POE Blight Guide: How To Play Better Under Tower-Defense Mechanism

Exiles, today we'd like to discuss a unique and niche build that only 0.2% of players used in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.2.0, making it a truly unique option for those looking to experiment with a different style: the Shattering Palm Witch. This build performed exceptionally well in patch 0.2.0.

In Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0: The Third Edict update, the Shattering Palm build wasn't directly altered, but rather enhanced through extensive improvements to unarmed combat and the new Hollow Palm Technique Keystone. This keystone allows the use of quarterstaffs with unarmed weapons and grants increased speed, critical strike, and damage bonuses to unarmed skills.

Thus, by addressing past gameplay issues, Shattering Palm Witch build's damage and capabilities have been significantly increased.

Here, we'll discuss how Shattering Palm Witch works, including the required skills, equipment, and everything else you need to know. Let's get started!

Skills

First, before diving into the mechanics behind this build, let's take a look at the required skills.

Shattering Palm

As a clear core skill, Shattering Palm can be enhanced with talents, allowing it to cover the entire screen. Shattering Palm applies a layer of Ice Crystals to enemies, and when one of these monsters dies, Ice Crystals trigger a chain explosion.

Furthermore, we can exploit the unique synergy between Shattering Palm and Ice Wall. While Shattering Palm itself has low damage and is cast with bare hands, cleverly paired with Ice Wall, it can deliver significant damage.

Ice Wall

Because Ice Wall can be treated as an enemy and has ice attached to it, we can summon a low-level Ice Wall and then shatter it with Shattering Palm, triggering a chain explosion.

While Shattering Palm isn't as effective as Ice Wall in terms of direct kill potential, this strategy allows us to effectively clear groups of enemies using its explosive effects and harvest a large amount of PoE 2 currency in a short period of time.

By summoning a low-level Ice Wall and shattering it, we can create chain explosions to boost our overall damage output and enhance our clearing damage with our Aura skills.

Freeze

It's worth noting that since we're using Freeze element, we can also combine Cast on Freeze and Freezing Mark Skill Gems to more easily trigger Shattering Palm. This setup allows us to effectively deal with groups of enemies and utilize the freezing mechanic to boost our overall damage output.

Gear

Next, let's discuss gear selection for this Shattering Palm Witch build.

For unique items, you should consider Collapsing Horizon, Ingenuity, and Morior Invictus.

While our Shattering Palm doesn't gain damage bonuses from weapons, weapon modifiers can still increase our damage. Therefore, Collapsing Horizon is a good choice, as it not only increases skill levels but also provides critical strike chance and skill regeneration.

Ingenuity is a unique Heavy Belt in Path of Exile 2 that increases the bonuses of equipped rings by 40-80%.

Morior Invictus is a unique body armor that increases the player's armor, evasion, and energy shield, and increases the rarity of each Socketed Rune or Soul Core, granting additional Spirit.

In addition, when looking at item stat bonuses, focus on single stat increases, energy shield, resistances, melee skill level, and flat damage modifiers. These stats will help improve the overall performance of the build.

Skill Tree

In the skill tree, prioritize allocating points to Flurry and Authority passive nodes. Additionally, invest in From Nothing and Iron Reflexes nodes to remove all evasion ratings and convert them to armor. Finally, the remaining points can be used to increase critical damage, energy shield, and elemental damage.

Ascendancy 

Please note that this build has no specific Ascendancy requirements; you can choose based on your personal preference.

However, if you're looking for improved clearing capabilities, I'd recommend prioritizing Lich Ascendancy. This is because Lich in PoE 2 provides powerful offensive and defensive benefits for both spellcasters and summoners, including bonus chaos damage that scales with mana from Unholy Might, additional curse effects, the ability to cause cursed enemies to explode, and the powerful defensive power provided by Soulless Form and Eternal Life.

In addition, Lich Ascendancy can utilize Crystalline Phylactery to gain an additional jewel socket, which can be combined with other nodes to further enhance your defense.

