How To Fight Traitor Balbala Which Is A Key Boss In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access? - Location & Moves
Dec 31, 2024 Source: POECURRENCY
After nearly a decade of waiting, the boss fights in Path of Exile 2 Early Access have been recognized by players as the best in the isometric ARPG genre. Fortunately, there are plenty of boss fights to explore throughout the campaign in the current Early Access, with some required bosses with unique combat mechanics in almost every area, as well as some optional bosses that you need to find through the game’s various side quests.
Some of these bosses are very important to the progress of the entire game, such as Traitor Balbala in Act 2’s Traitor’s Passage, which rewards you with Balbala’s Barya for Ascension Trial. But this boss’s combat mechanics are a bit complicated, and you can learn how to find and defeat Balbala in this guide, which will make your exploration process smoother.
Balbala’s Location
As mentioned above, Balbala will appear in Act 2’s Traitor’s Passage. But you need to explore the total area first, and after you have explored Six Sisters area, you will find a door leading to Prison of the Disgraces. Interact with Ancient Seal on the door, then remove the three Runic Seals that are used to bind Balbala, and you will release him.
It is important to note that after you remove the last Runic Seal and release it, Balbala will immediately fight with you, so at the checkpoint closest to the interactive door, you need to restore your health and mana (or charge) to a healthy level. You can also spend some POE 2 Exalted Orbs to make the rarity of your current gear higher and add an affix to make it easier to fight Balbala.
Balbala’s Moves
Pleases note that the arena you used to fight Balbala is relatively small, so you don’t have much room to avoid its attacks. If you team up with a friend or fight Balbala as a party, the arena can be quite claustrophobic, so you’ll need to be careful and keep track of your position.
Also note that Balbala’s method of movement is unusual, as he teleports to your area and then swings at you with his daggers, dealing damage. You’ll need to keep moving to avoid his teleport attacks. Here are some attacks Balbala will use on you during the fight and strategies for how to deal with them.
Summon Spirit
Balbala will drop a coin into the arena, and after a few seconds Spirit of Balbala will spawn from the coin. After you knock its health down to zero, it will regenerate into a coin and then resurrect a few seconds later. Although this enemy has low health, it will keep resurrecting and dying repeatedly, so you should defeat it as quickly as possible to avoid being knocked out.
You can also prevent Spirit of Balbala from reviving by walking through the coin that is hovering in the rune. But when you do this, Balbala will immediately teleport to a location near you and slam the rune, which will deal very high damage to you and cause you to take fire damage. So be sure to use dodge when trying to stop the soul from resurrecting, and roll over the coins as much as possible to avoid being hit.
Dagger Toss
During this attack, Balbala will teleport several times and summon numerous yellow daggers around the arena, which will spin towards you and shoot rapidly. All you need to do is pay attention to the flight path, position, and timing of these daggers, and then dodge them before they can damage you, and you can spend some POE 2 Currency to make your build more flexible and maneuverable.
Poison Seep
In addition to the poison dagger, Balbala will also use the hole in the center of the arena to release a poison cloud that can also cause continuous poison damage to you until the entire arena is covered. At this time, Balbala is also hiding in this poison gas. To stop it from continuing to damage you, you need to go around the edge of the arena to find Balbala and hit it.
But as you find it, it will throw a grenade at you, which will cause extremely high damage after it explodes. Here you need to prepare a position in advance where you can hide to avoid the explosion damage.
Ascending Daggers
Finally, Balbala will throw three waves of yellow daggers at you, stabbing them into the ground. After a while, these yellow daggers will fly into the air and will damage the area of the arena directly below them. During this maneuver, you can avoid the daggers as they fly away to avoid the damage they cause you.
After you successfully defeat Balbala, you will be rewarded with Balbala’s Barya for Ascension, which you can use to interact with Zarka and start a new quest. The above are the specific methods and strategies for finding and defeating Balbala in POE 2 Early Access. I hope you can successfully get through this interesting Boss battle stage with the help of this guide. I wish you have fun in this brand new POE 2!
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Defeat Mighty Silverfist Who Provides Weapon Set Passive Skill Points In Path Of Exile 2! - Locations & Strategy
There is a large tree of passive skills in Path of Exile 2 that you can unlock and activate, and you can rely on them to get some great benefits to the offensive and defensive capabilities of your build. But there are other ways to increase your damage capabilities, especially if you are sure to use weapons, and that is to get some extra Weapon Set Passive Skill Points for your crossbow (or stave) that you use.
