How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendations

With the official release of Patch 0.4.0, the latest class, Druid in Path of Exile 2 has attracted more attention and use from players. Regardless of which of the three transformable forms you prefer, the one that will initially catch your attention is undoubtedly the wyvern!

As the last revealed Druid form, the wyvern allows you to use exclusive skills to deal effective fire, lightning, and physical damage to single or multiple enemies, and can further enhance skills by generating and consuming power charges.

More importantly, since all skills are essentially universal, other PoE 2 classes can also use wyvern skills to craft new builds suitable for themselves, greatly expanding the game's replayability.

Based on this, we will still focus on the most suitable Druid class to introduce the crafting ideas and actual combat effects of Wyvern Druid Build.

How To Match The Skills?

When you transform into the wyvern form, there are six exclusive skill gems, with the main skill effects as follows:

• Rolling Magma: Throws a ball of magma that lands on the ground, dealing AoE damage to enemies. It can also utilize human form skills, such as Volcanos, to make the magma ball bounce forward multiple times, causing chain attacks.
• Rend: Performs a wide-area slash with wings or claws; consuming energy orbs can generate additional lightning damage.
• Wing Blast: Flies backward to release a shockwave that stuns enemies, with a chance to gain energy charges during the process.
• Oil Barrage: Sprays oil to create an oil slick on the ground, or consumes energy charges to continuously spray electrified oil, hitting and damaging enemies.
• Flame Breath: As a dragon, breathes fire at enemies from the air, and the duration can be extended by consuming Rage.
• Devour: Restores health and gains an energy orb by devouring corpses or enemies. If the target is far away, you can leap towards them and deal damage upon landing.

Based on this, if you want to level up or clear bosses with Wyvern Druid Build, you should first focus on gaining lightning damage bonuses when using basic skills like Rend to increase the damage range.

The specific strategy involves first using Pounce skill in wolf form to leap forward, quickly clearing weaker groups of enemies with Oil Barrage to allow for more corpses to be devoured with Devour, and then repeating this process.

When encountering a boss, the cycle needs a slight adjustment: after Pounce, auto-attack until the boss is stunned, then use Oil Barrage or Flame Breath to kill the boss.

If a comparison is necessary, Oil Barrage is better because it can be used at range and is less susceptible to attacks than using Flame Breath while airborne.

Another key to ensuring smooth skill rotation is maintaining the energy shield's charge, thanks to Devour. When combined with the passive skill Zealot's Oath, its life regeneration effect is applied to the energy shield.

Additionally, you can unlock Thickened Arteries talent node, which restores 0.5% of your maximum life per second and further increases your life regeneration rate by 40% while stationary.

Because you are always stationary when devouring corpses, this allows you to recover more energy shield points per second.

Which Support Gems Should Be Added?

As items that further enhance the effects of skill gems, the choice of support gems is crucial for any PoE 2 build. Based on the main skills mentioned in the previous section, we recommend Holy Descent first.

This gem creates an area that heals you after you land from using Pounce, and this healing effect also works in conjunction with Devour skill to affect the energy shield.

More support gem options include:

• Fist of War: Increases attack range, deals more damage, and ensures enemy kills.
• Momentum: Allows you to deal an additional 40% damage when leaping forward.
• Cooldown Recovery: Allows you to use Pounce skill more frequently.
• Elemental Armament: Makes all your attacks deal significant elemental damage, and sweeping attacks also inflict lightning damage.

How To Use Spirit Skills?

Spirit skills actually refer to special buffs or usable minions that help you in combat by consuming spirit, and they are upgraded based on the boss rewards or skill tree nodes you acquire.

For Wyvern Druid Build, the help provided by Spirit skills should include life regeneration, curse removal, and elemental ailment removal.

For this build, Cannibalism and Compressed Duration are worth adding. Combined with other existing support gems, you will be able to maintain maximum Rage at all times.

How To Improve Survivability?

