One Week Solo Self-found SRS Project [HC]

I chose to use Scion because she gets majority of the gems needed and as life based build the difference between Witch and Scion is very small.

I will start off with a Witch mule to get Lightning Tendrils, Summon Raging Spirit, Clarity and for early leveling purposes Added Lightning Damage. I will also get Fire Trap by playing a Shadow to Lioneye's Watch. I was considering playing Shadow to Brutus but I don't I need Flameblast that badly (Shadow would have taken Hatred and Scion Flameblast, now I need to take Hatred with Scion).

Early leveling will be done much like regular Scion race build with few less damage nodes to ensure that I can respec to full SRS at the end of Cruel. Rest of Normal is spent traveling through Witch area. Points will be spent roughly in this order: Harrier, Trickery, elemental damage nodes at the start of Shadow, Coordination, Heart and Soul, Elemental Dominion and Cruel Preparations.



In Cruel I start by connecting through Witch and taking more life and mana. I should have gear and gems to switch to SRS before the end of Cruel. I need 13 respec points for that so at least one Regret Orb would be nice. Progression is roughly this: Shaper, Quick Recovery, Constitution, Deep Thoughts, connect through top and fill rest of the tree with respecced points.



In Merciless I just fill in the rest of SRS stuff. Piority is on life and aura nodes, majority of minion damage nodes are taken rather late. The exact order depends on gear. I may need to take one or even two +30 dexterity nodes as well if I can't get enough dex on gear.



All Gemcutter's Prisms are going to be used on SRS. Elreon and Catarina will be the priority one masters due to both gems they can sell (need to save up one Regal Orb until I have Spell Echo) and the mods they can craft. Quest rewards in order of Importance (still trying to decide if I need Spell Echo or Multistrike more though):

At the end of Normal.

Passive Tree:


Gear:


Not very good luck with gear this far. Especially fire resist is hard to come by. I already have two Regret Orbs so respeccing won't be any kind of an issue.

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After First day I'm level 49 and I've been to Cruel Solaris but still need to farm Docks a little. DPS is starting to lack a bit so I'll probably switch to SRS before continuing towards Piety. Just need to get some decent 4L and a wand with cast speed. Resists are all capped thank to Cruel Brutus who dropped:

I ended up changing the order I took some passives. I switched to SRS after farming Docks to 53 and before moving towards Barracks. At the end of Cruel:

Passive Tree


Gear:


Chest is pretty good and thanks to Goldrim I have 75/70/75 resists at the start of Merciless. Going take Sentinel right after I finish the duration nodes to cap resists.

If only Multistrike or Spell Echo would drop (or appear for sale at masters).

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End (probably) of day two. DPS has become considerably better as I found Multistrike (q7 from Merciless Ledge) and +2 fire staff (blue 4L that had cast speed and a lucky Augmentation for +2, even Regal wasn't complete bust). I'm level 63 and I just killed all the Merciless bandits.

Passive Tree


Gear

First goal accomplished as I got level 70. Got some quite decent drops and crafts today. In addition to what I'm wearing I have a 5L staff I bought from vendor but didn't manage to roll it yet.

Passive Tree


Gear


I really need to get new amulet and gloves soon. I was hoping to have at least either Arctic Armour or CWDT before mapping but haven't seen either (leapers, flickers, etc. are really dangerous without CWDT). Also no Haste has dropped for me to Vaal Orb.

Mapped myself from 70 to 79.5. Had couple of carto boxes in low level maps so initially things went fine (had 13 68's right after I started doing them and few 69's as well). Later map drops were abysmal and I only have 5 or 6 decent sized maps left so hopefully my luck turns tomorrow or else I'm forced to run only 66's and 67's.

Passive Tree


Just like I feared I needed to take both +30 dex nodes. I'm hoping to get rid off at least one during the race though. Going to take Death Attunement next and most likely just more life after that (although some mana is an option as well).

Gear


Managed to get +2 fire on my 5L staff but unfortunately it's about as bad as it can be. More mana regen gear would be good as I only have level 11 AA now. Also third attempt finally gave me a Vaal Haste. Amulet I've had in my stash for a long time but only after second +30 dex node I could get rid of my previous abysmal one. Gloves are terrible still :(

Terrible luck with map drops continues. I'm level 82.69 and I have one level 70 map, rest are smaller. Gear doesn't seem to be the problem of solo self-found but sustaining map pool is definitely a huge problem. So tomorrow I'm back to 68'a and 69's - maybe my luck will finally turn.