These Weapon Set Passive Skill Points do not require you to spend currency to obtain them, but rather require you to defeat specific bosses, and Mighty Silverfist in Act 3 is one of them. This gray-furred gorilla may be an optional boss in the game, but the rewards he offers are so important to you that it is worth the challenge.
It is important to note that because of its powerful combat capabilities, your encounter with it can take you a whole day if you are not prepared. So easing your grind, this guide will show you the location of this powerful optional boss and the strategies you can use when fighting it.
Location
When you explore Act 3 in POE 2 Early Access, you will definitely see a Jungle Ruins map with a Temple Ruins in the center of the map. This is the location of the arena where you fight Mighty Silverfist.
Don’t rush into Temple Ruins yet. Find the nearest checkpoint nearby and interact with it. This way, if you unfortunately die in this Mighty Silverfist encounter, you will respawn at the checkpoint closest to the arena and can quickly fight again, which will save a lot of boring exploration time.
In addition, please check your health (or mana) and damage capabilities at the checkpoint to see if they are at maximum. If there is a gap, it is recommended that you buy POE 2 Currency as soon as possible to improve the various attributes and buff stats of gear.
Combat Strategy
After you have done all the preparations, you can start to challenge Mighty Silverfist. But wouldn’t you think it would be easier to fight it if you knew all the attacks it could throw at you? Here are all the moves Mighty Silverfist can use on you and how to deal with them.
Pillar Crash
Mighty Silverfist will slam down one of the arena’s pillars, dealing a wave of damage as it crashes forward. Since this move has a non-damaging pre-swing, when you see the pillar being lifted over the boss’s head, you can start preparing to roll left or right to avoid the damage.
Swing
Here, the boss will swing his pillar in an arcing motion, which is his major attack. There is really no trick to avoiding this pillar, just time it and dodge it.
But note that this swing changes depending on where you are standing, so you need to have a very high mobility build to avoid all hits. It is recommended that you invest in some POE 2 Divine Orbs in gear such as boots or Dex attributes to increase their rarity or affix stats.
Roll
Mighty Silverfist will slam forward and deal tremendous damage, which can cause you to fail the challenge. This is the most important attack to watch out for in the entire encounter, as there is no warning that it is coming.
If you are using a ranged class like Sorceress, moving away from the boss in time will give you enough time to react and deal damage; but if you are using a melee class like Warrior, make sure you have enough health and armor to withstand the attack and go around the enemy’s back to attack.
Whirlwind
In this attack, Mighty Silverfist’s pillar returns and does two sweep attacks before slamming down to deal a huge wave of damage. Fortunately, the boss beats his chest with his free hand before this attack, so you can see from this animation that these three attacks will appear later.
Overall, this battle is not very difficult, but it requires you to dodge and deal a lot of damage to Mighty Silverfist. What you can provide here is that hiding behind the boss as much as possible will make it easier to see every attack, and this is also the place where bosses are most vulnerable.
After you successfully defeat Mighty Silverfist, you will receive two additional Weapon Set Passive Skill Points, which you can place on the two skill points that are most beneficial to your weapons, so that you can better face the remaining challenges in Act 3 and the endgame.
The above is the specific method and strategy for you to find and defeat Mighty Silverfist in POE 2 Early Access. Hopefully, with the help of this guide and your multiple practice, you will be able to get this permanent reward easily and make a more powerful build. I wish you a happy game!
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Path Of Exile 2 Early Access Support Gems For Patch 0.2.0 Have Been Leaked!
We are very happy to know that Path of Exile 2 Early Access will usher in its first major content update and the new season, Dawn of the Hunt on April 4, which will add a lot of new game content.
Although Grinding Gear Games is revealing the new additions through weekly updates, it is very tormenting for players, who are always eager to learn more. The most discussed thing at the moment is the addition of new gems, because this will have a huge impact on the subsequent builds used by POE 2 players.
At this stage, GGG has only announced 5 new support gems that will appear in the update, so this guide will give you a detailed introduction to them and what new possible build ideas they can provide you, so that you can make a powerful build at the beginning of the new season.
1. Derange - Blue Gem
In the current POE 2 builds, if you use HOWA-Pillar Gemling builds stacked with Intelligence, then the addition of Derange will make your build much more powerful: first of all, it can directly assist the skills in your build that can cause damage, and they will all gain an energy shield, whose cost is the same as your Intelligence value.
