How To Prepare For POE 3.23 Affliction League?

Amidst the hype surrounding Druid, some older classes might be overlooked, but some of them can actually provide a great Path of Exile 2 experience thanks to other optimizations brought by patch 0.4.0, such as Mercenary.

This is mainly due to the new patch's enhancements to grenade-based skills and builds, and Mercenary happens to be the primary class for crossbows and elemental grenades.

More importantly, the update now allows crossbows to accumulate Rage through Eternal Rage skill, with each point increasing attack damage by 1%. You can then add other effective bonuses.

Based on this, we will introduce how Mercenary can level up through the campaign stages consisting of multiple acts using grenade-based skills and builds.

Act 1

According to the system and storyline, you will first land on the coast, where you can find your first crossbow, and Fragmentation Rounds and Frostbolt skills - use the latter to freeze enemies, then detonate them with the former.

This way, you can gain a large damage bonus through the increased damage to frozen targets. If the enemies are still alive, continue to bombard them with the subsequently unlocked Explosive Grenades.

Next, continue forward to obtain Multishot support gem and attach it to Explosive Grenades, and ideally obtain a gem that increases attack range to improve the character's overall damage.

With this configuration, you can charge all the way to Rust King boss, then unlock Flash Grenade to replace Explosive Grenades, and use its physical damage to clear enemies.

Note that for passive skills, as a mercenary, you need to fully upgrade all projectile damage, and also spec into Volatile Catalyst to gain enough grenades to deal with enemies by increasing cooldown recovery speed.

Based on this, continue to upgrade your crossbow and consume PoE 2 currency to craft your crossbow and other gear, ensuring higher damage output to deal with the boss Count Geonor.

Act 2

In this act, you will obtain Explosive Shot to detonate your grenades, and equip Double Barrel III, making reloading easier and more efficient. You will then fire three arrows instead of one, meaning more explosions.

Additionally, you will obtain Oil Grenade, which applies an exposed effect, reducing total elemental resistance by 20%, and creates an oil slick on the ground that you can ignite to deal greater area damage to enemies.

Importantly, starting from Act 2 you can choose an Ascendancy, and we recommend Tactician. This reduces the mana consume of sustained buffs and adds a stun effect to all projectile damage, immobilizing affected enemies.

If you acquire some Spirit Gems, be sure to equip Wind Dancer. It helps you quickly traverse areas and knocks back your opponents when you are hit. You can even equip a Life Leech support skill with it.

Act 3

Upon entering Act 3 and obtaining your first Jeweller's Orb, use it on Explosive Grenades to add Elemental Armament, dealing more damage to enemies and making it easier to add Mirage Archer skill.

This allows you to create a phantom when you perform a dodge roll, which will fire specific projectile skills. Based on this, you can also equip Voltaic Grenade to stack additional electrical effects to paralyze enemies.

It's worth noting that if you reached at least level 33 in Act 2, you can switch your crossbow to Cannonade Crossbow, as it provides additional projectile skills. If you only reach this level after entering Act 3, remember to go back to the previous act to find it.

At this stage, you also need to allocate passive skill points to nodes that increase AoE damage, armor, and evasion rating, allowing you to enter Act 4 in a stronger state.

Act 4

As a transitional act, if you don't want to consume time on extra experimentation, it's recommended that you continue using Explosive Shot and various grenade skills in Act 4.

However, in terms of passive skill point allocation, you can invest more in Weapon Set 1 & 2 skill points to gain increased attack speed, number of shots, and reload speed. Additionally, the range and elemental damage of grenades will also increase.

Interludes

As a transitional part connecting the campaign and the endgame, after entering Interludes, you will first unlock Rage mechanism to provide further assistance to your leveling.

Later, when you reach level 58, you can equip Eternal Rage to maintain a constant enraged state. Furthermore, during Interlude 3, you will gain additional spirit, bringing your total spirit points to 108.

This allows you to add and use support gems with greater freedom, resulting in approximately a 65% chance for your grenades to explode twice, dealing more damage.

