I wanted to touch on the subject of difficulty and the “Leagues” implemented in Path of Exile or (PoE). leagues have different perimeters implemented that you wont find in “Normal”. Including (But not limited to) Hardcore rogue like death penalties, shrines that buff mobs until you pick up the shrine and turn the tides around on them, and finally rare and unique mobs have more affixes on them making them a shade bit tougher to beat. As you can see in the picture above, The current Leagues run on a date to date timeline. Example shown above states; “Domination” and Nemesis” leagues started on Oct 23 2014. And they will end Feb 23 2014. Basically these are Ladder leagues. Best bits in these leagues come in the way the “Hardcore” difficulties work. Much like every other game that offers a “Hardcore” difficulty where as the death of your toon is the death of that game-play and all that came with it. ie armor, weapons, currency etc. PoE has a bit of a safety net so to speak for your “Hardcore” and “Nemesis” league toons. If you die in those leagues your not done. You are then dropped from the “Hardcore” and Nemesis” leagues, and go straight into a “Normal” mode or difficulty with everything you have on that toon. That excludes things in your stash. only what you have equipped and in your inventory drops with you. Just to make clear. The benefits to playing in “Nemesis” is the fact that better gear drops. So there really is a reason why you would want to play a Hardcore toon. Not only for bragging rights, but also for the opportunity to make your toon as powerful as you can in a difficulty that wants you so freakin dead.
This brings me to the reason why i decided to ramble on about the difficulties. I have already chatted about taking my Witch through the first playthrough so i can get access to the Scion. And again nothing has changed. But to add to this endeavor, i plan to do plenty of research on what kind of Scion i wish to play. Making sure i have my Spec-Web all planned out. Making sure i know what i need to know about getting and crafting gear to keep me alive for as long as possible. I even have started getting some resources to help me when i start. Collecting some flasks and Scrolls. if i’m lucky, some nice rare low level gear that runs tandem with the spec i choose. Fun Shit!
Ok i’m off to go learn the game better.