Spiritdweller and Inconsoulable: A death race poll for the 1 month hardcore league

I'll play two summoners in the hardcore version of the upcoming one month league and see which of them perishes first. One will be a witch and the other will be a templar. They will follow quite different build plans (details given further down).

The player who comes closest to guessing which summoner will die first, at what level, where in the game, and to what enemy will win a prize.


What? A prize?

The closest guess to which of the two summoners will perish first, at what level, in what area, and to what enemy, will get the best 5 orbs possessed by both summoners, when the death poll ends.

I don't have much gear on standard. But, in case the winner isn't a hardcore player, I have some chaos orbs, gcps, regals, blessed orbs, and other such items on standard.


Rules for Each Summoner

The rules for these characters are as follows:

1. They use only gear that they themselves find, craft, or buy from in-game NPC vendors.
2. They each run solo in the hardcore 1 month league (no dual boxing, no outside assistance).
3. I reserve the right to "farm" specific areas for levels and gear.
4. I reserve the right to assess a situation and not fight a specific battle (or finish up a particularly nasty map, or run a particular corrupted area), if the odds of survival look bleak. Also, logging out is an option, if overwhelmed.

About rule 4, I have no logout macro, slow reflexes, and fumbly fingers, so you can weigh the worth of the option to logout for trying to keep these summoners alive. Still, I expect running away from battles to be an infrequent occurrence, as otherwise the game wouldn't be fun to play.

Finally, I'll run Spiritdweller and Inconsoulable in parallel during the same time frames, so they will make progress in the same areas during each phase of the league.


How do I make a guess?

Make a post containing your guess with the following details:

1. Character level at death (level 1 to level 100)
2. Which summoner will die first (Inconsoulable or Spiritdweller)
3. Difficulty level and zone in the game in which first summoner dies (ie: Cruel docks, Level 68 map, ...)
4. Enemy to deliver the killing blow (ie: Voidbearer, Piety, ...)

I'll add each guess into the pool of guesses made (see post 2 below for that information). Everybody gets only one guess and you can't make the same guess as somebody who guessed already. I'll treat a death in a corrupted area as a death in the zone to which it is attached, for the purposes of determining who wins the death race poll.

To help for making guesses, I'm probably about an average POE player with below average reflexes. I play primarily self-found characters, usually either in hardcore or in a temporary hardcore league. I've never gotten a character into merciless difficulty, although I have had several characters close to reaching that milestone, including several in the recent invasion league. I'm still learning how to use crafting to its fullest potential, but I do craft when the occasion seems right.


What happens after I make a guess?

I'll make posts about how the death race is going, as the summoners make progress. When one summoner dies, the death race ends, I'll post about the details in this thread, and I'll contact the winner to transfer the best available orbs to the winner.


Will this be streamed? Will there be video?

My computer is too slow for streaming. And, I'll post instead of doing video.


Details about builds


Inconsoulable (Witch)

Planned passive tree




Planned skills (starting plan, may change according to RNG):




Items:
RNG and crafting will determine this. I'm aiming for a 4 or 5 socket item in chest, 4 sockets in head, shoes, and gloves, and 3 sockets in weapon and shield.


Spiritdweller (Templar)

Planned passive tree




Planned skills (starting plan, may change according to RNG):




Items:
Same as for Inconsoulable

The pool of guesses about how the death race will end is in this post.


How to make a guess ...




Guesses to date ...

Wazz72 - Witch, lvl 40, cruel climb, invader
Midnightgem - Witch, lvl 52 , cruel Lunaris 3, Piety + Invader + Exile all at once
Chundadragon - Templar, lvl 55, Merciless Ledge, Exile + invader team-up
PyleWarlord - Templar, lvl 63, Merciless City of Sarn, strongbox-lag
rogergamer - Inconsoulable (Witch), lvl 70, lvl 69 map, invader boss
SL4Y3R - Witch, lvl 77, 72 map, exile

Follow up question. Estimated play time per day?

gl

I like the idea but the characters are too similar imo

"

SL4Y3R wrote:

Follow up question. Estimated play time per day?

This will vary. I don't play 10 hours a day, nor can I in the upcoming month. I'll probably play a few hours a day or less. I'll have very few days completely “off” from playing.

As a kind of benchmark, I very recently solo'd a self-found hardcore league summoner from level 1 to level 55 in about 2.5 days. I learned a lot about the game during the invasion league, and so leveling is much easier for me now.

Still, the one month league will be a lot harder than the vanilla hardcore league, which means the hazards associated with leveling will be quite a bit higher.

"

another follow up. will be using snapshot?

I wouldn't snapshot, even if the mechanic hadn't already been removed from the game (hasn't it?). I don't have the patience for doing that, nor do I have the kind of gear to make it worthwhile.

"

ventiman wrote:

gl

ty

"

Amiag wrote:

I like the idea but the characters are too similar imo

I've played a variety of kinds of summoners and I've found that even small tweaks can make how they feel and play noticeably different. YMMV, of course.

Despite some similarities in the passive tree and skills, there are several notable differences. The templar will be dual totem, while the witch will not. The witch will have spectres, while the templar will not. I have no plans to take desecrate for the templar, while the witch will take it. The templar will have access to the reduced mana gem and will probably be able to run more auras than the witch. The templar will use summon skeleton, while the witch will not. Overall, Spiritdweller and Inconsoulable are likely to look and play very differently, even if their builds share some characteristics.

Thank you all for your interest.

With the new information here, which summoner will be the first to fall and at what level, where in the game, and to what enemy?

Witch, lvl 77, 72 map, RF exile.

Witch, lvl 40, cruel climb, Cintiq.

"

Wazz72 wrote:

Witch, lvl 40, cruel climb, Cintiq.

I'll code this as "invader" because which invader shows up is so random.