On top of that, your supported skills will deal 8% more non-ailment damage for every 100 Intelligence you have, which will result in a very strong increase in the survivability and offensive capabilities of your entire build.
By the way, the less popular Mind Over Matter Monk build may also benefit from this support gem, as it is also an Intelligence-focused build, but the specific synergy may not be apparent until after April 4th patch is released.
2. Commiserate - Green Gem
Compared to Derange, Commiserate may be used by a wider audience because it can be used as long as you are damaged by an elemental Ailment (except Freeze) during combat, and the strength of your Ailment when you cast it on the enemy will be increased by 30%.
For example, if you are facing an enemy that can cause Fire Ailment, then after you are hit by its attack skill, the damage skills of the same element you release will be 30% stronger, and even directly cause the enemy to Ignite. If you are hit by a bleeding Ailment from the enemy, the bleeding damage skills in your build will also be strengthened by 30%!
At the same time, these Ailments will disappear when you cast a skill supported by Commiserate. This means that you can continuously refresh this effect by standing on burning ground or in a range that can cause bleeding.
But it is worth noting that the elemental resistances in your build also need to be strengthened accordingly, so you should buy POE 2 Currency to strengthen all elemental resistances after equipping this support gem.
3. Volcanic Eruption - Red Gem
From the description that Volcanic Eruption only supports melee skill gems, it is very obvious that this gem will be more suitable for Warrior builds. It is triggering method is also very similar to Warrior game style - it can be triggered by melee attacks on those enemies that have been ignited, and three Molten Projectiles are released in the affected area.
However, in fact, Warrior builds are not favored by many people in POE 2 Early Access. However, some players who like powerful strike builds can also look forward to whether the specific effectiveness of Warrior builds will be more cost-effective after the release of patch 0.2.0 and this buff.
4. Embitter - Red Gem
Although Commiserate does not support skills that can cause Freeze damage, the developers will not forget any game style, so Embitter appears, which can convert all the additional damage gains of the supported skills into Freeze damage gains. The additional damage gains here include additional damage sources, such as Elemental Damage affixes possessed by gear, and Damage affixes carried in attributes.
In fact, from a personal point of view, the ability of this support gem may make the build focused on Freeze damage lose its characteristics in POE 2, which is harmful to the development of the diversity of the build, so the specific effectiveness may be adjusted before the official release of POE 2 Patch 0.2.0.
Also Read: Lost Towers Sparked A Lot Of Controversy - Is Path Of Exile 2 0.2.0 Update Necessary?
5. Concoct - Red Gem
In the endgame of POE 2, it is very easy to get an Ultimate Life Flask with 100+ charges. If you place Concoct in it, you will increase the bleeding by 2% for every 20% Life Flask charges consumed, which greatly increases the chance of triggering bleeding.
Although there is no meta-build focused on bleeding damage in the game at this stage, with the new Gladiator class that will be provided to players in Patch 0.2.0, this support gem based on bleeding effectiveness may have more use.
The above are the 5 support gems confirmed to be added in the current POE 2 Early Access Patch 0.2.0 released on April 4 and their specific effectiveness. We are very much looking forward to Grinding Gear Games adding more build options in the subsequent game process to increase the playability of players. I wish you a happy game!
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Which Options Should You Choose For Grenade Mercenary Endgame Build In Path Of Exile 2?
Your experience in this extremely challenging game officially begins when you complete all the main campaigns of Path of Exile 2 and enter the endgame stage. In this extremely difficult endgame, the build you use must also be nearly perfect, such as having fast map clearing capabilities or super combat capabilities.
Among the many excellent POE 2 endgame builds, Grenade Mercenary has become a choice for many players with its unique play style and unstoppable capabilities. But it is worth considering that entering the endgame means that there are more build options to choose from, so who is the best Grenade Mercenary endgame build?
In order to save you time and energy in trying various build options, this guide will introduce you to the current options that can make Grenade Mercenary endgame build play its best effect, including skills and gear. Without further ado, let’s start our exploration!
Skill Gems
When you enter the endgame with Grenade Mercenary build, you are no longer just considering your damage output, but also your defense, because as you go deeper into Atlas map, the enemies you face will become stronger and stronger. So you need to start looking for skill gems that allow you to rotate between controlling and weakening enemies.
