Everything We Need To Know About The 3 Best Minion Builds In Path Of Exile 3.23

Players, Path of Exile 3.29.3 was updated on August 12th. This patch not only brings new gameplay depth but also contains crucial adjustments that will affect the course of the league.

For every Exile who has ventured into the endgame, the impact of Patch 3.29.3 is far more complex than the literal meaning of the announcement.

Essence of Desolation Source Completely Closed

The most notable negative change in Patch 3.29.3 is undoubtedly the complete closure of Essence of Desolation source.

This type of Essence existed in PoE 3.28, but after 3.29, players could only obtain it through a specific method. However, some players still hoarded them and used them to craft top-tier gear.

Therefore, with the release of these patch notes, the only remaining source of Essence of Desolation has been removed. However, existing finished Essences in the league and the mirror items they create are all retained and usable.

Therefore, the only way to obtain this type of Essence in PoE after this point is to acquire a mirror copy from an existing holder, which means you will need to prepare a lot of PoE currency.

However, the most criticized aspect of Essence of Desolation change is that it doesn't address a balance issue - this Essence didn't disrupt the overall crafting ecosystem or cause imbalance, yet it was treated as a bug and fixed, resulting in powerful resources being locked in the hands of a few early players.

This means new players have no chance to catch up with older players, directly undermining the sense of fairness in the catch-up process.

New Cursed Ducats

Cursed Ducats are one of the most important positive additions in Patch 3.29.3, designed to enhance the rewards and challenges of Voyages and Charts gameplay.

Basic Rules

Cursed Ducats are similar to Voidstones in the game. There are six types, but you can only socket a maximum of three into your Voyage Planner at a time.

Each Cursed Ducat provides the same type of positive bonus:

• Monster Drop Item Quantity +20%
• Item Rarity +20%
• Toughness +50%

So, stacking three Cursed Ducats will provide you with +60% Monster Drop Item Quantity, +60% Item Rarity, and +150% Toughness.

Players should note that Toughness doesn't simply increase Life; it's an effective Life increase achieved through Damage Reduction during Path of Exile.

For example, 1 million Life + 600% Toughness and 7 million Life but 0 Toughness, while requiring the same total damage to kill, interact differently with Damage over Time cap and Leech mechanic.

Each Cursed Ducat Has a Unique Negative Effect

Besides the positive bonuses, each Cursed Ducat has a unique negative affix, so players should choose the three least affected affixes based on their build:

• Ducat of Tsoatha's Gift: Increases monster damage by 50%
• Ducat of the Undead Sea: Increases monster elemental resistance by 10%
• Ducat of the Eucarid Isle: Increases monster critical strike chance by 500% and critical strike damage by 50%
• Ducat of the Fallen Stars: Monsters deal 100% additional elemental damage as physical damage
• Ducat of the Grasping Deep: Monsters gain +2 projectiles and an increased area-of-effect by 40%
• Ducat of the Foul Kin: Increases monster attack, casting, and movement speed by 50%

The negative effects of Ducat of the Eucarid Isle and Ducat of the Foul Kin are considered the most threatening to most characters, while the negative effects of the other Cursed Ducats are relatively easier to handle.

How to unlock?

Most PoE players should have already defeated Velka, the Tide Witch in the game. Simply return to The Sovereign and talk to Valerie to obtain your first Ducat of Tsoatha's Gift.

After socketing it, certain monsters or objects in Voyages and Charts may drop the remaining five Cursed Ducats.

Interface and Operation Optimizations

To facilitate players' evaluation of affix value in Voyage Planner, Path of Exile 3.29.3 now allows you to hold down Alt (on keyboard) or Left Trigger (on controller) to view all 12 Border Modifiers at once, eliminating the need to check each one individually, greatly improving filtering efficiency.

Furthermore, previously only single-attribute affixes were available on Small Cluster Jewels, the update allows for in-game swapping using Genteel's Ducat, increasing flexibility in attribute adjustments.

Regarding Enemy Mercenary

To reduce the chances of players being accidentally killed by Mercenary, Patch 3.29.3 has reduced the damage of several high-damage abilities targeting enemy Mercenary. However, this only applies when Mercenary is an enemy; the damage remains unchanged when Mercenary is an ally.

