My Journey To 8/8 (Dom/Nem)

x-post from r/poe.
http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1wmh23/so_it_was_indeed_possible_i_got_88_challenges/


Winning screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/7UoVFNh.png

I KNEW I wouldn't be able to make it. The unique challenge was way, way too ridiculous this time. There was no way I would ever even attempt it.

Our map group that got formed in Anarchy/Onslaught league made a guild called Project Mayhem. A rather small guild but we were always playing/talking/mapping together. I got so much help from here I can't believe it. I promised to not bother them due to challenges, but in the end I broke my promise.


Kill Rare Monsters

Voltaic Guardians are map-only, but we ran maps all the time anyway. PoE wiki greatly helped locating the missing rares.


Touch these Shrines

I was mainly playing domination. By the time I reached level 91, I've already encountered several echoing and divine shrines.


Slay the Nemeses

Leveled a generic ground slam / heavy strike marauder to 71, and gained access to maps. I was still missing Inner Treasure mobs. Roffo helped me kill them. Thanks Roffo!

Also, a Headhunter dropped in act 2. Cool stuff!


Reach level 65

* Scion (dom, 91): Cookie cutter spec throw / double striker. Farmed most of the exalts with this guy.
* Marauder (nem, 71): Generic ground slam / heavy striker. Path of HP nodes
* Witch (dom, 65): Fire trapper using searing touch. Wasn't fun
* Duelist (dom, 70): Abyssus+Meginords facebreaker
* Templar (dom, 65): Cybil's Paw EB/MoM/AA incinerator. Was very nice. Might do again next league
* Ranger (dom, 90): Voltaxic rift crit ranger. Most expensive build I've ever done.
* Shadow (dom, 65): Physical crit dagger spec thrower. Didn't really care.


Use these Currency Items

Eternal exalted my ele dmg + tri res leather belt. Got thorns.


Items from Vendor Recipes

I did most of the non-orb recipes with 5-to-1 recipe, cuz I was lazy. Regal recipe wasn't a problem since our group mapped all the time.


Kill these Unique Bosses

Bosses I had to get help from guild members to kill:

* Labyrinth: #1 Stunner (Thanks TDA!)
* Torture Chamber: #1 Stunner (Thanks TDA!)
* Academy: Perma-freezer (Thanks STRiCK9!)
* Palace: Perma-freezer (Thanks TDA!)

Paid 1 exalt to buy an Igna Phoenix instance.


Own these Unique Items

This challenge was just crazy. I wasn't even going to attempt this at all. It changed when I randomly put a chance orb on a white spine bow on December 18th, 2013. I unlocked an achievement and seconds later I realized there's a fucking Voltaxic Rift out of nowhere in my stash.

I was destined to go for 8/8.

I tried to buy the rarest uniques as soon as possible. First uniques I bought were two Goddess Bounds, and made one of them a Goddess Scorned. Then I went for Thunderfist, Void Battery, Taming, and Berek's Respite.

I did not take MFing into account while building my spectral thrower. My guild always had an MFer, which I fully depended on. My clear speed was good and I was very tanky, but since I had no IIR/IIQ, nothing dropped on me. I made a shop and started farming Dominus, by bringing him down to last hit, going to town, changing into full MF set, coming back, and culling him. Nobody wants to do this shit for more than 1 hour. I did this for almost 8 hours straight every single day.

I used unID chaos recipe (gives 2 chaos). When there are too many of one slot, I ID those with the best bases, and either vendor or put up on my shop. All my items were tagged with buyouts, which helped fast item turnarounds. I realized my shop was going way better than I expected, and so were dom runs. I earned 3 exalts worth from Dominus runs alone, just from chaos recipe and vendored shards each day, and I picked up rares/uniques worth 1~2 exalts every other day too. I had tons of 2~4 chaos worth rares, many 8~16 chaos worth, and a few 1~multi exalt worth. I was flooded with PMs to the point my sceptre of god instance expires often. I never flipped once, not because I'm against flipping or anything, but because I just don't know how. Sometimes people pay in a variety of currencies. I gather them all, change into fusing or chaoses, and then exalts. Public party was a quick way to convert currencies.

In the end, I earned almost 200 exalts in just 1.5 months! I wouldn't recommend this to anyone because it's so boring it almost drove me insane, but dom runs was the most efficient way for me at that time.

Best items that I found myself (other than voltaxic) are two Lioneye's Glares (one from Tunnel, another from Coward's Trial), a 6L ilvl 70 crusader plate that I put 100 chaoses to roll decent mods and sold for 13 exalts, a Bringer of Rain, a Romira's Banquet, a 284 ES dual res gloves sold for 7 ex, and a IAS+HP+res+leech gloves for 7 ex.

Borrowed Uniques:

* Shavronne's Wrappings (Thanks MinaciousGrace!)
* Auxium (Thanks MinaciousGrace!)
* Prism Guardian (Thanks Arc!)
* Le Heup of All (Thanks Spinexion!)
* Dream Fragments (Thanks Spinexion!)
* Divination Distillate (Thanks Mollie!)
* Huge thanks to Knightmare for holding his Shavs and Auxium for me. I would have given up if I had to buy those myself.

My Own Uniques:

* Voltaxic Rift - CHANCED
* Soul Taker - 43 ex
* Void Battery - 30 ex
* Kaom's Heart - 23 ex
* Headhunter - Found
* Thunderfist - 18 ex
* Ming's Heart - 17.5 ex
* Aegis Aurora - 10 ex
* Devoto's Devotion - 10 ex
* The Taming - 7 ex
* Berek's Respite - 6 ex
* Marohi Erqi - 3 ex
* Astramentis - 3 ex
* Thief's Torment - 2.5 ex
* Taryn's Shiver - 2.5 ex
* Abyssus - 2 ex
* Bloodseeker - Found
* Kongor's Undying Rage - 1.5 ex
* Void Bringer - 1.5 ex
* Death's Oath - 1.5 ex
* And rest of the unique challenge list for 1ex or lower.

TL;DR

Chanced Voltaxic. RNGesus was on my side. Friends lent me uniques. Ran Dominus 24/7. Didn't flip items. Sold rares on shop. Use Procurement.

Fun Fact I've also completed all challenges last league.

that's some serious dedication right there

I dunno how you didn't go crazy farming Dom that long... I zombie farmed Piety for about 10 days to save 30 exalts to buy my 6L 500 DPS weapon, and I thought I was going to go crazy with boredom. Don't think I would ever do that again.

It's sad that zombie MF farming Piety/Dom is the best way to build wealth in this game :(

gz on your dedication there =)

Congratulations.

I am jelly of that mail signed by Chris you'll receive.