In view of this, you can use Explosive Grenade and Explosive Shot as your main means of damage output, and then use Flash Grenade as a tool to reduce the threat of group enemies to you periodically. With the help of these three skill gems, you can effectively fight most enemies, except for those bosses with anti-stun abilities.
But here I need to remind you that although you are likely to be flashed by the large area of light generated by Flash Grenade, it is very suitable for you to use when you are forced into the corner of the arena, because you don’t have to have a high degree of accuracy to detonate the grenade on the ground, which is very friendly to some players with lower operation skills.
Additionally, you can rely on Gas Grenade and Oil Grenade to slow and poison enemies, just ignite them with your Explosive Shot. On top of that, these two grenades that deal area damage will also make enemies more vulnerable to fire damage or reduce their fire resistance after you choose the right support gems for them.
Coupled with the fact that Explosive Grenade can deal a lot of fire damage to them, this rotation combination can help you defeat most of the enemies you encounter during exploration. And in some trials or challenges with Rituals mechanics, you can try to distract the enemy with Ripwire Ballista.
Although Glacial Bolt is not a required skill gem in this build, if you put Fortress and Glacier in its support gem slot, it will give you more room for damage output in the arena because it will gather all enemies together.
Passive Skills
In the vast POE 2 passive skill tree, the best choices for Grenade Mercenary endgame build should be those passive skills that have strong buffs to your area of effect and skill damage. Here are Notable Nodes that are worth your attention and what they do.
- Devastation: Increases area damage and area of effect size by 15%.
- Overwhelm: Your attack speed is reduced by 5%, but your stun buildup is increased by 20% and your damage from two-handed weapons (includes crossbows) is increased by 40%.
- Cluster Bombs: Grenades take 50% longer to explode, but all grenade skills fire another round.
- Authority: Increases area of effect size by 20% and cooldown recovery by 10%.
- Crushing Judgment: Armor Break duration and area damage are increased by 25%.
- Smoke Inhalation: All damage penetrates 15% of enemy fire resistance and all damaging conditions last 15% longer.
- Repeating Explosives: Increases the chance of a grenade exploding twice by 15%.
In addition to the above options, there are several Notable nodes that are also worth your attention, such as the group of Evasion and Armor nodes located at the bottom of the entire passive skill tree and to the left of Crossbow and Grenade constellation.
But if you have trouble exploring the maps unlocked by higher-tier Waystones, you can try increasing the elemental resistance in your build and respeccing those more defensive passive skills.
Best Gear Modifiers
There isn’t a specific piece of gear to recommend for Grenade Mercenary endgame build, but there are a few modifiers you should be aware of. But there is one weapon that will be key to the entire build - Bombard Crossbow, which always adds an extra projectile to your grenade attacks.
And when you have Cluster Bombs passive skill activated, each of your grenade skills can fire at least three grenades, which means your area damage and single target damage will be tripled!
Given the power of this weapon, my advice is to buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade Bombard Crossbow to a weapon with Magic or Rare attributes once you get it, so that your physical and elemental damage will be greatly increased.
Once your Bombard Crossbow has very high physical and elemental damage modifiers, you can use two Artificer’s Orbs to create two rune slots on the gear and add two Iron Runes to them, which will increase your physical damage by 40%, and this is additive with the modifiers on the weapon itself.
It is also worth mentioning that you should try to farm belts that can provide you with additional amulet slots so that you can take less damage from fights that can cause you status damage, to enhance your endgame survivability directly.
These are some of the skills and gear options you can use for Grenade Mercenary endgame build in POE 2. With POE 2 Patch 0.2.0 will be released on April 4th, Mercenary will have a new Ascendancy Class, so this kind of ranged enemy health depletion build may set off a wave. Hopefully, you can make such a powerful build that can easily explore the endgame as soon as possible with the help of this guide. Have fun!
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How About The Two New Unique Items In Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.2.0? - Prism Guardian & The Deepest Tower
Hello, Exiles, the biggest update since Early Access release of Path of Exile 2 is coming! Recently, GGG released a trailer for this patch 0.2.0, revealing some of the main contents of this update, including new seasons, Ascendancy classes, endgame balance overhaul, etc., but here, let’s focus on the two new unique items introduced in this patch.
