[3.5] The Blinding Blizzard - Whispering Ice CI Elequisitor - Viable For Everything

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dnaielll wrote:

Can you give me some suggestion on farming strategy? Should I sell the T16 maps or do them? And if the shaper infused maps around the elder infused region are on lower tiers, should I do them to max elder spawning rate?

Atlas strategy depends on your league goals. If you want super safe xp, you can shape your atlas by applying the Elder orb to whatever high population map you like (Haunted Mansion or Underground Sea are the top choices) and removing some maps with the cartographer seals. You can find more detailed information about that by searching for 'how to shape your atlas' or w/e. I'm not a specialist in this and I've never done this myself. My goals are different.

My strategy:

I play PoE for the challenging endgame fights. Therefore I have no interest in Atlas shaping, Elder rings, endless Shaped/Elder map grinding, etc. I do all maps and max by Atlas bonus early in the league, while leveling. Do all T1-5 maps, then all T6-10, then finish the red ones tier by tier - all with the bonus of course. By the time I'm done with everything below T16, I'm usually lv 91-92. This build hardly ever dies to anything less than T16, and low tier maps are still fine for xp under lv 90.

Unique maps: do them all 1 time for the bonus, except 3 special ones. HoGM requires a special setup, I do it later. Perandus Manor and The Putrid Cloister - fuck those two, I almost never have those done, they are absolutely not worth the price.

I almost always corrupt T13+ maps (after chiseling and alching them). It's totally worth it. Most of the time you get either 8 mods for massive IIQ/pack size, or unid for 30% bonus, or it turns into +1 tier. One Vaal orb can give you much more than whatever Zana mods you could run otherwise, and it's cheaper. That's where this build shines: you can do pretty much any possible mod combos, there is almost no risk of making the map unrunnable.

One exception: if the chiseled/alched map rolls quantity + pack size > 100. That's already very good without corruption, so I run those maps with the best Zana mod available (Breach if still xp-ing, otherwise Beyond or Domination in this league).

Once I'm done with T1-15, I finish the current level and then go after corrupted T16 and the Shaper. After that I have 155/158 Atlas bonus and sustaining red maps is no longer hard. Somewhere in 3.1-3.2 they stealth-nerfed the sustainability of T16. But then came the Incursions. Lv 83 Temple of Atzoatl is easy to make, and it drops T16 maps often.

Temple level = average incursion level + 4, capped by the highest incursion level. In other words, if you do incursions in whatever red maps, and at least 1 of them is T16, your Temple will be T16 (lv 83). And that's where you get extra T16 maps.

At this point I finish leveling to 94-95 by doing red maps and Temples. I don't do rippy mods during this, just stash those maps for later. Elder is fine, but I generally don't care how often he spawns. Just do whatever red maps, preferably if they are influenced. The only danger is Eradicator, I always run PoL and bring Topaz flasks just for him.

Leveling to 95 is really not hard when you constantly do high tier maps and almost never die. Especially in this league with the Temple. 1 Temple is like 3 or 4 T16 maps. And then the Uber Elder fun begins.

I never sell maps because I want to farm Shaper/Uber Elder. Spawning Uber Elder is very easy: do red maps, his influence will apprear in red tiers, then just get him to T15, and from there it's a fixed path. T16 lights up, and you do two rounds of T16. I save rippy corrupted T16 maps for the second round because there you fight the Elder Guardians in their modless arenas instead of the normal bosses.

So then I get two Shaper sets, and Uber Elder is up. I kill Uber Elder and then the Shaper. Yeah, it takes some practice to get used to the Uber Elder fight. At first it can take more than 1 set, so you don't have the other set left for the Shaper. But eventually you learn everything about it and kill it in 1 set. Sooner or later they drop the good stuff that sells well.

This build can take only so much currency to max out, and then it starts to pile up even if you blow it to gear other characters. I stopped caring about currency about 3 weeks into this league.
(Shameless bragging)


So that's my strategy.

Oh, about the Elder Orb: DO NOT USE IT if you are not into the endless xp grind! It takes away 20% of your Shaper fragments! Any time you drop a T16 map, there is a 20% chance that you get the Elder one. It's still a T16 map, but you just won't get a Shaper fragment in it. I made this mistake in 3.2 and regretted it. In 3.3 I still carry that thing in my inventory and don't intend to use it.