Overall Evaluation

Firstly, the total equipment cost to complete this build is less than 20 PoE 2 Divine Orbs. While it's not the lowest-cost build, it's actually a good deal considering the impressive results.

As for the practicality of this build, I believe this is a subjective and judgmental issue, so individual opinions may vary. Objectively speaking, this build boasts excellent clearing speed, though its boss-killing abilities are a bit lackluster. However, its relatively low cost makes it suitable for casual players, and more importantly, its simple controls make it incredibly easy to master!

In short, Shattering Palm Witch build in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0 offers excellent clearing speed and strong survivability, thanks to its core mechanic: applying Freeze debuff to enemies while dashing, and triggering a massive Freezing Explosion when struck hard enough.

While effective, players must prioritize high-level Shattering Palm and the Freezing Mark Skill Gem to maximize the blast's damage. Furthermore, this build can be a bit cumbersome, requiring careful aiming and positioning to avoid damage.

Deflection is a new defensive stat added to Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0. It's a new mechanic for Dexterity-based builds, designed to reduce all incoming damage by at least 40%, with the potential for increased effectiveness as it's rolled and stacked.

Frankly, this is a boon for pure evasion builds, as evasion previously lacked effective mitigation, leaving them vulnerable to one-hit kills when taking significant damage.

Now, evasion builds have Deflection stat as a defensive complement, which makes most builds on the right side of the skill tree tend to be hybrid setups, combined with energy shields to be able to deal with some larger incoming damage.

How Does It Work?

Simply put, think of Deflection as a modifier that reduces incoming damage. If rolled successfully, it applies the reduction to any damage, not just the default evadable damage.

This means you'll be able to use Deflection to counter a wide range of hits, slams, and even boss skills.

Deflection's effectiveness typically depends on modifiers that convert a percentage of your Evasion Rating into Deflection Rating. Deflection Rating provides an additional chance to deflect incoming damage, blocking not only 40% of the incoming damage but also any damaging ailments caused by that hit.

Note that the chance to deflect incoming attacks here is determined by the ratio of your Deflection Rating to your opponent's Accuracy Rating. However, unlike evasion, the chance to deflect isn't capped at 95%; it can even reach 100% if you're willing to invest in more PoE 2 Divine Orbs to continuously stack the effect.

Also Read: Path Of Exile 2 The Third Edict Of Patch 0.3.0 Brings Improvements To Enhance The Player Experience - Act IV, Sprint, Rise Of The Abyssals And More

How To Achieve 100% Chance To Deflect?

But how much investment do we need to achieve a 100% chance to deflect attacks? To answer this question, we first need to understand Deflection calculation formula.

Deflection Calculation Formula

The developers didn't actually add any additional information about deflection in the 0.3.0 patch notes, but the trailer gives us the information we need. We see a character chart listing their level, evasion rating, estimated chance to evade, and their deflection rating and estimated chance to deflect.

Since a character's estimated chance to evade in PoE 2 is calculated by comparing their evasion rating with the average accuracy rating of monsters of the same level, we can also guess how the estimated chance to deflect is calculated.

For example, let's assume the character is level 82 and the average accuracy rating of monsters of the same level is 1.75. Substituting these numbers into the chance to evade formula yields 62.84, while the character's estimated chance to evade is actually 63%. Therefore, this calculation method is generally correct.

We can then do the same for deflection rating, substituting the same formula for evasion rating, which yields 39.7. Therefore, we're guessing that the character's estimated chance to deflect is 39%. This may be slightly off because of rounding, but it's likely close enough.

How Much To Invest?

With this information, we can calculate how much deflection rating is needed to reach the upper limit of chance to evade in the late game, and thus how much investment we need to make.

If you're well-equipped, you can probably convert around 60% of your evasion rating into deflection rating.

Now, we've seen this stat on body armor and helmets, but it also appears on gloves, boots, and possibly even bucklers. If the stat also appears on your equipped bucklers, your chance to evade will only be higher.

