Endgame Mapping: Setting Realistic New Player Expectations, Strategies
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I'm a relatively new player -- about 8 weeks, have only played in Abyss. I gradually moved up in maps to T11, but used up all the T11 maps that dropped for me and just farmed T4-T10 maps for a while to build up my map collection and earn some currency for upgrades. Now I have a few T11 maps but not many, but I've built up my collection of lower tier maps and made my character stronger. Level 89 now.
What are realistic expectations for an average, relatively new, inexpert player with regard to sustaining T11+ maps? What's the drop rate on T11+ maps like? E.g., if you do one typical T11 map are you likely to get another T11+ map to drop? Do most players rely on map and sextant drops for sustaining T11+ maps, or is it more common to buy a lot of T11+ maps and Master Cartographer's Sextants so you can keep running them? Do most players keep farming T1-T10 maps rather than trying to run T11+ every time? Would you recommend selling most of my lower tier maps (I've built up a decent collection of T1-T8 maps) to fund purchase of higher tier maps? Vendoring 3-of-a-kind to move up? Any other strategies you'd recommend? Thanks Last edited by Rockaday#3798 on Feb 1, 2018, 7:11:10 PM Last bumped on Feb 3, 2018, 7:46:04 PM
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Hey there,
those questions are not easy to answer :) You should expect to drop out of red maps sometimes, when you are still busy building a decent map pool. Thats part of the game. Dont waste time on complaining or anything, just run lower maps and never stop running maps. Depending on your shaping strategy (do you shape maps? which ones and why? do you have all the shaper orbs you need to shape your atlas?), your atlas bonus will be different. Try to hit 100/157 atlas completion at the very least. That means every map will drop as a +1 map. So technically you dont have to sustain T11 but T10. Going for more atlas completion will help a lot to sustain maps, but you´ll end up running worse maps compared to a shaped atlas. Basically you have to make a decision: 1: Fully complete the Atlas Easy map sustain and more variety, but you´ll have to run bad maps. So you´ll end up with less currency/xp. 2: Shape your Atlas Harder to sustain maps and next to no variety, but you get the good ones and you´ll get better results IF you know what you are doing. If you dont, you might run into some serious trouble sustaining maps. Shaping the Atlas is an advanced feature that requires knowledge! Id recommend to go for a fully unlocked Atlas, even though it will be less profitable. Its just easier and gives you some breathing room to learn how to sustain maps. Some general advice: - Have a budget for crafting your maps. If a T11 would sell for 1c, you cant spend 5c on crafting the map. Should be self explanatory. In case you dont like trading, up your crafting budget a bit, so dont have to buy maps all the time. - Use Vaal orbs regularly. They will net your some Atziri fragments, can corrupt the map to a 8 mod map (harder to run but usually profitable), can change the maptier (up and down) and can turn the map into an unidentified one. Unidentified maps are glorious I do also reserve 1 vaal orb in my crafting budget. So if Im rolling an expensive map and I cant get good rolls, I´ll end the shitshow at some point by slamming a vaal orb on the map. I´ll either run it as is or sell it. - Never ID rare hightier maps You´ll get a bonus for taking the risk. So take it, if you play SC. Check for nasty map mods like reflect (use a low dps skill like Orb of Storms eg) and such before you go nuts and you should be good to go. Add Atziri fragements to the map device to increase drop chances even further. Make sure you using different fragment types. You cant add 3x the same fragment and dont waste Midnights :) - Try to get magic mobs (bloodlines) as map mod. If you get this mod and the map has decent stats (like 90ish quality and 25-30 packsize) run the map and buy the Bloodlines mod from Zana. Magic mobs can drop +1 maps. So stacking magic mobs is a valid strategy to bruteforce drops. - Use Zana mods as much as you can (except for vaaled maps) Zana is awesome! Abuse her mods. - If you go for a fully unlocked atlas, trade up your maps. Its worth it. I still do regret, that I tried to force a Minotaur drop and ran the adjacent T15 8 times I think. No Minotaur... Could have had that map a lot easier and earlier, if only I had vendored 3 Carcass maps, but I didnt. - Start using chisel on T12/13, if you dont know how to proceed further. If you know, never chisel anything below T14. And use the chisel vendor recipe for sustain. - If you make to T15s, buy a T16 Guardian map you think you can do :) So it should a Guardian, thats not screwing over your build. Try to beat him on a magic map. Make sure there is no extra dmg, boss life, bonus ele res or something like that on the map. Nothing that would boost the Guardian in essence. You might not be able to kill him. But at least you learned and got an idea or impression what it takes to kill him and you can gear accordingly. Goal is to kill 1 Guardian. Doesnt matter which one. Once you did it, T16s can drop. Which means you can roll crazy mods on the Guardian maps now, even if your build doesnt stand a chance against the Guardian. Doesnt matter, skip him and kill all the trash mobs. Running crazy T16 is really really awesome for your mappool - NEVER EXPECT DROPS! :) If you expect map drops ("This map is well rolled it HAS to drop something!") you´ll end up frustrated quickly. Sustaining red tier map is a longterm game. It takes time, effort, patience and knowledge. One streak of bad RNG can easily burn your entire map pool and you have to start all over again with T10s or buying maps. The only way to counter that, is running tons and tons of maps. Never stop running maps! No matter what the games throws at you to stop or slow you down, you´ll just suck it up and carry on. Yelling at RNG is pointless :D - Cut your time spent in hideout This is very important. Standing in your hideout wont grant you any sort of loot or xp - so dont. Prepare some maps you want to run next and have them ready in your inventory. When you finished a map and portal out, you should immediately open the next one - right the second you are back in your hideout. While the map is being generated in the background, empty your inventory into some dumpster tabs. Dont ID items, dont do pricechecks or anything like that. Just throw it into your stash and run the next map as fast as you can. This can be tiresome. So if you want to take a break from mapping, thats the perfect opportunity to clear your dumpster tabs. Use the items in there for chaos/regal/chisel recipe. Vendor trash and pricecheck whatever is left. Then prepare the next batch of maps and go nuts again. There is more stuff to mention. But I think this should do to give you a good start. Best of luck exile :) Last edited by Orbaal#0435 on Feb 2, 2018, 7:15:32 AM
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Depends on how you define "new player," I guess. I've been playing this game since 2013, and I still have no expectation of sustaining any tier map.
