[3.3] Gilded Cage's Comprehensive Guide to Maps

Thank you for this. Bookmarked :)

Thingies I noticed:
"Trading up maps" section is missing a link at the end.
Affix guide is missing prefix Overlord's.

Comments on affix guide:
"of Elemental Weakness" strength suffix depends on map tier. In mid tier (7-11) it's level 10 EW (so -29% resistance) and top tier is level 15 EW (so -34% resistance).
Tier 1-3 monsters (typically necromancers and exiles/map bosses) cast level 11 EW with -30% resist, from tier 4 upwards the mob-cast EW is level 21, so -40% resist.

Map analysis:
Tropical Island - boss actually hits pretty hard but very slowly, should point that out so newcomers with 3k hp don't get clobbered.
Sewer - boss gains endurance/frenzy/power charges on hit which means he can smack your face pretty hard if you stick around in melee range too long. Just move away and let them decay if need be.
Malformation - point out that the beam applies a heavy bleed, which is what kills people but can be avoided by whirling through or using a staunching flask.
Volcano - if you get too many boss adds you can just move a screen away and wait for them to despawn.
Academy - tornadoes and books do physical damage and boss casts vulnerability. Hurts.
Crematorium - boss has a cast on death firestorm which is even more dangerous than the ones she cast while alive. Wait it out at a safe distance or explode her corpse to make it stop.

"

twitticles wrote:

Thingies I noticed:
"Trading up maps" section is missing a link at the end.
Affix guide is missing prefix Overlord's.

Comments on affix guide:
"of Elemental Weakness" strength suffix depends on map tier. In mid tier (7-11) it's level 10 EW (so -29% resistance) and top tier is level 15 EW (so -34% resistance).
Tier 1-3 monsters (typically necromancers and exiles/map bosses) cast level 11 EW with -30% resist, from tier 4 upwards the mob-cast EW is level 21, so -40% resist.

Map analysis:
Tropical Island - boss actually hits pretty hard but very slowly, should point that out so newcomers with 3k hp don't get clobbered.
Sewer - boss gains endurance/frenzy/power charges on hit which means he can smack your face pretty hard if you stick around in melee range too long. Just move away and let them decay if need be.
Malformation - point out that the beam applies a heavy bleed, which is what kills people but can be avoided by whirling through or using a staunching flask.
Volcano - if you get too many boss adds you can just move a screen away and wait for them to despawn.
Academy - tornadoes and books do physical damage and boss casts vulnerability. Hurts.
Crematorium - boss has a cast on death firestorm which is even more dangerous than the ones she cast while alive. Wait it out at a safe distance or explode her corpse to make it stop.

Great advice. I'll try to incorporate most of this info thanks :)

thanks for the amazing guide

Nice guide. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Here's some random thoughts I had while reading:

I'm pretty sure humanoid maps includes discharging assholes and those elemental punchy guys who sometimes use Freezing Pulse. They can hit very hard and aren't to be trifled with given the map tier/mods. Those bitches from Coast who throw Molotovs at you are also included and those do a ton of damage if they land at your feet. I would definitely not give this mod a 1/10 difficulty.

The worst of the undead mobs are bone rhoas, I think. Having them ressurrect and stunlock you -- Shield Charge is a guaranteed stun if it lands, mind you -- isn't fun.

Monster variety *absolutely* does something to the map as it alters the pool of mobs that can spawn in the map. Maps spawn with inherent mob types per tileset and roll a few additional types on creation. With this mod more types are rolled and you can see combinations you normally wouldn't like devourers alongside dischargers and burrowing fire dogs.

No-stun maps are obvious if your build doesn't one-shot most stuff. You will find mobs encroaching on your position more than they would normally. Mostly not a problem but certain mobs you simply do not want next to you.

In the highest-tier maps, elemental status avoidance becomes full immunity. At that point mobs can't be chilled, frozen, ignited, or shocked. Not even chilled ground from Arctic Breath/Armour will affect them. This puts a lot of builds in their place both defensively and offensively, e.g. Herald of Ice explosions or Call of the Brotherhood unique ring.

Leech is often not enough for reduced recovery maps as it falls under the "recovery" term alongside flasks. This mod is a straight-up reroll for many builds, especially in high-tier maps when you end up with zero regen. If you don't have instant life/mana recovery, you're probably gonna run out.

The Wasteland boss was undersold. He summons desecrated ground around himself and will heal up damage you do to him. You either have to out-DPS his regen or take time to draw him away each time. It can be tedious and dangerous -- especially with how hard you're likely to roll such a high map.

Abyss: Relatively easy map to clear. Hard map to load. The tileset is busted and half the map will be invisible for quite awhile. The door portals are busted and can send you and your party members to different locations. The boss is just like the Act 4 version except more damage, so he's mostly a nonissue if you've got a character into top-tier maps.

Colosseum: Easier to clear than Pit. Boss is an asshole but tankable if you have physical mitigation. He never killed my Marauder in my time farming 82 maps in Warbands for service in a small group. He has Resolute Technique, so evasion builds are fucked. He touches you, you die unless you've got Lightning Coil and/or Taste of Hate. He isn't the problem as much as his fucking swords, however. They spawn at random and do a ton of damage on their own let alone when map mods are taken into account. Stupid crit bow characters will often push him back into a sword pile much to the dismay of melee characters in the group.

