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Today, we'll be sharing a powerful and versatile summoner build for Path of Exile 3.27: Arakaali's Fang Occultist. It excels at fast mapping and challenging high-difficulty bosses, and with sufficient investment, can even handle Uber-level content.

Notably, this build has significant room for improvement. Even the entry-level version is sufficient to complete the campaign without difficulty; and if you're willing to invest more PoE currency, it offers over 35 million DoT DPS and 1300 Energy Shield, making it a reliable choice for challenging most Atlas and Pinnacle Bosses.

Here, we'll focus on showcasing the ultimate version of this Arakaali's Fang build, including the equipment and skill tree setup required, as well as the final cost. Let's take a look!

How it works?

First, in Path of Exile 3.27, Arakaali's Fang Occultist is a poison-based summoner build that uses a unique dagger to summon damage-immune spiders. Damage is boosted through Minion Damage over Time Multiplier, Minion Attack Speed, and flat chaos/physical damage from Abyss Jewels.

The core mechanic involves using Desecrate, Divine Ire, and Writhing Jar to quickly summon up to 40 spiders. These spiders apply powerful poison effects, making it a powerful but gear-intensive build suitable for endgame boss fights and map farming.

How to increase Minion Attack Speed & DoT Multiplier?

Since the minions summoned by Arakaali's Fang are based on poison damage, the faster their attack speed, the faster they can stack poison, resulting in higher damage. Therefore, Minion Attack Speed is a crucial attribute for this build.

Most of the attack speed increase comes from specific passive skill nodes on three Large Cluster Jewels (such as Spiritual Command) and Increased Effect modifiers that boost minion attack speed. These modifiers can amplify the base attack speed bonus of small nodes, increasing it from 3% to 4%. 

Furthermore, these Cluster Jewels can create new passive tree branches, allowing players to gain multiple small nodes with attack speed bonuses, significantly increasing minion attack speed, especially when combined with Call to the Slaughter passive.

Because we use a large number of small nodes surrounding three Large Cluster Jewels in this build, all these bonuses stack up to provide a significant DPS increase.

Another major source of minion attack speed comes from rings, and this attack speed is further boosted by Accelerating Catalyst.

Since this build is based on poison damage, Minion DoT Multi is also a very important stat, and a large amount of DoT Multi comes from Amanamu's Gaze Ghastly Eye Jewel. However, you need to equip at least 5 Jewels to get the maximum DoT benefit, three socketed in the skill tree and two in equipment.

Abyss Jewels

Speaking of Abyss Jewels, I must remind you that the added flat physical and chaos damage modifiers are very useful, so try to choose the highest tier modifiers you can afford.

Another important note is that Minion Attack Speed modifier can also be found on Abyss Jewels, but they become very expensive if they also have added flat damage modifiers. You can choose whether to add them based on your needs.

The final boost for this build comes from the unique Elegant Hubris Timeless Jewel, which provides us with three 80% increased minion damage nodes. Two of these nodes can be activated through the unique Impossible Escape Jewel with the Minion Instability variant. We chose not to activate the other node because it would require too many skill points. Nevertheless, all these settings allow this skill's DoT damage to exceed the cap.

How to stack Energy Shield regen?

Next, this build has over 1300 Energy Shield regeneration. How is this achieved?

First, our chest and helmet provide some life regeneration, and the three Large Cluster Jewels provide even more life regeneration. And because of the 35% Increased Effect modifiers, all the small nodes also provide a significant amount of life regeneration.

Another factor is the unique Rational Doctrine Jewel, which provides permanent Consecrated Ground, providing an additional 5% life regeneration.

Finally, when mapping, Cinderswallow Urn we wear also provides an additional 3% life regeneration. All of this life recovery will be converted into energy shield recovery through Zealot's Oath.

