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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In Path of Exile Patch 3.27 Keepers of the Flame update that will arrive on October 31st, the most notable change was undoubtedly the complete rework of Shadow's Assassin Ascendancy.
This update aims to fundamentally reshape Assassin, replacing most of the existing passives with new nodes that offer different or more powerful effects. Even the nodes that are retained have undergone balance adjustments to improve their usability.
Preliminary analysis suggests that these changes are expected to elevate Ascendancy from a niche pick to a top choice, boasting both exceptional DPS and robust survivability. Let's take a look at the changes.
Critical Strike And Poison
Assassin's core role has always revolved around critical hits and poison. This rework strengthens this feature while also making its builds smoother and more powerful.
Critical Strike
The brand-new Assassination Style Notable is the cornerstone of this new power system, providing massive Critical Hit Chance and Damage Bonus bonuses, and allowing players to make meaningful choices between two powerful child nodes:
1. Knife In The Back
This option enhances your initial attack, granting 100% additional Critical Strike Chance against enemies that are not at low health. More importantly, it provides an amazing 100% additional Critical Strike Multiplier against low-health enemies.
This is essentially equivalent to having a built-in finishing move, allowing you to eliminate tough enemies at an astonishing speed, further enhancing efficiency.
2. For The Jugular
This option reverses the logic above, providing 100% extra Critical Strike Chance against low-health enemies, ensuring you can land consistent critical hits on dangerous, dying enemies.
Meanwhile, the 100% bonus Critical Strike Multiplier applies to enemies that are not low on health, allowing you to unleash devastating opening attacks and quickly reduce enemies to low health.
This flexibility allows players to make relative adjustments according to their needs – whether it's quickly cultivating the map or focusing on boss battles.
Poison
The poison build has also received a revolutionary update. Although Toxic Delivery node's poison damage from critical hits has been reduced from 25% to 20%, it has gained extremely valuable utility.
The previous conditional critical strike chance bonus has been replaced by a new mechanic: each 4-second poison effect you apply will grant you an extension of the poison duration, up to a maximum of 100%. This significantly increases damage uptime, especially against bosses with long phases.
In addition, the new effect of restoring 0.5% health for each poisoned enemy killed provides players with a stable and considerable health recovery in dense groups of monsters.
Crucially, the new node Infused Toxins, located after Toxic Delivery, now allows all attack damage to inflict poison. This design makes poison builds smoother than ever before.
Survival And Functionality Enhancements
The main weakness of Assassins lies in their relatively weak defenses compared to other Ascendancy instances. Path of Exile Patch 3.27 updates directly addresses this issue by adding several powerful survival-oriented nodes.
Shadowed Blood
This is a landmark defensive node that converts 40% of Physical Damage into Recouped as Life, a capability that fundamentally changes Assassin's resilience against physical damage.
Unaffected by Damaging Ailments is also a great advantage. For example, it grants immunity to Bleeding, Poison, and Ignite effects. This single point provides significant recovery and damage reduction, allowing Assassins to confront enemies who unleash these effects head-on.
Opportunistic
This node has been significantly enhanced and now provides 35% damage reduction when there are at least two Rare or Unique Enemies nearby. This is an extremely powerful defensive bonus, making Assassins surprisingly resilient in the most dangerous situations.
Deathmarked
This new node is a top-tier, practical damage-boosting tool that automatically triggers a level 30 Assassin's Mark when dealing critical hits to Rare or Unique Enemies, a huge improvement to the experience.
It eliminates the need for manual mark application, simplifying the process and ensuring key bosses are always marked. Its additional benefit - making your mark ability mana-free and preventing marked enemies from dodging attacks - further enhances accuracy against highly evasive opponents.
Other Mechanics
This rework also introduced some mechanisms, opening up entirely new build possibilities:
Unstable Infusion
Its chance of gaining energy charges on non-critical hits is increased to 30%, and the chance of gaining energy charges on critical hits is increased to 15%, making it more stable to maintain critical hit charges. This, in turn, leads to more stable Critical Hit Chance and Damage Bonus.
