First time at level 70

I tried the game awhile back, but life got busy. Now I'm back, and officially hooked!

But I'm in a bit of a weird place. I'm stuck in this state where I can't go any higher (maps), because of my gear. But in order to make real currency, all the guides talk about farming maps.

I'm level 70 and can't even beat a tier 1 blue map. My DPS is fairly high (I can one shot most packs of mobs), but most of my gear has my res at negative still. I've been following the Frost assassin build, and while I was able to acquire some of the items - I'm very much lacking, because bosses can one shot me. Some of the items in the build are 25+C, and I've managed to save about 10C so far.

While I wouldn't call myself a newb (I've played WoW, D1-3, etc..), I definitely am a PoE newb.

I've been trying to farm Humility Div cards in Blood Aqueducts, but it's slow. I sell my 6S items for Jeweller's orbs, have been keeping unidentified 60+ ilvls for the Chaos recipe.

Any other suggestions? Is it even worth running tier 1 non-blue maps? From what I can tell, mapping only progresses in blue+ maps (this may be wrong).

Should I just keep running back through acts 8-10, killing / vendoring / saving?

Am I just at a spot where I need to grind it out a little?

Thanks!

'endgame' can be really daunting as a first time player. there is a LOT of stuff going on when you get to this point.

Go into your profile and set it to public, and folks here can give suggestions based on what your current gear is, and what cheap upgrades to get.

With your 10 chaos, im 100% sure we can get you breezing through tier 1-5 magic maps. we just need to know what we're working with.

Thank you kind sir, made my characters public.

You fell into the Diablo 2 trap - All of your gear is Unique. This doesnt work in PoE. You have NO life whatsoever.

When you start mapping, you're hoping to have about 4k life, 3500 MINIMUM. does your character have more than 2500? You also want to make sure you get you resistances up to max again. From the story we have a -60% penalty, and the natural cap is 75%. so we need 135% all resist, and i dont see nearly enough on your gear.

Drop the rare rings for 50 life + resists, dont worry about dps stats there.
Swap the belt for a rare with 75 life + resists. lot of belt options to choose from.
You have THREEEEE quicksilver flasks. I would suggest getting at least 2 dps flasks, Sulphur + Diamond.
If we're still low on resist, you can get a Bismuth flask (35% resistances for the duration) instead of the diamond flask. Getting one of them with the 'of Heat' suffix would be great, and keep you from being chilled/frozen.
Also your hp flask is severely low tier.


You have an empty 4 link, a very good option would be a 'cast when damage taken' setup. It does require multiple red sockets (3 red, 1 flexible slot depending on what you want).
Cast when damage taken -- level 1, NEVER level it up
Immortal Call - level 1, NEVER level it up
Increased Duration - level up to 20
4th slot you can play with. Phase run, a curse, molten shell, frost wall. Never level this gem. make sure this gem stays below required character level 36.

We keep cast when damage taken at level 1, because when it levels it requires more damage taken before it casts. immortal call also stays level 1, because it doesnt DO anything to level it up.

I'm currently sitting at 2,800 life - yeah that makes sense. I figured unique is always better - it appears that isn't always the case in PoE.

I know I know, the quicksilver flasks make me zoom, but I probably need to get grown up flasks :D. Removing poison / freeze / + to all resist is more important than zooming around maps right now.

As a followup to anyone else who stumbles on this thread, what Thror2k5 said is exactly right. Uniques aren't as important in end game as LIFE / RESIST. Bosses one shotted me because I had crap life and negative resists from final acts. Going with rares (that gave resist) on mostly everything except weapon
is perfectly fine to get me into maps.

He even went above the call of duty and messaged me in game to answer any more questions, and helped me with gear.

Now I'm slaying blue tier 3 maps and am pretty sure I can go higher.

You sir are a gentlemen and a scholar, thank you!

You know... don't feel bad at all about running 10 to 20 white maps for currency and gear. You only need the boss kills for the Atlas bonus and it only needs to be done once.

It's slow yes... but you can farm in peace for awhile while collecting currency, and items for the Chaos recipe. It's a good way to get started and eventually you'll have so many tier 1 -5 maps you won't know what to do with them besides trading them up level.

Take your time and progress will come!

Happy Hunting


p.s. I find that somewhere between 3k to 4k Life is a good health pool to have to start mapping. If you're already one-shotting a bunch of mobs then take a look at your tree and see if there's something you can pull back and if you have health points available to take then throw those points into health.


Also, if you're using rare items always look for good "maximum life" and resists rolls. In general the more uniques you have the more trouble you'll have with getting them overcapped. You eventually need to be 30something% overcapped to handle elemental weakness maps.

Just some thoughs... peace out

I would say best you can do is to go for league character and new build with the knowledge you already gained to get even better again.
League because it gives you a really big booster if you can get some of the temple mods at your items, things like big % for traps or minions, % to elemental damage or penetration for element skills, there is a lot you can get, that is not yet in the standard mode. And we do not know if incursion will be part of the core game in future, so use it now to get stats maybe never get again.
I would advice to try a summoner, because it is the easiest playstyle that brings you high in mapping with no big risk to die a lot, because your minions do your job. Have fun and do not use so many uniques, they are only buildenabler for certain stats, but mostly uniques are bad for life pool. As long it is no kaom´s chest legacy thing.

I just read Thror's post and he's definately leading you in the right direction. So "Kudos!" to Thror! Definately stick with his advice; it will lead you the right way.

I just looked up your toon and see that you're still wearing a Tabula and you're wanting to map. Well you're better off buying a cheap 5 link with health and resists. We're talking around 15-20 chaos in Incursion league. I just noticed your toon is in Standard and I don't offhand know what the prices are but I'll check here in a minute.

Actually, I'll log in on std and look to see what I have. I have 3 remove only sets of tabs so I might find you something. If I find anything suitable for your toon you can have it and save some currency.

It's late here and I'll be crashing in a few so If I find anything I'll look you up tomorrow.

Happy Hunting

So I took a look at Std and I have 4 5-link bases you can look at and choose from. My wife and I just started playing again after a 1 1/2 yr break and we're in the Incursion League. We leveling Summoners at the moment so you'll be able to log into Incursion and find me there.

toon name- Rampagingspirit


I did look at 6-links in std and they were all crap.


Anyway, you can choose whatever base you want and alch/scour to your hearts content. If you don't have alot of Alchs but have some scouring orbs I'll use my alchs and your scours to roll it. Anyway, just get a hold of me and I'll jump over to std and hook you up.

Happy Hunting

For making some currency, and (probably) getting some useful gear (map entry capable) it's sufficient to farm easy zones close to the end of the regualar game. Depending on your weaknesses, this could be linear zones like the Habour Bridge in act 8, (the first zone with level 60 - this is important!) or Blood Aqueduct in act 9. Later (highest level of act areas) the Ossuary can also be an option to even increase the xp gain.

Important: keep an eye on rare loot with very low or 'wrong' base: dont identify this crap; a full gear set(*) of such gains you 2 chaos orb from each vendor (and in your case this is a very valid option to build up 'wealth').

*) one piece from each gear slot (including the 3 jewelries, no flasks) with either a twohanded weapon (including bows) or onehander + shield or dualwield.