Thursday, July 31, 2014

7.30.2014 Grounded Grotto Map of Exposure

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.

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