Allrounder Build Guide in POE 3.20: Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist for League Start
The Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist is a great Allrounder Leaguestarter. It kills bosses with huge Ignites and clears whole screens of monsters with the Ignite Proliferation Support. For how strong the build is, it does have some intricate mechanics, which means attention to detail matters! This build doesn't require any Uniques or specific stats to start with but can upgrade to an absolute monster in the late game, making it perfect for a leaguestart scenario.
Important Skills
1) Explosive Arrow
Explosive Arrow supported with Ballista Totem Support is our main damage dealer.
It applies Fuses that explode after a short duration. The more Fuses the enemy had, the more damage they take.
Firing this skill with Ballistas enables us to apply more fuses in a shorter time period, resulting in bigger Ignites overal.
Ascendancy
1) The Elementalist is an easy choice for Explosive Arrow as it offers incredible boosts to Damage, Area of Effect and Defensive Capabilities.
2) Shaper of Flames allows ALL of your damage to Ignite, not just Fire Damage (this even includes Chaos Damage). Shaper of Flames also makes "Hits always Ignite", which means you don't need any Chance to Ignite at all.
3) Mastermind of Discord reduces Elemental Resistances of our enemies, making it a great tool against Bosses and highly resistant enemies.
4) Heart of Destruction gives you a huge Area of Effect Bonus while clearing hordes of monsters, converting the bonus to Damage instead whenever you face a Unique Enemy.
5) Bastion of Elements gives you a huge defensive layer against elemental damage, while also making it so your Ballistas' damage can't be reflected back to them.
Mistakes to Avoid
1) Getting Added Fire Damage on Gear
This disables your Exposure caused by Elemental Equilibrium (explained above).
Remember that with Shaper of Flames, all damage Ignites, not just Fire Damage. This means Cold and Lightning Damage do the same thing as added Fire Damage without disabling Exposure!
While "added Fire Damage" is bad, "increased Fire Damage" is completely fine and a great stat to have to increase your Ignite Damage!
2) Having a Source of Pierce/Chain or Fork
Explosive Arrow only puts a Fuse onto the last enemy it hits.
If you, for example, have "Projectiles Pierce 1 additional Target" and are up against a boss, it pierces through that enemy and applies no Fuses whatsoever. This completely invalidates your build, so be careful!
3) Using Barrage Support
Barrage Support might seem good because it helps you apply your Fuses faster. However, we hit the Maximum Fuse Count of 20 easily without it, so using it more than halves our damage, for no gain.
Stick to the recommended Support Gems in the Skill Gem Section!
4) Ignoring Accuracy
Explosive Arrow kinda looks like a spell, but it's an attack and therefore adheres to Accuracy scaling. If you don't have enough Accuracy (98-100% recommended) your fuses are going to miss, resulting in smaller explosions and Ignites!
5) Using Slow Bows
Your Attack Rate is as critical as the damage of your Ignites.
Slow attacking Bows look good on paper, but are actually really bad due to their low Attack Rate. This is also why Storm Cloud is such a good choice early on!
Key Leveling Notes
While this is a build guide for Explosive Arrow, we primarily use Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall to level until 32. This is because 32 is the correct time to complete the Normal Labyrinth. Upon getting Shaper of Flames, switching over to using Explosive Arrow will be much easier.
This build will do Library in Act 3 to gain Explosive Arrow, Ballista Totem Support, Determination, Grace, and Purity of Elements. These gems won't be used for now, but are instead put in your gear to level up. Gems gain XP even in your off-hand!
The "Wand Craft" is the easiest way to make any caster leveling better. Selling a magic wand, an Orb of Alteration, and a normal Topaz Ring produces a wand like this: Snapping Driftwood Wand.
If you need a magic wand, purchase a 3-linked Wand from Nessa with favorable colors, those being Blue-Blue-Green, Blue-Blue-Blue, or Blue-Green-Red. Then use an Orb of Transmutation on it. If you need a Topaz Ring, you can sell an Iron Ring with any Skill Gem that is colored Green.