Affected abilities include Fireball of Impact, Flameblast, Frostbolt, Ice Nova, Ice Nova of Projection, Rolling Magma, and Fireball - all will no longer be as powerful as before.

Other Bug Fixes

Other noteworthy bug fixes in PoE 3.29.3 include the ability to interact with Essence Monsters from a greater distance to break their seals.

However, considering the removal of Essence of Desolation source mentioned earlier, this improvement may not be used very frequently in the game.

Abyssal Crystals (from Abyss Scarab of Crystals) will now shatter when the final Pit of Abyss closes, but this is merely a visual improvement for players.

This update also includes two minor fixes for Mercenary: Wither on Hit support now takes effect for the correct 2 seconds instead of the incorrect 33 milliseconds; and third permanent Mercenary can now be hired even when you already have two permanent Mercenary and one temporary Mercenary (previously this was bugged).

Furthermore, there are numerous bug fixes primarily addressing skill effects, client stability, and UI display, so Patch 3.29.3 should make the overall gameplay experience smoother and more reliable.

For this update, it's recommended that casual players focus on mastering Cursed Ducats combinations and choosing which negative effects to avoid based on their own defensive mechanics.

Adapting to and learning to utilize the changes in PoE 3.29.3 will give you a significant advantage over other players!

In Path of Exile 3.29, the idea of ​​stacking Abyss Jewels has been revived. I will introduce a Lightning Strike of Arcing Deadeye build that utilizes three unique pieces of equipment: Spinesnatch, Lightpoacher, and Shroud of the Lightless, and then stacks a large number of Abyss Jewels to achieve extremely high health and damage output.

Three Core Unique Equipment Pieces

Spinesnatch

Spinesnatch is a unique two-handed axe that provides a fixed 50% increase to your critical strike chance, but its most crucial function is its six Abyssal Sockets, meaning you can insert six Abyss Jewels into this weapon.

It also provides different bonuses depending on the type of Jewel inserted:

• Each Murderous Eye Jewel: Increases Physical Damage by 25-50%
• Each Searching Eye Jewel: Increases Attack Speed ​​by 8-16%
• Each Hypnotic Eye Jewel: Increases Critical Strike Chance by 20-40%
• Each Ghastly Eye Jewel: Minions have a 20-40% chance to inflict Impale on hit

For this build, inserting all six Searching Eye Jewels can stack the weapon's attack speed to an extremely high level. Combined with the Tempering Orb affix effect, it can even become one of the fastest weapons in PoE.

Shroud of the Lightless

Shroud of the Lightless has 3 Abyssal Sockets. However, in  Abyss Jewel stacking build, its more important role is:

• Each Abyss Jewel affecting you: Increases maximum life by 3%
• Each Abyss Jewel affecting you: Increases maximum mana by 3%
• Each Abyss Jewel affecting you: Penetrates 4% Elemental Resistances

Abyss Jewel bonus is no longer limited to those inserted into Shroud of the Lightless socket; it's calculated as long as your character has an Abyss Jewel active.

With 20 Abyss Jewels stacked, this chest piece can increase maximum life by 60% and elemental penetration by 80%. Additionally, it has a 20% chance to trigger Level 20 Shade Form when casting a socketed skill, providing an additional layer of defense.

Lightpoacher

Lightpoacher has 1 Abyssal Socket. Its core mechanics are:

• Each Abyss Jewel that affects you provides +1 maximum Spirit Charge
• Gain 1 stack of Spirit Charge on kill
• Using a skill while having Spirit Charge triggers a Level 20 Spirit Burst

Spirit Burst consumes one stack of Spirit Charge and fires 6 additional projectiles, dealing physical damage. Each stack of Spirit Charge also provides 5% physical damage as additional fire, frost, and lightning damage.

Three pieces of equipment together form the core of this build's damage output - stacked Abyss Jewels are converted into attack speed, life, and elemental penetration, and Spirit Charge and additional elemental damage, respectively.

Spirit Charge Sustainability

The core problem this build faces is that every skill use triggers Spirit Burst, consuming one stack of Spirit Charge. If Spirit Charge cannot be maintained, damage is significantly reduced.

