Path of Exile - Initial Endless Delve Theorycrafting - How It Differs From 'Normal' SSF
208This one went long, so there's a (still long) TL:DW in my notes here:
Remember this is SSF. Even common uniques like Springleaf are rare. You may get to 90 without seeing the one you want.
Event will have three major differences from the core game. Fast XP, floods of low level items, scarcity of endgame build defining items.
Fast XP:
Expect to hit level 83 or 85 in the time it normally takes you to kill Kitava. XP in Delve is really high, and you skip all the slow storyline zones.
Very alt-friendly.
Flood of low level items:
Items will be EVERYWHERE early on. Rares galore, and alchs to waste too.
5Ls and 6Ls won't be available early though, unlike recent league mechanics.
Scarcity at endgame:
All power creep from 3.2 onward will be gone.
No conqueror items at all.
Few shaper/elder items, capped at ilvl 83. You can get them in the slots you want, but maybe not the exact base.
Few atlas bases, capped at ilvl 83. This kinda kills most of them (Crystal Belts still rock)
Almost no abyss items (Jewels, Stygians). Plan on going without.
No div cards (some drop, but you can't turn them in). This severely lowers the accessibility of uniques including Tabula.
Almost no essences.
No cluster jewels.
You'll use more magic flasks than usual (unique ones are rare)
Most characters will equip fossil-crafted rares in most slots.
Currency and commodity economy:
Blue item currency (transmute/alt/augment): You have lots of these and few uses.
Regrets: Regrets are rare. Don't do heavy respecs, make a new character instead.
Regals: Turn these into scours via the regal-to-scour shuffle. You will have uses for scours. Regals are rare from monsters but drop like crazy from currency chests.
Fusings: Ultra scarce in the numbers you'll want.
Jeweller's: Overload (note, I am assuming no 4-for-1 upgrade to fusings)
Mapping currency (chisels, sextants, horizon, sac frag): all worthless.
Alchs: Extreme overload (no maps to use them on)
Vaals: These are an odd case. Use them on random armor, hoping for a '5L or better' (6S6L, 6S5L or 5S5L - 1/45) or 6L (1/144). Very little other use, but those odds are better than fusings. Of course, colours may suck - use this only if you have a balance of colour requirements and have backup gems you can use. Also, use these to 'craft' any Vaal skill gem you want to use, especially Vaal Summon Skeletons and other really powerful ones. Also, you can Vaal items chasing 6 mod rares. e.g. if you have a Steel Ring drop, consider Vaaling it for the 1 in 4 chance to reroll it into a 6 mod rare.
ID scrolls: Tight early, vendor portals transmutes and whetstones as needed. Flooded later.
GCP: These will be tight. Cherish them, prioritize upgrades, and use the level 20 flip as needed. (RECIPE: Vendor a level 20 gem, not corrupt, with a single GCP to get the gem back as a level 1 at 20 quality). Delve doesn't drop many high quality gems, so pay attention to the few you get. If you will use a gem, looting a 12 quality one is a BIG DEAL, consider setting up your filter to present quality versions of all gems you will use as Divine Orb tier.
Chance orbs: Less useful than they seem. No 4-for-1 into scours, so limited by scours but you will want scours for other things.
Chaos: Spam these in a way you don't in trade leagues. They are less precious than scours, so chaos rather than scour/alching.
Exalts: These are really rare in Delve. Hoard till level 92+, IMO. Use them on the few godly 4 and 5 mod rares that you acquire. As the end of the event appraoches, lower your standards on what is worth exalting.
Annuls: Basically useless without the bench. Also incredibly rare.
Divines: Rare. Use on uniques and/or build defining mods with small roll ranges (e.g. Shaper bow 'dex to cold damage' mod)
Level 20 gems: Easy to come by (though not on day 1), Delve gives great gem XP
Vaal gems: Easy (buy the gem, vaal it, repeat until success)
Level 21 gems (quality agnostic): Accessible if you only want one.
21/20 gems: Powergamer only
Empower/Enhance/Enlighten: Powergamer only
Special Nodes:
Strongbox node: This is legit rare and better than you think. The 'Underground Stash' node can appear in any biome but as a 'tier 3' node, it won't appear often at all until you get fairly deep. You should consider rolling Armorer's Strongboxes and Ornate Strongboxes for +items and Vaaling them to hunt 6 links. Don't roll over 'of Unity' though (don't vaal Unity boxes).
Talismans: Also rare (very rare) and better than expected.
Contains X items (e.g. Contains Physical Items): The ones for your build will be really good. But also check the others, as they drop a good number of fossils and essences which you will likely find uses for.
i've set up one of those silly merchandise stores. https://merch.streamelements.com/sirgog if you want to buy anything there. also accepting bribes (not real bribes) at https://streamelements.com/sirgog/tip . if you'd rather spend money on other stuff, that's cool too.
Other Videos By sirgog
Other Statistics
Path of Exile Statistics For sirgog
sirgog currently has 16,673,853 views spread across 1,429 videos for Path of Exile. His channel published over 17 days worth of content for the game, roughly 98.89% of Path of Exile content that sirgog has uploaded to YouTube.