10.25.2014 Multiple Maps

I'm going to start making multiple map entries when I run more than one map in a single day, with possible exceptions for unique maps or very challenging mods.

Antagonist Cemetary Map of Exposure (Level 67)
FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Rare monsters have a Nemesis modifier, Players elemental resistance caps are reduced
Quantity: +42%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
5 Transmutation
5 Alteration
8 Chromatic
1 Chance

Maps Gained:
Dried Lakebed L66
Mountain Ledge L67

This was much more enjoyable than running around the cemetary cursed with Temporal Chains.  It was an easy run because of the monster composition of the map.  There were a lot of Vaal Fallen, who are slow.  They were usually dead by the time they plodded close enough to one of my totems to take a swing at it.

The loot was odd.  triple color, triple linked items were dropping like mad.  One would hope for more with a +42% IIQ roll, but this is clearly a gain in the map pool.  One thing I noticed during this run was that the boss is not a necromancer, instead, he Skeleton Archmage called Thunderskull.  He must not have been too difficult since I didn't even peg him as the map boss on my first cemetary run.  When checking the boss's name, I did see the observation that this can be a difficult boss with the Twinned modifier since between the two of them they can fill a room with sparks.

Punishing Mountain Ledge Map of Exposure (Level 67)
FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters reflect physical damage, Players elemental resistance caps are reduced
Quantity: +48%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Augmentation

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

Maps Gained:
Dunes L66
Dunes L66
Magic Overgrown Ruin L66
Overgrown Ruin L66

This map surprised me a bit.  I was expecting a very straight shot leading to a Kuduku like totem boss.
Instead, path has a few loops in it so you kind of have to run laps around the different loops to find the map boss.  Once there, he turned out to be an ice themed skeleton, the somewhat like Chatters from the prison.  Neither of the level 67 map bosses I've fought so far seem as dangerous at the bosses from the Orchard or the Dungeon.  I'm half tempted to run a lower level map to see if it's just that this character has become much stronger than the other characters I'm mapping with, but I think I'll stick to exploring the higher level maps and hope that the bosses I encounter don't provide me with any nasty (or fatal) surprises.

The Punishing modifier is great for this character because the only physical damage I do comes from bear traps.  That's not getting reflected anywhere.  It's a great bonus to IIQ.  With that large bonus to IIQ, I was hoping to get at least 1 level 67 map, but four level 66 maps isn't bad.  I could trade the two dunes maps that dropped with one I already had stashed for a level 67, so I would say that 4 66's is not quite as good as a level 66 and a level 67, but still a slight improvement to the map pool.  I also found a Silverbranch unique bow.  It's low level, but still a unique.  I checked the forums, and the consensus seems to be that it's good for leveling with Poison Arrow since the poison damage only depends on the level of the gem.

10.23.2014 Anarchic Wharf Map of Champions (Level 67)

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Two rogue exiles inhabit the map, More magic monsters
Quantity: +17%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

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

Maps Gained:
Thicket L67
Spider Lair L68

This was my second level 67 map, and I was expecting something like the docks, but I wasn't sure what the final boss of the map would be.  It ended up being one of the unique worms that fling chaos projectiles at you.  The map was much more linear than the docks though.  I was able to clear it very methodically.  The Rogue Exiles were good for lots of rare items, which probably figures into the large number of Alteration orbs gains from this map.

The interesting thing I learned during this map was that the rogue Exiles don't count against the number of monsters remaining.  When I got to the end of the map, I thought that the rogue exile guarding one of the strongboxes I opened must have counted against the level's count, however, even thought the remaining monster count was zero I was attacked by a rogue exile at the end of the map when I was just looking for any chests or boxes to open.  It wasn't a bad ambush because I was at least a little on my guard, even though I would have been more on my guard if I had known that the last monster was the Rouge Exile.  Thankfully none of the ones I faced on this map were the exceedingly deadly ones.  I also feel better about my map count in that I have seen one each of 66, 67 & 68 in the two level 67 maps I've run.  I'm hoping to see my first level 69 map soon, but the +2 maps don't drop all that often.

