[Invasion] Sarah the Self-found Solo Summoner

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Braunar wrote:

If I may make a small suggestion it is to keep your fragments/chisels for the 70+ tier of maps. In the 66/67 pool especially you can't really go anywhere but up, while you'll need the IIQ later to preserve/advance your pool. I think some people skip 66/67 and just farm Piety till their eyes bleed. Kinda boring imo, but probably quite efficient.

Good suggestion. After the first few maps that I upgraded with fragments, I'd already decided to do pretty much what you're suggesting. I haven't used a chisel yet and I'm keeping the 9 fragments I have left for later. In retrospect I could probably have waited on the ones I used earlier too, but it's done now.

Level 73-74

Next map, Ceremonial Dried Lake of Balance (totems, elemental equilibrium) with 21% IIQ. Totems can be annoying but generally are easy to handle if you don't rush into an area where there are several together, and EE doesn't bother me in the least. Standard progression until I saw a bunch of lightning coming from off the screen ahead, so I backed up and let all the monsters nearby come to me before I ran onto the source. Once everything was quiet, moved ahead cautiously and found Sheaq, with only a few friends since the others had all followed me earlier. The horde made quick work of him since there were few distractions. Had a bad moment later when fighting the Drought-Maddened Rhoa and realized Sarah was at half life from his chaos aura and a couple of blue crabs biting her, but took care of it with a quick movement out of range and a Convocation to give the crabs something else to bite.

Rolled a Multifarious Grotto Map of Suffering (increased monster variety, 18.4 chaos damage per second, 24% IIQ) next. Monster variety is a fairly unimpressive mod in Invasion, since there's already a ton of different monsters roaming around. Chaos damage under 40 per second doesn't bother me. The Grotto map terrain isn't bad as long as you don't get caught in a bottleneck, so of course the first bottleneck I encounter has a cannot-die-totem behind it. Had to kite several monsters away before I could get some spirits in the room to take out the totem. After that, things went smoothly until I found Fire and Fury, the map boss, who didn't manage to kill a single zombie despite all her firestorms. Shortly after that, I saw and heard a lightning storm ahead, which turned out to be Cava, Artist of Pain. Figured this would be a good one to avoid, so I turned and exercised the better part of valor all the way to the other end of the map, then cleared out everything but Cava's little corner.

Rolled an Overgrown Ruin map next, but got additional projectiles again. Tried again and got Hexproof Overgrown Ruin Map of Endurance (monsters gain endurance charges and are immune to curses, 33% IIQ) which looks much better. The Shadow of Vengeance spawned in a side room where I could have left him alone, but since the horde was tearing through his animated weapons quickly I figured he might as well die. In the boss room, Loathe spawned with a cannot-die-aura rare, which made for an interesting battle. Pulled as many as I could into the entryway to kill away from the aura, left to resummon zombies, then ran forward and brought the horde with me to kill the rare off. After that the rest went quietly.

Used up all the alchemy orbs I was hoarding without getting anything useful, mostly on Unset Rings hoping to get decent mods so I could use the extra socket. However, I did get two useful drops: a Faster Attacks gem, and a rare +2 to minion gems helm with +73 life. No resists, but you can't ask for everything. Had to drop the Animate Guardian gem since I don't have the right color socket for it (and am low on chromatics), but that's all right. I'll take 8 faster zombies over one extra minion any day. Zombie raising now costs enough that I can only do one before waiting for mana to regen, but if I need to raise multiples in the heat of battle then there's always the mana flask.



Traded in 3 sets of 3 maps to the vendor to upgrade them to level 67, leaving me with one last level 66 map in the stash: Multifarious Orchard Map of Balance (increased monster variety, elemental equilibrium. 15% IIQ). Not a big fan of the Orchard since the boss is a devourer, and this one was no exception. Tunneltrap hit Sarah once and she was down to about 20% health, which means he did around 3000 damage in one of those fireball attacks. Fortunately he died shortly after and didn't get in a second hit. Good thing there were no added-damage map mods. Hit level 74 shortly thereafter and left once I'd filled up my inventory, without having spotted the Invasion boss. Didn't feel the need to run the risk of a bad boss battle, since 8 levels above the zone is out of full XP range.

