A Discussion On An Extremely Underused Unique Body Armour In POE 3.21 - Doppelgänger Guise
We’re going to be talking a bit about the Doppelgänger Guise, which is a unique body armor in POE 3.21.
This unique item is Maven’s exclusive drop. It has about a 2% drop rate, so it’s quite rare. You’re going to need some good fortune to pick this one up if you’re playing SSF.
Doppelgänger Guise
This body armor has a few special mods on it. It grants you a new skill called Unhinge. Then there’s a few mods here that have prerequisites that you need to meet.
The first mod is “40 to 60% more Critical Strike chance while insane,” and also “Enemies killed by your hits are destroyed while insane”. And then, we have the “30 to 40% less Physical and Chaos Damage taken while sane” and “Regenerate 10% of Life over one second when hit while sane.
The way this works is the skill that you get from this item, the Unhinged skill. It’s basically like a Toggle, which is an instant skill and has a five second cooldown. And as a baseline, while you’re wearing this body armor, you’re considered being sane and then you can use this skill to toggle the Unhinged skill and you become insane. And then, of course, you can use it again after that to go back to sane and so on and so forth.
The actual skill itself doesn’t provide any additional upsides or downsides. It’s basically just a toggle. So, you can choose which of these modifiers are active on you at any time.
While Sane Mods
The more Critical Strike chance and corpse denial are really strong mods, but the main use case for this body armor is going to be the defensive properties, the two While Sane Modifiers.
These are both really strong. The “30 to 40 percent less Physical and Chaos Damage taken” is just crazy. This applies to all Physical and Chaos Damage you take even damage over time. So, stuff like Bleeding, Corrupted Blood, Poison and so on is going to be massively reduced by just this one modifier. What I mean is 40% less is such a huge modifier when you think about it with crazy amounts of damage reduction.
And then is the “regenerate 10% of Life over one second when hit” mod. That one is an incredible source of recovery and it’s really useful, especially good for those builds that don’t really have very good recovery. As long as you’re occasionally getting hit or whenever you do get hit and take a bit of damage, you’re just going to recover it back up again with this regeneration mod. So, that’s really nice.
Forbidden Rite & Boneshatter
This item has really good synergy with both Forbidden Rite and Boneshatter where both of these skills actually deal damage to you while you use them.
That damage is considered being a hit. So, Forbidden Rite deals Chaos Damage to you and Boneshatter deals Physical Damage to you. And that self-damage is going to be mitigated by the less damage taken modifier. Because the damage was the hit, you’re going to be able to recover 10% of Life over one second every time you use those skills. That’s really great synergy there.
Self Damage Items
There are some unique items that have a similar effect to the Eye of Innocence amulet, which would take 100% Fire Damage to you whenever you ignite an enemy.
There’s the Scold’s Bridle helmet that will hit you for Physical Damage whenever you use a skill. The Heartbound Loop ring will also hit you for some Physical Damage whenever one of your minions dies. And the Storm Secret ring that will deal a hit of lightning damage to you whenever the Herald of Thunder strikes an enemy.
There’s a few others like this, too. But these could be used in combination with the Doppelgänger Guise to enable some really good recovery that doesn’t rely on actually being hit by an enemy.
Divine Flesh
Then, there’s the crazy synergy with Divine Flesh too where half of all the incoming Elemental Damage that you take is actually taken as Chaos Damage instead.
So, all of those big chunky elemental hits that are coming in and going to have their damage split in half and half will be taken as chaos. And then, that half is going to be mitigated by that massive less damage taken modifier, which is really strong.
But it’s not just hits. Because Divine Flesh also works for damage over time. That means all of those pesky elemental dots the ground effects in the Shaper and Maven boss, fights, for example, or ignites and things like that. All of that damage over time is going to be split, with half of it taken as chaos. And once again, that’s going to be largely reduced by that less chaos damage taken modifier.
Armour/ES Masteries
Of course, if you’re using flesh, you can also make great use of the two new armor and Energy Shield Masteries. The “10% of physical damage taken as chaos damage that works from hits” is really strong to further mitigate that damage. And the “10% of armour applying to chaos damage once again for hits” is really strong as well if you’re stacking a bit of armor.
Use Cases
Both of those are great, but actually I think one of the best use cases for the Doppelgänger Guise is actually when you lack armor and your lack of physical damage reduction. And you’re just going to be able to use this body armor in combination with some additional physical damage reduction mods, like a shield mod or the reduction that you get from Endurance Charges.
