Exiles, the long-awaited Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict update has finally been revealed! Are these updates and changes what you expected?

This Patch 0.3.0 is still a very heavyweight update. I'm afraid you will feel tired just reading all the patch notes! Just kidding! But if you really don't have the time to delve into all the details, this guide might help you catch up quickly.

Here, let's talk about some of the highlights of The Third Edict and how they impact our gameplay! Let's get started.

Act 4

We'll begin by reviewing Act 4, which picks up where Act 3 left off.

Doryani must search for an ancient weapon that can be used to fight corruption - a symbol of the Third Edict. The weapon was damaged long ago, but he believes the fragments can be found in Karui Archipelago, home to Karui tribes.

You'll then need to travel to Kingsmarch, rent a boat, open the map, and sail to any destination you like.

Yes, Act 4 is non-linear, meaning you can explore the islands in any order. No matter where you choose to go, you'll fight dangerous beasts, find rich treasure, and battle incredible bosses.

Act 4 offers eight islands to explore, each with unique flora and fauna and many other fascinating encounters.

3 Mini-Acts

Until now, players had to replay the entire campaign to reach the endgame, so what else could we do between the end of Act 4 and the endgame?

The developers have added three new Mini-Acts, which you can think of as interludes leading up to the endgame.

These Interludes consist of three temporary side stories that will remain in the game until Act 5 is released, bringing you to level 65 and then unlocking the endgame. Who knows what you'll find there?

• Interlude 1: Return to Ogham
• Interlude 2: The Vastiri Awaits
• Interlude 3: A Time Capsule

Each Interlude contains six to seven areas and typically four boss fights. Including Act 4, the campaign will have 35 new areas and 24 new boss fights.

It's important to note that these Interludes are temporary. With the addition of Acts 5-6, the Interludes will disappear; after all, they're side stories.

Rise Of The Abyssal League

While the campaign has been overhauled with each major update, it's inevitable that returning to it can become tedious. Thankfully, the developers have taken this into consideration, launching the first league during POE 2's Early Access period - Rise of the Abyssal - to ensure a fresh experience when returning between expansions.

This brand-new league not only features a new economy but also offers new content unique to that league. The core mechanic of Rise of the Abyssal League is Abyssal.

Here, players will encounter a race called Abyssal, masters of forbidden magic and necromancy. Once thought extinct, they now lurk underground.

They create massive fissures across the continent, devouring the creatures that inhabit them. Therefore, the townspeople need your help to investigate the monsters' source and stop their attacks. The best way to drive out Abyssal is to destroy their food source and defeat the monsters inhabiting the fissures before they are devoured by Abyssal.

Deactivating fissures will activate nearby Abyssal pits, triggering more Abyssal battles. However, once you defeat Abyssals, the pits will be sealed, and you can enjoy your bountiful loot.

Fissures and pits will only become more dense as you progress, and they have a chance to gain buffs from the monsters they absorb, affecting their encounters and subsequent loot.

Remember, be extremely cautious if an Abyssal Pit appears near a boss, as it may trigger the appearance of a massive monster that you'll be almost powerless against. Run away!

New Sprint Feature

Many players have complained that replaying the campaign with each character is tedious, making the entire game tedious. To address this, the developers have introduced a new feature: Sprint.

In POE 2 0.3.0, holding down Dodge-Roll button will cause your character to enter a Sprint state after completing a roll. This feature applies to all characters, and there's no limit to the duration of Sprint. However, if you're hit by an enemy while Sprinting, you'll be knocked to the ground.

The primary purpose of Sprint function is to increase the efficiency of traversing areas outside of combat, making it particularly useful for quickly mapping and farming PoE 2 currency. Since you're less vulnerable to damage while rolling, and your Sprint speed is faster than any other monster in the game, you can retreat from combat and increase your farming efficiency.

Support Gem System Improvements

Next, let's take a look at Support Gems in PoE 2, one of the game's most important new systems.

It's no secret that Support Gems are one of the most important elements of a complete build, enabling numerous interesting mechanics and rich gameplay.

However, it's important to admit that PoE 2's Support Gem system has always been somewhat imperfect. One major issue was that each character could only possess one Support Gem of each type. However, this design significantly hindered players from effectively using a variety of skills.

Therefore, in Patch 0.3.0, the developers have removed the one-of-a-kind limit per character. Now, we can use any number of gems, significantly expanding the number of possible skill combinations and increasing skill diversity.

While this is already a great way to level up the campaign, the developers haven't stopped there. They've added a brand new Support Gem system to spice things up: Lineage Support.

Think of these as unique items specific to Support, but with far greater power. And just like unique items, many Lineage Support Gems can be obtained from specific bosses, some of which are crucial to determining your build's power.

