Good Morning Friends! Yesterday was a bit of a departure and now I return you to your regularly scheduled ARPG nonsense. Of all of the games that I play on the regular, I think I have the biggest soft spot for Diablo-style games. I remember getting into the test phases of the first Diablo game in college and it represented pretty much everything I had ever wanted in a game up until that point. When Diablo 2 came out, I made the difficult decision of choosing to buy it over Icewind Dale as they released the same week… and I had limited funds to buy a game with. I remember playing countless hours of “also ran” titles like Fate, Sacred, Titans Quest, and Dungeon Siege. Basically, I am a junkie for the pattern of clicking on baddies and getting a shower of loot as a result. I am surprised on one level that it took me this long to get into Path of Exile, and on other levels… not surprised at all because it can be a deeply frustrating game.
In order to move my Storm Brand into the next phase of its evolution, I really needed a six-link chest piece. The base that is most highly suggested for the build I am running is the Sadist Garb, and holy crap have prices been all over the place. I’ve been trying to craft my own and have legitimately used probably close to 200 orbs of fusing so far trying to get the links correct. When I first started shopping the trade league these were going for somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 chaos for the right colors and right links. At that time I did not have the funds and by the time I did have some money… they had jumped up to somewhere between 1.5 divines and 4 divines. Basically, the loot changes have thrown the trade economy into a state of chaos where no one seems to know how to price anything.
This morning before sitting down to write this post, I decided to check prices so I could snag a screenshot, and sitting there amongst the expensive options… was this Sadist Garb. It is not the best-itemized thing I have ever seen and is corrupted… which limits my ability to do much of anything to change that, but it was only 10 chaos… which seems like an extreme bargain at the moment. Basically, I decided to jump on the opportunity to get six links, so I could start settling my build in a bit more and shift from my 4 links main spell chain to the 6 links version. The only problem here is that I essentially need to shift around all of my gear to make this work because I am not using my body armor for my main spell chain. I’ve been rat-holing some gear but none of it is quite ready for prime time. However, it is much much easier to get some 4 links as opposed to a single 6 link.
As far as atlas progress goes I am sitting at 45/155 nodes. I’ve been weirdly obsessed with filling out the early rungs of the ladder. I’ve completed the first three tiers and have a map each in tiers 4 and 5, and then 3 in tiers 6 and 7. I suppose I should really check in with the rest of the guild to see what they need because they might be able to plug the holes in my progress and the same with my spare maps. As far as unique maps I have managed to catch 3 available so far from Kirac and have knocked out Coward’s Trial, The Twilight Temple, and Whakawairua Tuaha. Whenever I see one of those I try to complete it just because I am uncertain when I will see it again.
In other news, I’ve also started a character in the new Diablo III season 27. I have some awesome friends who offered me a boost since I did not start until Sunday… but ultimately I thanked them and turned them down. Diablo III has been my “chill” game for when I need a break from the stressful pace of mapping in Path of Exile. Basically, my survival is not amazing so I have to be on point… and lag-free… in order to finish most of the higher-tier maps. I’ve been hesitant to grind through the lower-tier maps for fear that someone in my crew might need them. So essentially I opted to chill out downstairs playing Diablo III the last two nights.
Last night I hit 70 and am slowly chipping away at Haedrig’s Gift. The first three chapters were a cakewalk, but I can basically only reliably do T1 right now with the current state of my gear. I am in mostly yellows minus the four pieces of set gear, so I figure I will do a round of bounties for jewelry patterns to knock that one out, and see how much gear I manage to get them. Hopefully by the time I finish that I will be able to bump things up to T4 and knock out the rest of Chapter IV. Once I have a full set of gear and some viable pieces to go with it, I will be able to escalate quickly through the ranks. I’ve done the “whirlrend” barb thing so many times that it is just a matter of devoting the time to farming in order to get there. Once I am up and running I should be able to knock the rest of the achievements out quickly and get my sword doggo.