Mystical Infusion
This node is revolutionary for hybrid playstyles. It makes Base Spell Critical Strike Chance of spells equivalent to the critical strike chance of Main Hand Weapon, which means that some critical strike-dependent playstyles are no longer entirely reliant on specific high-critical-strike spells or daggers.
This allows players to creatively use high critical strike rate weapons to drive spell critical strike effects.
In conclusion, Assassin rework in Path of Exile Patch 3.27 is not a simple numerical adjustment, but a complete overhaul of the concept. It retains the core characteristics of the class while solving its previous weaknesses.
The updates clearly show that Assassin is no longer a single-function class, but a versatile, powerful, and robust top-tier option. Get ready to shine in Keepers of the Flame release!
Since its stable release, nearly every league in Path of Exile 1 has had a unique theme and core league mechanics that complement it. Combined with old changes, all new leagues offer an upgraded gameplay experience based on the existing PoE experience.
After the livestream, the core gameplay of 3.27 Keepers of the Flame league, which launches on October 31, 2025, was finally revealed, along with all the new changes and content.
Interestingly, 3.27 Keepers challenge leagues not only introduce a new story but are also essentially an extension of the established Breach mechanic. Below, we'll provide a detailed introduction to the core mechanics and other key changes to 3.27 league.
What Is Breach?
To fully experience Keepers challenge leagues, you first need to have a detailed understanding of Breach mechanic itself, not just how to earn rewards from it.
Breach was introduced as early as 2016 with the eponymous PoE 1 league and has since been retained in the base game. After years of refinement and adjustments, it has now become a mature endgame feature.
Regular Breaches spawn randomly on the game map and can be identified by a hand icon within a purple circle. Approaching them triggers a Breach and begins clearing the monsters spawned within. Each Breach lasts for at least 30 seconds, extending up to 60 seconds.
Note that to claim PoE currency dropped, you must kill breach monsters. Furthermore, enemies spawned by Vaal Breach do not drop XP or other items.
Breach In Keepers Of The Flame Challenge League
In fact, not only are the mechanics closely related, but 3.27 league itself can be considered a sequel to 2.5.0 Breach League.
In this new league, the evil Breachlords plan to expand their influence in Wraeclast. To combat them, Ailith has created Order of Keepers of the Flame. Your goal is to join Ailith in destroying all Breach monsters.
Upon entering Mud Flats area, you'll find it overrun by Breach monsters attempting to establish their lair. Ailith's fire powers are effective against them, provided you can help her fend off their attacks.
If you encounter an Unstable Breach caused by the massive Breach Hand, more monsters will emerge, requiring you to quickly defeat them to ensure Ailith can safely clear them with her fire.
After Breach stabilizes, Vruun, Marshal of Xesht, will appear as a boss. You must defeat him to permanently seal Breach and claim your rewards.
What Is Genesis Tree?
As your collaboration with Ailith deepens, she will eventually lead you to Monastery of Keepers, where you can unlock Genesis Tree. Think of it as a specialized Mastery Tree, where you invest points to earn rewards and special Grafts.
Grafts are a new way of granting buffs. By fusing breach hands with your character, you gain access to a variety of new active and passive skills, with up to 16 Grafts to choose from.
Once these Breach hands are implanted, you can collect Graftblood from defeating Breach monsters in battle. This Graftblood can then be invested in Genesis Tree to accelerate its growth, unlocking more rewards.
Grafts not only grant additional skills, but also modify your gear. However, grafted gear cannot be modified or reset with standard currency. Fortunately, Genesis Tree itself offers a very good node investment.
How To Complete Keepers Challenge League?
Based on the core mechanics described above, you can choose to complete 3.27 league in standard, hardcore, or solo self-found modes, depending on your ability.
These three modes share the same core mechanics, but you can create private leagues and add mods to enrich the gameplay, customizing your own Keepers challenge league.
Keepers Challenge League includes 40 new challenges and 8 Ruthless Keepers Challenges. Completing a certain number of challenges in both challenge modes gives you a chance to receive pieces of Keeper of the Flame Armor Set, a 3.27 league-exclusive reward.
In addition, starting with Challenge 19, every three challenges you complete will earn you pieces of Keeper Totem Pole decoration.