The solution is to prevent Spirit Burst from being cast. By inserting a Frostblink into Lightpoacher and connecting it to Archmage Support, and then adjusting Unreserved Mana using auras like Precision, you can ensure that available mana is lower than the cost of Spirit Burst.

For example, if your character only has 80 mana, while Spirit Burst requires 100 mana, using Frostblink will prevent Spirit Burst from being cast due to insufficient mana, thus avoiding the consumption of Spirit Charge. This allows Spirit Charge to remain at full stacks for an extended period, continuously maximizing the extra elemental damage provided by Lightpoacher.

Abyss Jewel Configuration

The six jewels inserted into Spinesnatch must be Searching Eye Jewels, as they provide weapon attack speed bonuses. The highest priority prefix for these jewels is Life, while suffixes can be Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance, Elemental Resistance, Critical Hit Chance, etc. It is recommended to roll one of them with the Phasing affix for increased kill chance to improve map clearing smoothness.

Other Abyssal Sockets on equipment primarily utilize Murderous Eye Jewels, as they provide Flat Damage related to axes.

Additionally, Tecrod's Gaze is a crucial unique Murderous Eye Jewel. It provides Main Hand Critical Strike Chance and Off Hand Critical Strike Multiplier based on the number of Murderous Eye Jewels affecting the character. Since this build heavily utilizes Murderous Eye Jewels, its stacking effect can be fully leveraged.

On the passive tree, Jewels can further amplify the effects of Corrupted Magic Jewels through The Adorned, allowing for significantly higher returns on desirable affixes such as Life and Critical Strike Multiplier.

Given the high stat requirements of this build for Abyss Jewels, players often need to invest considerable time farming resources for affix rerolling. If you want to save time farming currency, you can buy PoE currency at POECURRENCY.com and dedicate your valuable time to optimizing Abyss Jewel affixes.

Skill Links

Main Skill: Lightning Strike of Arcing

As a Transfigured Gem in Path of Exile, Lightning Strike of Arcing's mechanics perfectly complement this high attack speed Abyss Jewel build. Unlike the normal version, it fires only one projectile, but this projectile can chain up to 47 times, with each chain increasing damage by 10%.

Core Support Gems

• Greater Multiple Projectiles Support: +4 projectile count, core to damage and map clearing efficiency
• Bloodthirst Support: In Low Life state, adds bonus physical damage equal to 2% of maximum life
• Lifetap Support: Replaces mana consumption with life, solving mana management issues

Remaining support gems should be adjusted based on the situation. Use Trinity when single-target damage is needed, and switch to Greater Chain for maximum map clearing.

Overall, this Lightning Strike of Arcing Deadeye build maximizes the stacking benefits of Abyss Jewel, creating a seamless synergy between attack speed, life, elemental penetration, and additional elemental damage. While it's not cheap and requires careful tuning, its map clearing efficiency and burst damage are outstanding once fully built, making it one of the most distinctive Abyss Jewel builds in Path of Exile 3.29.

After PoE 2 Patch 0.5 update, unique gear became one of the most discussed topics among players. The development team spent a significant amount of time designing these items, hoping they would bring gameplay changes distinct from regular gear.

In terms of actual results, many unique items have indeed successfully changed the game environment, with some even becoming core choices for multiple builds.

However, some items, after their release, performed significantly worse than players expected. Their design concepts were interesting, and their mechanics were unique enough, but they lacked certain key attributes in the current patch, resulting in them appearing powerful but ultimately falling short of actual gameplay.

With Patch 0.5.5 approaching, the development team has also revealed that they will focus on character building and unique gear adjustments, and these items are likely to be the focus of future buffs.

The Raven's Flock

The Raven's Flock was extremely popular in the early stages of PoE 2 Patch 0.5 because its gameplay demonstration was incredibly appealing. Spiraling Conspiracy mechanic provided by the item allows numerous ravens to fly around the character, leading many players to believe it could become a new and popular playstyle.

However, problems quickly surfaced in-game. The ravens' damage scaling was severely limited, primarily because the skill was treated as a minion rather than a spell.