First, you need to ensure your gear has enough defensive affixes. If not, farm for new gear or buy POE 2 currency and then roll new affixes onto your gear. Don't forget to unlock nodes in your passive skill tree that provide armor for damage reduction.

If you chose Shaman when unlocking your Ascendancy class, you can also gain additional elemental damage and damage to all surrounding enemies through Ascendancy skills.

After unlocking Wisdom of the Maji Ascendancy node, you can gain additional rune bonuses. It's recommended to also unlock Druidic Champion and Furious Wellspring to maintain full Rage at all times.

How To Further Improve This Build?

To improve Wyvern Druid Build, the main area for improvement in terms of damage output is your gear. You can farm bosses or trade on the market to obtain better talismans, or try to get more base damage bonuses on your rings and gloves.

It's worth noting that Oil Barrage skill has the "projectile" attribute, so you should try adding projectile skill level bonuses to your talismans instead of melee skill level bonuses, as Oil Barrage won't benefit from the latter.

That's all for this guide. If you happen to be a Druid player who likes the wyvern form, our guide should be helpful to you!

Allocating passive skill points to upgrade the passive skill tree is one of the core gameplay elements of Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0. Players can maximize their character's combat power by strategically allocating passive skill points, especially in the late game, where a strong character build often relies heavily on continuously optimizing the skill tree.

In Path of Exile 2, passive skill points are a crucial resource for enhancing player character abilities, generally acquired through character leveling up; players gain one passive skill point for each level.

However, this method is widely used. If you want to gain an advantage over other players, you need to know how to acquire additional passive skill points. In Path of Exile 2, besides leveling up, you can also obtain passive skill points by completing side quests and defeating specific bosses to obtain Books of Specialization.

Since PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0 includes different Acts and Interludes, each containing various missions, if you want to efficiently improve your combat power, I will introduce the specific missions and methods for obtaining additional passive skill points in the game.

Act 1

Act 1, as the initial stage of the campaign, mainly introduces the basic game mechanics, background story, and provides players with some initial challenges; the difficulty is not very high. You can obtain skill points through the following methods:

Defeat The Crowbell

As an optional boss in Act 1, players can find The Crowbell in Hunting Grounds. He may be hiding in a remote corner of the map, requiring you to pass through a dilapidated wooden door or fence and then walk up a long uphill path to reach his location.

Be careful of The Crowbell's attacks when fighting him; players with low defense may be instantly killed. In addition to increasing your defense, you also need to master the techniques for defeating him:

• Always hide behind The Crowbell;
• Beware of his Bell Spin Attack.

Obtain Una's Lute

You can also gain skill points by completing the side quest "The Lost Lute". After completing the quest "Secrets in the Dark", you can talk to Una in Clearfell Encampment to unlock this quest.

Start from Hunting Grounds and find the entrance to Ogham Farmlands. Find Una's house among the many huts inside; Lute is inside. Return Lute to Una to complete the quest. You will then receive passive skill points as a reward from Book of Specialisation.

Act 2

In Act 2, players will delve into more complex environments, fight stronger enemies, and gradually unlock the game's backstory. Completing quests will reward you with more passive skill points and equipment, preparing you for the later stages of the game.

Defeat Constrictor Queen Kabala

You will encounter Kabala in Keth's Venom Pit. Defeating her will reward you. Compared to The Crowbell, she will be more difficult to defeat. In the fight, you'll need to master the following techniques:

• Stay away from Venom Pit when she summons the bone wall;
• Be careful to dodge the explosive projectiles she fires while spinning;
• Launch a fierce attack when she summons snakes.

Complete Tradition's Toll Quest

Talk to Shambrin near Waypoint in Deshar to unlock the quest. Completing it will reward you with Book of Specialisation.

Use Desert Map to travel to Deshar and find Lailuma's corpse. Then find Fallen Dekhara, interact with him, and obtain Final Letter. Finally, return to the original location and deliver the letter to Shambrin to complete the quest.

