Race advice

OK im a Race noob big time im usually around the 500 rank for every race. I have been playing this game since open beta and I can honestly say this is by far my favorite game its basically the only game I'm still playing constantly. Props to you GGG for making a game im still playing after years that alone in a accomplishment.

OK so ive watched all the videos, read all the advice, dont wear armor, watch exp penalties, only kill grouped monsters, etc etc etc. Now when I do exactly what the top racers do im still MILES behind them in experience and not sure what exactly im doing wrong. Take the burst race for example I did earlier, I felt I did pretty good I got to ledge as fast as I could and got halfway through the climb before it ended, I was happy but when I looked at the leaderboard I noticed my 25k exp was shadowed by the leaders 59k.

Im not crying or anything I realize these guys are good im just stuck at trying to figure out what im doing so wrong that Im so far behind these guys. I mean if I was just like 5k or even 10k behind id be like ok practice more but to be over 25k behind is pretty sick. So point of this thread is to pull advice from you guys and maybe get a little better and learn from people that have improved, thanks in advance.

Do you use a timer? You should use a timer.

Compare your progression times to your favorite streamer's. If you can't keep up, next step is to diagnose why.

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Fightgarr wrote:

Do you use a timer? You should use a timer.

Compare your progression times to your favorite streamer's. If you can't keep up, next step is to diagnose why.

I dont use one but ive seen others that use them what do you suggest? I know I could just google it but if there is a favored one love to hear which one.

WSplit is a fine timer which you can download at http://www.speedrunslive.com/tools/

Lack of SSD seems to be the biggest hinderance in my racing, is there any way around the issue this brings?

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Stormpa wrote:

Lack of SSD seems to be the biggest hinderance in my racing, is there any way around the issue this brings?

Defragmenting the PoE .ggpk after every patch probably helps modestly.