This is the notification content and activity announcement. We provide 7x24 service. Contact us
Country / Region:
Language:
Currency:
Send60s
I accept Terms and conditions and Privacy Policy
I want to get information about activities, sales and personal offers
The latest teaser from GGG for Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis introduces intriguing new skill gems that automate skill usage, alongside a notable nerf. This article examines the potential implications of these new gems and explores the ramifications of losing left-click instant skills for certain builds.
Automation is an intelligence-dexterity hybrid blue gem that serves both as a skill and a support.
When paired with instant spells, Automation bestows the Automation skill, which can be activated similarly to a reservation skill. When activated, Automation automatically triggers all supported instance skills as they come off cooldown, rendering manual use of linked skills impossible.
On the other hand, Call to Arms is a pure strength red gem that operates similarly but for Warcries.
It functions as both a skill and support gem. When combined with Warcries, Call to Arms grants the Call to Arms skill, which can be toggled on.
Once activated, it triggers all supported Warcries upon cooldown, preventing manual use of the linked Warcries. Additionally, this setup causes all Warcries to share cooldowns.
Upon initially viewing these two gems featured at the start of the teaser, I took a moment to carefully review them. I found the concept quite appealing as it provides players with additional options, which I consider advantageous.
However, the teaser concluded with a notable statement: "We've removed the capacity to bind any instant skill to left-click as a result." Indeed, this implies the removal of the ability to utilize instant skills via left-click.
Approximately an hour after the teaser's publication, the Reddit post became untraceable as it had been heavily downvoted.
Consequently, moderators were compelled to pin the thread to ensure its prominence on the Path of Exile subreddit.
Similarly, the cross-post for this teaser elicited a predominantly negative response, with almost every comment expressing discontent over the alteration to left-click instant skills.
In all honesty, I've found myself undecided when faced with similar community uproars in the past. This time around, I've invested considerable thought into the matter.
I've pondered the potential rationale behind this change in the context of POE 3.24, contemplating the possibility of a comprehensive overhaul to a specific system or perhaps viewing it as a smaller adjustment within a larger framework.
However, I've yet to find a satisfactory explanation. Unless significant developments are in progress, I remain uncertain about the implications of this alteration.
Currently, our best course of action is to analyze this change within the context of the game's current state.
Here's how the change impacts most builds: If you previously employed an instant spell or Warcry on left-click, under the new system, when linked to Automation or Call to Arms, Warcries will trigger automatically upon cooldown without any manual input. However, this change comes with drawbacks: increased cost, slower cooldown recovery, and the need for an additional gem slot due to the link with Automation or Call to Arms. This means you have to spend more POE Currency.
Let's consider the pros and cons realistically. While the automatic triggering of skills upon cooldown may seem beneficial, it's crucial to note that this isn't always the case, especially if you weren't continuously holding down left-click. The increased cost and longer cooldown are definite drawbacks, although they raise questions about the potential benefits of the automatic triggering. Additionally, sacrificing an extra gem slot is a significant disadvantage.
However, these implications primarily apply to builds utilizing left-click instant skills. What about builds employing damage abilities on left-click, such as General's Cry, Corrupting Cry, and those utilizing Detonate Mines?
In the absence of macros or similar solutions, these builds face reduced damage potential, as they now require Automation gems in their primary link, or they must adjust to using an additional keybind, impacting their playstyle comfort.
However, in the realm of gaming, macros exist as a reality.
Over time, GGG has progressively reduced the necessity for macros within various aspects of Path of Exile gameplay. They've generally shifted away from design choices that encourage players to rely on macros. However, this specific change is poised to significantly increase the adoption of macros or similar tactics to address this issue and revert to previous gameplay dynamics.
There are already numerous posts on the subreddit outlining methods like the NumLock trick to effectively replicate the functionality of the old left-click instant skill. These posts are receiving widespread positive feedback and upvotes.
However, if we set aside the widespread discontent, it becomes evident that many players actually responded positively to the introduction of these two new skill gems.
Nevertheless, their strong aversion to the elimination of left-click instant skills has overshadowed this positivity.
Additionally, there are unresolved edge cases to consider, such as the Focus skill or the Necromancer's Bone Armor, which cannot currently be supported by Automation.
I find the concept of Call to Arms supporting quite appealing, so let's briefly delve into it.
