Today, our guide to the final boss fight in Path of Exile 2 Act 4 is finally here! This mysterious boss is Tavakai, the Chieftain, and he's the most dangerous enemy in the campaign so far.

This three-phase boss fight is quite lengthy, and Tavakai's powerful attacks will definitely put your build and gear to the test. Therefore, I sincerely recommend that you upgrade your character to at least level 56 or higher before attempting Tavakai, unless you're willing to invest a large amount of POE 2 currency in crafting a complete set of crafted gear.

Preparation is also essential before every brutal boss fight, and you'll have to ensure you have auto-recharged life and mana flasks; otherwise, you'll have a hard time surviving. If you're ready, follow along as we tackle the final battle in Path of Exile 2 Act 4!

How To Find Tavakai?

To find Tavakai, you'll first need to travel to Whakapanu Island. Next, you'll need to fight your way through two of Path of Exile 2's largest and most challenging maps: Ngakanu and Heart of the Tribe.

So, take your time and explore every corner. You'll find him in Heart of the Tribe area.

Phase 1 - Tavakai, the Chieftain

Once you've found Tavakai, the Chieftain, Phase 1 begins.

Honestly, this is the easiest phase, so your goal is to use as few flasks as possible to advance to the next phase, as you'll need them later.

Tavakai's attacks in this phase are very simple, primarily using his axe for physical attacks. Fortunately, these attacks are easily dodged, as he moves slowly, allowing you to counterattack with Momentum.

His powerful attack creates Jade Crystals, which then explode. Stay away from them to avoid the explosions, which provides another opportunity for a counterattack.

The key to completing this phase quickly is to dodge attacks and counterattack, allowing you to continue stacking damage on the boss.

Note that when Tavakai's health reaches 50%, he stops attacking and transforms into Tavakai, the Fallen. When this transformation occurs, a shockwave will hit you, knocking you to the ground. This officially begins Phase 2.

Phase 2 - Tavakai, the Fallen

Follow Tavakai, the Fallen to another arena, where you'll find Makoru in Altars. This is where the final battle begins.

In Phase 2, Tavakai becomes even more powerful, regenerating his health. Additionally, he gains new attacks that deal significant damage. Let's take a look at them.

• His first move is to swing his axe skyward, followed by a rain of jade spikes. This attack covers the entire arena, so try to watch where it lands to avoid being hit.
• Tavakai can also summon three to five jade statues that explode when they get close to you, dealing area damage.
• Another powerful attack occurs when he says, "Lend me your hunger, Father of Chaos!" A pool of blood will appear on the ground, and he'll stomp on it, dealing area damage.
• Then, when he says, "Weakness becomes you!", several bloody tentacles will sprout from his hands. If these tentacles hit you, they'll inflict Shock, Ignite, and Fire Resistance debuffs.
• Another powerful attack during this phase occurs when he says, "Unleash yourself, Valako!" He'll slam his bag into the ground, creating several waves of jade spikes that fly upward. The best way to avoid this attack is to stay close to Tavakai, as it covers the entire arena.

You May Like: Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0 Changes To Witch Hunter Ascendancy Class' Passive Skills

However, the problem with phase 2 is that Tavakai's boss attacks continuously, making it impossible to predict the exact timing of your counterattack. However, during our testing, he would first unleash waves of jade spikes, then summon jade statues, followed by blood tentacles, and finally a rain of jade spikes. It felt like everything was happening simultaneously. It was complete chaos.

However, my advice is: you must deal damage first, then pause and run away to survive, then return to attack. Of course, the problem with this is that you'll never be able to stack a significant amount of damage, and the battle will be stretched out again, but it's the only way to survive.

This is also where your auto-recharged flasks come in handy; they're invaluable, otherwise a few combos from the boss will easily kill you.

Anyway, keep fighting, and soon Tavakai will unleash his most powerful attack of this phase: Daughter of the Moon. This is when a massive beam or icicle strikes the ground for several seconds. If you're hit, your chance of death is very high.

Phase 3 - Tavakai, the Consumed

Continue to deal damage, and as Tavakai's health drops to 25%, the final phase begins. At this point, the boss transforms into his final form, Tavakai, the Consumed. He's fully healed again, which is terrible.

Unsurprisingly, the final phase is the hardest, as his attacks are once again buffed.