Minion-based gameplay requires significant resource investment to scale, and The Raven's Flock didn't offer sufficient skill level upgrades, making it noticeably weak against high-health enemies in the late game.

Therefore, many players felt the biggest problem with this item was its restricted growth path. If Patch 0.5.5 had increased its minion skill level or reclassified the skill to benefit from spell-related bonuses, the staff's full potential would have been realized.

Facebreaker

Facebreaker is a classic item in PoE series, continuing the core concept of fighting with bare fists without weapons in PoE 2.

After equipping it, players must abandon traditional weapons and gain additional damage boosts by defeating special bosses in the story.

To build a character around this equipment, a significant investment of PoE 2 Currency is needed to compensate for attribute gaps in other equipment.

However, this cool factor hasn't translated into sufficient combat effectiveness in the latest Patch 0.5.4. Abandoning weapons means players lose many key attributes, especially the base damage and skill levels provided by weapons.

In PoE 2, Melee Skill Levels are crucial for character damage growth, but Facebreaker doesn't provide corresponding skill level bonuses.

If Patch 0.5.5 wants to revive the popularity of this equipment, increasing base physical damage, adding Melee Skill Levels, or enhancing related unarmed skills would be good directions.

The Bringer of Rain

The Bringer of Rain is a piece of equipment very familiar to veteran players. In PoE 1, it was extremely popular because it changed how players built their gear.

In PoE 2, it retains its unique characteristics. After equipping it, players must forgo a chest armor slot for a powerful helmet effect and a Giant's Blood-like ability to wield two-handed weapons with one hand. This design would be incredibly appealing in any patch.

However, the problem is that the benefits it provides don't fully compensate for the loss of the chest armor.

Giant's Blood is located near Strength zone, making it relatively easy for many Strength-based melee characters to obtain. Therefore, the unique value players gain from using The Bringer of Rain isn't as significant as one might expect.

Compared to the attributes and defense gained from losing the chest armor, The Bringer of Rain's benefits seem somewhat insufficient. Adding some classic elements would certainly boost its popularity.

Voltaxic Rift's

Voltaxic Rift's was once a star item in PoE 1. Its most distinctive feature was converting lightning damage into chaos damage, while also allowing chaos damage to inflict Electrocution effect.

However, in PoE 2, this seemingly powerful item suffered from issues with its scaling. Currently, bow builds rely on critical hits, but Voltaxic Rift performs poorly. It doesn't offer sufficient critical hit potential and lacks skill level upgrades, making it difficult to compete with top-tier rare bows.

Many players don't feel this bow is poorly designed; on the contrary, everyone agrees its mechanics are very appealing. It's just that in the late game, it lacks the crucial attributes to support its damage cap.

If future patches add critical hit-related attributes and some skill levels, it could very well become a core item in specialized bow builds.

The Last Lament Desolate Crossbow

The Last Lament was once a very popular item in PoE 2 Patch 0.3. The builds developed around it were very popular, especially when paired with a Lich, which allowed players to avoid life consumption through a special mechanic, giving them near-infinite ammo.

However, with patch adjustments, this build gradually disappeared, and The Last Lament lost its former popularity. Now it's more often used as a support item for certain skills, and few people build complete builds around it.

The problem with these five pieces of equipment isn't a design flaw, but the lack of conditions in Patch 0.5.4 to unleash their full potential.

If Patch 0.5.5 does indeed buff unique equipment, these are undoubtedly the items players most want to see changed. They already possess sufficiently interesting mechanics; all they lack is an opportunity to truly shine.

Many Path of Exile players create a new character after leveling their main to max level to experience different classes and playstyles. However, leveling a new character to max level, especially from level 99 to 100, is extremely time-consuming.

According to player community feedback, leveling a new character from 99 to 100 requires approximately 320 million experience points. Using conventional methods, this might require completing over 1,000 maps to reach the maximum level.

Therefore, in Patch 3.29 Curse of the Allflame, players typically use two methods - Abyss and Breach - to quickly level up.

Abyss Method

First, I will introduce the method for quickly leveling from 99 to 100 in Path of Exile Patch 3.29 using Abyss.

