Path of Exile: More Vaal Blade Vortex Ponderings

So I finished up Act 10 and got into maps last night. Right before that, I hit level 75 and equipped a Doriyani’s Catalyst for a nice starter damage upgrade then immediately did Merciless lab. Right now, I would say things are pretty explosive.

Definitely, getting that 3rd Ascendancy has been a monstrous boost along with upgrading my weapon and swapping around a few key pieces of gear. For the most part, the first six tiers of maps have been pretty easy with me dying once to an Elder influenced map and getting lagged out with a big ass explosion.

For the most part, map clears are pretty insane. The hardest thing is trying to maintain as many stacks of Blade Vortex as possible while dashing into a group of mobs and not dying. The worst part is entering into a cramped zone where it’s much harder to charge/move around.

However, once you get your 10 stacks up and can find a large group of mobs, the onscreen explosions become one of the satisfying aspects in the game. You really don’t need much since the damage is great for both single target and AoE. Many bosses can go down quickly as long as you can take a few hits.

At the moment though, I’m struggling to get tankier. The main suggested tree aims to move you over the main life nodes. After that, I’ve read that in later stages of mapping, you’re better off switching to MoM and just using Herald of Thunder, since you’ll still be dealing a huge amount of damage from Elder weapons.

In my case, I’m sure there’s a fair amount of growth I can do to improve my gear. The basic stuff is there minus a 6th link for my Inpulsas. Yet, really optimizing for end game play can be tough. For instance, going for a Starkonja’s and sacrificing other resistances. My neck piece is still a crappy Atziri’s Foible for mana regeneration and attribute reduction cost. I feel that replacing that might cause some gear to stop working due to low dexterity. So things like that are areas I need to do quite a bit of work.

Overall, I’m happy with what I have. I need to start delving again as I mostly have been focused on mapping to get sulphite. But the plan is to max out my sulphite then do a really long, deep delve and try to churn out a few levels as well as search for more fossils.

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