The Exile's Path

Day 7 (01.05.2016)

#2
The second act doesn't present significant problems on any difficulty level, but it stands out for being dragged out and tedious, featuring only one boss and a sea of tasks involving running between territories, searching for various quest items, and more running. The locations themselves are primarily situated in forest lands and populated by creatures of the most diverse kinds, meaning it's impossible to pick a clear build or set of talents for a convenient playthrough. I died once at Baal because he added a one-shotting laser here that reaches the player from any distance. At first, I thought this weapon targeted randomly, but as it turned out, during this phase the character simply needed to run around the boss at maximum possible speed without stopping under any circumstances. The battle itself wasn't that long; Armageddon solves things here (as always).


Best location: The crypt

As I already mentioned, the PoE developers are great at creating various grim dungeons, and this is no exception. The hero, lighting the way with the dim light of a torch, cautiously makes their way through the gloomy tunnels of the crypt; the clinking of heels of jackboots on a stone floor riddled with shallow cracks makes one's blood run cold; human skulls hang from rusty chains on gray walls, hidden under a centuries-old layer of ancient dust, and ahead behind heavy steel grates, approaching footsteps and the loud clang of metal can be heard. In short, the atmosphere is spot on. Also, this is the only one of two locations completely filled with undead of all colors and shades and devoid of plague zombies that apply a stacking poison debuff that ignores magic shields. Thus, it's an excellent place for easy exp farming, and you can also complete a labyrinth in the meantime, find a hidden quest, and with some probability additional instances, which serves as a pleasant bonus for travelers daring to visit this wonderful land.


Worst location: The Vaal ruins

The only location of all the rest that I evaluate solely based on the local inhabitants from a mage's perspective, while the atmosphere and art there are actually quite good. But those creatures that have taken a liking to these wonderful places... Now these oversized centipede-snake-worms possess simply unthinkable speed, take away three quarters of hp with a combo, move in large groups, and every other one is protected from magic damage. Moreover, the ruins are simply swarming with these loathsome creatures jumping out at the poor Sorceress from the darkness, causing aversion even in the person behind the monitor. And these jokers are exactly those because of whom you often have to frantically jump into the nearest trench, injecting all possible heals and screaming "Sniper! Sniper! Where are they firing from? Requesting reinforcements! Need fire support!". The vision radius exceeds the hero's visibility by about a third; add to this the reduced player visibility in the dungeon, the number of poisoned needle shots increasing with difficulty level, multiply by the number of such enemies and the impossibility of dodging their attacks due to the large number of straight corridors where they love to set ambushes — as a result, a trip to Venus's orbit is guaranteed.
By the way, it amused me that while searching for pictures of monsters, I accidentally stumbled upon several similar "diaries" where guys seriously and with screenshots describe their excel adventures; eh, and here I thought I was such an exception.


Be that as it may, the second act is also finished forever, screenshot attached:



#3
And then I quickly ran through the third act to finally prepare for the final slaughter awaiting me ahead. At first, very pleasant locations that don't cause serious problems; toward the end, a total hell, including the worst territory I've encountered in the entire game. Deaths were all the same — chests, questgivers you have to approach closely to activate combat, reflectors, and finally my excessive haste in wanting to hit level 70 as soon as possible, because of which I kept stupidly hitting penalties literally a few percent before leveling up, which was somewhat unpleasant; however, that's entirely my fault here. There are only two bosses worth mentioning (one of whom is the final one), both specialize mainly in ranged combat and are easily kited by hiding behind pillars, except for the last boss's final phase which had to be survived by jumping under his nose, but the priest burned before he could cast a divine curse on my witch. Among the local inhabitants, reptiles, amphibians, and various insects stand out.


Best location: The Library

So what do we have here? Mmm, undead, excellent, add to favorites, take note! And indeed, this territory, which I somehow missed during the normal playthrough — because of which I long considered it a hidden location — is a true ray of light in the dark kingdom of tropical jungles that one must push through to reach the final boss. A very exciting and interesting location, ancient imperial archives full of most curious stories of old times, also containing a sub-zone "The archives" and with some probability "Restricted gallery". In general, not the hardest enemies (the main thing is not to enter the melee zone of freezing skeletons) and a convenient room layout that allows for fast and efficient exp farming, as well as fun battles with huge skeletons, bone demons, and guys like these.


Worst location: The Imperial gardens

Castle gardens that, after the fall of the Empire, turned into impassable jungles where the character can't even cast properly, let alone find a place to walk. At the same time, trees blocking the view and labyrinthine paths (with some obstacles not even appearing on the minimap) are only half the trouble — the location is populated by all types of reptiles, such as nimble snakes spitting poison that corrodes magic armor, lizards releasing a million stunning and paralyzing spikes per second, and also terrorist dinosaurs exploding into sharp needles after death; in short, the local contingent forced me to clear this wonderful area with slow steps and sigh with joy when it was finally left behind.

I'd love a walk in the garden right now


The Solaris|Lunaris temple
Lastly, I would like to separately mention these palaces. In general, the locations are not the most attractive in terms of interior or enemies, but some of their elements really appealed to me.

These flying ribbons, curtains, hangers with candelabras instead of hands actually look very funny and cool. It's even more noteworthy to observe how they cold-bloodedly chop up the soldiers who decided to storm the palace, and unsurprisingly, always emerge victorious in such clashes.

And second — Catherine's quests open quite often here, which sometimes allows for a result like this:

and enjoying the destruction of everything around while peacefully strolling on the sidelines.

However, in the following "Lunaris Temple" everything is much sadder and more dismal — for example, rooms with archers that test the player's reaction: one extra step and your bloody remains can no longer be scraped off the nearest wall.



Results: day 7
Playtime: ~10 hours (58h total)
Character level: 70
Experience gained: ~390.000.000
Number of deaths: ~10 (six of them when I was rushing to hit seventy, jeez)