Which Melee Skills Received Big Buffs In Path Of Exile 3.25? - Best Melee Skills List
Oct 23, 2024 Source: POECURRENCY
As a melee fan, the most exciting changes in Path of Exile 3.25 are the melee skills that are received by major buffs. While many skills received buffs, we’re only going to highlight the ones with the most potential here, showcasing the skills that received the biggest buffs and the best Ascendancies and specific unique skills that may benefit certain builds. Without further ado, let’s jump right in!
1. Pestilent Strike
Overall, the skill that received the most buffs was Pestilent Strike, which saw its damage effect nearly tripled. But for a variety of reasons, it’s not very popular, and even now, there are probably more promising options. However, with such a big buff, there may be some pioneers who build around it.
2. Double Strike
Although Double Strike only received a small buff of 0.03, this can lead to a lot of nice builds around it. This skill was previously used mostly by Champions and Slayers, and made for super tanky builds based around Power Charge Stacking and Paradoxica.
3. Lacerate Of Haemorrhage
Another skill that has been widely loved is Lacerate of Haemorrhage, which loses its flat damage bonus, but the 226% bonus effect easily makes up for that.
It’s also worth noting that it was a solid early game choice before, and now with all the bleed buffs added, the skill should be more usable in some meta builds, builds like Lacerate Gladiator or Lacerate Gladiator with Olesya’s Delight and Usurper’s Penance are sure to shine.
4. Viper Strike Of The Mamba
Perforate, regular Lacerate, and Frenzy of Onslaught have also been buffed, but most of them will be overshadowed by better options, which brings us to another big winner of POE 3.25, Viper Strike of the Mamba, which has a 238% increase in effect, which will really increase your damage.
This is also a skill that is barely affected by the removal of Totems, as it never cared about the attack speed bonus from Ancestral Protector, plus now with builds like Viper Strike Of The Mamba Trickster and Pathfinder, it will only get stronger. Combine it with Olesya’s Delight Cloth Belt and Charge Stacking, and this build can also benefit greatly from early Covenant, making it easier and faster to get 6-links.
5. Sweep
Another great option is Sweep, which has received a 383% damage effect buff, which feels pretty good. Not only that, but if you have enough POE Currency to get a nice two-handed weapon, Sweep can almost reach almost full screen AOE and give you a pretty comfortable gameplay experience.
On top of that, you can also use a variety of Ascendancies, such as Slayer, Juggernaut, Berserker, and even Champion. In my opinion, Berserker Build has very strong synergy with all Rage variations and should be a good fit for this skill.
6. Glacial Hammer & Glacial Hammer Of Shattering
Next up is another niche skill that already has some fans, Glacial Hammer and Glacial Hammer of Shattering. This build has a splendid set of defensive abilities and can easily freeze everything around it without a lot of problems, and after the buff, it will have one of the highest damage effects of all melee skills, reaching 622%!
Combining it with Heatshiver and Frostbreath will make it even more popular, and even be able to replace newer skills like Warden Ascendancy, which has a lot of cool elemental buffs.
7. Reave
Reave is probably the most popular Strength Stack Berserk and Juggernaut skill. Although Original Sin is already powerful enough, Reave’s effect is more than doubled in comparison, which is quite surprising. Therefore, this may add more popularity to Strength Stacker Builds based on Reave, but it will also be more demanding on your POE Currency budget.
8. Flicker Strike
Flicker Strike has been a very popular skill in many leagues, and it has also been buffed in POE 3.25, gaining an additional 192% effect while keeping the fixed damage bonus. Since using a totem with Flicker is always difficult, especially when mapping skills, it benefits greatly from the buff it has received.
For its Ascendancy Option, Slayer with Rakiata’s Dance is always very popular, and Ephemeral Edge is always a priority for Trickster builds. Finally, Warden can be an interesting choice compared to Raider with Paradoxica and Shako.
9. Cyclone Of Tumult
Another skill that is a fan favorite and finally getting a buff is Cyclone of Tumult. This is a very fluid and fun skill that can be used as a purely physical or Physical Shockwave version with Abyssus and Warstaff, or as a Chaos-based Strength Stacker build. The most popular Ascendancy for this skill is Slayer or Berserker.
