Jousis’s Tainted Pact Forbidden Rite Pathfinder Build For POE 3.22 - Working Principle, Defence & Offence
Sep 26, 2023 Source: POECURRENCY
Together they scheme, Jousis and CardiaDarkhill, and devise one of the strangest builds to ever grace the shores of Wraeclast.
How Does This Build Work?
At the dark heart of this build is Tainted Pact. Behold this mod: “Taking Chaos Damage over Time heals you instead while Leeching Life.” Jousis saw this and was inspired.
For the build to work, we must always be Leeching Life, and always taking Chaos Damage over time. With everything set up, we can reach millions of Life recovered per second. No hit smaller than our entire Life pool can hurt us.
So how do we build this infernal engine? To achieve 100% Life Leech uptime, we use this flask suffix - “15% of Damage Taken from Hits Is Leeched as Life During Effect”. It ensures that we Leech some Life whenever we take damage from hits.
Now we just have to make sure we’re getting hit constantly, and the simplest way to do that is to hit ourselves. Naturally.
By using a quality Heartbound Loop, we take 420 physical damage when a minion dies. This counts as a hit, and it will be Leeched using the flask. We need a setup in which we can constantly summon skeletons and have them expire, triggering our ring hit.
Without going into too much detail, an infinite self-damage loop is possible with enough reduced skill effect duration. If you’d like the details of the calculations, be sure to check out Jousis’ forum guide.
The only problem now is that our Leech will expire when we reach full Life, leaving us vulnerable. Jousis has solved this challenge by using Mahuxotl’s Machination. This shield allocates a number of keystones useful for the build.
Here’s the relevant stuff: Immortal Ambition prevents our Life Leech stopping when we reach full Life. Divine Flesh converts half the elemental damage we take to chaos - this includes damage over time. You might remember chaos damage over time heals us, making this node very handy. We’ll come back to this shield, but for now we have solved infinite Life Leech.
Using these three POE Items - Dabbler’s Ruby Flask of the Order, Mahuxotl’s Machination Steel Kite Shield & Heartbound Loop Moonstone Ring, we now have 100% uptime on Tainted Pact’s key modifier.
Defence
In the words of Jousis: Infinite healing doesn’t matter if we can get one-shot.
This is the complete list of the defensive layers this build has to offer, not including our own Life Leech engineering.
We won’t go into all of these, but they’re necessary if we want the semi-invincibility we’re striving for.
Let’s talk resists. Our stacked shield is also granting Everlasting Sacrifice. This keystone gives us +5% to all max resists whenever we reach maximum Energy Shield, for four seconds.
To maintain this buff, we somehow have to find a way to hit max shield frequently. To do this, we pick up the Ghost Dance keystone. Every two seconds, this gives us something called Ghost Shroud. And when we’re hit (and remember, we’re hitting ourselves constantly), we lose the Ghost Shroud and instantly recover shield equal to 3% of our Evasion Rating.
It’s too fast to observe on the Life orb UI, but the moment we fill our shield, Everlasting Sacrifice activates, removing our energy shield and granting us the 5% resistances buff. We now get to keep that buff on us indefinitely for the price of one passive point.
Jousis has combined the Divine Flesh keystone from our shield with the Tempered by War keystone. Together, this means we’re not taking any Cold or Lightning damage at all, as it’s all being converted: half to Chaos and half to Fire damage. We can therefore leave those other resists in the negative.
And thanks to the permanent Everlasting Sacrifice buff and other bonuses, we have 88% maximum Fire Resist. To hit that maximum, we’re using a juiced Ruby Flask. All-in-all, this means we don’t need any elemental resists on our gear.
Also Read: Minion Life Stacking SRS Guardian Build For POE 3.22
Our Chaos resist is a different story. Thanks to our amulet, the more Chaos resists we have, the less life recovery we get. Therefore, it’s important to manage our level of Chaos resist, so we have the right amount of recovery at the right time.
To do this, we’re using the Golden Rule unique jewel. This reflects poisons we inflict back onto ourselves. For every poison on us, we get 1% Chaos resist. This means that out of combat, when we haven’t inflicted any poisons. We have low Chaos resist and can recover life easily. But in combat, we have large stacks of poison, which caps our resistance.
To aid our recovery out of combat (and protect us from our own self-damage loop), we use Righteous Fire. Remember that half our elemental damage is being converted to chaos damage, and our amulet heals from Chaos over time. So as long as our Elemental resistance is higher than our Chaos resistance, all sources of Elemental Damage over Time will heal us.
Righteous Fire, which would usually be burning us up, is dealing chaos damage over time and is instead recovering our life. In the same vein, we’re using the spicy Annihilation’s Approach boots. These deal 10,000 Fire Damage per second to the wearer, which after some math is healing us for 4400 Life per second instead.
With both of these effects together, we’re getting around 100% Life recovered per second, all the time.
