6.24.2014 Incombustible Orchard Map Lightning

Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters have extra fire resistance, Patches of shocking ground
Quantity: +19%

Currency Expended:
7 Alteration
2 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
4 Transmutation
4 Alteration
1 Augmentation
4 Chromatic
1 Chance
3 Scrap
1 Bauble

Maps Gained:
Crypt (L66)
Tropical Island (L66)
Ghetto (L68)

First of all, this run made up for blanking 3 runs in a row with map drops!  More on that later.

This run was harder than my first venture into an Orchard map.  I still suffered two deaths, but I didn't have much trouble with the boss this time.  The map started with a mod on it, but given how hard the map boss hits, I was picky about avoiding anything that would deal out extra damage or give everything on the map extra projectiles.  As such, this was an expensive run for a level 66 map in terms of dumping a fair amount of currency into it.

I think there were three factors leading to my deaths clearing the main section of the map.  I had plowed through the 1st orchard map so easily, I was over confident and charged in front of my minions.  Second, while there were typical statues and porcupine beast in this map, there were also puncture inducing dogs.  Those things are dangerous, especially when standing on shocking ground, which would be the 3rd factor.

I balanced this out by improving my strategy for dealing with the section of the map containing the boss.  I didn't move after coming up the stairs until I cleared the initial wave that pounces on you after entering the small section of the map.  With the crowd greatly reduced, I was more cautious while trying to locate the boss.  Once the boss burst out of the ground, he could clear a group of six zombies with a single blast.  I ran down the stairs a few times to bring more zombies back with me, but in the end I don't think that was the key to the fight.

The first thing I noticed was that by using statue spectres raised from the map, I had two nearly immortal minions.  I don't know how may hit points those things have, but they seem to have no trouble staying alive, even when fighting rare monsters or the map boss.  The second improvement in my strategy was keeping a wall of ice between me and the map boss.  That greatly cut down of the amount of running away that I needed to do.  I would have leveled easily without the deaths, and probably would have with even a single death.  Still, the experience was pretty good, about a quarter of a level.

6.23.2014 Incombustible Orchard Map of Commanders

Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters have extra fire resistance, More magic monsters
Quantity: +11%

Currency Expended:
None

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

Maps Gained:
None

So, I blanked another run on maps, but I did gain the legendary item Geofri's Crest.  The links need improvement, but it's a solid item in terms of providing all 4 resists and a boost to gems in it.  Other than that, the loot gained this map was pretty feeble.  I'm pretty sure this is the highest level legenday I've seen, so that's pretty cool even if it is a solid item and not a build changing one.  I'm pretty sure I actually did use some currency to improve this map, but I did it back before I was keeping track.  However, given how little currency I got from this run, I'm glad I don't know what I used to roll the mods on this map.

The only plus side to this map run was that it was a pretty easy.  I didn't have any trouble with the large number of magic monsters on the map.  In terms of how the map plays, it is similar to the imperial gardens from Act 3, but it's devided into two areas.  The map boss was in a small area up a staircase.

This was the first time I had run an Orchard Map, so I didn't realize how small the second area would be.  The boss fight spoiled the easy run with two deaths.  However, once I realized that the wyrm I was fighting was the map boss, I was able to get to safety every time it hit me.  The boss could two shot me easily, but once I realized how dangerous he was, I was able to finish the fight against him without additional deaths.  Despite the two deaths, I still gained 4 bars to the next level.

6.14.2014 Skeletal Crypt Map of Power

Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Area populated by skeletons, monsters gain power charges
Quantity: +23%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
5 Alteration
2 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
2 Alteration
1 Augmentation
8 Jewelers
6 Chromatic
1 Chance
1 Alchemy
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
None

While I mainly did this to test my clear speed and compare Yarmilla to Servant of a Frozen Fire, I'm kind of bummed that I've blanked two runs in a row getting new maps.  I feel like I've had good item quantity increases, but I just haven't received maps from the RNG.

