Path of Exile: Atlas Objectives, Spectre pets and looking manly

This was originally intended to be a comment in reply to @supersoju on my previous post. I was going to show her a pic of my new spectre pets. I still miss my Flame Sentinels (a.k.a the Curtains), but I picked up these gorgeous felines running the Tier 2 Iceberg Map. It was my second run, I am trying my luck in finding the very rare Glacial Hideout. People can run hundreds of the Iceberg Map (the only tile this special hideout could spawn its entry) and never find it. It's just luck of the draw. Unlike a few other mobs I raised as spectres, these lions (at least they look to be like lions) are hardworking. They're always attacking my enemies. So even though they are probably not as useful as far as actual damage, I'm fond of them. So I'm keeping them as much as a fashion accessory. They make me happy.

Yes, visual stuff makes or breaks a game for me. I play Path of Exile for its graphical appeal too. Hence, my obsession with hideouts and having fun decorating them.

Anyway, as I took a pic, I looked closer at my witch character, CrankyOldWoman. My previous longwinded post told of how I thought my witch was looking sexier, or at least, she was cooler than her previous peasant look. So to my horror, I saw she turned into a man! Maybe the game designers thought this would be funny. I'm not laughing --ok, I really am.

But in doing the reconfiguration of her gear this morning, the new helm had mods that appealed.

A close up:

I had already spent some currency crafting the sockets to be as I needed them too. It's unfortunate, but I'm invested in this mask that makes my witch look like a man. So that's my daily PoE gripe.

The next reason I am posting this is to let supersoju know that I've figured out how to use the Atlas a bit more. There are daily Atlas objectives that you can do. These can help you work towards your league challenges, because you know where the Masters (NPCs with quests) will be. I wanted to include this information here so she would be aware of them too, if she didn't already know. Another player mentioned this to me in-game. I wasn't clear on what he meant at first, so I did some research. Here it is in the official guide.

For example: a cog around the map (mouse over for name) tells you which map you will find Niko for his Sulphite. So on any given day, you will know which map to run if you plan to delve into the Azurite Mines. The red one would be Einhar if you need to catch the beasts. You do not need to do the maps in order.

Also, to meet the 20 corrupted map challenge, you need to corrupt each map with the Vaal orb. But first, it's worth using Transmute, Chance, Alchemy, Chisel on them to improve them for better drops in-map. I mentioned to supersoju that we should try to team up, so this would be a good way to share resources and invite each other to corrupted maps, if we're both online at the same time.

But if you were to be playing Solo Self Found, you can actually use a Vaal Orb Vendor recipe to get the Vaal Orbs you need. That's 1 Vaal fragment + 7 Vaal gems. I did one for an experiment for future reference. I'm still not quite sure how much more useful these Vaal gems are, they just sit in my inventory being ignored. I'm glad to have a reason to get rid of them. There's a whole system of chance around crafting with Vaal orbs too which I won't get into.

Other players have advised me to trade for Vaal Orbs instead, because unless you are playing SSF, it's not as economical. I might do this as I'm now just wanting to get my first 12 challenges done as quick as possible with my softcore character, while still finding time to focus on my Hardcore witch.

This post probably won't make a lot of sense unless you actually play Path of Exile, so thank you for your patience if you read anyway!