So what happens when we get into combat and start stacking those poisons on ourselves? Jousis explains that thanks to the way monster life scaling works in Path of Exile, our poisons are dealing tens of thousands of damage per second. When reflected back to us, you might see where I’m going - that’s tens of thousands of healing per second. From a single poison stack.
Even with max Chaos resist, when we hit our maximum 100 poison stacks, that’s something like 35 million Life recovered per second. Of course, once we’re recovering our life pool in an instant, the numbers beyond that become irrelevant.
Offence
So, we’re almost invincible. How do we deal damage?
Forbidden Rite is a skill that lobs an explody Chaos projectile, and extra projectiles that automatically target enemies. When supported with more projectiles, the explosion area damage can overlap. It is scaled by our Life and ES numbers, but spends a big percentage of them whenever it is cast, making it a very strong skill with a nasty downside.
But remember how we’re healing to max life every tick? When using this skill, we instantly recover any life we lose from casting it.
Jousis is even using the Sacrifice Support gem, which spends even more life to deal even more chaos damage.
For our leech loop, it’s clearly important that we should be inflicting poisons. For this, Jousis is using Cospri’s Will. Every mod on this chest is useful, but most importantly, it allows us to always poison when hitting cursed enemies.
To curse everything, Jousis is using multiple Cast on Damage Taken setups, which are constantly being triggered thanks to our self-damage loop.
Regarding the constant spell spam - Bladefall, among others - these aren’t for damage, but instead for allowing us to inflict those poisons and apply wither stacks from our Pathfinder Ascendancy for even more Chaos damage. Otherwise, we’re investing in our damage through our gems, tree, and weapon.
This build is a powerful example of how mechanics can be flipped upside-down, with self-damage, self-poison, self-leech, and negative resists. It’s a creative monstrosity, and while it’s not going to be the optimal choice for most players, it’s the optimal choice in my heart.
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How To Choose The Best Build For The Latest POE 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur Event? - Cold Tornado Occultist Build Guide
Exiles, I’m back with my Cold Tornado Occultist build! As a low-life crit build, it performs particularly well in boss damage and map clearing. With the official launch of POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur Event, if you like to experience super-fast mapping and dominate the battlefield with clever tactics and exciting damage output, then don’t miss this powerful build!
Here, we will talk in detail about the pros and cons of this Cold Tornado Occultist and the equipment settings, so that you can better master it in the latest Settlers Event and win more loot.
Pros & Cons
In POE 3.25, Tornado has become one of the favorite skills of many players in this game, especially for some avid fans of Totem mechanism. The reason why they like Tornado so much is that it works a bit like Totem. You don’t even need to aim, stand still, or get close to the monster. Just run away after casting it, and it will cause damage and kill the monster. So, with this build, you can greatly improve the efficiency of farming Divine Lantern in Settlers of Kalguur Event.
Speaking of its advantages, it must be mentioned that this build has amazing damage. For regular Tornado builds, having solid defense is often the core competitiveness, but their DPS of only 12 million makes many offensive players give up it as the first choice. Therefore, here, we want to try to improve the disadvantages of this build, that is, to increase its DPS and make a crit build that can easily complete Tier 17 maps and Uber bosses.
Of course, there is no doubt that this has prime requirements for your budget, and you need to invest in at least 40 Divine Orbs. This will bring your DPS to 24 million, and your level 29 Tornado will easily make your crit multiplier exceed 500%.
So why do we choose to use a low-life build? This is mainly because it is also very easy to get started, and you are able to easily deal high damage by stacking multiple attack auras. Of course, the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, there is no spell suppression, because it is difficult to integrate it into this build, and it requires several mandatory POE items.
In addition to this, except for Energy Shield Mastery “10% Less Physical Damage Taken while on Full Energy Shield”, you do not have any physical damage mitigation or reduction, which means that this build is extremely easy to die from physical damage. It cannot withstand huge physical blows. Although blocking helps a lot, you still have to dodge these blows manually in the end.
Offense
This build uses 3 curses: Elemental Weakness, Frostbite and Assassin’s Mark. Previously, some players said that Herald of Purity and Herald of Ice were also good choices, but later after many trials, Summon Skitterbots were clearly more advantageous because it caused more damage.
In addition, this build has 9 Power Charges all the time, so allocating Inner Conviction keystone is a breeze. It has been very easy to deal with areas like Abomination Map. Facing 3 bosses spawning at the same time is not a problem. Like said before, it doesn’t matter where you cast the skills, because the skills will move, and the boss will die, anyway.
Defense
Of course, this does not mean that this build has no defense. For example, damage avoidance is okay for this build. It has about 40% attack block and 60% spell block. Chill and Freeze will also come in handy when surrounded by monsters.