Skill Gems
1) Two-Handed Ranged: Explosive Arrow - Ballista Totem Support - Ignite Proliferation Support - Lifetap Support - Awakened Deadly Ailments Support - Awakened Burning Damage Support
2) Arcanist Brand - Flammability - Flame Surge
3) Determination - Grace - Defiance Banner - Precision
4) Lightning Spire Trap - Combustion Support
5) Frenzy - Faster Attacks Support
6) Vaal Molten Shell
7) Flame Dash
8) Summon Lightning Golem
Skill Tree
Explosive Arrow Setup
Explosive Arrow supported by Ballista Totem Support is our main damage dealer. We add Faster Attacks Support to apply fuses faster and Ignite Proliferation Support to improve clearspeed.
Once you have a fifth link, add Deadly Ailments Support and as a 6th link add Elemental Damage with Attacks Support.
Once you are at endgame and you have Divine Orbs to buy better gear, replace Deadly Ailments Support with the better Awakened Deadly Ailments Support and Elemental Damage with Attacks Support with Awakened Burning Damage Support.
Arcanist Brand Setup
Arcanist Brand triggers supported skills on enemies it is attached to.
One of the skills you trigger is Flame Surge, which applies a Burning Ground that deals damage to enemies standing on it.
The other skill is your main curse: Flammability, which reduces enemy Fire Resistances, which is especially important against Bosses and tanky rares.
Aura Setup
Your 3 main Auras are used to increase your defensive capabilities.
First, Determination grants you a huge amount of Armour, which reduces incoming Physical Damage significantly. On top of that, you use Grace which grants a chance to evade enemy attacks outright.
These Auras are supplemented by Defiance Banner which increases both Armour and Evasion further. Don't think too much about putting your banner down, it's mostly there for the passive bonus it gives.
On top of the defensive Auras, you also have Precision, which increases your Accuracy substantially. This solves one of your weaknesses, since you are a Bow Build starting in the Witch area.
The amount of Reservation Precision takes depends on its level, so always check if you can support leveling it up before!
Combustion Trigger
Lightning Spire Traps only purpose is hitting enemies to apply the Combustion Support debuff. Because of Ancestral Bond, you don't deal damage yourself, therefore you are unable to Ignite an enemy and apply Combustion Support. To circumvent that, use a Trap because it still deals damage.
Movement Skill
Use Flame Dash as your main Movement Skill. No Support Gems are needed.
Frenzy
Whenever you hit an enemy with Frenzy, you gain a Frenzy Charge, which gives you more Damage and increased Attack Speed. To refresh them during boss fights you need to land an attack periodically. Faster Attacks Support is only there to make the skill feel smoother.
Vaal Molten Shell
Molten Shell gives you a defensive shield that can absorb enemy damage depending on how much Armour you have. Since Molten Shell has no cast-time, put it on your left-mouse button(move) to automatically activate it whenever the cooldown is up. Vaal Molten Shell is something you only press whenever you are in danger. It makes you almost invincible whenever it is active.
Lightning Golem
Summon Lightning Golem increases your Attack Speed slightly. It's not important for the build but it's better than nothing. If you are starved for sockets, this is the gem to cut first.
Summary
Explosive Arrow Ballista is an incredible Allrounder Build that can take you through everything Path of Exile has to offer.
You place Ballistas, which are small turrets that shoot and do damage for you, unleashing huge Ignites in the process.
This playstyle allows you to dodge enemy attacks and deal damage at the same time.
This build rewards players who care about small upgrades and attention to detail, since there are certain pitfalls you can succumb to. If you overcome those hurdles, you will have an incredibly strong build.
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Although Path of Exile 2 is complex and difficult to master, one of the main reasons it retains a loyal fanbase is its unique mechanics, unlike mainstream ARPGs, such as its detailed currency system.
Most ARPGs tend to have an economic system based on a specific currency or gold, serving as the basic means of exchange. However, Path of Exile 2 has many types of currency, each with different uses and acquisition methods.
