POE 3.20: This Build Tanks Everything!

Feb 23, 2023 Author: POECurrency.com

I can safely say this is the tankiest character that I ever played. The damage is amazing even in Uber boss fights.

How We Deal Damage?

First, let's talk about damage. Let's see what things I got on the damage side: our skill choice is Blade Trap.

You throw a trap and when it gets triggered, it will use your weapon and start spinning around, like cyclone. Therefore, it's important what weapon we are using. And we need to reach 100% accuracy rating and use a really cheap weapon, namely Ephemeral Edge Dusk Blade, which is a unique weapon. This weapon has a few important stat that are only exclusive to this weapon.

First and the most important part, attacks with this weapon have added Maximum Lightning Damage equal to 20% of Maximum Energy Shield, while also give us tons of Energy Shield. Therefore, we need lots of Energy Shield to benefit from this weapon. With that much Energy Shield, this weapon become over 1.5k elemental DPS weapon, which is superb for 1 Chaos Orb.

We can use 3 curse of our choice because we are using the newest unique ring, Anathema. Our curse limit is equal to our maximum power charges. Every character can have 3 charges, so we can add 3 curse to the build. It's up to you to go full offensive and use all the damage curse or use 2 damage and 1 defensive curse.

I took the defensive route because I have enough damage even with two curses. So, the offensive curses I'm using are: Elemental Weakness & Conductivity.

You can add punishment as your third curse if you want more damage. But I like to do this when I have a good balance in offense and defense.

On the defensive side, I have a tremendous surprise for you: Aspect of the Crab. This will give us Crab Barriers every half second and it will grant Physical Damage Reduction per crab stack. But when we take a hit, we will lose all the stacks. This is when we come in handy with our high evasion rating.

We are using Grace for evasion rating, so we almost can't die from the monsters' basic attacks or projectiles.
100% Spell Suppression. This is coming from the tree.
A unique boots Atziri's Step. This will give us a huge chuck of Spell Suppression and evasion.
A Watcher's Eye. While Grace affects it, you have Increased Spell Suppression. The really interesting part is our Energy Shield.

Where Is The 17k Energy Shield Is Coming From?

Let's start with the biggest source: our chest piece, Ghostwrithe.

This chest alone gives us more than 7k Energy Shield because it will convert our Maximum Life to Energy Shield. From now, we can scale our Life and Energy Shield at the same time. Therefore, I have Life and Energy Shield on every single piece of gear.

We also stacked intelligence to get more Energy Shield. I reached over 800 intelligence.

17k Energy Shield in POE 3.20

We achieve this with intelligence on every gear slot, using a very cheap solution in our belt slot: Cyclopean Coil unique belt. This has good rolls and attributes. Catalyst can give 18% increased attributes.

Another big chuck of Energy Shield is coming from our amulet Presence of Chayula. It will also convert our Maximum Life to Energy Shield. You may already notice we are reserving a little less than 50% of our life. I'm using Arctic Armour with Arrogance Support, so I can become immune to Freeze. Maybe you wonder that we have that much energy shield, but what happens when we encountering with Chaos Damage? We just die?

What We Do Against Chaos Damage?

This is when another unique item came in: Esh's Visage unique shield. Chaos Damage taken does not bypass our Energy Shield while not on low life. Therefore, I mentioned our spell that are reserving life.

In short, don't reserve more that you 50% of your life and you will be safe from the Chaos Damage.

Flask Permanent Uptime - NO Mageblood

I mentioned earlier, we have a permanent flask uptime. We achieve this with a few simple things.

Flask Permanent Uptime in POE 3.20

Maybe you wonder why I'm only using 3 flask. Because I'm using the Traitor Keystone form a Timeless Jewel. The Traitor gives 4 Flask Charges every 5 seconds for each empty Flask Slot. Alone, this is not enough to sustain our flask.

We need quality up our flasks with Hillock from the Betrayal mechanic and you need at least 26% Quality. You need him in research and he needs to be ranked 3 to get this option.