• Tavakai's first attack is a weapon combo attack, culminating in a series of Leap Slams. You'll want to dodge these attacks and avoid counterattacks.
• He also has an attack that opens rifts, from which Shadow Dragons spawn. They're clearly from another dimension, as you can see stars within the rifts. These dragons will inflict debuffs on you, so stay away from them.
• Next, Tavakai will cover the entire arena with greenery. Standing in it triggers Tawhoa's Forest debuff, which essentially reduces all damage taken while you're there. The only safe zone is in the center of the map, but Tavakai is likely there.
• The boss also has a new attack during this phase: he summons a series of exploding blood crystals from the ground. Try to avoid standing on or near them.
• If you're tempted to head to the center of the arena, think twice, because Tavakai summons a small sun that rises and explodes there. The explosion leaves behind an even smaller sun and burning ground. Once the sun hits the ground, it deals massive area damage.
• If all these attacks aren't enough, he can also summon an erupting volcano that spews flames onto the ground. And the more health you deplete, the more attacks the boss will have, making the fight more difficult. So, you can see why this fight is so frantic.

However, the real problem is that you can't attack continuously, which is why defeating Tavakai is so difficult.

Basically, you need to constantly survive, wait for things to cool down before striking back. Then interrupt your attacks again, and repeat this process, making sure your life and mana flasks don't run out.

Towards the end of the fight, Tavakai will also cast lightning bolts that chase the player. These attacks will shock you and slow you down, making you more vulnerable to all his other attacks.

All in all, it's a tough fight, and I think a bit of luck is ultimately required. Because your life and mana flasks are crucial to your survival!

When you finally defeat Tavakai, the Chieftain, The Hooded One will appear, and Tavakai will return his weapon to him. The Hooded One will rescue Makoru and restore Tavakai to his mortal form.

Yes, that concludes our guide to the toughest bosses in Act 4 campaign! Enjoy your victory!

Today, we'd like to share our league starter build for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0: Acolyte of Chayula Hollow Palm Monk.

The core of this build is the new Hollow Palm Technique Keystone, added in The Third Edict update. This grants physical damage based on your skill level and attributes, creating a powerful unarmed build.

Players earn Keystones by progressing through the passive skill tree and can build around it, utilizing skills like Ice Strike or Storm Wave to deal massive damage through stacked attack speed and critical hits even without a weapon equipped.

This flexible build allows players to focus on stacking evasion and energy shield to unlock massive damage, creating powerful unarmed melee or spellcaster builds.

Especially for a class like Monk, Hollow Palm Technique can be used to become a powerful unarmed fighter, stacking evasion and energy shield to gain massive attack speed and critical chance.

I expect this Acolyte of Chayula Hollow Palm Monk build to be fairly easy to level up throughout the campaign and scale well into the late endgame. Let's take a look at how to maximize this build's potential during the different stages of The Third Edict!

Ascendancy Class

I imagine your first question is why play this Hollow Palm Monk with Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy? Is it the best Ascendancy class in PoE 2? Personally, I think it's definitely not; it's just slightly above average.

If it were in Patch 0.2.0, I would definitely say the best Ascendancy for Hollow Palm Technique would be Deadeye without a doubt.

However, in PoE 2 The Third Edict, the developers gave Acolyte of Chayula a major overhaul, adding mechanics like Volatility, which deals a significant amount of chaos damage when detonating stacks, and the ability to leech chaos damage via the renamed Sap of Nightmares node. So, I'm really curious to see how it performs.

So, I'm going to talk about some of the advantages that Acolyte of Chayula has in Hollow Palm.

First, in PoE 2 patch 0.3.0, Acolyte of Chayula now grants chaos damage via Volatility mechanic, granting 1% increased chaos damage per stack of Volatility detonated. So, essentially, I think Acolyte of Chayula is a good starting class for leagues, as it does deal a lot of free damage, right?

On top of that, we'll also get the leech effect of Sap of Nightmares node. Honestly, I think in this league, if you're playing a melee, offensive character, Energy Shield is pretty hard to come by outside of a few specific classes. So, as a melee Monk character, a class that can leech Energy Shield, this is quite viable.

But the main reason I chose Monk Acolyte of Chayula as my starting Ascendancy class is because it has the closest skill to Hollow Palm Technique on the skill tree. So if you want to master it as quickly as possible, then Acolyte of Chayula is the one for you.

However, if you want a smooth leveling experience, this might not be the best approach. Quarterstaffs generally don't truly master Storm Wave until level 22, and before then, you might struggle to stack more critical damage into your build.

