- Part 15

February 5, 2013 By Jack Jones 2 Comments

HEALTHY, Fresh Coconut Post Workout Protein Shake Recipe

Recipe:

1 cup frozen berries
3-5 tbsp ground flax seed
25-50g vanilla protein powder(Link to my favorite protein)
1 tbsp coconut oil(link to high quality coconut oil)
2-3 tbsp coconut flakes
Almond or coconut milk, fill the blender until all of the berries and powder is immersed. Less almond/coconut milk creates a thicker shake.

This coconut postworkout shake has the perfect blend of protein, fats, and carbs. It is a great option for breakfast in addition to postworkout. I have drank one of these everyday for the last eight months. They save you time, money, and make it easier to stay lean. If you don’t have a ninja blender already you NEED to get one. They’re only $44 and worth every penny with all the time and hassle it saves you over using a traditional blender.

February 3, 2013 By Jack Jones 10 Comments

TIRED all the time? Do you NEED caffeine to function? FREE YOURSELF.

Cut down on your caffeine. Caffeine, ironically, is one of the biggest causes of lethargy in our society.

Think of high doses of caffeine(>50mg) caffeine as borrowing energy from your future. It ramps your system up to a really high state, that is unnatural, and keeps you there for hours. Thus, your body compensates by bringing your energy system to a very low point after the caffeine wears off in order to maintain a semblance of homeostasis and balance. And what do people do when they reach this low point? They drink another coffee/soda and ramp their system right back up again! This kind of unnatural manipulation of our body’s metabolic rhythm has, in my opinion, caused millions of Americans to develop an insanely unhealthy and dysfunctional energy system.

They cannot function without caffeine. Think about that. They are every bit as dependent on caffeine to lead a normal life as alcoholics are to alcohol and as heroin addicts are to heroin.

This is NOT how the human being is meant to function.

Stop drinking caffeine completely for sixty days. Then if you decide to have some drink no more than 25mg, in the morning. The morning is naturally when our bodies are revved up. We have high levels of cortisol and are naturally at our highest point of energy/wakefulness. A little caffeine here can be beneficial in improving your cognitive function. Don’t drink caffeine in the afternoons when you get in that slump. You are tired because your body wants to REST. So, motherf*cking REST. A 20 minute nap, 20 minute meditation, or just 20 minutes sitting quietly is all you need. Then you’ll be good to go for the rest of the day. Use caffeine to enhance your body’s natural rhythms, not FIGHT against it.

Your energy levels also greatly depend on your blood sugar levels. Look at your diet. Is it full of fast digesting carbs(sugars, grains, breads, pastas) that spike insulin and cause blood-sugar rises and dips? If so, you’re going to again have energy problems. To get away from this you need to cut out all of these things that cause high levels of glucose to be released into your bloodstream quickly. Don’t eat carbohydrate dense food in the mornings. Breakfast(if you eat breakfast) should consist of fat and protein. I like to do 3 eggs with an avocado. Get your carbs from sweet potatoes, plantanes, fruits, veggies. Eat this way consistently and you will have steady blood sugar throughout the day, which means you will have consistent levels of energy throughout the day.

It is not normal to be tired all day. It is not normal to need caffeine to function. It is not normal to be brain dead after 5pm.

So. Go caffeine free for 60 days. Eat a diet that evens out your blood sugar. Take a small rest/nap in the afternoon when you’re tired. Be disciplined about when you go to bed so that you have 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

January 31, 2013 By Jack Jones Leave a Comment

Path of Exile Efficient Leveling Guide – Level FASTER

Path of Exile seems straightforward. Kill stuff. Do quests. Level up.

All of that is true, BUT there are some very simple playstyle tweaks that can dramatically increase your leveling efficiency. Intrigued? Read on.

The more the merrier

The biggest mistake I see new players make when they start leveling in Path of Exile is that they stop to kill every single mob. Don’t do that.

Run around the map(toward your quest objective, not just aimlessly) until you have at least four to five mobs on your tail. Then turn around and demolish them. This simple strategy will lead to you outleveling your “whack-a-mole” friends by a ratio of two to one.

