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

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been out for almost a month, and the gameplay of various builds has become relatively stable. The addition of Druid has expanded the talent tree and weapon types, bringing many changes to the league.

Here, we don't focus on damage changes in mainstream builds, but rather on their various defensive configurations, and the impact of combining the new Druid class and its shapeshifting abilities.

Talent Tree

Patch 0.4 made significant adjustments to the left side of the talent tree, introducing many new options. At the same time, the new Druid class and brand-new shapeshifting abilities also appeared. Blocks remain an important defensive measure on this side of the talent tree.

However, the use of shields has noticeably decreased in builds using this talent tree, including warrior melee builds using two-handed hammers with shields, and spellcaster or summoner builds using staves and shields. This may be due to the new weapon Talisman, which cannot be used simultaneously with a shield.

However, not all of these builds require a heavy investment in passive block chance on the talent tree, as some primarily utilize active Block. This is especially useful for summoner builds, as the character can benefit from active defense while summons deal damage.

Shield Wall Builds

The shield remains popular, partly because Shield Wall builds were the most popular progression choice for Warrior players in patch 0.4.0, with nearly half of Warrior players choosing Shield Wall after Ascendancies.

This change is even more pronounced when comparing data from the 0.3 and 0.4 patch Hardcore SSF League. Among level 90+ characters, the percentage using Shield Wall builds has surged from only 4% in 0.3 to 17% in 0.4.

This makes Titan the second most popular Ascension Class in Hardcore, second only to the newly added Discrete of Varashta. Without this new Ascension, Shield Wall Titan might very well have dominated Hardcore League.

Disciple of Varashta Builds

Disciple of Varashta is a powerful and interesting Ascendancy class, dominating HCSSF league, ranking second in Hardcore Trade league, and performing quite well in Softcore league, as well. This is partly due to its excellent defensive capabilities.

A key talent of Disciple of Varashta, The Fourth Teaching, increases Energy Shield recharge rate by 40% when your Energy Shield is at or below 35% of its maximum value. Therefore, the higher your Energy Shield cap, the more you benefit from this talent.

In Hardcore league, all Disciple of Varashta builds above level 90 utilize this talent, and the situation is similar in Softcore league, with only a very small number of players not using it.

Using this talent, combined with skills such as Nascent Hope Thawing Charm or Convalescence, makes Energy Shield regeneration much more reliable. When you take significant damage enough to drastically reduce your health, you can force a charge, enjoying the accelerated regeneration and ensuring you return to a safe state.

Rasha's Apostle also has another related talent, Sacred Rituals, which also significantly boosts defense. It adds an extra 60% of your current energy shield to your armor, granting additional physical resistance.

These two significant talents, combined with Chaos Inoculation passive, make Disciple of Varashta builds incredibly tanky in patch 0.4.0.

Energy Shield Builds

Disciple of Varashta was also one of the major factors driving the surge in Chaos Inoculation builds in patch 0.4. Another factor is that the energy shield system itself remains very strong compared to simply stacking maximum health.

Despite nerfs to many aspects in patch 0.4.0, energy shields remained largely unscathed in version 0.4. Disciple of Varashta has a perfect talent pool to utilize this system, especially in hardcore environments.

Talisman Builds

Talismans and shields occupy the same weapon slot, so they cannot be used simultaneously. Shields are the defensive guarantee for Warrior builds, so how does Druid build survive in Patch 0.4?

Many Druid builds employ a hybrid defense of life and energy shields, due to the significant number of energy shield and armor hybrid talent circles in the new talent tree area.

Furthermore, many Talisman builds utilize the new Lord of the Wilds passive, allowing them to equip a Talisman while simultaneously using a non-unique Sceptre.

This grants them a Purity resistance aura, which not only alleviates the pressure of equipping resistance affixes but also allows these builds to use a large number of Reservation Support Gems for free.

