Oni-Goroshi in Current League - are You gonna farm it or drop it?

Yes, once into level 7 make as straight a run as you can up the beach and don't go off course to kill all side area zombies (only those that are in range on the straight run). Rinse and repeat.

Does seem like once you hit level 8 the odds of finding Uber Hillock go up significantly over level 7. I've gotten 90%+ of my Oni swords on level 8 characters (up to over 1 dozen in total now). My first Delve expansion Oni was at level 8 @ 20%.

"

DoubleU wrote:

Started 3 Oni farmers again, third time farming Her.
This time I am not just farming, also switching to other characters to continue playing Delve at the same time so I don't get too brain-boggled.
Good luck Arrowneous, hopefully I don't end up in the Level 9 club ;)

The importance of the Twilight Strand Level 9 Beach Club is all about the alcohol. 1000s of zombies killed to finally get uber Hillock to come out and play is mentally numbing. More alcohol please...  :)

Now for some real life. Off of playing PoE to drive up to the UCF (University of Central Florida) football game this evening. The 14 game winning streak (12 games last year + 2 this year) is still going strong. FAU (Florida Atlantic University) should be an easy win for Milton and the team. I'm also pleased that our coach last year (Frost) who took UCF to an undefeated season and a national championship (screw the college football selection committee and all that bullshit politics) who bailed to take the head coaching job at Nebraska has lost all his games this year (I guess playing too much PoE has jaded me).

Have fun at the Game Arrow, I am glad that NEB is 0-2 as well :)

"

DoubleU wrote:

Have fun at the Game Arrow, I am glad that NEB is 0-2 as well :)

Thanks. Heading over to tailgate in 1/2 hour (4:30 pm) and have BBQ. Game starts at 7:00 pm. Last week the UCF game against NC State was cancelled on account of Hurricane Florence. That happened last year too as UCF had a home game and Hurricane Irma cancelled it. At least where I live in SW Florida no hurricanes this year. Irma came right up the SW coast of Florida as a CAT 2. I had a mini tornado take down over a dozen trees in my yard but thankfully none fell on my house (just a massive clean up job).

I wonder if Wraeclast ever gets any hurricanes or typhoons? Anyway, the Fall Equinox officially starts at 9:54 pm est on Saturday. But here in the subtropics we have to wait until usually mid-October to get our first fall cool front to turn off the tropical humidity and end our rainy season which came earlier this year in May (got about 14" of rain at my home) instead of Memorial weekend. It's still summer here.

Thanks again and everyone take a PoE break now and then to keep your sanity.  :)

My alt account, dropped at 8.3 Templar.
Can confirm he does not leap slam in melee range.
I face-tanked him to 50%, once he enraged, big trouble.
Killed me 7 times, I managed to get the adds to funnel between 2 fence pieces and, with ele prolif and glacial hammer, I pounded away to refill flasks.
He is very hard to target in the crowd.
Pics

Still not a member of the Level 9 club though <sadface>

ok...my apologies for the length. Just figured this was as good a place as any for this information!

TLDR : after about 50 hours of play, over all 7 classes, leveling 2 classes to the Level 9 Club - I got 5 out of 7!

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FOR SCIENCE!
My idea was to test each class (again) with some new rules, just to see how it went. As was mentioned by Oni's creator - this was pretty much 'Creatively Masochistic'. (new band name - I'll join if Charan lead sings!!)[each gig, we choose 3 yacht rock songs.....and play them over and over and over...till closing time]