Leveling

If you're looking for fast leveling with this build, I'd recommend starting with Spear instead of Quarterstaff, as I find it easier to level up than Quarterstaff. Especially since Frozen Locus skill gem, a key item for Quarterstaff build damage stacking, was significantly nerfed in 0.3.0, reducing its damage range at all gem levels. This makes Quarterstaff no longer always a must-have for Monk builds.

In the early game, to obtain and maximize Spear, it's recommended to first head to Clearfell Encampment and spend a small amount of PoE 2 currency from the vendor there to obtain a Hardwood Spear, which will allow you to use Whirling Slash and obtain Uncut Skill Gem from Renly.

After that, when you reach the next map, you can travel to Abandoned Stash, pick up Twister, and start using Whirling Slash Twister.

Next, head to Mud Burrow and find Frozen Locus dropped by Devourer boss to obtain the next Uncut Skill Gem.

From there, you can start leveling up. This is until you reach level 13, when you begin to unlock Hollow Palm Keystone.

Campaign

However, if your goal is to complete the campaign, you can actually start using more Quarterstaff-based skills, such as Ice Strike, Tempest Bell, and Glacial Cascade.

This is because the developers reworked the mechanics of Wind Blast and Vaulting Impact in patch 0.3.0. Furthermore, Vaulting Impact triggers a skill called Broken Stance, which allows you to deal more damage with smaller attacks.

Therefore, we'll be using Ice Strike and Wind Blast for a lot of minor attacks to help us gain an advantage in single-target attacks going forward.

This will now be how we level throughout the campaign, starting at level 13, and we'll continue using these skills until the endgame begins.

Endgame

Right now, I've chosen to use Ice Strike as my primary skill for leveling, and we'll eventually switch to Storm Wave. However, during the endgame, we'll still use Ice Strike for single-target attacks.

This build has a lot of single-target options, since Hollow Palm isn't really a skill-based build, but more of a playstyle, right? So you can use a lot of skills with it, but for the foreseeable future, I'd choose Ice Strike as my primary single-target skill.

However, you don't have to use Ice Strike and Tempest Bell exclusively for single-target attacks. In fact, I do think skills like Falling Thunder, which deals damage based on Power Charges, can be very useful when paired with fast-paced skills like Flicker Strike, which consumes Power Charges to quickly teleport to the enemy and deal damage. Therefore, these two skills might be more suitable for late-game boss fights.

For endgame mapping, we'll rely on Shattering Palm, which has undergone a bit of a redesign and no longer has its own damage, but the nice thing about it is that it scales with our weapon's damage. Since weapon damage in this build is provided by Hollow Palm Technique, I suspect Shattering Palm will be even more powerful than before. This way, we can truly rely entirely on Shattering Palm to clear the map.

That's it for this Acolyte of Chayula Hollow Palm Monk build guide. This build is a great choice for everything from early leveling to campaign and endgame challenges. We'll see how it performs!

Although Path of Exile 2 still shows no signs of leaving early access and officially launching, it has released two major updates since April, continuously enriching and optimizing the game's content and quality.

Patch 0.3.0, The Third Edict, released recently on August 29th, not only added more items and endgame features, but also further expanded the main storyline by incorporating Act 4.

However, to unlock all the storylines in the act, you must complete the corresponding quests, most of which require you to defeat difficult bosses. Fortunately, in addition to the necessary items, boss battles also reward you with POE 2 currency.

With this in mind, this time we'll provide a guide for The Prisoner. His daunting task is his multiple combat phases and damage types, requiring careful handling.

Where Can You Find This Boss?

Once you begin the new main questline, you'll need to explore various islands within the newly added archipelago zone. The Prisoner is located on one of these islands, called Abandoned Prison.

This island is divided into a main area and a sub-area. While the main area offers rugged terrain, it's not dangerous. The real challenge lies in the sub-area, Solitary Confinement.

Once you reach this sub-area, you'll need to navigate to its end, where The Prisoner lies.

However, be careful when traversing Solitary Confinement. Try to climb as high as possible to avoid being swept by the water, as this will slow you down. Also, be careful not to provoke too many enemies in the water.

Key Features Of The Prisoner

Before understanding the boss's abilities and combat style, it's important to understand that this enemy primarily deals physical and cold damage, and is particularly effective against players who are close to it.

So, before engaging in battle, ensure you have cold-resistant gear. If not, exchange it by currency immediately. Also, remember to maintain as much distance as possible from the boss during the fight.

