News Tag: Poe Ward Loop Build

If you are new to Path of Exile, I can create any build for you. I can redesign any build for you. I can recommend any build for you, but Ward Loop is not for you. This is because the Ward Loop is one of the hardest builds to set up, but not as hard as the Aura Stacker build.

The difference in setting up a Ward Loop and an Aura Stacker is a matter of budget. You can create a Ward loop in less than 50 Divine Orbs, but you need at least 200 Divine Orbs to set up a proper Aura Stacker.

If you are interested in getting started with my Ward Loop build, here are some of the common issues you could stumble upon and this can be frustrating if you don’t have anyone to help you with.

1. I’m Taking Damage When I Start My Ward Loop

This is because you don’t have enough Ward to ignore the damage. You need to have at least 1.1k Ward to run Ward Loop safely .  

As you know, each hit you take has to go through your flat Ward first. Ideally, you want the maximum tier of Ward on your helmet, gloves and boots. A tier 2 on your hybrid mod will be fine, too.

2. My Character Is Committing Suicide

If you don’t have flask sustain on your Olroth's Resolve flask, you will take hits from your own self damage and die. This is why flask charges are the key element of the Ward Loop build.  

You need at least 2 flask duration mods from your Timeless Jewel: Tier 1 mods on your belt and as many small nodes with increased effect on your cluster jewels. 

Take heed, not to increase the effect of the flasks with mods like Alchemist’s Genius.

3. Skeletons Die Slow And Trigger Is Slow

This can be a cooldown issue or a duration issue with the Skeletons.

One of the main reasons to go for the Saboteur is the Clockwork node that gives you increased cooldown recovery rate. The better the cooldown recovery, the smoother and safer the trigger sustains.

This could also be an issue with your Skeleton duration being too long. We are using 3 To Dust jewels to reduce the duration of the Skeletons. Ideally, you want a duration of 0.20 seconds over the Anomalous Summon Skeletons.

Related: All Details About Starting A Ward Loop Build In POE 3.21 Crucible League

4. My Skeletons Are Not Spawning

This is the most common issue faced by most players. Most of my supporters on Patreon reported this to me.

As we delved deep into our investigations, we discovered it was related to the duration of the Skeletons. Most had too little duration on their Summon Skeletons, such that their Skeletons weren’t even spawning.

The first thing you need to check for is if your Skeletons are spawning in the first place. This was fixed by removing the less duration support gem.

5. Multiple Weapon Swaps Required To Start The Trigger

To start the loop, minions need to die or you should take a lot of damage. It is recommended you use 2 one handed weapons with Summon Spectral Spirits each on your weapon slot 2.

If you need multiple weapon swaps to start the loop, this is because you are running out of Mana quickly. Ward Loop is also a Mind over Matter build, and hence you need to stack a mana of at least 1.7k with all the recovery, recoup and regeneration stuff from the Passive Tree.  

Since your triggered skills cost mana, they need mana and reduced mana cost to sustain the loop. You can get reduced mana cost from one of your magic flasks.

6. Still Not Working

This is because you are not taking enough self damage and hence a lot of things can go wrong in this case.

Try to use 2 Heartbound Loop rings as I have. Using 2 Heartbound Loop rings is still as good as using a Nimis Topaz Ring. Because this gives a much faster trigger rate, giving you a lazer like style. If you have a fast cooldown recovery, this works too!

7. One Or Two Skills Don’t Trigger

This is very easy to figure out. Just check each skill individually if they can be self casted.  

If they can be self casted, it means your cast when damage taken linked to that skill needs a higher level. If you can use the divergent version of cast when damage taken support, it has a lot of efficiency you get for a build like this.

To summarize, you need mana, ward, flask charges, self damage, cooldown recovery, and Skeletons. If you are starting this build, I can guarantee you that you will run into issues, but you will figure it out as I did when I first tried.

In this guide, I will talk about my pussycat build for POE 3.21 Crucible League. It is called Ward Loop build. There are several things you need to know about this build before you start and this is not an easy build for beginners without a proper guide. If done in the wrong way, the Pussycats may fly out of your monitor towards your face. I’m not joking. There are several things you have to prepare for before you start this build.

Budget

Let’s start with the first one and that is the budget to start this build. You need at least 35 Divine Orbs. In my case, I spent three Mirror Shots, which are sold for 13 Divine Orbs each. Now, let’s take a look at my gear and I will explain what you really need to get started.

Items You Need

The key ingredient of any Ward Loop build is the Olroth’s Resolve Iron Flask. This flask gives you permanent uptime of your Ward. Ward is a form of defense that reduces the damage taken from a hit equal to the amount of Ward you have. This means, if I take a hit damage of 1000 while having a Ward of 1001, I take no damage at all. This applies to all damage types, namely fire, cold, lightning, physical and chaos. It then goes on a cool down. Ward recharges for seconds after it depletes.

But unlike Energy Shield, taking damage will not interrupt the Ward restoration time. Under normal circumstances, your Ward breaks after you take the damage. But since we are using a layer of flask, Ward does not break during the effect.

Another fact is that Energy Shield and Aegis is of no use for Ward builds because the damage fast goes through them before applying the reduction. Hence, you gain low damage reduction benefit of having extra Energy Shield or the Aegis. This flask needs to be active all the time and if it breaks, you die. This is why our main focus in this build is all the modifiers to flask sustain.

One of the main items we use for our flask sustain is the Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel, which grants The Traitor Keystone. Furthermore, we use two Medium Cluster Jewels (Ghoul Splinter & Plague Ornament), which grants increased flask effect duration with increased effect. Do not use Alchemist’s Genius or any modifiers that increase the effect of flasks because that also increases the less Ward modifier from the Olroth’s Resolve Iron Flask. We also have two suffixes on our belt (Beast Trap Heavy Bealt) that help our flask sustain.

One of the hardest parts of this build is tapping your resistances because Ward Loop builds are very squishy. For this, let me give you a big tip. Just look for the perfect prefixes on trade. Then, use Eldritch Orbs to free up the suffixes so that you can later craft resistances with the crafting bench. You will save tons of Divine Orbs this way. The Eternal Struggle helps you fix your attributes easily while giving you some good bonuses.

Also Read: Is Path of Exile Still Worth Playing In 2023? - 10 Things You Must Know

If you have tons of POE Currency, use Ashes of the Stars instead. Since Ward is a global defense modifier, most Ward Loop builds use Skin of the Lords and other items that increase the global defenses. The upside of having a high value of Ward is that you take no damage from small hits. I would not recommend doing Ubers with this build unless you have a good skill at it. 

The most important thing to note is that you cannot have any form of physical damage reduction here because we have to take lots of damage to trigger our skills. The way how we trigger the loop is with Heartbound Loop Moonstone Ring and the Forbidden Rite skill. The way how we start the loop is by switching our weapon slot that is using a minion skill, such as Spectral Spirits from Essence of Insanity. When we swap the weapon, our minions die and the loot begins.

You may ask why use the To Dust Cobalt Jewel? The only line we need from this is the reduced skeleton duration. We need to lower the duration to 0.2 seconds so that the skeletons die quickly and we take more damage and the loop is faster.

Another important factor to consider is that since Ward Loop requires lots and lots of Mana, we can only use one Aura with Eternal Blessing. Hence, we are using Mind Over Matter and stacking a bit of extra Mana to sustain our loop and our defenses. We have reduced minor cost of skills on our Quicksilver Flask as well.

Finally, the weapon I prefer to use is the Cane of Kulemak. You need spell damage, double damage, mono regeneration rate and any modifier that is good. Some builds that have plenty of resistances use the Annihilating Light.