Core: As shitty to clear as the Harvest since it's literally the same thing, and the mob density is some of the worst in the game. The bosses are hard as fuck and require specific gear or aura support to get by. Doedre is the least of your worries; you can use curse immune flasks to nullify her auras. Shavronne should be outplayed instead of tanked. Avoid all her shits and don't attack her when her lightning thorns is up. Maligaro requires both high chaos resist (50+%) because, well, chaos mines, and additional fire resist (80+%) for sanity against Detonate Dead. Malachai is the same as Act 4 but more damage. Again, you want increased max fire resist for safety, but you can avoid a lot of his damage with careful play. Solo I had to swap to an Alpha's Howl with Purity of Fire to clear the map; otherwise I had a support guy with me. This map is a death pit with most mods, honestly. It's a valiant way to die at the end of a challenge league.

Hello, wow, thank you for this guide! This is awesome.

I'm completely newbe to mapping. One thing I expected to find in your guide and I can't figure out is how do you achieve to drop maps over level 75 (tier 7) consistently and build a map base of this tier and over?

Noted that I always craft my maps to get the best return value.

1) Is the IIQ/IIR so important? Is it possible without 300/30 and not farming 24/24 7/7? My current char is 200/0, every 10 t6 run I achieve to find a t7. I fear trying to find t8 maps, following this scheme, I'd need to run 100 t6 to run 10 t7 and finally one t8. That seem insane to me. If it's the case, this put a lot of restrictions on the gear, you need to stack IIR. IIQ is hard to stack since only available on items hard to find (or expensive). Though, I'm lucky enough to have started to play 3 years ago, but too moron at identifying *a good item* back then. I have some legacy boots that have IIQ, but they are NOT good, that's sad, if only I knew!

2) Is it possible to build this pool without buying the maps on markets like poe.trade?



3) It feels like higher level maps tend to drop less maps. How much less, does someone or the community documented this? I found some experiments on reddit, but the sampling is usually really coarse and the error margin is too high to be conclusive.

4) When a map instance is created, I feel there are additional hidden properties applied. By example, sometime, the monster density is higher than usual even if there's no mod about it. Some maps will drop a lot of map (your guide confirm you experienced this). Sometime it's several uniques (3 or 4) and the boss is very likely to drop one unique too (I estimate 25%). Am I alone to remark this?

Thank you for your guide, anyone is welcome if you have answers to my problem!

^ Map drops indeed get worse, much worse, as you ascend the tiers. Map drops by T10+ are bad and T12+ are unsustainable.

@kylegetsspam

Some great feedback there :) I've updated some of the affix descriptions and danger ratings. Also thanks for going over the Tier 15 maps. I'll get some more opinions on them, run them myself then write an updated description in the near future.

"

ModernBison wrote:

Hello, wow, thank you for this guide! This is awesome.

I'm completely newbe to mapping. One thing I expected to find in your guide and I can't figure out is how do you achieve to drop maps over level 75 (tier 7) consistently and build a map base of this tier and over?

Noted that I always craft my maps to get the best return value.

1) Is the IIQ/IIR so important? Is it possible without 300/30 and not farming 24/24 7/7? My current char is 200/0, every 10 t6 run I achieve to find a t7. I fear trying to find t8 maps, following this scheme, I'd need to run 100 t6 to run 10 t7 and finally one t8. That seem insane to me. If it's the case, this put a lot of restrictions on the gear, you need to stack IIR. IIQ is hard to stack since only available on items hard to find (or expensive). Though, I'm lucky enough to have started to play 3 years ago, but too moron at identifying *a good item* back then. I have some legacy boots that have IIQ, but they are NOT good, that's sad, if only I knew!

2) Is it possible to build this pool without buying the maps on markets like poe.trade?

Spoiler

As a side note, I'm probably not alone, but trading is not my thing. The reasons are the lack of support for it and the (flawed?) economy has only one market : very high-end gear that can be bought only by players who have high end gear. The economy is ok when a league starts but it quickly become elite-only. The forum shop for me is a pain in the ass to maintain (even with Procurement). I did it for a while, and it was too much effort/time for the return.

3) It feels like higher level maps tend to drop less maps. How much less, does someone or the community documented this? I found some experiments on reddit, but the sampling is usually really coarse and the error margin is too high to be conclusive.

4) When a map instance is created, I feel there are additional hidden properties applied. By example, sometime, the monster density is higher than usual even if there's no mod about it. Some maps will drop a lot of map (your guide confirm you experienced this). Sometime it's several uniques (3 or 4) and the boss is very likely to drop one unique too (I estimate 25%). Am I alone to remark this?

Thank you for your guide, anyone is welcome if you have answers to my problem!

Some good questions here which reminded me of some information that I should include in the guide.
As for your questions:

1) IIQ on your gear does not affect map drops at all. This is an important point that I forgot to put in. IIR is just a quality of life thing that means on average you're likely to find better items within each map but is not necessary to sustain a map pool
2)Definitely possible to sustain a pool without buying maps up to about tier 12-13. If you follow my crafting rules in the guide (eg Orb of Alchemy on all tier 6-9 maps) then you should be able to sustain your map pool. You may just be getting unlucky at the moment. In which case just persevere, eventually you'll get a good streak of maps :)
3) as in 2)
4)This I believe is just a symptom of randomness, I wouldn't try reading too much into it.

Glad to see that you picked this up. I've been way too busy with things.

Thank you for the effort :)