Path of Exile Map Rotations Guide

Path of Exile Map Rotations Guide by AnnieTheEagle

Hey guys, Fury here, after seeing a few people asking some questions in /g 5055 about map rotations, I thought I’d make a guide about them, what they are, how they work, and the ettiquette that is usually followed.

What are map rotations?

Map rotations are basically the Path of Exile equivalent of Diablo III’srift-it-forward, a concept that came about during Reaper of Souls in which a player would complete a Rift, except the final boss (called a Rift Guardian), the player would then invite other people to join for the Rift Guardian, and the player according to some selection criteria (like lowest/highest paragon level) would open a new rift for the player who invited them and then everyone would leave. This allowed players to gain essentially unlimited rifts for their initial one rift (provided they kept inviting people for the guardians).

Path of Exile doesn’t have it THAT easy, instead, groups of 6 players can join together, put in a map each, and then run their maps in a specified order, essentially allowing you to gain 6 for the price of 1. Being that (as of writing this), level 78 maps are around 5 maps for 2 exalts, getting 30 maps out of your 2 exalts seems very enticing, plus you have the added safety-in-numbers, and so forth.

Where can I find rotations?

Generally, you can find rotations in the public parties of Act 3 Merciless, searching for “rot” or “rotation” should yield results most of the time, otherwise you can also check your friends list for broadcasts of people you’ve run rotations before and added them. As far as I’m aware, there is no agreed global channel, unlike master’s missions, though I have seen a few rotations for maps being organised there (/g 820).

Okay, so what exactly happens? HALP

The first thing to do, is join a party that fits your requirements, generally advertisements will be of this format: <level> rot <map extras> <requirements> <rules>, so an example would be 78 rot +packsize +dom, no discharge. This tells you a bunch of things:

• The map level you need to put in, and that you will recieve is 78.
• All maps in the “pool” must have the “+% Pack Size” mod.
• All runs must include the domination* mod.
• Discharge builds are advised not to join, or simply “leech”**.

A person who hosts the map rotation will usually ask for you to link your map and currency (if any additional league mods are used), and once 6 people have joined, create an order, usually displayed in the party name.

Map Rotation Ettiquette

Rotations work on a trust system. There is no guarantee that someone will not just run off when it’s their turn, and it DOES happen, although it is quite rare from my experience. I’ve compiled a list of ettiquette that you should follow and can expect from most rotation mappers:

• Link your map and currency when asked.
• Try to avoid difficult mods like Beyond, Reflect, Temporal Chains, Blood Magic, etc. (You may be asked to reroll your map).
• If you forget to put a league mod in, you will be asked to put in another map with the correct mods.
• Follow the walls of the map and then work your way in, it is a good way of clearing a map without too much backtracking.
• Don’t split up, it will mean loss of experience for everyone, follow and stick together in a group.
• If you feel people have missed an area or room that is not obvious (such as a room in palace), call it out, usually by saying “back”.
• Don’t yolo-open boxes, wait to see if others roll it, and then agree on someone to open the boxes, use a countdown too.
• If you are asked to leave for the boss fight (Palace, in particular), do so.
• Make sure your default loot allocation is “Permanent Allocation (PA)”.
• Call out valuable drops, even if they aren’t yours (don’t be that guy that waits for everyone to leave, just to score a cheap exalt).
• Remember that you are going in for experience, not loot, so don’t be surprised if you get nothing but XP out of a rotation.
• If you have a lag-prone build such as CoC, Discharge or Mjolner, and it’s not stated, be sure to ask if you can use it, causing people to crash unexpectedly is not very nice.

How can I host a rotation?

Hosting a rotation is remarkably simple, simply stand in Act 3 Merciless and set your party to public, using a similar naming structure to the one explained above, make sure you do your party members the favour of asking everyone to link their maps, to reduce the risk of leavers and trolls.

Once you have six people, be sure to create an order for people and then proceed!

Are there any viable alternatives to rotations?

Absolutely, rotations aren’t for everyone, particularly people who don’t have masses of time, or who can’t sit down for 30 minutes to do constant mapping, therefore another alternative is to join mapping services, these are people who advertise that they are doing maps, and charge a small fee (or none at all) for you to join and gain cheap experience, these fees are usually far lower than the cost of a map (1-3 chaos per 78 is a common fee).

Notes

If anything is not made clear, feel free to PM me here, reply or message me ingame (FuryOfAquilarum), and I’ll be happy to answer any questions. Hope this is at least somewhat useful to people :).

* – +dom does not mean Dominus Kill, you need to pay 10 chaos for the ‘Domination’ league mod from the Zana map device.

** – Leeching means you simply follow behind, playing safe and not attacking.