Servant of a Frozen Fire - Standard
Mods - Monsters resist electricity, Players have maximum resistances reduced
Quantity: +38%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
5 Transmutation
2 Alteration
1 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Chance
4 Scrap
1 Whetstone
2 Chisel
Maps Gained:
Orchard (L66)
This is a pretty good set of map mods for this servant, well, either servant actually. Neither does electricity damage. Before I ran this map I respeced quite a bit spending several Regret orbs to pick up the projectile speed notable from the Ranger tree. Using Freezing Pulse where it does more damage up close, the extra speed helps. I also ended up switching from a Remote Mine to a Skeleton totem as my secondary attack, but more on that later.
Since I knew I wasn't going to have as much resistance as usual, I made sure to rebalance my resistances from rings. I know, shame on me for not having maxed out my resists before ever considering running maps. In addition to the respecing, I finally got an upgrade that lets me do more spell damage on a staff than the one I used for thirty or forty levels. I've been trying to find an upgrade, but just couldn't for the longest time. I was really hoping to chance a Maelstrom staff into a unique that is good for cold spells, but I'll take what I can get.
Anyway, the extra elemental damage I was taking wasn't bad once I got used to it. It was a pretty typical run, although my kill speed was definitely improved with the weapon upgrade and respecing. About midway through the map though, a rogue exile gave me all I could handle. I don't remember his name, but he's the one who leap slams about and uses double strike. I was trying to use a portal scroll as I retreated from him to refill flasks, but he chased me all the way back to the map instance. I tried a skeleton totem instead of remote mine just to try to get something spamming extra targets out there for him to leap slam onto. I ended up having to leave to refill potions a second time, but eventually I wore the rogue down, triggering molten shell a few times helped. I decided I liked the skeletons well enough to just stick with that setup.
Other than the rogue, nothing gave me troubles. I couldn't quite face roll the map boss, but with Arctic Armour she was just barely making my health dip over time. I was able to sip on my flasks every now and again and take her down without much trouble.
On the loot side, I was hoping for more than one map, with an IIQ of 38%, but I didn't blank, so all is well. I also got 2 chisels, which isn't bad either. One last improvement to this character's gear was that I discovered how nice quality is on the Cold to Fire support gem. I had a 6% quality one in my stash, and when I tried it out I actually got a very slight damage boost out of it over the one I had been leveling for a long time. I also
realized that I haven't run Piety yet with this character. My mana is a bit low after my respecing, so I'm
thinking I might actually pick up Eldrich Battery with the two skill points I would get from killing her. That keystone along with Avatar of Fire were integral to this character's build, but with the build not coming together as well as I would have wanted, I never did pick either one up. I think I can use the extra mana now though.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
7.24.2014 Mirrored Dungeon Map of Power
Servant of a Burning Fire - Standard
Mods - Monsters reflect elemental damage, Monsters gain power charges over time
Quantity: +33%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
6 Alteration
1 Augmentation
9 Jewlers
1 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Alchemy
3 Scrap
Maps Gained:
Arsenal (L67)
Thicket (L67)
I finished up clearing out my stash tabs from the Ambush league, so I felt like I should run a map to celebrate. I also had one more dungeon map than would fit in the space I'm using in the stash tab for maps which made the decision of which map to run fairly easy. This was my first dungeon map, and I have to say I liked it.
One thing which was cool was the music which plays throughout the level. It the music from the Brutus fight, and hearing it the entire level makes everything seem exciting even if you're clearing areas easily. The dungeon map looks a lot like the prison, but the pattern of rooms reminded me more of the layout of the crematorium. It seemed more labyrinthine than the prison, so it was harder to tell if you had fully cleared a section of the map.
Servant of a Burning Fire is so ridiculously easy to play, I don't have a good feel for the difficulty the map boss, Brutus (like you would expect from the music) would present to my other high level characters. Servant emptied his health bar quickly resulting in an explosion of yellow items on the ground. I'm running increased item rarity on Searing Bond, and I think the amount of loot gained reflects this. On top of the currency, I scored two higher level maps, so this was a very nice run loot wise.