10.23.2014 Fecund Cemetary Map of Temporal Chains (Level 67)

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters have extra health, Player cursed with Temporal Chains
Quantity: +39%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
1 Transmutation
2 Alteration
2 Augmentation
2 Chromatic
1 Chance
1 Alchemy
2 Chaos !!
2 Scrap
1 Scouring

Maps Gained:
Tropical Island L66

Even though this was my first level 67 map, it wasn't too bad, apart from the usual frustration of running a Temporal Chains map.  The loot from those is generally good, but they are so slow to run.  There was one time when I ran the wrong direction from some Beyond monsters that spawned, but this really wasn't that scary.  The boss was a necromancer, probably a bit like Sawbones from the Prison.  Not bad at all.

As one might expect from the cemetary name, this map is a lot like the Fellshrine Ruins.  The map boss is isolated down a staircase, so you don't have to worry about just bumping into him.  The zone is wide open, which might benefit some builds over others.  Getting a downgrade on the map with running a 67 and getting a 66 back was a new experience.  Since I had not run anything but level 66 maps before this one, any map drop meant I at least broke even.  However, getting two Chaos orbs to drop meant this was a fantastically profitable run.  All in all, a good experience for my first level 67 map.  The only reason I wouldn't call it great is the annoyance factor of Temporal Chains.

10.23.2014 Freezing Dunes Map of Elemental Weakness

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters deal extra cold damage, Player cursed with Elemental Weakness
Quantity: +29%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

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

Maps Gained:
Magic Grotto (9% quality) L66
Orchard L66
Cemetary L67

I was very cautious on this map because of the elemental weakness curse.  I'm really on the lookout to find gear that would let me overcap resistances, but I haven't found anything.  I've been trying to craft a new weapon, but haven't had any luck.  As I was writing this, I realized I was probably going about the crafting incorrectly since I don't have any Regal Orbs.  At any rate, I don't remember having any especially close shaves, but when I did take a hit, it hurt.  I was very careful to makesure I never got close to the Blacksmith.  My totems took care of him while I kept my distance.

I saved a Vorici mission for when all the monsters were dead on the map, and it was one where you have to break into a locked box without killing the Rogue Exile guarding it.  I felt good about the way I kited the exile away from the chest so I could kill the other guards and get inside it.  I was successful and was on my way back to collect my reward when I disconnected.  I learned something interesting in that once you disconnect, you can't get back into a map instance.

So I didn't get credit for that mission, but I did at least have all my loot.  The Grotto map I got is nice, but the armored mod doesn't add all that much IIQ.  I haven't decided if I'll Augment it to add a mod or just go ahead and transmute it.  I also got some Lioneyes Paws boots.  I'm not sure I'd ever really use them, but maybe leveling something.  I mainly ran this map to run one last 66 before switching over to level 67 maps.  My currency gained on this run was pretty weak, but I got three maps, all of them nice so this was a very good run to finish up my level 66 runs on this character.  One last note, with this character at level 73, it is two levels higher than my highest level standard character!  I find that pretty amazing.

10.21.2014 Antagonist's Dried Lakebed of Elemental Weakness

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Rare monsters have an Nemesis modifier, Player cursed with Elemental Weakness
Quantity: +29%

Currency Expended:
1 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
4 Transmutation
3 Alteration
1 Augmentation
2 Chromatic
1 Scrap
1 Whetstone
1 Baubble
1 Chisel

Maps Gained:
Dungeon L66
Dunes L66
Mountain Ledge L67
Wharf L67

This is one of the maps I purchased, which had a single mod on it which I augmented.  This run wasn't too hard.  The things that hit me hard were the Devourers, but they have a low rate of fire.  I don't think they would have put me in danger unless I stood in one place and let several hit me at once.  Maps were dropping like crazy on this run.  I had three by the time I had to portal back to drop off loot for the 1st time and then got one more.

The Antagonist modifier scared me a bit, but it turned out not to be a problem.  There was one Storm Herald which spawned, but it was a Devourer.  So I got a break from the lightning storm when it went underground.

If I were a bit braver, I would run the Dungeon map next, but the boss fight in that one is just scarry.  I want to try running some level 67 maps, and that won't happen if I'm dead, so I'll probably run another Dunes.  I only have 5% left until I ding 73, which seems like a good time to switch up to the harder maps.