It is well known that the current unique items in POE 2 are not good enough, or to put it bluntly, most of them are not worth the player’s investment currency. This is not only because most of them are mediocre in the early campaign, but more importantly, they will soon be surpassed by some medium-rare equipment, which means that all the efforts you put into this equipment may become a waste.
Therefore, players are eager to hope that the new unique items brought by this patch 0.2.0 will have a different effect and can remain powerful until the endgame. Without further ado, let’s take a look!
Prism Guardian
First up, we have Prism Guardian, a unique shield returning from POE 1, and as such, it unfortunately continues the trend of unique items having very low base defense values, minimal armor and energy shield counts, and no life scaling either.
However, its unique modifiers will make up for Prism Guardian’s shortcomings and provide a nice bit of flexibility, which could be useful for gear or support gem requirements. Additionally, it also provides a minimum of 18% bonus to all elemental resistances, and it’s worth mentioning that this modifier can even roll to 20% or more if you’re willing to invest more. But if you’re currently strapped for funds, you can also buy POE 2 Currency to fully utilize this mod, which is definitely not a poor investment.
The most important modifier here, though, is that you can add one to your maximum Spirit for every 50 maximum life. As such, this item will provide a way to scale your Spirit, allowing you to retain more Spirit to maintain powerful persistent buffs or more minions by expanding your maximum life at all times. This is a very powerful tool, and it’s just right for balanced defense.
The interesting thing about this modifier is that we currently don’t know how GGG plans to address life in the upcoming patch, whether they will improve life scaling to compete with energy shield, or whether they will keep it as is and nerf energy shield remains to be seen. But at 3,000 max life, this shield will provide 60 max Spirit, which is enough to reserve one or two low-cost persistent buffs or enable some extra minions.
Interestingly, however, we already have a way to scale Spirit from max life in Path of Exile 2, and that’s a skill node for Infernalist, Beidat’s Will, which only reserves 25% of your max life, but in exchange increases your max spirit by 1 for every 25 max life.
Combine this node with Prism Guardian, and you can greatly expand your total Spirit purely through life scaling, which is going to be very powerful. Keep in mind that there may also be some new abilities in 0.2.0, so there may also be new Spirit reservations to use.
An important thing to note about Prism Guardian is that Spirit gained from life only counts towards your total maximum life, it does not include any excess life you have.
The Deepest Tower
Next up, we have a crazy new unique helmet, The Deepest Tower. Unlike the Prism Guardian and a bunch of other POE 2 unique items, this one actually has a decent life modifier, breaking the unspoken rule of GGG that good unique items have no life modifiers. On top of that, it also has a decent amount of armor and energy shield and very good chaos resistance.
Then it has a special modifier where enemies in front of you count as low life. Now it’s important to mention that low life in Path of Exile 2 is 35% of max life, not 50% like in POE 1. So it takes longer to get a monster to low life, which in turn makes this modifier very powerful when combined with some of the other mechanics.
First up, Witchhunter Ascendancy adds 35% more damage to hits against low life enemies on the small connected nodes on the skill tree, these damage increases will always be active because any monster in front of you counts as low life. More importantly, because any class or Ascendancy can use them, these skill nodes together with The Deepest Tower provide an insane damage increase, with each small node adding 30% more damage to hits against low life enemies.
To put these nodes in perspective, a 30% increase in damage is about 2.5 times more than a normal small damage node. For example, 12% more damage when you’re swinging, or 12% more damage when you’re using a two-handed weapon.
So, just the small nodes themselves are pretty good, but there are two Notable Passives worth looking at as well.
First up, Finishing Blows adds 60% more damage to hits against low life enemies, which makes your damage rolls against low life enemies lucky, meaning you’ll always have lucky damage hits that can give you about 20% more damage. For example, this could be stronger for damage properties that have a much wider rolling range like flat lightning damage.
Then here’s another node, Finality Passive, that gives you even more bonuses against low-level enemies. It significantly increases the damage of hits against low-level enemies by 120%, which is crazy.
But the downside is that when your life is low, you take 5% more damage, which can be bad. But remember, in POE 2, low life is 35% of max life, so it's recommended that you get your life down to that low before you really start taking increased damage.
At this point, these nodes in the tree are well worth going with this helmet, even though some builds can’t even get to that point in the tree, but The Deepest Tower will still be useful even without these nodes. Because there is an Execute Gem here that provides 40% more damage on hits against low-life enemies, which is crazy.