Thanks to having such high spell block, you can have the easiest Uber Elder killing experience. You can run around without worrying about these elusive purple balls. And having high Energy Shield and fast recovery through leech and Energy Shield recharge is also crucial to survival. If your resistance is also capped, including chaos resistance, and immunity to all Elemental Ailments.
Gear Choice
For gear choices for this build, Void Battery must be mentioned first, which is one of the best unique wands in POE 3.25. Trust me, this is a wise choice, because for a Power Charge Stacking build, there is nothing better than it.
Prism Guardian and Shavronne’s Wrappings are a must for this low-life build to work. If you are trying to squeeze as much attack blocking as possible out of your gear setup, Crown of the Inward Eye may be essential for you, but it is also a high demand for your budget. Because a good roll with this implicit requires at least 20 Divine Orbs. Of course, you can also choose to corrupt some helmets yourself, and if you are lucky, you will get the result you want after a few attempts.
Presence of Chayula is very useful for Stun Immunity, don’t sacrifice this position for anything else. In addition, +3 to the gem level is too good to miss. It not only increases your damage but also increases the movement speed of Tornado build.
Passive Skill Tree
You can easily get Stun Immunity through Occultist’s Vile Bastion, but to get this, you have to sacrifice one of the passive skills, which I don’t think is worth it.
There is also Immutable Force here, which seems to be quite good, and the stun is almost unnoticeable. Combat Focus needs to be placed correctly to get the effect. Please note that “With 40 total Dexterity and Strength” here does not mean that all stats need to get 40 points. For example, here, having 40 points of Strength meets the requirement.
As for other passive skill choices, it is recommended that you prioritize those that provide Energy Shield, Reservation Efficiency, Power Charge and Critical Hit.
The above is all about this Cold Tornado Occultist build. To be honest, the arrival of the new Settlers of Kalguur Event is unexpected, but I hope this build can bring you a pleasant experience in this new event! Although this new event is a bit boring with only Divine Lantern, it is understandable considering that GGG had to transfer most of its resources to POE 2. Anyway, good luck to you!
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Predictions On POE 3.26 Release Date And The Upcoming Settlers Of Kalguur Event
Hello Exiles, we are in the season of spoilers for Path of Exile 2 recently, and a lot of content about this new sequel has been revealed, but our topic today is related to POE 1, namely the possible release date of patch 3.26, the end time of the current POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur expansion, the recently announced new Settlers of Kalguur Event, and how we can prepare for it.
To be honest, this event may not bring any exciting new content, but with POE 3.25 league cycle already more than halfway through, it may be an interesting new event to attract many players to return. Here, let’s take a closer look.
Why POE 3.26 May Be Released Next Year?
Let’s first take a look at the possible update time of POE 3.26. Before Grinding Gear Games pushed back the release date of Path of Exile 2 Early Access from November 15th to December 6th, many players had been speculating that patch 3.26 would not be released this year.
The reason for this is simply because of its commercial reality. Because GGG wants to launch their biggest release ever in POE 2 Early Access, they don’t want to release a minor 4 weeks later to steal their limelight. With this factor in mind, it will be difficult for you to see the news that POE 3.26 will be released on December 13th if it follows the previous update cycle.
And because of Christmas holiday, you will also most likely not see them release it around December 20th or 27th. So it is also expected by many people that Path of Exile 3.26 will be released next year. And GGG’s recent post has proved that this speculation is correct, but not just next year.
But honestly, next year is late enough that even a decline in player interest in POE 3.26 is unlikely to be a factor in delaying it to next year. So we’re going to hazard a guess that they never planned to launch Path of Exile 3.26 this year.
We think the developers originally planned to launch it in the 1st or 2nd week of January, but now it will be the 4th or 5th week of January instead. It’s worth noting that they haven’t locked in specific numbers yet. They hope to achieve it in late January, but this is by no means a firm promise. This means that POE 3.26 may also be delayed until February. And depending on the progress of Path of Exile 2 Early Access, maybe it will be brought forward to mid-January. We just know that it won’t be this year.
New Settlers Of Kalguur Event
In any case, this means that Settlers of Kalguur League will be extended until 2025. But one thing GGG knows is that once players get everything they want in this league, these people tend to stop playing, which is part of the reason why Standard League is not as popular as Temporary leagues. Of course, although not everyone who plays Settlers of Kalguur league gets everything they want, many people do.
In Temporary leagues, it is more realistic for players to get the next upgrade, while in Standard, few people reach that point in Settlers of Kalguur, which makes them feel that the next upgrade is out of reach and they are just waiting for something new to do. So, in order to bridge the gap and give players a brand new experience, the developers also took the opportunity to launch the new Settlers of Kalguur Event.
This is a fresh start with a twist, and it will bring some content that differs slightly from the base game. This Settlers of Kalguur Event will start soon. If you are in a similar time zone in United States, it will start on November 7th, but if you are in Australian time zone, it will start on November 8th.