Here's the level 74 passive skill tree, after taking the 15% minion damage node above Lord of the Dead.

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Later ran into Wiraq, but he was pretty tame, didn't do much damage and went down quickly.

This is the semi transparent thing that clones right? Careful, his puncture hurts.

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Not a big fan of the Orchard since the boss is a devourer, and this one was no exception.

You can animate 2 gladiator statues to tank him. They can tank him all day long.

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Starxsword wrote:

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Later ran into Wiraq, but he was pretty tame, didn't do much damage and went down quickly.

This is the semi transparent thing that clones right? Careful, his puncture hurts.

You're thinking of Wiraqucha, Ancient Guardian. You're right about his puncture. This was Wiraq, the Impaler that I was referring to, though. He's pretty much melee-only with limited AoE, so he's very easy for a summoner as long as the horde has aggro, not your personal self.

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Starxsword wrote:

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Not a big fan of the Orchard since the boss is a devourer, and this one was no exception.

You can animate 2 gladiator statues to tank him. They can tank him all day long.

True enough. In this case it wasn't necessary as the zombies were surviving pretty well. Once he stopped shooting at me and went after them instead, life was good. The dangerous bit is the initial attack of his that targets me rather than a minion more often than not. Sending minions ahead via skeletotem takes care of the alpha strike from most monsters, but with devourers it's a crap shoot...they might pop up under a minion, but they also might go after you.

Level 74-75

It's about time to pay a visit to the Sceptre of God. The upper portion is level 67 and I'm +7 to that, so now is the time to do it before there's an XP penalty. Saw Thistlesage on my way from the Imperial Gardens waypoint to the tower, but went on past rather than chase him around half the zone. Went inside and was happy to see that the zombies were mostly surviving even against masses of aristocrats; extra levels paying off. Found Caliga on the second level, and lost most of the horde to the combination of her and two rares, but fortunately she ran away so I could kill the rares off first. Once she was alone the horde handled her fairly easily, though I did have to resummon a good number of zombies. Found the waypoint and stairs shortly thereafter.

The Upper Sceptre started poorly with a single doorway chokepoint immediately off the stairs, with voidbearers, blue aristocrats, and Ossecati behind it. Lost the whole horde several times and was very glad to have Desecrate to keep the corpse count up so I could resummon zombies and keep Flesh Offering going. Once I finally cleared out the doorway, I discovered a lightning shrine in that same room, which explains why the monsters had seemed endless for a while at that doorway. After that, the rest of the trip up was pretty easy.

The Dominus fight wasn't really all that difficult, which I suppose should be no surprise since I waited so long to do it. Got through the first two boss waves without losing a single minion, and first form Dominus only managed two cycles of his kamikaze minion curses before he went down, though he did wipe out most of the zombies. Had time to get the horde back up and running while the goat form stood up, and they killed him fairly fast, only one cycle of blood rain and no additional minions spawned. Indomitable achievement unlocked.

I know I'm overleveled for it, but I decided to run the rare Dried Lake map (burning ground, faster monsters, 28% increased monster damage, monsters cannot be stunned) that I pickd up from Dialla, since the 64% IIQ seems worthy of some time investment. Found the Sunburst Queen, then while running away to resummon zombies managed to aggro the Drought-Maddened Rhoa. That was an interesting battle, using the skeletotem to keep the rhoa busy while resummoning zombies and keeping him cursed. Once he was down, went back to the Invasion boss and killed her, with spirits and a skeletotem just out of incinerate nova range. Found a good number of rares, but none worth using. At least I managed to complete a full item set to trade in for a chaos orb.

Onward to level 67 maps. Rolled a Chance Orb on a Mountain Ledge and got a rare, but it had both 2 additional exiles and -24% max player resists. I might take a shot at one or the other, but not both. Tried a couple of Chaos Orbs on it, and ended up with 2 additional exiles, 26% more rares, elemental equilibrium, and 75% monster lightning resist for 35% IIQ. Worth a shot. Lots of cinder elementals on this ledge, which made for slow going when I hit a rare, but they weren't particularly dangerous. Found Inti of the Blood Moon, who was dangerous, and did some strategic retreating to make sure I didn't aggro anything further along while taking care of him. Good thing I did, because as soon as I proceeded further Ion Darkshroud started whirling around. Tough to keep Enfeeble on him since he moves so fast, but I managed it and was able to mostly dodge his whirling blades while the horde took him out. A short while later I spotted Igna Phoenix with a bunch of blue cinder elementals. Ah, keeping that Flammability around on weapon switch finally pays off! Did a bunch of running back and forth to get rid of the blue pack while avoiding standing near Igna or in her firestorm, and using Convocation to make sure the minions did the same. Once she was alone, swapped out my Enfeeble for Flammability and made short work of her. Cleared out the rest of the map easily enough, making short work of the Champion of Frost. Found four maps during the run, one each of level 66/67/68/69.