Phase 1

Initially, The Prisoner will only use his standard attacks, making them easy to dodge. Simply run around the arena while dealing damage and keep your distance.

The boss's abilities during this phase include:

• Claw Swipe: The boss will swing his arms at you, aiming for you to avoid them by rolling.
• Crushing Fist: This skill has two forms: one causing the boss to dash forward and punch the ground; the other causing the boss to slam both fists into the ground, dealing area-of-effect damage.
• Ice Strike: The boss will thrust his hands into his chest and launch ice towards you. You'll need to predict the direction of the attack and dodge it.
• Spike Chamber: When the boss's health reaches around 75%, he will create a mass of ice and then slam the ground, shattering it to damage you. You can dodge by sprinting to the other side of the arena or finding a gap between the spikes.

Phase 2

When the boss's health reaches 50%, he ceases to move, and Phase 2 begins. A prompt will pop up onscreen, prompting you to activate one of the three ballistas in the arena. This must be done quickly, or the boss's health will regenerate.

In addition, during this phase, The Prisoner will unearth a ballista bolt from his chest, further expanding his attack range and upgrading the skills utilized in Phase 1:

• Claw Swipes are replaced by Spear Swipes.
• Crushing Fist is replaced by Spear Slams.
• Ice Strike is replaced by a shockwave attack (faster attack speed).
• Spike Chamber's spikes are larger, have a larger blast radius, and provide protection against magical attacks.

Phase 2 also adds a new skill, Creeping Frost. This skill allows the boss to draw freezing energy from his chest and implant it into the ground, creating a circle of cold air that slowly spreads across the arena.

This skill's effects are unavoidable, and even if you're out of range, you'll still be affected by the slowdown. Your only recourse is to try to move to the edge of the arena to get more movement time for yourself.

Phase 3

Entering this phase marks the climax of the boss fight. The Prisoner gains new skills through blood power, and all of his attacks deal heavy damage.

• Bloody Slash: The boss swings his spear, spraying a large amount of blood across the arena. Roll behind the boss to avoid it.
• Blood Spatter: The boss raises his hand and sprays a large amount of blood. This blood will follow you and damage you. Keep moving and away from it.
• Blood Blast: The boss unleashes a large explosive slam, dealing area-of-effect damage. This skill is indicated by a red ring on the ground; roll away if you see it.

In addition, Creeping Frost skill introduced in Phase 2 remains active, now with a damaging blood effect.

After mastering the above tips and ultimately defeating The Prisoner, you'll summon The Hooded One to obtain the weapon piece crucial to completing the mission. All you have to do now is travel to other locations and defeat more bosses to obtain all the pieces.

Although The Prisoner is incredibly dangerous, as long as you memorize his abilities and phase changes, and maintain agility and vigilance, you can easily defeat this boss fight! Best of luck!

Recently, an officially supported private competition event is in full swing. Have you joined Merciless Gauntlet? It's widely considered the hardest event in Path of Exile, boasting the most brutal monster stat bonuses. If you're not prepared, you'll likely end up running and dying.

While Merciless Gauntlet offers generous rewards, please note that it's a class competition, and only those who reach the top of each class can claim their individual rewards! However, the harder the challenge, the more fun it is.

Thus, nearly every challenger I've seen is using the top-tier Ascendancy set, rather than the standard set. They're all debating which build setup is best for advancing and farming POE currency, but there's one unique item that remains constant across all of these plans: Ephemeral Edge.

Is The Nerfed Ephemeral Edge Worth Using?

If you ask veteran Exiles what the strongest item in the game is, some will say Mageblood, others Best-in-Slot Simplex Amulet, but I'll definitely say Ephemeral Edge, even though it suffered a significant nerf in Path of Exile 3.26.

But that comparison isn't entirely fair. The key to Mageblood's strength lies in its Timeless mechanic, which is virtually unaffected by any balance changes. Its power is directly tied to flasks, which are unlikely to be nerfed, making it inherently overpowered. For many players who run a different build in each league, it's a sought-after unique item.

But Ephemeral Edge is different. Its power is built on the meta of the past few leagues, and many other factors contribute to its strength and potential. Even though it lost 25% of its stat bonus in Path of Exile 3.26, it's still incredibly strong.

Trickster Class

Now, things are getting a little crazy, because when we think of Ephemeral Edge, we usually think of Trickster. Don't get me wrong, while there are many excellent non-Trickster builds in this league that utilize this unique weapon, only Trickster class can maximize the potential of this sword through its efficient maximum energy shield scaling.

