Invasion experience - dying and aftermath

G'day guys.

I'm a relatively new player, just got into the game 1 months ago near the end of the last 4-month league. I have experimented with a few builds, mostly based off builds by ZiggyD.

Started off on invasion recently with a EK/MOM/EB Shadow. The first toon died to an invasion boss in Vaal zone with a combination of desync and fire burst. But I was determined to get this build to high levels, so I rolled a similar toon with slightly different skill tree and better gear from a few previous short runs in invasion.

It was all going nicely. I had a few close calls, quicksilvered getaways. I had lots of health (>1.1k by end of normal), maxed resists, and had 2 uniques (Karui Ward amulet and Goldwyrm boots). For 2 days I was worried that my character will get steamrolled by Dominus, so in the end I teamed up with a few other people and we took him down easily. Voila! Forward to the unknown of Cruel!

But alas, I was not prepared for Cruel. In Fetid Pool I met up with Rima, Deep Temptres. As I was keen for the next quest reward to clear out the pool, I took her head on with no knowledge of how dangerous she is. After getting stuck by traps and stuck between some rock pillars, I was helpless as I watched her firestorm emptied my hp. In hindsight I probably could have TPed while I was stuck, but hindsight is just that.

When I was playing normal, I never got this kind of ups and downs from POE. With each death I learn something, and need more time to recover.

Now my toon is in Standard, I am not too happy with the market. In invasion I could get good skill gems for alchs and unique gears for 1c each, but in standard everyone is asking for Exalts. I don't think my stash can ever afford something like that, so either I self fund my way to end game or give up on this character and start a new build in invasion. What do you guys think?

How do people recover from a character dying after 1-2 weeks of playing in invasion/HC? I would like to hear other interesting (mostly deaths) experiences in invasion.

EDIT: Some comments are saying my view on Standard market is wrong. So as a comparison, is Invasion market for skills and gear overpriced compared to Standard? Or the other way around? I think there's also the fact that finding uniques in Invasion makes me feel better knowing that not everyone else has a copy of it.

How's the market in Ambush? Similar to Standard?

New Invasion character is the way to go :)

To cope, I usually try a build that's completely different than I one I just died on. Keeps things interesting.

Well, if you die, its mostly due to unexpected, rapid spike damage. If you have experienced the bosses and gotten used to them, going to the end of cruel poses little problem anymore.

In Nemesis you learned of the rares to avoid, for example the Elemental Weakness Storm Herald or anything with "Corrupting Blood" in it. The rest you learned to deal with.

Invasion so far was a lot harder to learn, but the basics are the same. Here are some of the things I look for:

- As a general rule of thumb: If I see traps flying at me from any unique (Bolt Juggler, Kall Foxfly, ...), its time for a zone reset even if Im still unsure what unique it is. If a trap catches and my life takes a serious drop, its time for logout.
- You see grey thorns shooting at you from offscreen, run away (Chaska!)
- You see Rima (mostly easy due to massive ice novas), fight her with offscreen attacks or room-fu - or dont even try.
- You see Cintiq or her white sister Pewterfang, spam your Quicksilver if you have no chaos resist. If you do, best fight them with totems, they love to go for them. To best effect cast the totem behind the spider so that the chaos AOE doesnt hit you.
- You see ice lances coming at you from offscreen, its either the ape twins or the Bladeback Guardian. Seperate the apes to beat them, and stay out of range of the Bladebacks fire nova and with it the discharges
- If Fetid Maws leap at you from offscreen in a zone where they should not be, always keep moving in case its Spinesnap. No one likes leap slam chaos damage.
- You see Blackguards where they shouldnt be, its almost always Evocata or her Fire leap slamming cousin. Fight at your own risk.
- If you see a Vaal construct shooting a Ball of Lightning in your general direction, have the logout ready cause you have just met Judgement Apparatus

Generally if you encounter a monster type thats neither part of the usual zone monsters nor the invading creatures, its most likely the mob containing the unique boss. You will want to seperate the unique from any rares, totems or other sources of buffs/effects it can receive to avoid unforseen deadly combinations.

Well, lets hope everyone can reach his/her goal in this league. One of my friends just quit this game for all eternity. He quit almost every day since the league started, but he swears this is the last time he will reroll ;)

"

Lanster27 wrote:

But alas, I was not prepared for Cruel. In Fetid Pool I met up with Rima, Deep Temptres. As I was keen for the next quest reward to clear out the pool, I took her head on with no knowledge of how dangerous she is

Sorry if this doesn't apply, but just a double check to make sure you noticed: Side areas in cruel and merci are a few levels higher than the area you get to them from, unlike in normal where they are roughly the same level. I mention it because if you went in there directly from mudflats without noticing that you need to level a bit first, that could be why Temptress seemed so strong ;)

I just re-roll a character when I die.

I have died a few times, but I mostly loose low levels. I am 60 now, few close calls.

The key is to not fight something that you cannot handle.

Sometimes I do not know the unique bosses and what they do, in some cases I will port out and research it. I do this so that I can avoid a silly death.

Just because the invasion boss is there, does not mean you have to fight it.

My Wife and I will reset zones if we hit someone that just spikes our HP way too much.

But all characters are different.

Some can take on some bosses while other builds cannot, and vice verse.

But when you play HC, you are playing your stash, with every death its easier to level another character.

Another tactic you can employ, is to level 2 at the same time, one character to push content, and take risks to get to new levels, and one character just to level and keep close. You use your main to farm items for the lower level one. IT takes more time out of the day in playing, but its a good system.

Thanks to everyone for lots of really helpful advices. =)

Right now bosses with bear traps have been my biggest problem. It's often hard to see a few traps flying around, and then I'm rooted and its a full on buffet for the boss after that. I'm actually ok with burst dmg at the moment, with all my things stacking hp and resists based on general advices from people, but it is probably because I haven't reached the high level contents.

On another note, when I am fighting a losing battle and I cannot run (read traps), can I just press logout? Will it just port my character back to town when I log back in, or is there usually a slight delay which may cause deaths? I will start doing this if it can help to keep me alive. Right now I kinda have a mental freeze when I'm on the edge of dying, which then usually causes me to die...

I'm looking at a minion based build with zombies and raging spirits as my next build. Has anyone tried summoner in invasion and got any mileage out of it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKIEabuSBPc

That's how I describe invasion.

You can get plenty of gems and uniques for 1c in standard. Just spam trading chat "WTB "name of item" for 1 c" or a gem for 1 a.

Plenty of ppl will respond if its a common item.

Also if you are not prepared to log out or alt+f4 when it bad spots you probably won't make it too far. Maybe as a summoner.

@Lanster27

A logout will safe you from traps yes, and bring you safely to town. Once you return to the instance (should still be there after login), the boss still has the HP from your previous fight, so if you want you can take it down step by step that way, or just go another way through the zone.

Your TLDR is too long... didn't read.