10. Molten Strike & Molten Strike Of The Zenith
Molten Strike received a pretty nice buff in both the normal version and Molten Strike of the Zenith, increasing the effectiveness of both by about 1.8 times. This skill is already very popular for different types of builds, such as Rakiata’s Dance Champion or Pillar of the Caged God Juggernaut, and can lead to more interesting combinations, such as Poison Molten Strike Pathfinder with Nimis.
11. Ice Crash & Ice Crash Of Cadence
Ice Crash also received a very significant buff, increasing the effectiveness to 611%, making it one of the highest-effective skills in the entire series. It will definitely bring more popularity to this skill, as it is very convenient and fun. Therefore, both Hollow Palm Warden and Mace Berserker builds should get a boost.
12. Frost Blades
Frost Blades has long been a fan favorite starting skill in the league, and now it will be even more popular because the damage effectiveness of the skill has been increased by 184%. It also stacks well with the new Warden Ascendancy, and another option is Trickster or even Berserker to further increase the damage. Don’t forget to bring your Heatshiver, The Taming, and Yoke of Suffering to join the blasting party!
13. Smite
Armor Stacker will now be built differently because of the changes to Auras. On the bright side, Smite is getting a buff to gain 215% additional effectiveness, and it doesn’t lose inherent damage, so it will continue to be a sound choice for all Armor Stacking Champions and Ascendants with Doryani and Dreamfeather.
14. Splitting Steel
Splitting Steel was also a very popular skill in Necropolis League, so the buff to it isn’t that big, and it also loses its inherent damage bonus. But if it’s paired with a strong Ascendancy, such as the lightning damage version of Trickster with Ephemeral Edge or Champion with Paradoxica, it can also help further boost an already strong build.
15. Lightning Strike
Lightning Strike also got a buff in POE 3.25, but it’s the least changed with only 74% extra effect, and it also loses the fixed damage increase. Considering there are no totems, the overall damage should be close to pre-change levels, still playable, but with a little buff. If you still want to try it, Armor Stacking Champions or Ascendants should be your best choices.
16. Boneshatter
Boneshatter has long been one of POE fans’ favorite melee skills, and now it’s been buffed! 88% extra damage effect without losing fixed damage, that sounds great. So always get your Juggernaut or Slayer ready and go smash some bones!
17. Rage Vortex
The last skill on the list is Rage Vortex. In reality, it wasn’t popular in POE 3.25, but some people played it, so it can be considered a niche skill. With all the changes to Rage, it’s hard to predict how good it will be, however, considering it only gained 8% of its effect, the buff doesn’t seem to be huge. The main advantage of this skill will always be Berserk, so if Rage Vortex is your first choice, don’t hesitate to pick it.
Which Melee Skills Are Most Likely To Become Meta?
Finally, we talk about the skills that were popular in POE 3.25 and benefited the most from the patch. I think these skills are most likely to become Meta or close to Meta.
- Lacerate: Its buff effect is huge, and Aggravated Bleeds bonus and Gladiator together will push it quite far.
- Flicker Strike: This skill has always been popular, and its buff is enough to become mainstream.
- Frost Blades: It has a good clearing effect, single target stability, few melee plays, and has interesting interactions with different settings such as Nimis, so it will be strong and popular.
- Molten Strike: The biggest problem with this skill is the range, but the damage is great and Nimis can help boost it even higher.
- Splitting Steel: Again a great clearing effect, and the skill feels like a ranged skill instead of a true melee, a good middle ground for those who want to keep some distance.
- Reave: Will continue to be a good stacking skill. The biggest problem with Strength Stacking skills is the cost, but Reave still stands as one of the strongest choices.
All in all, the above is a list of melee skills that have received the most buffs in POE 3.25. Which one do you think is the best? What do you think of these buffs and changes? Hopefully, this guide can help you find the best melee skills to complete a strong build. Good luck!
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How To Better Explore Endgame In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access?
As the official release date of the early access of the new game Path of Exile 2 is getting closer, players are increasingly looking forward to some of the basic gameplay and combat methods. Among all the campaigns, the expectations for Endgame are far higher than other campaigns.
Therefore, this guide will summarize the methods for better exploring Endgame in POE 2 and the explanations of some specific names based on the leaked trailers and some player videos at this stage, so that you can get a head start in the early access version. However, it should be noted that what is introduced in this guide is only speculation, and it is subject to the eventual release.
What Is The Campaign In POE 2?
It should be noted here that since the early access of POE 2 will be released in a few weeks, it will not be a complete campaign, but only Acts 1, 2, and 3. Because this campaign is shorter, there will be a Cruel Mode in the early access version. In this mode, you can re-experience the game content in the 3 Acts you just explored, and then enter Endgame.
