TyrusDark's Basic Racing Guide Version 2 - More content and advice all moved to Page 1

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adghar wrote:

I'm not the original poster, but I got something like 19/20/20 in the past three Descent: Champion races. So maybe I can provide some commentary on Descent.

Classic race strategy works fine for the first few areas, but then you can start lingering in areas to catch up(once you hit Cruel is when slowing down usually gets pretty beneficial.) Careful crafting is vitally important in Descent from my experience. Whenever I get ahold of a strong 2-hand weapon in vanilla Descent as Duelist, I can basically just steamroll everything up until level 17 (which is when I have to stop because I'm too casual and slow :( so maybe I'm not the best person to consult about Descent lol)

Lingering is more useful in Champions than in vanilla Descent.

Aye this is pretty true.

Although you get points for dead characters in Descent, and particularly Descent Champions... merely being able to stay alive will actually place you very high.

Personally I've had trouble with that balance as well (not to mention making a bad decision to see just how stupidly harsh the Shocked Ledge is or whatever it's called).


I can say that if you hit the necromantic crypt after brutus, there's HUGE hordes of zombies all over the level and I recommend getting a lot of EXP here before moving on.



Thanks for the compliments so far :)

Taking suggestions on any content / gear / skill questions I may have missed too, without getting too detailed as far as strategy per class or anything like that.

Thanks for the awesome guide! I am not racing to win or anything, but this will definitely help me get more reward points in a race. Did my first race yesterday and finished #1796 at lvl 10 (Didn't even get to Brutus).

I really appreciate the effort you put into this guide thanks so much for sharing your experience.

Just wanted to mention equipping chest armor lowers your move speed so in Act 1 it is beneficial to only equip a chestpiece for Brutus, Merveil, or when you really, really need the socket. Good guide overall.

Is it not worth it to go get the quicksilver flask?
And what are good nodes to take as Scion in a 2 hour race?

I'd argue that it's definitely worth picking up that quicksilver, especially in a 2 hour race.

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Lazaar wrote:

I'd argue that it's definitely worth picking up that quicksilver, especially in a 2 hour race.

After running it both ways I'd argue that it is not worth it BUT it ~might~ be.


IF you can competently handle hailrake very quickly, for ex. if you got a good weapon, you can probably make it a wash. I'd get the mud flats WP first though and then log/relog to town to do it faster if you dont have a portal scroll.



The point about the chest piece is a good one.

In a long group race, you can send one person back to open a tp at hailrake.

Hey, I started PoE when it was released and I'm deep into the races. Obviously, I do not have PRO-tips, but a few things I picked up during my own progression, that I may share and maybe people can improve upon.

- Heavy strike After struggling for some times with Brutus, I came to the conclusion that having Heavy Strike is a HUGE asset. Actually, it is a big help for the Merveil fight too ( both form ). As you can guess, this is thanks to the knockback effect which will virtually stunlock anything : Brutus will never pound anymore, only do classic attacks ( they still hurt so being on flask is still important ). Same for Merveil, except her casts are a bit faster so she may let a frost wave through from time to time.

Basically : facetank, so no issue with neither desync nor lost time from dancing around. And it works perfectly fine with Dual Wield too.
( also note HS will virtually help on any named should the NEED to kill them arise for whatever reason. )

Marauders come with the skill naturally, Duelists and Templars got two occasions to take it ( Breaking some Eggs and Mercy Mission ), and Scions from Mercy Mission.
For those 3 classes, it may be noob-friendly or even downright handy to actually do Mercy Mission so that you would get HS and a Quicksilver flask.

- Firetrap is a very useful skill if a char can run it, Duelists get them from the same missions as Heavy Strike ( hence why doing Mercy is arguably useful ), Rangers from Mercy Mission, Shadows from killing Hillock and Mercy Mission. Fire and Forget, some pesky critters won't get away with 2hp ! Also nice for kitting, doting packs, or cooking wieners.

- My latest iteration was a Dual Wielding Duelist. Those guys got a lot of DW related damage nodes, Cleave is good, Dual Strike is good. So why not?
Worthy mention to Leather and Steel, which, while giving a very big boost to BOTH armor and Eva, also remove the speed penalty from chest armor. You will be able to choose either swords or axes ( Cleave doesn't work with Maces nor Claws ), and before Merveil they can choose to get Life Gain on Hit or Added Fire Damage, probably two of the best support gems around. Oh, and they can get Hatred or Leap Slam for killing Brutus. I choose LS, because mana issues with Hatred AND the extra mobility is a blessing in the Climb and other zones ( riverway, just jump over that damn river! )

- Previous iteration was a Spectral Throw Ranger, Dual Wielding Claws. Why claws? For the life on hit, which is plain incredible at lower levels. Rangers got some nice nodes ( Ballistic Mastery, Primal Spirit, Heart of Oak, Finesse, Aspect of the Panther ), which will give a little boost to STR and INT, enabling the character to use ST and Claws up to lv22 ones, with no need to adress the stat issue before then. Rangers can get Whirling Blade from killing Brutus, which is a nice dash and enables you to go "through" foes.
Cons : you obviously loose some time at the beginning, which probably means this option is not viable when "seriously" racing in the top 20. Also, level 22 claws requires 41 int/str, and you only have 34 by then, from passives alone.
Classic use of the ranger, I believe, is Poison Arrow and Fire Trap. Rain of Arrows is a powerful pack clearer, but I believe Poison turns out to be more efficient with a bit of leveling and especially against named.

- Train. Seriously, this is probably the single most important thing to note : go to the standard or hardcore leagues ( NOT Domination, not Nemesis, those are using custom mods which won't be in the races unless specified otherwise ! ). Stand up on the beach, launch a timer, run. be cautious not to be buying stuff like speed boots or mana/life regen amulets ( I prefer Mana myself ) with currencies from your stash, courtesy of another character. What would be the point ? If you die, don't delete, stop the timer, go back to where you died, resume. Take note of what you did wrong. You're unsure what passive to take next? Pause for a second. Once you figure it out, resume and take note so that in the real race, you will directly allocate your passives correctly.


So here it is, basic progression tips. Maybe in a month I will have completely forgot anything I wrote here, dismissing it as stupid beginner mistakes, but the point is that it enabled me to reach 22 in a 2h race, with a nice beginner-friendly balance of caution and pushing forward. I want to test both a 2H Duelist next, and maybe a Claw Shadow with ST if I find a way to give him enough STR. One very nice thing about 1Handers for beginners is that they are faster, so the animation won't "freeze" you for too long. This really helps when learning movement patterns.
And obviously, I will have to learn what to skip, what to kill, and how to read items tooltips faster.

Training is actually a pretty good suggestion, I've done the first part of the race quite a number of times to get decent at the various item and gem pickups.

You HAVE to know what every item found through A1 does automatically, at LEAST enough to know whether it might be an improvement over your existing gear.

RE: Heavy Strike... I find the templar does not need it with 2h (which is the only reasonable choice for melee templars as noted in my OP, 1h/shield sacrifices far too much dps for unneeded defense) as you can freeze/slow enough to accomplish the same basic effect.

As far as 2h/1h attack speed: specifically a cleave duelist (or reave ranger) is going to be your "Fastest" options. I do agree standing in place for a longass slam or sweep can be aggravating, though typically it's most aggravating in Descent/Endless Ledge where you are much more likely to get surprise RIP'd by a massive pack.

I can confirm that the downtime needed to go back to town and pick up Whirling Blades is made back, and then some, by being able to spam it through the rest of the game.