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" Adding to the above comment: Special things drop maps: Abyss, Breach, Elder (and probably Shaper too) mobs. For Abyss/Breach this gives an easy answer to improve map drops: Always do them successfully. Elder/Shaper: If you run map with Elder presence you get more map drops. Note that maps with Elder Guardians on them do not have (useful) Elder presence on them. Map with Elder itself is also useless for this if you killed all the Elder Guardians. If you didnt you can have permanent (useful == more map drops) Elder presence on that map. For the Shaped Atlas vs not-Shaped Atlas: Some maps/layouts are simply better than others. For example Atoll has fewer mobs/XP (and probably map drops but no proof) than Ashen Woods map. Shaped Atlas has several main advantages: 1) You can select good maps. 2) You can shape so that you can (easily) always run maps with Elder/Shaper presence on them. 3) You can use sextant blocking. I wouldnt recommend that for a newer player though. Overall I think you (as a player) will learn more from doing full Atlas instead of Shaped Atlas though. " Unless you want to learn about sextants: Only use them with sextant blocking and IIQ gear. Otherwise better sell sextants and buy maps. Or use sextants to re-shape your Atlas. There are some exceptions but in general sextants are too expensive to be used "randomly". "Sustaining T10+ isnt very difficult if you know the rules/mechanics. Not sure at which tier it becomes hard. You certainly dont have to run T8- to sustain maps. No wonder it's lost, it's in the middle of the jungle!
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Good write-up by Orbaal, just few comments or clarification to his post:
When you use Vaal orb, one of its possible results is turning map as is into unidentified. This means the map will retain its original mods and get +30 IIQ bonus. This is in my opinion best Vaal result you can get. Using Zana mods is very expensive especially if you set yourself modest budget--I only use Alchemy orbs on maps and allow myself for 1 scour & 1 more alchemy orb (around 1 C total costs). Adding 2 or 3 Chaos for Zana to this will significantly increase your expenses to run maps. I can not afford running Zana mods as a SSF player (self-imposed as I don't sell my stuff and only buy some build-enabling items if I wish to play such build). Never ID-ing rare maps is huge risk unless you run a build that can deal with any mods. You can not afford to lose red tier maps in this way. You might run into reflect maps, which are usually a no-go for most builds. You can also run into a combination of mods that is just way too deadly to survive--you are bound to get some nasty combos such as - max resistance & extra elemental damage that will kill you. I do not identify magic maps, which grants you nice +30 IIQ and is generally maangeable--reflect is still an issue but you are far less likely to run into it on blue map. Using chisels has become a lot harder in 3.1. I could afford using low tier maps for chisel recipe in the past but that has changed in War for the Atlas update. Amount of map drops is much smaller and you want to keep even low level maps in case you need to chase Elder or Shaper aorund the map. My own system/tip: I normally pick a map tier and run a map from it, if I do not get a map drop of same or higher level, I move to -1 tier. Rinse and repeat until you start climbing up or you get down to tier 4, at which point I start again at my desired tier. Posted by Zrevnur: " I have never seen map drop in Abyss locations and I'm pretty sure Breach monsters do not drop maps. If by Breach you meant Breach realms opened by using breachstone than yes, those areas can drop maps but they will be low level except Chayula. |
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" Breach: I meant Breaches in maps. Far as I know rare Breach monsters and Breach hands can still drop maps. Abyss: At least Abyssal Troves and some things in Abyssal depths can drop maps. (I dont think normal mobs in Abysses/Breaches can drop maps but no proof.) No wonder it's lost, it's in the middle of the jungle!
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- Best way to sustain T11 is to run T12+
- Your initial T11 pool can be built up with T10 What I do: - Run T8-T10 mostly (till Level 95) - Roll maps magic, alt+aug+go - Low risk of dying - Reroll anything that slows down - Skip boss if it takes more than 5 sec - Consider buying T10s in bulk for ~1c-2c each - Impossible not to get the investment back from map, everything else is profit - Sooner or later swimming in T11s - This is the backbone now - Now it really depends on what you want to do, what maps you want to run, how you shaped your atlas, prices for maps, how much currency you have and how much you want to spend on maps etc. What I do: - Cycle through T11-T14 (alch+go) - Upgrade T10 to T11 - Add 1 sextant when blocked, otherwise no - Add chisel at T13+ - Sell mostly T15+ - Buy more T11/T12 when at 2-3c - When swimming in c add zana mods (mostly breach) to good layout/cards - Don't rely on zana mods for sustaining |
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" Wow. Thank you to everyone who replied -- especially to Orbaal for the thorough post. I appreciate you all sharing your knowledge and taking the time to write out your advice and tips. There was a lot you shared that I didn't know / hadn't heard before. That could be a short strategy guide or a sticky or something. I feel wiser after reading it. Last edited by Rockaday#3798 on Feb 3, 2018, 7:49:12 PM
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