Act 3

In this chapter, you will explore the ancient ruins left behind by Vaal Empire, facing powerful enemies and complex puzzles. Completing quests will earn you more useful PoE 2 currency.

Defeat Mighty Silverfist

Mighty Silverfist is the main boss in Act 3. You'll encounter him in Temple Ruins, the center of Jungle Ruins. This massive gray creature is a giant pillar. Be extremely careful when fighting Mighty Silverfist, as he can instantly kill you.

You can dodge his attacks by moving to the sides. His attacks deal fatal physical damage, but try to avoid dodging backwards as his attacks create linear shockwaves.

Pierce Sacrificial Heart In Aggorat

Players can enter Aggorat from Utzaal. If you're doing Legacy of the Vaal main quest, you'll be guided to this location.

Find Sacrificial Heart, dropped by Vaal Goliathsdial. Offer this item to the appropriate altar and use Sacrificial Dagger on the altar to pierce the heart. You will then gain Weapon Set Passive Skill Points.

Act 4

Dark Mists Quest

With the patch 0.4.0 update, Dark Mists quest, in addition to its previous rewards, now also grants a Mist-shrouded Tome, which rewards Weapon Set Passive Skill Points.

Players can unlock this quest by talking to Tujen in Kingsmarch, then travel to Kedge Bay to rescue Freya Hartlin, defeat Omniphobia, and return to the quest trigger location to talk to Tujen again to claim the reward.

Trial Of The Ancestors

This is a side quest that unlocks after completing Land of the Kin quest and defeating Krutog in Path of Exile 2.

Find Hinekora in Halls of the Dead, complete Tests of Mettle, and defeat Yama the White; she will reward you with two passive skill points.

Interlude

The Interlude serves as a transition between Acts 4 and 5 and also features many quests that reward passive skill points.

• Interlude 1: Go to Wolvenhold and complete the side quest to defeat Oswin;
• Interlude 2: Talk to Risu, then defeat the boss duo Akthi and Anundr in Khari Crossing;
• Interlude 3: Go to Howling Caves and kill The Abominable Yeti.

After completing the first three interludes, talking to The Hooded One will grant you the final set of passive skill points.

After completing all the quests, you should have approximately 24 additional passive skill points to upgrade your Passive Tree. If you're struggling to improve your character's strength in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0, try completing these quests. Good luck!

PoE 2 0.4.0 update is coming soon, bringing many new features that will undoubtedly impact character builds.

If you're still wondering which build will give you an edge over other players in Path of Exile patch 0.4.0, consider Poisonburst Pathfinder build. This build is easy to learn and use in the early stages, while possessing high development potential, and is sure to surprise you.

Below, I will provide a detailed introduction to this build, allowing you to quickly understand its key features.

Poisonburst Pathfinder Build

Poisonburst Pathfinder build centers on archery, utilizing poison damage to suppress enemies. This requires players using this build to pay close attention to the effects of poison-related skills and weapons.

Its core appeal lies in its simple and easy-to-understand controls. Clearing maps in combat or exploration requires only a single click, and the single-target damage rotation is very smooth. Therefore, regardless of prior experience, players can easily grasp the essentials.

When clearing maps, Poisonburst Arrow is your primary attack method. Upon hitting an enemy, the arrow releases a large amount of poison, damaging enemies within its area and efficiently clearing groups. If you're fast enough, you can deal considerable damage.

If you're a new player and your current gear and weapons aren't yet sufficient for the large-scale battles in PoE 2 patch 0.4.0, you can use Toxic Growth early in the game to gain more survivability. However, once your gear is upgraded, Poisonburst Arrow alone can deal damage comparable to current popular builds.

For bosses and high-difficulty enemies, you can easily defeat them with a series of combos. First, use Poisonburst Arrow to create a poison field, then use Vine Arrow for additional damage, and then continuously apply Toxic Growth to the boss.

Toxic Pustules generated by Toxic Growth will automatically explode, dealing massive burst damage. With good gear, Poisonburst Pathfinder build is enough to instantly kill bosses.