While this increases the difficulty of currency farming, it also means your gaming experience will be clearer and more organized, rather than having a pile of coins without knowing what to do with them.
The economic system in PoE 2 resets with each new league. Therefore, now, a week after the start of Fate of the Vaal league, the popular Divine Orbs should be your farming priority.
Below, we will introduce the information you need to know to improve your Divine Orbs farming efficiency in this league.
Overview Of Divine Orb Farming Methods
Although PoE 2 has many types of currency, only a few are commonly used, and Divine Orbs are one of them. Their purpose is to increase the power of rare or unique items by changing their modifier values.
The effectiveness of these orbs is not obvious in the early stages of the league, so you can sell them for other currencies you need more. But as you progress further in the game, you will need to start farming them intensively.
Mapping
After entering the endgame stage, you can start earning various loot, including Divine Orbs, through mapping. The essence of the mapping mechanism is to constantly run new maps and fight in them to obtain rewards.
On this basis, Waystones and Precursor Tablets are two essential items. The former opens portals to random areas, and the latter increases the loot you ultimately receive by modifying the number and rarity of enemies.
Therefore, when farming Divine Orbs using this method, the key to improving efficiency is to obtain high-level Waystones while stacking Tablets, and also focusing on nodes that increase rewards when unlocking Atlas passive skills.
Trials And Events
Although the core function of Trial of Chaos and Trial of Sekhema is to help you unlock Ascendancy classes and talent points, they are also a mainstream way to obtain high-level currency, and you can farm them repeatedly.
Besides mapping and trials, when you play other endgame events, such as Ritual, Breach & Delirium, you can also encounter the sources of loot drops. Alternatively, if you urgently need currency, you can buy PoE 2 Divine Orbs through trading markets and websites.
Changes Introduced In Patch 0.4.0
In addition to adding new gameplay, each major update to Path of Exile 2 modifies or optimizes existing mechanics to ensure a smoother experience and better performance of the current patch content.
Based on the introduction to Divine Orb farming methods, you should already have a preliminary speculation of which changes will affect this. We will now explain them in detail.
Map Enemies And Bosses
When clearing maps, you will constantly encounter various towers. After the changes in Patch 0.3.1, their function is to clear the map fog after construction, revealing surrounding nodes and biomes, and guaranteeing a Precursor Tablet reward.
Building on this, if you are mapping during Fate of the Vaal league, the sources of increased enemy numbers on maps and Tablets have been removed, replaced by efficiency bonuses.
This means you will primarily obtain more loot by killing enemies with increased health, rather than by clearing a larger number of enemies. Regular monsters will no longer swarm the player in high density, while rare monsters will drop more loot.
In addition, each map now has a boss, some of which are more powerful - these bosses are marked separately and are more durable and deal higher damage.
If you are confident in your abilities, you can use an Overseer Precursor Tablet to transform the current map into one with a powerful map boss.
More importantly, after the release of Patch 0.4.0, killing the map boss will reveal all remaining unexplored content on the map, such as Breach hands, Abyss, and more.
Therefore, if you prioritize farming the boss when clearing maps, you can then more efficiently find all the content you want to complete, improving efficiency by filtering out mechanics with a lower probability of dropping Divine Orbs, avoiding wasted time.
However, if you die while fighting the map boss, all remaining content on the map will be removed.
Map Rolling
The map rolling mechanism has been significantly simplified, and no new mechanics that increase map setup time will be added in future updates.
Based on this, by combining it with an Orb of Alchemy that can roll Waystone modifiers, you can immediately give your map more affixes, thus obtaining more Divine Orbs or other loot upon completion.
Tablet Rolling
After optimization, by default, you can only have a maximum of two affixes on your map, but once you defeat the boss Arbiter of Ash in normal difficulty, you can reroll the map affixes to a maximum of four, including two prefixes and two suffixes.
Regarding Tablets, one affix you need to focus on is rarity. The rarity bonus of items dropped in the map stacks very well with the rarity bonus on your gear, thus improving the quality of all items you find in the map.
