How many Prophecy points do you think I could get?

"

databeaver wrote:

The beyond demons on the other hand were not that difficult for me, though I didn't play a melee build. Have you actually encountered some of them and been defeated at their hands since you're so confident of your inability of completing the challenge?

"

While I agree that the beyond demons are easy--you can just chain either beyond maps or Mysterious Invaders and the five not named Abaxoth are all common enough that you could finish in a couple of hours by being only slightly lucky--

Have yet to encounter beyond demons anywhere so far, but as stated I'd just need the beyond mods on maps. Not high on my list to complete, but perhaps I should flag that one as being more obtainable if I invest the time for it.

"

databeaver wrote:

The strongbox is ridiculously hard to find. Me and my friends have only found a suitable strongbox once throughout the entire league. I had already written it off as impossible when we chanced upon one.

"

I think you're severely overstating the difficulty of finding unique strongboxes, possibly magnified by the fact that you apparently play in a party and parties don't get an "x% more strongboxes" mod.

Personally, I've found 5 "qualifying" unique strongboxes this league and 2 unqualifying unprophesized unique strongboxes (and of course, two dozen of the unique strongbox that spawns from a prophecy and obviously doesn't qualify). Monstrous Treasure is nice for this. If you chain 10 of them you're bound to find a unique strongbox eventually.

Difficulty of performing the challenge is certainly lower than the difficulty of having the uniques spawn. Note that you're supposed to be able to use a chance on normal base-type strongboxes to turn them into a magic to unique strongbox. I've only ever had magic and rares from chancing strongboxes, but the possibility exists.

databeaver, are you not using chance on normal strongboxes? I wish I knew earlier, because I've passed up so many normal strongboxes while leveling that could have had the chance of becoming unique.

I updated the numbers of a few challenges, and updated my list based on feedback.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

I updated the numbers of a few challenges, and updated my list based on feedback.

"

Fully Upgrade your Hideout (Level 6 & 7 masters)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this entry, but are you saying you have a level 7 master already? If so, you can upgrade your hideout right now via that master, and this challenge will be done. No need to wait until level 8 (that requirement was a looong time ago).

"

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this entry, but are you saying you have a level 7 master already? If so, you can upgrade your hideout right now via that master, and this challenge will be done. No need to wait until level 8 (that requirement was a looong time ago).

Thanks! Good catch! Most of my masters are level 6, but one is level 7. And I have my current master's hideout at level 6 and almost to level 7. I had a mental block that I didn't think to switch masters. Thanks! :-)

"

While I agree that the beyond demons are easy--you can just chain either beyond maps or Mysterious Invaders and the five not named Abaxoth are all common enough that you could finish in a couple of hours by being only slightly lucky--I think you're severely overstating the difficulty of finding unique strongboxes, possibly magnified by the fact that you apparently play in a party and parties don't get an "x% more strongboxes" mod. So you finding one in the party is statistically similar to each of you finding one solo if you had all been separately playing solo at a similar pace.

Personally, I've found 5 "qualifying" unique strongboxes this league and 2 unqualifying unprophesized unique strongboxes (and of course, two dozen of the unique strongbox that spawns from a prophecy and obviously doesn't qualify). Monstrous Treasure is nice for this. If you chain 10 of them you're bound to find a unique strongbox eventually.

nah it can be quite rare

still havent found one, and Ive almost used up all my scours/chances. been chancing normal boxes for a while, been chancing and scour/chancing like my last 10 or 15 monstrous treasures.


beyond demons is super easy, I think I finished it in the first two weeks of the league. abaxoth was actually the second one I got lol.

"

grepman wrote:

still havent found one, and Ive almost used up all my scours/chances. been chancing normal boxes for a while, been chancing and scour/chancing like my last 10 or 15 monstrous treasures.

I didn't chance any of them... I just play the game normally.... Try running more monstrous treasure maps.

"

"

grepman wrote:

still havent found one, and Ive almost used up all my scours/chances. been chancing normal boxes for a while, been chancing and scour/chancing like my last 10 or 15 monstrous treasures.

I didn't chance any of them... I just play the game normally.... Try running more monstrous treasure maps.

I dont buy prophecies, so Ive been running as many monstrous treasures as I can AND chancing normal ones. like Ive said, I completed 300 map drops from boss AND a Zana 8 before I got a unique strongbox required for a challenge. its quite rare.

Progress from 8/17/2016

• Reached Level 78! Took the last regen passive in the 3-point set I was working on. I think my ES regen is now 500-something with 5.5K ES. When I switch to my Vaal Regalia, the regen as it stands should be somewhere around 800-something. Eventually with another 1% left in passives, when I hit 10K ES after Prophecy this build should have 1,100 or so ES regen. That's approaching my ES recharge rate several levels ago, lol. Combine that with the life leech and it will be so much more tanky. It's just the CI build is a little fragile while leveling right now.
  
  
• Worked towards Prophecy chains, both the chains alone and the challenge.
  