What Are The Features Of The New Event?
This new-look event offers a brand new economy and ladder reset that functions very similarly to the base version of Settlers of Kalguur. On top of that, it also includes enemy modifiers for each zone, which was a key feature of the previous Necropolis league. However, unlike Necropolis, these modifiers only grant rewards, including bonuses to aspects such as POE Currency or item drop chance and enemy pack size.
The addition of this Necropolis mechanic will be a positive change, and their main impact will be for more casual players, as they will make gear drops faster. Especially if you’re the type of player who still wants to get a lot of Chaos Orbs while advancing Atlas, running this event will definitely make you earn a lot of money.
This new league event will run in parallel with the existing Settlers of Kalguur league, so you can continue to play with your current character if you wish. However, if you choose to participate in the new event league and reach level 50 on any character, you will receive a mandatory Settlers Mystery Box, which includes a random cosmetic selected from the new additions in POE 3.25. If you already own all of them, you will receive two Polaris Mystery Boxes instead.
As for the available game modes for this event, when it was originally announced, there were only two versions, namely Softcore Trade and Solo Self-Found Hardcore modes. But later, GGG changed the announcement and added Hardcore and Solo Self-Found versions.
It is worth noting that it does not look like there will be any support for Ruthless mode. Of course, there will not be much demand from the player community for this, so this is unlikely to change, and it looks like there will only be four different versions running.
How To Prepare For The New Event?
If you plan to participate in Softcore Trade version of the event, then here are some tips that may help you.
You can try to play with your partners as a cooperative group, use the guild warehouse to trade resources between each other, and try to prepare each other to pass milestone encounters to obtain a large amount of wealth. At the end of a period after the group has run a few times, maybe 10 days, or maybe the end of the second weekend, you can go your separate ways and split the loot at that time. However, you have a lot of things to do to make this happen, because making it as fair as possible is key.
Anyway, that’s all we know about the possible release date of POE 3.26 and the upcoming Settlers of Kalguur Event. If you’re interested in being a part of the event, then grab your chance and prepare early!
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How Does This Ice Crash Of Cadence Slayer Perform In Path Of Exile 3.25?
Exiles, POE 3.25 league progress has passed more than halfway. Which one do you think is your best build in Settlers of Kalguur? If you haven’t chosen yet, then don’t miss this guide. Here, we will bring you a build that is definitely worth trying for melee enthusiasts, Ice Crash of Cadence Slayer, which will definitely exceed your expectations!
Build Overview
Ice Crash of Cadence build in Path of Exile 3.25 offers a unique play style that utilizes dual-wielding weapons for powerful AOE melee attacks. This build utilizes the unique mechanics of Ice Crash of Cadence Slayer to maximize cold damage, AoE, and overall damage effects, making it very effective in both single-target and group encounters.
By focusing on alternating slams with main-hand and off-hand weapons, players can deal significant damage and control large areas. Here we will talk about how to optimize Ice Crash of Cadence Slayer in POE 3.25 to ensure you maximize your damage output.
Defense
For this build, the defense not only looks good but also feels good, mainly because of the huge debuff caused by Chill, Frozen, and Maim, which reduces the enemy’s movement speed by 30%. Coupled with the fact that the bosses in Settlers of Kalguur league have low health and damage, they are still easy to deal with as long as you don’t roll some crazy or impossible map mods.
As a melee character, getting close to the enemy is inevitable. Especially for this build, you have to get very close to the enemy to fully play the role of melee support. But don’t worry, except for the occasional death when fighting Tier 17 Boss and Uber Boss, most of the time you are very safe.
This is all because this build has 23 Fortification, 7 Endurance Charges, and Spell Suppression. Although this build is not immortal, the defense is still very solid, and even if you make a few mistakes here and there, the punishment will not be that severe.
As you can see, not only can this build take some big hits, but Life Leech, Life Regen, and Life Flasks are all great for quickly restoring our lives. But be careful, sometimes it’s hard to notice the ground effect because of the visual effects of Ice Crash. So move carefully and avoid death.
Why Choose Slayer Ascendancy?
For Ascendancy, it is recommended that you choose Slayer because it provides more damage, AoE, and defense.
This build is built around Ascendancy passive skill, Masterful Form, which allows your maximum Endurance Charges to be equal to your maximum Frenzy Charges. What you need to do is stack as many Frenzy Charges as possible, then equip Ralakesh’s Impatience, and after waiting for the bang, you will have the maximum Charges permanently. In this case, you can get 7 Frenzy Charges and 7 Endurance Charges.
It is worth noting that Endurance Charges now also provide 4% elemental damage reduction on top of physical damage reduction, which is a tremendous boost for defense.
If you don’t play Slayer, you can also choose Juggernaut. This is a well-rounded Ascendancy that also provides a ton of damage, AoE, and defense. On top of that, the quality of life you get from its Unstoppable passive skill is unmatched.