Rolled an Incombustible Arcade Map of Balance (75% monster fire resist, elemental equilibrium, 17% IIQ). Not ideal as that fire resist will slow down the spectres and spirits, but the zombies won't be affected. Didn't really notice much of a slowdown except against high-HP monsters like a rare rock elemental, which I suppose is a testament to how much damage the zombies are doing. The map had a fairly extensive population of poison bombers, which kept me on my toes dodging the poison clouds, but the horde didn't seem to have any trouble with them. I used Convocation a few times to make sure, but the zombies never seemed to have any serious injuries even after standing in the clouds for a while. Found and murdered the Herald of Ashes and Herald of Thunder without any real danger. It helped that the first one came out to fight along with most of the surrounding monsters, while the second didn't aggro until I came after him. Also ran into Wiraq again, which ended badly for him.

Next, Fecund Arsenal Map of Commanders (36% more rare monsters, 25% increased monster life, 15% IIQ). I'm not a big fan of the Arsenal map, primarily because the narrow alleyways are a chokepoint that can wipe out a minion horde if the wrong monsters are on the other side. However, my level 67 map choices are that or use up a Wharf or Cemetary, and I have three of each of those so I'd rather save them to trade for a 68 once I hit level 75. This particular arsenal was inhabited by all sorts of fire monsters: cinder elementals, voidbearers, fire dogs, fire bombers. Fortunately the fire bombs were fairly few and far between. Killed both bosses, The Revenant and Volcanus, with minimal difficulty once they were enfeebled. Just had to keep the skeletotem up and the raging spirits going until the horde killed all their friends, then they gave up pretty quickly.

Found myself with less than 5% remaining to level 75, so stopped into the Catacombs to finish it off. Quick and easy, no bosses spotted. Had to think a bit about where I wanted to go with the skill point. Considered more minion life (but they don't seem to really need it), increased aura effect (but I don't really need more resists), or the shield nodes in the Phalanx cluster (again, mostly resists) but finally settled on heading down toward the Athleticism cluster for more life. Intelligence node this level, strength node next level, Athleticism at 77.

Level 75-76

Onward to level 68 maps.

Rare Vaal Pyramid (-25% max resists, faster monsters, 18% physical reflect, nemesis mods, 83% IIQ): Got this when I rolled a Chance Orb on the pyramid map. Don't like the lowered resists, but with careful play it should be workable. Ran into an ugly spawn with Corpsestitch and a Storm Herald rare that required a lot of running around to draw them apart, and lost me a bunch of zombies. Fortunately there were several entrances to the room they were in, so I could leave, resummon, and come back in another door to hit them from behind. No further Storm Heralds encountered, and no trouble with Atziri's Chosen in the final room. Sadly, only one level 67 map drop.

Ceremonial Ghetto Map of Power (totems, monsters gain power charges, 27% IIQ): Was a little concerned when I encountered Mother of the Swarm in an fairly well-populated area, and she kept running away so Soul Eater was building up. Turned out all right, though; I think the minions are just strong enough now that it doesn't matter too much how fast she gets. Found The Reaver in a spot where I could hide behind a wall while the horde fought him, easy takedown. Found a level 68 Springs map but nothing else of note.

Fecund Museum Map of Balance (elemental equilibrium, 32% increased monster life, 27% IIQ): Defeated Grath handily once I pulled him and his cannot-die aura away from a pack of tentacle miscreations. Had a bit of a rough time with the clones of the three bosses from Dominus-round-2 in the end area, not so much because of the bosses themselves, but rather the pack of blue tentacle miscreations spawned behind them. Had to resummon three times before the bosses were down, then dealt with the blues. Awful drops, nothing worth mentioning.