Additionally, we've seen a new deflection rating wheel in the passive tree. It has six nodes, four of which grant 6% chance to evade, while a significant node grants a 10% increase.

We're not sure what the remaining two nodes do, but it's possible that more wheels like this will appear in the updated passive tree. We're just not sure where they'll be located or how much PoE 2 currency you'll need to reach them. But trust me, it's a good idea to prepare gear with a higher evasion rating stat!

With excellent evasion gear and factoring in the life prefix, your base evasion rating could be 4,500 to 5,000, and even higher if you're also using a buckler.

So, assuming a base evasion rating of 5,000, this means that if your evasion rating increases by 100%, you'll gain 5,000 deflection rating. With more similar stats, your chance to deflect could increase by a total of 40%. In short, chance to deflect can be capped out if you invest enough.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Deflection looks like it will be a great addition to boost the defense of pure evasion builds, but we're not sure yet whether these improvements will make their way to hybrid builds.

Even if they do, you might not be able to achieve very high chance to deflect, as your base evasion rating is significantly lower than your deflection rating. Furthermore, achieving a high chance to deflect might require significant effort and currency, including the use of numerous external mechanics. So, is the addition of Deflection stat a successful defensive enhancement or simply a drawback that further complicates the defense layer? We'll have to wait and see!

Today, we'd like to discuss the changes to armor modifiers in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0.

As we all know, armor modifiers are important affixes that supplement defensive abilities, primarily by increasing armor value over time, thereby mitigating physical damage taken. These modifiers scale based on the percentage of the global armor modifier and have different categories, affecting their placement and value on items.

However, armor modifiers have a weakness: by default, they only affect physical damage, not other types of damage. Excitingly, the scope of these modifiers has been revised in Patch 0.3.0. Now, we can finally apply a percentage of armor to elemental damage taken.

Nerfs To The Maximum Elemental Resistance Modifier

This begs the question: just how significant will the armor changes actually be? The first thing to note is that a large number of nodes granting maximum elemental resistance appear to be being removed or replaced with armor that applies to elemental damage.

• Smith of Katava's maximum fire resistance node will be replaced with an armor node that applies to elemental damage.
• Prism Guard Passive in the passive tree, which previously granted maximum elemental resistance, now also applies armor proportional to elemental damage.
• The smaller nodes leading to this cluster that previously granted maximum resistance have likely been modified and no longer grant it.
• Infernoclasp Plate Belt, which grants base physical damage and fire resistance, will no longer be obtainable in patch 0.3.0.

Overall, the path to maximum elemental resistance appears to be significantly weakened in favor of more armor that applies to elemental damage. This will have a significant impact on builds on the left side of the passive tree: sustained elemental damage will become more dangerous, as armor can't be applied to it for as long.

Order Of Applying Armor

So, how does armor stack with maximum resistance? It's worth noting that armor calculations for mitigating elemental or chaos damage are applied before resistances. This is inherently worse than the calculations in PoE 1, where the calculations were reversed, allowing armor to better mitigate smaller hits.

Thus, the armor calculation for hits mitigated by resistances first is significantly reduced, allowing armor to provide a higher mitigation effect than it would otherwise.

In PoE 2, however, armor is calculated before resistances, which often results in large amounts of damage overwhelming your armor, rendering its mitigation effect negligible.

How Is Armor Calculated?

Now, let's estimate the amount of armor you can reasonably expect to gain, and how much armor you can gain from elemental properties.

First, the developers did say that this modifier applies to all armor types, so we can estimate that you can expect to gain a 20% bonus from body armor and a 15% bonus from gloves, helmets, and boots, for a total of 65% from your gear. If shields also roll modifiers and you can use one, the bonus is even higher.

Additionally, there are Soul Cores, which provide a 30% bonus to each elemental type. Then we know that there's at least one notable in the passive tree that provides a 15% bonus to a specific stat, as well as several notables that apply to each elemental damage type.