CHZBOI RULES
- SSFHC
- one of each class
- character dies - character deleted
- after taking the normal first starting weapon found next to the driftwood dying exile, only magic/rare/unique finds allowed:
~~~~ can only slot gear/weapons/flasks that are above normal
~~~~ can't use any orbs to make items magic/rare, better quality, etc
- must try to expose the entire map - until Level 9
- must try to examine all crates, barrels, and corpses - until Level 9
- must try to defeat all drowned and spitters - until Level 9
- must take all currency
- must take all RGB linked gear for Chromatic Orbs
~~~~ if holding any non-RGB linked gear, must replace it with newly found RGB linked
~~~~ if holding, say, a six unit sized RBG linked plate vest and then find a RGB linked driftwood wand, replace the plate vest (forgotten a few times)
- no skill tree (modified)
~~~~ must try to defeat UberH without any skill points assigned
~~~~ if, however, it looks like it will be next to impossible, then the points can be assigned
~~~~ if, after assigning points, it still looks impossible, character can exit, reset, and enter town - as an embarrassment to all of Wraeclast!

CHARACTER NOTES, in order of finding UberH
- Templar [Level: 8.23, Played: 5:20] - Sheesh, my poor templar skills; a 3rd SSFHC league try and a third failure. This time though, not my fault. RNG was kind to him - he had all rare gear; with life, mana, movement speed, damage rings with extra damage.

UberH arrived and the battle started well. Got a few good glacial hits in and noticed that the damage was pretty good - would be a long fight, but doable. UberH hit and the good gear held up well - I was ready!! Then the sword was pulled out and UberH jumped --> and my screen froze for 3 seconds. When it came back there were 9 to 12 extra mobs and I was down to 1/4 life. But hit a flask, ducked behind a fence, got in a few more hits - I can do this! Moments later he jumped again --> and again, screen froze for 5 seconds at least, cause I counted. When it came back, my templar was at near-death, popped flasks, however, there must have been over 25 Awakened mobs at this point. No place to move, death soon followed.

My first thoughts were that it was cool that GGG added more Awakened mobs for the jumps. I later learned that this is not the case, just my freezes whacked out something. Is what it is - the old man was down yet again.

- Ranger [Level: 8.29, Played: 5:31] - IMHO, the ranger and the witch are the easiest to do this with, especially if gear with movement speed is found. This was true for my ranger - got a unique Silverbranch bow plus rare movement speed boots. Nothing exciting with this battle - stay at range, move around a bit, use the fences, tada.

- Witch [Level: 9.03, Played: 10:23] - I decided to task my witch with 2 objectives : 1) always open the 'large chest' (support gem) and 2) regardless if level 9, clear everything. This was to test 1) does the 'large chest' ever contain something other than a gem and 2) does defeating more mobs bring UberH sooner. That would be a "NO" to both. (And this is why she was played for over 10 hours; well, that and POE-RNG!)

She had some good gear too: unique Wanderlust boots, unique Blackheart ring, unique Lochtonial gloves, and unique Sidhebreath amulet. {plus a unique Silverbranch bow and unique Redbeak sword} I also did another test with my witch - during the battle with UberH, when he got down to 10ish% life, I decided to assign skill points. I wanted to see the difference between no added damage and with. Night and day! Fireball would take around 4 or 5 shots to take down the Awakened mobs without skill points. Once assigned, I could almost one-shot them. UberH went down quickly after I did that.

- Marauder [Level: 8.16, Played: 4:53] - This battle defines what the POE-RNG is! My marauder got UberH the soonist and was totally denied good gear. Did not get a magic medium mana flask until level 8.15, so had to battle with only 3 medium life flasks, 1 medium mana, and one small mana flask - and yes, the small mana flask you start with; no magic small mana flask ever dropped. Then, only 2 rare pieces of gear that could be used were dropped: 2 handed club and a plate vest. So I took those and ran with it - figured something better would drop. Nope. The magic gear that did drop was less than stellar - no extra damage, low +armor/evasion/energy shield. He was not in great shape for the fight.

So, UberH arrived and I went in for a hit - not bad, but was gonna be a long slog. Then UberH hit back - my marauder health dropped to 25% in one hit. Egads. So I ran away, assigned points, and went back to battle. Got in a few hits and damage was much better, but each hit taken, had to flask and run. Then he pulled out Oni - first hit taken dropped my marauder to about 5% health. Then he jumped and the Awakened mobs started to join in. After running out of life flasks - I waved the white flag. Exited.

May his family bear this shame for all time.
{note: a unique wand was found, so it wasn't a total loss}

- Scion [Level: 8.23, Played: 4:56] - Without assigning points to the movement speed, I feel the scion takes longer to do than the ranger/witch. But once she is up past level 7, it's all about the same. My scion had pretty good luck : got a nice rare hatchet around level 6, then found another Silverbranch, which I used to level, and the unique Wanderlust boots. With the rest of her gear all rare, UberH was not a problem. I did get a Twilight map with no fences, but it was so easy to stay at range with the hatchet throws.