But in Merciless Gauntlet, there's no base class like Trickster; it's not an option you can choose. However, this doesn't mean that the Ephemeral Edge is unusable.

Reviewing The Changes And Adjustments To Ephemeral Edge

So, why is a unique item still one of the most important items in any ultimate build, even after the nerfs?

To understand this, we need to go back to the 3.18 update: Sentinel League. In this update, seven Uber Pinnacle bosses were added to the game. While not directly related to Ephemeral Edge, this addition was significant.

Then, in 3.19: Kalandra League, the developers made a key update to the item. Before this patch, Ephemeral Edge was not a particularly useful weapon, to say the least.

In the 3.19 patch notes, this item had a new attack modifier that increased maximum lightning damage by 20% of Energy Shield.

Initially, this change went unnoticed until people realized how ridiculous this was for Animate Guardian, which could directly grant a massive maximum Energy Shield, thus dealing insane maximum lightning damage.

After this issue was discovered, PoE 3.23 quickly patched it, and it would later scale solely with the player's Energy Shield.

Fast forward to PoE 3.24, everyone's favorite, Necropolis League. This patch added several important pieces to the puzzle, but none more so than T17 map. At this point, Uber Pinnacle boss had already appeared in several leagues in the game. But the addition of T17 map would once again alter the endgame and completely reshape the meta-game.

Not only did this completely change what players could farm and how they could farm it, but it also significantly increased the requirements for farming it. You needed a very strong, well-rounded build to reliably run T17, which meant a lot of checkboxes on both offense and defense.

But patch 3.24 added more than just T17 map. It also introduced Perandus Pact unique jewel, which was later repackaged as The Light of Meaning and is now a drop exclusive to The King of the Mists.

The maximum energy shield version of this jewel is a crucial component of most Ephemeral Edge builds, boosting their energy shield.

Next came the 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League, arguably the most significant update impacting Ephemeral Edge builds. This patch introduced new, more powerful base types, allowing items to provide more basic defense without relying on auras.

This change catapulted Trickster into the top tier.

Escape Artist, combined with a well-crafted Necrotic Armor and Lich's Circlet, provides the foundation for a massive energy shield pool, providing both defensive and offensive capabilities through Ephemeral Edge.

Coincidentally, Trickster not only boasts powerful scaling but also possesses a powerful Arsenal tool for Path of Exile's endgame, allowing you to ignore T17 action speed bonus and gain incredible resiliency through the overachievement of Energy Shield.

Of course, the base type changes affect more than just Trickster. In fact, in POE 3.26, we've seen Elementalist gain several well-performing Ephemeral Edge builds, including Ignite Eviscerate. This build was already performing well in patch 3.25, but thanks to Elementalist rework, it's now even more powerful.

Now, with Secrets of the Atlas expansion, the developers are also introducing T16 maps influenced by memories, known as T16.5 maps. These maps can be quite exciting, and unlike T17 maps, they can also include your favorite map layouts. However, they still carry T17 modifiers, making them quite difficult to map, so you need a well-rounded build, and Ephemeral Edge is often your best choice.

Why Is Ephemeral Edge Build The Best Choice For Completing Gauntlet?

In the current Merciless Gauntlet competition, you need a powerful character with a good balance between offense and defense. There are only a handful of builds that currently offer a reasonable balance in terms of energy shield, and Ephemeral Edge is one of them.

The average maximum energy shield for an Ephemeral Edge build is around 15,000 to 20,000. While many builds have much higher maximum shields, we're only looking at the average, which is roughly 3 to 4 times the effective hit value of the average life build.

A maximum energy shield of 15,000 to 20,000 means that, with the current nerf modifiers, Ephemeral Edge can deliver 2,250 to 3,000 maximum lightning damage. This is equivalent to a decent two-handed weapon, if not better.

Remember that being able to scale both damage and defense is a good thing, but it's not always a strong one, as evidenced by the current scaling of Righteous Fire. But what's different about Ephemeral Edge is that, even after the nerf, it still provides far more damage than Energy Shield you can get in the current league.

In short, given the current game balance, Ephemeral Edge build is practically tailor made for the current Gauntlet event.

And I don't think this is a Trickster issue. Even without Trickster, the other Ascendancy classes would have taken over. They might not be as good as Trickster, but they'd still be viable and a second-best option. And that's exactly what I expect to see in Gauntlet, they'll all do pretty much the same thing.