  Got "Unbearable Whispers V", which means I'll need to do Mericless Lab again at some point. But I can save this for when I can solo the lab, and on a good day when the mechanics are easy to strip away Izaro's buffs in each aspirant's challenge. Or just group again for it, was fun when 1453R took me though it. Also got "Day of Sacrifice II". It takes a while to do the chains, since I'm not wasting currency on buying them (they're overpriced), and clearing out other randomly sought prophecies takes a little while.
  
  I don't see how I can complete the Prophecy chain challenge, let alone complete all other prophecy chains when they are a huge time sink. I'll just keep casually doing them for fun, and when I do get one, I'll invest the time to fulfill it.
  
  
• Worked towards "Complete these Encounters IV" challenge. Currently...
  
  √ Complete a Master's Mission (200/200)
  √ Kill all members of a Bloodline pack (200/200)
  √ Open any Strongbox (200/200)
  - Touch any Shrine (99/200)
  
  I ran several maps and transmuted/auged them until they were bloodline for magic mobs. Completed the Bloodline pack task. This helped get me to level 78 as well.
  
  I also did several master missions to complete that as task well.
  
  Now the only task left is to touch shrines. I tried running normal ledge and was able to get a few shrines in may be 5-10 minutes of running and opening new instances at each end. It's working quickly. And then I decided to run Blade Vortex all the time while running it, and pick up drops that sell for a chrome to help with my Vaal Regalia later. I'll keep doing this unless you guys have a better suggestion for touching those shrines faster than I'm currently doing it. Any way to get faster than 3 per 10 minutes or so? Better areas for this? I tried to keep it simple to a straight run like ledge, where it's hard to miss areas for where shrines appear on the map.
  
  At any rate, I'll complete this challenge for sure.
  
  
• Worked towards "Fully Upgrade your Hideout".
  
  I am one more daily (tonight) away from getting one of my current hideout masters to level 7 rep. I have another at level 7, but they're not in my hideout, and switching them now would mean losing a lot of rep progress. So I'll wait until tonight to get that one master in my hideout to level 7 and complete this challenge.

Also, I updated the OP with my build/gem layout and my new outlook on the remaining challenges...

Current Build

Trickster Claw CI/GR/ZO build. Lots of ES with leech and regen going to it.
Lots of condition remove & buffing flasks

It's not the most viable for leveling (much slower than my standard league build), but I wanted to try something completely different than what I was used to. It's fun, but took a lot of work to tweak and a lot of armor catch-up along the way. I don't think I'll run melee builds anymore, but it was fun to try it and I will continue to level and enjoy this build after Prophecy.

Gem Layout
(in order of importance)

• Reave
  Supported by: Multistrike, Melee Damage on Full Life, Melee Physical Damage, Concentrated Effect, Increased Critical Strike
  Purpose: Main attack. When I switch to a 5L Vaal Regalia from my 6L Tabula Rasa, I will drop critical strike. Crits won't be that high until after level 90-something, so worried more about sustained DPS than burst. My Vaal Regalia I'm working on would give me 8.5K or so ES. I had it crafted and ready to go except for the gem slot color. Need 3 reds, 1 green, and 1 blue, so that's tough for armor that rolls heavy on blues. Doing RNG only, since saving 300-something chromes and then not having a guaranteed chance of getting the green along with 3 red isn't what I'd want to gamble with. Each chrome roll is a much better gamble.
  
  
• Discipline & Haste (changing Haste to Vitality later for ES regen)
  Supported by: Enlighten (don't have yet) and Empower (leveling off-weapon)
  Purpose: Discipline for ES and Vitality for ES Regen, Haste for more DPS at the moment.
  
  
• Phase Run
  Supported by: Faster Casting
  Purpose: Escape plan and pack avoidance when needed. CI builds have to flee quite a bit until end-game ES stats can be achieved.
  
  
• (2x) Vaal Discipline
  Supported by: Increased Duration
  Purpose: bosses and general panic button.
  
  
• Molten Shell
  Supported by: Chance to Ignite, Increased Burning Damage, and Concentrated Effect.
  Purpose: Burst DPS and DoT for bosses, temporary armor to help reduce stun lock, heavy-hit indication. Have this up with Blade Vortex before going into combat.
  
  
• Blade Vortex
  Supported by: Culling Strike, Item Rarity, Increased Area of Effect (may swap to Increased Duration later, and when going to standard swap to Item Quantity)
  Purpose: Great for breakables, and always up before attacking, good for boss drops
  
  
• Portal
  Supported by: Faster Casting
  Purpose: saves space for carrying portal scrolls, but also nice not to waste them. More importantly, I don't worry about throwing up a portal to rest flasks for free (obviously not that helpful in maps with limited portals back in).

