Guardian (Season 13)

Season 13 was the very first time I made it to the Guardian part of the Season Journey. I was playing on softcore and participating in the Solo Self Found League. Would I be able to complete Guardian all by myself? I wasn’t sure – but was willing to give it a try.

Guardian has a total of six objectives to complete. To my surprise, I already had two of them completed when I unlocked it.

Level 40 Seasonal Cubist: Extract 40 Legendary powers using Kanai’s Cube.

I wasn’t surprised that this was one of the Guardian objectives that I’d already completed. For whatever reason, I became obsessed with filling up Kanai’s Cube in Season 13. The “Achievement Toast” for this objective flashed by, earlier in my attempt to finish the Season Journey, and I promptly forgot all about it.

A Little More: Reach Greater Rift Level 70 Solo.

I remember completing a Greater Rift Level 70 Solo, but forgot that it was actually a Guardian objective. At the time, I was working my way towards the Divinity Conquest – which requires players to complete a Greater Rift 75 solo.

Greater Rift 70 completed at 8:52:049

Tier 70 – 8:52:049 – 5/24/18 – 4:41:51 AM

Imperium: Kill Maghda at level 70 in under 10 seconds on Torment XIII difficulty.

I completed Imperium entirely by accident – and wasn’t streaming at the time. I was running some Bounties to get more crafting materials so I could put more stuff into Kanai’s Cube. I was playing on Torment XIII because I figured I’d get more Crafting Materials that way.

The Imperium “Achievement Toast” popped up, and I had no clue what it was. It went by pretty fast, and I failed to take a screenshot of it.

Gem Fatale: Level three Legendary Gems to level 70.

It isn’t too difficult to level 3 Legendary Gems to level 70. You can choose whatever Legendary Gems you want – all of them will count towards the objective. The problem is that this objective is in the last part of the Season Journey, and it can be time consuming. Here I was, working on this during the end of Season 13, and worrying that I would spend too much time on this one objective.

It was my first time trying Guardian, and I tend to avoid looking up video game related things online. As such, I had no idea what I would need to do in order to complete Guardian.

In the video above, I hit Paragon 660. It was the highest Paragon I had ever gotten during a Season. This has absolutely nothing to do with the objectives for Guardian – but it was significant to me.

One of the most difficult, frustrating, time consuming objectives in the Guardian part of the Season Journey was “Domination!”. I have lost count of how many attempts it took me to successfully complete it. I was absolutely determined to do it solo, so I just kept trying (and failing). It had to work out eventually…. right?

Of course, the one Nephalem Rift that turned out to be a success was the one that I failed to start recording at the very beginning of it. Fortunately, I remembered to check that and hit the record button when I realized that this particular Nephalem Rift could be the one!

Domination!: Finish a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII difficult within 4 minutes.

At this point, I had completed everything before the Guardian part of the Season Journey of Season 13 entirely Solo. With a lot of effort, I managed to finish five out of six objectives of Guardian solo. And then… things got tricky.

The last Guardian objective required players to complete a third Conquest. I was running out of choices! Players had to complete one Conquest in the Destroyer part of the Season Journey, and I picked “The Thrill”.

The Thrill: Reach Greater Rift Level 45 Solo without any Set items equipped.

This is what my Necromancer was wearing when I completed the Conquest called “The Thrill”.

Easy: Complete 1 Conquest this Season. Conquests are difficult challenges with Leaderboards associated with them. You can find a list of this Season’s Conquests in the What’s New or the Leaderboard menus.

The Conqueror part of the Season Journey required players to complete a second Conquest. I was able to do the “Divinity” Conquest.

Divinity: Reach Greater Rift level 75 Solo.

Greater Rift Level 75 completed at 11:19:816

Tier 75 – 11:19:816 – 5/25/18 – 12:40:55 AM

Solo Necromancer – Tier 75 Greater Rift at 11:19:816

All I Do Is Win: Complete 2 Conquests this Season.

One of the remaining objectives required players to do a “Speed Run” through all five Acts of Diablo III in an hour (or less). I gave it my best try, and switched out gear, skills, runes, and what I was using in Kanai’s Cube – but my Necromancer just wasn’t fast enough.

This left two potential options. One required players to kill 350 (or more) monsters on a Cursed Chest at Torment X or higher. People told me that there was a Cursed Chest in Act V that was the best one for the Conquest. But…. I couldn’t find it.