However, please note that because they may be so far apart in the passive tree, obtaining them all requires a large investment of POE 2 currency, so we can make appropriate trade-offs so that in the endgame we can get about 110% armor value bonus with very good equipment alone.

It's worth noting that monster elemental damage is now balanced based on a minimum expected resistance of 75%, so monster hits typically deal much more elemental damage than physical damage.

Suppose our armor is 25,000 and our character takes approximately 8,000 fire damage. If we apply the 110% armor bonus to elemental damage, we achieve a mitigation of approximately 25%, or 5,953 damage, before elemental resistance takes effect.

Then, if the character has 75% elemental resistance, after two stacks of mitigation, they will take 1488 fire damage.

So, in this case, the armor value is equivalent to six additional stacks of maximum fire resistance mitigation.

What if we take 5,000 elemental damage? This time, the armor will mitigate approximately 35% of the damage, reducing it to 3,226. Then, the 75% elemental resistance kicks in, mitigating 807 damage.

In this example, the armor provides mitigation equivalent to an additional 9% of maximum resistance. You can see that the effect of this modifier increases significantly as elemental damage is reduced.

How To Make The Most Of The Armor Modifier?

This modifier works well with monster skills that convert some physical damage into elemental damage, because the armor formula is applied separately to each damage type.

For example, suppose a monster has an attack skill that converts 30% of physical damage into fire damage. When we encounter this monster on a map, the map's modifiers will cause it to gain a percentage of additional lightning damage.

Since the armor formula isn't applied all at once to reduce the damage of a hit, but rather to each damage type separately, the full armor calculation is naturally applied to the physical portion of the hit, and separately to the fire and lightning damage, for a total of three calculations.

This means that this armor modifier is generally more effective in this scenario, as the damage is broken down into multiple different types, and armor is more effective against the resulting smaller damage components.

Summary

In general, elemental armor can provide a significant degree of mitigation against small to medium-sized hits, but it essentially just makes the armor perform better in its natural area, and it doesn't mean these hits won't still be lethal.

More importantly, for large-scale hits, maximum elemental resistance is clearly more advantageous because it provides a continuous damage reduction effect, not to mention that armor has no effect on continuous elemental damage.

Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict is about to begin. Whether you're a new player preparing to join the game or returning after a long absence, there's one thing you absolutely must do before embarking on this new journey of exploration: choosing the best starting build.

It's a common topic, but even POE 1 players who have been through the game to this day often choose the wrong build at the start of a league, which can lead to a bumpy journey.

Of course, there's no right or wrong build per self; the key is whether it suits your playstyle. After all, switching builds mid-game is not a good idea.

So, based on the balancing and rework of various classes and skills in Patch 0.3.0, we've recommended some of the best starting builds for leagues. These might even become the dominant builds in this league! Let's take a look!

1. Ancestral Warrior Totem Build

The first build option we'll mention is Ancestral Warrior Totem, which focuses on Endurance Charge. I've put this build first because it received a significant buff in Patch 0.3.0.

In PoE 2: The Third Edict, Ancestral Warrior Totem received a significant damage buff that scales with your weapon's effects.

In addition, it consumes Endurance Charges to summon minions to fight for you. These Endurance Charges can be obtained through new Support Gems, such as Perfected Endurance and Enduring Impact II. This means you'll need to focus on Heavy Stunning enemies and using Perfect Strike during boss fights to maintain this minion buff.

It's worth noting that there's no limit to the number of totems you can place, so if you focus on accumulating Endurance Charges, you can summon as many minions as you want, and their damage has also been significantly increased in Patch 0.3.0.

To further enhance this skill, we've chosen Warbringer Ascendancy. The reason is simple: its Answered Call has been significantly buffed, allowing us to summon more totems and summon Ancestral Spirits, which have also been further enhanced.

Summoning multiple Ancestral Spirits combined with Perfect Strike creates a very effective boss-killing build.