Cruel Mode
In the original game, you need to re-explore all the game content in the 3 modes (Normal, Cruel, and Merciless) at some point in the game before you can enter the Endgame. For the upcoming advance version, you only need to complete Cruel Mode to enter it.
Under normal difficulty, all the content of 3 Acts will take about 25 hours; but in Cruel Mode, because your character will be strengthened, the exploration time you need will be reduced accordingly. The specific exploration time may need to be determined according to your game ability and game style.
Endgame Overview
Atlas & Maps
After you have experienced all the above game content, you will enter Endgame. Then you will enter Atlas, which is a super large map that can be infinitely expanded in all directions, and it is also the core endgame system you need to explore.
You will find that there are many small circles in Atlas, each of which represents a portal to a specific map. For example, the blue circle represents the map you can currently access, the gray circle represents the map you can explore next, and the green circle represents the map you have explored.
In these maps, you will clear the corruption that affects the game time and fight powerful monsters. Of course, in the process of exploring these maps, you will be rewarded with a large amount of POE 2 Currency and some loot that is useful for your construction.
Waystones
I believe that in the introduction to Atlas just now; you have discovered one of the most critical differences between POE 2 and the original: in the original, the map you explore is the item you get in other event explorations, and you can choose which maps to run; in POE 2, you can only explore in the order provided to you in Atlas.
And among them, Waystones play a very important role. First of all, before you explore a map, you need a Waystone, just like you need a key to open a lock. The level of Waystones you provide will determine the level or rank of the monsters on the map. In simple terms, the higher the level of Waystones you provide, the higher the level of the monsters you will encounter, the more experience points you will gain, and of course the better the quality of your loot will be.
Like most Path Of Exile 2 Items, you can also add prefixes or suffixes to your Waystones. Prefixes increase the rewards you will receive on the map, while suffixes increase the challenge of the map. This is also a key way to maintain your supply and obtain higher-level drops.
Endgame Map Mechanics
In POE 2’s Endgame map, you’ll encounter bosses, enemies, and mechanics. For bosses or enemies, all you need to do is increase your build’s damage and survivability. In contrast, it’s more important to understand the map mechanics. Here are three mechanics you may encounter in Endgame map.
Precursor Artifacts
It’s Shrines in POE 2, just with a new name. But it’s also where monsters gather. After clearing all the monsters here and pressing the Artifact, you will get a buff for a period.
Strongboxes
Fill these Strongboxes with loot and monsters, which will all depend on your luck. In addition, there will be special modifiers in Strongboxes that will increase the monster weight of the box or apply some debuffs to you. After you clear them of monsters, they will also drop some loot and POE 2 Currency as your reward.
Essences
While exploring Endgame map, you will often find monsters trapped in crystals. After you free them and defeat them, they will drop Essences, which can be used for crafting. It will ensure that the crafted items have a type of modifier, allowing you to craft the effect you want most.
The above are some of the details we have learned about Endgame in the early access of Path of Exile 2. In general, after seeing a very perfect POE 2, our long wait will become very worthwhile. I hope you can have fun playing the new game in a few weeks!
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What Game Mode Is Suitable For You In The Upcoming Path Of Exile 2 Early Access? - Mode Detailed Explanation
Finally! The highly anticipated Path of Exile 2 will officially meet players in a few weeks on December 6. I believe that after this long wait, GGG will bring us a nearly perfect POE 2. But in the meantime, besides waiting foolishly, what you can do is to learn as much as possible about the detailed information of this new game.
And this guide will introduce you to the various game modes in Path of Exile 2 today. If you are a player who has just come into contact with POE series of games, you are likely to be confused by these more complex game modes. But don’t worry, this guide will solve these doubts for you and help you make the most suitable choice for you.
What Is League?
Similar to the seasons (also called ladders and stages) in other action role-playing games, there is a permanent league called Standard League and a limited-time league that usually lasts for three months in Path of Exile 2, usually called Challenge League. For example, Settlers of Kalguur in POE are currently an active Challenge League. Let’s introduce them one by one.
Challenge League
In Path of Exile 2, a new temporary Challenge League is launched every 3-4 months, during which all players will use a character starting from level 1 to start exploring this league again, without pre-existing items and advantages. During this Challenge League, the developers will occasionally introduce a lot of new content and new patches, which will achieve balance in the game by enhancing or weakening items, classes, skills or enemies.
