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Completed LP Path of Exile Beta: I want to be a machoman

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,381
This looks... interesting. I heard about it some time ago, but it didn't really look like anything special.
Or maybe I'm starved for something new in the diablo clone department.

Looks like it will go open beta quite soon-ish.
Not saying I would scoff at a friendly invite, though. Nudge nudge.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
There are no friend invites yet, not that I know of.

edit: Actually there are friend invites but even I have to get lucky to get them. Any beta member can be lucky and get a friend invite key, it's random. So weird.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
Well, it's fitting that a game with random loot drops has random friend invites as well :)
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,157
If the developers are still following this lp, I say that they should hurry up and launch the finished version of this game as soon as possible, it looks awesome.
Continue with the lp, good sir.
 

covr

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
1,315
Location
Warszawa
Well, this game seems to be the best H'n'S since Diablo 2. And there will be more skills, areas, affixes... They are doing a very good job.
BTW - great LP, continue please.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
update 7: back to the start
And we're back to the start of a brand new edition of the PoE LP, BRB SMS.


04D11F3F6CDE86BAFC972A0B1DA7CB473149B697

Ok, now we're back for good. We start as always picking a new skill, how shall we maim those weaker than us, with lightning perchance?

81D04DA3CFDFB5083618FC4916DBF7A438814E58

Maybe with fire. This one was mighty tempting but we're really not focused on defense with Hongda.

5F99B6651082719D2BAC44BA76CBEC19BA3DB50A

Ah there we go, Leap Slam. Since we already have a few AoE skills, this will give us something different.

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A whopping 1 Gb+ patch has been installed that improves on many small things in the game. I'll try to spot them.

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The passive skill tree has been revamped with a few new skills and improved graphics. They look great, but take longer to recognize at a glance.

7F01841BFAB78FCD91044DF8E8A8762B6748084A

We waste no time to try Leap Slam. The monsters also waste no time to introduce me to the new patch. They seem to hit harder, and as for those shamans, either they're completely new or at least their fire shield is new. A single goatman isn't a problem, but 4 of them keeping you tied up can be.

DF15C45215084618789C475778B4A60CB555452B

Where did they come from? I count 6 now in addition to the shaman. I have to be super careful. That's what happens when I'm not over-leveled anymore, but I think it may be more than that. (gruesome shaman death not shown)

5207D2E166BA22CE1D00F0194FF513870B81E19E

More than once, I was forced to bash keys to drink potions, these fights definitively keep the blood running. My problem is that I'm too slow and every skill seems to have a setup time.

36DCEBD9480BFC452AA0A580BAF1756623DD918D

The area is also rich in bosses and rares. So far, it doesn't have much in common with the start of the game.

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Hey the ass shooters are back! except now they spawn out of the ground 5 at a time. Also level up, +10 str.

84696C2DE4DB1D45B1C55EDE02D7A1E6757A1ECD

We follow the road since the region is quite large. Here must be the 3rd rare I got on this map alone, but it's useless. Someone wants to create a ranger?

158B0F66FE2B7F79C4B2C4126BE1FFC6E70252AA

I'm getting really annoyed at the tough fights I go through and I blame my axe for that. It swings so slowly and it misses a lot. Let's have a look at the stats, 69% oh dear, Honga usually doesn't have such a bad batting average.


1628F13746864118F23196AE30491DB648AFEA4F

Not long after I get a spanking new rare long sword. Amazingly it's a two handed long sword, which I believe is the correct terminology. Upon identifying it, it becomes so much more. Take a loot at every one of those stats, nothing is wasted. This is what I call a good find. I never saw Hongda as a sword kind of guy, but let's equip this.

99B07E05D0421CB7BBFD8598C48C263CD941824A

"My Lady, I will protect you with my honor and if I must, with my sword". Hongda can be a real gentlemen too, unlike some other men.

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At the end of our road, we only find a dead brahmin. Where to go?

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As we head south, we notice the familiar sight of sand and the smell of the sea. It's the beach again, except it's now filled with jungle felines too.

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If there was one picture to summarize this LP, it would be this. Hongda coming down from the heavens to strike his unsuspecting foes.

