An update on my Solo Self Found Synthesis Hard Core journey! As the subject reports, I got past the final Act's final boss, Kitava the hungry. He's actually called something else, the ravenous? the insatiable? But whatever, he is defeated, his heart that he loves to keep pulling out has been stomped on by my Skeleton Army; he is DEAD!
Below is the video I captured for the big milestone fight.
Levelling and effective hit points
The recommendation is to attempt Kitava with 3700 effective hit points. This can be a combination of Life + Energy shield.
Initially, I thought I was ready at Level 70 with 2.5k life + 1.6k Energy shield, but I decided not to risk almost 3 weeks of effort getting to this point, and instead grind an additional 4 levels.
I'm glad I did! Not only did I pick up a stack of Tier 1 maps, but it didn't take as long as I thought it would.
I generally try to go no higher than 4-5 levels above the current zone level before the main boss encounter in hardcore. But after a quick consult on the wiki, Kitava's zone being at monster level 67, meant I could go up 7 levels and still be in the 'safe zone' where experience penalties do not apply. That was enough to sell it to me. I was that scared.
With level 74 set as the goal, the hope was I'd go into the final area with over 3k of life. After reviewing my practice runs in softcore, I decided energy shield was not reliable. There was so much going on in Kitava's arena that would result in too much interruption on recharge, so it was best to treat the shielding as a bonus. My expectation was that if I got under heavy fire, my first line of defence in energy shielding will become non existent. Which brings me to the next layer...
Mana pool - Mind over Matter
I also worked on ensuring my mana was at a good level as I had taken the Mind over Matter node on the skill. Once my shielding is gone and/or interrupted from recharging due to being hit, my mana pool was to absorb 30 percent of any damage. It was important that it was adequate to function as an effective buffer. I made sure I'd dedicated some skill points to mana. I noticed that I previously spent all my time monitoring life and ES, and that often when I died in Softcore, it was because I wasn't paying attention to the buffering offered by my mana level.
Flask Management
Flask management is everything for me in boss fights. I don't open a portal as an insurance policy or to recharge my flask, and I don't use a logout macro too. I've taken the policy that I need to learn the boss fights before I go in and if I'm still not good enough, then it's a case of so sad too bad. I'll thank
and 
for this preference. It's mainly because I discuss the game with them and I'd like to play the game to the same rules. Besides, if the fight got so bad that I needed to take time out hopping into a portal, chances are I probably won't want to go back in! Although, I really enjoy watching this streamer's vid whenever I catch one. In this one where he fights Kitava as well, he was hilarious to me, how he goes in and out of portal to pause and think, his expression and the things he says. XD
Basically, I need to have everything with me, so I stressed over which flask to bring in from life to mana to a special purpose flask. I deliberated heavily over bringing in the Ruby Flask (Fire damage reduction), Basalt Flask (Physical damage reduction) or the Granite Flask (+3000 armour). I decided on the Granite since I only had a measily 101 points of armour, which was basically nothing in a fight where the hits would be hard to fatal. Funnily though, I only remembered to use it once, and it was when Kitava was immune and wasn't doing anything! Another 'Linny, you idiot!' moment. lol
Gear and Crafting
As this was SSF, I had to squeeze every bit of life from any crafting opportunities while still not losing out badly on Energy Shield, mana, regen, damage and resists! I'm still very inexperienced with crafting and I have yet to figure out how to get multi-mods. So I made do with what I had. I didn't have enough chaos to upgrade one mod, but it was spell damage, of which I had plenty enough. But as mentioned above with Armour, I struggled to get this stat to any decent level. I found every piece I had could not be replaced because I had nothing better. But there were some key pieces I could not replace due to the important mods on it.
I corrupted this helmet and was so lucky to get the +2 on AoE gem! So I would struggle to find a replacement.
The key mod of interest here for me is the +21% to non-ailment chaos mamage over time multiplier. This was a huge boost to my damage output and was not easily replaced. I crafted the spell damage but did not have the chaos to upgrade the damage for the final Kitava fight. It wasn't an issue, I already had a lot of damage going in.
All the mods here are good for me, and again, the +16% to non-ailment chaos damage over time multiplier was very nice!
The life, resists and everything was needed.