These new changes will not only bring more opportunities for many players to try new builds and new combat strategies, but also keep players in a strong sense of freshness in the game. This is also the main reason why most players choose to explore the temporary Challenge League in POE.
When this Challenge League ends, you will not lose all the characters and items you have spent a lot of POE 2 Currency to obtain. They will be transferred to Standard League that has always existed.
Standard League
As I just said, Standard League is a permanent league in POE 2, which means that you will never be forced to restart your progress in this league, and you can always access all the characters and items you have obtained in Challenge League. This is the most stable choice for some players who don’t have much time to explore the game or those who don’t like to reset their progress frequently.
But this does not mean that Standard League is perfect. Its disadvantage is that you can’t try some new league mechanisms and many new contents in Challenge League. You may only be able to explore continuously in one game mechanism. Fortunately, Standard League will also make some real-time adjustments like the temporary league to achieve the balance within the game.
Here you need to be reminded that some objects in Standard League may change and produce some variants with the start of a new Challenge League. But please rest assured that the builds applicable to these original items will not change as a result, so for the builds in Standard League, you may not need to spend too much time and energy to make frequent changes to it.
To summarize, if you are a player who loves novelty and the thrill of exploration, then Challenge League will be more suitable for you. If you are a player with limited time or a player who likes an unchanging way of exploration, Standard League may be more suitable for you, and most importantly, you will not feel the pressure to complete the objectives before the end of the league.
Game Modes
In addition to the two most important leagues, POE 2 also offers players several game modes. Here is a detailed explanation of these game modes. You can choose the corresponding one according to your game style.
Softcore (also known as SC)
Softcore is the default game mode in the game and is the most suitable for novice players. In this game mode, once you die in combat or exploration, you can choose to respawn in the town or choose to respawn at the last checkpoint you just experienced.
Softcore game mode is available in both Standard League and Challenge League, but you can only explore and trade with players in the same league as you. Like the previous characters and items, all progress in this mode will be reset to zero after Challenge League ends and return to Standard League.
Hardcore (also known as HC)
Unlike Softcore, characters that die in Hardcore mode will not be able to explore in this league. They are not permanently deleted, but sent back to Standard League to explore. This game mode is very suitable for players who are experienced in the game, very confident in their builds and operations, and have a lot of free time, because they don’t mind losing everything they have when they make mistakes.
But from another perspective, Hardcore mode provides players with a way to train their build and exploration abilities with a focus on strengthening defense capabilities. Of course, players in this mode can also choose to explore in Standard League or Challenge League.
The above is the detailed information of several game leagues and modes in POE 2 that will be available to players this time. In any case, after such a long wait, we will definitely see an extraordinary Path of Exile 2. I hope you can choose the game mode that suits you best with the help of this guide. I wish you a happy game!
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How To Make Your Monk Stand Out From The Crowd In The Early Access Of Path Of Exile 2 Next Month? - Class Guide
As the final date of the early access of Path of Exile 2 promised by GGG is getting closer, players are more and more interested in this game that has been polished. But in this anxious waiting process, you can’t just wait foolishly, but you should learn more about some new information or new gameplay in this brand new game during this period, and the most important one is Class.
There will be 12 Classes for players to choose in POE 2, 6 of which are retained in the original game, and the other 6 are newly added. Among these newly added new Classes, the most likely to attract players is Monk, because this Class has appeared in Diablo 3, a game that has long been compared with POE series of games.
Many players have always wanted to understand what the difference is between Monk in POE 2 and in Diablo 3. Don’t worry, this guide will introduce it to you and teach you how to make it more powerful. If you are familiar with this Class knowledge, you will create a very outstanding Monk in the early access of the game at the fastest speed!
Monk Overview
First of all, we need to understand that Monk is a Class with both Intelligence and Dexterity attributes, which makes it located in the upper right part of the passive skill tree, similar to Shadow class in the original game. If your game style is to explore with a flexible combat state, then Monk will be your best choice.
For Monk’s weapons, the most commonly used are Quarterstave and Quarterstaff. Quarterstaff is a spell-casting weapon with modifiers such as Spell Damage; while Quarterstave is a weapon with a modifier of attack damage. In some necessary situations, Unarmed is also one of Monk’s main combat methods.