Freezing Springs Map of Hordes (47% increased pack size, 98% additional cold damage, 12% IIQ): Hordes is right; spent most of the map walking forward five steps, cast skeletotem, flesh offering/spirits until the screen is clear, repeat. Monsters everywhere, which is fine with me, more XP. Took some doing to get to the Witch of the Cauldron, as three rares spawned in her little encampment and it took a while for the horde to kill them. No problem once she was alone, and liberal use of flesh offering kept her from doing any major damage with detonate dead. Invasion boss was Mammothcage, who required the usual retreat-and-resummon tactics to get rid of his buddies, then went down quietly. Found three maps, 67/68/69.

Hexproof Spider Lair Map of Hordes (37% increased pack size, monsters immune to curses, 18% IIQ): Not my favorite map due to the tight quarters, but as long as you keep the horde close it's not bad. Used Convocation a lot, when half the minions decided to run off down some side passage. Found Wiraq the Impaler with a bunch of burned miscreations and skeleton archers, including a rare with Bringer of Bones. Dropped a skeletotem to keep them busy, moved off to clear another few side passages, then came back from the opposite direction where the horde could get at Wiraq first. That took him down, then they could overwhelm the rare. Rest of the map went easily, including the Hybrid Widow, who didn't get past the initial skirmish line of zombies. Hit 76 near the end of the area. Found a 68 musuem map and also the unique level 66 Coward's Trial map, which is the first time I've seen that one on any character.

Coward's Trial (22 waves, 31 seconds between waves): Well, it's only level 66 but hopefully that means I can make it through without too much danger. No problem in the first room, just stood in one place and cast spirits with the occasional totem and flesh offering thrown in. Second room I did have to move back and forth a bit, since the spawn portals were a bit further apart and the horde wouldn't stay together otherwise. Third room was a bit rough because it spawned all archers, so I had to move to one side to avoid the crossfire, clear it, cross to the other side and repeat. Fourth room, same deal as the third but with mainly mages. When I walked into the fifth room, The Book Burner was waiting for me with his archivist friends. Hit the evasion flask and dodged so the horde would get their attention, then did my best to focus spirits on him until he dropped. Unfortunately when I was running I moved too far forward and the undead started spawning before he dropped, but he was already down past half by then, and the horde made up for my mistake by taking him out very shortly thereafter. Only had to resummon a couple of zombies then things were back to normal. The Infector of Dreams was fairly easy with the usual flesh offering corpse denial strategy. Got a Kaom's Sign unique ring out of the deal, not too useful for me but a nice guild stash addition.

Level 76-77

About time to move on to level 69 maps. Unfortunately I have only three of them at the moment, and nothing higher, so it's probably time to think about using a few chisels. Decided to take my Promenade map up to 20% since it's one of the easier layouts for a summoner.

Bipedal Promenade Map of Commanders (humanoids, 39% more rares, 45% IIQ with 20% quality and two Vaal fragments): First monster pack in contained Coniraya, who wiped out the horde while they were killing his friends, but didn't last long against the resummons. Took care of the Blackguard Tempest and Avenger without any special tactics, although they did manage to kill off both spectres, probably through the combination of lightning thorns and a charge attack. Got one chisel and a 67 map, so no luck with that increased quality.

Punishing Tunnel Map of Suffering (28.4 chaos damage per second, 18% physical reflect, 36% IIQ): Tunnels are not a good summoner layout, but frequent use of Convocation should make it bearable. Didn't waste any chisels on it, though. Neither the Invasion boss (Junglemare) nor the map boss (Lady of the Brood) caused me any trouble, but a rare lightning archer skeleton with storm herald was a pain. Wiped out the zombies once before I could kill it. Found two 67 and two 68 maps.