Energy Shield Regeneration

We have almost 3k Energy Shield regeneration. This is coming from our ascendancy. We get life regeneration when our trap is activated. Therefore, you see melee sometimes just throw the traps and POE Currency even there is no enemy nearby.

We convert this regeneration to Energy Shield with Zealot's Oath keystone. All life regeneration applies to energy.

Items

You should use a bunch of unique items in this build. Let's start with our weapon: Ephemeral Edge unique weapon. This weapon has a few important data that are only exclusive to this weapon.

Powerful Endgame Uniques Series in POE 3.20

First and the most important part, attacks with this weapon have added maximum lightning damage equal to 20% of maximum Energy Shield while also give us tons of energy shield.
Esh's Visage unique shield. Chaos Damage taken does not bypass our Energy Shield while not on low life. Thanks to this shield we can have only 600 life and not die in Chaos Damage.
Ghostwrithe unique body armor. This is the reason we can scale our Energy Shield from our life. Because these items are converting our maximum life to Energy Shield while also give us tons of Chaos Resistance.
Atziri's Step unique boots.This pair of boots give us spell suppression, life and a bunch of evasion rating. It's important to use this because we can't cap our spell suppression without this. Also, this pair of boots give us at least 100 plus Energy Shield because we are taking on the tree evasion and Energy Shield mastery +1 to energy shield per 8 evasion rating on boots.
Presence of Chayula unique amulet. With this, we cannot be stunned and convert our Maximum Life to Energy Shield and we are anointing arcane focus for more energy shield.
Anathema unique ring. With this ring, we can use 3 curse in the build. It also gives us intelligence and a little of Energy Shield.
Cyclopean Coil unique belt. Because we are stacking intelligence, this is a cheap option to get high intelligence. Also, it will help us get the rest attributes equipment for our gear and gems. It is worth to mention that it also increases our damage with the lowest attributes we have.

Implicit

The following is implicit you can craft with the Eldritch Currency. Spam till you get:

On your gloves - Ghoul Clutches Sorcerer Gloves (Inflict Lightning Exposure On Hit. While there is a unique enemy nearby, there's 15% Increased Trap Throwing Speed).

On your helmet - Viper Veil Hubris Circlet (Physical Damage From Hits taken as cold, but every other element is good and conductivity has Increased Curse Effect).

Worth to mention: we are using a helm Enchantment Blade Trap rotates +1 times. Also, we have an aspect of Crab Skill. On this item, you can apply this mod from Blood Altar in the Menagerie.

Flasks - Important

Flasks we are using are Sapphire, Topaz and a Ruby Flask. You need the following mod on the flasks. The order doesn’t matter.

Only one mod needs to be present on all the flasks - Increased Charge Recovery and you need the highest tier nearly 50%.

When you crafting your flask, pay attention because there is a Hibrid Mod that also charges recovery. But you will get less flask effect.

The sub mods are:

Regenerate 3% of life per second during effect. You can get this mod from the Betrayal mechanic when you are unveiling flasks.
Reduced mana cost of skill during effect. You need to have mana cost on your blade because if you have a high flask effect, it will be free and you don’t get the inspiration stacks.
Additional elemental resistance during effect. I’m using this because it was hard to get the resistance capped.
Evasion rating during effect. It is suitable if you can be resistance capped without the effect of the previous mod.

Passive Tree

I just want to highlight a few things on the passive tree that you need for the build.

We are using 8 passive cluster jewel with Smite the Weak, Advance Guard and Veteran Defender.

Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel In POE 3.20

We are using four point medium cluster jewels with Set and Forget, Guerilla Tactics, Energy From Within (This jewel will convert our life node to energy shield) unique jewel, Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel (This will give you the Traitor keystone) and a Watcher’s Eye with gain maximum mana as extra energy shield.

While affected by grace, you have increased spell suppression. If you can’t find this combination or it’s too expensive for you, you only need the suppression while affected by grace.