From this, it can be concluded that Monk will be more suitable for melee use and will rely more on mobility rather than brute force. So you can use more skill points to add more Cold Damage nodes in Dex area of this Class’s passive skill tree and don’t forget Lightning Damage nodes in Int areas. These will make your Monk more powerful in combat.
But this does not mean that you don’t need to invest in some defensive capabilities. Defensive layers such as Energy Shield, Evasion, and Spell Suppression are also worth your effort to use POE 2 Currency to obtain, so that Monk will have both strong offensive capabilities and survivability.
Some Changes To Monk’s Mechanics
In the leaked Monk gameplay trailer and test videos, we can see that GGG has made some changes to Monk’s Crowd Control and Freeze mechanisms - in POE, the effect of Crowd Control is a single thing: either it happens or it doesn’t happen.
So in the original game, many bosses are immune to Crowd Control and Freeze mechanisms, which is also one of the most unsatisfactory shortcomings of many players in POE. But in POE 2, the Crowd Control mechanic has an internal meter, so when you Freeze or other Crowd Control abilities on a boss, the meter will continue to build until the boss is hit by your crowd control ability.
But if you have already Freezed a boss in the meantime, the threshold will increase, so you need to Freeze them more before Freezing them again to achieve the crowd control effect. But don’t worry, this threshold increase will slowly decay as your character levels up.
Monk’s Skills
Similarly, based on the trailers and test videos that are currently available, we have summarized some skills of Monk Class and their effects. However, it should be noted that these are our summaries and do not represent the eventual results. Everything is subject to the final pre-release.
- Falling Thunder: Monk will use Lightning to damage all enemies on the ground, and this skill will consume Power Charges to increase its range and damage.
- Culling Palm (also known as Killing Palm): It can be used to kill some enemies with low health and increase Power Charges for yourself.
- Wind Blast: This skill will cause your character to generate a gust of wind and knock back all enemies, with the purpose of distance between yourself and the enemy, and put yourself in a safe range.
- Ice Strike: It can continuously attack the enemy multiple times and eventually freeze it.
- Glacial Cascade: Much like Ice Strike, you will cast an ice waterfall and send spikes at the last location. These spikes will cause greater damage to those enemies who have been frozen.
- Wave of Frost: You roll backwards a distance, and a wave of ice spikes appears in front of you, causing damage to enemies.
- Whirling Assault: You spin very fast and cause damage to enemies as you move.
- Shattering Palm: This skill allows you to place an ice bomb on the target enemy. When the target dies or causes enough damage to it, the bomb will explode.
The above is some information about the new Monk Class in POE 2. This new game has undergone a lot of revisions, but please believe that you will see a very perfect Path of Exile 2 next month, and it will make all your waits worthwhile. I wish you a happy game!
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How To Use Energy Shield In Path Of Exile 2 To Enhance Your Survivability? - Mechanics Explained & Potential Changes
As we all know, the much-anticipated POE 2 Early Access has been postponed to December 6, which has whetted everyone’s appetite. Many players are now a little impatient and want to experience the content of Path Of Exile 2 in person.
But while waiting, you can also learn about some of the mechanics in Path Of Exile 2 in advance, and how these differ from those in POE 1. For example, this article will introduce Energy Shield in detail. Without further ado, let’s take a look.
How Does Energy Shield Work?
Energy Shield is a form of defense that can be used as an additional hit point pool in the life pool. In addition to armor and evasion, it is also one of the defense types that can appear implicitly on equipment.
Energy Shield Recharge
Energy Shield Recharge is a mechanic that restores Energy Shield over time at a base rate of 33.3% per second. It only starts after Energy Shield or resource has not taken damage, and the duration of Energy Shield protection lasts for 2 seconds. Energy Shield recharge is interrupted if Energy Shield or the resource it is protecting takes any damage.
However, Energy Shield recharge does not stop when full Energy Shield is not reached or if resource loss comes from non-damage sources, such as using Lifetap Support to consume life.
Application Of Energy Shield
In addition, each class has no Energy Shield in its initial form. But after that, for every 10 intelligence increase, the maximum Energy Shield will increase by 2%. Of course, Energy Shield also reduces the amount of damage the class takes. As long as the character has Energy Shield when it takes damage, even damage from Labyrinth traps, that damage will be applied to Energy Shield first.
It’s worth noting that physical damage reductions and elemental resistances also apply to damage before being deducted from Energy Shield. Damage only starts to be applied to life or mana when all Energy Shield is depleted.
