PoE HC Incursion race summary | Ecency

Dammit.

That was my thought 3 times this league .

But before that a huge thanks to @mattclarke for hosting this race a second time. Looking at all the possible rewards you see it's not cheap at all for him :D Before #poecomp I did not do any HC runs simply because I like the chill way of life in softcore. But the dangling carrot of steem and a slightly smaller participant pool made try it.
Last time I won and I thought why not go for a second time?
Well then the story of 3 damnit's happened.

Damn it No. 1

On friday I got home late after getting quiiite drunk celebrating my birthday. Picked my ol' trusty duelist and went at it. Got to lvl 53 and then I decided to be real dumb and try and kill Abberath. Got to second phase and he just bursted me down like it's nothing even with 75% resists. Oh well, just when I was catching up to competition...
So I looked at the available classes and decided to go as a scion trapper. If not to win overall but to at be highest lvl of the class.

Damn it No. 2

So in the last day I finally caught up to @gamingchimp and even passed him. But then I got complacent and decided to try and level a ranger to take highest lvl ranger prize. I did some calculations and came to a conclusion that gamingchimp can't catch up to me in the time life.
How wrong I was... somehow he gained 2 levels I did not expect him to get and tied with me for the first place at lvl 83.

Which brings me to ...

Damn it No. 3

When I asked how gamingchimp gained those last few "quite impossible" levels at the last few hours - he told me his secret weapon - buying spots in unattained paradise map which at random is available from zana missions. That particular map drops no loot but gives ridiculous amount of experience. So my regret I that I didn't think of this as well... Could have been the sole winner :D

The good stuff

Oh how I learned. I learned how to advance super fast - got to lvl 44 in just under 3 hours with ranger. ( by skipping pretty much all optional quests). I learned that maybe If I build my character well I should not be afraid to advance to higher level maps sooner. I learned not to do Abberath and other skill point giving monster kills until Im way overleveled.

My scion was a lightning arc trapper and I found it to be the fastest map clearer I have ever made. It's just insane how it chains to every mob in visible distance and clears behind corners too! :D I am going to reroll one in softcore league as well! Feels super nice to play it!

Over all it was a pleasant experience. The competition this time was really good and challenging. It was also a bit more spread out so some people could get prizes by being highest lvl in their class. And I think it's a good thing as it encourages participation.

I also got an exalted orb and then THIS dropped :D