Let the mapping begin... and the gear acquirement!
I completed Act 10 and killed Kitava, then dove straight into maps and realised just how squishy my build could be. In theory it won't be squishy, but when I first jumped into maps I barely had any of my energy shield requirements or defensives.
That was soon rectified!
This League so far has been one of my better ones during fighting through the slog of a campaign. I think I've finally gotten to that stage where I know these fights and don't have to worry so much about dying in them.
Kitava at the end here only killed me once. Usually I'm just, go in, do a bit of damage, die, go back in, do it again, rinse and repeat. xD My brain is becoming accustomed to the mechanics at last.
I was surprised to find that now when I complete the Lake of Kalandra cubes, there is a chance to get a Lake of Kalandra map to activate in the map device.
The area doesn't seem to differ from any of Kalandra map I've seen so far, but I'm guessing there's probably a benefit to it.
I found a Divine Orb!!!! In my first Lake of Kalandra map-device thing. I very, very quickly picked it up then started staring at poe.trade, hoping to find a 6-link version of my chestpiece.
For a couple of days, there were only 5-link ones available, then a 6-link appeared for 10 divine orbs. Then, yesterday morning, I checked the trading website before doing the school run and saw a 6-link The Beast Fur Shawl available for one measly divine orb. Obviously I hopped straight into the game and hoped the guy was still online and had it.
He was and he did. XD
Even better, it already boasted the exact socket colours I needed too!
As soon as I equipped it, I ran through a few maps and everything was a million times better. My energy shield recharges in a blink of an eye, it rarely disappears at all, and after struggling with tier 1 maps I suddenly found myself up to tier 5.
That chestpiece just made everything so much better.
Next on my list are these gloves: Repentance. I need 100 more strength to equip them which I'm slowly working on. I've just bought some new shoes with a lot of strength but I need to get them the correct colours. They're strength/dexterity boots and are rolling more reds and greens rather than blues so this is going to take a while. I've already run out of chromatic orbs trying to change them.
I also bought a new ring with a lot of strength on it plus other requirements.
I'll slowly get there.
When I do, Repentance will grant me Iron Will which adds my strength to my spell damage. It's going to be beastly! I hope. XD
I'm slowly filling up my Atlas tree now that I can actually do the maps. I'm going Blight, of course, because I love the Blight mechanic and I also need oils.
Last League I also travelled towards rogue exiles and finding 20 of them in maps and having them drop more stuff. I'm not too sure I want to do that this time but I'll work out where I'd like to go. Maybe some Delirium stuff. Or, as I like to call it, "The Mirror World!!!!" 😁
During my maps, I found my first 6-link random drop of the league! Anddddd... of course it was corrupted and had terrible colours. I put it up for sale for a 3 whole chaos orbs and it hasn't sold yet. xD Guess it's not interesting at all.
So, my next goal for this League so far is to slowly add to my strength so I can equip those gloves, and then the only piece of gear I'm missing is... the Aegis Aurora. A ridiculously expensive shield. I'll need to find it myself or somehow gather up 15-20 Divine Orbs to buy it.
But once I get it and those gloves, my build will mostly be complete and I can find out if what I have created is worthy.
What's left after that is just levelling so I have more points to put into my tree. There are a few nodes that I'd like to get to, and there are a few nodes in my original Path of Building build that I won't need to go into at all. I was worried about how mana regeneration was going to go, but I have plenty; it's fine. So I can ignore pathing towards a couple of mana regen perks and go elsewhere instead.
It all seems to be panning out so far. 🙂
Until next time!! 🎮