Overall, my first impression of the Dungeon map is quite positive. The crypt has an easier layout to navigate and similar monsters, but the music gives this map great atmosphere. This map is similar to the orchard in that the map boss has his own room, but Brutus didn't give me nearly as much trouble as the worm boss on Orchard has.
Mods - Monsters reflect elemental damage, Monsters gain power charges over time
Quantity: +33%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
6 Alteration
1 Augmentation
9 Jewlers
1 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Alchemy
3 Scrap
Maps Gained:
Arsenal (L67)
Thicket (L67)
I finished up clearing out my stash tabs from the Ambush league, so I felt like I should run a map to celebrate. I also had one more dungeon map than would fit in the space I'm using in the stash tab for maps which made the decision of which map to run fairly easy. This was my first dungeon map, and I have to say I liked it.
One thing which was cool was the music which plays throughout the level. It the music from the Brutus fight, and hearing it the entire level makes everything seem exciting even if you're clearing areas easily. The dungeon map looks a lot like the prison, but the pattern of rooms reminded me more of the layout of the crematorium. It seemed more labyrinthine than the prison, so it was harder to tell if you had fully cleared a section of the map.
Servant of a Burning Fire is so ridiculously easy to play, I don't have a good feel for the difficulty the map boss, Brutus (like you would expect from the music) would present to my other high level characters. Servant emptied his health bar quickly resulting in an explosion of yellow items on the ground. I'm running increased item rarity on Searing Bond, and I think the amount of loot gained reflects this. On top of the currency, I scored two higher level maps, so this was a very nice run loot wise.
Overall, my first impression of the Dungeon map is quite positive. The crypt has an easier layout to navigate and similar monsters, but the music gives this map great atmosphere. This map is similar to the orchard in that the map boss has his own room, but Brutus didn't give me nearly as much trouble as the worm boss on Orchard has.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
7.23.2014 Unwavering Orchard Map of Champions
Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters cannot be stunned, More magic monsters
Quantity: +15%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
2 Alteration
2 Augmentation
1 Jewlers
1 Chromatic
2 Scrap
3 Whetstone
1 Scouring
Maps Gained:
None
Another cheap map, so I guess the currency gained is fine. However, it was a blank run on maps, so that's always a bit disappointing. Now that I've run a few of them, maps of Champions don't seem to be great for getting new maps, although I guess if one does drop you have a better chance of getting a higher level map.
My main goal when running this map was not to die, but the boss killed me twice. Once he popped up right from under me and I couldn't get away fast enough. The second death I felt cheated on. I guess I popped Frost Wall a hair too slowly, but it certainly looked like the big slow moving shot went straight through the wall to hit me. So those two deaths made this run kind of a bummer as well. I did level before I died, so I didn't lose as much XP as I could have from the deaths.
Other than the two deaths against the boss, I thought this was a pretty typical run. Nothing really interesting dropped, and I didn't have many close calls in the main portion of the level. I'm still considering the worm boss on this map the most dangerous of the level 66 map bosses I've seen. I'd like to run another map tonight, but I promised myself I wouldn't run one until I finished my stash tab clean up.
Mods - Monsters cannot be stunned, More magic monsters
Quantity: +15%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
2 Alteration
2 Augmentation
1 Jewlers
1 Chromatic
2 Scrap
3 Whetstone
1 Scouring
Maps Gained:
None
Another cheap map, so I guess the currency gained is fine. However, it was a blank run on maps, so that's always a bit disappointing. Now that I've run a few of them, maps of Champions don't seem to be great for getting new maps, although I guess if one does drop you have a better chance of getting a higher level map.