Pathfinder Builds

Pathfinder underwent one of the biggest changes in Patch 0.4, making it extremely popular. Thanks to its Ascendancy passive Path Seeker, it can reach areas further down the talent tree than any other class.

However, one of the most useful aspects of Pathfinder Ascendancy is its focus on mobility. It prevents you from being slowed, reduces movement penalties for skill usage, and, in version 0.4, adds protection against severe stuns while sprinting.

This effect is also extremely powerful defensively. Maps with Chilled Ground or Temporal Chains affixes are very dangerous, and the ability to freely navigate these maps is a huge advantage of Pathfinder.

Self-Chill Builds

One of the strongest defenses in Path of Exile 2 is speed. It allows attacks or spells to be so fast that nothing can hit or catch you. This is precisely what Self-Chill builds aim for.

Combining Asphyxia's Wrath Broadhead Quiver with Sierran Inheritance Marabout Garb grants you significant damage reduction. Therefore, not only will you be incredibly fast, making you difficult for enemies to hit, but even if you are hit, the damage will be minimal.

If you feel that your build frequently crashes unexpectedly, you may be overlooking the best defenses available, so methods above may offer some insights.

Today, we'll be sharing a powerful and versatile summoner build for Path of Exile 3.27: Arakaali's Fang Occultist. It excels at fast mapping and challenging high-difficulty bosses, and with sufficient investment, can even handle Uber-level content.

Notably, this build has significant room for improvement. Even the entry-level version is sufficient to complete the campaign without difficulty; and if you're willing to invest more PoE currency, it offers over 35 million DoT DPS and 1300 Energy Shield, making it a reliable choice for challenging most Atlas and Pinnacle Bosses.

Here, we'll focus on showcasing the ultimate version of this Arakaali's Fang build, including the equipment and skill tree setup required, as well as the final cost. Let's take a look!

How it works?

First, in Path of Exile 3.27, Arakaali's Fang Occultist is a poison-based summoner build that uses a unique dagger to summon damage-immune spiders. Damage is boosted through Minion Damage over Time Multiplier, Minion Attack Speed, and flat chaos/physical damage from Abyss Jewels.

The core mechanic involves using Desecrate, Divine Ire, and Writhing Jar to quickly summon up to 40 spiders. These spiders apply powerful poison effects, making it a powerful but gear-intensive build suitable for endgame boss fights and map farming.

How to increase Minion Attack Speed & DoT Multiplier?

Since the minions summoned by Arakaali's Fang are based on poison damage, the faster their attack speed, the faster they can stack poison, resulting in higher damage. Therefore, Minion Attack Speed is a crucial attribute for this build.

Most of the attack speed increase comes from specific passive skill nodes on three Large Cluster Jewels (such as Spiritual Command) and Increased Effect modifiers that boost minion attack speed. These modifiers can amplify the base attack speed bonus of small nodes, increasing it from 3% to 4%. 

Furthermore, these Cluster Jewels can create new passive tree branches, allowing players to gain multiple small nodes with attack speed bonuses, significantly increasing minion attack speed, especially when combined with Call to the Slaughter passive.

Because we use a large number of small nodes surrounding three Large Cluster Jewels in this build, all these bonuses stack up to provide a significant DPS increase.

Another major source of minion attack speed comes from rings, and this attack speed is further boosted by Accelerating Catalyst.

Since this build is based on poison damage, Minion DoT Multi is also a very important stat, and a large amount of DoT Multi comes from Amanamu's Gaze Ghastly Eye Jewel. However, you need to equip at least 5 Jewels to get the maximum DoT benefit, three socketed in the skill tree and two in equipment.

Abyss Jewels

Speaking of Abyss Jewels, I must remind you that the added flat physical and chaos damage modifiers are very useful, so try to choose the highest tier modifiers you can afford.

Another important note is that Minion Attack Speed modifier can also be found on Abyss Jewels, but they become very expensive if they also have added flat damage modifiers. You can choose whether to add them based on your needs.

