Hit the map and experience wall - how to overcome it?

Hi everyone,

I reached a map/exp wall and can’t really find a way around it on my own. Playing POE for about four months now and hit a lot of walls, but all these where fine (bad gear, bad passives, and bad strategies) and I could overcome them by myself.

My chars are 86 to 91 now, but it’s very very hard to make any progress with my 91 lvl one. I can play every map, do every boss and every mod, don’t care – still I’m forced run t7-t9 most of the time, which give me no experience (or nearly none) and are boring and no challenge.

Occasionally I played some T12-14 and even once a T15. I managed to do the T13 easily, T14 was hard and the T15 I ripped at the boss too often :) - But that’s fine, that’s what I want to do, play challenging content that gives me good xp, drops and urges me to stay awake at the computer.

I however need to play mostly alone, since I’m on parental leave and therefore can’t really group up with other for longer time periods because there is a little bugger that is a little more important than any POE party will ever be and that one can be quite demanding :).

And don’t want to join a guild for the same reasons.

Yet I read that there are discussions going on about map drop etc. and a lot of people claim, that mapping is just fine and that you can provide a healthy map pool on your own.

Is that true for single player or only when you do map rotations mostly?

What I did until now was:

• Chisel maps that are t10+
• Alch &
• Vaal them

so that rarity is at least >100%

The results where disillusioning, right now I’m back to T7 again. Additionally I have to do much more trading/grinding to keep some currency, which is boring as well. If I want to play a trading game, I will go back to EVE Online.

So here are my questions, I would be thankful if some of the more experienced players could give me some hints:

• What are the best options to increase map drops?
• What mods I should look to have on maps to get more maps?
• Does MF Gear help to have MORE map drops?
• Does MF Gear help to have BETTER map drops?
• Is there a channel for occasional map rotations?
• What Zana Mods are worth it in terms of Maps Drops – heard “Ambush” is good, is that true? If so, why?

Or are there any other tips and tricks you can provide to sustain a t10+ map pool as a single player or is this just impossible in the current state of the game?

Thanks and Cheers :)

The only thing you could do different is party up. You get the drop bonus associated with being in a party, plus your map usage rate dropped by 1 sixth. I understand your reasons for not being able to party though and completely respect those.

The reality is, you're at the end part of the game where GGG shift their focus to the top 0.1% of players and the only thing left for those people is to grind away. Top tier map drop rates are rubbish, have always been rubbish and will continue to be rubbish.

As I see it you have two options remaining to you:

1. Start a new character with a different skill set that appeals to you, perhaps even in hard core.

2. Play a different game. Now I don't mean that flippantly, I really enjoy POE but there are also other great games out there begging to be played so have a crack at them till GGG release something new for the game that you can sink your teeth into.

You're dying too much and clearing too slow if hyper clearing T9s can not get you to at least 94.
I got to 96 completely solo doing 80% T9-10, and not a single map over T12.

Clearing a T9 map in 2.5 minutes will yield great exp/hour than clearing a t14 map in 10 minutes. Factoring in death ratios T9 maps will get you to 94 twice as fast.


It is trivially easy to perma sustain t9t-10 just by trading. On a good day the rates are as follows:
T7(74): .5C
T8(75): 1C (canyon 3c)
T9(76): 2.5C 30:1 exalt (gorge/arid 6/5c)
T10(77): 5C 15:1 exalt (plat 7c(
T11(78): 8C 7.5:1 exalt
T12(79): 12C 6:1 exalt
T13(80): 24C 3:2 exalt
T14(81): 40C 3:2 exalt
T15(82): 1ex 1:1 exalt

Sell off your strand/canyon/gorge/arid/plats and use the currency to buy the less desirable maps.
Anyone, even starting from scratch, with the right build, and enough knowledge of the game can permanently sustain t9 maps indefinitely and reach 94 even solo.

"

Deadpeng wrote:

Well dude. This might sound disappointing to you but I am going to tell you the truth.

POE is designed such that only the most successful players can reach level 100. (I am stuck at 92)
[...]

By the way you really should not be wasting tier 10 and above maps on your character since it is already unsuccessful. These maps can be as expensive as 1 exalt each and you are wasting your in-game finances by dying in these maps.

Heyo, thanks for the input and the long chat in game. Helpfull input.

Just for others as it might be misunderstandable: I don't think it my build. My build is fine afaik. Might be, that it sucks at T15. Thats ok too if it turns out that way. Then have a reason to buy/grind for better gear. Thats the game, thats fun.

Right now however, I can run every map, whatever. And survive. So no need for better gear at the moment.

The problem is: I cant get acccess to the content where my build might suck. So thats what this thread is about - if I do something wrong or if its just the way it is. Currently from the answers I assume the second and if this is the case, no big deal also.

@Aldora

Might be that its really the best to take a break and continue, when there is new content. Just wanted to be sure that I'm not doing it wrong. I'm not a die hard POE Longterm player, so yes, maybe taking a break or leveling something totally new (HC) is an option.

