Some things I need to say after playing PoE for 3 months

This is a letter of the experience and thoughts I gathered during the last 3 months playing PoE leading to the Flashback Perandus event. Why should you care? You shouldn't, I write this down mostly to clean my head and say some things I need to say, no expectations from me, so lower yours, because English is not my first language.



3 months ago if you told me that PoE would be my main game to play, I would have laughed at your face. Furthermore, if you told me I would be competing in a race-like event in PoE, I would have called the crazy house so they could lock you up. I am the kind of player who enjoys co-op games mostly and despises games of competitive nature, you see.

First things first, I wouldn't be where I am without this guide from the man himself KorgothBG.



When Perandus started, my brother and I tried once again PoE after many years. Every time before that, we always played until around lvl 80 and then we would get bored (my brother first, then me).
I made a duelist and had in mind a Double-Strike build, like I usually did. I was also inspired by the new Slayer artwork and wanted to make a 2handed sword wielding killer.

So 2 weeeks after it's launch, we started playing the Perandus league. As usual, my brother got bored after 40 lvls of ranger play, but I kept playing cause I wanted to see more of the new stuff that I missed all these years (plus I found looting and hoarding Perandus coins incredibly satisfying).
During that time I started searching the duelist forums to check what was new and I came upon KorgothBG's build, the 2handed Flicker build. I didn't even know what flicker was before that, did I mention I was (and still am) a big noob? I think you guessed that by now.

Weeks went by, slowly building the character and by the time I got to lvl 90 I've had become addicted to flicker strike completely. Never in my 20 years of ARPG gaming have I played such an entertaining, fast-paced, absolutely devastating, ass-kicking character. You don't even have to aim this attack, you just press the button and things around you simply die. Most importantly this is not a ranged pussy build. No, this is a Man's build where you wield a big stick and go toe to toe with your enemy, in true melee combat.



2.5 months of crazy fun slaying later, I check the Perandus ladder out of curiosity, only to see that I am the top Slayer there and two other Slayers with different builds slowly climbing below me. I then checked Google and apparently everyone considered (and still does) Slayer class to be "bad" and "subpar" (my opinion: no well-known streamer played one, so everyone ignores Slayer). So I decide to push for 100 and be immortalized forever as the sole guy who reached 100 with Slayer class.

The day after I reached lvl 98, Flashback Perandus was announced. My first thought was, "hey I could play as Slayer there, no one plays Slayer" immediately followed by "some streamer is going to notice it and go no-life mode on that". Well nevertheless, the thought of competing grew on me and I decided that top 25 worldwide is something worth trying for after all.



Now, 10 hours before the Flashback Perandus league ends, my character is parked in his hideout and I am sitting in the forum writing an unnecessary wall of text that probably no one will read. The competition for my class is over and boy, am I glad it is.

The past two weeks have been the most exhausting weeks of my life, even compared to the time I served in the army doing all kinds of crazy stuff.
I'm talking about mental exhaustion and being forced to sit in a chair for so many hours doing the same thing over and over. It didn't help the fact that I had just leveled another identical Slayer to 98 days before.
I just don't have the strength nor patience to farm the last 150mil xp to lvl 100. I'm happy my competitors have stopped pushing, so now I can too.
Two weeks of race was too much in my opinion, it should have been 1 week. Maybe 1 week and 3 days, tops.


The first week felt like true racing, people running like maniacs, trying to get to dry lake as fast as they could, new items dropping every few levels, noticeable ladder shifts and generally everyone trying to do every little thing that could help them advance, those felt great and it was fun!
On the other hand, the second week felt the exact opposite. Nothing new to be added, new players you didn't even hear before popping out of nowhere and every action you took boiled down to how much xp points would earn you. In other words, pure grind. Same maps over and over again. Boring.

Why it should have been shorter? Just consider this: My main competitor for the last 2 days has been the guy who firstly reached 100 with Assassin. How nuts is that? The guy had time to level 2 characters in this time period, knocking my old competitors 2 ranks below in the ladder.

