One thing that had been missing in my rotation of activities in Diablo IV was Helltides. After getting a couple of levels after unlocking World Tier III it was time to jump into one. For a while now there is this unique dagger, I've been wanting for my rogue and I've not had any luck getting it to drop. I was hoping Helltides might assist me in that matter.
The issue tends to be I've been so caught up in running Blood Harvest that any time it is up I keep overlooking Helltide. Even more so when I did not have enough time to do both. I’d always choose Blood Harvest for it.
At least after a while, I came to my senses short-term. While they did add a new type of chest into Helltide that I'd later discover. I ended up skipping over running any of them for quite some time. They had to do with a new end-game boss that you could farm for unique. It also costs 300 cinders to open and if I was going to farm lots I'd rather open the lower 250 cinders chests anyways. At least that was my thinking, at least for now.
However, even those were not on my mind either. This time around I was after light weapon chests that only cost 125 cinders. Sometimes I'd luck out and find two of them up during a Helltide before a reset. Other times just a single one between the two different regions this event occupies when it is active.
Usually after opening light weapon chests, I could find I'd hit up a single Gift of Mysteries that cost 250 to open. While in the past I'd try to farm two of these. I was usually quite late joining the event or I was looking to leave and do other things in the game. It’s kind of odd how little time I event spent so far running Helltides.
That choice would later come back to bite me in the behind. As I would hit a wall of not having enough materials to upgrade items with. More importantly, rerolling higher-end items that required salvaging legendary or looting souls during Helltide. While I had salvaged an alarming amount of legendary it was never enough.
I was kind of shocked at this point by how many further normal dungeons I had to run to pick up aspects I wanted. Despite saving any useful aspect I'd notice on legendary I looted. Most of them were all the same. I also had some quite critical ones missing for my defense and even offense as well. Now was the time I decided I had to just nail these out. There was no more delaying this activity.
I was kind of hoping I'd get some Nightmare Dungeons that would overlap with rogue aspects I still wanted. After holding onto a few banners, it became quite clear that they were not on the current rotation for dungeons for Nightmare Dungeons, which ended up being the case. Along with just not looting them in the first place.
Thankfully at this point, I had run enough Helltides that when I did unlock the next aspect, I wanted to put on a new piece of gear so I could upgrade to it. I could at least do that part. At one point I must have upgraded 5 or 6 pieces within a single hour. These were no small upgrades either. Some of them I could tell running another dungeon afterward gave me a massive damage and defense boost.
Once that was all when I was not running a Blood Harvest and the occasion Helltide. I could always be found inside a Nightmare dungeon. I was still hopeful I could get the dagger I wanted that would give me quite the damage boost. It however became clear to me that doing these activities was just not cutting it. Up to this point, I had yet to get a single unique one which I felt was quite strange. By now I expected to have looted some unique pants that I never cared to use.
That is when I decided to turn to something that was also new this season. Since I turned in so many times for the Tree Of Whispers. I was looting a few needed items to summon a boss that could drop unique for my class.
I was rather expecting my fight with Varshan to be more challenging. Not only was it not since it was locked at a certain level making it quite easy for me to take out. Varshan kept dropping the same unique pants that I just did not have any use for.
After burning all my summing resources. I went off to go farm for more turns for the Tree of Whispers. Thankfully I still needed more Blood Harvest runs at the time. It would however be a while before I'd get to drop anything I was missing for my next summon of Varshan.
I, however, was not going to let that deter me. While it took a couple more kills. I ended up getting the dagger I was after. Finally, for this season Condemnation was mine. It even had some decent rolls on it as well. It’s only a shame once I unlock the next world tier up, I'll want to replace this dagger with a higher variant of it. At least I know a way of trying to target-farm it.
For now, I did not need to resort to trying to gamble for the summing pieces I needed to fight it again. There is an NPC that allows you to turn in items you have way too many of for the summing for a chest with a chance to get the other pieces. That is, however, a bit wasteful. Hopefully, by the time I'm up for farming Varshan again, I'll have other drops caught up.
Varshan is not the only new boss that you can farm for unique drops. The other one I know of however requires you to have cleared the 300 cinders chest in Helltides. Something I still have been slacking on. I was hoping by now to have looted the boots I also want.
In fact by this level last season, I could have sworn I had looted a few of the same boots I'm looking for right now. If it was not for the fact, I have looted some other unique outside of the new bosses. I would start to think they were now the only way to get them.
Final Thoughts
It is always great when you can get quite a few things done and acquire a much-desired item. With how much of an experience boost we have this season I feel like I'm falling behind farming Nightmare Dungeons for glyphic experience. That among many other things at this point I might end up just focusing on for a while and ignoring the Blood Harvest since most of the powers I use have now reached level 3 anyways.
Other Content
Information
Unless otherwise stated screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Diablo IV.