Gear

For Arakaali's Fang Occultist build in PoE 3.27, we need to focus on minion attack speed, poison damage bonuses, survivability, and key unique items to ensure continuous spider summoning. Balancing defensive and utility gems is also crucial for both mapping and boss fights. Here is our gear setup for your reference:

• Weapon: Arakaali's Fang Fiend Dagger
• Helmet: The Dark Monarch
• Amulet: Impresence
• Shield: The Square
• Boots: Paladin Boots
• Gloves: Paladin Gloves
• Body Armour: Sacred Chainmail
• Belt: Darkness Enthroned
• Rings: Miracle Twirl & Rage Spiral
• Flasks: Quicksilver, Quartz, Granite Flask, Cinderswallow Urn & The Writhing Jar

Passive Tree

For Passive Tree setup, our focus is on minion damage, attack speed, life/energy shield, and curses. We recommend using a large number of Cluster Jewels with Increased Effect and Minion Attack Speed modifiers for significant boosts, along with the key unique jewels Rational Doctrine and Amanamu's Gaze, and further customization and enhancement using Tattoos and Runegrafts.

Additionally, prioritize nodes near Witch/Occultist area and move towards the upper right, acquiring minion clusters, while also investing in life/energy shield to improve survivability and increasing curse effectiveness to enhance the power of Profane Bloom explosions.

Finally, the total cost for all upgrades in this build was approximately 130 Divine Orbs, with Timeless Jewel being the most expensive investment, but absolutely worth it! However, everyone's spending will certainly vary; you can remove or replace equipment as needed, entirely depending on your situation. Have fun!

Path of Exile 3.27 has been out for over a month, and major content updates have ceased. Most players have likely switched to PoE 2, and those still playing PoE 1 are likely casual players.

Therefore, Cold DoT Elementalist build recommended today is perfect for casual players. It requires minimal investment, involves few actions, and is incredibly versatile.

Cold DoT Elementalist Advantages And Disadvantages

Cold DoT Elementalist is a very versatile build, with no weaknesses in farming or boss battles. This build primarily relies on DoT damage, so even if the weapon's damage is low, the impact is minimal.

This build can apply slowing and other negative effects to monsters, and although its health is relatively low, you can compensate by stacking energy shields, making it actually quite tanky. Additionally, this build can generate pulses periodically, enabling automatic farming.

However, as a DoT build, DoT damage has a cap, so even if you invest heavily in PoE Currency to acquire top-tier gear, your burst damage won't surpass that of burst builds. When facing bosses, you need to cast spells to stack DoTs, and fights against bosses with high Cold resistance can be lengthy.

Core Gameplay

This build's damage doesn't come from any single skill, but rather from multiple layers of Cold Damage over Time and large-area Chill crowd control. You simply need to keep moving, and mobs will die around you.

Therefore, your damage primarily comes from these skills:

• Creeping Frost
• Vortex
• Vaal Cold Snap

Once the ice field is established, players hardly need to cast spells frequently; simply keep moving, and monsters will be slowed, frozen, and naturally fall under the CTD damage. The key to achieving this is Vaal Cold Snap, which inflicts Cold DoTs and Chills on enemies within a certain area.

Building upon this, since enemies are almost constantly chilled or severely slowed, and DoT skills can be applied from a distance, you rarely need to engage in close-range combat. This means that even if your armor and elemental resistances aren't at their maximum, you can achieve high safety through control, distance, and timing.

However, when facing elite monsters or bosses, relying solely on Vaal Cold Snap is insufficient. You need to actively apply curses like Frostbite and sequentially apply Vortex, Creeping Frost, and Cold Snap to keep the target constantly in multiple frost zones. You need to amplify existing damage over time, not change your damage output.

Cold DoT Elementalist Gear

This build is playable regardless of your currency investment, and approximately 20 POE Divine Orbs are needed to make it run smoothly.

This build doesn't rely on specific gear, so you need to understand which affixes you need. Once you understand your damage and defense sources, you can then apply affixes to your gear yourself.

Weapons

• Recommended: Tulborn (Foulborn Version with +4 Cold Spell Skills)

For weapons, focus on the affixes Cold Damage over Time Multiplier and +Cold Skill Gems. The weapon type itself is irrelevant; as long as it contains these affixes, it's usable for a long time until you find something better.

Armor

• Recommended: Daresso's Courage, Rime Gaze

You don't need to deliberately stack resistances. What you need is health or energy shields to provide stable support for sustained combat and map movement. If your support gems require you to maintain low health, then stack more energy shields.