10.20.2014 Fleet Overgrown Ruin Map of Venom

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters fire two extra projectiles, players poisoned on hit.
Quantity: +39%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
4 Transmutation
3 Alteration
4 Augmentation
1 Jewelers
4 Chromatic
1 Scrap
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Arsenal L67
Cemetary L67
Wharf L67

I crafted this map early on, and decided not to run it right away because the "Of Venom" scared me.  I should have been more afraid of the "Fleet".  More on that later.  I spawned some Beyond monsters early, which was probably OK because I'm pretty sure that one of those dropped one of the three maps I got this run.  It's always nice when one of those drops early.  It's even nicer when they keep dropping.  I feel like this run makes up for the lackluster loot on the quality Dunes map I ran previously.

The one embarasing thing about this run is that I had swapped my Flame Totem gem to my weapon for running on of the Forsaken Masters missions.  I'm only doing 2/3 of my maximum damage output when I do that, and I didn't notice until halfway through the map.  I did however drop some punishing Bear Traps on my foes.  I also passed up on the Armormaster's mission during this run.  His maps just scare me with the unkillable totems.

I took my Amathest flask with me, and I should have taken a Topaz flask with me for the map boss.  A group of Beyond monsters spawned in the final arena, and thankfully, I ran fast enough to leave the map boss behind.  After I killed off the Beyond monsters, I checked the number of monsters remaiing, and there was one left.  I figured my totems had killed the map boss while I was concentrating on the Beyond monsters, but no, the map boss was still alive.  Fortunately I reacted quickly when I saw he was the final monster on the map, because he could have easily killed me if I he had caught me napping.  I am going to keep running level 66 maps until I ding level 73, but then I think I'll move up to the level 67 maps.  I've never run one of those before, so it will be exciting.

10.19.2014 Splitting Dunes Map of Venom

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters fire two extra projectiles, players poisoned on hit.
Quantity: +52% (18% from quantity)

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
4 Transmutation
1 Alteration
2 Augmentation
5 Chromatic
2 Scrap

Maps Gained:
Arsenal L67

While running this, I have decided that I really like the Dune map apart from the boss.  A character with a movement skill like Leap Slam or Lightning Warp can exploit the ledges to either flee or attack in relative safety, and the standard monsters aren't that scary.  My most recent death on this map came from standing in a ring of fire, so you can't blame that death, softcore thankfully, on anyone but me.

I am disapointed in the relatively lackluster haul from a map with over 50% IIQ.  Once again, I easily recouped my investment in the map and I did get a level 67 map to drop.  It just wasn't an exciting haul of loot.  I wanted all kinds of stuff to drop if I was going to run a map I consider extremely difficult.  I may have to re-evaluate if I can get a handle on killing The Blacksmith.

However, I was quite pleased with how easily I handled the boss.  I mostly kept him just offscreen so that he was leaping into a totem when he used his zombie summoning attack.  The poison doesn't shred my totems like it did my summoner's minions.  I did spend a transmute and two alts to craft an Amathest flask, which I don't even think I popped during the run.  Maybe it scales up, but I wasn't inconvenienced by the Of Venom mod at all during this run.  The biggest gain I got was that I feel I can tackle another Venom map and don't feel bad at all about running Dunes maps with this character.

10.19.2014 Overlord's Tropical Island Map of Vulnerability

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Map boss attacks faster and does extra damage, play cursed with vulnerability
Quantity: +36%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Alteration

Currency Gained:
4 Transmutation
1 Alteration
2 Augmentation
5 Chromatic
2 Scrap

Maps Gained:
Crypt L66
Ghetto L68

The mods on this map scared me a bit, so I was super cautious.  The only thing that was frightening was when I realized that there were Devorourers on the map.  However, they always popped out of the ground into a field of totem fire and didn't last long.  No great currency gains like the previous map, but I still easily recouped my investment in modding the map.  Apart from some nice map drops, the only thing to report from this run is a copy of the unique gold amulet the Ignomon.

10.19.2014 Hexproof Dried Lake Map of Elemental Weakness

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters cannot be cursed, player cursed with Elemental Weakness
Quantity: +40% (from 5% quality)

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Augmentation

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

Maps Gained:
Dunes L66
Cemetary L67
Mountain Ledge L67

This map wasn't too hard, but it taught me that I really need to work on overcapping my elemental resistances.  When I checked to see how bad things were, I noticed that might lightning resistance was nearly normal, but that fire and cold were both less than 50%.  It didn't really hurt me because most of the attacks in the zone come from physical sources, but it could have been important.  If my resistances were all overcapped, then I could run the Elemental Weakness modifier as essentially free IIQ.

