Minotaur map.

You will be fine with a five link. There is so much damage to get in this game a six link is just luxury.

There are divination cards you can farm for six links or why not try link one yourself?

The burrow attack needs to be sidestepped.

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I have never played a game where I have 70+ days worth of time played and still felt like I dont know what the f I'm doing.

That's a pretty good description of the game though. It's a game that needs to be studied carefully if you want to progress at it beyond a certain point - regardless of how you define progress.

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And to top it all off I dont get any good drops. I'm lucky if I even get a single chaos to drop every other map.

The Chaos drop rate is low. The exalt drop rate is very roughly 1 per 100 hours played if you are just playing for fun, but that's an average over the long haul. For a more reliable source of income, you should use a loot filter, vendor the better gear, and ultimately trade the currency for chaos. Alterations are worth quite a bit this league, for example.

If you play roughly 200 hundred hours in a league, you should be able to generate 0-4 ex from straight ex drops and another 2-4 ex from other currency drops and vendored gear. That's for a casual player not doing serious farming.

It also pays to choose builds carefully. My Chieftain uses Oni Goroshi for the 6L, and that's only about 1 to 1.5 ex. You can then get by with a 4-5L chest for 20 to 40c. The whole build can be done for 2-3 ex if you don't min max it; and done right, it can handle pretty much anything. There are plenty of other builds you can do that with, but you have to look for them. And you can't pick the league favorites because gear for those will always be more expensive.

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Dont know why this game has to be so hard yet unrewarding at the same time. God forbid people can play most content on builds they make themselves without relying on premade ones or a third party tooltip or looking online for help about every single part of the game.

Well, it depends on what you find rewarding. If you hate the idea of a game that requires study to be good at, this is definitely not your game. If you want a game that will drop a nice gear upgrade for every hour or so of play, this is also not it. And yes, it's almost suicidal to roll your own right from the start. The best way to really understand what it takes to have a solid build is to follow a guide. The reward for some folks comes when you go, "Oh, I see what he's doing here. This is cool." Or when you get to a point where you can take several guides, study them, and create a build that's your own.

Good luck. There are quite a few ways that the game can be rewarding. I hope you find one and get to a place where you can really enjoy it!