Fleet Overgrown Shrine Map of Suffering (26.3 chaos damage per second, increased monster speed, 61% IIQ with 20% quality): Here's something a summoner never wants to see: Antalie Napora with increased speed. She decimated the minions and nearly killed me with lightning and ice arrows before I could run away, and when I resummoned and went back to find her, I discovered the minions had barely made a dent in her life, then had to run again as she'd wiped out the whole horde almost instantly. Decided not to risk that again, and headed to another part of the zone; fortunately she wasn't in a bottleneck area so it was possible to go around. Found Wiraqucha, Ancient Guardian later and had little trouble with him, just had to back up a couple of times to get him to chase me instead of running off to aggro more monsters. Had a bad moment against the Hybrid Widow when she hit me with a flicker strike and a couple of viper strikes; hit all the flasks and got out of there, and on the second go-around the horde took care of her. Found a 6 socket, 4 link elegant ringmail and rolled a few orbs on it, but didn't get anything useful in the way of mods. Got my first level 70 map, an Underground Sea, then found another one of the same; also got a level 69 Overgrown Shrine, good since I was out of level 69 maps.

Mirrored Overgrown Shrine of Enfeeble (players cursed with enfeeble, 18% elemental reflect, 36% IIQ): Scattered spawns of poison bombers made this rougher than the last overgrown shrine (outside of Antalie Napora). Invasion boss was Genesis Paradisae, and I was fortunate to spot him in the next room before he aggroed, so I could use a skeletotem to get him to chase me and take care of him without all of his supporting frogs. Didn't even see the Hybrid Widow this time because she spawned in a pack of blue poison bombers, and by the time I'd gotten them down and the poison clouds cleared, the horde had already killed her. Found a 69 spider forest map, guess that's my next stop.

Antagonist's Spider Forest Map of Hordes (32% increased pack size, nemesis mods, 12% IIQ): For a place called the spider forest, there sure weren't many spiders; mostly rock elementals and Alira's bandits. Easy pickings, though, so I'm not complaining. Found the Blacksmith and killed him without much trouble, although I did have to pull the zombies out of his leap-slam-zombie-poison-cloud a few times, as well as dodging the leaps myself. The very last monster group encountered was Ossecati, who killed a couple of zombies but otherwise didn't really put up a fight. Found a couple of maps, 69/70.

Hit level 77 shortly into that last map and took Athleticism; life at 4116 now. Also decided to level up Clarity a couple more times, now at level 7. Still enough mana free to raise a zombie in combat, and there's enough mana regen that I barely have to pause between castings when replenishing the horde.

Level 77-78

Anarchic Villa Map of Hordes (2 additional rogue exiles, 47% increased pack size, 15% IIQ): Considered re-rolling, but I really like the extra pack size. I'll just have to be cautious against the exiles. Found both bosses before any exiles: first the Book Burner and then Excellis Aurafix. Neither was difficult, especially since Excellis ran behind a wall where he couldn't hit most of the horde with his traps. Finished him off with spirits. The two exiles turned out to be Torr Olgosso and Eion Greyfur, neither of which have big area attacks. No great difficulty with either, just a matter of dodging them while the horde did its thing. Had a much rougher time with a room full of blue Blackguards and fire dogs than with any of the bosses; had to raise a lot of zombies to overcome all the fire and lightning damage. Found three uniques on the map: Death's Harp, Lioneye's Paws, and Snakebite. None useful for Sarah. Found one 68 Reef map.

Armored Underground Sea Map of Champions (27% more magic monsters, 30% monster physical resist, 11% IIQ): Kinda of weak mods, but considering I had to roll through about a half dozen worse mods to get to this, I figured I'd best take it. Well, good thing they weren't any worse mods, or I'd have been dead. Just a couple of screen-lengths past the entrance was a spawn of the Shadow of Vengeance, a rare with Bringer of Weakness and a regen aura, and a rare with Storm Herald. I managed to get rid of the storm herald guy, but was completely unable to kill either of the others: the regen aura rare kept running behind the Shadow, and the horde couldn't overcome the regen to kill him before all the animated weapons killed them. Had to abandon the map with basically no progress made. However, I did manage to pick up one useful thing that dropped from one of the few kills I managed: Cast on Damage Taken. I need at least one more socket on my gear, preferably two, so I can move gems around and link up Cast on Damage Taken-Enduring Cry-Molten Shell.