This point leads to the next which is…

Always have(and use) an AOE skill

Again players new to PoE carry this idea from other games that they should only DPS one mob at a time. WRONG. What is better, to do 250 damage to a single mob, or 100 damage to three mobs? This simple concept is the core of Path of Exile. Your AOE skills will always out damage your single target skills when 3+ targets are available. Thus, your single-target skills should be reserved for bosses and unique monsters.

AOE skills literally let you kill two birds with one stone, or in this case, three risen zombies with one lightning strike.

Runspeed Boots

If you can run 25% faster, you increase your clear rate of maps by 15-20%. Always strive to have runspeed on your boots. Especially later game.

Kill mobs around your level

You incur experience penalties if mobs are too high or too low from your own level.

Study the graph above. Let’s take level 40 characters for an example. You can see that for level 40 players they gain 100% experience if the mob killed is between level 33 and 45. Beyond both of those ranges the experience they gain starts to drop steadily to zero.

The actual calculation is:
((PlayerLevel +5)^1.5) / ((PlayerLevel+5+(EffectiveDifference^2.5))^1.5)

So a level 24 character gets 100% experience with mobs that are 3+1=4 levels. So monster level 20 to 28 give him full experience.

Stay within this range for optimal leveling.

Party On, Wayne

Playing with other players can be daunting to new players. Don’t be discouraged. The party system in PoE is simple to navigate. Simply bring up your social panel(by hitting S) and then find a party appropriate to your level. It’s best to find parties that are working on the same quest as you are on. Once you’re in the party, type % in chat to speak in party chat. Ask for a portal to the location of the party, then join in the fray.

Using this tactic you can find waypoints and quest objectives much faster than trying to clear the zones by yourself.

Being in a party also grants everyone more loot! Each additional player in the party grants the entire party a +50% item quantity bonus, so with three people in a party everyone gets 100% more loot!

Check out the Path of Exile section for PoE character build guides, game mechanics guides.

Check out the fitness section for articles and videos that can help you become as muscular in real life as your character is in-game.

[ois skin=”Duplicate of Healthy Gamer Main”]

January 30, 2013 By Jack Jones 2 Comments

Path of Exile Mechanics Guide – Items, Item Level, Increased Item Quantity, Modifiers, and Sockets

Items

Attribute requirements

Attribute requirements on gear can be met through your base attributes(your str/dex/int naked). They can also be met through items. So if you have a base of 100 strength and wear armor that give you an additional 100 strength for a total of 200 strength, you are able to equip an item that requires 180 strength even though your base strength is only 100. Keep in mind that if you do this and change gear around and drop below the items required stat requirement, that item will stop granting you any of its stats. Item stat requirements are not effected by magical modifiers, quality, sockets.

A complete list of gear and attribute requirements can be found here. This is helpful for planning out item builds end-game.

Level Requirements

Items have inherent level requirements that increase as the base item level of the item increases and also is increased as the level of the magical modifiers on the item increases.

The item level requirement is determined by the level of the base item OR the level of the magical modifiers. Whichever one is higher determines the level required to wear the item. So, the more powerful the base item level or the magical modifiers, and the higher level is required to wear it. Pretty intuitive system.

Drop Rates

You incur a drop-rate penalty no currency items(scrolls and orbs) in areas whose monster level are more than two levels below your character level. You can find the monster-level of an area by hitting tab.

For every level that you are higher than the monster level you incur a 2.5% penalty to currency drops. A level 30 in a level 28 zone gets 100% currency drops. A level 30 in a level 20 zone sees 20% less currency drops.

Currency drops are not increased when you fight in zones higher level than yourself.

This penalty caps at level 68. So level 80 characters see 100% currency drops in level 68 zones, the same as level 68 characters would.

Increased Item Rarity and Increased Item Quantity

These modifiers can come from three sources. Your gear, monsters(can have wealth affix), and party bonuses.

Increased item rarity increases the chance of magic, rare, and unique items. With +50% increase item rarity you’ll find 50% more magic, rare, and unique items.

Increased item quantity does the same but with quantity. So +100% increased item quantity will see you getting 100% more items of varying qualities. Increased item quantity is a preferable stat over increased item quality because white items can be very valuable and mathematically with +100% increased item quantity, you should see roughly 100% more magic, rare, and unique items in addition to white items.

Each additional member of a party grants the entire party a +50% item quantity bonus. So a party of three will have a +100% item quantity bonus. PARTY UP FRIENDS!