The really interesting thing about this run was that I ran into the Cartographer of the Forsaken Masters release for the 1st time.  She seems to only appear in maps, which is what I heard from a very high level player who I did some trading with.  Her mission has 6 portals, much like using a Map Device in the Eternal Laboratory would do.  I suppose it is essentially a map within a map.  It was also one higher level than the map I was running.  It wasn't too hard, except for one of the rogue exiles I faced.  It was one of the most dangerous in my opinion.  He throws traps and uses the Flameblast spell to do massive damage if you're standing in the wrong place when that spell detonates.  I was standing in the wrong place and took about 80% of my life in a single shot.  I discovered that you can use a portal scroll to get out of the mission and back into the map I started in.  I didn't go back to the map within the map.

Apart from the very high risk of dying to the rogue exile, I had already failed the mission.  It was timed at 5 minutes, and the zone was a huge area like that of the Sarn Slums.  I needed to kill about 75 corrupted monsters scattered all over the whole of the map, which would have taken far more clear speed than I possess at the moment.  I hope that the next time I run into Zara the Cartographer, she gives me a mission that isn't timed.  I would really love to be able to invite her to my hideout so that I can start running her daily missions.  It was still very worthwhile from a character experience, player experience, and loot standpoint to attempt her mission.  I got one of the level 67 maps and either the alchemy or chaos orb from the map within a map.  I also got a ring on this run that let me complete a chaos orb vendor recipe.

I'm more or less maintaining my stock of level 66 maps after buying 9, and I'm accumulating a nice supply of level 67 maps.  I think I'll run Dunes to test my strength before attempting any level 67 maps, but I'm progressing nicely.  I hope to ding level 72 on my next run.  Between the totem skill I'll finally be able to pick up and hopefully levelling my Flame Totem gem, I should really be pumping out more damage soon.  Assuming I remain alive of course.  This run did point out that a rogue exile or poor encounter with a powerful yellow could end this character's run at any point.

10.18.2014 Dried Lake Map

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - None (This map was mirrored when I bought it, so I couldn't modify it)
Quantity: +5% (from 5% quality)

Currency Expended:
None

Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
1 Alteration
2 Jewelers
4 Chromatic
5 Scrap
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Dunes L66
Arcade L67
Rare Wharf Map L67, +63% IIQ

This run should have been easy since I couldn't roll any map mods, but there weren't even any Skeletal Rhoas on the map.  Despite only having a 5% increase in item quantity, I got three map drops fairly quickly, and the last one to drop was the first rare map I've seen.  It reduces the players maximum resistances, and gives the monsters 4 extra projectiles.  I'm thinking that it would be borderline suicidal to attempt this map with anything other than an Arctic Armor character.  It doesn't matter how many streams of fire Void Bears are spitting at you if you reduce the fire damage coming in to zero.  On the other hand, getting shot gunned by 5 streams of fire without Arctic Armor and taking twice as much damage per stream as usual because of the map mods seems like it would be very fatal very quickly.

I might have to try to level some sort of Arctic Armor character once the Beyond League ends just so I can run this map.  It seems pretty cool.  I've never run anything with anything over about 45% IIQ as best I can recall, so I really want to have a character which could attempt it.  This character isn't the one though.  I really can't believe how much loot I got from such a small bonus.

10.18.2014 Twinned Crypt Map of Temporal Chains

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Two boss monsters, player cursed with Temporal Chains
Quantity: +33%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
2 Transmutation
1 Alteration
1 Fusing
7 Chromatic
2 Scrap
3 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Dunes L66
Splitting Mountain Ledge Map of Vulnerability L67

The twinned bosses weren't any problem, but there were a few times I had trouble getting out of a crowd after Beyond monsters spawned.  I was even having trouble moving around with Leap Slam.  One thing that has been working well is using a Detonate Dead gem to explode undead corpses when there is a necromancer nearby.  On top of not needing to defend myself against something I just killed a few seconds ago, without corpses to raise, the necromancers seem to spend more time standing in the fire of my the Flame Totems.  I don't think I mentioned that I started using a Tabula Rasa while leveling to 70 in The Catacombs.  It was over a 50% damage boost, and it's just gone up from there as various support gems level up.