The completed totem pole will then remain permanently in your hideout, representing the number of challenges you've completed during 3.27 league.
New Bloodlines System
In addition to utilizing Genesis Tree, Keepers of the Flame League introduces another new mechanic: Bloodlines. Think of them as secondary Ascendancy classes that can be enhanced by allocating Ascendancy passive skill points.
Reliably, there are no restrictions on the use of Bloodlines; as long as you earn a Bloodline by killing an endgame boss, you can pair it with any Ascendancy class you already own. A total of 10 Bloodlines are available.
It's important to note that Bloodlines and Ascendancy classes share the same passive skill points, so it's crucial to carefully consider your needs when allocating them to ensure each skill point is maximized.
Asynchronous Trade Finally Launches
Ever since the initial leaks of 3.27 league, many players have been eager for Path of Exile to implement asynchronous trade or other similar mechanisms in this league, aligning it with PoE 2 and making the game's trading system more convenient.
So, once 3.27 league launches, as long as you've unlocked Act 6, you can visit Faustus in Lioneye's Watch and have him manage your Merchant's Tabs. This way, other players can automatically trade with you even when you're offline.
If you acquired Premium Stash Tabs before 3.26 league launched, you can unlock asynchronous trade using Mercant's Tab Upgrade tool on the game's official website. If you already have Merchant's Tabs unlocked in PoE 2, you can use them directly in 3.27 league.
The new content we've introduced here focuses primarily on mechanics and gameplay, but Keepers of the Flame will also bring many more subtle changes, such as new gems. Once the league launches, you can explore it in depth!
As development on the second game stabilizes, Path of Exile 1 league updates have returned to their normal frequency. Previously announced to begin on October 31st, 3.27 league recently released a trailer and detailed a range of new features.
Named Keepers of the Flame, this league will feature both gameplay changes and new content, focusing on gameplay and other details that impact your gaming experience. We'll explain these changes below.
What Changes Will The Heist Mechanic Undergo?
As you know, Path of Exile 1 will continue to improve and enhance the well-received mechanics and gameplay of the previous leagues as it updates, ensuring they continue to serve you well. This is one of the main reasons the game's scale continues to grow.
The heist mechanic, introduced in 3.12 league, has undoubtedly become a core component of the game, featuring complex entry and completion mechanisms, and, of course, rich rewards.
Unfortunately, with the introduction of new mechanics, more and more players believe that the rewards are far less valuable than the effort required to complete the early Heist missions, ultimately leading to a decline in both participation and appreciation for the mechanic.
To address this, starting with 3.27 league, rogues available in heist missions will automatically start at the highest level, allowing you to farm loot directly in heist locations, eliminating the need to slowly level up rogues by completing contracts from scratch.
Of course, streamlining the system will lower the barrier to entry and difficulty of obtaining rare heist rewards. This may result in a reduction in the amount of PoE currency dropped and a lower drop rate for rare gear or gems to achieve balance.
But honestly, the impact of this balancing act is negligible compared to the redundant upfront work, as you can simply complete Heist missions more frequently to earn loot when you have the time.
At the same time, the improved efficiency of the heist system will also increase the circulation of currency in the game's trading market, making some rare items more accessible and making the trading system more meaningful.
It's worth noting that while the mercenary mechanic from 3.26 leaguewas very popular, it will not be carried over to the base game for now due to a slight imbalance in power and potential incompatibility with Path of Exile after the launch of 3.27 league.
However, the developers have stated that they are generally satisfied with the design of the mercenary mechanic in 3.26 league, so do not rule out the possibility of its return in a future League after a redesign.
Atlas Passive Tree Optimizations
As the primary way to enhance your character and builds in the game, Atlas Passive Tree has been undergoing continuous updates and adjustments.
You can earn a total of 132 passive points to invest in your Atlas Passive Tree, but it's inevitable that you'll need to reset part of your Atlas tree layout.
In League 3.26, which has yet to conclude, resetting your Atlas tree is only possible by consuming Orbs of Unmaking. While earning this currency isn't difficult, the flexibility you have in resetting it is very limited.