The exception is chaos damage, which bypasses Energy Shield. Of course, Energy Shield can also be mixed and matched with some other items. For example, Corrupted Energy, which makes 50% of chaos damage unable to bypass Energy Shield, but on the downside, it causes 50% of physical damage to bypass Energy Shield.
Additionally, Eldritch Battery Keystone can cause Energy Shield to conserve mana instead of life, causing the character to consume Energy Shield before spending skill charges. Mind Over Matter can be used in conjunction with Eldritch Battery, with damage dealt being redirected to mana and deducted from ES.
If the class does not take damage for a certain period of time, Energy Shield will begin to recharge. Also, when using Blood Magic or Sacrifice mechanic, consuming Energy Shield does not count as taking damage.
By default, Energy Shield starts charging after a delay of 2 seconds. Players can also reduce this delay by using passive skills and equipment to activate Energy Shield Recharge modifiers more quickly.
In general, as a form of recovery, Energy Shield Recharge Rate can reach 20% per second. If you want to speed up your recovery efficiency, it is essential to invest some POE 2 Currency to re-roll stats, which will give you more generation opportunities in some critical endgame situations.
Avoiding Stun
Energy Shield also has an inherent stun prevention mechanic. When a character takes hit damage while having Energy Shield, they will have a 50% chance to ignore being stunned by that hit unless they also have Eldritch Battery Keystone in use. This stun prevention mechanic is completely independent of other sources of stun avoidance, and is rolled separately.
Chaos Inoculation keystone can also be used to render a character immune to damage, but at the cost of losing only one life. All these changes make Energy Shield a primary resource for absorbing damage.
Potential Changes
Now, POE 2 is making some major changes to the core Energy Shield mechanic, mainly regarding which damage types bypass Energy Shield. For example, chaos damage will no longer bypass Energy Shield by default, unless it is chaos damage from poison ailment.
Any non-poison type of chaos damage will remove twice Energy Shield after mitigation calculations. Therefore, please be aware of the damage type and equip the appropriate POE 2 items in advance to avoid unnecessary consumption of your Energy Shield.
Although physical damage from bleeding ailment bypasses Energy Shield, bleeding only causes damage from direct hits, so GGG is currently planning to provide players with immunity of bleeding in the same way as Chaos Inoculation keystone did in POE 1, so that when attacked, no life damage is dealt and ailment is applied.
Of course, since Path of Exile 2 Early Access hasn’t officially launched yet, some of the new mechanics and changes we’ve learned about so far haven’t been fully confirmed. However, for some players who can’t wait, you can also read this guide in advance to make a full understanding before officially playing POE 2. I hope it can help you get a better gaming experience!
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How Will The Damaging Ailments Mechanic Work In Path Of Exile 2?
Before Path of Exile 2 Early Access officially arrives on December 6, let’s take a look at some of the changes that may happen in this sequel so that you can quickly adapt to everything when you enter the game and dominate the entire continent of Wraeclast.
Here, we will mainly explore Damaging Ailments mechanism in POE 2. We will talk about how it works and how it differs from the same mechanism in POE 1. If you are also interested in this, then don’t miss this guide!
Composition Of Damaging Ailments
Damaging Ailments mechanism in Path of Exile is composed of three ailments. Each ailment will cause continuous damage during its effect. These three are Poison, Bleed and Ignite.
Bleed is caused by physical attack damage and will cause physical damage over time. Its magnitude is 70% of the base physical strike damage of the ailment per second. It lasts for 5 seconds and does not stack. However, the damage dealt by Bleed triples to 210% per second while the target is moving.
Ignite is caused by fire strike damage and deals fire damage over time with a magnitude of 90% of the base fire strike damage that causes the ailment per second for 4 seconds, and does not stack. Ignite is always dealt with five points of damage, and the last one is also a critical hit.
Poison is caused by physical and chaos strike damage and deals chaos damage over time with a magnitude of 30% of the base physical and chaos strike damage that causes the ailment per second for two seconds, and stacks infinitely.
Modifiers
There are a number of modifiers on Passive Skill Tree, including Ascendancy notable and Unique items, that are directly related to these ailments. The more common modifiers increase the duration of the ailment or increase the character’s chance of causing these ailments, but some modifiers can directly change the default behavior of the ailment.
For example, Crimson Dance keystone does this, allowing you to stack Bleed effect up to 8 times on a single target, but at the cost of halving the damage dealt and losing the inherent property of Bleed not dealing extra damage when the enemy is moving.