I'm curious about running a Mountain Ledge map.  The Ledge is a fairly tame zone, and the map boss is probably something like Kuduku, but it might have Lightning Warp on top of Kuduku's normal lightning abilities.  That's a little scary.  However, the skeletons shooting multiple arrows at me when I'm cursed with vulnerability doesn't sound fun.  The bad thing about this run is that the level 66 map I got is another Dunes map.  I might give one a try when I hit level 72, I hit level 71 in the run after this one.  The Dunes are just a scary place in that you can easily end up with a zombie apocalypse situation fighting the map boss, The Blacksmith.

I did buy 9 maps off a guy, I probably overpaid, but I got a good deal on Chaos orbs from selling Alterations and I'm not saving up for some specific unique, so just throwing currency at my map pool isn't going to hurt me.  The other thing, I'm getting good currency out of these runs, so it's not like I just threw currency away on nothing.  It will just take time to recover my investment.

10.15.2014 Shocking Dried Lake Map of Hordes

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters deal extra lightning damage; increased pack size
Quantity: +12%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Alteration
1 Augmentation

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

Maps Gained:
Dunes L66 18% quality
Arcade L67
Cemetary L67

This was another very challenging run.  Right at the start, I summoned a pack of Beyond monsters, and one had the modifier which prevents allies from dying.  Right next to those was a rare monster which had a healing aura.  Between those two groups, it was hard to get a foothold on this map.  However, I did manage to clear out some room to work and got going.

One thing I realized during this map run was that this really is a dangerous map.  I had never considered it so, because the boss is similar to the one in the Mud Flats.  I still stand by that conclusion, however, I have reconsidered the danger posed by large groups of Skeletal Rhoas, especially when paired with Necromancers.  On the tropical island map, I speculated that Immortal Call when paired with Cast on Damage Taken might have saved me from several of the leaping monsters landing on me at once.  On this map, I think that combination of gems actually did save me from death on at least on occasion.

One interesting thing about this mission was that I got a forsaken master quest which involved not killing the target while breaking into that target's strongbox for information.  I had never seen that mission variant before, so that was cool.

Gaining an Arcade and Cemetary map along with another level 66 map made this a nice run loot-wise in a much different way than my previous two runs.  I just wish the quality level 66 map had been something other than Dunes.  The boss on that map is just awful with his ability to spawn endless hordes of zombies that decay into poison clouds when killed.

I'm going to try to kill Piety before running any more maps, but unless she drops something I can run, I either need to re-roll one of my existing maps, or buy or trade ones that are easier to run.  For example, as a blood magic totem user, I simply can't run a stasis map.

10.14.2014 Fleet Tropical Island Map of Power

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters move and attack faster and gain power charges every 20 seconds
Quantity: +38%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
6 Transmutation
5 Alteration
1 Augmentation
21 Jewlers (Wow Again!!)
2 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Chance
1 Vaal
5 Scrap
2 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Arsenal L67
Vaal Puramid L68

I have to start out by saying that this was an absolutely fantastic run.  The loot gained was awesome, the challenge level was just right, and I didn't have any close shaves.  On top of everything listed above, one of the Beyond monsters spawned with the Inner Treasure modifier.  It dropped a Death's Harp bow, which is an excellent weapon for leveling with an archery based character.

The most dangerous monsters were the leapers which use Arctic Breath.  A single one could hit for 40-50% of my health, so if I had stayed in one spot when a group launched for me, I probably would have died.  Maybe Immortal Call would have saved me, but I wouldn't want to count on it.  Like I said earlier, the chalenge level seemed to be just right with active play.

I got another set of 3 six socket items in an improbable string of luck.  Two of them came out of a mirrored strongbox.  These last two runs have really upped my supply of Jewlers orbs.  I also got two nice rare pieces of armor that I can craft, with my stash of jewlers orbs, to replace old pieces of armor and get a nice life boost.

I'm close to hitting level 69 with this character.  If I don't get some more level 66 maps to drop, I think I feel pretty good about heading for Piety at that level.  I don't feel quite as confident about running into Kole, but I can run away from him.

10.12.2014 Hexproof Overgrown Ruin of Endurance

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters are immune to curses and gain endurance charges every 20 seconds
Quantity: +33%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Alteration

Currency Gained:
4 Transmutation
3 Alteration
2 Augmentation
22 Jewlers (Wow !!)
1 Chromatic
1 Regret
3 Scrap
1 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Wharf L67

This run went much better than my first visit to an Overgrown Ruin map.  The Hexproof modified didn't slow me down nearly as much as Enfeeblement.  The crazy thing about this map run was the number of 6 socket items that dropped.  I got three of them!  That made this a hugely profitable run.

