Path of Exile - Delirium

Overview: Delirium is the Path of Exile challenge league which introduced the Mirror of Delirium gameplay mechanic. The Mirror of Delirium can be found in each area and spawns additional Delirium enemies when triggered; rewards will drop based on the number of enemies defeated. Related mechanics include Delirium Orbs for augmenting maps, Simulacrum (twenty waves of Delirium enemies; unlocked via Delirium splinters), and cluster jewels (a means of extending the passive skill tree). The league started on 20200313 and ended 20200615.


Mirror of Delirium

I realized after the end of the Delirium challenge league that each new challenge league brings with it an emphasis on a new game mechanic, and that emphasis brings about a much different experience from the permanent leagues (e.g., Standard). As such, I decided to create a separate post for Delirium (and moving forward I'll create a separate post for any Path of Exile challenge league I might choose to play).

[20200822]

20200322:
Played Delirium league with my friend (AS) and his brother (HS). I created a Witch and by the end of the session I had leveled the new character to the same level as my previous Standard Witch character. In addition, we had progressed further in the story than I had reached before.

Steam Game Time: 4.9 hours (session game time) / 15.8 hours (total game time)

20200323:
Played some more.

Gameplay Log:
Created a mule (Templar) and played beginning with MN and x.
MN logged off.
AS and HS join.
We help x go through the game.
x leaves.
AS, HS, and I resume our progress.

Unlocking the Scion class.

AS chooses to help Kraityn despite the plan that Kraityn most surely should be killed in favor of 2 passive points.
: This both was and wasn't a big deal. It wasn't because HS and I still got to kill Kraityn. It was because it made AS temporarily feel like an enemy despite being part of our party.
: [20200324: I read about the Bandits and, in general, the player's choice of who to help is tagged by the game. So it will always be the case that anyone in the party of a different choice will be marked as an enemy in the vicinity of the battle. Simply have that person not be there. As to who to help, under the current patch, Alira is good for a starter character who may need the resistances, whereas the general value is in 2 passive skill points. Fortunately, players who chooses Alira, can later craft an item to change their choice to get the 2 passive skill points instead.]

Steam Game Time: 8.9 hours (session game time) / 24.9 hours (total game time)

20200324:
Today I forgot to record my gameplay but I was able to recall the main details below. Throughout the duration, various players are joining and leaving the party. In particular, I joined some time after some of the players got a couple of hours in so I had to catch up on a handful of quests. Players who didn't have anything to catch up on would help the newer players. It was a lot of fun. Estimated order of most-to-least play not including me: AS & HS, RD, GMS, Dx, Jx.

Gameplay Log:
Completed Bandits (helped Alira).
Completed Act 2.
AS, HS, and I remain.
Completed most of Act 3 (except Library and Siosa's Quest).
: Got one shot by something while in Sceptre of God during Delirium.
: Got killed once during fight against Dominus.

I purchased enough divination cards to obtain Oni-Goroshi.

Steam Game Time: 7.6 hours (session game time) / 32.5 hours (total game time)

20200325:

Gameplay Log:
As a group, we get started with Act 4.
After we defeated Daresso and Kaom, I called it a night for grouping.
Inventory management.
Completed the Labyrinth (Ascendancy Trial) and ascended to Elementalist.
: I was going to call it a night but wanted to ascend. I thought this was going to be short so I went and did it on my own. It turned out taking a good amount of time (over an hour).
Having unlocked Scion class, I made a Scion class character. I want to follow a Cyclone build.

Steam Game Time: ~7.6 hours (session game time)

20200326:

Gameplay Log:
Picked up Act 4 where we left off as a group with Belly of the Beast.
Completed Act 5.

A six-linked weapon drops, which at the time I thought was cool enough to screenshot...

Steam Game Time: ~4.3 hours (session game time) / 44.4 hours (total game time)

20200327:
Earlier I was playing around with some game mechanics. In the evening, I joined my group of friends. AS, HS, and I mostly repeated old portions of the game as needed by friends who were catching up. In particular, we repeated parts of Act 5.

Steam Game Time: ~1.4 hours and 4.0 hours (session game time) / 49.8 hours (total game time)

20200328:
Today I resumed playing with my Scion character. I would note that I've spent approximately 34 hours on my Delirium Witch character.

Gameplay Log:
Completed Act 1 with my Scion character.