Optimal Farming Strategy
After understanding the above, to farm Divine Orbs faster in the new league, you first need to unlock the appropriate Atlas passive skills based on your class and build, and then focus on stacking map and gear rarity and killing rare monsters.
We hope our suggestions will help you earn more currency to upgrade your character in the later stages of Fate of the Vaal league. Have fun!
Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 features incredibly cool skill combinations, but if you frequently cast skills while farming, you'll quickly run out of mana. Furthermore, leveling up skills further increases mana consumption.
Mana management isn't just a problem for spellcaster classes; almost all classes face this issue during the campaign. Without suitable items, some builds will still be plagued by mana shortages even in the endgame. So how can this be solved?
Mana Regeneration During Mapping
While farming, using skills to kill mobs is incredibly satisfying, and with the right affixes, these monsters can become a source of mana regeneration, and the more enemies, the more effective it is.
Sapphire Suffix
One of the suffixes for sapphires is that it restores 1% to 2% of maximum mana upon killing an enemy. Sapphires are relatively common items, with a high probability of appearing early in the game. Additionally, the kill to mana affix can appear on Martial Weapons, rings, and gloves. Combining this with a sapphire bearing this affix essentially solves the mana regeneration problem during mapping.
Leech Mana
Another method involves using items with leech mana modifiers, which is also a powerful source of mana regeneration, but it's only suitable for physical damage attack-based builds. For example, Mark of Siphoning Support gem allows you to leech mana when attacking marked enemies, but the leech amount is only 5% of the damage dealt; it might be more useful against bosses.
Mana Flasks
Mana Flasks are a commonly used mana regeneration method and are crucial during campaigns. Not only do you need to upgrade flasks, but you can also add affixes to Mana Flasks using PoE 2 Currency:
- Increased mana recovery
- Increased number of charges
- Gain charges per second
Lavianga's Spirits is a unique Mana Flask that cannot and does not need to be manually used. Its effect is continuous, providing a fixed amount of mana regeneration periodically, the amount of which depends on its quality and affixes.
Besides Mana Flasks themselves, there are other ways to increase their mana regeneration. For example, in Act 4 Abandoned Prison quest, you can choose a permanent buff from Flasks that increases mana regeneration. Belts can also roll mana regeneration affixes from Flasks, significantly enhancing potion effects.
Some talent points can also improve the effects of Mana Flasks. For example, Lavianga's Brew talent point in Druid area grants skills 30% increased mana cost efficiency while mana Flasks are active and increases mana regeneration from Flasks by 10%.
Reducing Mana Cost
Reducing Skill Mana Cost
You can type Mana Cost in Passive skill interface to find many related nodes, some of which reduce skill mana costs.
If the talent point is too far away, you can use Distilled Emotions to anoint or infuse it into your amulet to reduce mana costs.
Converting to Life Costs
Price of Freedom key passive node not only increases the mana cost efficiency of attack skills but also converts a portion of mana costs into life costs. You can restore mana by using items with life-restoring affixes or life flasks, thus alleviating mana pressure. Blood Magic key passive node is a more extreme solution; it completely removes mana, making all skills consume life instead.
Support Gems
- Efficiency II Support gem: Reduces the mana cost of the supported skill.
- Lifetap Support gem: Converts the mana cost of the supported skill into life cost, similar to Blood Magic for single-skill characters.
- Clarity Support gem: When actively activated, it reserves a portion of spirit, providing a mana regeneration rate bonus.
Mana Regeneration And Maximum Mana
Each character has a default base regeneration rate of 4% of maximum mana per second, but this can actually be increased. You need to increase your mana regeneration rate. This can be achieved through Clarity aura, equipment, talent points, and Jungle Ruins quest reward, which increases mana regeneration rate by 25%.
Additionally, since the base regeneration rate is a percentage of maximum mana, increasing maximum mana through rings, amulets, and other equipment will also directly increase the regeneration rate per second.