To help with mapping, we've also added an Ascendancy node called Warcaller's Bellow: when you send out Warcries, it explodes the corpse, dealing physical damage equal to 25% of its health, ignoring Warcries' cooldown.

2. Minion Blast Witch Build

Next, if you prefer a passive game, avoiding initiating combat and preferring powerful minions to lead the charge while you simply pick up the dropped PoE 2 currency after combat, then Minion Blast Witch build is perfect for you.

Since accuracy is no longer as important for minions, they'll attack more frequently and deal more damage.

In this build, we'll be using Skeletal Brutes, which not only deal significant damage but also have Commander Warcry to intimidate enemies and deal damage by consuming Freeze effect from nearby enemies and allies.

In addition to Skeletal Brutes, we'll also be using Skeletal Frost Mages, which apply Ice Armor to all minions, boosting their defense and dealing bonus damage to enemies. This also counts as Frozen, meaning our Brutes can blast them, dealing even more damage.

To maintain this board-clearing effect, we'll also utilize Unearth to summon all dead minions, creating a never-ending blasting cycle.

On top of that, Spectres received significant buffs in patch 0.3.0, and their Spirit cost has been reduced, so finding a good Spectre will also be helpful in this build.

3. Elemental Storm Sorceress Build

Third on the list is Elemental Storm Sorceress build, arguably the coolest build yet!

By collecting new Elemental Infusions through certain skills, we can enhance our primary skills, either dealing more damage with the same element or adding entirely new elements for enhanced effects.

A simple combination is to combine Spark with Orb of Storms to gain Lightning Infusion. We can then enhance this build with Flame Wall, which not only provides additional illumination for projectiles but also creates fire.

We can also add Frost Bombs to our inventory, randomly placing them while casting Sparks. This also generates Cold Infusion, boosting our Spark damage.

For easier Infusion, we chose Stormweaver Ascendancy, as it received some significant general buffs and its skill tree around Infusion mechanic has also undergone some rework. For example, Storm's Recollection causes Remnants to reappear 3 seconds after being collected, while Refracted Infusion gives us a 50% chance to receive a different Elemental Infusion upon collecting them.

4. Forge Hammer Fire Warrior Build

Next up is another Warrior build, Forge Hammer Fire Warrior.

Since Ignite received a rework in patch 0.3.0, we now need to build up Flammability, a stacking debuff where the higher the stack, the greater the chance of inflicting Ignite.

Secondly, they've buffed Volcanic Fissure - it now creates a winding fissure on the ground that deals decent damage and can be triggered by other skills.

So, we can use Volcanic Fissure for other things, or simply opt for the new Forge Hammer skill. With this skill, we can throw a hammer that slams the ground and deals damage.

Forge Hammer has another trigger mechanic: when you cast Warcry near it, it shatters, creating a fissure in the ground. If you use other slam skills, it triggers aftershocks from the fissure, dealing even more damage.

This combo is incredibly effective for clearing areas and dealing with bosses. Furthermore, we can also add Perfect Strike during boss fights just in case - especially now that they've slightly increased the skill's radius, making it easier to land.

5. Unarmed Hollow Palm Monk Build

Last up is Unarmed Hollow Palm Monk build! For this build's Ascendancy, we can choose either Invoker or Acolyte of Chayula, as their passive trees have received significant buffs.

Monk class has added a keystone passive skill, Hollow Palm Technique, which allows us to use Quarterstaff skills unarmed, and since we're not using any weapon slots, these skills are significantly more powerful.

Another keystone passive we know is receiving a buff: Walker of the Wilds, which makes our Mana Leech based on elemental damage types instead of physical damage. This change is significant for Monk builds that deal elemental damage, as it provides a different scaling approach to mana maintenance by tying it to elemental damage output.

Since nearly the entire Ascendancy skill tree is being buffed or reworked, I think there are a lot of builds that could work here as well.

So, those are my top five starting builds worth trying in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0! Choose the one that best suits your playstyle and preferred archetype! Are there any others you think we've missed? See you next time!