[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

I'm liking this league a ton! My thoughts are likely distorted in large part because I'm liking the original build I chose so much.

My original build...
I decided to farm the unique Oni-Goroshi sword from day 1. 8 hours after league start I dropped one. Oni-Goroshi is a 6-link 1-handed sword that occupies both weapon slots, and gives you a fire-damage debuff when you ignite an enemy along with a very nice DPS buff. The sword takes over your normal voice acting, replacing it with statements from the sword. This later part is itself a reason to get the sword as it introduces new voice-overs for much of the leveling content.

At any rate, the sword is extremely nice; it does more and more damage as you level.

I breezed up to maps 4 hours after dropping the sword (12 in total) in spite of spending 8 hours farming Twilight Strands.
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My goal for the Oni-Goroshi toon I'm now playing (as Jugg Molten Strike/Wild Strike) was simply to farm Uber Lab to fund a 2nd or 3rd character; in fact, my toon is performing much better than expected. I still plan to fund other toons, but my current character is more than capable of complete most challenges, but will struggle as a boss killer - and although Wild Strike is very nice for map clearing - it's not a top tier map clearing skill.
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This league, I plan on rolling 3 toons in total:
1) An Uber Lab clearer to fund other characters - my Oni-Goroshi toon is perfect for this;
2) A super fast map clearer that's not too bad at bosses (Deadeye Ranger seems perfect for this, with the additional arrow, nice movement speed and good defenses); and
3) A boss killer - Zizran's toon looks to be insanely defensive - check out the dual Uber Elder kill linked above.
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In short, this league offers a lot of fun - so many ascendencies have been buffed that numerous builds are uber powerful.
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League downsides:
1) Summoners have been unnecessarily nerfed given the huge buffs to other classes; if summoners were completely unchanged, they'd still be lagging behind several Champion/Juggernaut/Hierophant/Deadeye/etc. builds. The buffs to other builds make the summoner nerfs completely unneccessary;
2) It's buggy - this is the buggiest league I've played. Crashes, lockups, can't complete certain unique maps, etc. abound;
3) Beastiary mechanics are poorly implemented - legendary beasts are too rare; it would be nice to track what maps to run to farm certain legendary beasts; the necro-nets, although a nice addition, don't allow you to corpse target (work around this by equipping some corpse targetting skill); the UI for Beastiary recipies is confusing; etc.

All-in-all - the Beastiary League and mechanics to this point are very poorly implemented - if GGG spent another month developing Beastiary mechanics, I think that Beastiary would in itself be really fun; that said, the viability and power of so many ascendencies/builds overshadows the poor implementation of new Beastiary league mechanics.
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In all, a super fun league for me.

Last league I wandered between characters, leveling about 5 or 6 possible end-game toons to 85+, never settling on one or more as fit-to-purpose. As a result, I finished at 34/40 challenges. I enjoyed last league, but was disappointed in my progress.

This league, I'm pretty sure that I'll hit 40/40 - but I'm playing a lot more this league than last and I seem to have hit upon a super first toon, perfect for clearing Uber Lab and thus funding a map clearer and a boss killer as my 2nd and 3rd toons.

Honestly, I hate am not a fan of Bestiary.

The RNG behind getting decent beasts (re: Boss fights) is almost as bad, if not worse, than Liches were.

Completing the entire Bestiary wouldn't be as bad if there weren't spawns that required vaal side areas, prophecies, or elder zones.

If there's a league where I break my 40/40 streak, this'll be it.

I started out with RF but quickly realized the old way of building it, but shifting it over to Chieftain/Jugg, simply wouldn't work and I wanted to give the Uber lab a try, since I haven't done so after the most recent changes to lab.

I love RF, though, so I might roll UberDan's character (the one Zizaran was running in your linked video), but having already pushed two characters to 88+, I'm not really up for another reroll at this point.

And, I completely respecced my RF'er to an Ahn's Might Jugg. Though, I gotta say I'm pretty impressed with Cleave's AoE with the Overwhelming Odds Jewel.

Idk if it's Whirling Blades or just something with my setup though or something, but at least four times a map my WB doubles up and I'm caught out of position.

The single target's pretty nice as well. The build is more or less complete outside of some QoL stuff, and is capable of doing this type of damage to Shaper (check out the last segment of health and how fast it drops), so... I just gotta get it a bit more tanky, I think, which probably means some pretty patient leveling. Currently at 5800 or so life and it feels Le Squish sometimes.

AMAZING for lab runs though.

But yeah, overall I'm pretty nonplussed with Bestiary and am struggling to retain interest. My second character (Death's Oath Occultist) is fantastic for map clearing but questionable on bosses due to the nature of CI and incoming degen. I may need to tweak gear to get crafted faster start of ES recharge to feel more comfortable.

Fairly broke at the moment though, especially given how expensive maps are this league, so the next few days are probably just farming and knocking off a few challenges while I decide what to do with the league.

Pokemon Blue was a personal favorite in middle school. With a link-cable and enough classmates to humor my trade requests, I completed my Dex in generation one. I still play the franchise regularly enough, though I am stalled on a ribbon quest in generation four at the moment.

Anyway the above is to say, I enjoy the Beast league. The mechanic is fun enough for me to want to engage, and the changes to nets in the patch last night, should help with the name-lock requirement. However, as others have stated the rare nature of the legendary beasts (esp the ones required for the 'First One' fights) seem to be ill balanced.

Generally the challenges seem to have been increased compared to the last two or so leagues, or my perception is they have been. To be fair, I've never cleared the Alluring Abyss or The Shaper's Realm, so this is also an ideal time for me to learn the mechanics and step up my game of the high level content.

Currently my only character in the league is a Scion Hierophat / Necromancer using Dark Pact totems. Same build I ran last league (based on the Build of the Week) but with a few changes due to the big ascendancy overhaul. Play style is fun, if you like totems, and if I am aware of what is occurring on screen there are enough layered defenses to help keep me alive.

With a 6L and a little more practice I should be able to down Uber Atziri, and maybe attempt Shaper. Assuming I can buy/get to the red tier maps. Build has little issue with lab, but I don't go for full key runs, so profit isn't there compared to maintaining ease of completion.

I do have an idea for a second build. MORE TOTEMS. This time the punchy kind. There should be the damage output and mitigation in this concept build to try the higher tier content as well.

I will be pushing for the portal effect for sure. My motivation is a little low for attempting the full 40. But if I do go for it, at least Atziri is already complete. Honestly though, I am not sure if motivation changes are due to game-time/burnout, league, social elements, or other factors.

Which brings me to a known issue at this time, My computer. I built my current tower six years ago on a budget while I was in school. Playing on all the low settings, and still having issues rendering the shrubberies in Mud Flats while I hunt for the white bird at the end of a gaming session. I am in the process of replacing/building new, but the person who said they would help has been very slow to provide any actual help. (any recommendations or resources on this would be great). With a better play experience, I assume some level of motivation would return... at least I hope so, as I do enjoy this game.