In a party the person who scores the killing blow on a mob applies his or her +% increased item rarity bonus to that mob’s drops.

Path of Exile Currency Exchange Rates — Useful visual representation of currency exchange rates.

Quality

Weapons, armor, flasks, and gems randomly receive between +1% and +20% quality when they drop. You can also increase the quality of an item through using Blacksmith’s Whetstones, Armor Shards, Flask Quality Upgrades, and Gemcutters Prisms. The quality is capped at 20%.

Increased quality causes the following effect:

On weapons – increased physical damage
On armor – increased Armor rating, Evasion, or Energy shield depending on the type of armor
On Flasks – increased life and mana recovery
On Utility flasks – increased duration
On Gems – the bonus is specific to each gem, check out this great resource that shows exactly how quality effects skill gems.
On Maps – increases the item quantity bonus of all monsters killed on the map

Modifiers

Magic items can have up to two modifiers.

Rare items can have up to six modifiers. Rare items have:

1/12 chance of having six modifiers
4/12 chance of having five modifiers
7/12 chance of having four modifiers

All modifiers have an associated level and will only appear on items whose item level is greater or equal to the modifiers level. Confused? Me too. For example the prefix “studded” is a level 18 modifier and increases the base physical damage reduction rating. So this prefix can only appear on items whose item level is 18 or greater. You can view all the modifiers here.

Item Level

The item dropped is equal to that of the monster level of the map in which it dropped. See the monster level by bringing up the tab overlay. Rare and unique monsters have a +2 to their level, so they drop items that are the maps level +2. To check an item’s level pick it up by click it and while it is held by your mouse type /itemlevel in the chat box. This will display the items level.

Modifier Stacking

Modifiers that give a flat numerical bonus are calculated before modifiers that give a percentage bonus. So if you had a piece of armor that gave you +50 armor and +30% increase in armor, that 50 armor would be added to the base, and then the base + the 50 would be multiplied by 1.3 to arrive at the final armor benefit you receive.

Sockets

Sockets come in strength(red), dexterity(green), and intelligence(blue).

Sockets appear randomly on items. Higher level items have a chance to have more sockets than lower level items. You won’t start seeing four and five socket items until levels 30+.

Max amount of sockets:

Two handed weapons – Six sockets
Chest armor – Six sockets
Wands, shields, and one handed weapons – Three sockets
Everything else – Four sockets

Items are more likely to receive colored sockets that match their attribute requirements. For example a pure strength hammer will be more likely to roll red sockets then blue or green sockets.

Sockets can be linked. Links are displayed as a bar connecting the socket. Support gems placed in slots that are connected to a skill gem grant their benefits to that skill gem. One support gem can effect multiple skill gems, and one skill gem can be under the effect of multiple support gems.

Five and six link items(meaning all five or six sockets are linked to each other) are very rare and valuable. Pick up ALL five and six link weapons and armor. Four link helmets, gloves, boots, etc. are also valuable. This includes WHITE items.

Check out part one of this mechanics guide that goes over skills, flasks, and attributes in Path of Exile.

January 26, 2013 By Jack Jones 13 Comments

Path of Exile Lightning Strike Templar Build (Mace/Shield)

Blood and unidentifiable bits of gore stain the ancient dungeon walls surrounding Templar. All is silent as he warily advances. He knows that the evil which he seeks is close. Its malevolence permeates his very bones. The Templar unconsciously hefts his shield, reassured by the ancient oak.

Out of the darkness comes the sound of soft cloth rustling on stone. The Templar feels the tell-tale tingle in his spine that signals magic is being prepared. Instinctively he drops to one knee and raises his shield to the ready. The next instant his world is consumed in molten brilliance as a fireball smashes into his shield. With the light created by the magic the Templar catches a glimpse of his foe. A skeletal figure wearing an ancient and tattered robe. Charms created from the flesh of unfortunate souls hang around his neck. Around him stand a troop of reanimated corpses. A necromancer.

The Templar mutters a blessing and the air around him takes on a turquoise sheen. Thus protected by the divine blessing of his order he bellows a war cry and charges forward.

