Trying to complete a self-imposed challenge: no deaths until I reach maps

...and I'm struggling!

I'm not a new player by any means...and I've reached out to the path of exile subreddit for help, and received lots so far such as:
1. Ensuring I have at least 300 EHP by the end of each act.
2. Ensuring my resistances are capped.
3. Stacking armour.

The furthest I've gotten without dying is Act 9, at level 70, in the Vastiri Desert (a level 61 area, the area where you first encounter the syndicate).

I died to a triple-essence monster.

My chaos resistance was 5%...I wonder if that was the issue?

EDIT:
Or, is it the elephant in the room: you fought a monster entrapped in THREE essences, and they've always been meant to be a deadly encounter.

This doesn't really give any information. Capped resists aren't a defense, it's just something you do. And armor is okay but it's not really something by itself that is going to cover everything you run into. Having anything in the positive for chaos res is perfectly fine in the campaign.

With how certain mods work, sometimes you just run into something that is just really juicy against your build especially when you don't have all the tools available. A triple essence during the story could probably be brutal depending on what other mods that mob had. It's fine to skip this stuff if you don't want to die.

Your build also plays a big part into all of this, your tree and class.

"

e1337donkey#1437 wrote:

This doesn't really give any information. Capped resists aren't a defense, it's just something you do. And armor is okay but it's not really something by itself that is going to cover everything you run into. Having anything in the positive for chaos res is perfectly fine in the campaign.

With how certain mods work, sometimes you just run into something that is just really juicy against your build especially when you don't have all the tools available. A triple essence during the story could probably be brutal depending on what other mods that mob had. It's fine to skip this stuff if you don't want to die.

Your build also plays a big part into all of this, your tree and class.

1. Thank you very much for responding, I appreciate you for doing so.
2. I was playing stormblast mines, and yeah...I didn't realize what other mods the monster had but I have a recording of the encounter.

It was moving really fast, and it seemed like whenever it hit me, my ES would just either vanish, and my life started to go down really quickly...or my ES was depleting in chunks, while my life was also depleting over time.

The campaign is balanced around the understanding that you may be unlucky and unable to cap some resist or get enough defenses of whatever type so you can finish the campaign even if you're not properly geared, but Essence monsters don't play by the same rules. Essence monsters seem like a simple mechanic but they can get very rippy.

There are many factors that can contribute to your character getting bonk'd, and many of those factors can be counter-acted with a good build. Generally you won't find many of these factors during the campaign but Essence monsters can have them and that's why it's important to read them first. Things like "Extra Crits", "Extra X damage and exposure", "Soul Eater"...

As I understand it, the defensive system in PoE1 works like layers that you need to stack on top of each other:
- Capped resists, armour and evasion are the most basic layers of defense. To pass the "gear check" from the mobs. But they won't save you from the big hits from some rares and uniques. Getting 75% resists and 10k armour or evasion is just the entry level stuff for the maps.
- Advanced layers are block, suppression, ailment immunity (don't underestimate shock) less damage taken, phys damage taken as X, physical damage reduction (more potent than armour when it comes to big hits), reduced damage taken from crits. You have to combine these layers in whatever way your build allows it.
- Complementary layers are build/skill related like fortify, endurance charges, infused channeling, petrified blood or damage taken from mana to name a few.
Also, when you play damage by proxy builds (totems, minions, traps) you have the huge defensive layer of always moving and not needing to choose between dodging and dealing damage. As an example, I like the synergy between Aspect of the Crab (PDR) and evasion (when I get hit, it allows me to build back crab stacks for the next hit) and I try to get 100% spell suppression which is not only great vs nukes but also vs shotgun effects. All this plus some endurance charges and fortification tends to be good enough for mapping.
- As an extra, you can also get curses (punishment, enfeeble), ailments (like sap) or uniques (like The Brass Dome which gives you crit immunity) or even ascendancy notables (like Warden's Barskin).
- You'll have to evaluate what your build allows you to get. If you're missing on something (specially from the complementary layer) you'll have to compensate with something else like a higher EHP pool (i.e.: ES stackers or life stackers), guard skills (i.e: automation/CWDT + steelskin/molten shell/immortal call) or unique interactions like Chaos Inoculation.
If you have problems getting popped, think of all these layers like a puzzle. They don't exist to just choose one or another, but rather as pieces that you need to get to go further into the end game. The further you go the more you'll need and you'll have to get creative to stack the most you can without losing on too much damage (silly example: let's say that you want endurance charges on top of your defences but your build can't generate them efficiently, you can get two annoints with your amulet and cord belt to get 2 extra endurance charges and use a bound by destiny jewel that enables endurance charge generation with 4 warlord item or you could also get an eldritch mod on your body armour to do so).

But for the campaign all you should worry about is capped elemental resistances (or as close to as possible) and having at least 1k life in the last 5 acts (the more the better, obviously). If you die with that, specially with non-melee builds, you either went out of your way to do so (popped an essence monster without reading the mods or started doing heists/delve without a good build) or you simply misplayed (didn't dodge big telegraphed hit or stood on detonated corpses or something).

I hope it helped.
Cheers.

You should try hardcore, it really is a lot of fun the first time. I set a goal of level 85 and it took me two deaths to make it. You get a whole new appreciation for the game. You also take your time and savor the adventure knowing you can’t Rez. You do however get to keep your meager stash belongings so the next time is a bit easier. A lot like a rouge like.


Also portals are your best friend the second it looks like it is going bad portal out. When you finally make it to maps you’ll get a real sense of accomplishment! Give it a shot.

Dont click triple essenced monsters in campaign sounds like the lesson here.

"

_Mohamed_#5939 wrote:

...and I'm struggling!

I'm not a new player by any means...and I've reached out to the path of exile subreddit for help, and received lots so far such as:
1. Ensuring I have at least 300 EHP by the end of each act.
2. Ensuring my resistances are capped.
3. Stacking armour.

The furthest I've gotten without dying is Act 9, at level 70, in the Vastiri Desert (a level 61 area, the area where you first encounter the syndicate).

I died to a triple-essence monster.

My chaos resistance was 5%...I wonder if that was the issue?

EDIT:
Or, is it the elephant in the room: you fought a monster entrapped in THREE essences, and they've always been meant to be a deadly encounter.

The biggest issue I see is your playing VFoS and using Armour/ES gear on an Assassin. You're gimping your ability to stack defenses and damage by playing a Str skill on a Dex/Int character thereby weakening the ability of the passive tree to amplify your damage and defense.

You've got a nice one-handed weapon and only one 4 link. Learn to craft using your orbs and you can buy a 5 link for less than 10c on the new trading system.