All told, approximately 40 Lineage Support Gems will be added throughout the endgame, so there's a lot of power to discover!

New Endgame Maps

With the release of Act 4 and Mini-Acts, we're adding 25 new endgame maps featuring all the new monsters and bosses, significantly increasing the game's variety and giving you the opportunity to experience new boss battles multiple times!

With new content to explore, you'll be able to invest in Atlas trees faster, experience Pinnacle content, feel less intimidated when challenging Pinnacle bosses, reach higher levels more easily, and all while finding many new PoE 2 orbs and endgame items.

Asynchronous Trade

Finally, we'd like to mention the feature many exiles have been eagerly awaiting for years: Asynchronous Trade.

While the in-game trading mechanism meets basic player needs, some issues have emerged over time. For example, it often requires players to stay in hideouts for extended periods of time instead of going out to fight monsters, or it prevents players from receiving replies who are temporarily away or too lazy to contact.

To finally address these issues, the developers have added a new system that allows players to trade items with other players without the seller being present. They can continue to fight monsters, leave at will, or even go offline.

While this is a simple quality-of-life feature, it actually shows that the developers are truly listening to player feedback and continuously making improvements.

Regardless, the numerous updates brought by Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict are constantly addressing previous bugs and optimizing the gaming experience. Perhaps now is the time to get back into the game! What do you think?

Exiles, are you already antsy as the full patch notes inch closer? Instead of waiting, take a guess at what changes will be coming to the balance update in Patch 0.3.0!

With almost every league update, in-game balance is a key focus, as they can completely overturn our understanding of specific mechanics and builds. So, what are the developers targeting for nerfs or buffs in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict? Let's take a look!

Nerf Predictions

First, let's talk about nerfs.

Lightning Spear

Nerfs are naturally at the top of this list. How could we expect anything else? After all, this skill is ridiculously powerful.

In fact, early in Patch 0.2.0, the developers began nerfing some over-tuned skills, but Lightning Spear, already a standout at the time, received a buff. While already quite useful, this buff made it even more powerful, firmly cementing its place at the top.

Furthermore, Huntress class was new, and Amazon Ascendancy was a perfect fit for it, so a large portion of players naturally gravitated towards this Ascendancy build. This led to a significant imbalance in Ascendancy class system during Dawn of the Hunt League, with the top two classes, Amazon and Deadeye, comprising nearly 50% of all characters in the league!

Now, because of Lightning Spear's current popularity, I predict a high probability of nerfs to this skill, particularly its attack speed and damage multipliers.

Tangletongue

Now, let's take a look at the second predicted nerf for PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0: Tangletongue. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea how this Spear made it into Dawn of the Hunt at its current power, considering its power and rarity make it arguably the most powerful unique item in the game.

Simply put, Tangletongue has incredibly high base critical chance thanks to the weapon's massive flat bonus critical chance roll, which can reach up to 20%. This means it can achieve a base critical chance of up to 25% without corruption.

That's not all, as it also has another modifier, Forking Critical Hits, which allows the weapon to roll critical chance twice for each attack and then compare the results.

If only one roll succeeds, the attack is a critical hit, dealing the normal critical damage bonus. However, if both rolls succeed, then the critical damage bonus is doubled - incredible!

Critical damage is already the most powerful damage bonus in PoE 2, and this item takes it to the extreme.

However, I think if it does get nerfed, it shouldn't lose Forking Critical Hits mechanic, which is what makes it so special. Instead, it's the flat bonus critical chance modifier that should be nerfed, which makes more sense.

Deadeye

Also, another possible nerf in the 0.3.0 update is Deadeye. That's right, not Amazon we mentioned earlier.

While Amazon might take some hits, its popularity has surged since the new Ascendancy class in 0.2.0, surpassing other options.

By comparison, Deadeye has been at the top of Ascendancy charts since PoE 2 Early Access release. And it has excellent skill nodes, especially when the power of the skill is locked in by a charge, allowing you to easily take down bosses in seconds!

Thus, I expect a nerf to Deadeye in this update, but compared to the nerf to Lightning Spear, it's likely to be quite mild, and it is even possible that other factors will cause Deadeye's strength to be significantly weakened.

However, once you've accumulated enough POE 2 currency in the early stages of The Third Edict League, I fully expect Deadeye to remain your go-to build.

You May Like: What Improvements Does Path Of Exile 2 Need To Have In Patch 0.3.0? - Builds, Endgame And More

Buff Predictions

Next, let's talk about the buff predictions for patch 0.3.0.

Build Attribute Requirements

First and foremost, I believe that attribute requirements are one of the biggest factors inhibiting build diversity in Path of Exile 2 right now. 