Also Read: Best Divine Orbs Farming Strategies In Path Of Exile 3.20

Ascendancy

We are taking Saboteur as our ascendancy.

The notables in order are:

Perfect Crime In POE 3.20

First lab: You will take Perfect Crime because our mana cost in the early stages is high. This helps sustain our mana, also it gives us extra damage.
Second lab: You will take Chain Reaction. It will increase the Blade Trap area effect, so it can hit bigger area and can overlap on bigger enemies.
Third lab: You will take Pyromaniac. This is what I really like. In this ascendancy, you will get health regeneration and you will be immune to Shock and Ignite.

When you complete your Uber lab, take born in the shadow. This is our defensive part. You will take less damage from the blinded enemies while nearby enemies are also blinded.

Also Read: Path of Exile 3.21 + 3.22 + POE 2 VS Diablo 4?

Gem And Links

Gem and Gem links are starting with our fundamental skill in our body armor Divingert Blade Trap, Awakened Elemental Focus, Inspiration, Swift Assembly, Awakaned Elemental Damage and Trap and Mine Damage Support.

When you’re doing maps, switch out the Swift Assembly Support to Cluster Traps Support in our weapon and Arrogance with Arctic Armor and Enlighten level 3.

In our gloves, we are casting Elemental Weakness, Anomalous Conductivity, and Enfeeble.
In our boots, we are casting Flame Dash, Precision and Clarity.
In our shield, we are casting Increased Duration, Bear Trap and Immortal Call.
In our helmet, we are casting Summon Skitterbots, Discipline, Grace and Enlighten level 3.

Next: Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5 Whirling Assault Invoker Build: Herald Chain Reaction That Melts Entire Maps

Previous: POE 3.20: Juggernaut Summoner With 15 Million DPS And Good Defence!

Core Mechanics

As mentioned at the beginning, in POE 2 Patch 0.5, the core of this build is the utilization of Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder.

The effect of Herald of Ice is that when the player kills a frozen enemy, it triggers a frost explosion, causing area-of-effect cold damage to surrounding enemies.

However, the cold damage from the explosion itself cannot inflict the freezing effect, meaning Herald of Ice cannot create the conditions for its own activation.

Similarly, Herald of Thunder unleashes chain lightning upon killing an electrified enemy, but its Lightning Damag also cannot inflict the electrification effect.

On the surface, these two Herald abilities do not seem to synergize. However, players can combine their mechanics using Infusion Support Gems:

Players need to connect Lightning Infusion Support to Herald of Ice to convert some of the cold damage into lightning damage, allowing the frost explosion to inflict the electrification effect;

Simultaneously, connecting Cold Infusion to Herald of Thunder converts some of the lightning damage into cold damage, allowing the chain lightning to inflict the freezing effect.

After this modification, a perfect chain reaction is formed between Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder:

Herald of Ice explodes, killing enemies and inflicting electrocution; electrocution kills enemies, triggering Herald of Thunder, which releases lightning and inflicts freeze; freeze kills enemies, triggering Herald of Ice again, achieving a screen-clearing effect with a single explosion.

Activation Device

It's important to note that to activate this chain, the player still needs to kill a frozen or electrocuted enemy using other methods as a "activation device". Specifically:

Concussive Runes

POE 2 Patch 0.5 modified Herald abilities, making them untriggerable by kills from other Herald abilities.

Fortunately, we have the new support gems introduced in POE 2 Patch 0.5 - Concussive Runes. Its effect is: when the supported ability inflicts Heavy Stun on an enemy, it consumes Runic Ward and releases a Runic Shockwave.

This Runic Shockwave will be treated as an attack by system, not a Herald skill effect, thus fully meeting Herald skill's trigger rules.

However, to ensure Concussive Runes trigger reliably, this build requires players to invest significant resources in stacking Stun Buildup until the panel value reaches 940%.