Resistances, status ailment immunity, and movement speed take priority over armor or evasion stats. Since enemies are often in a chilled state, you rarely suffer concentrated melee attacks, so gear should prioritize increasing survivability rather than tanking enemy damage.

Jewelry

• Recommended: Ashes of the Stars, The Hungry Loop, Triumvirate Authority.

For necklaces, rings, and belts, their primary function is to supplement resistances, provide attribute requirements, and further enhance Cold DoTs. If they can further increase DoT damage or skill level, it will significantly enhance overall output, but these are not necessary conditions for building a full set.

Cold DoT Elementalist Skills

• Chest Armor: Creeping Frost, Cruelty, Hypothermia, Swift Affliction, Elemental Focus, Controlled Destruction
• Helmet: Vortex, Cruelty, Controlled Destruction, Bonechill
• Gloves: Arctic Armour, Tempest Shield, Summon Stone Golem of Hordes, Malevolence
• Boots: Summon Lightning Golem, Summon Flame Golem, Summon Stone Golem, Summon Chaos Golem
• Ring 1: Animate Guardian, Elemental Weakness
• Ring 2: Vaal Cold Snap
• Main Hand Weapon: Shield Charge, Vaal Righteous Fire, Frostbite
• Off-Hand Weapon: Vitality, Arrogance, Flesh and Stone

Your DoT output primarily consists of Creeping Frost, Cold Snap, and Vortex. Creeping Frost creates a frozen path, while Cold Snap rapidly generates a Cold DoT area around you. Vortex unleashes a burst of energy, primarily used when enemies approach.

These three skills are sufficient for clearing maps and farming bosses. Other skills are mainly for triggering passive skill buffs, further enhancing your DoT.

Skills like Golem and Animate Guardian aren't direct sources of damage; they provide damage reduction, auras, or additional debuffs, making Frost DoTs last longer and have more consistent coverage. Especially in long boss fights, the indirect benefits of this type of gear are often more significant than simply stacking damage.

Passive Skill Tree Keystones

• Pain Attunement: Increases spell damage at low life.
• Hex Master: Reduces Curses damage, but grants unlimited damage over time.
• Eternal Youth: Reduces life regeneration efficiency and leech, allowing life to regenerate like an Eternal Youth.
• Zealot's Oath: Life regeneration effect can be applied to ES.

Masteries

• Cold Mastery (2)
• Elemental Mastery (1)
• Energy Shield Mastery (1)
• Damage Over Time Mastery (1)
• Reservation Mastery (1)
• Minion Offence Mastery (1)

Cold DoT Elementalist is very easy to play and can satisfy almost all endgame content. The process of clearing out mobs is also very smooth. You can try to optimize this build yourself.

Before the full release of PoE 3.27 Keepers of the Flame content, many players anticipated significant balance changes due to comments made by the game director in a previous patch Q&A session. However, the official patch notes were disappointing in terms of balance adjustments.

Unexpectedly, the biggest impact of PoE 3.27's meta gameplay wasn't on balance changes, but rather on the addition of hundreds of Foulborn unique items. Now that the official focus is primarily on POE 2, there shouldn't be any new Foulborn unique items in this league. So, will Foulborn unique items be integrated into the core gameplay?

What Are Foulborn Unique Items?

Foulborn unique items are not new unique items, and they are unique items that already existed in the game, whose one or more affixes have been replaced by Foulborn affix.

Because Foulborn affixes are generally stronger than regular affixes, these Foulborn Unique items become unique and powerful enough in many situations to form an entire build idea around them.

The Red Drea (Foulborn)

Foulborn unique items were used in many builds in Patch 3.27. The Red Drea (Foulborn) was the most frequently used Foulborn unique item in both softcore and hardcore trade leagues in patch 3.27. In softcore, 8% of level 95-100 characters used it, while in hardcore, this figure rose to 11%.

Its most common Foulborn variant replaces its Endurance Charge chance affix with Fire Resistance or All Elemental Resistances talent allocated nodes based on Jewel range, providing an increase in maximum life. This provides a much-needed boost to life-based builds, allowing them to compete with the energy shield configuration.