What was left was a long shot. One of the remaining Conquests required a player to Master 8 Set Dungeons. Each class has a total of four sets, and I had collected all of the Necromancer ones. I had already Mastered one Necromancer Set Dungeon – so that left three.

The more difficult part was what I would have to do next. My plan was to level up a Barbarian, somehow gather all the pieces for all four Barbarian sets – and then Master all four Barbarian set dungeons. I was certain I had the skill to do this – but I was running out of time before Season 13 ended.

Here is a quick look at the Necromancer Set Dungeons that I Mastered in Season 13:

I Mastered the Grace of Inarius Set Dungeon when I was working on the Champion part of the Season Journey of Season 13.

Say Grace: Master the Grace of Inarius Set Dungeon by Completing all objectives within the time limit.

I Mastered the Bones of Rathma Set Dungeon. I failed to take any screenshots of this accomplishment.

Watch Diablo III Season 13 SSF Dungeon of the Pestilence Master’s Shroud.mp4 from Queenofhaiku on www.twitch.tv

In the video above, I Mastered the Pestilence Master’s Shroud Set Dungeon.

Apprentice No Longer: Master the Pestilence Master’s Shroud Set Dungeon by completing all objectives within the time limit.

I Mastered the Trag’Oul’s Avatar Set Dungeon.

Bad Blood: Master the Trag’Oul’s Avatar Set Dungeon by completing all objectives within the time limit.

Necromancer Acendancy: Complete I Primary Objective and kill the initial amount of enemies in all Necromancer Set Dungeons.

Necromancer Mastery: Master all Necromancer Set Dungeons by completing all objectives within the time limit.

The first part of my plan worked out really well. It wasn’t difficult to level a Barbarian, but felt like I was moving too slowly. When I realized it was about 5:00 in the morning, on the day that Season 13 would end, I realized that this plan was doomed to fail.

I was able to get my “Season Rebirth” Barbarian up to Level 60 before I realized my plan wouldn’t work out. There wasn’t time to find all the pieces of all four Barbarian sets and Master all four Barbarian Set Dungeons before Season 13 ended. I was exhausted, and somewhat disappointed that I couldn’t finish the Season Journey doing Solo Self Found.

From this, I learned that it is a good idea to level up two characters, of different classes, instead of just one, when playing Solo Self Found. If I had done that at the start of Season 13, I would have been able to give myself plenty of time to find all four Barbarian sets and to Master the Barbarian set dungeons.

My Necromancer had a total of 663 Paragon points while I was playing as part of the Solo Self Found League in Season 13.

Later, after I had gotten some sleep, I decided that the only way I would be able to complete my Season Journey in Season 13 would be to break away from the Solo Self Found League and get into a group. I had gotten pretty far on my own, and completed everything except for one objective in Guardian. Not too bad!

On June 7, 2018, Leviathan posted a video on his YouTube Channel with the results of the Leaderboards for the Solo Self Found League for Season 13. To my surprise, I was number 9 on the Necromancer leaderboard. Of course, I did not know this when I decided to break away from the Solo Self Found League in the hopes of finding a way to complete the Season Journey.

Finding a group was super easy. I went to the Shattered Soulstone Discord and happened to find Deadgreed and Rowna in it. Both were playing Diablo III, and both of them just so happened to be the people who gave me the most, and the best, advice about Necromancers during Season 13. I asked if they would help me finish a Conquest, and they were happy to help.

It turns out that the best way to complete the third challenge is to go for the one that requires players to kill 350 (or more) monsters that spawn from a Cursed Chest. Each player in the group starts his or her own game, and checks what Bounties come up for Act V.

Ideally, one called The Cursed Peat will appear. If it isn’t there, then each player leaves his or her game, starts a new one, and checks again. That’s the process I was using when I tried to find the Cursed Chest for the Conquest – but the Bounty never appeared for me. Players who are working together as a group (but in individual games) have an advantage. There’s a better chance that one of their games will have The Cursed Peat Bounty come up.

Together, we killed 376 enemies before the timer expired, completed The Cursed Peat Bounty, and completed the Curses! Conquest. (It’s possible that Rowna and Deadgreed had completed this Conquest already.) I could not have done it without their help.