This means that you may even be able to completely forego using Determination or anything like that. Because with this kind of setup, you’re going to be so strong against those really dangerous physical dots like Bleeding.
I actually remember a hardcore build. The Octavian played a while back and it was a self-cast Forbidden Rite Occultist that used this body armor to help mitigate the Forbidden Rite self-damage. But it also just didn’t use anything like Determination and it got by just fine without it thanks to the less damage taken mod on this unique.
Popularity
And I’m really surprised at the relatively low popularity of the Doppelgänger Guise in this league. In Softcore Trade Crucible, only 0.3 of characters are using it and you could make the argument that players’ value defenses a little less than in hardcore.
But even when we look at Hardcore Trade Crucible, this is even lower, with just a 0.1 percent representation of characters using the Doppelgänger Guise.
Doppelgänger VS Fourth Vow
I think in a lot of ways, the Doppelgänger Guise has some similarities with the new body armor and the new unique body armor in this patch, the Fourth Vow.
But the Fourth Vow is significantly more popular in both leagues, with two percent of players using it in Softcore Trade Crucible versus the 0.3% using the Doppelgänger Guise. And in HC Trade, the difference is far greater with six percent of players using the Fourth Vow compared to the 0.1 percent using the Doppelgänger Guise.
Conclusion
Overall, I really feel this unique body armor, the Doppelgänger Guise is very underrated right now, and it’s significantly easier to slot into a build than the Fourth Vow is as it doesn’t really need any kind of armor scaling to really benefit from it. You can just slot this in there and you’re going to have that massive less damage taken modifier on both physical and chaos. If you don’t have this item yet, I suggest you use your POE Currency to purchase one now.
And as I said earlier, that’s going to really help you out if you don’t have any other kind of additional way to mitigate Physical Damage. And a lot of builds do struggle with that. I mean, you do have a lot of builds where you’re either not running Determination or you are running Determination.
But you don’t have very much armor scaling, so your armor is not very effective and this less damage taken modifier is really going to help you out and it’s going to cut a massive chunk off of that damage taken as physical. So, I am unsure as to why this is not used very much.
Finally, I want to talk about a digression. Path of Exile’s serious rival, Diablo 4, is about to be released. If you also want to dominate Diablo 4, then you’d better buy Diablo 4 Gold as you did before playing each new POE expansion.
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Players, many may find the current mechanics of Path of Exile 3.29 somewhat boring: without Mirage, Abyss doesn't seem to offer much benefit. However, if you've seriously explored Lacerate Bleed Gladiator in the game, you'll find that this build might reliably get you to endgame content and defeat the endgame boss, allowing you to rediscover the charm of PoE.
Weapon Crafting
For weapon crafting, we'll use Reaver Axe base and PoE 3.29 Allflame Crafting to give each Essence three roll chances.
In theory, this could significantly reduce our production costs, but in reality, we still need some luck. If we're unlucky, we might end up spending over 80 PoE Divine Orbs on Reaver Axe to finish, far exceeding our usual budget.
To craft a high-attack, high-quality Reaver Axe, players must ensure they have sufficient currency in advance and be prepared for random fluctuations.
Other Equipment
Once the weapon is in place, our Lacerate Bleed Gladiator's damage output will significantly exceed the damage cap. Therefore, for the helmet, we only need to choose a defensive type, focusing on the character's survivability.
For the remaining slots - gloves, boots, and shield - choose affixes around Spell Suppression, aiming for 100%, while also supplementing with Life and the three basic resistances.
However, our shield should ideally have additional crafting to avoid Elemental Ailments affix, preparing for building an immunity system later.
Venopuncture ring and the amulet Ashes of the Stars' quality amplification effect can synergize, jointly enhancing Lacerate of Haemorrhage's damage mechanism.
The Tempest Rising boots provide Lacerate Bleed Gladiator with a permanent Aggravated Bleeding, saving some Ascendancy passives that would otherwise need to be selected, freeing up more passive resources.
If your Ryslatha's Coil belt reaches the damage cap, you don't need to pursue higher roll values, which saves some PoE Divine Orbs.
Regarding potions, we can actually forgo health potions and use Sulphur Flask instead, which provides both damage bonus and 3% health regeneration per second.
Combined with Witchfire Brew, Quicksilver Flask, and Basalt Flask, Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can provide both continuous healing and physical defense in Path of Exile 3.29.
