Path of Exile | Hardcore Race Update Day 6 And 7

What an amazing time but the road ends here for me. Two deaths within 11 hours of each other. A level 48 followed by a 42. I told myself the fourth one would be the last (or was it?!?) I was prepared to go till the end but it seems I get to enjoy some sleep! I really pushed fast in last one trying least finish off strong.

Day 6

I pushed Freezing Pulse+ added cold damage + faster casting to its limit in the Lifespring Driftwood Wand I had looted to its limit. The last fight I used with it on day 6 turned into an extremely long dance. Dodging in and out of attacks, spells, and creatures. Pulling range to recover and going back in to lay down some hurt, furry, and spells.

As mentioned in day 5 I needed to switch some skills, and gems out and that is what I spent part of the day working on.

I really do enjoy the longer range, quickness, and animations of Freezing pulse and that is why I choose to level some way up with it. I’ve played a few screen cleaners in my days I wanted something different this time. I would not clear an entire screen in one go but it had amazing more power to get me past the bosses where such builds can struggle.

I looted a 4 link helmet that was intelligence so it was easy rolling one of the sockets to green and having the other 3 blue for my new main skill. Blade Vortex with Physical to Lighting, Increased Critical Strikes, and Concentrated Effect. It has a bit of a wind up time but I have so far enjoyed it.

I needed some other upgrades so I ran most of the Blood Alters I had. In hope for some decent drops that were also linked.

I really expected some of these fights to be tough as they were not pushing overs to capture in the first place. They seem rather toned down for the arena fights. I only used my flasks out of habit and not for necessity.

Some of them ended so quickly I did not even get a screenshot off in time to capture the battle. Here we just see the aftermath this one had spawned a few adds but they were no match.

If you think those don’t look very impressive for my rewards you are correct. I ended up selling them to the vendor as they were not worth investing the currency into trying to make something out of nothing. I guess I should have expected that with how easy these fights where.

Ah, Kitava hit me before I could get out my way down to just a sliver of health and then it just was over before I could even react. I have almost a freeze frame in my mind of that moment of just a sliver of life left and me pressing the key for a life flask. It was over by the time I pressed that key.

I'm just not used to playing such short range and in your face setup. I also did not pick up the gems for this set up right away when I was high enough level. So they were a couple of levels short. I really did like this build however so I gave it one last try for this race.

Day 7

I’m not sure when I had a dislike towards Shield Charge. A long while back they made some changes to it if I recall. I wish I had given it fair chances sooner. Flame Dash soon became a distant memory of being slow and not how I wanted to play this final run.

So forward I Shield Charge at full speed.

To try and deal with issues I had using Blade Vortex I switch out Concentrated Effect which reduced the area of effect for Controlled Destruction. It felt like it made enough of a difference that I really enjoyed running and clearing with it.

I was dropping bosses and events so fast; meanwhile, zipping past the zones I did not even stop to take any screenshots. Until this final one.

Character And Currency

Four Strike outs total over this completion. That is just hardcore for you though-- no forgiveness.

The RNG gods, in the end, gave me a couple of Chaos Orbs. Shame I can’t take these to Softcore Bestiary League!

Which is where I’ll be starting fresh after a short break as this hardcore was a bit wearing. I honestly just love to run maps in this game. Having to start over and over and over and over and over is well not running maps!!!! Perhaps if this is done again in the future for another league I’ll give hardcore another run for its money.