I did it!!
I have been immortalised!!!
Well, maybe in my Path of Exile fevered mind.
So I have arrived at level 80 in Solo Self Found Synthesis Hardcore while doing one of the Zana's map quest. This project, and I consider getting my Immortal Achievement a Gaming project, was a labour of love and sheer stubbornness. Some people told me I was making it too hard for myself by going Solo Self Found (SSF) in addition to Hardcore. SSF is hard, and I have to constantly consider risk versus reward for everything, right down to opening a strongbox! My gear is still sub-optimal, and I am too poor to upgrade anything. :(
Still, I am alive. There's always that.
(
On reaching the End Game maps, I found mapping to be scary.
It made me realize that I never took mapping seriously in the previous Betrayal league when I played Softcore.
I was too busy decorating my hideout...
So far this league, hideout interior design hasn't even been on my priority list.
I realized that I didn't actually do many maps at all, even though people kindly gave me a stack of maps to do. As a result, the whole mapping system is foreign to me. When I realized that I could upgrade 3 of the same low tier maps to 1 map of the next tier, I then had to figure out how to get my hands on more first tier maps! I had to go back to Kitava's zone, the feeding trough to farm some more. It's odd that it's not mentioned anywhere online, but I find the Feeding Trough a great farming spot. It's got parallel lanes that you can go up and down and I regularly get decent orbs as well as some map drops. I got a few much needed chaos orb drops there too. So I ran that a few times.
Navali also had a prophecy for me that gave me some free maps just by rocking up to the Chamber of Sins!
Unlike the Acts, mapping was unpredictable. Unlike Softcore, everything in maps was hazardous. I had to pay attention to what was on the ground, what was falling from the air, if I was bleeding, and most importantly that I never to got surrounded! So many times I've lobbed a totem through the gate and waited safely outside the room until all the mobs died. hehehe Maybe if you were in the trade league and had some super cool gear that makes things die around you with little effort, it might be okay. But in SSF with second rate gear, it's just never a good idea, at least that's my experience. Every time my life pool took a heavy hit, it was a shockingly horrible feeling. Being inexperienced, it became very apparent to me my life wasn't adequate for mapping. My witch had felt pretty sturdy in the Acts, but she now felt fragile. She still hits hard, but she could be hit hard back. Basically, 3.2k of life regardless of the size of her Energy Shield (ES) just didn't cut it for my build. I had no plans on going Chaos Innoculation, so it's been on the back of my mind that I need to rethink my character's life vs ES strategy. This is her current Skill Tree. The section in red will need to be reviewed and reallocated to heading towards some solid life nodes. I feel she's at her limits now, so I need to rebalance her to be more robust.
I stopped opening strongboxes as I neared level 80. I got tired of being terrified of expecting an explosion and overwhelmed by mobs only to get mediocre loot. Playing Russian Roulette for a single wisdom scroll is not fun!
I almost ripped twice in a couple of Tier 1 maps I'd corrupted. On one, the map boss slammed me hard. On another, I kept getting frozen by the mobs firing at me. They were so good at freezing me, I struggled to even get close enough to place a totem so it can do the work while I hid!
I almost died in an one of Alva's incursions too. I'd been avoiding them because I found the drops to be so-so. But I went into a couple. The first was okay. The second had so many mobs I had nowhere to run. It's a shock I got out of that one alive.
I am now into Tier 3 where I've done a few, but it's the shaper-influenced one I need to do next. I already did one shaper-influenced. It turned out to be easy peasy, but I know it will only get much harder.
From this point forward, I feel like I am playing the game blind, where every boss is so much scarier to me because I don't know what to expect. Some were really easy, a few were surprisingly hard. Brutus appeared in the Dungeon map. I don't like Brutus; I was not happy to see him again.
As always, I hold my firsts of everything close to my heart, even for gaming. So the Immortal Achievement for someone like me whom I would consider to be a scatterbrain gamer, is something I am proud of. I still remember chatting to
However, I remained in touch with the recruiting officer nonetheless and occasionally sent him updates because I appreciated him getting me onto the Achievements. I've never paid attention to them, and initially, I was like: 'People pay attention to those things?!' This Guild set me on a path with their rejection, so I was also pleased to get a message from Guild officer today to say that they would be happy to accept another application to join the guild. It would seem I've proven myself to be dedicated to the game. He was responding to my update that I had hit level 70, but by then I was around an hour or so away from meeting the requirements anyway! Still, it was nice of hear they have some flex for special circumstances. I told him that I'd prefer to get to level 80 and then reapply since I was almost done! I've decided the hardcore journey and finding a sociable group of hardcore players is tough. I've gone through a few softcore guilds now and I've not found what I am looking for. So I'm willing to give this guild a go if they are willing to take me on. I mean, I have to do this all over again! The fact they are an Aussie guild is also a selling point. I've been told quite a few of them will be at Exilecon anyway. I've recently upgraded my Exilecon ticket from standard to VIP, clearly the PoE nerdiness has gone way out of control. lol
My goal for the Synthesis League was to get as many Hardcore Achievements I could. I think back to how many bosses I had to defeat to get here, and it's exhausting for me to the consider how much work it was. So many close calls along the way too.
I'm glad I went on the journey. Any level beyond this in Hardcore is a bonus. I expect her to die, and I hope the next HC attempt will be smoother and faster!
But before I end this post, I should note one more first that happened not long before I levelled to 80. Here it is:
That's right, I got my first Exalted orb!!!
I always joke that if I get an exalted orb in SSF HC, I would just treat it as a trophy, since there's no trading in solo self found for me to spend this highly valued currency. lol
Finally, and yes, this post is way too long, I feel it's important to remind myself and to anyone wondering why I am so dedicated to learning this game, that I play this game not only because I love the game, but because I really wanted to understand what it is to be a 'gamer'. It's probably about 3 years now that I've been writing my novel about a hardcore gamer who gets transported into another realm. I really wanted to have real gaming experience in a game exactly like Path of Exile, and to interact with gamers, just so I could understand the mindset and the culture. So this is as much a major research milestone for me too. From this experience, it's clear to me that I need to heavily revisit the hardcore gaming concepts I wrote into the story. It was totally unrealistic!
As always, thanks for reading if you actually read this far!
Linny the Immortal
XD