Buffs

In PoE 2 patch 0.4.0, several game content adjustments significantly boosted the build's power, more than offsetting the negative effects of the nerfs.

Arakaali's Lust

In Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, Arakaali's Lust increases the damage dealt by Grants Supported Skills by 8% for each stack of poison gained, up to a maximum of 40%.

Compared to the previous 6% damage increase, with a maximum of 30%, the adjusted Arakaali's Lust will help characters deal significantly more damage.

Especially for builds like Poisonburst Pathfinder build that rely on poison for damage, Arakaali's Lust will become a popular choice.

Garukhan's Resolve

It helps increase the critical hit chance of Grants Supported Skills, up to a maximum of 50%. Furthermore, patch 0.4.0 removed the 20-meter movement requirement for players to use Grants Supported Skills.

While a 50% critical hit chance isn't high in the game, it's barely enough for bow-wielding characters. These characters generally don't have a high critical hit rate, so even a 50% chance can result in unexpected critical damage.

Undoubtedly, this change will make it more popular with players.

New Bow Cluster

Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 also added a bow skill cluster, giving characters using this weapon a Surpassing chance to fire an extra arrow.

Hyrri's Ire

Hyrri's Ire's evasion rating has been nearly doubled, the freeze duration on enemies has been increased by 25%, and it inflicts an additional 25% Cold Damage, enhancing the defensive and offensive capabilities of evasion-centric builds.

Nerfs

However, Poisonburst Pathfinder build isn't all buffs in PoE 2 patch 0.4.0. Some in-game changes have also caused it to lose some of its advantages.

Ghost Dance

After the adjustments, players can now obtain a maximum of 3 Ghost Shrouds using Ghost Dance. Furthermore, the interval between obtaining it has been lengthened. However, overall, it remains a powerful defensive buff that enhances a player's survivability on the battlefield.

Rune Restrictions

In PoE 2 patch 0.4.0, the official support for runes has been limited for various builds. However, you can avoid making your build dependent on a single rune by using runes in different directions, such as Countess Seske's Rune of Archery to fire extra arrows, and Farrul's Rune of the Chase to increase movement speed.

While these changes are regrettable, the overall benefit of this update outweighs the drawbacks.

Skill Gems

The following are skill gems that players can try using.

Poisonburst Arrow

As the core of this build, Poisonburst Arrow is essential. Whether you choose to clear maps or fight bosses, it will provide excellent results.

Herald Of Blood

Blood Loss causes explosions when monsters are killed. Enemies killed by these explosions deal additional damage to nearby monsters, creating an infinite explosion effect that results in massive damage.

Herald Of Plague

Herald of Plague's special effect allows players to spread poison to nearby enemies when they kill poisoned enemies. This spread can also slow down enemy movement.

This infinitely spreading effect helps players clear maps quickly and defeat opponents.

Wind Dancer

This skill gem has always been popular with players. It grants players periodic evasion, increasing their survivability.

Poisonburst Pathfinder build is a standout in PoE 2 patch 0.4.0, boasting unparalleled simplicity, speed, and damage. The numerous buffs in this update make it a top-tier game build, easily handling map combat and exploration.

Whether you're aiming for the top of the leaderboards or simply looking for casual fun, the long-term potential and low learning curve of Poisonburst Pathfinder build make it a worthwhile investment.

Just one day later, you can dive into Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 and enjoy all the content this update brings, even if you don't own the game - you can play for free for three days!

Undoubtedly, most PoE 2 players will want to experience the new Druid class first, but if you're the type of player who wants to quickly complete the campaign and start mapping, it's best to use a class you're familiar with.

Even if you've thoroughly researched Druid, you'll still need to get used to it once the game officially starts, which will inevitably slow down your progress.

Therefore, this guide will use Warrior, a basic class, as an example to show you how to quickly complete the campaign and then experience the endgame content of the new league.