And Juggernaut is especially good when you’re using Arn’s Anguish, as it can easily generate Endurance Charges, which are then converted into Brutal Charges, which have a 3% chance to deal triple damage each time. Therefore, if you’re playing Juggernaut, stacking Endurance Charges makes more sense.
If you don’t mind sacrificing some tankiness for higher DPS, then Berserker is also a viable choice. And if you have a lower POE Currency budget, it may perform better than Slayer. Because Slayer tends to require you to equip some rare equipment to reach its maximum potential.
Gear Choice
As mentioned before, this build stacks Frenzy Charges, so attack speed is one of the top priorities for damage scaling.
On top of that, you can also go for crit, with a crit multiplier of around 500%. Therefore, two One Hand Swords with good attack speed and crit are also important for this build.
You can get a triple damage bonus by using Arn’s Anguish. And keeping your Brutal Charges at max while mapping is not a problem either, because Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support is linked to Leap Slam, so that you can very easily refresh the duration of your Brutal Charges while jumping from pack to pack.
However, when fighting bosses, you have to rely on Enduring Cry, because it provides 2 additional Brutal Charges each time. This can be a bit annoying though, because you have to press Enduring Cry every 5 seconds to refresh the duration.
Note that this build does not use Admiral’s Arrogance, so its Rage needs some boost to reach max. And Admiral’s Arrogance is a new gauntlet that is great for keeping your Rage at max. But because we don’t use it, we will have to give up some spell suppression. So, this build is more suitable for farming strategies that don’t require you to stop. For example, Strongboxes, Legions and Harbingers.
In addition, using explosions from Herald of Ice can give you a very satisfying clearing speed. And you can also get more AoE in Sand Stance, but if you feel that AoE is enough to clear, you can switch to Blood Stance for more DPS.
In short, this Ice Crash of Cadence Slayer build in POE 3.25 provides a powerful and unique play style for melee enthusiasts who like to deal heavy AOE damage and freeze enemies. With the right equipment selection, passive skill tree planning, and strategic use of Ascendancy passive skill, players can effectively dominate single-target and group encounters. So, hurry up and try it out and crush all enemies with overwhelming force!
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How To Build A Low Life Damage King In Path Of Exile 3.25? - Cold Tornado Of Elemental Turbulence Occultist Build
Exiles, the league cycle of POE 3.25 is halfway through. Have you found the endgame build that suits you best? If you haven’t, take a look at our build guide today, which may bring new inspiration to your build creation.
Here, we will bring a Cold variant with Tornado of Elemental Turbulence as the core. This is a Low Life build, accompanied by extremely high clear speed and damage output, which can satisfy the player’s desire to win quickly in the boring endgame run. Without further ado, let’s get started!
Tornado Of Elemental Turbulence
Tornado of Elemental Turbulence is a Prismatic skill, so by using Combat Focus Unique Jewel, we can focus on a single element. In this case, you can use Combat Focus Cobalt Jewel and Combat Focus Viridian Jewel, so that your Prismatic skill cannot choose Fire and Lightning. This means that every time you cast Tornado, it will only be Cold Tornado.
Ascendancy Choices
For Ascendancy Class, you can choose Occultist, this is because the class gives you offensive and defensive bonuses to cold damage.
Frigid Wake can freeze nearby enemies once every 4 seconds, while providing more damage and some Quality of Life. You may be skeptical about this Ascendancy and not even consider it at first, because most people think it only has a 50% chance to freeze, and it only happens once every 4 seconds. But if you use it often, you will find that this is actually a misunderstanding.
Freezes actually happen frequently and are very useful for bosses. Combined with Hypothermia Support, you can reliably freeze bosses, which is great as a defensive layer. And with it, you have more flexibility in choosing Pantheon, because you no longer have to choose Soul of the Brine King to avoid freezes.
The core concept of this build is stacking Power Charges and using Inner Conviction Keystone. Therefore, Forbidden Power from Occultist is very powerful because it provides more damage and AOE for each Power Charge on top of +1 Maximum Power Charges. And Unholy Authority Ascendancy passive allows you to easily reach the 3 curse limit, and your curses can affect enemies with curse immunity.
Therefore, in my opinion, Occultist is the best Ascendancy for this build.
We chose to design this build as Low Life because Occultist is very suitable for Energy Shield build. It is also easier to deal higher damage because we can retain more than 90% of health and stack multiple Offensive Auras.
But as we all know, the standard Low Life build is not very popular now because it is difficult to get Spell Suppression with equipment. Therefore, this build is quite fragile.
As a Low Life build, Prism Guardian and Shavronne’s Wrappings are obvious equipment choices. Prism Guardian allows our Auras to reserve life instead of mana, and the reservation efficiency is increased by 30%. Shavronne’s Wrappings is a must-have to prevent yourself from being instantly killed by chaos damage. If you have more POE Currency, you can also go for Crown of the Inward Eye, which is the best slot because it provides a lot of Energy Shield and Damage.