Molten Underground Sea Map of Champions (34% more magic monsters, 75% cold resist, 36% IIQ with 20% quality and 1 Vaal fragment): Lost the entire horde several times to packs of blue aristocrats with massed flameblast. One particularly bad spot had three blue packs in a row, took forever to make my way through. Invasion boss was Guardian of the Mound, who killed all the zombies, but was kind enough to spawn in a location with one of those rock formations so I could hide on one side and throw out the totem/spirits while he stood on the other and killed skeletons. The totem boss at the end required no special effort once all the blue aristocrats around him were gone. Found only a 67 and 69 map, so I'm out of level 70 maps; back to level 69s.

Armored Shore Map of Suffering (28.4 chaos damage per second, 30% monster physical resist, 26% IIQ): Other than dodging the occasional blue bone rhoa, nothing particularly dangerous on this map. Killed Mother of the Swarm and Glace easily enough. Found my first level 71 map (will save it until I get to 78) and a 67 map.

Armored Overgrown Shrine Map of Power (30% monster physical resist, monsters gain power charges, 23% IIQ): Had the usual trouble with poison bombers, having to pull zombies out of the area with convocation and letting the skeletons do the work. Ran across some Flame Sentinel spawns, which was nice since it let me upgrade my spectres to level 69. No trouble with the Hybrid Widow, who once again died before coming onto my screen while I was directing the horde against the blue poison bombers that spawned with her. Invasion boss was Inti of the Blood Moon, who was kind enough to run out and greet the horde before the rest of the monsters nearby aggroed, making it an easy fight. Only one level 66 map found, so now I'm out of both level 69 and 70 maps.

Ceremonial Springs Map of Endurance (totems, monsters gain endurance charges, 27% IIQ): No devourers on this version of the Springs, a pleasant surprise. Mostly rock elementals and bears. Had to do some running back and forth by the boss area to get all the witch's friends to move out of the chokepoint entryway, then trapped the witch herself in a corner and let the spirits fry her. Got to 78 after revealing most of the map, and took the next life node, so I'm up to 4245 now. Never did see the Invasion boss. Found a chisel and level 68 map.

Level 78-79

Demonic Arachnid Nest Map of Suffering (inhabited by demons, 16.8 chaos damage per second, 68% IIQ with 20% quality and 3 Vaal fragments): Only have one level 71 map at the moment, so might as well pump up the IIQ and see what happens. "Inhabited by demons" means miscreations, vomit birds, and voidbearers; lots of AoE damage but as long as I can enfeeble packs of blues and bosses, the horde can take it. Did have some trouble with a Storm Herald rare, required a lot of running away to pull the other monsters, kill them, resummon, repeat until I could get the rare alone. Area was also inhabited by shrines, ran across three of them. Found another Solaris Lorica unique copper plate, and since there was already one in the guild stash, sold it. Invasion boss was M'gaska, the Living Pyre; killed a few minions with that flameblast and his raging spirits, but he didn't last long. No trouble with Lord of the Bow but the pack of blue tentacle miscreations that spawned with him caused the demise of many zombies. Found a 66 Orchard and 72 Torture Chamber map.

Fleet Torture Chamber Map of Enfeeblement: (players cursed with enfeeble, faster monsters, 41% IIQ): Rolled this a few times to try to get "of Hordes" for more monsters, but no luck. Probably just as well, since there were plenty of targets with carrion queens and their spawn all over the place. Had a particularly rough fight against a bunch of blue miscreations and a spawn of carrion queens when the horde got split up, and convocation didn't call them together where I expected because lag had put me on the wrong side of a wall. Had to leave and resummon to finish that fight. Ran into Mother of the Swarm, who got extremely big and fast since there were so many little carrion swarmers around, but she only got rid of a couple of zombies before she hit 10% and the skeletons culled her. In the end room, was nearly killed by Shock and Horror with her lightning beam, which got me down to about 300 health before I could get out of range. Went back with a fresh horde and almost died to a lightning storm. That was enough of that, left her alone. Found four maps, 69/69/72/73; nice to have a couple of options.

Punishing Jungle Valley Map of Balance (elemental equilibrium, 18% physical reflect, 27% IIQ): I know I'm not going to do well against the Spinner of False Hope so I won't even try to take her on, but I can clear the rest of the map. Got jumped by Blood Morpher/Blood Stasis as soon as I moved away from the opening portal; they killed off the horde once but with the portal so close, it was easy to grab a new horde and finish them off. No drops of interest other than several six-socket items turned in for many jeweller's orbs.