Overall, both of these unique items have their own overwhelming advantages, and their appearance is bound to bring a new build gameplay change! Let’s wait and see!
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What Are The Best Builds Worth Trying In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access So Far? - For Each Class
It has been three months since the release of Path of Exile 2 Early Access, and players have entered a mature and proficient stage in their exploration. Although this early access game only provides players with 6 playable classes, through players’ attempts and exploration, many classes build with different play styles and abilities have been created.
However, since there are so many build options for you to choose in POE 2, such as a huge passive skill tree, a lot of Skill Gems and matching Support Gems, it may make some players who are difficult to make decisions very confused.
But in fact, you don’t need to worry about this at all, because this guide will now introduce you to the best builds in the game so far. Whether you like an aggressive play style or prefer a relatively conservative defensive play style, I think you can find the most suitable build for you from here.
1. Leap Slam Titan Warrior
While Warrior may not be favored by POE 2 players at present, becoming one class with the smallest player base and low utilization rate in the game, this does not mean that it cannot have great power. As long as you solve the problem of its ineffective armor and lack of mobility in the current patch, you may get a very strong melee build.
The suggestion here is that in the early game content of POE 2, you can try to focus on using simple mace and shield combinations and use Leap Slam skills as your main skills, which will make your exploration process in the first 6 acts smoother, because your super survivability can make you easily get through this stage.
For the more challenging endgame stage, you can use warcries like Infernal Cry, which will enhance your attack power and increase the fire damage that many enemies cannot resist. Or you can combine it with Herald of Ash skill and passive skills like Burn Away and Burning Strikes, which will make your damage ability stronger.
Since Warrior build is very Strength focused, you should aim for gear that has a big buff to this stat when picking gear, with the best option probably being Giant’s Blood, so you can use a powerful two-handed weapon with one hand.
Titan is probably the best for this build in all Ascendancy Classes, as your strength stat will be higher and you’ll get a lot of other passives that can enhance your original passives. After you get this Ascendancy Class, you can then gradually transition this build to be centered around Hammer of the Gods skill, which will peak your damage and survivability.
2. Lightning Arrow Deadeye Ranger
Compared to melee classes like Warrior, Ranger, which focuses on killing enemies at a distance, may be more suitable for players who advocate a defensive play style, because you don’t have to dodge frequently and can pick up all POE 2 Currency and loot from a distance.
To achieve this goal, you need to aim for passive skills that can focus on enhancing your mobility and defense in POE 2 exploration, such as Acrobatics Notable, and bows with strong physical damage modifiers.
For the active skills selected for this build, you only need to focus on two: Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod. You can refer to the rotation provided for you here - first put down some Lightning Rods in the arena, and then cast Lightning Arrow, so that it can cause chain and cumulative damage based on the number of Lightning Rods.
Of course, when dealing with some stronger bosses, you can use Herald of Thunder or Orb of Storms to amplify their damage. Deadeye Ascendancy fits in well with the overall style of this build, as it gives you a ton of bonus damage with Point Blank, and the new passive buff, Tailwind, makes you shoot faster and move faster.
3. Raging Spirits Infernalist Witch
The best build for beginners in the entire POE 2 Early Access is probably Witch build, which works well in all campaigns and later map-running stages, because you can use a lot of minions to help you take on a lot of responsibilities, and all you need to do is upgrade your minions’ skills with a lot of POE 2 Exalted Orbs.
Once you choose this build, you can use some basic minions and some Chaos skills such as Contagion and Essence Drain to keep your build running smoothly in the initial campaign. But after you defeat King in the Mists, you need to use your first Spirit Gem to unlock Raging Spirits.
With its help, this build will focus more on skills that can cast powerful fire damage, such as Fire Wall, which will give Raging Spirits some extra damage and all projectiles fired by Witch will also gain some buffs. Or Skeletal Arsonists, which can also help you strengthen your growing army of minions to facilitate some confrontations with groups of enemies.
Infernalist Ascendancy is your best choice here, as it’s a great buff to your fire damage focused build, and gives you the powerful damaging ability Infernal Hound, which tracks down your enemies and absorbs damage that would otherwise go to you.
4. Ice Strike Invoker Monk
Currently, Monk build has the most variety in POE 2 Early Access, as it performs very well at any stage, such as having a strong attack speed, which allows you to break enemies before they attack you, and stronger Evasion and Energy Shields, which are better defensive properties than armor.
