Initial Explorations

Explorations of the Eternal Labratory

So, I've been playing a lot of Path of Exile.  I played a lot of Diablo III too, but this game seems to have grabbed the fun factor more than D3 did.  This winter, I decided that for as much time as I had played, I should really make a concerted effort to make it into maps.  If you haven't been playing this game, and somehow manage to stumble across this blog page, it probably won't make much sense to you.  Check out the game though, I really enjoy it.  

Path of Exile

The build I wanted to try for this was an Avatar of Fire templar that used Freezing Pulse and an Ice to Fire gem to get full conversion.  The character would also use Arctic Armor for protection.  It didn't really come together like I had wanted.  It's kind of coming together, but it just doesn't seem to be a powerful build, and I'm level 70 and I don't have AoF yet.  I also intended to get Eldrich Battery to power Arctic Armor.  I've kind of bypassed that by using lightning warp so that I can move without draining my mana, but it's kind of slow.  Nevertheless, I have managed to clear a few maps.  I'll link the build in.

Servant of a Frozen Fire Skill Tree

Now that I've started running maps, it seems like it would be fun to keep a journal of the maps run.  I wish I had kept better notes when I started, but we'll see how it goes.  I started with an initial stash of 17 L66 maps.  (9 of those came from a  cartographer's strongbox with the +8 items mod!)

5.8.14 - L66 Crypt Map 

Servant of a Frozen Fire - Ambush
Mods - Shocking Ground, Enemies have bonus health
Quantity: +29%

I don't remember how much currency I used on the map to get the mods or what I hauled out.  I also didn't get a full clear on my first try, I left a Storm Herald behind, but I didn't die.  All and all a successful 1st outing into the Eternal Laboratory.

Maps Gained:
None
-1 overall

5.9.14 - L66 Crypt Map (of Commanders)

Servant of a Frozen Fire - Ambush
Mods - Varied Monsters, More magic monsters
Quantity: +9%

I don't know what I spent on this one, but my gut feeling was that it was either 1 transmutation, or that plus 1 augmentation.  I wasn't thrilled with the quantity bonus, but I hoped the increased number of blue monsters would make up for it.  I don't know that it did, but I did get my first full clear for the Cartographer achievement, and I didn't die.

Currency Gained:
2 Transmutation
2 Alteration
2 Augmentation
15 Jewelers ( 2 six socket items dropped )
4 Chromatic
1 Scrap

Maps Gained:
None
Overal: -2

5.10.14 - L66 Crypt Map 

Servant of a Frozen Fire - Ambush
Mods - Unwavering, Shocking Ground
Quantity: +23%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
1 Alteration
2 Augmentation
1 Jewelers
2 Fusing
3 Chromatic
3 Chance
2 Scrap
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Wish I had kept better track, but I do know there were 3 L66 and a L67 Arcade!  Maybe one or two of the L66s were additional crypt maps based on my inventory.
Overall: +1 / + 1

I didn't get nearly as many yellow items as my 1st two maps, but the RNG smiled on me this run with several map drops.  Once again I didn't die.  I'm probably going to need a better system of tracking my map pool once I start getting maps of different levels, but I'll try the slashes for now.

5.11.14 - L66 Armored Crypt Map of Lightning

Servant of a Frozen Fire - Ambush
Mods - Armored Enemies, Shocking Ground
Quantity: +19%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Alteration

Currency Gained:
6 Transmutation
7 Alteration
5 Augmentation
14 Jewelers ( more six socket items )
3 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Alchemy
1 Regret
1 Scrap
1 Chisel

Maps Gained:
2 L66 Dunes
1 L67 Wharf
Overall: +2 / +2

This was not a great run in terms of deaths.  I got rubberbanded back into the line of fire of a multi projectile Undying Alchemist and I think I was standing on some shocking ground when a Colossal Vaal Fallen hit me, possibly a crit.  The latter was a combination of carelessness and cockiness.  I know how hard the things can hit, but I had killed a few quickly and didn't take precautions.  I had been hoping to hit level 70 with this character on this run, but the deaths nixed that idea.  It was a great haul in terms of currency.

5.11.14 - L66 Demonic Dunes Map of Commanders

Servant of a Frozen Fire - Ambush
Mods - Demons, More Magic Monsters, 10% Quality
Quantity: +28%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
4 Alteration
1 Augmentation

Currency Gained:

2 Transmutation
2 Alteration
2 Augmentation
1 Jewelers ( more six socket items )
1 Fusing
1 Chance
1 Scrap
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
None
Overall: +1 / +2

I didn't chisel this map to get the quality.  I found it at +10%.  I found a few other innately superior maps.  For example, this and one other map came from a strongbox with +10% quality.  There were a lot of fire damage monsters on this map, which worked great with arctic armor, until I got to The Blacksmith.  This boss is like an insanely powerful version of Hillock from cruel / merciless difficulty.  He spawned so many zombies with his leap slam attack that I felt like I was on an episode of The Walking Dead.  It wasn't fun.  I also died to him by being rubberbanded back into his leap slam once.  Still, I did manage to ding L70 for the 1st time playing POE during this run.  Worst haul from a map ever though, and it had a decent quantity bonus, plus being full of blue monsters.  Tracking down the lot of them to do a full clear was a pain too.  Oh well.  I don't think I'll be running any more Dunes maps with this character.