@Nephalim

Thats a way, I didn't thought about that. But TBH running T9 maps all day long just won't do it for me. Don't get me wrong, I thank you for your input but if this is the way the game is I might follow more Aldora's suggestion.

Yeah, I'm in the same situation. I have multiple characters, all kinds of different builds, all in the 80's, and not significantly tested by the maps I have access to, and ready to tackle some higher tier maps. Mostly the gear is OK for these characters, you do accumulate some stuff over several years of play.

Problem is, I hardly get any maps T6 and above. I have a few maps of higher tier, but with all this talk of building a pool of maps before launching into them, they are just sitting in my stash. I regularly run through all my T3 (lots), T4 (some) and T5 (fuck all) maps just trying to build a higher level pool. I alch all maps, sometimes chisel them (before alching), and prioritise the quality map drops I find. And I always run into this T6 barrier. It's really very annoying to be locked away from content artificially like this, to the point where I can't be arsed ramming my face into the brick wall anymore. It's not about difficulty, it's this stupid RNG map drop rate, and T6 is way too low to be crimping the supply of maps.

For the last month or so I have been leveling up some new characters with different builds into the low 80's, adding to my queue of characters looking for action. Once they're geared and skilled for doing T1-T3 maps, I just leave them and start something different, because of the incredibly diminishing returns of trying to level them higher. My highest level character (L88) does my daily missions, otherwise he's in my hideout with his feet up.

Sad to say, grinding Dried Lake with a MF character is more fun, and also useful to acquire jewellers and fusings to 6L some of my gear, plus the odd vendor trash unique.

I love the design of the game, the skill tree, gems and skills and links, it's a unique combination, and so many ways to build characters, but map access and the current trade "system" are two aspects that piss me off no end. Trade I can just ignore until it's fixed/implemented, but the maps are a complete roadblock. All games have hard content, but you can always go away and come back when you have the character/gear/knowledge/skill. This is the only game I know where even access to hard content is blocked.

Edit: to summarize, I don't want the content to be easy, but I do want it to be available. I want to throw my character at the hardest content I am capable of doing, paying the price of failure and receiving the rewards of success. Not pissing about for weeks in trivially easy content just to acquire the pittance of harder content I find. Grinding Gear Games or not.

Frankly I think they should just put high level maps in the shop for real money. If they are not going to actually be acquired in game thru game play, then why do they expect you to go without or break the rules and buy exalts from a third party seller and then buy the maps from players who apparently got them from luck and playing in a full party with crazy rolls.

You kinda missed the boat, the best time in this games life was when zana maps were higher level and droped decently high maps. Also most of the other lv 8 masters had bigger more populated maps worth doing.

It's still a fun game, but it definitely has issues. Maybe Ascendacy expansion will help it with the daily, who knows.

Heyo all,

Thanks for your answers - and nice to know that you share the pain :P

This thread is becoming a bit of a Map Rant - actually I’m really interested in

"Mapping Drop Enhancement Strategies"

So I start what i know, maybe somebody can enlighten / verify / add:

* Chisel always white maps (from T9/T10 onwards, depends on your richness)

* Alch them afterwards (always)

* If a map is rare already and the rolls suck: scoure -> chisel -> alch. Same for Blues.

* Use your chaos wisely, either change the rolls of a map or sell it and buy another you like more

* Bosses are not worth to die for, they might drop a map yes, but even if they do it might as well suck really hard (T1 on a t12 map... really?? :-/). So if you can do the boss with ease, do him, otherwise skip

* Try to aim for larger packs at Map Rolls (Pack Size). More Monsters=More Maps

* Look for Quantity on the Rolls, not Rarity. Quantity is more important than rarity for Maps.

* Best Results and best maps I usually get from those maps I vaaled and that become "unidentified" in the progress

* Map Drops Level from my experience are NOT increased by IIR, however the maps have higher rarity, that’s about it (??)

* Map Drops from my experience are also slightly increased by IIQ (?? very unsecure here)

* Maps like Crematorium (smaller packs in cells) usually drop less stuff than maps with huge monster packs - like shipyard

* T12 is not any harder than T11 so don’t fear the red.

* Always reroll when you get a +XX% of some Elemental Damage added to monsters and the boss deals that elemental damage. Because it increased the "one shot victim danger" a lot

* If you ever encounter a Map Strongbox - use whatever orbs you have to increase drop rate and level. Vaal it!

Honestly reaching level 90 in solo casual play is pretty much victory in this game.

I think it's time for a fun new build. You would be shocked at how much you learn and improve by trying new builds.

Yeah, once you decide to park your character level, the game becomes a whole lot less stressful!

Just yesterday I played nearly all day for my day off, made around 40% xp, and lost 20% to deaths. My reaction: "huh, I didn't think X boss was super dangerous with Y mod. Noted."

Whereas if I'm climbing the levels, I always feel really bad about all those high-level maps worth 5+ chaos white that I burnt because I sneezed at an inopportune time.