Deadly Cells Map of Hordes (38% increased pack size, 31% increased monster damage, 18% IIQ): This is likely to be rough in some places with lots of extra monster damage stacked in small spaces, so I'll be more careful than usual not to aggro too many packs at once. Found the Harbinger and took care of him easily enough, but Bladeback Guardian was another matter. Had to resummon a ton of zombies during a fighting retreat through half the zone until I finally got him in a position where I could use the totem and spirits to hit him while not being ice speared to death. Lost the horde several times to big groups of aristocrats, too; one rare with an ES aura was especially bad. Found 3 maps, 66/69/75.

Molten Shore Map of Suffering (25.4 chaos damage per second, 75% monster cold resist, 31% IIQ with 5% quality): This map is only level 69, but since the only higher option was my single 75 map, I figured it was safer to drop down for a map or two. Spinesnap caused a little excitement when he jumped on me while the horde was engaged with a bunch of cannibals, but the Quicksilver Flask got me out of danger, then a bit of careful maneuvering got him alone for the kill. No trouble with anything else in the zone, including Glace. No drops of interest.

Multifarious Promenade Map of Balance (increased monster variety, elemental equilibrium, 15% IIQ): Found Alpha Paradisae on a corner of one of the upper levels, but there was only one narrow stairway and he kept throwing firebombs there, so I didn't feel comfortable going up there. Left him alone for a while, cleared down the lower level, then found more stairs and went back to get him. Even without any corpses around, he wiped out all the zombies before going down. Needed no special tactics to take out the Blackguard Avenger. Found two maps, level 68/69.

Incombustible Overgrown Shrine Map of Enfeeblement (players cursed with enfeeble, 75% monster fire resist, 26% IIQ): Had to reroll this one a few times since it kept coming up with either vulnerability or patches of burning/freezing/shocking ground, which are very dangerous in an enclosed area which is likely to be infested with poison bombers. So of course, this particular instance had no bombers. Still, I was glad not to have the poor mods when I found M'gaska, who had spawned right next to a doorway behind which were a bunch of Vaal Constructs and mage skeletons, including a rare with faster attacks. Lost the horde several times while clearing out enough of the ranged guys to be able to concentrate on the totem without being shot in the back. Shortly after I was attacked by Xandro Blooddrinker. Very glad I had the totem out in front of me, as Sarah was just barely in range of his Ground Slam and could easily get out of the line of fire. He killed a lot of skeletons but the horde killed him quickly; he was a *lot* tougher before they nerfed rogue exile HP. Sarah got hit once by the Hybrid Widow, but I ran away a bit and she went back to attacking the horde, and died shortly after. Found an Aurseize, which goes into the guild stash, and a 66 map.

Hit level 79 in that last map, and took the last life node in the Athleticism cluster. Life total is now 4374. Here's the current passive tree. I think I'll go after some increased aura effect nodes next, as that will give me a bit more flexibility in how I cap out my resistances.

Don't want to criticize your tree but the way you took to exit from witch area is not optimal. Too many points wasted.
Check this one.
For next two levels I'd suggest to take Eldrich Battery and run Arctic Armor for additional damage mitigation.

Level 79-80

Fleet Spider Forest Map of Commanders (31% more rares, faster monsters, 26% IIQ): Invasion boss was Jikeji, spawned in a poor location surrounded by trees so the horde couldn't easily get at him. Did a lot of running back and forth to fight off all the surrounding monsters, then finally got him alone. He still took down two full hordes before giving up. Took down the Blacksmith without too much trouble, although I did have to dodge his leap slam a bit. Found a Doomfletch unique bow, placed in the guild stash, and a 68 map.

Punishing Spider Forest Map of Ice (18% physical reflect, chilled ground, 29% IIQ): Had a little more trouble with the Blacksmith this time around, had to pull the horde back a couple of times to let the poison die down, but eventually got him. Invasion boss was Perquil the Lucky, who wasn't, spawning more away from other monsters and in a spot where the horde could get at him easily.

