I had quite a fun adventure over the past 24 hours in this race. Down below are some thoughts, a bit about the game, and some crazy narrative I weaved in for fun.

Each act is based on that one in Path of Exile with the expectation of the preface. I also changed up my narrative, focus, and storytelling approach for each of the different acts somewhat. I have been in a number of these races before so I always try and find a creative way to tell my side of the story.

Preface

Ah, the countdown till the league starts. For once I made sure I manually patched the almost 11 gigs for the game since for whatever reason it fails to do so every time. I made into the queue at 3,472 which was quite early for myself.

I was happily spamming away on Twitter getting more impressions in a few hours then I do in an entire week. Tweeting about the game and commenting on Path of Exile tweets. There was one small issue I had zero plans this time around for this race. I also did not want to go with my normal start since some amazing changes to melee mechanics where made and I wanted something fresh.

Normally I do some planning beforehand at least the night before and make myself a nice little outline of my plans. I wanted, however, to get out a review post on another game and clear out anything else I needed for that day. By the time it was all finished and everything else taken care of I had 30 minutes to league start!

Act 1: An Unprepared Fool Almost Meets His Fate

I rush my way to Act 1’s town Lioneye’s Watch almost in a single heartbeat and not a thought on my mind other than creating my mule. There was a skill I wanted but the Duelist class does not start with it. An easy fix to that was creating another that has it. In this case a Scion.

I had forgotten how much I hated playing this class. I soon was remembered when I almost had my first death. All it needed to do was make it to Lioneye’s Watch and bank an Onslaught support gem that I wanted.

I had made it to just needing to kill Hillock before the door would open and let me into the city. By the time I had used all my life and mana flasks he was only down to 50%. I then wasted a lot of time trying to kite him waiting for my slow regen so I could go in for another hit and take off maybe 2 or 3% more life. What was an easy battle for my Duelist turned into this epic battle of kiting, dodging, and some cussing as well! I just wanted to go fast not be the first to die in our race.

Finally, the mighty Hillock who has never given me much of an issue ever had fallen. Not wanting to waste any more time I rushed into Lioneye’s Watch dropped the bloodied Onslaught support gem into my stash and wished to never see that Scion again.

I switch back over to my Duelist and insert the Onslaught and bought a Ground Slam gem as well to put into my sword before I exited the city towards The Coast.

I was greeted with a pack of monsters and thought I would test my setup out. Since I was not very familiar with Ground Slam in the first place and wanted to make sure before I pushed my way towards Tidal Island.

I went in for what I was hoping to be a killing blow on that pack of monsters and –nothing. I spammed my R key thinking maybe there was some server lag and again –nothing. I noticed the skill was greyed out and I was dumbfounded for a moment.

What the heavens!!!! Why can’t I use this skill I shouted in my mind. So I read the text for the skill itself and I’m an idiot you can’t use Ground Slam with a sword!

I looked up just in time to notice I was almost dead. That would be some kind of recorded almost losing in hardcore before I had even made it to level three. I smashed a life flash that boosted up my life and headed back into Lioneye’s Watch as a very defeated Duelist.

I checked the shops to find myself an ax. Just one small issue no green socket to use Onslaught. All that time wasted for something I would get in a few levels by the time I found a better weapon.

I headed back out and you bet I murder that pack of monster. With glee, I rushed into the rest of the act without too much trouble. I even picked up a new skill to the game called Dash. It was quite nice to have another movement skill option this early on into the game. I ended up using it far longer than I should even when I had better options.

With all the changes they had made to melee being able to for once interrupted there attack animations by just simply moving. I danced around this create with Dash at my fingertips for even quick speed. She danced as well but was not quite the partner I was looking for. She had a slight accident at the hand of my ax and I parted ways after checking what looted she dropped. Off to act 2 I went.

Act 2: Brokering A Deal With A Bandit

Well, color me a shade of red I’ve already become a murderer what’s a few troublesome bandits more. Perhaps the town folks should have thought twice but you live and learn. I might have also unleashed some kind of curse along my way –oops. It’s ok things sorted themselves out. Never mind, never mind that part.

Kraityn

Kraityn was the first Bandit I removed from this realm. I did so with such haste I barely even recall the offer he was making. Something about an attack speed potion or some nonsense. The guy was living in a rundown ruined bridge. The only thing I’m quite certain he had to offer was bone dust. Which is what I turned him into with a few hits from my freshly gained new skill Sunder that sent a force wave to crush him.

Oak

Alira

The Weaver

After that, I went off into this dreaded cave filled with spiders. It was awful I don’t recommend it. Thankfully it was not all for not. The spider calling itself The Weaver had a Spike I wanted to remove some overgrown roots and venture into a temple. When a spider has a full name you know you’re in for a webifying good time. I’m only here today because I did not become lunch but instead ate dinner. I’m set on spider meat for quite some time.

