have the DPS to clear them fast enough and get to the chest, I guess this will remain the case untill I can put my hands on an active skill gem.


EDIT: FINALLY! At level 14 found a Gemcutter strongbox. Unfortunately, despite I rerolled it to have 8 additional items... it didn't drop a single melee skill (or bow).. only a bunch of spells... as a marauder I was obviously hoping for something else, but I can't really complain.

EDIT2: Almost embarassed man... but shortly after my first Gemcutter's box I found a second one, I spent all the alts I had rerolling it (+5 items), this time it dropped Heavy Strike, Ruthless, Ancestral Call and Vigilant Strike. Felt almost cheating.

If you want to make it harder, consider no grinding allowed. You are allowed to clear the area once, and then on to the next one.

"

FrancescoV wrote:

EDIT: FINALLY! At level 14 found a Gemcutter strongbox. Unfortunately, despite I rerolled it to have 8 additional items... it didn't drop a single melee skill (or bow).. only a bunch of spells... as a marauder I was obviously hoping for something else, but I can't really complain.

EDIT2: Almost embarassed man... but shortly after my first Gemcutter's box I found a second one, I spent all the alts I had rerolling it (+5 items), this time it dropped Heavy Strike, Ruthless, Ancestral Call and Vigilant Strike. Felt almost cheating.

Sorry about your main HC character :*(

Hopefully you're having fun with the challenge!

Also, that's not cheating, just being smart :)

those support gem finds are super clutch though, I didn't think about how good those are! That's one of the hardest parts when you get going is getting support gems.

"

EldorLoreseeker wrote:

If you want to make it harder, consider no grinding allowed. You are allowed to clear the area once, and then on to the next one.

It's pretty tough as is :)

But feel free. I don't remember farming much (if at all) on this current character. I think I just pressed forward so far. But later there will probably be places you want to farm to get overleveled.

"

EldorLoreseeker wrote:

If you want to make it harder, consider no grinding allowed. You are allowed to clear the area once, and then on to the next one.

That's what I've been doing so far, I hope I will be able to make it this way but I guess I'll hit a wall around ACT v.

"

jolsen26 wrote:

Sorry about your main HC character :*(

Hopefully you're having fun with the challenge!

Also, that's not cheating, just being smart :)

those support gem finds are super clutch though, I didn't think about how good those are! That's one of the hardest parts when you get going is getting support gems.

Yeah those supports were a god's blessing. I now have a 3 link setup, although not with optimal supports, it's a night and day difference.

Now I'm level 27, ACT III.

I replaced Heavy Strike with Static Strike (found in the same gemcutter's stronbox), since I found Stormcharger boots.
Togeter with Static Strike they work very well, but I'll surely replace them later on (I will need as much flat life as I can get to try to compensate the lack of life on most of the other gear)

I have made my chars public, so you can check progress if you want.

I like this type of challenge! It's different than the one I tried.

I have a level 78 witch/Elementalist that has never equipped anything but white items, including flasks!
He's also all solo self-found, although self-found doesn't really increase the challenge. I started him before the SSF leagues were available, so that's why he's in Standard.
The only concessions I made were using any type Jewel, including uniques, in the passive tree, and glove and helmet enchantments from ascendancy.

See White_LUCK_Warrior in my character list. I did increase the challenge by not using minions or totems, so all his skills are self-cast.

My first death didn't occur until Dominus, but he had a harder time at the end of Act 4 and on.
95 deaths so far, but still able to gain experience. With 1,500 health and 750 energy shield, he's pretty fragile! My goal is to reach level 80.