Merciless Gauntlet is a Path of Exile private league event, popular among players for its exceptional difficulty, challenge, and generous rewards. Therefore, you can also think of it as a short-term challenge designed for experienced players.

This event runs from July 31, 2025, to August 10, 2025, for just ten days. Players can compete and earn points by leveling up characters and defeating bosses, aiming to climb the leaderboards.

Considering that the original Path of Exile game hasn’t been updated in the past year, Merciless Gauntlet event is a long-awaited return, so almost every veteran player is excited about it. More importantly, this is the first Gauntlet ever to not feature a base Ascendancy build; you can only choose PoE Ascendancy build, which completely changes the existing build landscape.

About Merciless Gauntlet

As the event progresses, many interesting builds are emerging, but before we dive in, let’s quickly review Merciless Gauntlet event and discuss how it differs from the base league.

If you’re unfamiliar with Gauntlet event, think of it as Path of Exile on Hard Mode. It’s a Hardcore Solo Self-Found event, so you can’t trade, and if you die, you lose your character.

There are modifiers that increase the strength of monsters based on the area’s level, making the campaign more difficult. However, defeating these enemies also rewards more PoE currency and points. Therefore, you can upgrade your gear during the slightly more difficult Atlas Mapping phase to prepare for the final, more challenging boss fight.

In addition to the relevant monster modifiers, boss mechanics have also undergone specific changes. For example, Brutus in Act 1 can cast Hydra Cannon in the arena, and the Depraved Trinity boss in Act 9 now has Maven’s Brain Blast, which fires energy beams into the arena.

Gauntlet is now a points-based competition, meaning that completing various tasks, whether it’s killing Uber Sirus or completing Maven’s Invitation, will earn you points.

More importantly, Gauntlet is also a class competition. Therefore, the highest-scoring player in each class will receive a prize. There will also be an overall and runner-up prize. This class competition promotes class build diversity, and we’ll see many new builds developed specifically for this event.

Best Class Builds

So, let’s take a look at some of the top three class builds in Merciless Gauntlet so far.

Marauder - Ancestral Commander

Currently, the most popular class is Marauder, thanks to Ancestral Commander.

Ancestral Commander now boasts extremely powerful defensive abilities, such as an additional 3 maximum Endurance Charges or a Defiance of Destiny buff, making it an excellent performer in the rigors of Gauntlet.

Furthermore, this Ascendancy also has a notable feature: it significantly increases the cooldown recovery rate of Warcries, making it a great alternative to Berserker’s Warbringer node and making Ancestral Commander an excellent choice for slam builds.

Slam builds are incredibly powerful in PoE 3.26. This not only gives Intimidating Cry a longer Double Damage Exerted Attack duration, but also means your Warcries will fire more frequently, leading to more consistent Earthshatter explosions.

Ancestral Commander has a total of nine maximum Endurance Charges: three from basic skills, three from the passive skill tree, and three from Ascendancy node. Combined with the substantial armor and maximum elemental resistance bonuses, this build is quite durable, especially for mapping and farming.

Shadow - Servant of Arakaali

Right now, the second-most-played class in Gauntlet is surprisingly Shadow, with Servant of Arakaali becoming a popular choice because of several excellent poison builds.

Currently, Shadow is led by Poison Summon Raging Spirits (SRS) build. This particular build utilizes Servant of Arakaali’s notable Skincrawlers and combines it with crafted Abyss Jewels to give minions a 100% chance to poison.

Also, a free level 15 Envy combined with Added Chaos Damage Support provides base damage for applied poisons.

Now, you’ll notice that this build’s defense is significantly weaker than Ancestral Commander, but it’s worth noting that some of this defense isn’t fully realized yet. This is because Aspect of the Spider not only increases the damage taken by enemies, but also reduces their damage dealt by 15%.

This build also puts a lot of effort into blocking, nearly reaching the upper limit of spell and attack block, but due to the skill path being on the left side of the passive tree, spell suppression is lacking.

Duelist - Paladin

The final class on this list is Duelist with Paladin. Paladin is an interesting Ascendancy class. There are some Banner Slammer and Slam setups, but you’ll notice that most of these lack primary damage skills. This is because they use support builds primarily to help their mercenaries deal the majority of their damage.

This unique setup makes Paladin build a perfect match for the new mercenaries added to this Gauntlet event, and there are many ways to enhance them. This includes Infinite Power Warcries and Taunts, Increased Flask Effect and Flasks you used to apply to Linked Targets modifiers, and an enhanced Aura Effect when you have Linked Targets.