- Shadow [Level: 8.72, Played: 7:05] - Based on past experience with using a shadow, I expected this to be really problematic. He had found my 2nd ever Tabla, so I didn't want him to die! POE-RNG was kind as I found a nice rare claw mid level 7, and movement speed boots, shield, and belt!

However, the UberH battle was slow. Once Oni was pulled out, I unfortunately let him jump and the Awakened started to get in the way and I couldn't damage them enough. So I ran away, assigned points, and went back into battle. I did a little 'pulling' to refill flasks, but dove back in. Victory soon came the shadows' way!

- Duelist [Level: 9.09, Played: 10:58] - Ok, when people complain about POE-RNG in the main gain or maps or wherever - point them here. My duelist sums up 'rng hell'. I added him to the rotation right after my templar failed. After he hit level 8, I did the "normal" and ran to Hillock, only defeating mobs on the way. Not one piece of gear with movement speed dropped - no boots, shields, belts, etc. When rotation was from scion to duelist, it was like moving through honey.

He also had a mish-mash of gear: unique Blackheart ring, unique Ezomyte helmet - rare sword, shield, gloves, and necklace - magic rings, belt and boots. Oh, lots of rare items dropped, but if it wasn't a wand/bow it was the wrong colors/slots and couldn't be used.

However, UberH showed up and the battle began. Right away I knew that damage was gonna be a problem, so I ran away and assigned points. After that, it was all good - took awhile and had to pull Awakened a few times but my 5th Oni this league arrived - and it was a "Superior" version! It was just such a long, slow bit of leveling.

THINGS LEARNED
- pretty sure defeating/opening/exploding/examining everything does NOT effect the chances for UberH to show. {It doesn't. Don't do it.}
- as been said before, much easier with ranged characters.
- POE-RNG acts the same from level 1 upwards : it's elusive, streaky, surprising, annoying. It's everything ya want in an rng.
- the new UberH seems about the same to me - but I come from the standpoint of all the classes and no skill points and silly rules.
- not using any orbs does change how it plays - pretty sure I could've done better with my marauder if would've transmuted a few items.

QUESTIONS/ODDITIES
- why don't exploding barrels do damage to mobs?
- the mis-named "large chest', why only ever a gem? {come on, after level 9 give it a chance to drop an extra item....or name it "Gem Chest"}
- why do portal scolls drop?
- the starting drift wood by the dying exile, is it ever seen again in any map? {am I just numb to it in the regular game and ignored it?}
- POE-RNG Fun #1 : one time, only on my ranger, there were 7 total corpses. 1st dropped a plate vest. So did the second. And the 3rd and 4th. Now the 5th, well, it also dropped a plate vest. The 6th went all in and dropped TWO plate vests. The 7th did not drop a plate vest - it dropped a Magic plate vest.
- POE-RNG Fun #2 : the "I Am Legend" placement. Ya know the Will Smith movie, "I Am Legend"? Ya know the part where he has to chase his dog, Sam, into the dark building? And huddled in a dark corner is this mass of infected? Twice on my shadow (and only my shadow), I went into one of the cul-de-sacs and there was a mass of drowned. First time I counted 12 - the second time: 15. {how/why?}
- POE-RNG Fun #3 : one time, only on my scion, a corpse was examined and it dropped nothing but currency: a Whetstone, a Glassblower, and a Chance. {just glad it wasn't 3 plate vests(!) but it still seems like a rare event.}

SUMMARY
Why? For Science!! And I tried a bit of SSF-Delve during my Oni-runs, not really sure this is my kinda league. I like the idea of an "exploratory abandoned mine" but not into the having to pay with new currency in order to explore. Plus it's another league where a slow, methodical, OCD player like myself will have issues. That being said, I do have 5 new Onis to play with - might as well give it a shot. I have a baker's dozen of them now so would be silly not to use them!

Again, want to thank Charan for getting this item made. Lets me pretend I am higher level than I'll ever get to!!

we're gonna need a van....with a bubble window....

and shag....shag CARPET!...not beards...

I do have one more question - not sure if anyone here could answer except for GGG staff - but what was the metric used for UberH's strength/abilities/etc?

I mean, he can clearly be beaten by a crappy whacko like myself with no skill tree or prime gear. And I am also sure he wasn't designed for a brand new player who doesn't take any gear and skips the support gem.

I gather that they expect:
- experienced player
- a rare weapon with damage over 50ish(?)
- at least one medium health and mana flask - maybe even magic?
- some item with movement speed
- patience

And the Level 9 club is ok, but they don't have music - just old crt tv's showing Sports Center highlights. {Should chip in for a karaoke machine at least}

"

鬼殺し wrote:

...to have some no-lifer come along..

I feel insulted and elated all at once! :-)

And if you get the drums, I'll get the van.

Did you suggest to GGG that they should find a way to do it without the alt switching?