Non-Universal Solutions
- Mana Remnants buff: Killing or critically striking enemies affected by Elemental Ailments generates lootable Remnants. Picking them up restores mana and temporarily increases maximum mana.
- Font of Mana Support gem: Enables supported Totem abilities to create an area that restores mana.
- Defy II: Allows the use of abilities even when surrounded and lacking mana. It can be used with Constricting Command helmet to reduce the number of monsters required to trigger this effect.
- Eldritch Battery node: Converts Energy Shield into mana, but consumes double the mana cost for abilities.
- Mana Recoup affix: Restores a portion of consumed mana over a period of time after taking damage.
- Gain mana while blocking: This effect appears in passives or equipment affixes, such as Defensive Reflexes passive node, and it is more suitable for high block rate builds.
- Thief's Torment Emerald Ring: You gain 15 mana for each enemy you hit. It's not powerful, but it takes up a ring slot.
The mana shortage problem mainly occurs in the early game. Later in the game, as your level increases, you'll have more equipment and currency, allowing you to tailor a solution based on your build. If you're still struggling with this issue later, it might be that your equipment isn't up to par, or your skill points are allocated to damage-focused parts. Review these aspects and make some adjustments.
In Path of Exile 2, Mystery Boxes are paid loot boxes containing a set of random cosmetic microtransaction items. These items are purely cosmetic and do not affect your character's abilities or game progression in any way.
Each box has a specific theme, and during Patch 0.4.0, it's The Last of the Druids Mystery Box, offering unique themed armor sets, effects, pets, and hideout decorations.
Price
Currently, The Last of the Druids Mystery Box can only be obtained from MTX store for 50 points, a microtransaction currency linked to real money.
In addition to the single box option, they also offer a bundle of 5 Mystery Boxes for 250 points. You can choose according to your needs.
It's worth noting that each Mystery Box opened will yield a different item variant, but some variants may be rarer than others. Therefore, the more boxes you open, the higher the probability of getting the rare item you want!
What's In Mystery Box?
The Last of the Druids Mystery Box contains 63 microtransaction items, many of which have varying numbers of themed variants.
- Stormborne Huntress Helmet - Chance to appear: 3.8462%
- Frigid Stormborne Huntress Body Armour - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Infernal Stormborne Huntress Body Armour - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Thunderous Stormborne Huntress Body Armour - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Chaotic Stormborne Huntress Body Armour - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
- Stormborne Huntress Gloves - Chance to appear: 3.8462%
- Stormborne Huntress Boots - Chance to appear: 3.8462%
- Frigid Stormborne Back Attachment - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Infernal Stormborne Back Attachment - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Thunderous Stormborne Back Attachment - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Chaotic Stormborne Back Attachment - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
- Stormborne Weapon Skin - Chance to appear: 3.8462%
- Fleshveil Marionette Helmet - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Porcelain Marionette Helmet - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Fleshveil Marionette Body Armour - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Porcelain Marionette Body Armour - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Fleshveil Marionette Gloves - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Porcelain Marionette Gloves - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Fleshveil Marionette Boots - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Porcelain Marionette Boots - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Bronze Marionette Back Attachment - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Silver Marionette Back Attachment - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Bronze Marionette Weapon Skin - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Silver Marionette Weapon Skin - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Bronze Marionette Character Skin - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Silver Marionette Character Skin - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Desert Sands Portal Effect - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Wasteland Sands Portal Effect - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Crimson Sands Portal Effect - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
- Desert Hourglass Map Device - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Wasteland Hourglass Map Device - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Crimson Hourglass Map Device - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