02D8BECAFA90A3F09B8FE7E10E1635A787170937

Sometimes my inner LARPer takes over when I least expect it. I haven't taken a dump in a while, a really epic dump. This RPG would be perfect if it had houses and party banter when camping.

D7026B489D6E85B0CABBFCF45135ABFD4E56F717

Back to somersaulting through the air, the beach doesn't pose the same difficulty as earlier mobs. I think that the goatmen were known to gang up on you and with the shamans it was a very effective strategy.

85EA03A8C8F2000F7735E4B664A51B3065DDD922

What do we have here? A very rare orb I think. I ask the chat but no one responds.

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We arrive at the end of this map finally as the beach turns into a spooky ship graveyard. Looks like someone will have to do some cleaning, next time. (promises to start with an early skill selection!)

next update: not robots
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
Actually they nerfed ma generic life regen from 1.0% to 0.5% :rage:

But I regret nothing, I got a ton of life increase passives along the way and I enter every fight with full health, the way a cinematic experience is meant to be played.
 

Monocause

Arcane
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3,656
Hey, in case you guys haven't heard - they're making the game public for the weekend, that'll be a server stress test. A chance for all of us to get a taste of the game, unless the servers fail, of course. In which case there'd probably be another stress test on upgraded hardware.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
update 7: not robots

In the last update, we left the comfort of the beach one last time to enter the Ship Graveyard. What will this vibrant ecosystem contain? Probably not robots.

5B1E41F9C90F2A5B5FD9C5272D0B82EA7933FD59

Not a robot, but a pleasant surprise. This man wants to talk to us.

CF3C9BDABA2F4ED37C91B9530E3701D15DC9306C

He gives us a quest. That's the friendliest graveyard I've been to yet.

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As we walk, we are assaulted by ghost pirates. Unfortunately, the other restless dead of the area don't have any fetch quests to solve their problems. Bummer.

641C900F315FE23653E022A894BF96E82327AEBC

Don't worry, there's still flesh and bone enemies to kill. Freshly slain is one of those weird chickens, and he dropped a great shield. It is a shield however...

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I level up (+10 strength) and get myself carried away killing the new fauna. Those weird sea-creatures from the underwater caves are back too. They either really like me or really hate me.

4431DB4E97E930D6B2DE468508FCF8CE0D0ECC6A

The ghost pirates thought are just misunderstood, they're quite friendly to you if you also happen to be a ghost.

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The fun is over quick though, we find the next area entrance. Through my recent metagaming powers I've acquired from the AoD demo, I know this is not where the quest item is located so let's go to town quickly.

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Someone happens to have a quest for me. Kill Merveil? I guess now Merveil's Chosen will really hate me.

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Let's have some fun and use some orbs to craft magic items. Let's use orbs of chance which apparently can create rare items. First, an orb of chance on a gold ring, I love to enchant those. The result sucks.

FF9D0E89E0B8DBE285738B8854B24AD7DEEAD846

I had found a great belt too and the orb of chance makes it that much nicer!

343C6118793E29B3238C54ED5D8809C3967FD801

Finally, we use an orb of alteration to get new mods on that gold ring. The results are better this time. Disappointed on the whole that we still didn't get rares.

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Back into the graveyard, we find the proper entrance quickly and head inside.

90B178CA4410379006E70379A976C346504D953D

Is it too late to give peace a chance?

C10CE2CBAD6FCC91AE441C8210461E5E16955282

A very intriguing skill gem drops. My AoE skills haven't performed as well as they should and since I now use a sword and half of them don't forget anymore, why not give Cleave a try?

066B1CB224C933C12F1466D9D1B7D4C539E30524

The skill turns out to be good, it had exactly what the others were missing, speed.

C0D3AB38247265C1CA4688C1276C2D241B04DFBC

It doesn't kill in one shot, but you can now manage crowds better, and isn't that the point of AoE skills?

1C826C66BD54DBA8F8743255F1B24759126DFE37

Without Cleave, maybe the Chosen's ability to slow me down would've mattered.

2FC6F51D6F5251779A20FC54946F28F5706ED0C6

Well we find a slave girl, she looks like a quest trigger.