What I did learn is that Yarmilla clears maps much faster than Servant of a Frozen Fire.  Based on this run and the prior Dunes run I would say that Servant is tankier, but Yarmilla has much better offence.  Since she's usually hiding behind a wall of minions, her tankiness isn't that much of an issue.  It was dicey, but I even killed a storm herald with her on this run. Granted, it was minion instability that did most of the damage, but I still brought it down without taking an RIP.  She's also several level lower than Servant of a Frozen Fire.

This was really a pretty unremarkable run other than the Storm Herald with one exception.  I didn't even realize that I was fighting the map boss until I noticed that I was losing a few zombies inside a room where they were fighting.  I summoned more and threw Conductivity on The Pagan Bishop.  When he died, he dropped the unique dusk blade Ephemeral Edge.  I don't have the dexterity to wield it, and it would cut my damage substantially, but it would be a large boost to ES.  I may give it a try by specing into a +30 dex node or if I get a dex boosting item, but otherwise I'm not sure what sort of character would use this thing.  I guess that the ES boost might offset the life lost to the item while leveling.

Taking all this into consideration, I may retire Servant of a Frozen Fire.  My converted damage idea just never came together the way I wanted.  He would probably be just fine with a Taran's Shiver unique, but that's a lot of currency.  Maybe I can get Servant of a Burning Fire leveled up enough to run a few maps before the end of Ambush League.

6.11.2014 Fleet Dunes Map of Ice

Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters move and attack faster, patches of frozen ground
Quantity: +34%

Currency Expended:
1 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
6 Alteration
3 Augmentation
1 Fusing
4 Chromatic
1 Scrap
1 Whetstone
1 Chisel

Maps Gained:
None

So, this was my first map run with a character other than Servant of a Frozen Fire, and it went well with one exception, devourers.  More on those later.  It seems like I should link a skill tree for a new cartographer character.

Yarmilla Skill Tree

I don't know what it was, but all of the sudden I started doing very well with this character.  I don't know if it was some build tweaking, gear changes (I've vastly improved my resistance since the piety run), or play style, but I had no trouble with running the catacombs to try to gear up.  While I did have one death to the Blacksmith, it was much easier to deal with him on this character than it was with Servant of a Frozen Fire.  A large part of that is that Yarmilla has taken CI, so the poison clouds released by all the putrid zombies the Blacksmith calls from the sands don't really threaten this character.  In some ways, they just provide more enemies for Arc to bounce through.

My ES is a bit lite so the Blacksmith's leap slam is quite threatening, and the poison clouds do shred my minions.  I think I may have to deviate from my planned build a bit to help my survivability when my minions are being hammered.  I've got some gear upgrades which would let me up my ES quite a bit, but I lose strength and can't use my shield.  So I see a +30 strength node in my near future.

The other thing is that Servant of a Frozen Fire was level 69 when I ran my first map with him.  Yarmilla is only level 66.  There is no way I would have even considered putting him into the Eternal Laboratory before then.  I had a crypt map drop while leveling Yarmilla, so I'll have to roll some mods on it and see how Yarmilla's clear speed compares with Servant of a Frozen Fire's.  I might run her through the Imperial Garden and the Library to pick up a skill gem from the quest there.  I don't know that any of the gems I might choose would help Yarmilla, but they do open up special builds quite a bit.

Back to the devourers.  Several times they popped out of the ground, and I was dead.  I heard someone on a Youtube video talking about devourer death this weekend, and I certainly experienced it.  As long as too many didn't pop up at once, or they all didn't pop up right under my feet, I could usually get away to let my ES recharge, and then kill them easily with Arc while they were swarmed by minions.  However, because of all the deaths, I only gained one bar on my way to the next level.  Still, it was much less painful than my 1st experience in a Dunes map.

6.06.2014 Unwavering Dried Lake Map of Hordes

Servant of a Frozen Fire - Ambush
Mods - Monsters cannot be stunned, Increased pack Size
Quantity: +12%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
2 Alteration

Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
4 Alteration
2 Augmentation
3 Chromatic
1 Alchemy
1 Chaos
4 Scrap
2 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Crypt (L66)
Dunes (L66)

Much like the last run, I had been working on other characters between this map and the last one I posted.  I remembered to apply my auras, but that's about the only thing that went smoothly at the start.  I wasn't using all my skills effectively and the large pack size caused my some trouble at first.  I probably should have burned a portal and run out to regroup, but I died early on.  I had just leveled, so that wasn't much of a penalty.  I died later to some undead rhoas that stunned me while I was trying to run down a necromancer.  However, even with that 2nd death, I still gained about a quarter of a level because of all the mobs on the map.