Whirling Assault

There's an important, easily overlooked issue here: cold damage cannot cause Heavy Stun. Therefore, this "activation device" needs something that can deal lightning damage to complete Heavy Stun task.

This is where Whirling Assault comes in. It's Quarterstaff's exclusive Strike skill, its effect being: performing a series of spinning attacks on surrounding enemies while moving, and inflicting Heavy Stun on target.

Thus, we've met Heavy Stun condition and can successfully activate Concussive Runes to release Runic Shockwave.

Runic Ward

Besides stun accumulation, managing Runic Ward is equally crucial. As a new defensive resource introduced in PoE 2 Patch 0.5, it is an essential consumable for triggering Concussive Runes.

To maintain continuous triggering of Runic Shockwave, this build requires a minimum Runic Ward cap of 300 points, continuously replenished through equipment such as Call of the Void.

Concussive Runes can only function stably as a "activation device" when both Heavy Stun triggering and Runic Ward resources are available.

Class Selection

Monk players using this build should choose Invoker as their Ascendancy Class.

This is because Invoker focuses on Elemental Damage and Elemental Ailments, and its Ascendancy skill tree contains several passive skills that highly synergize with this build:

First, I am the Thunder provides 10% Damage as Extra Lightning Damage and grants a 25% chance to create Shocked Ground when an enemy is electrocuted, directly enhancing Whirling Assault's lightning damage and electrocution capabilities.

Second, I am the Blizzard provides 10% Damage as Extra Cold Damage and creates Chilled Ground when an enemy is frozen, providing a stable source of freeze activation for Herald of Ice.

Gear Strategy

Finally, you'll need some gear or affixes to complete Whirling Assault Invoker Build. This build has no mandatory equipment. You only need to craft or exchange gear that meets the following conditions using POE 2 Currency:

First, because Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder consume a large amount of Spirit, players must solve the problem of Spirit resource sustainability.

Since players can activate Ascendancy Passive Skill Lead me through Grace to gain Spirit - which provides Spirit proportionally based on the chest armor's Energy Shield and Evasion Rating - players need to wear POE 2 Uniques chest armor, which offers high evasion and a high shield.

Regarding gear selection, Quarterstaff is undoubtedly the best choice, but pay attention to affixes: prioritize affixes with high base damage, attack speed, critical strike chance, and additional lightning or cold damage.

For the amulet and rings, stack critical strike damage, attack speed, and elemental damage percentage.

This concludes the detailed introduction to Whirling Assault Invoker Build in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5 Return of the Ancients. This is a build perfectly suited for clearing maps, and its capabilities will leave a lasting impression.

Path of Exile 3.29.3 Full Patch Notes: New Cursed Ducats, Mercenary Nerfs & UI Upgrades

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

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

Essence of Desolation Source Completely Closed

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Cursed Ducats

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

Basic Rules

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

Each Cursed Ducat provides the same type of positive bonus:

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

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

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

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

Each Cursed Ducat Has a Unique Negative Effect

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

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

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

How to unlock?

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

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

Interface and Operation Optimizations

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

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

Regarding Enemy Mercenary

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

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

Other Bug Fixes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PoE 3.29 Lightning Strike of Arcing Deadeye: Abyss Jewel Stacking Build That Breaks Damage and Attack Speed

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

Three Core Unique Equipment Pieces

Spinesnatch

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

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

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

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

Shroud of the Lightless

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

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

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

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

Lightpoacher

Lightpoacher has 1 Abyssal Socket. Its core mechanics are:

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

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

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

Spirit Charge Sustainability

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

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

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

Abyss Jewel Configuration

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

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

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

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

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

Skill Links

Main Skill: Lightning Strike of Arcing

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

Core Support Gems

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

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

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

PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5 Could Revive These 5 Forgotten Unique Items

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

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

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

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

The Raven's Flock

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

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

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

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

Facebreaker

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Bringer of Rain

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

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

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

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

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

Voltaxic Rift's

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

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

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

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

The Last Lament Desolate Crossbow

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

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

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

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