Now, Purity of Elements not only provides elemental ailment immunity for you and your mercenaries, but also provides a significant amount of additional resistances, giving you and your mercenaries greater flexibility in your gear.

But the most important part of this type of build is, of course, the mercenaries themselves. Finding the right mercenaries in Gauntlet, with the right skills and support links, is no small feat.

However, much of the damage dealt by the mercenaries comes from Paladin’s support abilities. First and foremost is Flame Link, which provides flat fire damage and bonus flat fire damage based on your maximum life. And this build has a significant increase in maximum life.

But perhaps even more important is Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage, a setting from March of the Legion. Once you’ve laid the mine, it delivers absolutely amazing flat damage, making it perfect for boss fights.

On top of that, Paladin also provides a host of powerful defensive buffs to both himself and his mercenaries, all at 100% duration, including massive life regeneration from Enduring Cry and maximum resistance scaling from Ancestral Cry.

That’s it! We’ll likely see some really great builds perform well in boss fights over the next few days, but for now, these builds are worth using and have the potential to help you secure a spot on the final leaderboard!

Have you found your best build yet? If not, don’t worry, we are here to provide you with the answer!

Here, we will share the 8 best Area of Effect (AoE) builds in Path of Exile 3.26 and briefly describe their key mechanisms and core equipment. You can choose the best build according to your play style and play style, shuttle through the battlefield full of explosions and loot, and completely control the map.

1. Lightning Arrow Deadeye Build

First, let’s introduce the first build, Lightning Arrow Deadeye. This is a high-speed bow setup designed to achieve excellent map clearing capabilities through efficient projectile-based AOE.

It focuses on scaling flat elemental damage through Lightning Arrow and Artillery Ballista, and gets better results by clearing enemy groups with penetrating and returning projectiles.

Key offensive attributes of this build include added elemental damage, attack speed, projectile modifiers, frenzy charges, and even critical strike scaling.

Early on, you’ll want to take advantage of Precise Technique to boost damage, then switch to a Critical Focus setup once you get a powerful Spine Bow.

Then defensively, this build will stack evasion, 100% spell suppression, and Elemental Ailment Avoidance through Ancestral Vision, while also being bolstered by Grace, Blind, Life Leech, and Life on Hit Recovery. Projectile speed plays a key role in clearing speed, allowing off-screen kills and boosting damage through Bow Mastery.

More importantly, we can minimize mana consumption by using Eldritch mods, unique rings, and Inspiration Support.

While this build has super high mapping speed and is extremely efficient at clearing maps, it has limited potential in boss fights and is less survivable for hardcore players.

Therefore, it’s best suited for new players who focus on clearing speed and don’t have a higher PoE currency budget. Still, this build offers flexible gear selection, allowing you to gradually upgrade to high-end bows and jewelry as you progress through the game.

2. Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist Build

Then there’s Explosive Arrow Ballista, a hybrid of ranged traps and minions that excels at map clearing and has a powerful mid-air explosion. It primarily casts stationary turrets through Ballista skill, firing Explosive Arrows for massive AOE damage.

Offensively, this build can stack fire damage, projectile damage, and even critical hits. Defensively, it focuses on evasion, life, and damage reduction through flasks and jewels.

This build is perfect for players who are looking for a unique turret playstyle with extremely high clearing speed and good survivability. Strategic placement of Ballista and Traps will reward players for careful map navigation and situational awareness, giving it an added tactical layer beyond simple skill attacks.

3. Poisonous Concoction Pathfinder Build

Next up is Poisonous Concoction Pathfinder Build, which focuses on sustained poison damage through Concoction skill and has extremely strong tanking capabilities.

Concoction skill fires a projectile that applies a deadly poison over time, and it makes full use of Pathfinder Ascendancy to give it a longer skill cast time, which allows it to apply damage and survivability buffs over time.

Offensively, it is able to stack multiple chaos damage, poison buffs, and get critical hits supported by strong projectile speed and multi-flask effects.

Defensively, this build relies on evasion, energy shields, and increased life regeneration. Early upgrades will use similar poison-based attacks, and then transition to high DPS poison buffs in the mid-game.

This build is low-cost, easy to equip, and provides a solid clearing speed and considerable boss damage. It’s ideal for players who want a smooth mapping and strong persistence experience with poison mechanics while enjoying the utility and survivability of flasks.