Steam Game Time: ~3.9 hours (session game time) / 53.7 hours (total game time)

20200329:
Completed Act 2 with my Scion character and parts of Act 3. During today's play I hit level 28 and was finally able to start using Cyclone. Unfortunately, while I'm really tanking, I also feel like my damage per second (DPS) is incredibly low. In particular, I tried the Trial of Ascendancy before going to sleep and I was able to barely beat the first encounter with the boss by ever slowly reducing his health. I did not have the same luck during the second encounter and died. I decided to call it a night there. Perhaps I'll look towards replacing my axe and shield for a two-handed sword with some stats for damage.

Cyclone with Oni-Goroshi.

Steam Game Time: 6.7 hours (session game time) / 60.4 hours (total game time)

20200330:
Today, over multiple sessions, I joined random parties, leveled up, got some tips and items (from "BN") which greatly improved my DPS, fixed my equipment, skills, and gems to further improve DPS, and got to Act 8 (through aforementioned parties).

Gameplay Log:
Progressing with various parties.
Played with "BN." Got some equipment.
Fixed my equipment, skills, and gems.
Completed Labyrinth
: What a difference!!!
Played with a part to Act 8. Started dying a lot in Lunaris Temple.
I tried farming for the sword. I started getting tired and stopped.

Steam Game Time: 15.6 hours (session game time) / 76.0 hours (total game time)

20200331:
Besides the log below, I also spent a fair amount of time reducing the items I have stored. As a rough overview, I tossed a bunch of low level flasks, many non-support gems, and gear with low links. I still have room for improvement.

Gameplay Log:
Did some casual leveling and completed some missing quests throughout Acts 1 through 7.
Completed Act 8.
Played second level of the Labyrinth and chose Slayer.

Fog of Delirium

Steam Game Time: 7.8 hours (session game time) / 83.8 hours (total game time)

20200401:
Today I continued my efforts to reduce my inventory. During this time, I noticed that the indication of quality on gems is subtle and it's possible that I sold some gems yesterday with quality on them - not a big deal.

What to Keep (for now):
Quality: Page for quality items.
Unique: Page for unique items.
Gems: Vaal, leveled to 5 or greater, teleports, quality, support, detonate mines.
Flasks: utility flasks, divine regular life, magic life, divine regular mana, magic mana, colossal hybrid, magic hybrid
Rings: ??? (I've been keeping at most six of each and trading in regular+magic+rare sets whenever I get more than six)
Head, Gloves, Boots: 4L
Belts: ???

Steam Game Time: 3.3 hours (session game time) / 87.1 hours (total game time)

20200403:

Gameplay Log:
Completed Act 9.
Played parts of Act 10.

Getting read to fight Sirus. Wish me luck...

Steam Game Time: 102.8 hours (total game time)

20200409:
Today at around 8 PM the stash tab sale started and I bought a variety of stash tabs. Prior to that, I put effort into getting rid of unnecessary gear. While I was theoretically purchasing more space and organization, I knew that I also had to focus on ways to keep less loot. This exercise mostly consisted of selling low level loot and/or relatively garbage loot (e.g., most things that are not max socket and items with less links).

Steam Game Time: 130.8 hours (total game time)

20200615:*
What a rush. There were 40 challenges and at 12, 24, and 36 completed challenges the player receives different cosmetics (horns, cloak, and wings, respectively). Due to work and various other commitments, I played much of last night and this morning to complete 35 of the 40 challenges. Due to my commitment to work during the day, the only way I was going to complete 36 out of 40 challenges was from a challenge called "Leave to Chance." The challenge is so-named, because it requires using an in-game currency called a chance orb on certain items with the chance of the items becoming a unique version of the base class.

With the league set to end at 3 PM Pacific, I logged on at 2 PM and asked for help (on Global 820). At first, I got some orbs for free (but I decided to tip the player for his/her kindness). I then started spamming. About 20 minutes before the challenge league ended, I got one item to finally turn into a unique, but I still needed another and I was running out of chance orbs. Once again I asked around on global and this time I had to pay upfront. Then when I got the orbs, I started spamming away. I had started running low and thinking I might not get the 36th challenge. Fortunately, around 8 minutes before the league was set to end, the second item turned into a unique.**


*Adapted from a message I sent elsewhere.
**Unfortunately I could not record the entire experience because I was playing on my gaming laptop.

[20200822]

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