In five steps he is upon the lead minion. Without breaking stride the Templar smashes his shield into the corpse, turning his shoulder into the charge and bringing to bear the force of a knight in full-plate. As his target falls back the Templar swings his iron mace toward the head of another reanimated corpse. As the mace connects divine energy is released and a torrent of lightning explodes through the corpse’s head and travels onward- striking the necromancer and setting his robes ablaze…

Lightning Strike Templar Playstyle

The playstyle of a lightning strike Templar is in a word, AWESOME. If you like using big shields, being up in the face of the enemy, and smashing everything in sight you’re going to love being a LS mace/shield Templar. Nothing fancy. Just lots of lightning and death.

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The Theory

Templar’s have easy access to nodes which improve the effectiveness of shields, maces, and elemental damage. Combined these nodes lead to a tanky high hit point Templar which can dish out great AOE lightning damage.

30 Point Build

Link to 30 point build.

Take the 40% mana regeneration node first. That regen is very helpful in the early game. Next take the 12% melee damage node and keep taking the melee damage nodes and health nodes until you have lightning strike. From there it’s really up to you how you proceed. There is no right way to do it. It all depends on what kind of gear you find. Don’t be stuck in the mindset of having to use a shield/mace in the early game. Use whatever you find that gives you the best DPS. The mace/shield only becomes optimal later on as you take the skill points.

If you are having mana issues then fill out the mage nodes first. If you’re having survivability problems definitely take the health and armor nodes first(I picked these first because my Templar was in HC).

Final Build

Link to the final build

Past 30 points it’s again up to your discretion which direction you want to build first. If you’re a new player reading this and feel overwhelmed, don’t worry. Once you get 30 skill points you’re going to have a much better understanding of the game mechanics which will give you a more clear direction to take your build.

I recommend taking the Resolute Technique keystone before level 40. It increased my DPS from about 350 to 500+ with that one skill node. Getting rid of a 20-30% miss rate is very satisfying.

Past that I recommend just grabbing a healthy mix of health, armor, shield, and mace nodes. Always try to shore up your weaknesses in defenses before going after offensive stats.

Alternative final build without resolute technique.

Made by Ganrao, if geared correctly with good accuracy and critical hit items then this build will have far superior DPS to the above build. A little less tanky, but overall a good tradeoff in defense/health for DPS. Especially for softcore.

Equipment

Weapons

Look for weapons with high +% physical damage. Added elemental damage is great as well. Basically, highest physical + elemental damage wins out.

Before you hit cruel difficulty you can use any weapon type that you find. Staffs, swords, hammers. One hand, two hand. It’s all good. Use whatever you can find that gives you the most DPS output. Once you hit cruel difficulty start looking into finding a good one hander and a shield. The shield’s extra armor and resists are critical to survivability with this build in cruel and merciless difficulties. It’s not necessary to get a mace until you actually start investing points in the mace skill nodes.

Armor

Ideally you want armor that give both armor and energy shield- because you’ll be taking lots of skill nodes that give +% armor and energy shield. But as you level it’s fine to use armor that’s pure armor. Again equip the things with the best stats even if they’re not perfect for the build. Avoid pure energy shield and evasion items.

Try to get +health on every piece that you can. +health is a fantastic stat because of all the skill nodes that increase health as a percentage.

Run-speed on boots will help you level and clear faster.

Armor with increased damage of any type scales to your DPS well. For example + 2-7 lightning damage will then get the boosts from your +% elemental damage skill nodes.

Rings and Amulets

Your first priority with rings is to fill in gaps in your resistances. If you only have 20% resist to fire it is better to give up some DPS and health on a ring to gain 25% fire resist. After that just look for all the normal stats, +health, +damage, +attack speed. This build calls for resolute technique so ignore accuracy and critical hit.

Amulets are a real toss-up. Just find the best amulets you can that give you the biggest boosts to health and DPS. If you run into mana issues amulets with +% mana regeneration can be very helpful, especially when coupled with the skill clarity.

Resistances

Resists are a must and should be stacked whenever possible. The biggest mistake I see from people posting on the forums is that they completely neglect elemental resists. If you have 25% resist to fire, adding an additional 25% resist to fire cuts the damage you take from fire in HALF. That’s HUGE and should not be overlooked. It is well worth sacrificing DPS and health to boost resistances. Strive to keep all of your resistances aside from Chaos) above 60%.