Personally I think that was a cheap thing to do. Being top Assassin wasn't enough(?), he had to dip his fingers into other people's pies too. Don't get me wrong, pies are good (especially cheese pies), but at some point you have to, at least consider about being a decent person and think about other people's time and energy investment.

Anyway, what's done is done. This will be the first and only race for me, I may be a noob in PoE but I am no idiot. I know well what would have happened if the Slayer class was targeted by a "top" streamer.
I just hope the developers will take notice of how a new player could eventually compete in a race, despite knowing little about the game mechanics and hopefully they could make some special rule about streamers in future Race events. Not everyone has a loyal army of fans aiding them 24/7 after all, do they?

And by the way I am not saying that EVERY streamer cheats that way, but some had and will again. This time I was lucky no one played my class.



Now after the rant let the special thanks come.

-KorgothBG. I wouldn't be playing PoE without your build. My personal favorite in every game or media is a guy dressed in heavy armor, wielding a big weapon hacking and slashing hordes of enemies. Not Diablo 3, Torchlight, TitanQuest or even Diablo 2 have ever delivered what your build has to me and what a well written guide(one of the best I've read in any game) you have created.
The moment when I first read your guide has lead me to this one. My respect and THANK YOU!

-My brother for his psychological support and encouragement, thanks Alex, pork noodles for you tonight :)

-The guy who boosted me through merc labyrinth at such an early level, sorry man I had written your name down but I accidentally deleted it :(

-Xija aka Twitch_Zuphinoo and his valuable advice. I stopped doing T11's and started doing Gorges and Plateaus. I am less of a noob thanks to you man, good luck on number 1 Gladiator!

-The guy that didn't grabb my 80 chaos when I accidentally pressed "Accept" button, thanks man, I was so tired that day. ;)

-Everyone that bought my shit.

-Everyone I bought shit from.

-The douchebag of the hour, who entered my map during my public Elreon 7 crafting group and wouldn't leave. Thanks guy! I'll never create an open party again!

-My main antagonist, BEATanga during the first week. Your whispers really motivated me to push harder and kinda stressed me, haha :) You deserved to be higher in the ladder and if it wasn't for that IRL stuff I'm sure you would.

-My other competitors for giving me a real challenge, except that one guy who like other's pies.



Finally I would like to mention someone who died during this race, my cat Voukos, he wasn't aggressive like most male cats are, he would always share his food with other cats and let them cuddle with him.
Always asking for food, despite his ever-balloon shaped belly, his fur always looking dirty and his health always in danger by some random disease or wound caused by other animals.
He was murdered by a f---ing dog. He survived much and didn't deserve what he got. I will miss you buddy :(




Well that's all I needed to say, but before this ends I would like to thank GGG and Chris Wilson for creating this great game which gave me tons of hours filled with joy (AND IT WAS ALL FOR FREE MUAHAHA) nah just kidding, I bought many packs to support you guys :) You deserve every cent and more.

PS: I still think the character models and animations need improvement!

PS2: People were always asking me what build I played, well it's no secret now. KorgothBG's 2handed flicker. Solo all the way to 99, I tried doing map rota once, but my top potato PC wasn't agreeing. :)

love the sentiments, I might have to actually try duelist now.

I'm sorry about your cat :(

Great writeup!

P.S. From a fellow cat lover, sorry about Voukos.

Nice blog. It was actually a good read OP.

First of all congratulations, I also played Slayer this league (although it was more to cheese the unpopularity of it for a shot at a Demi). It was awesome to see you climb so high early on, as I kept a close eye on the Ladder to see how others were progressing.

This was the first race I have done of this type and I agree that this was an incredibly stressful two weeks. Working 50-55 a week and then coming home to map on top of sacrificing the weekends was not what I was used in terms of playing POE, which is very much at my own pace.

i thought u were a hearthless army bastard at the start but then i saw the cat picture :( i have a cat too and had his mother before she die so i know how you feel =/

Rip 🐈

I know it's usually said in jest, but I would actually subscribe to this guys blog. Also no need to mention that English is a second or third language for you - it was 99% flawless which makes it better than 100% of what native speakers write.