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Kelvynn wrote:

Oh, about the Elder Orb: DO NOT USE IT if you are not into the endless xp grind! It takes away 20% of your Shaper fragments! Any time you drop a T16 map, there is a 20% chance that you get the Elder one. It's still a T16 map, but you just won't get a Shaper fragment in it. I made this mistake in 3.2 and regretted it. In 3.3 I still carry that thing in my inventory and don't intend to use it.

Elder Burial Chambers is worth more than Maze of Minotaur for example, so it's probably worth adding it if you're accumulating T16s.

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NoImagination wrote:

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Kelvynn wrote:

Oh, about the Elder Orb: DO NOT USE IT if you are not into the endless xp grind! It takes away 20% of your Shaper fragments! Any time you drop a T16 map, there is a 20% chance that you get the Elder one. It's still a T16 map, but you just won't get a Shaper fragment in it. I made this mistake in 3.2 and regretted it. In 3.3 I still carry that thing in my inventory and don't intend to use it.

Elder Burial Chambers is worth more than Maze of Minotaur for example, so it's probably worth it if you're sextanting now and then.

That's what I upgraded in 3.2 and always 4-sextanted it. But it still blows! The map itself is crappy, population is much lower than in Haunted Mansion or Underground Sea. Yeah, you can sell it and buy whatever cheapest T16 for about the same price, but that's a hassle. And, of course, don't get your hopes high about dropping any Doctor cards. I never got one in the whole 3.2 league.

If you want to xp higher than lv 95 - upgrade HM or US. Otherwise just don't use the Elder orb at all.

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ichbinwerichbi wrote:

But last night i died 6 times in a hydra map with more boss dmg and -12 res.

i tried all i can 4 inc dur flask purity of ice but had no chance to kill here.

Are you getting hit by the flying balls? There is a safe spot (see the boss guide). Stand there and don't move. Hydra does 50% phys 50% cold damage, so you want to run PoI instead of HoA (not instead of AA!!!). I replace the Blind gem with HoI for Hydra and bring 2-3 Sapphire flasks and my regular Basalt. Use flasks depending on which attack Hydra is doing. Her attack animations are very slow, she takes like 2 sec to wind up each attack. If she is doing the one where a series of arrows explode 1 after another between her and you, use Basalt. For any other attacks use Sapphires.

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So that's my strategy.

Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions!

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Kelvynn wrote:

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ichbinwerichbi wrote:

But last night i died 6 times in a hydra map with more boss dmg and -12 res.

i tried all i can 4 inc dur flask purity of ice but had no chance to kill here.

Are you getting hit by the flying balls? There is a safe spot (see the boss guide). Stand there and don't move. Hydra does 50% phys 50% cold damage, so you want to run PoI instead of HoA (not instead of AA!!!). I replace the Blind gem with HoI for Hydra and bring 2-3 Sapphire flasks and my regular Basalt. Use flasks depending on which attack Hydra is doing. Her attack animations are very slow, she takes like 2 sec to wind up each attack. If she is doing the one where a series of arrows explode 1 after another between her and you, use Basalt. For any other attacks use Sapphires.

year but i dont see her most time. only her boots so i cant see the animation. Now i run arround and try to be near her so i can see the animation. I dont die since them.

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I never sell maps because I want to farm Shaper/Uber Elder. Spawning Uber Elder is very easy: do red maps, his influence will apprear in red tiers, then just get him to T15, and from there it's a fixed path. T16 lights up, and you do two rounds of T16. I save rippy corrupted T16 maps for the second round because there you fight the Elder Guardians in their modless arenas instead of the normal bosses.

For you not but for all shaper orb user there is a much better trick to get Uber elder spawn.
Run 5 or 6 shaped maps (i took beach since i had a lot of them and they are really fast) and then the elder spawn in the t16 maps. Then u do them 2 times and have uber elder. I did this 3 times now and it work fine.

the only problem for me is, that i have not enought red t16 maps to sustain the maps and as they cost 20 to 30 chaos i cant get enought chaos to buy them. I do most maps over 100 packsize and quantity (what also cost orbs) and chisel mostly more mobs.
sometimes in one t16 map drop 3 to 5 other t16 mostly not one. Only T15.
But i think i play much less then kel. so perhaps i dont play enought.