At first, you can use skills like Glacial Cascade to deal a small amount of damage to enemies from a distance, and then combine them after unlocking Ice Strike, which may become your survival in the future.
In addition, try to find a stave with a good physical attack modifier and a priority dodge equipment, because when you use it with Tempest Bell, Ice Strike will deal a lot of damage to enemies, which is great for clearing maps or farming some important loot, such as POE 2 Currency and experience points. Or you can use it with Herald of Ice, which will let your cold damage hit enemies continuously and cause serious damage to enemies.
Invoker Ascendancy is the most effective in this build because it will get a lot of buffs from your elemental attacks, and by giving this build the ability of Unbound Avatar, you will become a real elemental damage powerhouse with its help. If you combine it with Elemental Invocation and Ball Lightning and cast it on Tempest Bell, it may give you a surprise.
5. Spark Stormweaver Sorceress
If you’re afraid of getting stuck in a small corridor with all your minions or getting bored with casting a bunch of spells when using Witch, then Sorceress is a better ranged damage class for you because you only need to use one spell - Spark.
Even in the early exploration of POE 2, Spark is a range damage skill with strong clearing ability, and when you combine it with skills like Fire Wall, this clearing ability will be greatly enhanced, and even some bosses will be easily killed by you.
Especially after you unlock Archmage and Mana Tempest, the damage ability of this build is maximized, because your mana pool is very large and you can continuously cause damage to the enemy. However, it must be introduced that the survivability of Sorceress build is slightly poor, but you can focus on gear that can provide you with Energy Shield, and then invest a lot of POE 2 Divine Orbs in it to get the strongest survivability.
If you want a more solid defense, you can stack it with Mind over Matter and Elritch battery. Or you can use some easier-to-farm Uniques like Lifesprig and Kitokos Current to help you through some challenging campaigns.
Judging from the name of Ascendancy Class, Stormweaver is more suitable for you, because Constant Gale will give your Spark skill two extra strikes, which is very important. What player doesn’t like this free damage buff?
6. Tempest Flurry Gemling Leggionaire Mercenary
Finally, for Mercenary build, this is probably the least of the lot, as it includes all the abilities of the previous classes. But here we will focus on its attribute stacking ability, which will make you very powerful at the beginning of the campaign.
First, you need to prepare yourself a Pillar of the Caged God, which will fit perfectly with your three main attributes. And when you switch to Tempest Flurry, you don’t need to add other offensive skills.
But when you enter the endgame stage, you may need to add Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder to your build, because the challenges you face are more difficult.
It is worth mentioning here that this build will become more powerful as you gain more strength nodes during exploration, and with a large amount of Energy Shield, your survivability can also be guaranteed.
The above are the best builds for each class that are worth trying in the current POE 2 Early Access. Of course, depending on the game style of each player, the best build here may not be suitable for all players. You can make appropriate adjustments to your build based on the build ideas provided here. I wish you a happy game!
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How To Unlock Trial Of Chaos In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access? - By Defeating Xyclucian
As you explore Path of Exile 2 Early Access, you’ll have the opportunity to gain access to some Ascendancy Classes with more powerful abilities to help you take on more difficult battles or missions, but please note that you’ll need to complete some Trials before you can get them.
The first one you’ll encounter is Trial of Sekhemas in Act 2, where you’ll first unlock some Ascendancy Classes, and to unlock all of them, you’ll need to complete Trial of Chaos in Act 3. But this Trial isn’t that easy to unlock, you’ll need to complete a boss encounter with Xyclucian, The Chimera.
This is the boss you’ll encounter while searching for Jiquani’s Machinarium in Chimeral Wetlands. Since this three-headed enemy uses a variety of elemental attacks that are difficult to dodge, you’ll need the specific methods and strategies for finding and defeating Xyclucian in this guide to ensure that your subsequent Trials exploration is not affected.
Xyclucian, The Chimera Location
You’ll find this boss in Deadly Nest on Chimeral Wetlands map in Act 3 of POE 2. In addition, since Xyclucian is the last challenge of Legacy of the Vaal main story quest, you won’t miss this encounter once you claim it.
How To Defeat Xyclucian?
Like most boss encounters in POE 2, only by knowing all of Xyclucian’s attacks in advance can you avoid them as effectively as possible and find opportunities to deal some lethal damage during the fight. Here are all of Xyclucian’s moves in this fight, as well as tips and strategies you can use.
