HC Race Guide O.o

Chick

Cartwheel RIGHT
Shamelessly stolen for you all.
Tyrus�s Guide to Being Decent At Races
Ok first off I�m literally what you would call �okay� at racing. I place decently (recently, mostly around the Top 200, and averaging around 19th in my class). So maybe I�m borderline good, but not spectacular. In any case, I have enough knowledge to pass on some basic ideas. Racing is not nearly as much about RNG as people make it out to be. My finishes with an epic rare tribal maul, unique Limbsplitter, and crying my way through with a a weakass magical tribal maul for 70% of the race didn�t change my placement much. RNG can HELP but it�s literally incremental, and racers are stratified mainly on skill in racing. The difference between 50th and 60th, or 1st and 4th, or 100th and 130th might be RNG, like a good drop from hillock, but the difference between 60th and 160th is all STRATEGY.

GENERAL PLAYING ADVICE

#1: YOU ARE NOT PLAYING PATH OF EXILE: You are racing. There�s a huge difference. Things that would be totally unthinkable in the main game are normal course for races:

#2: Play the Lag: This is one of the toughest, but at least more familiar, rules. Don�t �wait� for the game to catch up to you. This takes several forms. The most normal for me is that if I know 2-3 hits will kill a majority of a pack I fire twice and move the hell on. Half the time I�m almost off screen and then 5 mobs fall dead behind me. You have to trust your game sense more than the screen. This includes:
�Learn what desync looks like: Running through tight corridors, hitting a chest and no reaction� obvious ones. There are more subtle indications though. If I�m using fire trap and the trap lands wildly far away (or explodes off the graphic) I�m descyned. Casting curses that fail to hit seemingly targeted mobs is a good one. Mobs dying off of where you�re using your primary damage skill (for example, behind me while I�m ground slamming). /OOS immediately once you sense a desync.
� Hit potions early: There�re a couple of reasons for this, but I�m listing it under compensating for lag. The primary issue here is staying at high life early in a fight against a pack, and not getting in to critical territory until most mobs are almost dead. I default to simply assuming I will need potions in many fights. You DO NOT want to run out of mana at a critical juncture.
�Open chest, keep moving: IMO if a chest seems within reach, it�s worth opening. I got a limbsplit from a chest last race. Don�t go out of your way but if you run by it anyways, click it but keep moving (chances are it�s shit)
�Don�t correct for lag unless it is absolutely critical: For example, try to open a chest, pick up an item, whatever. But if you�ve massively bypassed it, or you missed the item, don�t go back. Most chests are shit, so opening and running, 90% of time it�s worthless to wait for the lag to catch up and spawn items.

#3: Skip small packs, don�t �clean up� packs: For example, 10 monkey pack, kill 8, don�t chase the other 2 around the screen. This is especially applicable for fast enemies that are likely unsynced and therefore more difficult to hit. Only clean up BLUE packs, as the exp is virtually always worth it.

#4: Don�t go back to Town: In Act 1, you should go to town twice or MAYBE three times. Once after hillock, and twice IF NECESSARY to check for sapphire rings from Nessa. There�s a tiny bit of leeway here (coral rings, possibly), but if you�re in town more than three times you�d better have a goddamn good reason. Get the highest damage support gem you can.

#5: Skip content: Don�t do tidal island, don�t even THINK about doing fetid pool. Don�t kill the crab. Don�t Kill Fairgraves. Don�t � anything. This also reduces your desire to return to town.

#6: Vendoring � anything� will never make up for time lost: Exception: if you go back after brutus, AND you happen to have gotten an iron ring, get a blue skill gem and a sapphire IF nessa isn�t selling them. Don�t pick shit up. Don�t hoard rares early. ID all rares that may be useful (every armor piece, for example)

#7: You don�t need those skills: My templar uses Ground Slam and Glacial Hammer. If I�m feeling frisky, I get the Sweep gem and eventually trade to axes (picking up Infernal Blow when shopping for Sapphire Rings), such as when I got a Limbsplitter. Duelist? Cleave and doublestrike, never go back. (LoH when you shop for sapphire rings). Scion� spectral throw is almost all you need. Witch has some excuse to both run tidal and get both fire trap and ice nova� but witch sucks.

#8: You�ll almost die. But you won�t: This is also a tricky, experience based tip. You will get close to dying but you need to be able to anticipate whether you�ll kill more mobs than will kill you faster. Learn when to dodge run and when to just power through. This is a VALUABLE asset, but comes at the price of dying at times trying to learn the skill.