My main goal when running this map was not to die, but the boss killed me twice. Once he popped up right from under me and I couldn't get away fast enough. The second death I felt cheated on. I guess I popped Frost Wall a hair too slowly, but it certainly looked like the big slow moving shot went straight through the wall to hit me. So those two deaths made this run kind of a bummer as well. I did level before I died, so I didn't lose as much XP as I could have from the deaths.
Other than the two deaths against the boss, I thought this was a pretty typical run. Nothing really interesting dropped, and I didn't have many close calls in the main portion of the level. I'm still considering the worm boss on this map the most dangerous of the level 66 map bosses I've seen. I'd like to run another map tonight, but I promised myself I wouldn't run one until I finished my stash tab clean up.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
7.19.2014 Burning Crypt Map of Hordes
Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters deal extra fire damage, Increased pack size
Quantity: +12%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
3 Alteration
3 Augmentation
3 Chromatic
1 Chance
1 Scrap
2 Whetstone
1 Blessed
Maps Gained:
Dungeon (L66)
Orchard (L66)
I had cleaned out 5 remove only stash tabs, and decided that I deserved to run a map for doing that. I grabbed one and decided that I'd give the extra fire damage a try. As a summoner, I've got lots of other things on the map to absorb damage other than me, so I thought this was one I should be able to do. I have fire resistance, so I wouldn't be taking the full force of the added damage, and the minions will explode when they get low on life, so it's not a disaster if they get hammered on. The low quantity mod is a little scary, but with the increased pack size it tends to work out.
The first thing I decided is that I need to invest in a desecrate gem, because picking up minions in Docks hit a snag when there was a storm herald that shredded all my zombies while I was looking for good spectre corpses. On try two, I got my minions and headed over to the Eternal Laboratory.
This was really a very easy and low stress run. The first pack of monsters I encountered dropped a Dungeon map, so knowing you aren't going to blank a run from the get-go is fun. The few times I took hits, I could see the effect of extra damage, but since I usually had a wall of undead between me and the crypt dwellers.
The map boss and tougher rare monsters would wipe me out of zombies, and I did have to summon new spectres a few times, but they held up pretty well against the extra damage they were taking. I really didn't notice when I was losing zombies because my skeleton totem was doing so well. A few times I would start to move into unexplored areas, only to realize I was several zombies down and that I better back track to raise new ones.
No great loot, although I get get a Blessed orb. However, that's OK since I didn't spend much crafting this map. In fact, the only way I could have spent less was that if it had dropped as a blue and I only had a Wisdom scroll invested in it. Now that I've blogged about this run, I guess it's back to stash tab clearing.
Mods - Monsters deal extra fire damage, Increased pack size
Quantity: +12%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
3 Alteration
3 Augmentation
3 Chromatic
1 Chance
1 Scrap
2 Whetstone
1 Blessed
Maps Gained:
Dungeon (L66)
Orchard (L66)
I had cleaned out 5 remove only stash tabs, and decided that I deserved to run a map for doing that. I grabbed one and decided that I'd give the extra fire damage a try. As a summoner, I've got lots of other things on the map to absorb damage other than me, so I thought this was one I should be able to do. I have fire resistance, so I wouldn't be taking the full force of the added damage, and the minions will explode when they get low on life, so it's not a disaster if they get hammered on. The low quantity mod is a little scary, but with the increased pack size it tends to work out.
The first thing I decided is that I need to invest in a desecrate gem, because picking up minions in Docks hit a snag when there was a storm herald that shredded all my zombies while I was looking for good spectre corpses. On try two, I got my minions and headed over to the Eternal Laboratory.
This was really a very easy and low stress run. The first pack of monsters I encountered dropped a Dungeon map, so knowing you aren't going to blank a run from the get-go is fun. The few times I took hits, I could see the effect of extra damage, but since I usually had a wall of undead between me and the crypt dwellers.
The map boss and tougher rare monsters would wipe me out of zombies, and I did have to summon new spectres a few times, but they held up pretty well against the extra damage they were taking. I really didn't notice when I was losing zombies because my skeleton totem was doing so well. A few times I would start to move into unexplored areas, only to realize I was several zombies down and that I better back track to raise new ones.