The rings were a last minute switch. Both were not the ones I used normally, but a rummage through my stash and some reconfiguration with these rings added more flat life to my witch. I needed every life point when I realized too late the Energy Shield investment wasn't going to cut it for me in the Kitava fight.
Best I could find...
The belt was a last minute switch in with the ring in a bid for more life before going in to the final fight.
These were the best I could find and I am still not happy with them. I really want faster shoes, preferably unique ones with a 40% movement bonus. I just wasn't happy with my speed in the Kitava fight. :(
My Spells
My whole build and skill tree is based on chaos damage this league. I love the new spells Bane and Soulrend. I decided to forgo the energy shield leech and go with the totem on soulrend because it suited my play better. I still haven't followed a build since I started playing Path of Exile, but I do have a lot to thank the Hardcore player for his thoughts on game strategy that always made sense to me. The branching to the right side of the tree was influenced by him. Initially, I was not happy with the results, but this witch got better and better.
I should also note that my traversal to the right side came about from chatting to another hardcore player. I've really appreciated his thoughts on strategy on the hardcore game. I took a different strategy as far a my usage of Soulrend. I found forgoing the energy shield leeching and extra power by using it as a totem worked best for my style of play. I struggled to hand cast 2 spells when the game often has so much happening onscreen. Also, I didn't want to be hit to trigger a cast when damage taken, which would force me to keep the spell on a lower power for more frequent firing. I just didn't want to be hit at all! As can be seen, the totem has better aim than me!
Trials of Ascendancy
Finally, to increase my chances in beating Kitava, I did the Cruel Labyrinth (the second of four) to get additional ascendency specialisation for my chosen subclass, the Occultist. I considered doing the next one, Merciless, but I was honestly too exhausted to want to consider traps when it occurred to me it might be useful. I am very scared of the Labyrinths. I have a lot of footage I've recorded, and my lab runs are included, but it just takes too long to upload it all.
All up, it was a lot of balls to juggle but I went in with just over 3.1k life + 1.6k Energy Shield. My spell damage was very good already. I expected that Kitava to go down quickly, I was just very worried about his many dangerous moves. There was nothing else I could do but pray to the poe gods to be kind to any missteps, of which I expected there to be many!
The reality was that I was exhausted overthinking the fight, and my elbow and wrist was aching from grinding the levels in HC and the practice runs in SC. I'd had enough, so it was either time to die or celebrate.
I felt shaky the whole fight, but I took Kitava down in just over 2 minutes. Shockingly, I don't think it showed on watching the video back. There was one difficult moment around 1:50 when the dreaded death breath of fire covered most of the whole arena. You will see my the life pool stuttering seconds later as it sunk. That was when I mashed the keys in panic. If I'd remembered, I should have known to step to the side and back behind me. That was the only safe place in the whole arena. Aside from that, I was pleased to see the practice paid off.
Hardcore Achievements
For Synthesis, I set myself the goal of getting my Undying Achievement, that is reaching level 70 without dying. And with that, I also got my Dauntless Achievement with completing the second labyrinth in hardcore. So as I said in the previous post, it was reward time!! I got myself a couple of mystery boxes and one was just some starry effect for my hideout, the other was a pair of shoes to match my previous wings. Sadly, as has been the case since I started playing this witch, my shoe woes continue. What does a woman need to do to get a decent pair of shoes? These shoes I got from the mystery box are so uncool (unlike my new winged spectre who surprised me by living through the Kitava fight!. They look like shoes my kids would wear!
Considering I first downloaded the game 4 months ago, started playing the last month of Betrayal and have never been much of a gamer, I'm quite proud of myself! So I dedicate this victory to
your turn next!
In response to her suggestion in my last post that I should stream some of my gaming. The answer is NO WAY! My play style is spazz, forgetful or confused. But I have captured a bunch of footage, soju. So maybe one day I'll compile them. If only the upload didn't take forever!
I wanted to upload a few more images, but steem won't play nice. I'll end it here for tonight with a note that I feel released from the chains of PoE. On completing the Acts, it really feels like all the pressures is off. I went for a run today, the first in weeks! I would have posted an actifit report, but this very long post took all my time. I'm still pretty jazzed up from defeating Kitava. I wasn't sure I could do it.
Thank you for reading!