shoju Wrote:I make no bones about it, my gear isn't "great"
I think farming Fellshrine will do you some good. Perhaps get some upgrades or currency to buy gear from others. Best way to go about this is to search http://poexplorer.com/ and put in your parameters and see if they're online (green dot). You can get specific colors, link, and gear this way.
shoju Wrote:Keep in mind as a summoner, I'll have lower HP than other classes that aren't CI.
I'm well aware of this, but your Energy Shield is still incredibly low. I think you have to make a decision whether to go for ES and CI, or focus on Health and get Eldritch Battery.
shoju Wrote:But, as we can see, none of my gear has "amazing" ES rolls on it.
No, but you've also devoted zero passives into ES. If you decide to go ES I agree with going into Templar area for body and soul, then to witch for ES. If you go for health you'll want to eventually get into the templar and marauder starting area for health nodes (get there through the middle which you've worked on).
shoju Wrote:I wish that there was a way to quickly get in and out of the Cave... without having to "re find it" every time.
Fastest way would be to leave the zone then enter by CTRL+Clicking the entrance and entering a new instance. If you leave by the bear boss you'll be further away from the entrance, but you'll know where it is so you can run to and ctrl+click creating a new instance.
shoju Wrote:I guess I'll go farm some more (shudder)
Good idea, you'll need it for map content :P PoE is the first game where I've needed to put on movies/audiobooks in order to progress. I've had to grind fellshrine/docks so much to get my characters to progress in the end game. But again, the devs are considering to smooth out the transition to maps and make A3 Merciless higher level. Regardless of that, you'll want to farm Fellshrine for a long, long time before moving on. Unless you have amazing equipment waiting for you already.