I admit, I wasn’t a fan of the Alva Valai whenever she appeared in a zone. I often ran past her. I considered her not so useful compared to Einharr the beast master who I can at least bring to the boss fights.
I never took the time to understand the Incursion mechanics.
As most would agree Legion has been a great offering by ggg, but the latest League has been buggy as hell. I lost a witch to a Delve bug where I dropped a flare, and despite pressing ‘6’ furiously, the flare did not drop. My witch ripped to the darkness in Act 8. Since then, I’d refused to delve this League unless I was desperate, and well, desperation happens more often in SSF. I’d decided Incursion was the lesser of two evils. I’d read in my FB communities that it is very productive.
I finally understood when Alva gave you the temple map during the mission, you’re actually supposed to look at it properly. That the mini room map had red dots for unopened exits. That the 2 Architects had a purpose! I’d never paid attention, I used to just run in and find the stone of passage and assumed it did something. What? I wasn’t so sure. I also could never figure out where and who the Architect was!
Duh, Linny!
After building my first map with this new and should-have-been-obvious knowledge, I failed to get it to the Apex.
I was too slow.
The second temple I built properly, once I learnt the only way I can get around faster enough was to use my quicksilver with a secondary speed bonus + extra charges. To me, I can’t do those incursions without it now. I managed to open pathways to all the rooms. I upgraded what I could believing that any upgrade to a room is a good thing.
I was wrong again.
It was after chatting in-game to an experienced player,
Rúben Pacheco, who reminded to me to check some vids before going in that I’d realized my mistake. So to the Incursion newbies, make sure you read the wiki on the Temple of Atzoatl before you start building your temple. I also checked out a vid by Zizoran.
My Temple:
So on closer review, newbie me to incursion discovered I’d added the following negatives to my challenge to no benefit.
Tier II Arena of Valour – 15% increased Monster Damage
Tier II Catalyst of Corruption – -8% maximum Player Resistances
Tier I Armourers workshop – 10% more Monster Life
Tier II Omnitect Reactor Plant – Augments omnitect boss with lightning
Tier II Automaton Lab – Augments the Omnitect obss with minions
Tier II Temple Defense Workshop – Adds Labyrinth Traps to the Temple
You need to get them to Tier III to get the bonuses out of most of them. For example, I discovered in game I could not use the Coruption Chamber at Tier II. 🙁 In fact, upgrading the rooms and not getting any bonuses only added difficulty to my Temple, the boss at the Apex (The Vaal Omnitect), and littering traps everywhere!
Urggh!!!
Anyway, I did chat to another friend, Mohammed Medo, on his thoughts of the Temple. He said clearing the Temple was more dangerous than the boss.
He was right.
See below is my latest near death experience. I was mashing the keys so bad, I even managed to pull up the PvP screen to add to my panic and headache… *smh*
On review, it looks like I was frozen and was sitting duck for a few secs as the big guy to Nerfessa’s right was hitting her pretty hard.
Yes, I was bad. I did not bring in an anti-freeze again….
When will I learn you think?
Maybe this time. 😉
Mohammed was also right in saying the boss, the Vaal Omnitect, was not very hard and that I avoid being too close to him. Granted I was 8 levels over as I had over-levelled during the acts for farming. I decided to just circle him at range and let my totem do most of the work while I kept on top of the minion spawns. When I first read the wiki, I was shocked to learn it was an average of the levels of the incursion + 10 levels. I’d actually expected the zone level to be higher, but not at all unhappy with an easy intro to Incursion bossing.
And it was easy as shown in the last video below.
And here are my continued disfavour from the RNG Gods with the less than inspiring drops…
As for the Sacrificial Altar…?
Much sadness when I sacrificed yet another shitty belt and got this…
I was expecting more, but maybe it’s because I’m way over-levelled and got penalised. I’m glad they will not be required for my upcoming battle with Kitava that is my remaining task in Act 10!
I hope you are travelling safely in your own Legion campaign. But if you are part of the Facebook Community, Path of Exile Hideout (https://www.facebook.com/groups/pathofexilehideout), remember to submit your Hideout for our showcase this month. 🙂
Stay sane, stay positive, and stay alive, Exiles!