An interesting aspect that may have escaped notice in the teaser is that this gem simultaneously triggers all Warcries, rather than sequentially. For instance, in a slam build, you could allocate a four-link setup with Call to Arms connected to three Warcries. With some investment in Warcry Cooldown Reduction (CDR), you could eliminate the need for manual activation of Warcries in these builds, which would be truly beneficial.
However, it's worth noting that the mana cost and reservation multiplier associated with this gem are excessive. At level 20, Warcries already incur a substantial mana cost of 19 without any additional links.
Therefore, adjusting these parameters is imperative for this quality of life enhancement to be viable.
The fundamental problem lies in the implementation of both these new gems.
Their excessively high cost in the pursuit of quality of life renders them counterproductive. Attempting to integrate them into your build would ultimately detract from, rather than enhance, your gaming experience.
Indeed, Brand Recall is also a factor to consider.
It's conceivable that they might introduce a slight casting delay to mitigate potential exploits in this regard. Since the Automation gem triggers linked instant skills, it has the capacity to activate Brand Recall. Consequently, this scenario resembles builds that slot Brand Recall into a trigger weapon or rely on triggering it with Spellslinger.
However, with Automation, there's no need to initiate the trigger or reserve Spellslinger. It consistently triggers without any player input, which could lead to absurdity with Saboteur triggerbots.
On the whole, I must express my appreciation for the conceptualization of these new skills, which I find to be quite commendable.
However, their execution leaves much to be desired. If the intention was always to eliminate left-click instant skills, then the solution should have been more refined, especially considering the reliance of entire build archetypes on this mechanic.
In my view, sacrificing a bit for the sake of improved quality of life is often justified and tends to benefit the majority of players. However, in this instance, the sacrifice is far from minor, and true quality of life would only be achieved if left-click instant skills had never been part of the game.
Recommended Article
View MoreAs you explore in Path of Exile 2 Early Access, you will definitely have to deal with the topic of mapping correctly, whether you are in the leveling stage or the endgame stage, and mapping will require numerous Waystones of different levels.
Once your inventory is low, your exploration may be forced to slow down or stop, especially in high-level challenges. So players have been looking for some ways to store Waystones stably in POE 2.
It is worth celebrating that the process of obtaining Waystones in the endgame stage of Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt League has been greatly simplified and the drop rate is higher, making it easier to keep Waystones.
This means that the previous methods of obtaining Waystones in the game are no longer used, so this guide will introduce you to some effective strategies and steps to keep the number of Waystones within a stable range.
In the current POE 2 game content, the most effective way to maintain Waystones is to use some of the high-value Waystones on some more profitable endgame map nodes, such as Boss Maps, which will give you a 100% chance of picking up Waystones of a higher tier than Waystones used to enter the map.
For example, if you enter a Boss map node with a Tier 10 Waystone, after you defeat the boss in it, it will drop at least one Tier 11 Waystone. Although you may need to buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade the offensive and defensive capabilities of the build, this method is the best way to quickly increase your Waystones by one Tier because it has no drop rate.
In addition, even if you enter a map node without a final boss but with a final rare monster, you will at least get a Waystone of the same Tier as you unlocked the map. In short, as long as you complete any Boss Map, you will get at least one Waystone of the same Tier or higher.
You may also get some Waystones from chests or monsters while exploring, but be aware that this strategy does not work for Tier 16 and above Waystones.
Once you complete the quests given to you by Doryani in POE 2 endgame, you will unlock some nodes on Atlas skill tree, some of which will provide you with this buff for increasing the drop rate of Waystones. For example:
Once you complete Tier 4 maps, you will be able to unlock all three nodes, and you will have a very efficient experience farming Waystones, as long as you can use them wisely. In addition, if you have previously unlocked other Atlas passive skill points, you can respec them using POE 2 Gold.
In the endgame exploration, one of the most common confusions among players is why Waystones are consumed so quickly? One of the key reasons is that the build you use is not the most perfect endgame build, which will cause you to die frequently in battles with bosses, rare monsters, or even ordinary monsters.
Once you experience death, all Waystones and POE 2 Currency you just invested in this map will be burned. So the advice here is to go to the player community or social platform as soon as possible to check the best endgame build that suits you best, so as to reduce the number of times you die in battle.