A6FC1CBFA81228994BB35DB40A7BCAF2011E3196

We walk out with the Allflame not having to face any battle or anything...

D44AC3DAB6E206E89FA52BA350E41C9F41810F9B

And we learn why. "Captain" Fairgraves is nothing but a dirty, lying pirate. He wants our soul and intends to fight for it.

F2A3C72AF443F652119AD82808929CB4E2D18688

He conveniently summons some minions. Being a ghost must be cool, you get to teleport and stuff.

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Right now I need to concentrate on a way to get rid of the minions, if only I was skilled in crowd control...

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Wait a minute, I am!

E29E5928D93C0DCA7D8D5EA29D28359F3C1E61ED

Fairgrave is quickly reduced to being all alone against me. And I intend to show him his new title of "Eternal" is just as misleading as his first.

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He's dead, while we leveled. If anything took anyone else's life essence, it was us. YEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

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Back in town, we pick our new skill. I may not a mace right now but I'm a bit short on idea. And the reward for quest the completion, what is it?

700633B53BCCE3A4431A1DF8516956A21897E724

A skill point. We're now unofficially known as Hongda the Skull Cracker. Of course, cracking skulls with swords is somewhat difficult, so that's why we strike repeatedly in the same area.

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The way forward looks very bright, except for Merveil.

next update: Swan Song
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
Hey, in case you guys haven't heard - they're making the game public for the weekend, that'll be a server stress test. A chance for all of us to get a taste of the game, unless the servers fail, of course. In which case there'd probably be another stress test on upgraded hardware.
And yes, this weekend everyone is invited! Below is a link to the website for how it works.
http://www.pathofexile.com/publicweekend/

If we have enough people, then maybe we could actually all gather a huge stomping party and kill Merveil together.
 

Cowboy Moment

Arcane
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
4,407
Well, I, for one, will be trying it out. Unless the servers keep crashing, which they probably will.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
I wonder how that will go. Their own website says there will be lag. I may have to make a new character to play in the same league as the weekend testers.
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,927
I'll be definitely checking it out this weekend, registered some time ago but so far no luck.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
For anyone wanting to join this weekend, I'm Renegen, hardcore league.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
Nope. but I asked that question in the chat and a dev said they are working on act 3.
 

Cowboy Moment

Arcane
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
4,407
Well, in my effort to build an extremely survivable character, I neglected to give my Templar elemental resistances. And thus, his hardcore run was ended at level 31, Act 1 on Cruel, where he charged a hero Goatman Shaman, and got oneshotted by its fire shield exploding. And I was so close to the passive that grants resistance when using a shield and allows for spell blocking.

Come to think of it, it was poetic justice, since that build cheesed the hell out of the same fire shield skill.
 

Ashery

Prophet
Joined
May 24, 2008
Messages
1,337
Heh, ended up losing my HC Ranger at 45 despite Ruthless feel easier to do than Cruel. It probably helped that I was active in global chat at the time (With all six of the people in A2-R) and was partially distracted as I died in three lightning hits from three separate (No time to heal, even with two insta potions) mages in Sin-3. Admittedly, I only had 552 hp and 15% LR, so I was definitely vulnerable there, but I just didn't expect to enter a room and be dead in half a second with little chance to escape.]

Rangers (Bows in general) are completely fucking overpowered when it comes to damage, though. At least it feels that way. Sure, it costs 31 mana for each lightning arrow, but three to four of those and I can clear 20+ mobs on ruthless easy.
 

Cowboy Moment

Arcane
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
4,407
Tell me about overpowered. My strategy was to put up my fire shield, charge in, and watch as everything dies to the shield explosion. Not to mention my double-supported infernal strike twoshotting hero monsters.

By the way, was I the only person constantly overleveled in this game? It started at the beginning of Act 2 in Normal, and only seemed to have equalized near the end of Act 1 Cruel, after I intentionally rushed through a bunch of areas. It feels like the area levelling speed is balanced for zero exploration and just following the road.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
update 7: swan song
And so a ghost pirate betrayed us. This just got personal.