What Are The Changes To Ailment Mechanics?
Now, Path of Exile 2 is making some very significant changes to Ailments.
Ailment Application
First, let’s discuss the broad changes to ailment application and damage dealt by ailments. In POE 2, you won’t be able to trigger ailments by investing POE 2 Currency like you did in the original game, as these modifiers grant you a percentage-based chance to cause specific ailments. Meanwhile, critical hits in POE 2 will no longer guarantee the application of Elemental Ailments.
So how do you cause ailments? Now, in Path of Exile 2, the chance to cause an ailment and the damage dealt will be based on the damage the defender has taken before the mitigation phase. This differs from the calculation of ailment damage in POE 1. In PoE 1, damage was calculated from the base damage of a hit on the attacker’s side.
Now, this change is important for a few reasons. First, since the chance of inflicting an ailment is based on the hit damage, you now care about adjusting the hit damage to help ensure that you can inflict that ailment. This wasn’t important in PoE 1 originally, for example, Deadly Ailments Support was a regular addition to an ailment-based build, since reducing the hit damage by 80% wouldn’t affect the damage inflicted by the ailment.
Second, since the damage inflicted by an ailment in PoE 2 is based on and scaled by the damage hit rate, the damage modifier will no longer be directly applied to the ailment before mitigation, as it was in PoE 1. This means that in PoE 2, you are actively incentivized to scale the hit damage, not only to improve the chance of inflicting an ailment but also to inflict more damage on it.
Ailment Damage Scaling
Now, even though hit damage before mitigation determines the chance to cause an ailment, you can still invest in modifiers that help you cause an ailment, but they work slightly differently.
A good example of this is Ignition Support, which gives supported skills a 50% chance to cause Ignite. This can be thought of as somewhat similar to Implicit, which exists on modifiers that allow you to cause an ailment. This is because hit damage first determines the chance to cause an ailment and the modifiers of Ignition Support.
And then, as a multiplier of that number, besides being able to increase the chance to cause an ailment, you can also use a new type of modifier to directly scale ailment damage. This modifier originally only existed on certain non-damaging ailments in POE 1 Ailment effects. But in POE 2, you will be able to directly scale damaging ailments with ailment effect modifiers as well. For example, this Frostfire Support, which makes Ignite caused by supported skills 100% more effective against frozen enemies.
In addition to the hit damage modifier naturally scaling ailment damage in POE 2, this modifier essentially increases the base effect of Ignite from dealing 90% of hit damage per second to 180%.
Critical Strikes & Detonate Dead
There are two other important mechanics that also affect Damaging Ailments in POE 2, namely Critical Strikes and Detonate Dead. These mechanics are calculated before mitigation damage and directly affect hit damage. Therefore, they will increase the chance of inflicting a bleed and the damage dealt by that ailment.
Keep in mind that the 50% multiplier provided by critical hits for bleeds in POE 1 will no longer exist in POE 2, and as mentioned before, critical hits will no longer guarantee the application of Elemental Ailments in Path of Exile 2.
Default Behavior Of Specific Ailments Changes
Finally, the default behavior of specific ailments will also change, and now only hits that damage life can cause bleeding, and hits that are completely absorbed by energy shields or other resources will not cause bleeding.
In addition, damage caused by bleeding will completely bypass energy shields, which is very interesting. This means that Chaos Inoculation Keystone will make characters immune to bleeding in POE 2. Because non-poison chaos damage will no longer bypass energy shields, but will remove twice as much energy from this resource.
By default, poisons will not stack, but you will be able to invest in additional poisons, such as this Multiple Poison Support. However, non-poison chaos damage will no longer bypass energy shields, but will remove twice as much energy from this resource.
This is all we know about Damaging Ailments mechanic in POE 2. However, we have to make a disclaimer that nothing is set in stone before Early Access is launched, so please stay tuned!
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How To Choose The Best Build For The Latest POE 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur Event? - Cold Tornado Occultist Build Guide
Exiles, I’m back with my Cold Tornado Occultist build! As a low-life crit build, it performs particularly well in boss damage and map clearing. With the official launch of POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur Event, if you like to experience super-fast mapping and dominate the battlefield with clever tactics and exciting damage output, then don’t miss this powerful build!
Here, we will talk in detail about the pros and cons of this Cold Tornado Occultist and the equipment settings, so that you can better master it in the latest Settlers Event and win more loot.