Skill Configuration
Lacerate Bleed Gladiator's main damage-dealing skill is a melee ability: Lacerate of Haemorrhage. Because Lacerate of Haemorrhage deals very high single-hit bleed damage, it is very suitable for fighting enemies with high health, giving Gladiator a foothold in endgame.
During raids, we can also use Bladestorm to create area-of-effect damage at the target's feet. This allows for additional damage when engaging powerful enemies without disrupting Lacerate of Haemorrhage casting schedules.
War Banner is suitable for use interspersed during Gladiator's burst phase, providing additional physical damage and further amplifying the burst damage within a short time.
If players use this skill combination in PoE, Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can more accurately target some high-health rare monsters.
However, if you prioritize Gladiator's map clearing speed, you can replace Bladestorm with an area-of-effect skill like Earthquake to improve the map clearing experience.
Passive Skill Tree
Passive Skill Tree is built around a Timeless Jewel, as it provides Keystone passives that prevent Lacerate Bleed Gladiator from gaining any attribute bonuses from Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, including health and melee physical damage.
In exchange, Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can ignore all equipment and skill attribute requirements.
This mechanism allows the affixes on Lacerate Bleed Gladiator gear to no longer rely excessively on nodes, enabling all nodes on Passive Skill Tree to be covered by tattoos, providing bonuses more suited to the needs of Lacerate Bleed Gladiator.
This Timeless Jewel also comes with two powerful nodes - Geofri's End and Purity Rebel - one granting 50% bleed damage and increasing bleed speed by 10%, and the other providing a chance to suppress spell damage.
If your Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can achieve full Spell Suppression through other gear or passives in PoE 3.29, you can choose two Timeless Jewels with similar nodes to further increase damage output.
Cluster Jewel
Large Cluster Jewels are crucial for Lacerate Bleed Gladiator in building a damage and elemental immunity system.
First, we need to use the passives Battle-Hardened and Master the Fundamentals - the former provides Lacerate Bleed Gladiator with a physical damage bonus and additional armor, while the latter provides physical damage and makes up for the lack of resistances.
Next, we need to obtain Bane of Legends Ascendancy passive by combining Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewelry.
This allows Lacerate Bleed Gladiator to gain 10% more damage upon killing any enemy, making the benefits of these two jewel slots particularly significant during map clearing in Path of Exile 3.29.
Small Cluster Jewels are specifically used to stack Spell Suppression, providing a 20% chance to avoid Elemental Ailments, laying the foundation for Gladiator's elemental immunity.
Elemental Immunity System
In summary, we have constructed an elemental immunity system for this Lacerate Bleed Gladiator that relies on a multi-layered stacking strategy: Small Cluster Jewel provides 20% Elemental Ailments avoidance chance, amulet anoint provides 20%, and the shield provides 25%, totaling 65%.
On top of this, if you equip Ancestral Vision Jewel - which converts 50% of Spell Suppression chance into Elemental Ailments avoidance chance - you gain another 50%.
Adding these together, your Lacerate Bleed Gladiator becomes completely immune to all Elemental Ailments, eliminating the need to separately search for immunity affixes in PoE.
No more fear of high-health monsters in Path of Exile 3.29 endgame, because this Lacerate Bleed Gladiator build can defeat them!
PoE Curse of the Allflame has been out for half a month, and players should have fully adapted to the new content. Now you can start preparing for the mid-to-late game. The builds needed for the early and late game are not entirely the same. In your spare time, think about what kind of build you'll want to create.
This article will introduce eight top-tier builds worth building in the mid-to-late game in Path of Exile 3.29, helping you prepare in advance.
These builds are renowned for their powerful late-game capabilities. Once you invest enough Currency, they can easily defeat endgame bosses and clear the most difficult content. Let's take a look.
Immortal Cyclone Slayer
This build is the ultimate example of winning through spinning. Its strength lies in its near-invincible defensive system. By stacking block chance to the extreme, you'll become an unstoppable whirlwind of death, spinning relentlessly through enemies while dealing massive damage.
In addition, you can use Warstaff to stack blocks, combine it with Runegraft of Treachery to improve mana retention, and Runegraft of Warp to maintain the continuous effect of Phase Shift. This build excels in both farming maps and boss challenges, making it a truly versatile build.
Armour Stacking Lightning Strike
This is a top-tier, high-investment build, typically only achievable by average players in the mid-to-late game. Armour Stacking Lightning Strike is renowned for its powerful versatility, almost ignoring all map affixes.