There are other factors, of course, including the fact that the requirements for high-level skill gems and gear are so high, which means that the setups you can use in any given build are severely limited. This is because of a variety of issues. However, the strict attribute requirements leave your build with no room for growth.

Because the passive tree provides such low stats relative to its cost, you need to add a lot of affixes specifically designed to boost stats to your gear to meet these costs. This often prevents you from easily upgrading other stats to use auxiliary skills that are inconsistent with your primary stats.

For example, using Intelligence Curse skill on a Strength-based character is difficult enough because simply reaching the required stats at the minimum level requires all the effort, not to mention upgrading the skill gems.

Therefore, I think the easiest way to address this issue is to lower the attribute requirements by a fixed percentage, allowing players to tailor their builds to specific items or skills, providing greater freedom in building their builds.

Armor

Another potential area of improvement would be Armor.

In the 0.2.0 patch, we expected the developers to buff character armor and health, but neither of these received any changes.

Therefore, I suspect they might consider reducing Energy Shield to a reasonable level and then increasing Health by increasing Defense of Life-based builds. However, this would require significant changes to the passive tree, and if they're not willing to address the issue of excessively high monster damage, then Armor calculation formula itself would need to be adjusted.

If the first Druid or Templar Strength-Intelligence hybrid class does indeed arrive in POE 2's 0.2.0 patch, then that class build would likely utilize a mix of Armor and Energy Shield items. This would provide a great opportunity to effectively address Armor issue, especially considering so many players will probably try out this new class, if it ever becomes available.

Acolyte Of Chayula Ascendancy

Finally, I think there's one more potential buff for The Third Edict update: Monk class's Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy. This Ascendancy is in desperate need of help.

In Dawn of the Hunt, it was the least-used Ascendancy class, at just 0.7%. So, what's wrong with this Ascendancy?

The crux of the matter lies with Darkness branch at the very bottom of the class's skill tree. This branch accounts for three of the class's nine skills and significantly influences your build preferences.

Darkness branch often locks out your Spirit skills, replacing them with a severely underdeveloped Darkness mechanic. This mechanic works a bit like the Primal Aegis + Guard skill in PoE 1, but it's incredibly weak, and once Darkness is blocked, you have to wait 10 seconds to unblock it.

This means you're making an enormous sacrifice to gain a Darkness buff, but the resulting benefit is so weak that the reward isn't worth it. What you end up with is a mediocre mechanic replacing Spirit, which isn't a very good trade-off.

So, I expect to see significant improvements to Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy in this update, especially its Darkness mechanic.

These are my guesses for some of the buffs and nerfs I might see in POE 2 patch 0.3.0, which could rebalance existing game mechanics and open up new build possibilities! Of course, these are just predictions; who knows! The full patch is coming soon, so stay tuned!

Recently, we received a new trailer for Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. As usual, it's brief, but it still reveals a wealth of information.

The title of the trailer seems to say it all: Kulemak Teaser #2.

If you're a longtime Path of Exile fan, you can immediately tell from the black, gray, and green color scheme of this trailer that it's closely related to Abyss mechanics. We're certain that Abyss will appear in some form in Path of Exile 2.

Meanwhile, the voiceover, "In the light, we burn! In the dark... We thrive," seems to confirm the existence of Lightless creatures, also known as Abyssal, deep within Wraeclast.

So, what does Kulemak in the title have to do with this? Who is he?

To be honest, at this point, we know very little about what or who Kulemak is. We only have fragmentary information about this entity. Therefore, here, we will attempt to speculate on the possible background of The Third Edict based on what we know so far.

What Is Kulemak?

First, let's briefly review the key events that led to our current situation: The Winter of the World.

Review The Winter Of The World Event

A volcanic eruption filled the skies of Wraeclast with fire and ash, completely covering the continent and shrouding it in darkness. This led to a cold, dark winter that lasted for a thousand years.

At some point during this millennium, likely even earlier, Lightless emerged from the underground and slaughtered the inhabitants of Wraeclast. This primarily occurred in Vastiri Plains region, but it could also occur in other areas.

Most of the original civilization was buried in ash, but a primitive woman named Ahkeli survived and escaped. She later allied with Maraketh people and formed a group called Order of the Djinn. Their goal is to find and acquire powerful artifacts to seal them away from danger.

Now, sometime after the Lightless emerged, slaughtered the inhabitants, and unleashed chaos, Three Sisters appeared. We've long believed them to be Sekhema Solerai, Sekhema Lundara, and an unnamed figure. They essentially united the many different races and groups that inhabited the vast universe and beyond.

Because Lightless were an actual threat, all of these different groups came together and formed a temporary alliance because they had a common enemy. If they hadn't formed an alliance, Lightless would likely have prevailed and conquered Wraeclast.