#9: LEDGE AT LEVEL 4: This should set up your mentality for the early levels. You want to hit ledge around Level 4. MAYBE level 5 if you get insanely lucky on pack size in submerged passage. Personally, I hit level 2 on twilight strand ONLY because it virtually guarantees that I leave town the first time with a driftwood maul. I tested it both ways and the time seems to be a wash. Level 4 is the lowest level that gives you full experience at ledge. Ledge is good for farming because of its linear shape and relatively large pack size (submerged has pack size, but the level is significantly lower).

#10 Don�t worry about tank type: If anything, favor an early mix. I virtually always approach Brutus using a brigandine because the combined EV/AR tank makes Brutus miss more, and it�s hard to develop enough armor to counter his hits early. The misses are much more valuable. For witches and shadows even, don�t favor ES tank to the exclusion of other gear (particularly since the shadow can wear more useful gear than the witch). As a templar I virtually never equip AR/ES because I don�t have bonuses to it anyways. Use ES rares if they have good mods.

#11: SAVE CRAFTING FOR WEAPONS. USE YOUR ORBS and use them on the latest and greatest weapon you can get. Your weapon is the MOST important piece of gear you have. You don�t really need those transmutation orbs anyways. DO NOT transmute a basic weapon (e.g. driftwood maul). Save them for next-tier, around Level 8-10, weapons. Only transmute weapons when/before you can use them. Don�t retroactively transmute unless you�re really desperate. Alchemize only at-level weapons when you�re sure you don�t have anything better and need an upgrade RIGHT NOW. Second-order crafting if you get a great weapon is chestpiece if you need an upgrade or boots for movespeed, or gloves for possible damage. Helmet isn�t really a big deal and the small chance of getting good mods on rings and amulet means you really want to be rolling an alch at them but those are generally best saved for weapons.

#12 Blacksmith�s and Armorer Scrap sell for wisdom scrolls: Do this but do not make special trips back to town just for it., UNLESS you are planning on buying a next-tier weapon. For example, if I get an early Whetstone I may use it to buy a tribal maul the instant I hit level 8 if one hasn�t dropped yet.

#13 Don�t stop moving to optimize: If you�re standing still to decide on items, you�re probably doing it wrong. There�s a fine balance here, I admit, but you must ALWAYS PRIORITIZE MOVEMENT over decisions. Have a gameplan, and STICK TO IT.

#14 You can move while your screen is open If you�re stopped while ID�ing items, stopped while choosing passives, stopped while swapping gems, gear, whatever, you�re wrong. You can move and do a majority of things in the game, the most notable being passive allocation, which I will do in combat if necessary.

#15 If you stop to farm before your terminal location, you lost: "Old" race strategy involved farming ledge to level 8 or 9, farming at certain locations, whatever. it is ALWAYS preferable to move on rather than stay and farm.

OVERALL BUILD AND GEAR:
Split between damage and life about 50/50. I like templar mostly because the direct route to life goes through the first damage nodes. It works out pretty well. Duelist�s first node is GREAT for this reason. You don�t have to start life-stacking because in a vast majority of races you won�t get to hard enough content to need it (i.e. cruel mode). Templar, btw, is technically suboptimal directly compared to Marauder in the build I use it in. Witch blows because you need to be like level 12 before you actually hit any tank at all if you get damage nodes. Generally I�d advise using 2h weapons for damage. The reason for this is alpha-strike. 1-2 hits per mob pack is superior to 3-4, even at faster attack speed. Never 1h/shield in races, the DPS is too poor to bother, and the parts of the game you�re in don�t require high tank.


Gear you pray for:
2x Coral or Iron rings (preferably with added damage affixes).
Sapphire rings (by Merveil). Topaz Rings (if you plan on Running CoS, such as if you�re extremely skilled in a 2h race or any 3h race.)
Coral Amulet (life regen is very nice early)
Flasks
Leather Belt, though any good belt drop is nice. I tend to roll a rustic sash with high implicit early since killing fast is most important.
Weapons. Ones you can use, particularly.