Its core idea is to stack a massive amount of armor. You can achieve this by using Replica Dreamfeather to increase armor bonuses and by converting all evasion into armor using Iron Reflexes.
The core of its defense is Aegis Aurora, which restores a full energy shield with each block, making you virtually invincible. At the same time, this build is also very flexible, adaptable to various attack skills, with Lightning Strike and Wild Strike being top choices.
Winter Orb Occultist
Winter Orb Occultist received a significant buff in Path of Exile 3.29, bringing it to the top tier in both speed and power. It now fires more projectiles, has a higher base critical strike chance, and deals more frost damage.
This build is ideal for casual players looking to speed farm in the mid-to-late game. You simply channel the skill and watch it automatically lock onto targets and destroy everything on the screen. With a bit of luck, it can often trigger massive chain explosions in conjunction with Herald of Ice.
Furthermore, thanks to its high energy shield pool, full block, and chaos immunity, this build boasts impressive survivability.
Volatile Dead Spellslinger Elementalist
Volatile Dead Spellslinger Elementalist build is considered one of the best for clearing mobs in Path of Exile 3.29. It excels at stealthily eliminating hordes of monsters without needing to select targets, making map clearing a breeze.
In the late game, this build transitions into a high-damage critical strike build. The first item you need to acquire is Sandstorm Visage, which increases critical strike damage. The ultimate gear is multi-link Archdemon Crown, which replaces the helmet and becomes your source of extra base critical strike chance, significantly increasing damage.
Holy Flicker Strike Necromancer
For players who enjoy chaos, Holy Flicker Strike Necromancer is an excellent choice. While not a mainstream pick, one player used this build to defeat The Feared, proving that a well-designed off-the-beaten-path build can handle all aspects of PoE 3.29.
This build fully utilizes the defensive synergy of Corrupted Soul and Recover Energy Shield, allowing for lightning-fast map movement while maintaining amazing survivability. For experienced players looking to try something different yet powerful, this is undoubtedly an excellent choice.
Snapshotting Static Strike Slayer
The core of this build is maximizing map clearing speed and instant kill potential, achieved through a mechanic called Snapshotting. Players need to pre-buff themselves with specific skills to temporarily increase their damage before unleashing a static strike.
While this technique requires practice and a deep understanding of the game mechanics to master, it's undoubtedly an extremely powerful and rewarding option for experienced players aiming to maximize this build and dominate the map.
Blade Blast CoC Assassin
This build unleashes its power with a single button press, initially focusing on spellcasting and later transitioning to Cast on Critical (CoC) monsters. Its map farming capabilities and single-target damage are excellent, while also absorbing a large amount of mixed life and ability shields per second.
This build can be built early in the game and continues to grow into the late game; its smooth progression path makes it a favorite among players.
Explosive Earthshatter Juggernaut
This build is the simplest of the ones I've mentioned, making it ideal for players new to PoE 3.29. Your damage comes from the initial impact of Earthshatter and the spikes it creates, which you must detonate with your warcries.
In addition, Explosive Earthshatter Juggernaut boasts exceptional survivability, making it ideal for tackling high-difficulty maps and ultimate bosses.
If you want to build the above builds but lack the funds, you can buy Path of Exile Currency from POECURRENCY.com to trade for the items you need. We will provide you with the funds as quickly as possible to help you build a powerful build.
These are the eight top-tier late-game builds worth building in PoE 3.29 introduced in this article. If you're unsure which build to play next, you can choose from these. These are all carefully selected for you. Go try them out in Curse of the Allflame!
In Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.0, there are many highly rewarding farming methods. As long as you are willing to invest enough time into farming, you can almost always come away with substantial returns. However, these methods are clearly more effective for dedicated players who have plenty of time to play.
Casual players generally have less time available, so off-meta farming strategies that take less time while still offering reasonably good returns may be more appealing. These methods do exist, but because their profits are less consistent, they are often overlooked by players.
Vaaling Uniques
In Runes of Aldur League, there are many excellent Unique items whose value can increase dramatically if you use a Vaal Orb and get a favorable outcome.
Widowhail
First, you need to invest some currency through the currency market to obtain a base Widowhail Bow with 250% increased bonuses from equipped Quiver, then make sure it has the required sockets before using Vaal Orbs to corrupt it directly.