Keepers of the Flame League will implement changes to address this issue. In 3.27, you'll be able to directly refund all passive points you've invested using gold, and this mechanic will be applied to the rest of Path of Exile's regular passive tree.
This change will give you more choice and freedom when customizing your character's passive skill clusters, eliminating the need to worry about cumbersome resets that distract from building your passive skill system.
A More Balanced Class And Combat Experience
Maintaining a balanced experience across classes is a constant challenge in any ARPG with multiple classes. It's inherently impossible to make all classes play and power levels identical, requiring constant adjustments based on league content.
Thankfully, unlike PoE 2, PoE 1's class system has stabilized, making adjustments relatively easy and drastic. However, the likelihood of new classes being added is practically zero - at least not in 3.27 league.
On the other hand, combat experience is closely tied to systems like skill gems and support gems, and PoE frequently adds and updates these to fine-tune the overall combat experience.
We expect to reveal more about this update after 3.27 league livestream on October 23rd, as it will likely be related to the new gameplay features of the new league.
Will The Main Story Be Updated?
While storytelling isn't a hallmark of Path of Exile series, the game did generate significant buzz within the community around the release of 3.26 league, building on Secrets of the Atlas plot.
Based on the content released so far, Keepers of the Flame League doesn't appear to be planning to replicate this approach, but the possibility of updating the main story in a new expansion cannot be ruled out.
However, even if 3.27 releases a new story chapter, its primary purpose will likely be to set the stage for more significant plot twists later on, rather than bringing any major news, otherwise the development team would have already revealed it.
Changes To The Trading System
As one of the ways you acquire items and gear in PoE, the usability of the trading system significantly impacts the gameplay experience. A high-quality marketplace allows players to efficiently circulate currency and unused items, driving game development.
To this end, 3.27 league will feature adjustments to the trading system, including changes to the tabs and the loot drop rate adjustments we mentioned when introducing the heist mechanic.
The above is our overall prediction based on 3.27 league trailer and other information revealed by the development team. We expect a full reveal of the league's content after the livestream. So be sure to tune in! You'll have a chance to win Twitch Drops!
Patch 0.3.1 has been live for a few weeks now. As a beta update for patch 0.4.0, the main selling point of 0.3.1 was to test potential game changes before the next major update and, based on player feedback, to try to fix some bugs before the start of the new league.
Honestly, I think patch 0.3.1 was quite successful, but there are still many areas in the endgame that need to be fixed before the release of 0.4.0, which is what we will discuss here.
Patch 0.4.0 Release Date Speculation
The release date for Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 has not yet been officially announced, but based on the developers' previously stated four-month league cycle, we can expect it to be released in late December 2025, with the possibility of it being pushed back to January 2026.
Since Patch 0.3.0, The Third Edict, was released on August 29, 2025, and given the developers' usual Friday release schedule, 0.4.0 will probably go live on January 2, 2026.
In any case, based on the updates in Patch 0.3.1 and player feedback, we'll discuss the much-needed changes to the endgame in the next League.
Delirium Mechanics
For this first section, we'll of course be discussing the changes to the endgame mechanics, especially the current Delirium, which absolutely destroys your FPS and turns the game into a complete mess.
For us, at least, the biggest positive change in Patch 0.3.1 was the removal of Delirium's incessant humming music. Honestly, I wish it had carried over to PoE 3.27.
Unfortunately, the visuals in Path of Exile 2's Delirium are just as terrible. The constant fog caused by Delirium Mirror turns the world into a gray haze and cuts our FPS in half or a third. However, the goal is to kill enemies in the fog, and there's a reward counter that determines the number of Distilled Emotions you'll receive after the fog clears.
These Emotions are currency for character enhancement and can also be used for crafting and upgrades. By killing monsters, especially those unique to Delirium encounters, you can increase the amount of Distilled Emotions dropped at the end of the encounter, and potentially even higher-level Simulacrum Splinters.
What's more, in PoE 2, Distilled Emotions, in addition to providing Delirium, also provide a significant bonus to the spawn rate of rare monsters in the map. This is effectively double dipping, meaning that if you don't use Distilled Emotions on every map, you're missing out on a very powerful loot multiplier. So, there's almost no reason not to use Emotions.