Rest Of Act II

After a while, as I had foreshadowed, I might have accidentally touched something I was not supposed to. You would think if it was that easy to set off a biblical dark times apocalypse you would at least have a sign stating “don’t touch.” I guess hindsight is twenty-twenty and all that in Wraeclast.

Since I kind of failed to kill off the bandits as I promised the village folk. It was the least I could do to go crawling up some Dark Alter and make amends for my wicked ways. I was planning to just skip out town but the guy up there guarding it was just not reasonable. No spider meat for him.

Act 3: Odd Jobs

A Bust For A Lonely Guy?

Cockroaches You Say?

There I was minding my own business looting a temple full of riches. This place was dripping in gold colored flooring and ceilings. I tried scraping some of it off but that did not go down so well. The guards kept getting anger. My ax kept needing to be cleaned from all the blood. There was blood on the carpets the entire place was just a mess.

I thought why not peak a view of the throne room maybe sit in some lace covered golden throne and declare myself the king of the dead. That is when I met Lady Dialla and to my shock, she was pleased to see me.

Turns out she went a bit crazy a number of years back and kept talking about cockroaches needing to be killed. That sounded like the perfect job for me. In return, she offered some jewelry for me to wear. I thought if nothing else I could pawn them for some decent amount.

There was only one small catch they were not cockroaches that needed to be exterminated after all. That, however, has not stopped me so far. My ax and I went to work and my mind is clean of the deeds done. I ended up with a decent amulet that I ended up selling a couple of hours later when I found something better.

Librarian’s Gold Pages?

Once inside I noticed it was floor to ceiling books and dust. It must have been a while since anyone had entered. It turns out I was quite right as there was a ghost named Siosa who was looking for an adventure like myself to acquire his missing golden pages.

This was by far the easiest job I had undertaken up to this point. All I had to do was run down some hallways and find the bookshelf that opened up a hidden passage. Once inside collect the missing pages and run.

This job was almost as advertised expect with one small disclaimer. The library had been overrun by some creators. Thankfully my trusted ax and I made quick work of that. Siosa was reunited with his missing pages and I now had access to his wide collection of skill gems. I could not be happier for him.

Enough Odd Jobs?

All I wanted to do was move onto Act 4 but no this guy wanted to conduct some kind of experiment with electricity. He even had a number of people up there to do his bidding. This was just one odd job I was not willing to partake in.

As I have done a number of times I did a little dance around the top of this place. Some people did not know how to play dubstep which really infuriated my ax. I swear it has a mind of its own and before the night's end they had met a bitter end.

The good news was I am now free to adventure into the next act.

Act 4: Acrophobia

Act four has always been one of the quicker acts for me. That is unless you have Acrophobia in which case that might be a bit of an issue for this act. There are just so many bridges, ledges, and even a hole to jump right into. With that out of the way, it’s time to move forward.

You first arrive at The Aqueduct and you simply have to clear your way across the top of it. Just whatever you do never ever look down. Yep, that’s me looking down to add that extra thrill to the task at hand.

Eventually, you reach this endpoint where you have to jump down into the middle a Black Heart and have a final battle with act 4’s boss—Malachai. Where the rivers down there flow with blood and you realize perhaps you did not have acrophobia after all.

Act 5: Final Hours

At one point if I recall one person in this race was a couple of levels behind me that was playing the same class as I was a Duelist. Otherwise, I was number one for that class unconsented by that point as people played other classes trying their luck. I was also one of the higher players overall. I even ended up getting within a level of the leader a couple of times.

I mostly played this act safe focusing on trying to get better gear and gain some levels to ensure some kind of victory.

My thought process was anyone in the lead who would notice me still leveling up might take unnecessary risks to ensure I was not going pass them up. At one point the level gap went from me being behind one or two to that person bursting way ahead by five. It was clear they had taken that risk and had success.

With about an hour left I noticed the person behind me, that character was no longer listed in hardcore. That sadly means they had died and where no longer in the running. At that point, my hand was starting to sweat as I had come so far and was so close to taking home another win. I’ve died a number of times before in this act so I knew there were some risks involved the longer I tempted fate.

I had also made a number of other upgrades and sorted out some of my skills. I was prepared to take the risk of moving forward if being in the lead for Duelist would have been put at risk. The gap between the leader was a little too far for me to want to try and chase after that at this point.

This is where I leave Hardcore for this league.

Final Thoughts

I had a blast and yes I took home the highest level duelist
My next step is to start all over again in softcore and start working on progressions towards maps. I had a lot of fun playing a Sunder Duelist and I want see how that plays out at the higher levels. At some point, I’m hoping to switch over to using Cyclone as my main skill. I tried it out a little bit during the race and felt it was just not the right time for it. Many times in this game the skills you use to level are not always your end game choice.

Until next time stay amazing!

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Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about the game Path of Exile.

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