Don�t pick up items unless you�re decently sure they will be useful. ID Rare armor whenever feasible because some affixes are very worthwhile. I will often equip ancillary (helmet, gloves, boots) items that have these affixes regardless of tank type. For CHEST armor alone I tend to stick to tank type. DO NOT waste time evaluating armor.
Extra life � For obvious reasons
Life Regen � Also quite nice.
Added Damage � A pair of gloves or a ring that adds a flat amount of damage early in the race can SUBSTANTIALLY increase your DPS and chance of alpha�ing mobs.
Move Speed � On boots, is amazing.


A race basically looks like this:
Starting off, click the guy to open the convo, then get your weapon, which auto-closes the conversation and activates the zombie, it shaves a few seconds off of your time. Get first skill gem. PERSONALLY I get to level 2 on twilight strand, HOWEVER, this is not necessarily optimal. I do it this way as a melee class because I really want to get a driftwood maul at Tarkleigh and he only offers them to L2 or above.

Lioneye: Talk to Tarkleigh, get AoE skill (unless you�re duelist, in which case get your single-target skill). Check Tarkleigh�s shop, QUICKLY (<10 seconds) for:
Weapon: Damage enhancement, assuming hillock didn�t drop
Movespeed boots
IF hillock/strand didn�t drop, or totally necessary for some reason: a chest piece with the needed color socket in it. DO NOT �complete� your armor set here. I�ve literally gotten past ledge with no gloves, no boots or no helmet.
 

Chick

Cartwheel RIGHT
The Coast: Run. Run until you have accumulated a good 8-12 enemies behind you, then launch AoE strikes, THEN RUN LIKE HELL AGAIN. Only pick up currency and items you don�t have. It�s not necessary to gain a level here. Killing Fire Fury is kinda suboptimal, however, if you run smack in to her with a high dps character (2h mara, for example), it�s not totally a bad idea to kill her, since the drop can be very beneficial (early yellow chest piece or weapon, for ex.). I would NOT recommend looking for her or even so much as running around a corner to get to her, but if you accidently end up next to her, keep moving, blast her pack, which tends to be large, and finish her.

Mud Flats: Your primary reason for even bothering to kill anything here is that it�s sometimes faster to eliminate several rhoas rather than get pinballed around them. Kill enough to not die. You�ll probably be 3 or so leaving Mud Flats.

Sunken Passage: You should get to L4 before leaving Upper sunken. This is the first area where you can be blessed by RNG for monster packs. Also, you need to kill some monsters in narrow passages or you will desync/get stuck. Lower Sunken can easily make you L4 at which point you should RUN LIKE HELL through upper because you will get frozen, and you will die, in upper, if you are not careful. In upper, run past daughters and only blast large packs of actual spawns, the minions don�t give XP anyways.

Ledge: Start blasting the packs. You will be very close to dying, continually disengage/reengage, particularly against mass archers, if necessary. You will get a shitload of levels very fast here starting from 4. Remember to start moving before adding skill points and do it fast enough that you don�t ever come to a halt. Tier-2 type items start dropping here (chestplate, cone helmet for STR chars, for example) so grab significant upgrades. Remember that �upgrade� takes a variety of forms: Goathide gloves might be better than iron gauntlets even if you �want� to armor tank. Don't screw with Kuduku, it's too risky.

The Climb Tricky. I think I personally lose time here. You should aim to get through quickly but be careful as this is the first place where the rushed nature of the playthrough really makes it possible to RIP quickly, particularly against the fire shamans. I always kill the unique bone archer here because the iLevel of the area is enough that it�s extremely plausible to get significant upgrades from him, including ring/amulet or FLASK drops. He�s also standing right in the way, and surrounded by a relatively large pack. KEEP, MOVING, to mitigate damage from his pack.

Prison: Lower prison is another bitching place to get gear upgrades. Don�t pause or run around excessively here (I always get lost as hell in here anyways) but pay attention to drops and remember optimal does not always mean sticking to a particular tank or weapon type (e.g. 2-handers consider lowlevel staves if you have the Intelligence). Personally I�ve gotten really good at killing Chatters, who tends to also drop useful gear. Obviously if I find the stairs before I find chatters, I move on. I do CAUTION that chatters will RIP you if you aren�t prepared to handle him (high life, coral rings, to prevent long freezes, and a mixture of AoE to weaken and moving in for high-damage kill.) It�s acceptable to return to town right before brutus if you�re realllllllllllly hurting for a weapon or managed no medium flasks at this point (bring a blacksmith�s whetstone), town time wasting is better than RIP�ing to Brutus.