The problem is Delirium Mirror has always been criticized for its high difficulty, as it makes monsters more powerful while adding new, powerful monsters, and the challenge increases the further away from Mirror you are. Because of the extremely high difficulty and the fog's tendency to cause enemies to deal more damage and take less, players find these encounters frustrating and overly painful.
This would all be fine if Delirium Mirror itself provided some valuable PoE 2 currency, but since it only provides Distilled Emotions, why not just farm Simulacrum instead? It's not only easier to obtain, but also more cost-effective.
Simply put, in PoE 2, Delirium Mirror only provides Emotions and Simulacrum Splinters, but there have always been better ways to obtain both, making Delirium Mirror's existence essentially pointless.
Delirium Mirror is the only mechanic still wearing these special handcuffs. So, in Patch 0.4.0, either the Delirium Mirror reward needs to be buffed, or Emotions reward needs to be nerfed, or both.
Map Rolling Mechanics
On the other hand, Path of Exile 2's map rolling mechanics can be quite frustrating. The high-risk modifiers, the wide variance in map outcomes, and the poor layout of many maps make play throughs too long or too difficult, making them unpleasant.
Currently, map rolls in the game are polarized. Some map rolls with high-risk modifiers, such as a large number of monsters dealing increased damage, shock effects on hit, or a very high freeze chance, can make a map impossible to play, depending on the player's build.
Some map rolls may contain beneficial modifiers that are friendly to new players, but these offer little to no tangible benefit. Some of these junk items and minimal currency drops make the risk and effort seem meaningless.
Because of the wide variation in modifiers and the varying number of beneficial and harmful modifier effects, the differences between maps can be significant, often leading players to waste significant amounts of money and time trying to find a manageable map.
Furthermore, poor map layouts are a significant contributing factor to players' perceived endgame experience being so poor. Many maps not only feature narrow, winding paths and numerous obstacles, making navigation cumbersome but also increasing the chances of being cornered by monsters.
The combination of larger maps and slower movement speed modifiers means that even completing a single map can take a long time, which many players find tedious and uninspiring.
More importantly, the high-risk, low-reward nature of many maps, coupled with harsh death penalties, makes the game feel punishing rather than rewarding success. Some players feel that the current endgame map system is less rewarding and engaging than Path of Exile 1.
Atlas Passive Skill Tree
The next issue is the skill tree, which is currently quite confusing. This is because the new map system in patch 0.3.0 adds one to three additional items to each map. Unfortunately, these additional items can be anything: Essence, Breach, or other strongboxes.
This new randomized item system overrides the effects of many passive nodes, which in turn increases the chances of spawning the same item type. Furthermore, because of exploits and overwrite mechanics, numerous Atlas passive nodes, such as Essence, Strongboxes, and Rogue Exiles, appear to be bugged and not functioning as intended, rendering many nodes useless.
Furthermore, the cost of certain bosses required for Atlas progression and the single-portal nature of Atlas progression make Atlas Points prohibitively expensive for average players, leading to frustration.
To unlock new Atlas Points, players must defeat bosses like King in the Mists, which costs approximately six PoE 2 Divine Orbs per attempt.
Since these bosses only have a single portal, if the player dies, they lose the portal fee, Atlas progression, and the opportunity to unlock that specific point. This makes the process particularly challenging for average players who may not have the gear or skills to guarantee victory on their first try.
Thus, the 0.4.0 patch's changes to the passive tree are urgently needed. These are fundamental changes that will directly impact players' ability to earn loot, currency, and waystones, making the endgame more interesting and meaningful.
Regardless, as of update 0.3.1, Path of Exile 2's endgame setup in patch 0.4.0 still needs a major overhaul, but this also proves we're getting closer to the full game's release.
If you want to gain an advantage in patch 0.4.0, you need to prepare now. Not only will you need to learn new build strategies and explore Atlas settings, but having enough currency is essential for everything. However, there's a shortcut: you can buy cheap PoE 2 Currency on POECurrency.com platform for a better gaming experience! Good luck!
