8.28.2014 Hexproof Dungeon of Champions

Servant of a Burning Fire - Standard
Mods - Monsters can't be cursed, more magic monsters
Quantity: +21%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
2 Alteration
8 Chromatic
1 Scrap
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
None

So, this was an anaemic run loot wise, although I did decide a few yellows were stash worthy.  The bigger news was that I used the Forgotten Master's respec to make this character more of what I had in mind to start with.  The change to the cold to fire support gem helps too.  I went back to leveling my quality gem in an off-hand slot.  I think I created a bit of a glass cannon though.  I'm going to really have to work on armor and life on gear.  I'm hoping that leveling up with the forgotten masters will help out in this regard.

I noticed this at first when I was just testing the character out on the docks.  I opened a lockbox guarded by a rogue exile.  I don't remember the name, but she summoned minions and had minion instability.  I think I blew myself up by killing them at point blank range more than she did me in.

Then in the dungeon, I realized that I was just getting hammered by monsters.  It helped when I switched out a gem for life leach.  Actually, that helps a lot.  With the increased damage I do through respeccing, I leach a lot with a blast of GMP Freezing Pulse.  I'm not sure if it's the most efficient use of Freezing Pulse to convert all the damage to fire with Avatar of Fire and Cold to Fire, but it is fun.  I added the 2nd part of my original plan, which was Eldrich Battery with the respec, and I'm still kind of mana hungry.  I certainly don't have enough mana and mana regen to run around with Arctic Armor up.  I'm hoping that will get better as I continue to level Clarity and a Reduced Mana gem.  Anyway, this character is a lot more fun to play after respeccing, so I'll continue to run him through maps.  I can also still run Piety with this character for two more skill points.  I think there is a health and mana node next to my current skill tree, so I want to pick those up or maybe a mana regen node if I don't have to travel out of the way for it.

The bright spot was the map the Master Hunter gave me.  I had to kill 25 high hitpoint bears, and I was able to mow them down with my blasts of frozen fire.  I didn't die once in there, thanks to some timely potion chugging, but also thanks to the large amount of life I was leaching.  There must be a rule that prevents you from gaining two levels with a master on a single mission because I jumped from never having met the hunter to being 1 XP shy of hitting level 2 with her.

The last thing I noticed about the dungeon map is that it is a lot tougher with the redesigned Brutus fight.  In the Act I prison, the redesign made the fight seem a lot less cheezy.  I usually dealt with Brutus by pilliar dancing before the fight changes.  Now it is a lot less laggy and just feels better in the prison.  Brutus just wiped the floor with me in this dungeon run.  There are spikes coming out of the floor that nearly fill the entire room, and it fealt like the boss had hundreds of skeletons surrounding him.  I know I lost XP between RIPing to the boss and rogue exile before I ever went into the Eternal Lab.