Once I got used to running this character again things went pretty well.  The wide open nature of this zone can be a problem, I almost missed a strongbox clearing the map.  The low level currency was a net gain just because I didn't need to spend much on the map.  To have an alch and a chaos drop on top of that is great.  Then there were the two map drops, so it's always nice to grow the map pool.  Finally, I got Windscream boots on this run.  Those add an extra curse, so that would either free up a few skill points for a Hex Master, or allow one to run three curses.  However, reading up on it, I'm not sure 3 curses is really worthwhile.  That's a lot of effort to get those cast.

In terms of where this character is going, I started using mine as a way to get some extra damage out in situations where I can't effectively stand in place and Freeze Pulse.  I'm using Ice Nova with a Cold to Fire gem right night for the theme of the character, however, I think Ice Spear with LMP would be more useful.  I'd like to try that since it would have more range and would crit often leading to the frozen/burning combination that gave this character his name.

Mostly the mine has been used on bosses, but it was helpful in one map that had blackguard archmages casting Lighting Thorns.  I want to try to make it more useful, and I think using a projectile skill rather than and AOE would help in that regard.  My other option would be to try to link things in with the Raise Spectre gem I'm using, but I don't have minion passives.  The spectres have mostly been to provide some sort of distraction.  However, I do think that changing the gems I use for spectres on the summoner witch will help her get into mapping.  I want to work on improving her gear next week.

My Next Explorer?

I've been leveling a dual totem Templar, ServantOfABurningFire, and I have to say, it's disgustingly effective.

PassiveTree

Normally I putter around and fiddle with equipment while leveling, but as soon as I got the Ancestral keystone, I haven't looked back with this character.  Searing Bond just burns everything in its path.  I got through normal in about seven and a half hours.  I know that's nothing for hard core racers, but that's probably half the time I normally spend.  I made the switch to two totems when I hit the waypoint under the Vaal pyramid.

The Oversoul went down quickly, although I did eat a Vaal Smash when I was standing a bit too close.  The only death I've had was to Marceus the Defaced in normal.  I guess my totems didn't really have the life to stand up to his lightning strike at the time.  I didn't have any trouble with him in cruel.  Finishing up normal, I had to bypass the lightning trapper in the Scepter of God, but Dominius was no problem.  I got off to a bit of a slow start dealing with the cyclone guy and the GMP fireball guy.  After that, once I figured out I needed to set my totems to destroy the spark totems of the Blackguard Archmage the fight was a breeze.  I didn't even return to town to refill potions.

Cruel didn't really slow me down much.  I flew through everything and finished off Dominius last night at level 50!  I did have to go back to town once to refill potions when I couldn't clear a bleed stack, but I've really struggled with Dominius on characters between level 55 and 60.  In fact, I paid someone to get me past Dominus in Cruel with ServantOfAFrozenFire.  It makes me wonder if the Searing Bond is overly powerful, or if the offence in my other build has been weak.

I'm either going to keep leveling ServantOfABurningFire, or use a summoner witch.

PassiveTree

I haven't played with the new summoner skills, like desecrate, and I may spec back into Minion instability.  I'll either decide my build was misguided or that Searing Bond is OP if I work on the Witch next.

UPDATE:
I was able to take down Gravisius and Kole without any danger using minions, so I think I'll try running some maps with this character.  I did respec out of two points on my passive tree to regain Minion Instability and to get a little closer to Ghost Reaver.  I also set up a spell totem for my secondary attack.  I tried swapping totems doing a docks run, and it worked will to swap over to a firestorm totem while I'm at the maximum number of skeletons.  The only drawback is that my map pool is only 4 in standard.  No cartographer's lockboxes to boost my pool in that league, yet.

UPDATED UPDATE:
I killed Piety with the summoner, but it was a humbling, grinding sort of kill.  It also taught me that my resistances sucked.  I'll have to correct that before I try running maps with her.