The best outcome is to obtain more than 250% increased bonuses from the equipped Quiver. The closer the value gets to 305%, the more valuable the item becomes.
Even if you do not hit the perfect modifier, outcomes such as gaining a third socket can still make the item worth a considerable amount of currency, allowing you to recover part of your investment.
Saitha's Spear
Saitha's Spear is an excellent weapon for Ignite and Bleed builds. Since many players use various Spears in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0, there is solid market demand for this item.
Unlike Widowhail, Saitha's Spear requires a second corruption using a Vaal Cultivation Orb. A Vaal Cultivation Orb is worth close to 2 Divine Orbs, while the base item itself is not particularly costly.
Your main goal is to increase its DPS. More specifically, you want the modifier that increases physical damage, which can roll as high as 400%. The higher the value, the more valuable the item becomes.
During corruption, try to avoid removing important modifiers such as added physical damage. In addition, getting a second socket from the first corruption is also a favorable outcome.
Selling Tablets
Late in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0, many players still need high-quality Tablets to maximize their maps and obtain better returns. As a result, there is strong market demand for valuable Tablets.
You can check your stash and first look for the value of Tablets you do not plan to use, then list them for trade if they are worth enough.
You can also use a Chance Orb on common Tablets for a chance to obtain Visions of Paradise or The Grand Project, both of which can be traded for several Divine Orbs.
Fracturing Bases
If you are not a high-end crafter, this strategy can be a great option. Players who craft gear need large quantities of strong Bases, so you can monitor the market to see which Bases are currently the most valuable.
You can then use currencies such as Chaos Orbs and Fracturing Orbs to create a base with the desired modifiers. The process relies heavily on luck, and you may waste a considerable amount of PoE 2 currency. However, once you hit a successful result, you can recover your investment and potentially make a substantial profit.
Spread Trading
This strategy depends on how much gold you have available. If you have excess gold, this can be a good way to turn it into currency.
Check the lowest listing value and highest offer value of an item on the exchange. If you need the item immediately, you can acquire it directly through the lowest available listing.
Alternatively, you can place an acquisition order slightly below the current market value. When a seller accepts your offer, you acquire the item successfully. You can then list it at the prevailing market value and keep the difference as profit.
The only cost is gold. After setting up your orders, you can continue mapping while the orders remain active. After running several maps, the trade may already be completed, allowing you to passively generate additional currency. This makes the method particularly suitable for placing orders while you are busy with other activities.
Pinnacle Boss Farming
Currency, Support Gems, and other drops from Pinnacle Boss Farming provide relatively consistent returns as long as you can defeat the bosses. The following Pinnacle Bosses are recommended.
The King in the Mists
The cost of challenging him is roughly several dozen Exalted Orbs, and each encounter guarantees one item worth around several PoE 2 Divine Orbs. This means every attempt can provide a relatively stable return.
His From Nothing Diamond has extremely high value and can be traded for several hundred Divine Orbs. It can still command a high value even when unidentified.
Delirium Boss
The cost of challenging this Boss is somewhat higher than The King in the Mists, and your main target is Raven-Touched Shard, which is worth around 88 to 95 Divine Orbs.
Delirium Boss is very easy to defeat. Although the estimated drop rate is around 1/30 to 1/50, repeatedly farming it during your limited free time can result in huge returns whenever the drop occurs.
The Arbiter of Ash
The entry cost for The Arbiter of Ash is relatively high, and its difficulty should not be underestimated. However, many of its Unique item drops are extremely valuable. As long as you can defeat it successfully, you can obtain substantial returns with relatively consistent results. It is best suited to players who can kill the boss efficiently.
Trials of Chaos
Although this is not the most exciting activity, it is certainly an excellent way to generate Path of Exile 2 currency. Each run consistently produces items worth around 7 Divine Orbs. A single run takes roughly 10 minutes, and experienced players can complete 5 to 6 runs per hour.
If you only have a small amount of time to play each week, you can save up entry materials during the weekdays and focus on farming them over the weekend. For beginners or players who need starting currency, this is a very accessible and consistent source of income. Over time, it is possible to generate around 150 to 300 Divine Orbs per week with relative ease.
These are some of the various currency-making strategies that are often overlooked by players in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0. The core idea is diversification and passive income. Beyond mapping, make good use of idle items and Gold sitting in your stash, as they can all be converted into additional currency.