Slam
This move is used in many boss encounters, but here Xyclucian doesn’t use his hands to do this, but instead slams his front legs, and the powerful shockwave is generated from this position.
Since Xyclucian will roar before slamming, you can use this time to move away from his front legs to avoid taking too much damage. The best place to cast damaging skills may be his back, because at this time, all his attention is on the front and he has no time to pay attention to the back area.
Ice Breath
As mentioned earlier, Xyclucian, The Chimera is a monster with three heads, and in Ice Breath you will see some ice spraying out of his right head, and it will cover some areas of the arena around where he is standing with this ice, which will cause continuous damage to you.
This attack has a large range of influence and the damage is also very deadly, so when you see his right head start to swing and prepare to spray some frost, please move away from where you are standing.
Not only that, but since this attack is homing, your character will need to be constantly on the move to avoid taking damage. You can try investing in some POE 2 Divine Orbs in gear that gives you a high buff to your movement speed or rolling dodge to increase their rarity and power.
Jump Slam
Here, the boss will jump into the air, then come down hard and deal massive damage where it lands. But be aware that it will not land in the same spot it took off from, so watch its path as you move to avoid damage.
Flamethrower
The right head of Xyclucian you just introduced will let you spit out some ice, while the middle head will spit out a wave of flames. Also note that the boss will swing his head back and forth during this attack, making the cone in front of him very dangerous.
When countering this move, in addition to ensuring your mobility, make sure your build is strong in fire resistance, as this elemental damage will be more powerful than the physical damage you have previously taken. While dodging, don’t forget to get behind the boss and do as much damage as possible.
Stone Pillar
When Xyclucian, The Chimera starts to go up, it means that it will fly to the top of a Stone Pillar in the arena and shoot some fireballs at you. In this case, the first thing you should do is definitely not to cause more damage to the boss itself, but to destroy the stone pillar it is standing on, because after the stone pillar collapses, Xyclucian will fall with it and will be very vulnerable for a few seconds, which is the best time to attack it.
Also Read: Lost Towers Sparked A Lot Of Controversy - Is Path Of Exile 2 0.2.0 Update Necessary?
Flying Flamethrower
In addition to Stone Pillar, Xyclucian will also perform Flying Flamethrower attack on you when it flies into the air: it will directly spray fire in a straight line towards the center of the arena, of course, this attack will also follow you.
So you can use the previous strategy and try to stay behind the boss, so that you can ensure that you are as little exposed to the fire with huge damage as possible.
Poison Lob
Xyclucian’s head can not only deal some damage to you but also his tail! You will see poison balls being fired from the boss’ tail in a cone-shaped pattern, causing poison damage in a small area when they land.
Due to the large number of poison balls fired and their high frequency, you will inevitably be hit by some of them, but make sure you don’t get hit by them continuously, because once the poison damage is stacked, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Lightning Breath
For Xyclucian’s left head, you can’t underestimate it either, because it will fire some lightning balls at you, which will explode after a while. The best way to avoid these lightning balls is to let them explode in the air as much as possible instead of on you, so pay attention to the trajectory of these small balls and avoid them strategically.
Flying Slam
Compared to the previous Slam and Jump Slam, the landing damage caused by Flying Slam here will be higher and because the boss will disappear in the air for a second, it is difficult to judge where it will appear, though where it disappears.
Note that Xyclucian is invincible whenever he jumps, flies, or leaps, so avoid attacking him during these times, and try to minimize weapons or gear that deal damage over time during this encounter, as the invincibility will interrupt those effects.
Best Strategy
Since Xyclucian can deal cold, fire, and lightning damage to you, be sure to balance your resistances when building a build to challenge him, and focus on the one you are least vulnerable to.
In most cases, the boss’s back area is the safest place to be during this fight, as attacks like Flamethrower, Poison Lob, and Lightning Breath cannot hit him from behind, so you may need to stay in this safe area for a long time.
Once you have passed the above tests, you will have completed your encounter with Xyclucian, The Chimera, and will receive a notification to unlock Chimeral Inscribed Ultimatum of Trial of Chaos and complete Legacy of the Vaal main quest.
The above are some specific methods and strategies for finding and fighting against Xyclucian in the current POE 2 Early Access. I hope that with the help of this guide, you can complete this encounter as soon as possible and unlock the more challenging Trial of Chaos to get more loot from it. I wish you a happy game!