The Red Drea (Foulborn) is used by approximately 40% of Chieftains, 17% of Juggernauts, and 20% of Gladiators, with Elementalists also making significant use of it.

The effectiveness of a Jewel is closely related to its position in the jewel socket on the Passive Skill Tree. The classes with 3 jewel sockets have particularly strong effects.

The sockets outside Marauder's starting point have the greatest potential. By using Tattoos to replace Strength path talent points with "+6% Fire Resistance" nodes, and combining them with The Red Drea (Foulborn), each small node provides an additional 4% maximum life increase. This allows for a total of approximately 55% additional maximum life increase using this unique item.

Templar slots outside the starting point offer slightly less potential, providing approximately a 30% increase to maximum life. Ranger slots south of the starting point offer around a 20% increase to maximum life.

This allows life builds in this area to either become more durable due to the significant increase in life or save talent points invested in damage, thus better tackling endgame content.

Hand Of Thought And Motion (Foulborn)

Foulborn unique items even impacted the PoE 3.27 meta. Hand of Thought and Motion (Foulborn) boasts a powerful affix that increases accuracy rating by 5% for every 25 points of Intelligence.

It fundamentally solves the scaling accuracy problem inherent in past accuracy-stacking builds. Previously, these builds heavily relied on Precursor's Emblem Rings, but the improvements they provided were limited and had limitations.

Now, Hand of Thought and Motion (Foulborn) allows you to scale accuracy simply by stacking Intelligence. This is incredibly powerful because Intelligence stacking has been strong in recent leagues, and it also provides a significant amount of energy shield.

Combined with Shaper's Touch Crusader Gloves' boost to energy shield and accuracy, Stormrider Boots' base Lightning damage, and Juggernaut's Undeniable Ascendancy node's massive attack speed, you can create an extremely powerful build, potentially the strongest build of the league. But if Foulborn items don't carry over to the next league, this strongest build will only be available in Patch 3.27.

Doedre's Scorn (Foulborn)

Foulborn affix of Doedre's Scorn indicates that the socketed gem is supported by a level 30 Impending Doom. This provides approximately 6000 to 9000 flat Chaos damage. Players can equip it at level 39.

A normal level 4 Impending Doom Support Gem only provides 175 to 263 flat Chaos damage at level 38. This means that at the corresponding level, Doedre's Scorn (Foulborn) version can deal approximately 34 times the damage.

It allows players to quickly complete campaigns and even one-shot campaign bosses. Its ingenious design lies in the fact that in the endgame, it is surpassed by the highly sought-after Forbidden Shako Helmet.

However, the latter is extremely rare or it requires a vast amount of valuable PoE Currency. So Doedre's Scorn (Foulborn) will give players the freedom of choice if it could be in core game. You can choose to use it from start to finish or simply as a fast leveling tool.

Other Noteworthy Foulborn Unique Items

Berek's Respite (Foulborn)

Berek's Respite provides a new way to obtain the explode affix for various builds, especially when combined with Elementalist's Ailments transformation, creating interesting explosion chains.

Esh's Mirror (Foulborn)

Provides a relatively easy way to obtain damage reflect immunity, used by approximately 2% of characters above level 95, primarily in Detonate Dead builds.

Kaom's Spirit (Foulborn)

Kaom's Spirit (Foulborn) is very useful for mana stacking builds, and even more so when you use two. It provides immunity to curses, a large number of attributes, mana regeneration, and a flat mana of up to 200.

Will Foulborn Unique Items Be In The Core Game?

Foulborn Unique items will probably be added to the core game in some form. This is because Breach rework is almost certainly going to be included in core content and won't just appear in this league, and this mechanic requires unique rewards.

The hundreds of newly added Foulborn Uniques items have enormous potential, much like Replica Uniques. Many of them may remain dormant across multiple leagues, but should specific balance changes occur elsewhere, one or two of them could become key to a meta, enabling new builds.

Even if some of Foulborn items clearly require balance tweaks, they provide players with more options and more playable toys, which is a good thing in Path of Exile.