With Path of Exile 2 entering Patch 0.5, the build ecosystem has undergone significant changes. Numerous new mechanics, equipment, and adjustments to progression systems have prompted players to re-explore the meta, and Jewels system has gradually become a focal point of discussion.
Many players believe that the benefits provided by Jewels outweigh other progression methods, leading to a surge in high-powered builds centered on Jewels. This trend is evident in popular PoE 2 builds: different classes and skills ultimately converge on similar Passive Tree paths.
This situation is more concerning than simply overpowered stats. The most appealing aspect of Path of Exile series has always been the ability for players to create diverse characters through different interpretations.
However, now, more and more builds, in pursuit of maximum power, are prioritizing acquiring more Jewels over character development.
The Impact of Jewels
The reason Jewels have affected the entire PoE 2 environment in Patch 0.5 is simple: the benefits they provide are too high.
A good jewel provides more than just a single attribute; it offers a powerful overall boost. It can simultaneously increase damage, critical strike chance, speed, and even change the entire characters damage output.
However, if a Passive Skill Point only provides a few percentage points of improvement, while a jewel slot offers a huge benefit, then abandoning the jewel path is what needs explanation.
Therefore, the problem is not that players are deliberately chasing Jewel stacking. When one progression path provides such a significant advantage over others, players will inevitably gravitate toward the strongest option.
5-Mod Jewel
If Patch 0.5 only focused on stronger jewel attributes, its impact would be limited. What truly elevates jewels to their current status is 5-mod jewels.
In the past, crafting a good jewel required a significant amount of time and luck. You might have a few decent attributes, but you were still far from perfect. This process, while painful, maintained the value of gear crafting.
But 5-mod jewels are different. Players can use this mechanism to add extra affixes, then fix some excellent attributes using the current crafting method, and adjust the remaining ones.
The problem with this mechanism is that after the extra affixes are removed, PoE 2 still retains the expanded affix space limitation. Players can use the random reforging mechanism of PoE 2 Chaos Orbs to repeatedly adjust the remaining affixes while retaining three ideal affixes.
This changes the way top-tier jewelry is obtained. Previously, a top-tier piece of jewelry represented more of a matter of luck; now, its more like a crafting goal that can be planned and achieved.
When a system simultaneously offers high returns and high stability, it naturally becomes the goal pursued by all players.
Zahroqs Gift
5-mod jewelry increased the value of jewelry, while Zahroqs Gift gave players more opportunities to acquire jewelry. The combination of these two mechanisms created the problem in Patch 0.5.
Previously, Anoint was a system with a choice cost; players needed to consider what their characters actually lacked.
Some builds prioritize damage, some defense, and some might focus on enhancing a specific mechanic. Different PoE 2 characters have different priorities.
But with Zahroqs Gift, this choice became simpler. Extra jewelry slots are available for almost all characters; you dont need to research your own build or consider complex combinations. As long as you have sufficiently strong jewelry, this choice usually yields benefits.
This is where it most significantly affects the gameplay experience. A powerful skill or piece of equipment might only change a playstyle. But an enhancement that every character chooses changes the entire games build logic.
What Players Lose?
Many might think that high-level players, pursuing maximum damage, should naturally choose the strongest path, which is fine.
Thats true.
However, the fun of Path of Exile 2 has never been just about hitting the highest numbers. Many players enjoy the game because building a character is inherently valuable.
However, increasingly, when players encounter Passive Tree, their first reaction becomes: Are there any jewelrys here? Can I add another jewelry? Is there a way to obtain more jewelry?
When one option outweighs many others, the games creative space naturally decreases.
Solutions
I dont think simply nerfing jewelry in the upcoming Patch 0.5.5 will solve the problem. Jewels themselves should remain strong because they do provide a lot of build flexibility.
More needed and timely adjustments are an option to make jewelry a viable option for PoE 2 builds again.
Zahroqs Gift is the part that most needs reconsidering. Its problem isnt that the value is too high, but that it makes extra jewelry slots the default answer for the vast majority of characters.
The crafting method for 5-mod jewelry also needs to be changed. If players can consistently craft near-perfect jewelry, then other equipment and passive skill choices will find it difficult to compete.
The problem with PoE 2 isnt that jewels are too powerful; rather, as more and more builds need to revolve around the same system, players are truly losing their choices. If in the future, opening Passive Skill Tree for different characters reveals similar jewel paths, then no matter how high the jewel numbers are, the game will lose some of its creative fun.