Passive Tree


Not much has changed from yesterday. Every point from now on will be used to get more life. Mana allows me to run level 13 AA at the moment and to improve that I need mana regen, mana and ES on gear - a node or two won't make a difference.

Gear


Finally got rid off Goldrim. Switched my flasks to bigger ones as I haven't had issues with 15 charges per use flasks in the past. Catalyzed Eternal is one of my favorites. CWDT and decent gloves still elude me. Also belt, amulet and one ring are in need of replacement (even a Regal Orb would help with a ring I guess).

Sustaining maps is still an issue, I have no 70+ maps left except Poorjoy's Asylum which I'm kind of hesitant to run. I can't remember having such a long dry streak before. I have never had issues in sustaining 72-73 and even that level would be huge XP improvement compared to me running 68's and 69's for most of the day at level 84. Usually I've got to 75+ without purchasing maps. I'm more and more in favor of increasing map drop rates - why on Earth should endgame be gated behind massive RNG, it should be gated only behind player's ability to clear it.

Passive Tree


Got one life node. Almost 5k life now.

Gear


Switched some jewelry to get enough mana regen to support high level AA. Lost little over 100 life in the process but I should be able to level AA without issues (229 mana regen at the moment with level 18 Clarity).

First few hours were the same shit as previous days. Then I got Residence from 72 map. From Residence I got two 75's and 76. From that point on I was doing 74+ maps until I died. In 3 month/permanent league I wouldn't have died because I made two huge mistakes just because I wanted to try to push a little:

Error #1: I should have re-rolled the map but I was getting little low on currency and it surely had potential (pack size, rares, monster damage, half regen and something else) AND in the worst case scenario league was ending in few hours anyways. Half regen meant that I couldn't use AA in that map.

Error #2: At the first sight of Devourers in that map I should have left. But as the first few packs died pretty much instantly I thought (hoped) that moving slowly and always having some spirits with me would get me through. First blue pack proved me wrong: ~10 extra fire damage jumped from beneath and I died in a split of a second. I really should know better :D

Passive Tree:


More life.

Gear


Only change from yesterday is crafted dexterity on chest so that I could continue leveling Haste.

First I want to re-emphasize the fact that I didn't die because I was solo self-found but because I did a map I never should have done.

This project pretty much confirmed my assumption that solo self-found is viable for mapping all the way from 66 to 78. Of course I only got maps up to 76 but none of the 77 or 78 bosses are that hard for SRS. Normal Atziri shouldn't be too much of a problem either but (at least for me) it would take a bit longer than one week.

The catch about viability is that you must accept the fact that your build options are limited. Builds that require an extremely rare unique or multiple uniques in general are not viable options to start self-found. SRS is easy to gear as it requires only +2 fire staff and can map all the way with 5L (hardest part is probably getting all three of CWDT, Spell Echo and Multistrike - I never got CWDT). Next time I decide to try solo self-found I'll do something little more challenging.

One week is a little short time for self-found because once you start mapping you're constantly running out of Alteration, Alchemy and Chaos Orbs. Unlike trader you need to farm for those and it takes time off from mapping (or you end up doing maps you shouldn't like I did). In longer leagues that's not an issue.

Sustaining map pool is the largest issue. In longer leagues you can build your base more slowly but in one week you're at the mercy of RNG. While other Masters help a lot in gearing Zana offers very little help for sustaining map pool - the quantity bonus is fine but results are pure RNG and as a vendor she's rather useless (I'm pretty sure that buying 68's at level 85 won't do me any good).

Getting decent gear is quite easy especially if you have a backup plan - with passive tree you can do temporary fixes for things your gear lacks (stat nodes, resist nodes, etc.). You don't need best in slots to do maps. Also if starting a new league you need to make sure your leveling spec is working in addition to the final build and don't be afraid to count on the re-spec points you get from the quests (I re-specced 13 points when I switched to SRS).

All in all solo self-found is mostly fine. There are some issues concerning map pool and perhaps too little build diversity but it's definitely playable for those who enjoy such challenges.