- Soulslash Portal - Chance to appear: 3.07692%
- Marble Soulslash Portal - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Prison Waygate Map Device - Chance to appear: 3.8462%
- Toad Idol of Corruption Hideout Decoration - Chance to appear: 1.9231%
- Toad Idol of Chaos Hideout Decoration - Chance to appear: 1.3462%
- Toad Idol of Alchemy Hideout Decoration - Chance to appear: 0.5769%
- Afflicted Altar Stash Decoration - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Vaal Cache Stash Decoration - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Precursor Receptacle Stash Decoration - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Shattered Mirror Stash Skin - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
- Civic Square Hideout - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Alpine Plateau Hideout - Chance to appear: 0.9615%
- Vastiri Plains Hideout - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Mausoleum Hideout - Chance to appear: 0.5769%
- Phoenix Pet - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Abyssal Phoenix Pet - Chance to appear: 1.3462%
- Blueflame Phoenix Pet - Chance to appear: 0.1923%
- Magus Quillbook Pet - Chance to appear: 1.9231%
- Vaal Quillbook Pet - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Abyssal Quillbook Pet - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Tracking Scroll of Crafting - Chance to appear: 3.8462%
- Ghostlance Level-up Extra Effect - Chance to appear: 1.9231%
- Rat Fountain Level-up Extra Effect - Chance to appear: 1.3462%
- Wings of the Phoenix Level-up Extra Effect - Chance to appear: 0.5769%
- Shattered Dodge Roll Effect - Chance to appear: 1.5385%
- Phoenix Dodge Roll Effect - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Rat Swarm Dodge Roll Effect - Chance to appear: 0.7692%
- Abyssal Dodge Roll Effect - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
- Giant Centipede Rare Finisher Effect - Chance to appear: 2.3077%
- Plummeting Chandelier Rare Finisher Effect - Chance to appear: 1.1538%
- Phoenix Nosedive Rare Finisher Effect - Chance to appear: 0.3846%
The above shows all the item variants included in The Last of the Druids Mystery Box and their drop rates. However, please note that this data only applies to the first box you open, as subsequent items will not be duplicates, so the probability of obtaining other microtransaction items will increase accordingly with each subsequent box opened.
How To Open The Box?
- Open your Stash: Open your inventory, click the Cosmetics button, then select Microtransaction Stash, or press the "N" key to open the microtransaction panel.
- Find the Box: Find the unopened Mystery Box in the Consumables tab.
- Right-click: Click on the box to open it and receive a random item.
Is Mystery Box Worth Getting?
Is this paid microtransaction box really suitable for every Exile? It really depends on your needs. If you enjoy taking chances, appreciate the thrill of randomly acquiring cool cosmetic items, and aren't looking for anything specific, then The Last of the Druids Mystery Box is a good investment; however, if you want a particular microtransaction item, it's not worth it, as the results are entirely dependent on RNG (random number generation). Moreover, you can usually obtain the items you want directly later in the game.
Therefore, it's best to consider Mystery Box as a way to support the game and enjoy some random fun, rather than a reliable method for acquiring specific gear. After all, this kind of loot box mechanism, similar to gambling, can easily lead to overspending without ultimately getting the items you want.
In short, at the start of the league, acquiring The Last of the Druids Mystery Box can indeed bring you unexpected surprises and make you the most dazzling presence in the game with its cool cosmetics. If you're interested, why not try your luck?
With the official release of Patch 0.4.0, the latest class, Druid in Path of Exile 2 has attracted more attention and use from players. Regardless of which of the three transformable forms you prefer, the one that will initially catch your attention is undoubtedly the wyvern!
As the last revealed Druid form, the wyvern allows you to use exclusive skills to deal effective fire, lightning, and physical damage to single or multiple enemies, and can further enhance skills by generating and consuming power charges.
More importantly, since all skills are essentially universal, other PoE 2 classes can also use wyvern skills to craft new builds suitable for themselves, greatly expanding the game's replayability.
Based on this, we will still focus on the most suitable Druid class to introduce the crafting ideas and actual combat effects of Wyvern Druid Build.
How To Match The Skills?
When you transform into the wyvern form, there are six exclusive skill gems, with the main skill effects as follows:
- Rolling Magma: Throws a ball of magma that lands on the ground, dealing AoE damage to enemies. It can also utilize human form skills, such as Volcanos, to make the magma ball bounce forward multiple times, causing chain attacks.