I thought I was going to blank on maps, but one of the monsters in the final section of the map dropped the Wharf map.  The only real difficulty came in the boss's little arena area.  There was a totem that provided immortality, so I couldn't make any progress until I managed to get that thing brought down.  The map boss hits crazy hard with his lightning strike attack.  I will strongly consider bringing a topaz flask with me if I get to run another Overgrown Ruin map.

I'm a little bit torn on what to do with some of the other maps I've rolled.  For example, I'm not sure I want to run a Fleet Overgrown Ruin Map of Venom even if it does have +39% IIQ.  I've only spent 1 transmutation on that one, I may re-roll.  It's not like I'm going to have a hardcore, CI character any time soon to tackle that one.  I've survived 3 map runs, but the middle one was almost too much for me.  I would rather be cautious with my mods even if it means going back to running the library or catacombs, or even Piety runs, or god forbid, buying level 66 maps from other players, than to kill myself trying something too difficult.

10.12.2014 Grounded Overgrown Ruin of Enfeeblement

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Monsters have 75% increased lightning resistance, Player cursed with Enfeeblement
Quantity: +26%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Alteration
1 Augmentation

Currency Gained:
2 Transmutation
4 Alteration
1 Augmentation
1 Jewlers
1 Fusing
2 Chromatic
1 Vaal
1 Scrap

Maps Gained:
None

This run was much harder than what I bargained for.  The enfeeblement didn't really hurt my ability to kill normal monsters.  The Flame Totems wore them down, it just took a little while longer than usual.  The two map mods hurt me more than I was expecting.  In hindsight, I should have swapped in an Added Chaos gem for Added Lightning since I didn't really get a lot of benefit from that gem on this map.

I also realized as soon as I entered the map, that I had never run an Overgrown Ruin before.  It looks and plays a lot like the Temple of Sins.  There are three main levels and the boss is on a fourth level which is somewhat arena like.  The different floors made it easy to tell that you had cleared a floor before moving on.

One time, I had to move on without clearing a floor because opening a strongbox led to the summoning of a unique Beyond monster.  It was way stronger than I could deal with safely so I kited it in a loop then went down the stairs without going back.  As one might expect from a Sins themed map, the final boss was much like Fidelitas.  I didn't try to engage him directly, but was able to keep him focused on my totems and out of the line of fire of the boss's Lightning Strike.

I think I'm going to give this map another try tonight, but will not be running Enfeeblement again any time soon.  I'm bummed about not getting a map drop, but the currency gained was good, and as hard as the run was, just coming out alive is a victory.  I also picked up a 2nd Redbeak legendary item, so if I every got anything that would let me run a low life build, in theory, I could do so.

10.11.2014 Overlord's Grotto Map of Commanders

FlameTankMarkI - Beyond
Mods - Map boss moves and attacks faster, more magic monsters
Quantity: +14%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

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

Maps Gained:
Overgrown Ruin L66
Tropical Island L66

Yes, this is my first hard core map completion, and it was in a challenge league to boot.  In some ways the challenge league is a bit easier in that you can find a group to take down Dominus at the end of cruel.  However, I've been playing solo for the most part.  The grotto map has once again been confirmed as an easy map for me.  I did have a few issues with beyond monsters, but for the most part it was a smooth run.  The overlord's modifier really didn't seem to matter, and the large numbers of magic monsters were good for my experience.

I don't know that Flame Totems are any stronger or faster than Searing Bond totems, but I think I'm having more fun with the Flame Totems.  They just feel a bit more active somehow.  I did pick up the enduring cry gem I got from the Facebreaker Scion, and I feel a lot better about my character's tankiness with a few endurance charges up.

Thrilled to get two map drops from my first Beyond map run.  I'm going to try one of the Overgrown Ruin maps next.  Hopefully the boss isn't too hard.  This was a profitable run, but I really want to be able to sell a few Chaos Orb recipies soon.  I've got a lot of inventory space tied up with things I can't quite use.  I also found a nice chest armor upgrade if I could get a bit more cold resistance from somewhere else.