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ichbinwerichbi wrote:

For you not but for all shaper orb user there is a much better trick to get Uber elder spawn. Run 5 or 6 shaped maps (i took beach since i had a lot of them and they are really fast) and then the elder spawn in the t16 maps. Then u do them 2 times and have uber elder. I did this 3 times now and it work fine.

Shaped maps and Elder maps are not the same. I use all Shaper orbs and upgrade the same maps that most streamers recommend. I just don't use the Elder orb because it adds a T16 map that doesn't have a Shaper fragment.

If you spawned Elder influence in high tiers by just running Shaped Beach then you got very lucky. It's a T6 map, and most of the time you will get Elder influence appear around T4-8 if you only run those to respawn him. I suspect you actually ran some other shaped maps alongside Bech, higher tier ones. That's what I do to respawn the Elder too. High tier shaped maps are good for it.

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the only problem for me is, that i have not enought red t16 maps to sustain the maps and as they cost 20 to 30 chaos i cant get enought chaos to buy them. I do most maps over 100 packsize and quantity (what also cost orbs) and chisel mostly more mobs. sometimes in one t16 map drop 3 to 5 other t16 mostly not one. Only T15. But i think i play much less then kel. so perhaps i dont play enought.

Don't waste currency rolling high quantity/pack size. White map + 4 chisels + 1 alc + 1 vaal. That's all you need in most cases. And check the market. People often sell rippy corrupted maps that they can't do (but you can!). It's fine to spend 30 chaos on a map that will then drop multiple maps worth more.

Sustaining a T16 map pool for Uber Elder/Shaper farming takes a bit of work. You need to achieve a 'critical mass' (I'd say 5+ copies of each map) before you stop depending on random luck. Lv 83 Temples help a lot in this. And checking the market for corrupted T14+ maps.

But everything below T16 is pretty easy to sustain. If you don't have a particular map and don't want to buy it - just run other maps of the same tier or 1-2 tiers lower, and it will drop soon enough. With 150+ Atlas bonus it all happens naturally.

i know the difference between shaped and elder orb map

and i saw the trick in a reddit video. And no! I run only the elder orb map. 5 or 6 time. and no other map. Then the elder appears on the t16 maps. people think its a bug but ggg dont say that it is a abuse. Look on reddit.

BTW. I have uber elder ready to go. If you tell me when youre on it would be nice if you can carry it for me :-)

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ichbinwerichbi wrote:

i know the difference between shaped and elder orb map

and i saw the trick in a reddit video. And no! I run only the elder orb map. 5 or 6 time. and no other map. Then the elder appears on the t16 maps. people think its a bug but ggg dont say that it is a abuse. Look on reddit.

Oh, you mean this method.

It doesn't spawn Elder on T16, he spawns on T15, same as when using any shaped (or unshaped) T15 maps. I suppose this can save you some currency if you lack T15 maps. But at the price of shooting yourself in the foot because you lose 20% Shaper fragments. This kinda defies the purpose, because you really need those fragments.

If you intend to farm Uber Elder, this will actually slow you down. Respawning Elder influence is the easy part. And then you need to do 8 T16 maps. Unless you already have a ton of those, losing every 5th map drop (that drops as Elder Beach instead of a Guardian map) is bad. It may be the technically fastest way to get a new Uber Elder, but it will only work for somebody like that streamer.

The only useful trick in that video is that you can run the unshaped version of the map. If you are somehow out of T14-15 maps, you can use the cheap unshaped versions of the ones that you shaped.

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BTW. I have uber elder ready to go. If you tell me when youre on it would be nice if you can carry it for me :-)

Awesome! I'll be online in about 1.5 hr and will play during the weekend too. I'll check if you are online, you can always send me a whisper too.

Important info for those going after Uber Elder: 0.5% leech is NOT SAFE for this fight!! There is often not enough time to build up 420k DPS in the middle of it. Right after the Shaper teleports, or the bosses swap invulnerability, you need to start leeching again quickly, and they don't give you several seconds to stand still and cast. You need to cast quickly, then move, then cast again. At some points you do get enough time to stand still and stack 15 Icestorms, but very often you don't.

I got my ass handed to me when I tried it with just the 0.5% leech from corrupted amulet, despite 40% higher DPS. Switched back to Life Leech, and it was easy-peasy deathless again.

Eradicator and Hydra didn't feel safe with 0.5% leech either. Everything else was cake, especially incursions.