The final boost for this build comes from the unique Elegant Hubris Timeless Jewel, which provides us with three 80% increased minion damage nodes. Two of these nodes can be activated through the unique Impossible Escape Jewel with the Minion Instability variant. We chose not to activate the other node because it would require too many skill points. Nevertheless, all these settings allow this skill's DoT damage to exceed the cap.

How to stack Energy Shield regen?

Next, this build has over 1300 Energy Shield regeneration. How is this achieved?

First, our chest and helmet provide some life regeneration, and the three Large Cluster Jewels provide even more life regeneration. And because of the 35% Increased Effect modifiers, all the small nodes also provide a significant amount of life regeneration.

Another factor is the unique Rational Doctrine Jewel, which provides permanent Consecrated Ground, providing an additional 5% life regeneration.

Finally, when mapping, Cinderswallow Urn we wear also provides an additional 3% life regeneration. All of this life recovery will be converted into energy shield recovery through Zealot's Oath.

Gear

For Arakaali's Fang Occultist build in PoE 3.27, we need to focus on minion attack speed, poison damage bonuses, survivability, and key unique items to ensure continuous spider summoning. Balancing defensive and utility gems is also crucial for both mapping and boss fights. Here is our gear setup for your reference:

• Weapon: Arakaali's Fang Fiend Dagger
• Helmet: The Dark Monarch
• Amulet: Impresence
• Shield: The Square
• Boots: Paladin Boots
• Gloves: Paladin Gloves
• Body Armour: Sacred Chainmail
• Belt: Darkness Enthroned
• Rings: Miracle Twirl & Rage Spiral
• Flasks: Quicksilver, Quartz, Granite Flask, Cinderswallow Urn & The Writhing Jar

Passive Tree

For Passive Tree setup, our focus is on minion damage, attack speed, life/energy shield, and curses. We recommend using a large number of Cluster Jewels with Increased Effect and Minion Attack Speed modifiers for significant boosts, along with the key unique jewels Rational Doctrine and Amanamu's Gaze, and further customization and enhancement using Tattoos and Runegrafts.

Additionally, prioritize nodes near Witch/Occultist area and move towards the upper right, acquiring minion clusters, while also investing in life/energy shield to improve survivability and increasing curse effectiveness to enhance the power of Profane Bloom explosions.

Finally, the total cost for all upgrades in this build was approximately 130 Divine Orbs, with Timeless Jewel being the most expensive investment, but absolutely worth it! However, everyone's spending will certainly vary; you can remove or replace equipment as needed, entirely depending on your situation. Have fun!

Amidst the hype surrounding Druid, some older classes might be overlooked, but some of them can actually provide a great Path of Exile 2 experience thanks to other optimizations brought by patch 0.4.0, such as Mercenary.

This is mainly due to the new patch's enhancements to grenade-based skills and builds, and Mercenary happens to be the primary class for crossbows and elemental grenades.

More importantly, the update now allows crossbows to accumulate Rage through Eternal Rage skill, with each point increasing attack damage by 1%. You can then add other effective bonuses.

Based on this, we will introduce how Mercenary can level up through the campaign stages consisting of multiple acts using grenade-based skills and builds.

Act 1

According to the system and storyline, you will first land on the coast, where you can find your first crossbow, and Fragmentation Rounds and Frostbolt skills - use the latter to freeze enemies, then detonate them with the former.

This way, you can gain a large damage bonus through the increased damage to frozen targets. If the enemies are still alive, continue to bombard them with the subsequently unlocked Explosive Grenades.

Next, continue forward to obtain Multishot support gem and attach it to Explosive Grenades, and ideally obtain a gem that increases attack range to improve the character's overall damage.

With this configuration, you can charge all the way to Rust King boss, then unlock Flash Grenade to replace Explosive Grenades, and use its physical damage to clear enemies.

