A Ruthless Starter Build For POE 3.22 - Sentinel Guardian
Here, I’m back to show you how to create what I would consider being the meta build for Trial of the Ancestors League.
About The Build
The Guardian ascendancy received a revamp and Sentinel of Radiance is flat out insane. I couldn’t believe how powerful it was, and it’s difficult to put into words, so I’ll just show you. Here’s a guide for me letting the Sentinel of Radiance solo the Daresso boss fight.
The Sentinel has its own Righteous Fire style aura. It soaks 20% of the damage from the hits that you take and it hits like a cement truck at highway speed. But what you need to know is that no matter what kind of build you make, you must prepare sufficient POE Currency in advance.
With this build, you’ll use Absolution, but primarily your damage comes from your minion skills - Raise Zombie, Summon Raging Spirit, and the Sentinels of Absolution. You’ll virtually always have the auras: Wrath, Anger, and Hatred for free thanks to Unwavering Crusade.
Acquire Skill Gems
If you’d like to create a Sentinel Guardian, your first task is to create a farm Witch and take her as far as finishing the “Breaking Some Eggs” quest in the mud flats. This will give you Raise Zombie and Summon Raging Spirit, better known as SRS.
Then, go ahead and create your Sentinel Guardian. Make sure to think up a name that is truly fitting for this character.
You can toss Fireball away as soon as you can equip SRS because that will be your primary damage spell. You use Absolution just enough to spawn your Sentinels and then spam SRS in case there are any hard targets left over.
After you kill Brutus, pick up Vitality. You might want to get clarity but the Regeneration is very important for your minions, not for you.
Once you get to The Cavern of Wrath, head back to town and pick up Absolution. You’ll want to trade your first Uncarved Gemstone for the skill Convocation.
Sentinel of Radiance is great, but he’s a slow boy after you equip Convocation. I recommend binding your left click to Convocation instead of move only. This ensures that your minions are constantly by your side and it won’t slow you down because Convocation is an instant spell.
After you complete breaking the seal at the start of Act 4, you have a choice of using Carrion Golem or Chaos Golem. I would recommend Chaos Golem as the defensive choice, but either is good. I would also recommend using your second Uncarved Gemstone to get Flesh Offering. This is a great DPS boost for taking down bosses. But I actually had to skip it because I didn’t have the gem socket space.
The Build’s Greatest Weakness
And that brings us to the biggest weakness of this build. You use so many skills that it can be a big struggle to get enough of the right color sockets just to equip all of these skills that you have.
You want to use Templar armor, but you also kind of have to because of how many blue and red sockets you’re going to need. If you’re struggling with socket space, make sure to keep all Minion generating skills equipped.
Skills like Absolution, Raise Zombie, and SRS all create Minions that are based on your gem level. The same way that the base damage of spells is based on their gem level. If you unsock it and fail to level one of your minion skills, the skill can become nearly unusable because its minions simply won’t survive.
I made the mistake of unsocketing Raise Zombie because I thought I wouldn’t need it and now I’m paying for it, so do not make the same mistake that I did.
Passive Tree
To level your passive tree, start by taking the minion nodes from the Templar starting area and make a B line for the Enduring Bond cluster.
This significantly boosts the damage and duration of all of your minions. Then, take the Templar Life points and Sanctity for some armor and regeneration.
Your next goal is developing your minion nodes and making your way to the notable passive Spiritual Aid. From here, you’re going to take a Wandering Path through this build unlocking cluster by cluster. But there’s no rush to get to anything, so just path to the things that you want and take them.
Divine Shield is not very good until you have decent armor mitigation and a few hundred Energy Shield, so save it for just before you finish the campaign. Really, if you want health and path to the next Health cluster that’s in the build or if you want resistances path to that cluster and take it, it’s all completely up to you depending on the situation while you’re leveling.
Endgame Passive Tree
Developing into the endgame is more about solidifying your defense than pushing your damage.
Make sure to take the plus 50 health, minion physical damage overwhelm, and reduced critical strike damage taken masteries. Then, you’ll want to continue developing down into the Marauder area so that you can take Unwavering Stance in Prismatic Skin.
Lastly, develop the Fearsome Force cluster to give your minions a lot of Critical Strike Chance. If you can find additional aura skills like I did, you'll want to get the Mana Reservation Efficiency from the Sovereignty cluster.
Otherwise, developing deep into the end game means using Abyss and cluster jewels.
Ascendancies
For your ascendancies, you're going to want to take Radiant Crusade first and this will give you the Sentinel of Radiance skill. Congratulations, you've now entered easy mode.
With your second ascendancy, take Unwavering Crusade. This gives you free aurabots that have Wrath, Anger and Hatred and are up almost constantly.
Third, take Radiant Faith. Fourth and last, take Unwavering Faith.
This build doesn't do much to keep its minions alive, so Unwavering Faith not only boosts your minions recovery, but it also gives you a nice boost to your recovery. This means it not only helping your health regeneration but also the Energy Shield regeneration you get from Divine Shield.
Conclusion
With this Sentinel Guardian, you can become a terrifying force that speeds through the campaign blows through maps and can push incredibly deep into mapping due to the raw power of the build.
Whether you're new to Ruthless and would like an extremely powerful build to start with or if you're experienced and want to smash through some content, this build is perfect for you.
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Path of Exile 3.26 was one of the most lucrative seasons ever. However, in PoE 3.27: Keepers of the Flame, players will see a significant decrease in overall currency acquisition due to direct nerfs to Map Modifier Effects, Item Quantity, and certain farming strategies.