Map Type

The success of Abyss strategy heavily relies on map selection. Currently, the generally accepted optimal solution in the player community is using a City Square Map.

The advantage of City Square Maps lies in their highly regular square layout, ensuring that Abyss Fissures reliably spawn along the map's four edges.

This characteristic eliminates the need for players to spend time searching for Abyss locations; simply running along a fixed route triggers all spawn points, significantly improving leveling efficiency.

Furthermore, players should select Corrupted Tier 16 Eight-Modded Maps. These maps boast extremely high pack sizes and superior affixes, both of which directly impact monster density and experience gain.

Due to the extremely fast farming pace of this strategy, it is recommended that players prepare 20 to 30 of these maps in advance and then farm them all at once.

Investing in Scarabs

To achieve rapid map clearing and leveling, players need to invest in specific Scarabs - 2 Abyss Scarabs of Multitudes and 3 Abyss Scarabs - to force and enhance Abyss mechanic:

Abyss Scarabs of Multitudes increase the number of Abyss monsters by 100%, while Abyss Scarabs increase the length of Abyss spawns, ensuring that Fissures cover all four sides of a City Square, maximizing monster spawn points.

Atlas Tree Related

In PoE Patch 3.29, adjusting Atlas Passive Tree skill points and choices is also crucial for farming experience via Abyss.

First, all Abyss-related talent points must be maxed out to ensure that monster spawn points generate the most Magic Monsters and Rare Monsters - these two types of monsters are the primary source of experience;

Second, players should prioritize Searing Exarch Altar over Eater of Worlds. The reasons are as follows:

First, monsters spawned by Searing Exarch Altar appear instantly, while monsters from Eater of Worlds spawn with a slight delay.

Second, high-density Abyss spawn points easily trigger Beyond mechanic, spawning an additional wave of demon monsters. If you encounter this, don't miss it, as it will further increase your experience gain.

Fourth, utilize Delirium mechanic. It adds extra monsters to the map, and when combined with Abyss, it will spawn a large number of monsters at once, which is the best time to farm experience.

Specific Process

Specifically, the process of farming experience through Abyss is very simple. First, the player enters the map and runs along the edge of City Square, triggering all Abyss fissures and spawn points.

Next, the player clears the monsters spawning from each spawn point along each edge until the spawn point darkens - indicating that the monsters in that area have been cleared.

It is important to note that, except for the last spawn point, players do not need to pick up any chests except for the last one during the farming process.

Because the highest-value rewards - such as Skittering Lockbox - only drop from the chest at the last mob spawn point.

According to community testing, in PoE Patch 3.29, players using this strategy gained an average of approximately 121 million experience points per hour from level 99 to 100, requiring about 76 maps in total.

Breach Method

Grinding experience through Breach was the mainstream method in PoE Patch 3.28 and earlier patches.

However, in Patch 3.29, the number of mobs in Breach was reduced, and the maximum number of Unstable Breaches that can be activated was reduced from 3 to 2. The effects of some related nodes in Atlas Passive Tree were also weakened.

These adjustments made Breach method less mainstream, but it still has its irreplaceable value:

First, a single run of a Breach map typically takes 4 to 5 minutes, allowing players to continuously gain experience within the same map without frequently entering or leaving, resulting in a more seamless experience.

Secondly, Breach sometimes yields very rare unique gear, some of which are extremely valuable - even reaching 1,000 PoE Divine Orb. Even if you don't get a unique item, players can generally obtain a large amount of Divine Orb while leveling. This is something Abyss build cannot match.

Comparison of Two Methods

Overall, in PoE Patch 3.29, Breach method is faster and more suitable for speed-farming builds with Screen-wide Clear or Off-screening capabilities, as these builds can efficiently handle the large swarms of monsters in Breach.

However, if you want to farm some Currency while leveling and prioritize smoothness over speed, then Breach method is more suitable.

These are the two main methods for quickly leveling from 99 to 100 in Path of Exile's Patch 3.29 Curse of the Allflame.

There is no clear advantage or disadvantage between these two methods, and they are not mutually exclusive. You can switch between the two depending on your game time, mood, or financial situation to alleviate the fatigue of grinding for long periods of time.