Note that for passive skills, as a mercenary, you need to fully upgrade all projectile damage, and also spec into Volatile Catalyst to gain enough grenades to deal with enemies by increasing cooldown recovery speed.

Based on this, continue to upgrade your crossbow and consume PoE 2 currency to craft your crossbow and other gear, ensuring higher damage output to deal with the boss Count Geonor.

Act 2

In this act, you will obtain Explosive Shot to detonate your grenades, and equip Double Barrel III, making reloading easier and more efficient. You will then fire three arrows instead of one, meaning more explosions.

Additionally, you will obtain Oil Grenade, which applies an exposed effect, reducing total elemental resistance by 20%, and creates an oil slick on the ground that you can ignite to deal greater area damage to enemies.

Importantly, starting from Act 2 you can choose an Ascendancy, and we recommend Tactician. This reduces the mana consume of sustained buffs and adds a stun effect to all projectile damage, immobilizing affected enemies.

If you acquire some Spirit Gems, be sure to equip Wind Dancer. It helps you quickly traverse areas and knocks back your opponents when you are hit. You can even equip a Life Leech support skill with it.

Act 3

Upon entering Act 3 and obtaining your first Jeweller's Orb, use it on Explosive Grenades to add Elemental Armament, dealing more damage to enemies and making it easier to add Mirage Archer skill.

This allows you to create a phantom when you perform a dodge roll, which will fire specific projectile skills. Based on this, you can also equip Voltaic Grenade to stack additional electrical effects to paralyze enemies.

It's worth noting that if you reached at least level 33 in Act 2, you can switch your crossbow to Cannonade Crossbow, as it provides additional projectile skills. If you only reach this level after entering Act 3, remember to go back to the previous act to find it.

At this stage, you also need to allocate passive skill points to nodes that increase AoE damage, armor, and evasion rating, allowing you to enter Act 4 in a stronger state.

Act 4

As a transitional act, if you don't want to consume time on extra experimentation, it's recommended that you continue using Explosive Shot and various grenade skills in Act 4.

However, in terms of passive skill point allocation, you can invest more in Weapon Set 1 & 2 skill points to gain increased attack speed, number of shots, and reload speed. Additionally, the range and elemental damage of grenades will also increase.

Interludes

As a transitional part connecting the campaign and the endgame, after entering Interludes, you will first unlock Rage mechanism to provide further assistance to your leveling.

Later, when you reach level 58, you can equip Eternal Rage to maintain a constant enraged state. Furthermore, during Interlude 3, you will gain additional spirit, bringing your total spirit points to 108.

This allows you to add and use support gems with greater freedom, resulting in approximately a 65% chance for your grenades to explode twice, dealing more damage.

If you're using a crossbow specifically designed for pure physical damage with Flash Grenade, you can also utilize Brutality skill. Don't forget to unlock Battle Trance in the passive skill tree for extra Rage.

Next, unlock Blazing Arms node to deal more fire damage and higher attack damage. By stacking more rage, you can expect to gain approximately 44% increased fire damage in total.

As you continue fighting and leveling up to around level 79 with this configuration and method, you'll be able to unlock a more valuable crossbow.

Afterward, you can craft this crossbow and integrate it with the unlocked gems and other gear to form a more cohesive Mercenary grenade build to tackle more challenging endgame content.

While there are many good leveling methods in Fate of the Vaal league, Mercenary and grenade combination is definitely worth experiencing! If you're planning to play a new character, give this guide a try!

As the latest league launched alongside Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, the core mechanic of Fate of the Vaal is Temple of Atziri, reportedly inspired by Incursion league from the first game.

However, since its launch, Temple of Atziri has been plagued with issues. Initially, developers addressed player complaints about insufficient rewards, and have continued to make further optimizations intermittently.

On January 3rd, Path of Exile 2 released three Patch 0.4.0c hotfixes in less than 24 hours, all related to the temple mechanism, leading to speculation about what exactly was happening behind the scenes.