Defense
We don’t usually invest too much in the defense of a build, as long as it does what it is supposed to do, it is completely sufficient.
Besides freezing, this build also has about 40% attack block and 60% spell block with Rumi’s Concoction turned on. However, the main form of defense is first not to get hit, and secondly to get high damage to kill enemies quickly. Offense is the best defense.
Degen can be dangerous because we have no Energy Shield regeneration, and it even prevents our ES from charging. But Lethe Shade is good because it will reduce Damage over Time you receive by 50% and increase the duration of your Ailments by 100% if you start receiving Damage over Time in the past second.
If you don’t have extra passive points, you can use Soul of Arakaali and Soul of Ralakesh, which are great for solving this problem.
This build is extremely vulnerable to physical damage, and Energy Shield Mastery, “10% less Physical Damage Taken while on Full Energy Shield” helps a little, but that’s it.
Build Gameplay
The playstyle of this Tornado Occultist build is simple. All you need to do is cast Tornado every few seconds, and they will chase the enemy for a while. Auto-targeting is also good, so you can cast this skill no matter where you are standing or where the enemy is.
You can also use Power Charge On Critical Support to generate Power Charges, so we have Maximum Power Charges most of the time, which greatly improves our critical chance.
Of course, as POE league continues to develop, and with the release of new patches, this build still has some room for improvement, and there are still some things that need to be upgraded. For example, you can also get +1 Power Charge on the helmet and Double Corruptions on Body Armor.
The above is the complete guide for Low Life Cold Tornado Occultist build in POE 3.25 that we shared today. What do you think of this build? Do you have any better suggestions for optimizing this build? I hope this build can bring you a smooth endgame journey. Wish you good luck!
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Which Melee Skills Received Big Buffs In Path Of Exile 3.25? - Best Melee Skills List
As a melee fan, the most exciting changes in Path of Exile 3.25 are the melee skills that are received by major buffs. While many skills received buffs, we’re only going to highlight the ones with the most potential here, showcasing the skills that received the biggest buffs and the best Ascendancies and specific unique skills that may benefit certain builds. Without further ado, let’s jump right in!
1. Pestilent Strike
Overall, the skill that received the most buffs was Pestilent Strike, which saw its damage effect nearly tripled. But for a variety of reasons, it’s not very popular, and even now, there are probably more promising options. However, with such a big buff, there may be some pioneers who build around it.
2. Double Strike
Although Double Strike only received a small buff of 0.03, this can lead to a lot of nice builds around it. This skill was previously used mostly by Champions and Slayers, and made for super tanky builds based around Power Charge Stacking and Paradoxica.
3. Lacerate Of Haemorrhage
Another skill that has been widely loved is Lacerate of Haemorrhage, which loses its flat damage bonus, but the 226% bonus effect easily makes up for that.
It’s also worth noting that it was a solid early game choice before, and now with all the bleed buffs added, the skill should be more usable in some meta builds, builds like Lacerate Gladiator or Lacerate Gladiator with Olesya’s Delight and Usurper’s Penance are sure to shine.
4. Viper Strike Of The Mamba
Perforate, regular Lacerate, and Frenzy of Onslaught have also been buffed, but most of them will be overshadowed by better options, which brings us to another big winner of POE 3.25, Viper Strike of the Mamba, which has a 238% increase in effect, which will really increase your damage.
This is also a skill that is barely affected by the removal of Totems, as it never cared about the attack speed bonus from Ancestral Protector, plus now with builds like Viper Strike Of The Mamba Trickster and Pathfinder, it will only get stronger. Combine it with Olesya’s Delight Cloth Belt and Charge Stacking, and this build can also benefit greatly from early Covenant, making it easier and faster to get 6-links.
5. Sweep
Another great option is Sweep, which has received a 383% damage effect buff, which feels pretty good. Not only that, but if you have enough POE Currency to get a nice two-handed weapon, Sweep can almost reach almost full screen AOE and give you a pretty comfortable gameplay experience.
On top of that, you can also use a variety of Ascendancies, such as Slayer, Juggernaut, Berserker, and even Champion. In my opinion, Berserker Build has very strong synergy with all Rage variations and should be a good fit for this skill.
6. Glacial Hammer & Glacial Hammer Of Shattering
Next up is another niche skill that already has some fans, Glacial Hammer and Glacial Hammer of Shattering. This build has a splendid set of defensive abilities and can easily freeze everything around it without a lot of problems, and after the buff, it will have one of the highest damage effects of all melee skills, reaching 622%!
Combining it with Heatshiver and Frostbreath will make it even more popular, and even be able to replace newer skills like Warden Ascendancy, which has a lot of cool elemental buffs.
