_{Yes, I intentionally went over the top with this image. Sue me.}

It' s OOON babyyyy!!!

Few months ago a man named Hive account@mattclarke somehow got me into playing PoE in hardcore league. Before that I only had played softcore leagues and was used to the run & die tactics in most encounters. The race taught me to play carefully and not to die to the damn kitava boss fights.
Those were some long hard 7 days. I went pretty try hard at the beginning but being a working person the nights had to be sacrificed to stay ahead of the competition. I remember anxiously checking other player profiles at work to see if somebody passed me.

In the end it all worked out. I managed to win by a small margin with my slayer duelist which turned out to be a pretty solid build choice. Also thanks to my very understanding girlfriend Hive account@thebunbun for supporting me all trough all my crazy gaming habits <3 !

_{source - Lee_Christm4s}

The second coming

Well this time things may go a bit different. You see... June 1st is my birthday! And I kinda have planned to have quite a few pints with my friends at a bar that night. So the competition will have a pretty huge lead on me.
But you know what? That might make a potential win all the more sweeter :D

Hive account@mattclarke has changed the rewards a bit and I think that's all for better as it makes it harder for 1 person to get the lions share of the rewards. I personally think it's a lot more engaging for the rest of the players as getting some kind of reward becomes a lot more possible. That being said... Depending if I can gain a lead and not die, I might try and run a second character as well. But we'll see how it goes. The competition this time will be a lot harder.
Also my internet has been acting up and dropping out for few seconds once in a while. I will most likely die that way or at some boss.

Builds builds builds

With every new league there also come new skills and balance changes to the game. I did some tests...
Crit Arc Trap Saboteur was super fun to play, extreme pack clearing times and with the upcoming change of removal of charges for trap support gem you can spam that all day. But boy did it struggle with high hp single targets. Boss killing was also a nightmare as the defenses left a lot to wish for. So that's out... might play it on softcore version after the race.

Tried ranger as well - same problem - good for clearspeed - crap for surviving Kitava.
So I don't know yet what I will go as...

_source

The details

Hive account@mattclarke 's competition post and instructions on how to participate can be found here.

My Profile:
Soulburn

I will also be streaming so stay tuned!

See you all tomorrow!

Happy slaying,
Hive account@beercake out!