Danut's Self-Found Gems Challenge [streamlined for Betrayal!]

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FrancescoV wrote:

I'm around 17 hours so far.
Now I'm level 66, beginning of ACT 9, found a Skullhead helmet... having both life and resists it was a very welcome addition to my equipment.

Guess I really should try being faster... I'm over 30 hours already. I do have some afk hours, but still around 25 hours played at least, and this with access to way more damage than you.

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Arrowneous wrote:

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Antaiseito wrote:

Sounds great.
Actually i was sometimes kind of wishing to have been playing the game back then, but never really though about just doing it like that.  :)

[technical issues]

But GGG has talked the talk for years about custom leagues (like SSF with no skill or support gems from vendors) and that's all it ever will amount to, talk. I don't see it ever being a reality.

Oh, you're absolutely right that i do NOT miss experiencing a time before lockstep. Just the game in principle.

Same with lab, i really like the lab, but it's still not cool that people need to restart completely because the game randomly crashes. Doesn't happen to me anymore since i got a new PC 2 years ago.
Technical issues are never cool.

OT: i was taking a bit of a break and then went back to level my normal Infernal Blow Marauder for a few hours. Played Infernal Blow before (it's epic explosions ^^) and after some hours running through the story/delves it felt so pointless..

Took another break and went back to my witch with spectral throw (found 2 rejuvenating totems and multiple trap support ^^)
So much more fun to experiment around with that :)

Well, it took only 1 week for them to stop talking the talk Arrowneous mentioned and give us custom leagues now.
So, maybe there will be some interesting groups where no buyable gems and party play would be an interesting part, too. I think that could be perfect :o
You guys are not from EU i guess, because timezones?

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Antaiseito wrote:

OT: i was taking a bit of a break and then went back to level my normal Infernal Blow Marauder for a few hours. Played Infernal Blow before (it's epic explosions ^^) and after some hours running through the story/delves it felt so pointless..

Took another break and went back to my witch with spectral throw (found 2 rejuvenating totems and multiple trap support ^^)
So much more fun to experiment around with that :)

Well, it took only 1 week for them to stop talking the talk Arrowneous mentioned and give us custom leagues now.
So, maybe there will be some interesting groups where no buyable gems and party play would be an interesting part, too. I think that could be perfect :o
You guys are not from EU i guess, because timezones?

I see you're now level 33 on your witch, but still without support gems on your main skills. That's a bit unlucky.

About the private leagues GGG announced, I'll probably just keep playing my own challenges on the normal servers. Unfortunately I'm not in the EU (I'm in Brazil). So I'll just keep playing my solo challenges as always.

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DanutMS wrote:

I see you're now level 33 on your witch, but still without support gems on your main skills. That's a bit unlucky.

About the private leagues GGG announced, I'll probably just keep playing my own challenges on the normal servers. Unfortunately I'm not in the EU (I'm in Brazil). So I'll just keep playing my solo challenges as always.

Haha, yeah, only thing i got is 'cold to fire support' and 'multi-trap support' xD
Didn't delve this time.
Just got a caustic arrow gem, so with being in the shadow area already i could think about switching to that as well, but i got rid of all my bows.
Also got siege ballista (twice), if i make the switch.

Leveling feels really fine with spectral throw right now, since it hits so often. Tried normal lab last night and survived the first fight barely but i could only throw once then run with 2 gargoyles chasing me or i'd die very fast ^^"

- Rejuvenation totem is actually a pretty nice meat shield right now. Monsters often go and attack the totem. Found a siphon trap too, but i think the totem provides more right now.
- Smoke mine is a bit clunky to get right and gets destroyed by AoE, but nice for chests/essences and for blinding fast enemies while hitting them.

Just did it!
Killed Kitava ACT10.
Long fight, had to portal several times (something I despise.. but well.. wouldn't have been doable otherwise).
Level 71 as of now.

Had some luck with dorps lately, delved quite a bit before doing Kitava and found some good gems... Lighting Penetration, Blasphemy and CWDT.
I linked CWDT with blade vortex+blind which I already had.
Unfortunately I have no enfeeble to link with Blasphemy but have Poacher's Mark... I think I never used Poacher's Mark before.. this is something I really like about this challenge... being forced to use and discover gems you woulnd't normally use.

I also found Static Strike and initially thought about replacing Smite as my main attack... Static Strike is the gem I used the most when I reached level 85 in this challenge during Abyss.
But found out that with 3.4 changes Static Strike is not as good as it used to be as a main attack skill (not that it ever shined, but now it is even worse, while surely becoming better as an utility gem).

Gratz!

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FrancescoV wrote:

Just did it!
Killed Kitava ACT10.

Congrats! You're the first one to do it on this topic o/

The part about using gems you've never used is really cool. Sometimes you even find out a gem that can be quite useful in other situations as well (and even when they're not good enough for a normal playthrough, they can help a lot in our situation).

