Huntress Challenge Run (Campaign complete, doing maps) - Mahuika

Link
https://sklpoe.github.io/poe-challenge-runs

Keywords
Bleed+Explosion+Fire+Spear+Ranged+Frenzy+Melee

Description
Forget league economy and Meta builds.

Challenge yourself by leading the character with skill limitations.

Master the ability to parry enemies, know your limits as a huntress and learn which enemy attacks should not be parried.

Learn to save your charges to fuse a fiery spear empowered with Mahuika’s anger and find the best target in the pack.

Use the advantage of Rake as a Sprint stopper to surprise your foes with an AOE bleed attack and combo your way through parries, disengage, barrage and explosive spear.

Learn to use Whirling Slash to take advantage of blinded foes and extra damage with elemental infusion.

Use crossbows to unleash your anger against rare and unique monsters that bullies you and your ability to die in Act 1.

Do not forget to scream each time you unload your bullets.

Why Github link?
Easy to update, keeps track of file changes, keeps the forum clean has better formatting support with Markdown files (.md) and it's public, and if I am not lazy I can add a static HTML page.

If you want to know how do I handle with github DM me. I would enjoy giving some tips.

Community

Checkout Meril-8494 similar build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3758090

In the beginning the character died alot because I was not used to the parry and the heavy stun gauge. Sometimes I wished a third UI bar bellow the mana (above the character) to be able to know when not to parry.

I don't mind changing the backstory btw, we could increment her story with time aswell and maybe even branch some decisions to another character entirely.

Also if you guys could post your Input mapping I would love to check how you played the challenge, I would even watch it on youtube or twitch.

Another thing I would like to see changing in gameplay is the Frenzy charges consumption. In the scenario where I have 3 charges I would like to spent a Max of 2 in Barrage and 1 in Explosive Spear. Somekind of charge management in the skill panel. It may be too complicated for players tho...

Right now, if I use barrage all 3 charges are consumed and I cannot follow up with the explosion from Explosive Spear.

Interesting that you use the crossbow to break armor.

I've always found plain old Spear Throw to be very capable, often my boss-killer. I slot Armor Break and the support that boosts the break rate (can't remember the name).

But perhaps the crossbow is faster at it?

"

Slayde#3887 wrote:

Interesting that you use the crossbow to break armor.

I've always found plain old Spear Throw to be very capable, often my boss-killer. I slot Armor Break and the support that boosts the break rate (can't remember the name).

But perhaps the crossbow is faster at it?

It's a challenge run, whatever decision made on the build, it wasn't with the intent of being optimal. I just found it fun to play with. I do not know how fast it is in comparison, if I try it out I post here for you.

I've uploaded the content to a github page to keep this thread cleaner and allow anyone to see the file history and changes. Soon I will be posting about Act 2.

For the sake of the challenge run, I recommend you not using "cull the weak" and keep the disengage skill gem level low enough, so it generates only a single parry charge (you can use the support gem to make it 1,5).
This leads to a more interesting experience of managing frenzy charges.
I played like this 2 leagues ago, also not using lightning spear at that time and I found some really fun playstyles, both with an elemental huntress and with a bleed focused huntress.
I wrote a guide here describing how I played, might be a little bit outdated:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3758090

"

Meril#8494 wrote:

For the sake of the challenge run, I recommend you not using "cull the weak"

Really? You mean it makes things easier or what? Have you tried using Frenzied Riposte? Seems like an interesting alternative to Disengage and it does not cost a skill slot.

yes, it makes things easier.
I used Frenzied Riposte a little bit, but personally prefered to use disengage. If you like it, there is no reason not to use it in a challenge run.

Soon I will be posting an Act 2 review, I found it surprising how much fun I had against Act 2 bosses. It actually makes sense fighting them now!

Final Jamanra took me a bunch of attempts but I feel that it is completely feasible to beat wo. dying. He the most threatening boss in Act 2, but you can easily die to Balbala, Jamanra 1, Iktab & Ekbab due to poor flask management or Zalmarath, the Colossus and Tor Gul the Defiler due to poor animation reading.

The final Jamanra takes a little more on positioning, skill usage, building defense layers and avoiding unnecessary hits (flask management).

Also the Act starts pretty easy and gets harder with some rare modifiers being a threat to the character's life (Specially during league mechanics). Not a single monster was hard to deal with in a sense of the combat being over-length.

Update: Campaign is done! And it is surprisingly not too hard to complete!

I completed the campaign 3 times to test if luck had any impact on the build. Two of them I did in Hardcore SSF. (The first one I ripped and progressed to Maps as experiment)

My campaign experience was really dynamic. I got familiarized with choosing different skills at different times, some makes the start of the playthrough a little harder until you get the correct skill setup to enable better damage. Another thing, in one playthrough I got really good rarity gear, the second try I used currency I found to make my gear.

The non-hardcore character I used to test with different passive paths and learn boss fights.

Depending on DPS, you can get stuck in Jamanra, Titan Grotto boss, Doryani and some other fire resistant bosses. You can mitigate that with elem. penetration.

I am not the one to prevent you from going off the Explosive Spear and fire/bleed damage to fight some bosses. I can only say it is not that difficult if you have a good flask, the correct resistances and/or armour and a weapon with decent DPS.

By the end of Act 4 I had about 4 to 5k armour.

Some bossfights that did chaos I just used chaos res gear.

Mapping felt fun! I have to get better chaos res now. I can consistently Rake filler mobs. I can plan when to get charges and shoot/explode key enemies. It makes mapping really dynamic.

I hardly get heavy stunned. But I also know which mobs have impact on the gauge (props to GGG enemy design team).

I will update the build link. I did use Whirling Lance and Spear of Solaris later on too.

I also added the Herald of Ash in Act 3. Pretty fiery!