10.05.2014 Burning Tropical Island Map of Temporal Chains

Servant of a Frozen Fire- Standard
Mods - Monsters do extra fire damage and player is cursed with Temporal Chains
Quantity: +27%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

Currency Gained:
3 Transmutation
5 Alteration
2 Chromatic
9 Scrap
5 Whetstone

Maps Gained:
Cemetary L67

This run wasn't really hard, but it was tiresome because of how slowly Temporal Chains makes you move.  All things considered, the Tropical Island maps are pretty mild.  Even with my casting speed reduced, I didn't have any problems killing monsters.  However, I did miss a lot on my first pass through the map.  So I had to double back hugging the edges of the zone to get down to a remaining monster count that I was comfortable leaving the map.  Temporal Chains is just always annoying.  I've seen people in videos talk about how they just re-roll this on low level maps because of the clear speed.  The burning modifier is no trouble whatsoever for an Arctic Armor character.

The loot was a little odd.  I found an Artisan's Strongbox, as evidenced by the large numbers of Scrap and Whetstone.  The nice thing about the map that dropped was that it dropped with 18% quality.  That should be a nice one to run once I build up my pool of level 67 maps a bit more.  I also suffered an unexpected death when my sister asked me to help with getting clothes out of the dryer.  I thought I had cleared the area around my character sufficiently, but I guess I hadn't because when I got back to the computer, I was dead.  At least it was standard, and I still gained experience despite this mishap.

In news unrelated to this run, I have a dual Flame Totem marauder in the Beyond League to level 65.  I'm going to run the Solaris Temple tonight.  Barring an untimely death, I should be able to run maps with him in a hardcore league soon.  I'll probably grind out an extra level or two on top of what I get from just progressing through Act III Merciless, but without a doubt (and even if I have to do it after being booted back to standard) that will be the next character of mine going into The Eternal Laboratory.

10.03.2014 Burning Orchard Map of Frenzy

Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters do extra fire damage and move and attack faster
Quantity: +27%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation

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

Maps Gained:
Tropical Island L66

Orchard maps are typically pretty easy except for the boss at the end.  The biggest thing I did on this run was replace the Determination aura with Discipline to drop armor for energy shield, which gets converted into extra mana.  That let me level my clarity gem, which let me keep Arctic Armor up almost all the time.  I did have use Lightning Warp for mobility, but I didn't really miss the standard armor while running Arctic Armour.

I had been ready to retire this build as unworkable, but between gearing and the free respec at the start of the Rampage and Beyond leagues this character really turned around.  I did have a few close calls against the map boss, but somehow I managed not to die while fighting it.  I was hoping for a really profitable run when a map and an Alchemy orb dropped early on, but after a Prismatic Twilight unique dropped, nothing else interesting came from the run.  At least it was a cheap map to craft since I wasn't worried about taking extra fire damage while running Arctic Armor.

9.24.2014 Fleet Tropical Island Map of Smothering

Yarmilla - Standard
Mods - Monsters move and attack faster, half speed life or mana regeneration
Quantity: +43%

Currency Expended:
1 Transmutation
1 Augmentation

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

Maps Gained:
None

I did get overwhelmed by monsters at one point and suffered a death, but otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful run.  I was expecting good things with a 43% increase to item quantity, but this loot was really anaemic for the size of the bonus.  At least I didn't spend much modding the map.  The half speed regen was a lot easier to deal with than no regen, but I did have to swap gems around again to leech mana.  The biggest improvement over the previous run was "muling" in a reduced mana gem.  I'm not sure a merciless quest reward counts as muling really, but having that let me nearly double my mana pool and level my Clarity gem.

I wanted to cover the economics of mapping in this post.  I found 28 maps out in the world between Standard and Ambush leagues, and I have now run 28 maps.  I now have:

• 18 Level 66 maps
• 12 Level 67 maps
• 3 Level 68 maps

At the rate I'm going, I would eventually run out of Level 66 maps, but, in Theory at least, I should be able to start doing Piety runs at some point.  She drops level 66 maps 50% of the time, so there is a reliable way to farm those.  They will also just drop out in the world.  I got lucky with a rare Cartographer's lockbox which provided nearly a third of my initial map pool.

The more important part is that the size of my overall map pool has increased 15%, and the composition of the map pool is 45% higher level maps.  I'm pretty happy with the build up of my map pool.  I guess my next goal should be to get up to about 20 Level 67 maps and see how running those changes the composition of my map pool.