Based on this, this article will focus on Hotfix 14 (the latest at the time of writing) to analyze all the changes to Temple of Atziri and their impact.

Temple of Atziri mechanism overview

Although you should already be familiar with how to participate in this mechanism, it's still necessary to reiterate it for a better understanding of Hotfix content.

Throughout the league, you will encounter Vaal Beacons throughout the world. Defeating nearby monsters will charge the beacons. When five to six beacons are activated across multiple areas, a portal to Vaal Temple will open.

Inside the temple, you can use a console to place or upgrade up to 6 rooms on a 9x9 grid, then visit and complete them in sequence. Connecting rooms also increases the room level, thus increasing the difficulty and rewards.

Notably, Tier 3 rooms offer exclusive crafting opportunities, such as further corrupting items through Locus of Corruption, or Flesh Surgeon, which applies temporary but powerful modifiers to your character.

Patch 0.4.0c Hotfix 14 content

This Hotfix was released in the early morning of January 3rd, and its content reduces the number of unstable rooms by 30% when the temple closes, allowing the temple to stabilize at a maximum of around 60 rooms.

Theoretically, this fix allows you to build more interesting temples and provides more opportunities to kill bosses, potentially increasing your overall rewards.

Temple of Atziri is now slightly better to play, but that's about it. In fact, although Temple of Atziri was enhanced compared to its state after Hotfix 13, it is still a net nerf compared to earlier versions.

Will Hotfix 14 satisfy players?

According to the developers' intentions, you should now be able to kill the boss Architect more frequently and rebuild more effectively after defeating them. Furthermore, a shorter temple decay cycle means your survival rate during challenges will also increase.

However, due to differences in player skill and needs, the ideal outcome won't apply to everyone.

For top-tier players, especially the top 1% to 2%, who have already established sophisticated strategies, Hotfix 14 offers almost no benefit, and doesn't even compensate for the losses caused by previous fixes.

For casual players who haven't delved deep into the endgame - perhaps they've run Tier 15 maps but haven't fully mastered them - Hotfix 14 is better than all previous versions.

Furthermore, the reduced economic inflation in PoE 2 doesn't significantly affect these players, as they are not major participants in the economy. These players make up at least 90% of the player base.

The players truly negatively affected by Hotfix 14 are those who haven't reached the top tier but are striving to do so. For them, between Hotfix 12, 13, and 14, not only were their existing advantages stripped away, but they also have to continue facing inflation.

So, how you view Hotfix 14 depends on your current league progress. If you've only completed five or fewer Tier 15 maps, then Hotfix 13 & 14 are beneficial for you. If you've completed five to fifty high-level maps, then everything is a disaster for you.

And if you are one of the few top-tier players, aiming to stay ahead of others will make things easier for you, as it will be difficult for others to catch up in a short time. But if you want to earn more currency, you will definitely be disappointed.

Summary

While Temple of Atziri isn't a perfect mechanism, it's almost impossible for any game to satisfy all players with a particular gameplay mechanic or change, because the needs of different groups vary greatly.

However, the tricky part is that the community as a whole is currently pessimistic about the changes to Temple of Atziri, and many players have even stated that they have already or plan to temporarily stop playing Path of Exile 2 because of this.

We speculate that this is mainly because the development team's modifications to Temple of Atziri mostly involve tweaking various values, without fundamentally optimizing the inherently flawed mechanics.

Therefore, if things continue this way, no matter how many hotfixes are released, Temple of Atziri will remain a shaky "house of cards," unable to be fundamentally improved.

Although dissatisfaction with a single league mechanic won't significantly affect Path of Exile 2, player attrition is not a good sign. Therefore, if PoE 2 wants to release its official version sooner, it's best to address the underlying shortcomings reflected in Temple of Atziri.

In any case, we always have high expectations for Path of Exile 2, a game that excels in many aspects. So we hope the developers can resolve Temple of Atziri mechanics issue as soon as possible and get the game's development back on track.