Rank 20 Hardcore self found race experience

Hello Poe community and reddit!

I just want to share my experience I had on Day 1 on HC race.
My goal was to reach lvl 70 in HC and I managed to get there in my first playthrough. I stopped playing when I was around rank20. I knew I will not be able to keep up with the crowd through 5 days because I have work weekdays, so I just wanted to give it a blast on first day.

I want to share some tips for anyone who is still planning to play HC or who is having difficulties.

First of all I planned what kind of build I want to play. I wanted to do something that was scaling well without too much gear. (I wanted to avoid flameblast thought) I decided to go with an Arc build. Since its HC and I wanted to avoid reflect problems, I made a non crit build.
(Probably there are better end game arc builds, but I liked the pathing on mine. Its pretty straight forward and easy to follow on a race)


About passive tree:





When I started leveling I picked up the spell nodes, then the lighting nodes then I picked up the life and after I moved to the templar area. When I was around lvl55 (merc brutus) I specced into dual curse, and from then moved towards the life wheel at scion. (if you are unlucky finding life on gear, get the life nodes first then the damage)



About gear:




As soon as I got my first Alteration, I used the vendor recipe to make a +1 light gem wand. I transmuted a 2 blue color link wand.
I did not have chromes or jewelers at that point so it was essential to find a 2 link blue because I knew I want to link a support get as soon as possible.

I started leveling with Lightning Tendrils + Fire trap. I used 2 wands. and random gear I picked up on the way.
For some reason most of my drops had item rarity so I actually decided to link the Item rarity gem to my Tendrils to boost my luck and I was playing like that till cruel, where I switched to Arc.

I was very lucky and I found Geofri's Crest and Rainbowstrides.
I 4 linked my helm and used Arc - Ligning pen - Faster casting - Item rarity. At mid Merc I switched Item rarity to life leech.

In chest I used Fire trap - Fire pen - Ele prolif
(I did not plan to link the fire trap to anything but I managed to find those gems so why not)

while I was leveling I used Herald of thunder - Curse on hit - Ele weakness untill I got my double curse, then I put Conductivity for the 4th link.

I also used clarity and purity of elements. I started leveling elements as soon as I got the gem because I knew I will have problems with resists. I also found purity of ice, and switched to it on merveil fights.

also I kept some extra fire/lighting res rings with me to switch when I needed extra resists. - Mainly I tried to use the rings with the highest life. Actually till lvl60 I used a blue Coral Ring with nice life roll.

If you find boots with movement speed, keep those on even if its bad. Extra movement speed is good. not just because u want to rush through the content quick but helps to dodge projectiles and things. I was leveling with 2 life flasks 2 quicksilver and 1 mana.
on boss fights I used 2 life 1 quicksilver and 2 mana flasks.
I had mana problems early on. I had to use a mana pot on pretty much every pack. (It was really annoying but this problem got solved around lvl50 ish when I picked up the mana regen nodes.)
I did not have the links to put reduced mana with clarity and purity of elements. So sometimes I used Clarity when I didnt need extra resist. I was switching them back and forth. Around lvl 55ish this problem got solved when I managed to link my gear.

The reason I stuck with the wand I had because It had nice mana regen and my damage was good enough, didnt feel like I needed to replace.


Grinding:

On Normal I did not do any grinding. I wasted a lot of time on Piety and on Dominus. they were really difficult for me.

On Cruel when I switched to Arc, things got easier and I think I even completed cruel faster than I did normal. I did not need to farm any zone.

On Merc, I rushed to ledge. This was the point when my rank skyrocketed and I got in top 100. I farmed Ledge till lvl54, from 54 to 58 I farmed Fetid Pool. From there my gems levels were high enough to continue progress and rush through act 2 easy. Never had any close call. In act 3, I thought I will need to farm Sarn but I was already lvl 61 so I did not need to, I just progressed.
In every difficulty in the sewers I skipped the leaper boss. When I notice there is no way to skip it, I made a new instance. There is no point to fight it. I rushed through the content to unlock the Lab so I can start mapping as soon as possible. By the time I got there I got a 66 map drop so even before Piety I started mapping.
I did not farm docks, I played my first 66 map when I was lvl62. My resists were around 50+ (It was risky but my damage was good enough kill everything before they managed to hit me, Also I had life leech so I felt safe) I had around 3k life when I Started mapping at lvl62.

I rolled every map either pack size or extra magic monsters.

Around 66 I run out of maps so I decided to finish Piety and get Spell Echo from library. My links where: Arc - faster casting - spell echo - life leech. I did not feel like I needed ligthning pen because I had dual curse.

I guess I could continue leveling but there is no point because I have work and I cant keep up the speed with the players.

Last but not least I want to thank GGG for this race, even if it was a 1day race for me. It was a blast and be at rank 20... I never expected I can do such a thing on HC. I was expecting to rip early but I think I did good with the planning that helped me. I had some luck with the Geofri's and Rainbowstride drops but I think even without this build is good for HC. I used to play races in poe but I had the most fun in this. Probably because It was a self found solo.

I wish good luck for everyone who wants to get in the top35 at the end of the race, and for everyone who is aiming for lvl70 like me.
I might try to get 70 on sc to increase my chance with beta. Need to see how much time I will have after work.

- Fori

As a new racer I found this to be a very interesting read. thanks a lot for posting!