With little time left in the race, it’s safe to say I had an amazing time! I accomplished quite a few things I set out to do and even got some revenge on what killed my last time! I’m one those in life that is about the journey and not the destination. As such, I was here just to have fun, improve my own skills since you have to think differently when you play hardcore. That can improve your overall gameplay since being lazy and sloppy gets you killed.

Last Hardcore Race And Revenge!

I had a couple of misshapes last time in Act 5. Both Kitava and Avarius dealt me some deadly blows. One of them was simply a mistake on my part that ended me and the other I was rushing trying to catch back up and I knew fully I was not prepared but I tried anyways. After all, how do you truly know unless you go past your own ability.

Avarius

Avarius went rather easy this time around as I was two levels over and trying the fight for the second time this race. I went in the first time and noticed I was not dealing as much damage as I wanted and the fight would have lasted longer then I wanted. Instead of trying force the fight I simply got another level of my main skill Blade Vortex

After that and using decoy totem to deal with his powerful add that he spawns. I also made sure to pay extra attention to what he was doing. Whether it was one of his powerful directional attacks or one that filled the entire room with lightning sparks. I had max resistance, decent health, and the damage to take him out being melee.

Kitava

This time around I decided to really take my time. Like way too much time being over the level and over geared. By end of act 5 when I finally took down Kitava I had around the 2k life and I was 7 levels over leveled! I wanted to ensure I could win and I did just that. I also spent time farming reputation for some Forsaken masters just so I could roll stats onto gear as needed to give myself the best chance.

The Kitava fight more or less went down like this. He shows up my damage from Blade Vortex would take him down so fast he barely had time to do any of his powerful moves before the next phase of where his heart was torn that you had to damage. The heart phases went down so fast they're not the time to become overwhelmed by a room full of monsters. That went back and forth as I kept my 10 stacks of Blade Vortex up only porting up to refill my mana flask.

Perhaps in the future, I’ll learn to do better or have a more ranged based class to not have to go so overboard in taking this one down. A fair amount of time was put into preparing.

Tukohama

Last race this guy took down on my furthermost run I’ve ever gotten into hardcore. I’ll never forget it forgive him either! For whatever reason, I had become trapped on something. A pixie, some game mechanic I was not understanding or something. I could not shield charge to move away, I also did not get a portal up in time as he chewed through the life flask I had used when I was faced with this issue.

This time around I also make sure I had max fire resistance and I found the zones leading up to him is much easier than last time. As I took my time, was away over leveled and did my best to avoid damage all to gather.

During the fight, I learned this time around to not try and force getting down the totems that that shield him from damage. I can always go back and finish it when I do another full circle. I just wanted to avoid contact with his attacks and the fire that was shooting around the room. While I had one near death it was not too bad. I had the life to survive the hit and I just took a step back and recovered on another side of the room of him. Playing up close and personal melee sometimes means knowing when to step back and not try and force something.

Goals Achieved!

I really just wanted to get further than I was than last race. I also did not want to spend so much of my time this time around doing so. Without getting killed this time by playing it safe and sound I had far more fun even when I was not trying to push my luck.

Brine King

I managed to take down the act 6 boss rather quickly. I’ve also learned to not try and push my luck by remaining inside that zone during different phases. When it was time to portal out to down and wait a few seconds before going back in I did just that.

In softcore, I tend to die on this one a few times with the tidal waves close in and you get struck by lightning along with other damage. Playing a melee also means I can’t get full damage on him during all of the phases he can take damage. I was in no hurry and he went down rather fast even without trying risk it all to get an extra hit or two in while using up my life flasks.

Maligaro’s Sanctum

I don’t think I’ve ever completed this part of Act 7 in softcore without dying. So I know it would be a bit of a challenge going into it on hardcore. I find it rather funny in hardcore they even give you six portal when you are playing solo. I mean I can’t use them if I die. Granted I know you could have reasons for going out and back in. I just know for me to do this one I would not be using another portal win or fail

I ended up going very slow in this zone. I did a full clear in fact. I don’t think I left a single monster crawling or hiding under a rock in that place. Finally, it was time for me to face off and finish the boss in that zone. I did so without even having to port out to regain charges on my life flasks. It went as I had hoped.

Another first takedown in hardcore for me and even a first for not getting killed like I do in softcore!

Highest Level I’ve Gained In Hardcore

While the highest I got was level 61 in hardcore I had forgotten there an achievement for hitting level 60! Gosh, it scared the daylights out of me. I was already stepping on pins and my heart was starting to race as I got deeper and deeper into this chamber.

I Did What??????

I check in on my competition looked outside at the sunlight and you would not believe what I did. I had my fun reached my goals and it was time to enjoy life. This is only a game after all and I had an amazing journey. Killing Act 7 boss in hardcore can be a goal for another time.

In my book, it was well worth it and I enjoy swimming and floating on the raft outside for over an hour. I made myself a nice little lunch even to enjoy as I floated around the pool with a nice breeze. It’s been a while since we have had this kind of enjoyable sun-filled day. That is something money can’t buy you in life. It would have been a shame to waste it even more so since I could be a week or more again before we had another one of these. It also has been a while since I got to enjoy a day like today.

While there was a little time left I decided I would go ahead and write this conclusion up. For the shadow class race level 61 is just not going cut it. I am also nowhere near the highest level that some of the other classes achieved as well. I’m just glad I got this high of a level and learned some new things!

Special Thanks

I had an amazing time and I really enjoyed this 3-day format. Next time I hope to see this hardcore race grow and we get even more players! I even went out before this race started trying to find more players for it. As I would just love to see this thing grow each time!

Special thanks to @mattclarke for not only running this race a second time in a row but providing some incentives for people to jump in and give it a go. I hear he is already talking about doing another race in a couple of months when a new league starts. I hope I can make time and give it another go. I have some goals in mind for next time!

For those that stuck it out deaths or not, I hope you had an amazing time like I have. I look forward to seeing you all again next time. Have an amazing Monday. It just started to rain and thunder so I know I made the right choices today!

Congratulations to the future winners we will soon find out who those are!

Information

Screenshots were taken and content written by @enjar. Screenshots are from a game called Path of Exile.