Similarly, some of the combat methods you used in the leveling stage may not be applicable in the endgame, so you also need to change your combat strategy and game style to expand your possibility of earning more and higher-tier Waystones in these maps.
Although in the current POE 2, many players have always been impressed by the currency such as Regal Orb and Exalted Orb, which can only be used for trading or crafting, but if you use it to upgrade Waystones, you may be surprised.
You can think of Waystones as a kind of craftable item in the game. The more currency you invest in it, the more rewards you get. This is a very beautiful, virtuous circle, but the premise is that you don’t die in the exploration.
For Tier 1-5 Waystones, you can invest in Orbs of Augmentation and Orbs of Transmutation, which allows you to upgrade your regular items into magical items. For tier 6-10 Waystones, you can invest in Regal Orbs, which turn them into rare items. Regal Orbs, POE 2 Exalted Orbs, Vaal Orbs, and Delirium Instills allow for maximum enhancement of tier 11-16 Waystones.
As you level up your Waystones, you may also roll over the modifiers on them. There are two main types of modifiers you should be looking at: modifiers that increase the drop rate of Waystones (by at least 200%) and modifiers that increase the rarity of items in the exploration area, both of which will make your mapping process very profitable.
In addition, modifiers that increase the number or rarity of monsters in the exploration area are also good results to roll, but this means that you will face a higher difficulty when you enter the map unlocked with this Waystone, so please do it according to your ability.
The above are some methods and strategies you can use to keep your Waystones in a stable range in POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt League. Hopefully, you can use this guide to farm Waystones more effectively and explore more interesting endgame stages with them. Have fun playing!
Since the early access release of Path of Exile 2, players have been discussing its complexity and high difficulty, because it is not easy to understand how the game’s level system interacts with each other, even those who have been exploring the original game for a long time cannot fully understand it.
After POE 2 launched the latest Dawn of the Hunt league a few weeks ago, the addition of many new mechanisms and new content has made players more confused about the game, especially the interaction effects of the three types of charges (Power Charges, Frenzy Charges, and Endurance Charges) and other game resources in Path of Exile 2.
Since the source and casting of Endurance Charges in POE 2 are all related to Warrior build, and with Dawn of the Hunt League bringing the new Smith of Kitava Ascendancy to this class with strong survivability and damage capabilities, this guide will provide an introduction to Endurance Charges for players who focus on this play style.
In fact, you can think of Endurance Charges as a kind of buff effect in POE 2, which will give some auxiliary attacks some buffs. The specific way it works is that you need to obtain some Endurance Charges through the skill gems, support gems, gear and activated passive skill nodes you place in your build, and then use the skills, support gems or gear that can consume this charge to achieve the effect of gaining buffs.
It should be noted here that only gear that clearly indicates that it can interact with Endurance Charges in the item description can participate in this operation. In addition, the three types of charges cannot be interchanged because the interaction effects they have are completely different.
Not only that, the effectiveness of the bonus Endurance Charges is related to the skill that consumes it and the rarity and level of the gear, so here it is recommended that you buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade the important items in your build as much as possible.
As mentioned above, the main way to obtain Endurance Charges in Path of Exile 2 is from the skills of Warrior class, but that is not all. The following are all the specific sources of Endurance Charges and their specific effects.
Once you’ve earned some Endurance Charges, you need to choose the right skills or gear to use them, either for devastating damage or solid defense. Here are the main ways you spend Endurance Charges in POE 2.
Before you start to build the best build for your character, the default maximum number of Endurance Charges you have at a time is 3. However, in actual exploration, this number cannot provide effective benefits for skills or gear that consume high Endurance Charges, so you can try the following methods to increase your maximum Endurance Charges.
The above is an overview of Endurance Charges in the current POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt League and how to use them. I hope you can use this charge that can greatly upgrade your survivability and damage ability to gain a better exploration experience in this new league and rank among the top. I wish you a happy game!
Path Of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt League released earlier this month saw a rework of the endgame content that players have been complaining about, such as the introduction of some new map types and rewards. With this major improvement, the best way for players to progress in the endgame and the best maps to use for farming have also changed.
In order to make your farming experience more comfortable and faster after entering the challenging endgame stage, this guide will introduce you to some of the most profitable endgame maps in POE 2 and their farming strategies.