7. Reave
Reave is probably the most popular Strength Stack Berserk and Juggernaut skill. Although Original Sin is already powerful enough, Reave’s effect is more than doubled in comparison, which is quite surprising. Therefore, this may add more popularity to Strength Stacker Builds based on Reave, but it will also be more demanding on your POE Currency budget.
8. Flicker Strike
Flicker Strike has been a very popular skill in many leagues, and it has also been buffed in POE 3.25, gaining an additional 192% effect while keeping the fixed damage bonus. Since using a totem with Flicker is always difficult, especially when mapping skills, it benefits greatly from the buff it has received.
For its Ascendancy Option, Slayer with Rakiata’s Dance is always very popular, and Ephemeral Edge is always a priority for Trickster builds. Finally, Warden can be an interesting choice compared to Raider with Paradoxica and Shako.
9. Cyclone Of Tumult
Another skill that is a fan favorite and finally getting a buff is Cyclone of Tumult. This is a very fluid and fun skill that can be used as a purely physical or Physical Shockwave version with Abyssus and Warstaff, or as a Chaos-based Strength Stacker build. The most popular Ascendancy for this skill is Slayer or Berserker.
10. Molten Strike & Molten Strike Of The Zenith
Molten Strike received a pretty nice buff in both the normal version and Molten Strike of the Zenith, increasing the effectiveness of both by about 1.8 times. This skill is already very popular for different types of builds, such as Rakiata’s Dance Champion or Pillar of the Caged God Juggernaut, and can lead to more interesting combinations, such as Poison Molten Strike Pathfinder with Nimis.
11. Ice Crash & Ice Crash Of Cadence
Ice Crash also received a very significant buff, increasing the effectiveness to 611%, making it one of the highest-effective skills in the entire series. It will definitely bring more popularity to this skill, as it is very convenient and fun. Therefore, both Hollow Palm Warden and Mace Berserker builds should get a boost.
12. Frost Blades
Frost Blades has long been a fan favorite starting skill in the league, and now it will be even more popular because the damage effectiveness of the skill has been increased by 184%. It also stacks well with the new Warden Ascendancy, and another option is Trickster or even Berserker to further increase the damage. Don’t forget to bring your Heatshiver, The Taming, and Yoke of Suffering to join the blasting party!
13. Smite
Armor Stacker will now be built differently because of the changes to Auras. On the bright side, Smite is getting a buff to gain 215% additional effectiveness, and it doesn’t lose inherent damage, so it will continue to be a sound choice for all Armor Stacking Champions and Ascendants with Doryani and Dreamfeather.
14. Splitting Steel
Splitting Steel was also a very popular skill in Necropolis League, so the buff to it isn’t that big, and it also loses its inherent damage bonus. But if it’s paired with a strong Ascendancy, such as the lightning damage version of Trickster with Ephemeral Edge or Champion with Paradoxica, it can also help further boost an already strong build.
15. Lightning Strike
Lightning Strike also got a buff in POE 3.25, but it’s the least changed with only 74% extra effect, and it also loses the fixed damage increase. Considering there are no totems, the overall damage should be close to pre-change levels, still playable, but with a little buff. If you still want to try it, Armor Stacking Champions or Ascendants should be your best choices.
16. Boneshatter
Boneshatter has long been one of POE fans’ favorite melee skills, and now it’s been buffed! 88% extra damage effect without losing fixed damage, that sounds great. So always get your Juggernaut or Slayer ready and go smash some bones!
17. Rage Vortex
The last skill on the list is Rage Vortex. In reality, it wasn’t popular in POE 3.25, but some people played it, so it can be considered a niche skill. With all the changes to Rage, it’s hard to predict how good it will be, however, considering it only gained 8% of its effect, the buff doesn’t seem to be huge. The main advantage of this skill will always be Berserk, so if Rage Vortex is your first choice, don’t hesitate to pick it.
Which Melee Skills Are Most Likely To Become Meta?
Finally, we talk about the skills that were popular in POE 3.25 and benefited the most from the patch. I think these skills are most likely to become Meta or close to Meta.
- Lacerate: Its buff effect is huge, and Aggravated Bleeds bonus and Gladiator together will push it quite far.
- Flicker Strike: This skill has always been popular, and its buff is enough to become mainstream.
- Frost Blades: It has a good clearing effect, single target stability, few melee plays, and has interesting interactions with different settings such as Nimis, so it will be strong and popular.
- Molten Strike: The biggest problem with this skill is the range, but the damage is great and Nimis can help boost it even higher.
- Splitting Steel: Again a great clearing effect, and the skill feels like a ranged skill instead of a true melee, a good middle ground for those who want to keep some distance.
- Reave: Will continue to be a good stacking skill. The biggest problem with Strength Stacking skills is the cost, but Reave still stands as one of the strongest choices.