No great loot, although I get get a Blessed orb. However, that's OK since I didn't spend much crafting this map. In fact, the only way I could have spent less was that if it had dropped as a blue and I only had a Wisdom scroll invested in it. Now that I've blogged about this run, I guess it's back to stash tab clearing.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
7.15.2014 Ceremonial Grotto Map of Enfeeblement
Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Lots of Totems, The Player Is Cursed with Enfeeble
Quantity: +30%
Currency Expended:
Unknown (I crafted this before I started tracking how much currency I used on maps.)
Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
2 Alteration
1 Augmentation
5 Chromatic
1 Scrap
2 Whetstone
1 Baubble
Maps Gained:
Arcade (L67)
Mods - Lots of Totems, The Player Is Cursed with Enfeeble
Quantity: +30%
Currency Expended:
Unknown (I crafted this before I started tracking how much currency I used on maps.)
Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
2 Alteration
1 Augmentation
5 Chromatic
1 Scrap
2 Whetstone
1 Baubble
Maps Gained:
Arcade (L67)
This run with Yarmilla confirms my view that the Grotto map is the easiest to run of the maps I've tried so far. She doesn't deal nearly as much damage as Servant of a Burning Fire, but she breazed through this map as well. The map boss and some of the tougher yellow monsters would kill my spectres and zombies, but I was able to keep those monsters contained with a skeleton totem.
The map mods didn't cause me any trouble either. The only totem which was an issue is the one that prevents allies from being killed, but I could reach them with arc, so I really didn't need to alter my core combat plan to deal with them. Likewise, Enfeeble didn't slow me down either because I've taken the passive nodes to apply the shocked condition 20% of the time ( Yarmilla leveled during this run.). I'm mainly using Arc to apply shock stacks to monsters so that my minions can kill them; it doesn't cause much inconvenience to dish out less damage.
The only downside to this run was that the loot was a little underwhelming. I only got one map, but it was a level 67. I've done better with a lower quantity bonus, but I've also blanked with a higher bonus. I really didn't get that much currency for a pretty decent quantity bonus though. I did keep a few of the rare items, so I guess upgrading my pool of gear to pick from isn't a bad thing. I also got one of the new Ball Lightning skill gems. That's probably what I was most excited about after the arcade map.
I would like to have run a few more maps than what I've been able to recently, but I'm also consolidating inventory since the end of the last set of 4 month leagues. Probably the best discovery I've had durning this process was that a level 35 one handed mace in the inventory out damages things 10-15 levels higher with over +75% increased physical damage (IPD). The lower level mace has IPD, plus a flat physical damage bonus, plus an attack speed bonus. It's really an ideal leveling weapon for a 1 handed mace wielder. Now that I've got this blog post written, I think I'll try to clear out another stash tab or two before bed.
Monday, July 7, 2014
7.5.2014 Mirrored Grotto Map of Commanders
Servant of a Burning Fire - Ambush
Mods - Monsters reflect elemental damage, More magic monsters
Quantity: +21%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
4 Alteration
1 Augmentation
1 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Chance
4 Scrap
2 Whetstone
1 Blessed
1 Regret
Maps Gained:
Tropical Island (L66)
Mountain Ledge (L67)
This was the second map I've run with Servant of a Burning Fire and the 1st Grotto map I've run. I have to say, I found the grotto map much to my liking. It looks like one of Merveil's caverns, and there will be several monsters drawn from than theme. At least on this run, there were fire based Undying Alchemists. They make good spectres while they last, and since they aren't very tanky, they aren't too hard to take down yourself. I was tired when I ran this map, but still managed to clear it without suffering any RIPs.