However, it should be noted that the specific farming efficiency and loot quality you have in each map will largely depend on whether you place gear that can improve the quantity or quality of loot in your build, and whether you buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade their rarity and affixes.
First of all, Expedition is the most popular one, as it rewards you with Artifacts and Exotic Coinage that can be traded with Expedition crews who can provide you with rare gear.
You can also use some Recombinators on Expedition NPCs to expand their effectiveness if you want to obtain some POE 2 Items that are more beneficial to your endgame exploration.
Expedition also rewards you with Expedition Logbooks, which can allow you to enter larger and more challenging endgame maps, where there will be some unique boss encounters. After these battles are completed, you will gain some Atlas passive skill points related to Expedition.
Before POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt League made major changes to the endgame, the endgame with Breach mechanic was the most profitable in the game. Although the difficulty and rewards of each endgame activity will be more balanced after the changes, making Breach not so prominent, the rewards it provides are still irreplaceable.
You can find Breach Rings, which are exclusive to Breach mechanic, and double the modifiers you can use when you re-enter Breach endgame map. In addition, Breach Catalysts dropped in this map are an important part of crafting rings and amulets that provide you with high buffs in this extremely difficult game content.
On top of that, you can also collect a lot of Breach Splinters in Breach. Once you have collected 300 fragments, you can place them on Realmgate to enter the encounter with Xesht, We That Are One, a boss who will give you two Breach Atlas Passive Points.
Delirium mirrors, which you often encounter in the main campaign of POE 2 Early Access, contain a lot of monsters that can provide you with a lot of loot. So the maps with Delirium mirrors in the endgame content will be some of the most challenging for you, especially if you invest in some Keystones that can modify the quality or quantity of loot.
Of all the rewards you get from maps that contain Delirium mechanic, Distilled Emotions are arguably the most worth farming, as they can imbue amulets with some powerful passive abilities and buff Keystones with Delirium modifiers, both of which can make your exploration of endgame content much smoother.
Also, like Breach, you can get a ton of Simulacrum Splinters on Delirium map. Once you’ve collected 300 Simulacrum Splinters, you can use them to enter an encounter with Kosis, Revelation boss, or Omniphobia, the Fear Manifest boss. Also, defeating them will earn you two Delirium Atlas Passive Points.
Rituals endgame map contains some Ritual Altars, which are very similar to the altars you encountered in Freythorn during the main campaign of POE 2.
After you complete Ritual Altars, you’ll earn Tributes, which grant you important currency at those completed altars, such as Favors and Omens, which are used to obtain higher-quality loot.
These currencies are all rewards for running Rituals endgame map, and after completing this clearing mission, you’ll receive an Audience with the King, which is required to fight The King in the Mists boss in Crux of Nothingness.
However, it should be noted that this important key is not guaranteed to appear in the loot that appears after your first completion of Rituals endgame map, so you may need to farm it multiple times.
In addition, during your fight with The King in the Mists, since it is a two-stage boss, you may want to spend some POE 2 Currency in advance to make your build more defensive. After you successfully defeat it, you will receive two Rituals Atlas Passive Points in addition to the unique loot it provides you.
The above are the most worthwhile endgame maps to try in the current POE 2 Early Access Dawn of the Hunt League. As long as you have a strong enough build, you can get a lot of benefits from it, such as experience points, loot, and currency rewards, so as to get a better exploration experience. I wish you a happy game!
There are many boss encounters waiting for you in Path of Exile 2 Early Access, some of which you can defeat with just one try, without any special build modifications. But with others, you may need to pay special attention to the encounters you have to experience, such as Mektul, The Forgemaster.
In fact, Mektul, The Forgemaster is not a difficult enemy in the game, but the scenes you face in this arena require you to pay great attention, because you will be subjected to many restrictions. In view of this, many POE 2 builds that have powerful abilities in other exploration scenes need to be specially adjusted for this battle, such as changing support gems or re-selecting some passive and active skills.
However, such adjustments usually come with a lot of time, effort, and POE 2 Currency, so this guide will lighten your load by introducing the location of Mektul, some of the preparations and strategies you should make for him, and hopefully you’ll find the key to truly cracking this encounter.