Static Strike can be quite good, but you need to have enough damage to kill everything in one shot for that. Then it's a great skill, just run around and things die. I don't think it's possible to get this amount of damage without some trade league gear though, or at the very least some really good rares from SSF. So yeah, as you already realized, Smite is a better bet for your main attack (although I personally didn't like Smite as all when I used it).

And just cause I don't want @FrancescoV to feel like he's the special one: I got to maps on HC for the first time!

The last levels were soooo tense. I was done with all other quests at level 66, but following Reddit advice I leveled all the way up to 71 before trying merc lab and then Kitava.

On lab I had a really tense moment with Argus. I probably should've skipped him, but the softcore me spoke louder. The first hit almost killed me already. Luckily, it turned out Herald of Purity really helps, as Argus soon got trapped into a circle of my minions and I could finish him. Otherwise he'd probably have killed me.

After going through the first Izaro phase I also realized a mistake I had made: I played a bit on a standard char before doing lab as I was waiting for the server to stabilize (didn't wanna do HC lab with 200ms). When I got back, I didn't change my Item Filter. So the whole first part of lab - including one lab chest - had been done without me seeing any gem drops. I thought about restarting lab. This would allow me to open the chest again, and also help with the Izaro fight itself - I fucked up the first part, letting the Vulnerability curse font active. But it felt a bit too much like cheating (as my own rules state you can only run lab once on each difficulty), so I gave up on the idea.

The rest of lab wasn't that hard. But I still haven't seen a single gems chest. I've done full runs from normal lab, cruel lab and merciless lab. On both normal and merciless I managed to open a lot of chests, even including a chest that gave me two other chest keys on each, and yet I haven't gotten any gems out of it.

With lab out of the way, all I still had to do was kill Kitava. Which I never did (deathless) on any char. The path to Kitava was the most tense I've ever been on this game. I was so afraid of dying before making it to the boss, it would be the most heartbreaking moment of my PoE career.

I also realized I don't really know the mechanics of the fight. So I watched a youtube video explaining his attacks and spells. This helped so much. The fight itself became much more clear after watching the video. I still fucked up at one point, and would've been killed if I hadn't leveled up to 71 before going for it (which made me get to 4.1k life).

But I made it through. Time to start mapping!

The funny part is that after killing Kitava and going back to Oriath I realized I didn't swap Concentrated Effect in for Increased AoE. I just forgot about it on the most important fight of all. Oh well, I made it anyway.

Right now, I'm sitting at 1 day and 15 hours played, although the real playing time is probably closer to 1 day and 8~10 hours. Now I gotta fix my resists. I think I can do this with mastercrafts, but right now I'm tired - so I'll just leave it for tomorrow, to be sure I don't make any mistake on what to craft.

Congratulations to you both FrancescoV and DanutMS!! :D

Now i know what you meant about the lab, opened a box and completed my Essence Drain set AND Ice crash + added cold. Had Ancestral Warchief already, so Izaro became much easier.
I love essence drain but since my tree was already near the ice nodes of ranger i chose to go Ice Crash elementalist.

So far so good.
Alas, with this new found strength i felt like i got complacent again...
Tried to concentrate again but on the way up the mountain found a phase run gem, so cool to get out of harms way right. Tried it out in a group of monsters and got slaughtered. Just like that :o
Ah well, gotta keep that in mind next time for real. It's not like i never made it to maps in HC before >.<
Not having specced life regen as a fledgling melee character was probably something i should have taken into consideration more.

Will probably start a new run soon. It was absolutely great (again) to work with what you get (still including rares).

Character is not deleted yet if you want to check it out.

Have fun in maps and stay safe! :)

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DanutMS wrote:

Static Strike can be quite good, but you need to have enough damage to kill everything in one shot for that. Then it's a great skill, just run around and things die. I don't think it's possible to get this amount of damage without some trade league gear though, or at the very least some really good rares from SSF. So yeah, as you already realized, Smite is a better bet for your main attack (although I personally didn't like Smite as all when I used it).

Yeah of course I meant Static Strike with the limited gear I have, I'm sure in other circumstances it can be deadly... but with the crappy stuff I have to use Smite is just so much better.

Congratz on reaching maps too!
I always wait till 70 to do Kitava on the first run of a League (this is to be cosnider a first run as I'm not using gear from any previous char), it helps... and I also consider 400 life per ACT a minimum to be safe (4000 at ACT 10). This time I had around 4500 (invested a lot in the tree to compensate for the crappy gear)

My strategy with the Lab is different though, I usually do it after killing Kitava and being already on low tier maps, usally around 75 or so.
I know I could do it before, it's just that I'm used to do it this way and it's not that you really need to do merc lab to beat Kitava (once you know the fight)