Plus, it has a host of easy-to-learn unique skills and low-priced equipment, making it particularly attractive for players looking for an efficient and economical league start.

4. Poison SRS Necromancer Build

Next on the list is Poison SRS Necromancer build, which centers around summoning Spirits to deal continuous poison damage. Necromancer Ascendancy will maximize the damage and survivability of minions, increasing poison effects and clearing speed.

Offensively, this build combines the minions’ attacks with powerful poison damage buffs, making full use of critical strikes and chaos damage nodes. Defensively, the advantage of this build is that minions can act as the front line, while players can use energy shields and life regeneration to stay alive.

This build is perfect for players who want to become minion masters and is also suitable for low difficulty games and Solo Self-Found (SSF) with its strong poison mechanics and excellent map efficiency.

Its main advantage is the ability to quickly clear the enemy team without direct engagement, providing a safer way to play, especially for players who are not familiar with poison or minion mechanics.

5. Ice Shot Of Penetration Miner Deadeye Build

Next up is Ice Shot of Penetration Miner Deadeye, which focuses on fast clearing and bursting cold damage around Ice Shot combined with Miners. Deadeye Ascendancy can greatly increase projectile damage and accuracy.

Offensively, it combines a lot of cold damage scaling, new projectiles, and critical strikes with Mines deployment to achieve safe ranged play. Defensively, this build has good survivability with a lot of evasion, dodge, and life leech.

This build is ideal for players who like safe ranged tactical play and pursue fast clearing. The dual gameplay of direct shooting and mines allows you to maintain a flexible engagement distance, allowing it to adapt to various map layouts and boss mechanisms.

6. Bleed Gladiator Build

Then, we have to mention the build that focuses on melee bleed damage and has strong survivability, Bleed Gladiator.

Gladiator Ascendancy can enhance bleed effects, life recovery and armor, and can use fast attacks and bleed stacking to tear through enemies at super fast speeds.

On the offensive side, it focuses on physical damage, attack speed and bleed bonuses, while using buffs such as Fortify to improve defense. On the defensive side, it focuses on high life, armor and block chance, as well as bleed immune gear.

This build is best suited for players who like melee combat, which can provide good boss damage and strong map survivability, especially for players who like powerful defense and bleed mechanisms. It is definitely worth a try.

And it can also work perfectly with many unique weapons to increase the probability and effect of bleeding, making it flexible to adapt to various game styles, including solo or team games.

7. Volcanic Fissure Of Snaking Berserker Build

Next, move on to Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker, a melee slam build with ranged attack capabilities and extremely fast clearing speed.

This build focuses on scaling damage with multiple Volcanic Fissures per cast, Autoexertion & Warcries to enhance attack speed and damage burst. Finally, it further amplifies the duration of the burst damage with Prismatic Tincture.

Note that your cursor control is key. You need to place it outside of the boss to maximize Volcanic Fissure AOE damage.

For Berserker Ascendancy, you should focus on Warbringer, then Rite of Ruin, and Aspect of Carnage. These provide strong synergy with Warcries, high damage, and movement speed.

On the defensive side, it mainly counteracts the life decay of Berserker through Endurance charges, Fortify/Debilitate, Spell Suppression, Life Leech, and Glorious Vanity.

Overall, this build has a lightning-fast map clearing speed and strong coverage, which is not only durable but also easy to use. More importantly, the mechanics of this build will reward precise positioning and timing, making it more attractive to players who like active play styles, while also providing room for trying different Warcries and Flask setups.

8. Vortex Of Projection Archmage Hierophant Build

Finally, we come to Vortex of Projection Archmage Hierophant, which can use Vortex skill to cause continuous freezing damage. And Hierophant Ascendancy can provide strong mana and energy shield, allowing it to cast spells continuously.

On the offensive side, it can improve summon damage, skill damage, and critical strike. On the defensive side, it benefits from the high energy shield, mana regeneration, and Ascendancy buffs.

This build focuses on skill damage and survivability in the early game, and then transitions to high energy shields, excellent clearing speed and good boss damage.

Overall, it is more suitable for players who want to have a strong Archmage, continuous AOE and strong defense. And because of the continuous continuous damage bonus effect, it performs well in boss battles and can even clear a large number of enemies effortlessly. This makes it one of the favorite builds for casters who focus on survivability.

Here are the 8 most popular AoE builds in PoE 3.26 at present. These builds can maximize the efficiency of players clearing monster groups on the map, allowing you to easily kill enemies and bosses!