Mektul, The Forgemaster is located in Molten Vault, which is located in Drowned City, and you need to enter it through Treasures of Utzaal quest in Act 3. Molten Vault is located on the outer edge of the map you are exploring, and you can find it along the edge.
However, it should be noted that due to the unique map refresh mechanism in POE 2, the location of Molten Vault may change every day you explore Drowned City, for example, it may be in the northeast corner today, in the southwest corner tomorrow, etc. So please be patient in your search.
Once you have found the arena where you will fight Mektul, do not enter it yet, but instead interact with the nearest checkpoint. This will allow you to respawn as close to the arena as possible if you lose, and will also allow you to buy POE 2 Currency to increase your build’s defenses, as this encounter will be difficult.
While all of Mektul’s own attacks are not very damaging and are easy to dodge, the key to this encounter is that you need to keep an eye on the lava he releases from his molten furnace, which deals a lot of fire damage and shrinks the area in which you can stand in the arena.
This also means that your fight with Mektul has a time limit, and if you don’t defeat him before the lava consumes you, you will be burned alive by the very powerful lava. Here are a few different attacks that Mektul will currently use on you and some strategies to deal with them.
Mektul will swing one of his hands backwards and slam a small hammer into the ground. Since this move has a backward swing, you can easily tell when the damage will occur and dodge to the side in time to avoid it.
This boss will swipe an axe across your body, but before swinging it, you will see it pull the axe back and hold it tightly in its hand. Again, you can use this prompt to dodge backwards or forwards behind Mektul to avoid this low-damage move. However, be aware that the boss will use this move multiple times in a short period.
If you are in a ranged class and are far away from Mektul, he will jump towards you and slam the ground at the same time. All you need to do is jump in any direction to avoid his attack on you and look for opportunities to attack him from behind.
Also in long-range combat, Mektul will charge one arm back and slam it into the ground. You can think of it as a slower Hammer Slam. However, the damage here is not just stun, but a line of physical damage is formed in front of it, so you need to dodge to the side.
Very similar to Magma Slam, but this move will use Mektul’s axe to slash at you. Although its attack damage is not a high threat to you, the lava it brings will force you to dodge to the side.
When you get tired of fighting Mektul at a distance and gradually walk forward, you will see a lot of scattered stalagmites on the ground. They are usually just used to hinder your movement, but when Mektul roars and flashes orange light, they will be detonated, causing serious damage to you.
If there are multiple stalagmites near you, they are likely to cause super damage to your health. So when Mektul starts roaring and glowing, gets away from the boss and the stalagmites as soon as possible.
When the boss’s health is reduced to about half by you, it will occasionally place its hammer on the ground and you will see a glowing orange circle near it, which will explode after a second, causing moderate damage to you. So avoiding this, stay away from the edge of the circle closest to you.
After being hit by you many times, Mektul may step back a few steps into the lava. Then, after a few seconds, it will slowly walk towards you and let the lava roll along the ground towards you. You can avoid this lava while avoiding the stalagmites that block your way, but at this time, some of its resistances will be strengthened, making it more difficult to defeat.
You may have been told to be patient when fighting bosses in POE 2 Early Access, but your encounter with Mektul, The Forgemaster is the exact opposite. You need to deal as much damage as possible to knock him down as soon as possible, and you also need to have enough dodge or block to ensure your survival.
In addition, no matter which area of the arena you choose to fight in, Mektul will stand in the lava to fight you. So you should retreat as much as possible during the fight to guide the boss away from the lava that is constantly eating you, which will allow you to complete your skill rotation more frequently and deal more damage.
Although your focus in this kind of fight should be to avoid all the attacks that Mektul casts, this will take up time for you to attack him, because each attack is uncertain and most of them are far away from the boss, which means you have to spend time approaching him again.
So the best way is to just avoid Mektul, so that you can deal more damage to him a second or two earlier. The principle of this strategy is mainly because most of the attacks used by Mektul are melee attacks. Avoiding where Mektul is standing is to avoid his attacks.
The above is the current POE 2 Early Access Dawn of the Hunt League’s countermeasures and some strategies for Mektul, The Forgemaster. I hope you can find the key you are missing in this encounter in this guide and complete this battle as quickly as possible to obtain high-quality loot and a lot of currency. I wish you a happy game!