Path Of Exile 2 Campaign Overview

This mechanism, as the foundation of the game's main story, aims to allow you to accumulate XP and currency while completing story quests, enabling you to enter the dangerous endgame phase with stronger abilities and solid resources.

According to the planned design, the official version of PoE 2 should have 6 acts, including hundreds of bosses and monster types. However, in the current early access stage, you can only play the first four acts and three interludes.

After completing all the acts in the campaign, you will reach Ziggurat Refuge and obtain the map device, after which you can start experiencing the endgame by collecting and using Waystones for mapping.

Why Choose Warrior?

As a melee tank class in Path of Exile 2, although Warrior isn't exactly beginner-friendly, its survival and damage output are both excellent, and its diverse gameplay and adaptability make it very useful during the campaign stage when your character is still developing.

How To Start Clearing The Campaign?

No matter what stage of the game you're in or what your goals are, as long as you're still fighting, crafting efficient builds should be your first step.

Therefore, if you're playing as a Warrior to complete the campaign, we recommend trying Poison Bleed Resonating Shield Build. It combines Shield Wall and Resonating Shield skills to ensure both single-target and AoE damage.

How To Use This Build?

Although this build's clearing speed isn't the fastest, the total damage output is still very considerable. Generally, when encountering rare elite monsters, simply using Shield Wall to block their attacks and then striking twice with Resonating Shield will easily resolve the battle.

More importantly, this build doesn't rely heavily on gear, which is very friendly during the resource-scarce campaign phase. You only need a good shield and sufficient defensive gear.

As for weapon selection, increasing extra and physical damage and upgrading attack power by one level is enough, because the class and build characteristics ensure you are very tanky and won't take much damage.

How To Start Leveling?

In fact, completing the campaign is your leveling process in Path of Exile 2; all campaign quests combined should give you enough XP.

In Act 1, for about three-quarters of the time, you'll need to constantly use Rolling Slam and Boneshatter to deal with normal enemies. If you encounter a boss, you'll also need to intersperse Infernal Cry between attacks.

In addition, combine this with the support gem Impact Shockwave, which generates aftershocks when heavily stunning enemies, dealing damage to enemies within a 1.5-meter radius, helping you clear mobs faster.

When you reach approximately level 15, the first thing you should do is obtain a pure strength-based shield, as only it has the highest armor value, which is very important in the following stages.

After that, your main skills will be Resonating Shield and Boneshatter. You will also need to unlock War Cry nodes in the passive skill tree to enhance Warcry effects, damage, and utility.

This setup will support you until level 20 or higher, after which you need to switch your main skill to Shield Wall, and then use Infernal Cry, Shield Charge, and Shockwave Totem in sequence as a combo.

At the same time, it's recommended to add the support gem Mana Leech, which converts 2% of physical attack damage into mana, ensuring your mana doesn't run out.

Although Warrior itself isn't a mana-dependent class, getting extra mana is still good, and not being dependent on mana also extends the duration of your mana bar from another perspective.

Which Ascendancy Class To Choose?

After reaching level 30 or higher during the campaign using the above techniques, you can start choosing your Ascendancy class. Here, we prioritize Warbringer to unlock an important exclusive ability, Warcaller's Bellow.

This skill allows Warcry to cause enemy corpses to explode, dealing physical damage equivalent to 25% of their maximum health, and ignores Warcry cooldown, making it easier to use the combos we recommended earlier.

After this, you can continue progressing using the skills and gear techniques from the previous level stages. Of course, it would be even better if you could add armor and resistance values ​​to your gear.

However, if you want to try the other Warrior Ascendancy class, Titan, you'll need to acquire Enraged Warcry after reaching Act 4 and unlocking Tier 4 support gems to unlock the effect that bypasses Warcry cooldown.

The above information should be sufficient to help you complete all campaign content. It's worth noting that some of these approaches are also applicable to playing Druid class, as most skills in Path of Exile are universal.

The new league is about to begin, and we hope our guide will help you have a better gaming experience! Have fun!