Remaining Prophecy Challenges

Green: should be able to complete, an obtainable goal
Yellow: will take some work, might not get it done
Orange: most likely not, but still possible
Red: forget it, not going to happen for me

• Kill Merciless Rares
• Currency from Vendor Recipes
• Level a Gem to 20
• Open a Unique strongbox
• Fully Upgrade your Hideout (Level 6 & 7 masters)
• Kill Merciless Izaro
• Fulfill these Prophecy Types II
• Kill these Beyond Demons (0/5)
• Identify 50 Unique Items
• Complete these Encounters III (3/6)
• Kill these Merciless Act Bosses
• Fulfill these Prophecy Chains (1/4)
• Reach Level 90
• Clear Unidentified Rare Maps (0/10)
• Unseal the Endgame Labyrinth (1/6)
• Kill these Map Bosses (0/9)
• Kill Argus in the Endgame Labyrinth
• Defeat the Pale Council (0/4)
• Redeem Divination Card Sets (0/7)
• Clear Twinned Maps (0/15)
• Get Maps From Map Bosses (1/300)
• Complete these Encounters IV (3/4)
• Clear Maps with Eight Mods (0/10)
• Complete Two Endgame Grinds (0/2)

Progress from 8/18/2016

• Completed the "Full Upgrade your Hideout" challenge. I finished the rep on one of my active masters to get to level 7. I had another 7, but my active masters had a lot of rep XP on them, so didn't want to swap.
  
  
• Worked towards "Complete these Encounters IV" challenge. The last task I'm still working on (touch shrines) is now at 117/200.

I've been running Normal difficulty of The Ledge, which seems reliable for spawning shrines at the entrance of the area next to the Submerged Passage. It's working fairly quickly compared to how often I found shrines while mapping and doing regular progression through the game.

The ledge seems to be like a good choice since it...

1.) is simple pathing with very little backtracking, making it almost mindless to run
2.) exists in Act I which means super low level mobs that die on the first hit
3.) can spawn a shrine near the very beginning of the area, making new instances easy
4.) is right next to another low-backtracking area, The Climb, if I get bored for a moment

I just have my blade vortex up all the time, and pop a quicksilver flask each time. I get enough kills to recharge the flask for the whole run of the area.

My results so far...

1 Hour, Run Area End-to-End
This is a run between Submerged Passage and The Climb, doing a new instance when entering The Ledge from each side. And includes time spent picking up items that sells for one chrome, as well as portaling into town to sell those items.
9 shrines
40 chrome (2 stacks even)

10 Minutes, Check Entrance from Submerged Passage
From the Submerged Passage side, this is entering a new instance of The Ledge, checking as far as two slightly-larger areas, turning around, then heading back to start a new instance again. Very little BV except to keep Quicksilver flask going for at least once per run. I tried this for another 10 minutes, but only found 1 shrine.
3 shrines

So just under 10 shrines an hour means it would take 9 more hours of running this to finish the challenge. I think I'd going to focus on other challenges first that require regular gameplay, then whatever shrines I have left I'll squash with this strategy. Yet the chrome drop rate is very nice, meaning I could eventually swap that Tabula Rasa for my new Vaal Regalia.

Thoughts?

"

I think you're severely overstating the difficulty of finding unique strongboxes, possibly magnified by the fact that you apparently play in a party and parties don't get an "x% more strongboxes" mod. So you finding one in the party is statistically similar to each of you finding one solo if you had all been separately playing solo at a similar pace.

I've played both with my friends and alone. Around 250 hours of playtime and I've seen two unique strongboxes (one qualifying, one not).

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

Have yet to encounter beyond demons anywhere so far, but as stated I'd just need the beyond mods on maps. Not high on my list to complete, but perhaps I should flag that one as being more obtainable if I invest the time for it.

The best is if you're lucky enough to get the beyond mod on a Zana map, since it's always paired with sea witches and extra packsize. That one usually gives several beyond bosses without even trying. I think I got three or four different bosses towards my challenge from one such map.

The beyond mod isn't too difficult to get on a map with alts, but getting both it and sea witches can be a pain in the behind. It may be more efficient to roll beyond with any packsize mod and run multiple maps if needed.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

So just under 10 shrines an hour means it would take 9 more hours of running this to finish the challenge. I think I'd going to focus on other challenges first that require regular gameplay, then whatever shrines I have left I'll squash with this strategy. Yet the chrome drop rate is very nice, meaning I could eventually swap that Tabula Rasa for my new Vaal Regalia.

Thoughts?

If you have extra chaos orbs you could use Zana's map device to add three shrines to a map. Depending on your clear speed it may not be faster, but might be more interesting than running the same areas over and over.

You have a few challenges which could be fairly easy if you don't mind outside help.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

Unseal the Endgame Labyrinth (1/6)

How do you only have one trial completed? I assume you've been running maps for a while since you're already level 78? You could try /global 820 to see if there are any trials available.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

Kill Argus in the Endgame Labyrinth

This is trivial with some help if you get the labyrinth unsealed. I know I can solo him even while carrying several other people.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

Kill these Map Bosses (0/9)

I can run these bosses for you if you want and we are online at the same time.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

Level a Gem to 20

I checked my gems but the closest one I have still needs about 120 million XP to level 20, so that's probably not helpful for you.

"

cipher_nemo wrote:

Defeat the Pale Council (0/4)

I still have one full set of keys so I could give you the kill on these guys. Loot is mine though.