So what should you farm in this league to maximize farming efficiency? This depends on which strategies and mechanics remain unaffected and which methods are more stable.
S-Tier Farming Strategies
Awakened Harvest
Awakened Harvest focuses on maximizing Lifeforce from Harvests using Crop Rotation Harvest strategy. It is unaffected by the general nerfs this season because its gains primarily come from fixed crafting.
Lifeforce is always an essential crafting resource, so its value remains stable. This strategy directly leads to increased demand for Horned Scarab of Awakening, making other strategies using this scarab unprofitable.
Blight Map Farming
This strategy focuses on Blight encounters on specific maps, yielding large amounts of currency and items from monsters and Blight chests.
This was considered the best map farming strategy last season. While affected by the reduced map count and affix effects, all map farming strategies are impacted, so it may still remain the strongest map farming method.
Expedition (Early League)
This strategy primarily involves interacting with Expedition Logbooks, defeating monsters, and completing quests for Dannig, Gwennen, Tujen, and Rog.
This is one of the best currency production methods at the start of the season. Expedition Logbooks are in high demand, and the new asynchronous trading changes make them easier to sell, but this will decrease later in the season.
Ultimatum
You gain stacking rewards by completing Ultimatum trials. While this mechanic hasn't been weakened, its strength depends on player builds and strategies.
Its profitability is limited by its extremely high difficulty. However, there are specific builds that allow players to cheat or AFK to complete the trial, such as CWDT Chieftain. If you have such a build, Ultimatum becomes very easy and highly rewarding.
Strongboxes High Investment
This method primarily uses scarabs and map affixes to strengthen Strongboxes on the map, especially Ambush Scarab of Containment, to obtain a large number of items. This is considered the meta strategy of the season, extremely stable and reliable, and a core part of high-end item farming.
A-Tier Farming Strategies
Essence
This strategy primarily involves capturing Essence monsters on the map to obtain various Essences. It is ideal for accumulating initial currency at the beginning of the season. The returns are stable because Essences are a hard requirement for crafting and are not affected by map quantity or affix effects. Although Remnant of Corruption has changed, the impact is minimal.
Blight Currency Farming
Blight Currency Farming is similar to Blight Map Farming, but focuses more on quickly completing Blight events on regular maps to obtain currency. This was one of the strongest strategies last season, but it has been downgraded from S to A due to the reduced map quantity and affix effects.
Strongboxes Low Investment
Simply put, this is a strategy of investing in strongboxes at a lower cost. It remains A-tier, just like in patch 3.26, because its base returns are very stable and substantial.
Allflame Ember Of The Ethereal Scarab Farm
You need to use Allflame Ember of the Ethereal to enhance monsters on maps to increase the drop rate of specific types of scarabs. This strategy is popular among players, but because its returns depend on map monster drops, it is affected by the reduced quantity and affix effects. Also, the supply of Allflame Ember of the Ethereal is limited, and its value will adjust itself to maintain profitability.
Delirium Orb Farming
This strategy primarily involves farming Delirium Orbs in large quantities by running Delirium maps or encountering them. It's especially effective late in the season when demand for Delirium Orbs is high. Delirium Orb Farming is also decent early in the season as it drops other items. It can be done on rare maps and has lower build requirements.
Divination Card Farming
This mechanic requires you to farm high-value Divination Cards on specific maps and bosses. You'll need to combine this with Strongboxes strategy, especially Scarab of Containment, to increase Divination Card drops. This strategy is quite profitable but requires strong builds.
B-Tier Farming Strategies
Alva Temple Farming
You need to invite Alva into the map through Master Quests or Scarabs, build The Temple of Atzoatl, and obtain rewards such as double Corruption Rooms. This strategy is poor early in the season but becomes extremely profitable late in the season when players start gambling on double Corruption Rooms.
Kalguuran Map Farm
This is a simple map farming strategy focused on encounters with Kalguuran warriors. Your build shouldn't be too strong or too weak, and can be paired with useful scarabs.
Bestiary
You need to capture red beasts in Bestiary to sell or use for your crafting. This method is similar to Essence, providing a stable, quantity-independent drop rate with consistent market demand, especially good at the start of the season.
Harvest Carnicopia
Harvest Carnicopia is a more stable harvest farming strategy, but with a lower hourly yield cap than Awakening Harvest. It's better suited for players who prefer low randomness and consistent returns.
Legion (Late League)
You need to activate Timeless Monolith on the map, release and defeat Eternal Empire warriors to obtain badges and loot. This is the best farming strategy for days 1-2 of the season, but its value drops rapidly afterward. While Legions remain decent in the later stages, they require top-tier builds, and better options may exist at this point.
Stacked Deck Farming
You'll need to acquire Stacked Decks through various means and sell them, or start your own gamble. The significant quality-of-life improvement this season may increase demand.
Ritual
You'll need to complete Ritual Altar challenges and exchange tributes for rewards. This method is reliable but not particularly outstanding, except for the occasional Nameless Altar spawn, which are worth multiple POE Divine Orbs. The recent changes have slightly nerfed this, but the impact is minimal.
Betrayal
By interacting with Einhar's betrayal members, you'll build a network to target rewards such as Allflame and Medallions.
Due to the nerf to Graves and the complexity of setting up networks, PoE 3.27 focuses on zero-setup strategies that only farm Allflame and Medallions. Medals have been buffed, but the value of Allflame is expected to decrease.
These are some of the juiciest farming strategies. There are many other farming strategies besides these, but these strategies are highly dependent on luck and may even result in losses, so they are not recommended.
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!