- Rend: Performs a wide-area slash with wings or claws; consuming energy orbs can generate additional lightning damage.
- Wing Blast: Flies backward to release a shockwave that stuns enemies, with a chance to gain energy charges during the process.
- Oil Barrage: Sprays oil to create an oil slick on the ground, or consumes energy charges to continuously spray electrified oil, hitting and damaging enemies.
- Flame Breath: As a dragon, breathes fire at enemies from the air, and the duration can be extended by consuming Rage.
- Devour: Restores health and gains an energy orb by devouring corpses or enemies. If the target is far away, you can leap towards them and deal damage upon landing.
Based on this, if you want to level up or clear bosses with Wyvern Druid Build, you should first focus on gaining lightning damage bonuses when using basic skills like Rend to increase the damage range.
The specific strategy involves first using Pounce skill in wolf form to leap forward, quickly clearing weaker groups of enemies with Oil Barrage to allow for more corpses to be devoured with Devour, and then repeating this process.
When encountering a boss, the cycle needs a slight adjustment: after Pounce, auto-attack until the boss is stunned, then use Oil Barrage or Flame Breath to kill the boss.
If a comparison is necessary, Oil Barrage is better because it can be used at range and is less susceptible to attacks than using Flame Breath while airborne.
Another key to ensuring smooth skill rotation is maintaining the energy shield's charge, thanks to Devour. When combined with the passive skill Zealot's Oath, its life regeneration effect is applied to the energy shield.
Additionally, you can unlock Thickened Arteries talent node, which restores 0.5% of your maximum life per second and further increases your life regeneration rate by 40% while stationary.
Because you are always stationary when devouring corpses, this allows you to recover more energy shield points per second.
Which Support Gems Should Be Added?
As items that further enhance the effects of skill gems, the choice of support gems is crucial for any PoE 2 build. Based on the main skills mentioned in the previous section, we recommend Holy Descent first.
This gem creates an area that heals you after you land from using Pounce, and this healing effect also works in conjunction with Devour skill to affect the energy shield.
More support gem options include:
- Fist of War: Increases attack range, deals more damage, and ensures enemy kills.
- Momentum: Allows you to deal an additional 40% damage when leaping forward.
- Cooldown Recovery: Allows you to use Pounce skill more frequently.
- Elemental Armament: Makes all your attacks deal significant elemental damage, and sweeping attacks also inflict lightning damage.
How To Use Spirit Skills?
Spirit skills actually refer to special buffs or usable minions that help you in combat by consuming spirit, and they are upgraded based on the boss rewards or skill tree nodes you acquire.
For Wyvern Druid Build, the help provided by Spirit skills should include life regeneration, curse removal, and elemental ailment removal.
For this build, Cannibalism and Compressed Duration are worth adding. Combined with other existing support gems, you will be able to maintain maximum Rage at all times.
How To Improve Survivability?
First, you need to ensure your gear has enough defensive affixes. If not, farm for new gear or buy POE 2 currency and then roll new affixes onto your gear. Don't forget to unlock nodes in your passive skill tree that provide armor for damage reduction.
If you chose Shaman when unlocking your Ascendancy class, you can also gain additional elemental damage and damage to all surrounding enemies through Ascendancy skills.
After unlocking Wisdom of the Maji Ascendancy node, you can gain additional rune bonuses. It's recommended to also unlock Druidic Champion and Furious Wellspring to maintain full Rage at all times.
How To Further Improve This Build?
To improve Wyvern Druid Build, the main area for improvement in terms of damage output is your gear. You can farm bosses or trade on the market to obtain better talismans, or try to get more base damage bonuses on your rings and gloves.
It's worth noting that Oil Barrage skill has the "projectile" attribute, so you should try adding projectile skill level bonuses to your talismans instead of melee skill level bonuses, as Oil Barrage won't benefit from the latter.
That's all for this guide. If you happen to be a Druid player who likes the wyvern form, our guide should be helpful to you!