All in all, the above is a list of melee skills that have received the most buffs in POE 3.25. Which one do you think is the best? What do you think of these buffs and changes? Hopefully, this guide can help you find the best melee skills to complete a strong build. Good luck!
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These 3 Popular Meta Builds Will Help You Play Path Of Exile 3.25 Better
In POE Series of games, players usually use various types of Builds to improve their Combat capabilities. Different types of Builds can be matched with different Skills and Weapons, so they have unique characteristics and Combat Effects.
Therefore, it is important to know when to use what kind of Build. For example, Melee Builds are usually more suitable for Melee situations rather than other situations. Compared with other Builds, Meta Builds are usually applicable to more scenarios.
So if you don’t waste too much time to Equip a corresponding Build for different occasions, it is better to try to find a good Meta Build that suits you, and you can also avoid using some extra POE Currency.
Based on this, will introduce you to 3 Meta Builds that have been popular among the player community in recent times.
1. Lightning Strike Trickster
Most players know how important it is to find a core Skill for your Build. It can be said that this determines how your Build will eventually Attack Enemy. Core Skill of Lightning Strike Trickster Build is Lightning Strike.
It is said that more than 25% of high-Level players are currently using this Skill and Lightning Strike Trickster Build that goes with it. In previous versions of the game, Lightning Strike was once a powerful presence in Meta, but after several generations of Nerfs, it was once forgotten by players.
However, in Path Of Exile 3.25, it was noticed again and effectively strengthened. Therefore, players began to notice it and started using it, and even created Lightning Strike Trickster Build for it.
To use this Build, you first need to have about 80 Chaos Orbs and a relatively good Rare Elemental Claw. Since the latter is usually difficult to get, this is also considered one disadvantage of this Build. However, one benefit of this Build is that it is easy to assemble.
When clearing Enemies in Battle, this Build will bring you seven frenzy charges and a huge Effect of Elusive, which can effectively increase your Movement Speed and Fight more efficiently.
And Lightning Strike will create a lot of Projectiles for you on the ground, so that many Enemies will be killed by Explosion Effect formed by Projectiles before they get close to you. So you don’t even need to be afraid of Boss, using this Build will bring you Damage Buffs for Boss Battles, and Effect is considerable.
As for Life, you don’t have to worry about it when using this Build. It will provide more than 100,000 effective HP because it has High Armor, Evasion, Spell Suppression, Fortify, and even Trickster Buffs.
And these Effects that come with it can not only protect you from 40% of Enemy Damage but also make you Immune to Freeze and Stuns caused by Enemies.
2. Turbo Flicker Strike Slayer
This is also a powerful and efficient Build that can speed up Battle. It usually uses Terminus Est to maintain Frenzy Charges you need to Flickering. In comparison, it will be a Build suitable for novice players, and it is also more suitable for Duelist Class use.
To use it, you also need to have about 80 Chaos Orbs and a Mandatory Unique, Terminus Est sword. This Mandatory Unique can help you keep Frenzy Charges, because you need to keep Flickering in Battle.
This Build clears Enemies very quickly, even slightly higher than Lightning Strike Trickster. The specific Damage caused is also as high as millions per second, which can be said to be quite powerful, so you don’t have to worry even when facing a very dangerous Boss.
In terms of survivability, this Build can provide nearly 100,000 effective Life to the player using it because of its High Armor, Evasion, and Spell Suppression Effects.
But when using it, the player will always be in a relatively close position to Enemy, which is easy to be exposed in Enemy’s field of vision, which will make your Concealment worse overall. So overall, the Survivability Effect it brings is relatively general.
3. Venom Gyre Deadeye
This is an OP Venom Gyre Deadeye Build suitable for Ranger Class, and its core Skill is Venom Gyre.
This is a very interesting Skill. It will first Fire a Projectile, and after Hitting Enemy, it will return to you, causing Piercing and Damage to all Enemies it passes through during the return.
You can accumulate these Projectiles that return to you to form a stronger Damage, up to 30 times. When you activate Whirling Blades movement Skill, these Projectiles will be released at once, causing incredible Damage.
When used with a Build, you will need to use about 90 Chaos Orbs for this. After that, you can start Fighting with Build. In Combat, Venom Gyre Projectile itself will cause Damage quickly, not to mention that Deadeye further provides some Speed and Projectile Buffs. This Build will make you eliminate Enemies very quickly.
When facing a Boss, by using Whirling Blades, Vaal Venom Gyre will immediately gain 50 Stacked Projectiles and an amazing Shotgun Effect to Hit Boss. As for Survivability, through High Armor, High Evasion, Spell Suppression, and Block Chance, this Build can provide players with more than 80,000 Life.
Overall, these three Meta Builds have their own strengths and are applicable to different occasions. Therefore, they have potent power in their respective fields, so it is not surprising that they will be popular among players.