The boss is like Merveil's daughter who uses Rain of Fire, so between her and the alchemists, a ruby flask would probably be a good idea if you were feeling a little iffy about running a Grotto map. Armed with some extra fire resistance, I think this might be the easiest of the map types I've come across so far. The bosses for Dunes or Orchard maps would be the most difficult, in my opinion, of the maps I've tried so far. The bosses for Crypt or Dried Lake would be somewhere in the middle.
This was a good run loot wise. This is in a large part due to being able to run the mirrored mod and not needing to alter a map after the initial roll. Having the extra magic monsters helped with being able to pick up another level 67 map. Since I've been keeping track of these runs, I should figure out what the ability to keep a map pool up is looking like. We're in between 4 month leagues right now, so it seems like a good time to check on that. It also means I need to merge stash tabs. I'll be selling a lot of gear over the next few days. I know the rotating leagues are a key part of GGG's plans for this game, but merging loot when one of the 4 month leagues end is not much fun.
Mods - Monsters reflect elemental damage, More magic monsters
Quantity: +21%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
4 Alteration
1 Augmentation
1 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Chance
4 Scrap
2 Whetstone
1 Blessed
1 Regret
Maps Gained:
Tropical Island (L66)
Mountain Ledge (L67)
This was the second map I've run with Servant of a Burning Fire and the 1st Grotto map I've run. I have to say, I found the grotto map much to my liking. It looks like one of Merveil's caverns, and there will be several monsters drawn from than theme. At least on this run, there were fire based Undying Alchemists. They make good spectres while they last, and since they aren't very tanky, they aren't too hard to take down yourself. I was tired when I ran this map, but still managed to clear it without suffering any RIPs.
The boss is like Merveil's daughter who uses Rain of Fire, so between her and the alchemists, a ruby flask would probably be a good idea if you were feeling a little iffy about running a Grotto map. Armed with some extra fire resistance, I think this might be the easiest of the map types I've come across so far. The bosses for Dunes or Orchard maps would be the most difficult, in my opinion, of the maps I've tried so far. The bosses for Crypt or Dried Lake would be somewhere in the middle.
This was a good run loot wise. This is in a large part due to being able to run the mirrored mod and not needing to alter a map after the initial roll. Having the extra magic monsters helped with being able to pick up another level 67 map. Since I've been keeping track of these runs, I should figure out what the ability to keep a map pool up is looking like. We're in between 4 month leagues right now, so it seems like a good time to check on that. It also means I need to merge stash tabs. I'll be selling a lot of gear over the next few days. I know the rotating leagues are a key part of GGG's plans for this game, but merging loot when one of the 4 month leagues end is not much fun.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
7.1.2014 Mirrored Orchard Map of Temporal Chains
Servant of a Burning Fire - Ambush
Mods - Monsters reflect elemental damage, Players cursed with Temporal Chains
Quantity: +45%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
2 Transmutation
5 Alteration
6 Augmentation
1 Fusing
3 Chromatic
1 Alchemy
1 Chaos
1 Bauble
Maps Gained:
Mountain Ledge (L67)
I was worried I wasn't going to be able to run a map with this character before the end of the Ambush league, but I cleared Gravicius and Kole without any problems, so I went ahead and tried to tackle Piety. From previous experience with Yarmilla, Piety caused me more problems than either of those two did. However, I was able to take her down fairly easily with this character. I even went back to kill her a 2nd time just to prove to myself it wasn't a fluke. I was rushing to see if I could clear the 3rd level fast enough to keep the 2nd level from resetting, so I suffered a death on the way to Piety, but didn't have any particular problems with her. Based on that, I decided that this servant was ready for mapping at only level 62, 4 levels ahead of Yarmilla and 7 ahead of the Frozen Servant.
I'll go ahead an link a skill tree for the first run with a new toon:
Servant of a Burning Fire passive tree
I've upped the already considerable damage output of Searing Bond by switching from a +1 gem level to a +2 gem level scepter and taking the Elemental Equlibrium keystone. I toss traps linked to Ice Nova to inflict vulnerability to fire on monsters. I'm doing about 4K tooltip DPS, and I've never seen any numbers remotely close to that on any of my other characters.