Incombustible Ghetto Map of Enfeeblement (players cursed with enfeeble, 75% monster fire resist, 39% IIQ with 13% quality): Down to level 68 maps as I'm out of anything higher except that one level 75, which I really don't feel like risking until I hit 80. You'd think the five level 69 maps I ran immediately before this would have dropped at least one level 70 map, but you'd be wrong. Had an extended fight with the Invasion boss, Ch'aska, Maker of Rain. She was up at the top of some stairs in a corner which could only be approached by those stairs or one of those wood bridges, and neither was a good place to get caught in a thorn barrage. So I had to send the horde over, run away a bit, pull them back with Convocation, repeat until she came across the bridge. Then they could surround her and she didn't last much longer. Glad I took care of her there, because just a screen or so further along came across the Reaver. That would have been ugly with both bosses. Guess I should complain about map drops more often, because after writing the above sentence about crappy drops, I got four maps this time, one each of 67/68/69/70 and the level 69 was the unique Acton's Nightmare.

Acton's Nightmare (127% increased rarity, 70% IIQ with my last three Vaal map fragments): Nice music in this map, change of pace from the usual. Made extensive use of Flesh Offering throughout to keep the restless dead down, but even so I probably fought about a third of the skeletons twice. Had a back-and-forth running battle with Orra Greengate shortly past the entrance, fortunately without too many other monsters around. She got Sarah with a bear trap once, but was too busy with the horde to do any major damage. Ran into Wiraqucha, Ancient Guardian and got rid of him without any special tactics, fairly easy to stand in one place and just keep summoning/buffing minions until he dies. No problem with Rose and Thorn at the end, primarily because of flesh offering eating their corpses. Found a Hyrri's Bite unique quiver, into the guild stash. No maps dropped, but I found plenty of rares. Mostly useless of course, but I did like an armor with life/mana/cold/lightning resist and a hammer with cold/lightning resist. Swapped around a few gems and a ring, and ended up with this:



Went from 4374 life, 963 mana, 507 ES to 4558 life, 1015 mana, and 426 ES. Resists are still capped, and now I have a spot for my Animate Guardian gem again. Still hoping to find a couple more sockets (either on Unset Rings or with more sockets on my body armor) so I can use Cast on Damage Taken.

Multifarious Villa Map of Balance (increased monster variety, elemental equilibrium, 24% IIQ with 9% quality): Ugly map with a lot of aristocrats and poison bombers. One rare alchemist was especially bad as he spawned with Bringer of Fragility, so the whole horde had vulnerability in all the poison clouds. Did a lot of running around and resummoning before that was over. Rough fight with Excellis Aurafix, as he stayed mobile so the horde had to chase him through the traps. Had to resummon twice and dodge a lot of traps before he died. Happy to see that the Invasion boss was Grath as he's a lot easier than those silly poison bombs. Nothing much dropped, just one 69 map.

Multifarious Catacomb Map of Balance (increased monster variety, elemental equilibrium, 27% IIQ with 12% quality): Killed off what I think was Wiraq, the Impaler; not entirely sure since I never actually saw him on-screen, and I must have gotten the corpse with flesh offering. Lots of burned miscreations around, anyway. Ran into the spectral throw Scion rogue exile, too (didn't catch her name); that required a zombie resummon as she did some pretty hefty damage to the horde. No trouble with Xixic through the usual tactic of taking away his corpses. Found an Ondar's Flight unique boots for the guild stash. Picked up two maps, 68/69, and was able to trade in three duplicate 68s for another 69.

Freezing Spider Forest Map of Suffering (18.1 chaos damage per second, 92% extra cold damage, 30% IIQ): Had to retreat from the Blacksmith's zombie slam clouds-of-death once, but got him on the second round. Invasion boss was Cintiq, who killed about half the zombies, but didn't survive too long herself. Found four maps, 67/68/69/70.

Multifarious Graveyard Map of Hordes (increased monster variety, 41% increased pack size, 6% IIQ): Invasion boss was Balus Stoneskull, who presented no challenge at all to the horde. Killed off Merveil-the-Clone easily enough as well, despite some pretty major lag when she first came on screen and again when she changed forms. Found a Brightbeak (guild stashed), a chisel, and a 69 map.

Hit level 80 in that last map and took the 8% increased aura effect node in the Influence cluster. New achievement unlocked, Immortal! One more leveling achievement to go, if I can make it to 90.