At some point later, the Three Sisters united, united the scattered Maraketh tribe, and used Essence of Gold and Silver to purify the sky, ending winter and driving Lightless back underground.

Now, extensive background information from Heist and elsewhere in PoE indicates that the Three Sisters were Solerai, Lundara, and Viridi.

Order Of The Djinn Artifacts

During this time and for a long time afterward, Order of the Djinn remained mysterious to most civilizations, operating in the shadows. However, they remained united in their goal: to protect artifacts, ensuring their safety and preventing them from falling into the wrong hands.

However, one of their members, Janus Perandus, betrayed the order at Catarina's behest, resulting in the deaths of all members except Jun and Janus.

Catarina then obtained Horns of Kulemak, which she had Janus steal from Order's Forbidden Vault.

With this artifact, Catarina formed Immortal Syndicate, a new world order designed to be immune to the weaknesses of normal civilization.

Horns Of Kulemak

In fact, we learn quite a bit about Horns of Kulemak from various conversations in the game, particularly with Jun.

Horns of Kulemak are artifacts capable of freely transferring life energy. The power Catarina longed for wasn't just magical, but also political. Immortality would undoubtedly provide her with a powerful bargaining chip, which is why Order of the Djinn kept Horns of Kulemak hidden for so long.

We know that Horns of Kulemak are the ultimate tool of life and death, capable of absorbing the life force of any living being. However, we don't know its origin. Perhaps it's the remains of a powerful, long-dead animal, or perhaps it's a creation of the gods. Whatever its origin, I believe it's this artifact that grants Syndicate its miraculous ability to resurrect from the dead.

Currently, the only other reference to Kulemak we can find is Cane of Kulemak used by Catarina. The staff's introductory text, "Stolen power," still refers to the stolen power of Horns of Kulemak.

Personal Thoughts And Speculations

Now, at this point, we have to fill in some blanks.

How exactly did Order of the Djinn acquire Horns of Kulemak? Well, I speculate that this occurred at some point during The Winter of the World, which would imply that Kulemak is somehow connected to Lightless.

Kulemak itself could be a Lightless creature. However, I think it's more likely that Kulemak is a completely different creature, one that Lightless worship. Perhaps Kulemak is the one who gave them their power.

Ziggurat Map Boss

Now, one thing that supports this theory is the tier 17 Ziggurat Map, where you'll face Uber Catarina boss. During that boss fight, Catarina summoned three well-known Abyssal bosses: Kurgal, the Blackblooded, Ulaman, Sovereign of the Well, and Amanamu, Liege of the Lightless.

Interestingly, Catarina actually summoned these creatures, perhaps possessing Horns of Kulemak allows her to command them to do whatever she wishes. This could hint at Horns of Kulemak, and Kulemak themselves, being beings worshipped and followed by Lightless.

Mysterious Teaser Image

In fact, we've received some information supporting this theory, such as the first teaser image we received, which contained a deciphered image of various symbols.

The word "well" appears here. Further down, the words "noble," "highborn," and "king" are crossed out. Another possible word would be "Sovereign." Coincidentally, one of Abyssal bosses is Ulaman, Sovereign of the Well, which would fit in nicely with these two words.

Furthermore, the "winter" here likely refers to the practice of The Winter of the World, when the Lightless first appeared on the surface. The words "beginning" and "birth" could allude to Kulemak's role, as we know Horns of Kulemak possess the power to both grant and take life.

Sculpted Suffering Warpick Flavor Text

And, perhaps more importantly, the text inscribed on Sculpted Suffering Warpick reads: "The Abyssals were created, not born, and every moment in the light was agony." So, who created Abyssal?

I suspect it was Kulemak, which might suggest that Kulemak himself isn't Lightless, but rather some kind of deity or being of true power.

I believe we'll see Kulemak in patch 0.3.0, integrated into PoE 2 as part of Abyss mechanics. We might even get a chance to fight Kulemak, perhaps becoming the pinnacle boss for Abyss League mechanic and a new source of PoE 2 currency and loot.

Finally, I want to reiterate the flavor text on Sculpted Suffering Warpick. It seems to imply that Lightless were created in the Light, or at least were exposed to the Light during their creation.

But I'm not sure what this actually means, other than reinforcing the idea that Kulemak is not Lightless, and is not bound by light or dark. Perhaps Lightless were simply a failed creation, or perhaps they needed exposure to the Light to become one with the Dark.

Regardless, I expect Abyss to be added to PoE 2 in update 0.3.0, but I'm not sure if we'll see the same winding Abyss chase mechanic from the original game return, as I'm not sure it would integrate well into PoE 2 given its terrible backtracking and movement speed. But we'll have to wait and see; the full reveal is coming soon!

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!