I wouldn't even consider running a map with these mods using Servant of a Frozen Fire. It might be possible with Yarmilla, but the slower casting time of Arc would probably be annoying, and the reflect would be dangerous for a CI character. The mods didn't slow this character down at all. Sure, I was trudging across the map, but Searing Bond pumps out just as much damage as it would without Temporal Chain afflicting me.
I think the only thing I could have done better on this run was to take a page from Yarmilla's book and use a Frost Wall gem when fighting the map boss. He did kill me twice. His big, slow, incredibly punishing projectile attack one shotted me, and I died once while there were still a large number of mobs on the map when you first enter the sectioned off area. I could have also been better about keeping endurance charges and molten shell up to try to help my defenses. Still, I'm pretty happy to be able to run maps at such a low level.
I was a little disappointed to only get one map drop at +45% IIQ, but it was a level 67 map, so the disappointment is minor. Looking at the currency gained vs. currency expended, I can't complain at all. With a single Transmutation Orb, I got a map I could run and a higher level of item quantity than I've ever had before. I really noticed the IIQ when the boss exploded into a pile of rare items. I'm probably not going to get another run in before Ambush ends, but I had fun on this map even if I was moving in slow motion.
Mods - Monsters reflect elemental damage, Players cursed with Temporal Chains
Quantity: +45%
Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
Currency Gained:
2 Transmutation
5 Alteration
6 Augmentation
1 Fusing
3 Chromatic
1 Alchemy
1 Chaos
1 Bauble
Maps Gained:
Mountain Ledge (L67)
I was worried I wasn't going to be able to run a map with this character before the end of the Ambush league, but I cleared Gravicius and Kole without any problems, so I went ahead and tried to tackle Piety. From previous experience with Yarmilla, Piety caused me more problems than either of those two did. However, I was able to take her down fairly easily with this character. I even went back to kill her a 2nd time just to prove to myself it wasn't a fluke. I was rushing to see if I could clear the 3rd level fast enough to keep the 2nd level from resetting, so I suffered a death on the way to Piety, but didn't have any particular problems with her. Based on that, I decided that this servant was ready for mapping at only level 62, 4 levels ahead of Yarmilla and 7 ahead of the Frozen Servant.
I'll go ahead an link a skill tree for the first run with a new toon:
Servant of a Burning Fire passive tree
I've upped the already considerable damage output of Searing Bond by switching from a +1 gem level to a +2 gem level scepter and taking the Elemental Equlibrium keystone. I toss traps linked to Ice Nova to inflict vulnerability to fire on monsters. I'm doing about 4K tooltip DPS, and I've never seen any numbers remotely close to that on any of my other characters.
I wouldn't even consider running a map with these mods using Servant of a Frozen Fire. It might be possible with Yarmilla, but the slower casting time of Arc would probably be annoying, and the reflect would be dangerous for a CI character. The mods didn't slow this character down at all. Sure, I was trudging across the map, but Searing Bond pumps out just as much damage as it would without Temporal Chain afflicting me.
I think the only thing I could have done better on this run was to take a page from Yarmilla's book and use a Frost Wall gem when fighting the map boss. He did kill me twice. His big, slow, incredibly punishing projectile attack one shotted me, and I died once while there were still a large number of mobs on the map when you first enter the sectioned off area. I could have also been better about keeping endurance charges and molten shell up to try to help my defenses. Still, I'm pretty happy to be able to run maps at such a low level.
I was a little disappointed to only get one map drop at +45% IIQ, but it was a level 67 map, so the disappointment is minor. Looking at the currency gained vs. currency expended, I can't complain at all. With a single Transmutation Orb, I got a map I could run and a higher level of item quantity than I've ever had before. I really noticed the IIQ when the boss exploded into a pile of rare items. I'm probably not going to get another run in before Ambush ends, but I had fun on this map even if I was moving in slow motion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)