[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

My guess about Submerged Passage and Lunaris 1 is people looking for corrupted areas.

Minotaur puts out physical damage; if your character copes well against physical via mitigation or leeching or both, it's really easy. Otherwise, it can take some time to work out the best tactics for the fight. For example, on my Ancestral Warchief toon, I found that the best way to fight him with a totem build is not to use Conc Effect, but instead continue using Inc AOE - this helps out enormously killing off his adds. With these tactics, Minotaur is roughly the same difficulty as other Guardians for my AW toon.

So, in light of Norse's post re: setting up chaining strands, I decided to Science.

All Return: X values indicate the differential from 10. So Return: +1 means I recovered 11 maps.

• 10 - just alc'd and ran'm. Return: +1
• 10 - 10% chisel, single+ packsize. Return: +1
• 10 - 15% chisel, single+ packsize. Return: 0
• 10 - 20% chisel, single+ packsize. Return: -1
• 10 - 15% chisel, double packsize, occasional Zana mod. Return: 0
• 10 - 10% chisel, double packsize, Onslaught on all. Return: 0
• 10 - 15% chisel, double packsize, mixed Zana mod. Return: -3
• 10 - 10% chisel, single+ packsize, additional mobs/quant sextants, Bloodlines on 7 . Return: +4

While not an exhaustive sample size, it appears as though I basically just got bit by RNG. One of two things here is probably true: either chiselling OR packsize rolls OR Zana mod is probably irrelevant.

Although it's likely that missing two of three of these would prove severely detrimental.

I will continue sciencing and report back.

Next:



Oh, and @Chrono, the discrepancy you no doubt notice from our two 9-sets is because I solo'd the same rolls to make it an even 10, because dammit.

Some clarification about Norse's post, as well.

He claims in the reddit post he sold 50ex of Strands, by running Strands. From what I can glean of a quick scan of the thread, it appears as though he ran a quad tab of strands, and then.... sold a quad tab of strands, and that he was generating an excess amount.

However, he seems to be failing to account for expenditure.

Math:

A quad tab is 576 maps.

He spent, so he claims, 3 journeymen and one apprentice around Strand, when you can only get two yellow and one white to reach. I'm assuming here he's accounting for reroll cost. That's 10c every three maps, or 1920c.

He then rolled Bloodlines on each map: 3c per map, or 1728 chaos.

He also 4x chiselled each map, or 1.3c per map, for an additional 768c

Shaped Strands presently sell for 4c, or 2340c.

In other words, he spent 4416c (80.29ex) on maps and sold 2340c (42ex) worth of refunds for a net deficit of -2076c, or -37.7ex

The only way he's generating a profit here is if he's consistently getting excess Strands. In otherwords, constantly refilling a quad tab, then selling the overflow.

Let's assume for argument's sake that the following possible scenarios, where we say he keeps the refunded map (no profit), and sells the excess:

* For every map he runs, he generates a refund +2
* For every map he runs, he generates a refund +1
* For every second map he runs, he generates a refund +1
* For every third map he runs, he generates a refund +1
* For every fourth map he runs, he generates a refund +1

The preceding scenarios (strictly in terms of excess Strand maps therefore generate, factoring in the 3.3c from sextants, 3c Bloodline mod, and 1.3c from chisels (7.63c per map), across 576 maps (4395c per quad tab) means:

* 4608c (83.78ex) - 4395c = +213c (+3.87ex)
* 2304c (41.89ex) - 4395c = -2091c (-38ex)
* 1152c (20.94ex) - 4395c = -3243c (-58.9ex)
* 768c (13.9ex) - 4395c = -3627c (-65.9ex)
* 576c (10.47ex) - 4395c = -3819c (-69.4ex).

Now obviously some of this cost is mitigated across the loot acquired through the map, but it really bothers me when someone says "I made 50ex selling Strands" when in reality, he was only making money if he was literally getting three Strand maps, per Strand run. Every time.

Which is unlikely.

He failed to consider everything, and it's lazy of him to be lauding this as a money-making technique, even if unintentionally, without presenting or factoring in all the information.

He would make a slight profit (factoring in 3.5c of raw currency, per map), but.... that's just kinda the regular map generation. And thus, imho, should not be accounted for in a presentation such as this.

That said, for interest sake, let's assume he makes on average 3.5c misc currency per map (6S drop, chaos orb, vaal orb, regret, some splinters, etc.)

That means his net expenditure per map is the net rolling cost of 7.63c - 3.5c generated = 4.13c.

This means, roughly, that in order to make a PROFIT running Strands, and selling excess Strands, you would need to generate a refund +1, on average, every map.

Again, unlikely.

But, it does illustrate that, at the very least, you can refund your expenditure for your own purposes of chaining Strands simply to REFUND a Strand, assuming that you do, in fact, get at least one return Strand on average per map.

Anyway.

Last side note, across those 70 Strand maps, I got about 13 T13 maps back, as well as a boatload of T9s and T10s I could use to work my way back to Strands if I ran out.

TL:DR here is that Strand chaining isn't likely profitable in and of itself, but it is sustainable, just like regular mapping is, and you also get speed-maps for leveling.

Interested?

Nice work so far on HowA. Keep'er up.

RE Strand:
Huh. Pretty interesting. I wonder what the best strategy is to maximize income while running strand maps.

With regard to Zana mods, ostensibly they're generating more mobs on the map which must increase map drops as opposed to not having those extra mobs there at all, unless something strange is going on, such as zana mods somehow decrease mob density. But variability in mob density and how lucky/unlucky you are running a map may skew results especially in a small sample size. It would be interesting to figure out how many Strand maps you'd need to run to reach a statistically relevant conclusion.

RE Jewel - that's a pretty nice one, but I'm struggling to cap resists. So I went with a jewel which had a resist roll, an attack speed roll and a projectile speed roll:


I've now got my eye on a nice belt upgrade off of poe.trade. If only the seller would log on!, LOL.

"

RE Strand:
With regard to Zana mods, ostensibly they're generating more mobs on the map which must increase map drops as opposed to not having those extra mobs there at all, unless something strange is going on, such as zana mods somehow decrease mob density.

Incorrect, excepting Bloodlines, Nemesis.

Onslaught, Beyond, Warbands, all increase map quantity by 20%, but Beyond and Warbands mobs do not drop additional maps. So other than the quant bonus, they're irrelevant.

Perandus and Ambush add three Perandus / Strongboxes to the map, but do not increase the quantity.

Your most cost-effective mod is Bloodlines, as it adds both quantity and additional monsters. Nemesis does as well, but for 8c instead of 3c. It's mostly a headhunter chance map.

My CI Howa ST character finally hit 70 and unleashed its potential... spent about 10ex, including Astramentis, Vessel of Vinktar, 5L 700 ES Vaal Regalia, and managing resistance caps, 30 int all slots, and 500 accuracy between helm and gloves... 6500 ES and 14k Hideout DPS with golem and auras at lvl 70... we'll see what it looks like at 90 when I have the int along the top towards Elemental overload, the lightning penetration clusters, and the ES cluster near the jewel socket up top... but I'm loving the power already... just need to get used to using all these flasks and cooldowns.

Main thing I want/need is a good 6L Vaal Regalia... but theyre SOOO expensive...