Flasks

Always have at least two health flasks. If you can manage to get a combination of clarity and mana regen items to keep your mana full without flasks then that is ideal. Otherwise I run two mana flasks as well and my third flask slot I use a Granite Flask. The +4,000 to armor on a Granite Flask will save your ass in a dangerous situation and will allow you to tank through damage.

Bandit Quest

You can kill all the bandits for a extra skill point. Skill points are always useful. Another great option is to take the +40 hp option. End-game you’re going to have a massive amount of +% life, so that 40 hit points will scale into something like 80-200 extra hitpoints(I haven’t actually done the math, but that sounds right haha).

This section is ongoing and will be updated frequently as I keep leveling my Templar.

Skills

Lightning Strike – You can pick this up from a quest around level 10. It is an attack skill so it bases its damage on your melee stats(your physical weapon, % to hit, attacks per second stats). It converts a percentage of your physical damage to lightning damage. When the skill lands it shoots out three lightning arcs which are guaranteed to hit any mobs they come across(this means the separate lightning strikes don’t have separate rolls to see whether they land or hit, they will always hit as long as your primary strike landed as a hit).

Support gem options for lightning strike.

Weapon Elemental Damage – Will generally increase your DPS the most out of all the support gems.
Reduced Mana – Very useful. Especially if you run more than one aura(ex. Tempest Shield + Wrath, or Wrath + Clarity)
Chain – Great for increasing your AOE effectiveness
Faster Attacks – Always a good option for any attack skill.
Melee Physical Damage – Doesn’t give as big of a DPS boost as Weapon Elemental Damage, but can be stacked with Weapon Elemental Damage as long as you can handle the mana costs.

Don’t stress if you can’t find all the right support gems. Use what you come across, try different combinations out, there is not one set of support gems that are superior to the rest, it really comes down to your equipment build and personal preferences.

Tempest Shield – This makes you do lightning damage to attackers anytime you block with a shield. On my first play-through right now I’m level 33 and still haven’t found the Tempest Shield skill. So don’t worry too much if you don’t find the skill right away. You probably won’t start using mace/shields exclusively until you’re 40+ anyways.

While farming I like to keep Tempest shield off. The biggest benefit of Tempest shield is the increased % to block. The DPS it adds to you is less then that of Wrath, and it becomes mana prohibitive to run both Wrath and Tempest Shield so I like to run Wrath most of the time and then Tempest shield when I go against bosses or higher level maps.
Added Lightning Damage is a good support gem for Tempest Shield. Reduced Mana is also useful.

Wrath – This is an aura that adds lightning damage to your attacks(and anyone else in your party). It’s a good boost of DPS and can be picked up from a quest in Act 2.

Wrath is the primary aura I run. The added DPS helps your overall leveling and farming efficiency greatly. The only time you don’t want to run Wrath is when you’re running Tempest Shield and can’t spare the mana. Ideally if you can run both and still have mana to function that’s the best option.
Keep an eye out on the int requirements as you level Wrath. You’ll want to stop at level 7(60 in required) until you’ve picked up enough Int nodes to cover the increasing intelligence costs.

Decoy Totem – This totem can be picked up in Act 1 from a quest and is very useful when you’re leveling. I’ve found it to be very useful in fighting tough rare/boss mobs. You can run around, drop the totem, and then get three to four good hits in on the mob before it kills your totem. Then just run away and repeat the process.

Heavy Strike – Good skill for single target DPS that you can pick up early on while leveling. Depending on the layout of your support gems this may or may not do more DPS than your lightning strike later on in the game. But if it does do more DPS then use it over lightning strike when fighting single opponents.

Clarity – Can be a useful aura to run if you have mana issues. If used in conjunction with Tempest Shield or Wrath it can leave you with a very small working mana pool, but with a few +% mana regeneration items that small mana pool can be totally sufficient for your skills. If that is the case it will free up some mana flasks for more health or utility flasks.

Be careful when leveling Clarity. Each level of clarity increases the mana reserved by 20(it starts out with a mana reserve of 60). For a Templar I don’t think it’s worth leveling Clarity beyond level four or five.

Check out the Path of Exile Mechanics guides for a more thorough understanding of game mechanics, very useful to new players.

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