Pros & Cons
In POE 3.25, Tornado has become one of the favorite skills of many players in this game, especially for some avid fans of Totem mechanism. The reason why they like Tornado so much is that it works a bit like Totem. You don’t even need to aim, stand still, or get close to the monster. Just run away after casting it, and it will cause damage and kill the monster. So, with this build, you can greatly improve the efficiency of farming Divine Lantern in Settlers of Kalguur Event.
Speaking of its advantages, it must be mentioned that this build has amazing damage. For regular Tornado builds, having solid defense is often the core competitiveness, but their DPS of only 12 million makes many offensive players give up it as the first choice. Therefore, here, we want to try to improve the disadvantages of this build, that is, to increase its DPS and make a crit build that can easily complete Tier 17 maps and Uber bosses.
Of course, there is no doubt that this has prime requirements for your budget, and you need to invest in at least 40 Divine Orbs. This will bring your DPS to 24 million, and your level 29 Tornado will easily make your crit multiplier exceed 500%.
So why do we choose to use a low-life build? This is mainly because it is also very easy to get started, and you are able to easily deal high damage by stacking multiple attack auras. Of course, the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, there is no spell suppression, because it is difficult to integrate it into this build, and it requires several mandatory POE items.
In addition to this, except for Energy Shield Mastery “10% Less Physical Damage Taken while on Full Energy Shield”, you do not have any physical damage mitigation or reduction, which means that this build is extremely easy to die from physical damage. It cannot withstand huge physical blows. Although blocking helps a lot, you still have to dodge these blows manually in the end.
Offense
This build uses 3 curses: Elemental Weakness, Frostbite and Assassin’s Mark. Previously, some players said that Herald of Purity and Herald of Ice were also good choices, but later after many trials, Summon Skitterbots were clearly more advantageous because it caused more damage.
In addition, this build has 9 Power Charges all the time, so allocating Inner Conviction keystone is a breeze. It has been very easy to deal with areas like Abomination Map. Facing 3 bosses spawning at the same time is not a problem. Like said before, it doesn’t matter where you cast the skills, because the skills will move, and the boss will die, anyway.
Defense
Of course, this does not mean that this build has no defense. For example, damage avoidance is okay for this build. It has about 40% attack block and 60% spell block. Chill and Freeze will also come in handy when surrounded by monsters.
Thanks to having such high spell block, you can have the easiest Uber Elder killing experience. You can run around without worrying about these elusive purple balls. And having high Energy Shield and fast recovery through leech and Energy Shield recharge is also crucial to survival. If your resistance is also capped, including chaos resistance, and immunity to all Elemental Ailments.
Gear Choice
For gear choices for this build, Void Battery must be mentioned first, which is one of the best unique wands in POE 3.25. Trust me, this is a wise choice, because for a Power Charge Stacking build, there is nothing better than it.
Prism Guardian and Shavronne’s Wrappings are a must for this low-life build to work. If you are trying to squeeze as much attack blocking as possible out of your gear setup, Crown of the Inward Eye may be essential for you, but it is also a high demand for your budget. Because a good roll with this implicit requires at least 20 Divine Orbs. Of course, you can also choose to corrupt some helmets yourself, and if you are lucky, you will get the result you want after a few attempts.
Presence of Chayula is very useful for Stun Immunity, don’t sacrifice this position for anything else. In addition, +3 to the gem level is too good to miss. It not only increases your damage but also increases the movement speed of Tornado build.
Passive Skill Tree
You can easily get Stun Immunity through Occultist’s Vile Bastion, but to get this, you have to sacrifice one of the passive skills, which I don’t think is worth it.
There is also Immutable Force here, which seems to be quite good, and the stun is almost unnoticeable. Combat Focus needs to be placed correctly to get the effect. Please note that “With 40 total Dexterity and Strength” here does not mean that all stats need to get 40 points. For example, here, having 40 points of Strength meets the requirement.
As for other passive skill choices, it is recommended that you prioritize those that provide Energy Shield, Reservation Efficiency, Power Charge and Critical Hit.
The above is all about this Cold Tornado Occultist build. To be honest, the arrival of the new Settlers of Kalguur Event is unexpected, but I hope this build can bring you a pleasant experience in this new event! Although this new event is a bit boring with only Divine Lantern, it is understandable considering that GGG had to transfer most of its resources to POE 2. Anyway, good luck to you!