Brutus: You�ll lose if you let him pound you. Remember the tips about playing the lag. As soon as you THINK you got hit, hit flask, you might waste 1-2 charges out of the ones you have, but healing early will keep you alive. I�ve found combing AR/EV to maximize your chance of Brutus missing is a good strategy. Armor helps a bit, but a complete miss is a much more significant reduction in his DPS. Assess his drop FAST, at this point between IronPoint and Chatters (and possibly Sawbones) you should be pretty set up. Look for rings, rares, and if you�re hurting, magical armor pieces. Keep in mind his level will be above yours for a while.

Prisoner�s Gate: The Burning Menace. More like �THE INFINITE AGGRO RANGE MENACE�. Once he starts chasing you just get the hell out. He hits insanely hard and never, ever stops until you�re about 80% of the way through the level. Turn around� once or twice� to AoE large packs, but keep moving. The best time to tap the large pack is if you get through a narrow corridor first and the Menace is blocked off from pursuit temporarily. Do not fuck with the giant horde of death that will be following you around very swiftly. Fight early in the level to acquire an extra level but once you hit the menace run like hell unless you are 100% sure he is not aggro�d on you anymore. You WILL RIP in the Prisoner�s Gate if you make a bad stand-and-fight decision. You can die EXTREMELY quickly to the Menace or sudden Shock-stacking if you�re unlucky.

Ship Graveyard: Skip this shithole. Find the coast and run it until you hit the Coves. There is nothing good here. You will get frozen, charged, shocked, vulnerability cursed, and all manner of bad shit if you hang out. If you get lucky, take an opportunity if you hit a blue pack of the spectral corsairs all alone for some XP, but mostly just run and pray you don�t lag yourself in to the middle of a pack and get alpha�d in to oblivion.


The Coves: MUCH better territory. Although the Tar Spread sucks (unless you�re leap-slamming) I still recommend shotting some of the larger packs in this area. You will be sorely underlevelled here by this point and rack up LOTS of experience for big packs. That said don�t dawdle either, the addition of the corpse-spitting bird-things made the area more dangerous, and the tar DOES suck.

Cavern of Wrath / Anger: Kill as necessary in the narrow corridors, I usually hit Merv at L.12-13, though for inexperienced racers it�s not a horrible idea to hit 14 and try to score a couple of large flasks to make Merv easier. Biggest thing here is to get the 2 sapphire rings. It�s also advisable to pick up the support gem (Whatever gives you best damage) from Nessa when shopping. Since you�re at town, you MAY pick up the brutus gem from Tarkleigh, but be aware the more gems you have the harder it is to juggle gear, stick to that basic stuff. Molten Shell, for example, is good, but not NECESSARY.

Act 2 Getting in at ~13-14, kill a lot in the southern forest, and roll straight through town without stopping to Riverways. If you�ve got time to run the full Act, go all the way to BlackWood, get the WP, then come back. Now: Conventional, ranged characters, wisdom is to progress to Western, and this isn�t a horrid idea, but I�ve found with melee characters, Chamber of Sins Level 1 is a great place for Experience for 2h melee. Make sure you�re level 15-16 before getting there to avoid Exp penalties (I�m not sure the exact formula, my recollection is �within 3 levels� is full exp gain). If you�re going to run the act, make sure to hit the crossroads WP. I don�t run all of A2 cause I�m bad, so I can�t give solid advice on order, but Blackwood WP -> CoS -> Kraityn -> Weaver -> Alira (and the extra SP from Emperor�s Road) -> Oak -> Vaal is probably my best bet as I would run CoS to level 18.
 

Pit.Sweat

Full Member
Holy fuck, ledge at level 4.

Thinking about having a go Chick? Think I'd be up for a laugh, though there's no way in hell I'd get anywhere other than dead :p
 

Elcar

Mae hi'n braf
Interesting read. When I've tried the races I've just been concentrating on staying alive! Think I need to get more used to the areas and what is the best order to do things.
 

Chick

Cartwheel RIGHT
I have been dropping in and our of races recently. usually just getting dead so am practicing 'rushing hardcore' which is also getting me dead.

Getting better, but getting dead a lot. Hence dozens of new names you see me under each day :p

best so far is a Reave Shadow that got to 17 in the Vaal ruins. Died to stupid. That was my 3rd char that race though so i was about 35thousanth!

Managed to kill the first Descent champs boss today - in 15 minutes as I simply logged in, saw it and though "why not - need the practice!!"
 
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