1E002928879D88484A7EEADA6ECE5591A7F14F55

We're back into the Ship Graveyard and here we ready ourselves for one last one last Hurrah, one last drive into enemy territory.

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Our quest is to kill Merveil and anything that stand in her way.

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Not that it will be difficult. This run was just before the free weekend and new patch.

F3C77E2BE220E81A91E3AD6F5297762E1840AF7B

Yes, this is ancient history. So pay attention kiddos.

0EF5B7A3FA1C1D5D9CFCEA6D018927B155E97D68

Let it be remembered that Hongda broke the game so badly, they had to make cruel difficulty the new normal.

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It was tiring work, of course. Hondga here enters the Coves. Hopefully Merveil isn't far so that he can go relax right after.

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If he is to take a vacation here, he must first clear out the area of all life. There, serenity at last.

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Besides the lovely zombies, we have these crabs back for more. Nothing is more fun than a crab with 2 hp bars that's also a boss.

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Shiny. I'm such a sucker for energy shield items.

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It's pretty good. Back when drops weren't nerfed to make things harder for Hongda. Sorry everyone.

5679B823E8B2A65373C0D1C53CF5ED58B4DA6C6C

This is what happens when you apply the wrong sun screen.

387A774300F462880920128DEEC45AC7714FAEFB

Well that and a sword trust.

D13AE56F555975FFD6631AEE7B8904AB52D96020

The zombies are really perfect for a few sweeps of the sword. This was also nerfed.

235117B68D8A1DDCB340AD373520BA499D9A865C

I uh, don't really recall how I lost so much life so fast. It must be pride, that's it.

ECB42245C4FF265C6C7A969CEC9BFA3405641C32

There's one good item from the boss and it's not because of its modifiers. I have the feeling I won't be the last person to obsess over a perfectly slotted item.

2C853364DD636C7EA01675E12C555886636C3A6D

As for our level up, I think I will go for this passive next. Knock back is very useful.

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As we advance, a sleeping dragon seems to guard the way. This area would've been much more dangerous a few thousand years ago.

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It's an entrance! Looks like the dragon was too fat to make it through the cave door and died there. The end of the dragon age did not come gracefully.

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An excuse to go to town presents itself. More rewards hopefully.

EA56896B739A228BF4F32741E2F5A565422A12B8

We get our first support gem. These gems are great, they can turn your favourite skill into a nightmare of trying to have it fit with every support gem you collect.

67E782EA86109FCA95C79A081803728B67179101

We'll just take some more life leetch.

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We leave the last town waypoint behind us. This is it, the final push into the darkness. May the fire in my heart guide the way.

B41AA24B31C190D09E84109E5F048AE056397084

Merveil knows how to be evil. Besides disciples, she also has spiders for company.

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So many chopped limbs. Sweep comes into form against these many-leged creatures.

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The kill animations are actually pretty sweet.

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A new crab boss. This one has no barbs and at his height is probably unable to slit throats.

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I am only coming to the realization this is a war of extermination, a war to determine that humans dominate this place now and forever.

C5F02D9B38DFB4B9EE45358164BB0387A42BC287

Let's proceed to the next area, the cavern of anger. If anyone has paid attention to the in-game text on why it is named so, tell me.

C715C074CBB07251E4843A6D8D2986A4446621CA

The pirates are back. They must be really mad that uh, they can't build boats to take the seas.

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Merveil's chosen are still here and are stronger than ever. It's quite scary to get frozen like this.

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We continue killing, hoping to get to level 16 so that I could equip the executioner's casque before I take Merveil.

E4E879D8845404B0435B3CDE207B2362903B74FB

Hongda can smell her stench, she's so near. The final battle is so close.

6424B572B06C99FD2BC24A924EEA62546DC80961

But I really must get to level 16 first.

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Success! And we find a 2 handed mace finally?

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This level up will be used to get this awesome passive too. Merveil won't even get close to me.

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Merveil will sing her final song.... next time!

next update : the promised land
 

Cowboy Moment

Arcane
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
4,407
For the record, this LP is famous enough for Renegen to get random thumbs up from people in-game.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
Good stuff.
 

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