If you're using a crossbow specifically designed for pure physical damage with Flash Grenade, you can also utilize Brutality skill. Don't forget to unlock Battle Trance in the passive skill tree for extra Rage.

Next, unlock Blazing Arms node to deal more fire damage and higher attack damage. By stacking more rage, you can expect to gain approximately 44% increased fire damage in total.

As you continue fighting and leveling up to around level 79 with this configuration and method, you'll be able to unlock a more valuable crossbow.

Afterward, you can craft this crossbow and integrate it with the unlocked gems and other gear to form a more cohesive Mercenary grenade build to tackle more challenging endgame content.

While there are many good leveling methods in Fate of the Vaal league, Mercenary and grenade combination is definitely worth experiencing! If you're planning to play a new character, give this guide a try!

As the latest league launched alongside Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, the core mechanic of Fate of the Vaal is Temple of Atziri, reportedly inspired by Incursion league from the first game.

However, since its launch, Temple of Atziri has been plagued with issues. Initially, developers addressed player complaints about insufficient rewards, and have continued to make further optimizations intermittently.

On January 3rd, Path of Exile 2 released three Patch 0.4.0c hotfixes in less than 24 hours, all related to the temple mechanism, leading to speculation about what exactly was happening behind the scenes.

Based on this, this article will focus on Hotfix 14 (the latest at the time of writing) to analyze all the changes to Temple of Atziri and their impact.

Temple of Atziri mechanism overview

Although you should already be familiar with how to participate in this mechanism, it's still necessary to reiterate it for a better understanding of Hotfix content.

Throughout the league, you will encounter Vaal Beacons throughout the world. Defeating nearby monsters will charge the beacons. When five to six beacons are activated across multiple areas, a portal to Vaal Temple will open.

Inside the temple, you can use a console to place or upgrade up to 6 rooms on a 9x9 grid, then visit and complete them in sequence. Connecting rooms also increases the room level, thus increasing the difficulty and rewards.

Notably, Tier 3 rooms offer exclusive crafting opportunities, such as further corrupting items through Locus of Corruption, or Flesh Surgeon, which applies temporary but powerful modifiers to your character.

Patch 0.4.0c Hotfix 14 content

This Hotfix was released in the early morning of January 3rd, and its content reduces the number of unstable rooms by 30% when the temple closes, allowing the temple to stabilize at a maximum of around 60 rooms.

Theoretically, this fix allows you to build more interesting temples and provides more opportunities to kill bosses, potentially increasing your overall rewards.

Temple of Atziri is now slightly better to play, but that's about it. In fact, although Temple of Atziri was enhanced compared to its state after Hotfix 13, it is still a net nerf compared to earlier versions.

Will Hotfix 14 satisfy players?

According to the developers' intentions, you should now be able to kill the boss Architect more frequently and rebuild more effectively after defeating them. Furthermore, a shorter temple decay cycle means your survival rate during challenges will also increase.

However, due to differences in player skill and needs, the ideal outcome won't apply to everyone.

For top-tier players, especially the top 1% to 2%, who have already established sophisticated strategies, Hotfix 14 offers almost no benefit, and doesn't even compensate for the losses caused by previous fixes.

For casual players who haven't delved deep into the endgame - perhaps they've run Tier 15 maps but haven't fully mastered them - Hotfix 14 is better than all previous versions.

Furthermore, the reduced economic inflation in PoE 2 doesn't significantly affect these players, as they are not major participants in the economy. These players make up at least 90% of the player base.

The players truly negatively affected by Hotfix 14 are those who haven't reached the top tier but are striving to do so. For them, between Hotfix 12, 13, and 14, not only were their existing advantages stripped away, but they also have to continue facing inflation.

So, how you view Hotfix 14 depends on your current league progress. If you've only completed five or fewer Tier 15 maps, then Hotfix 13 & 14 are beneficial for you. If you've completed five to fifty high-level maps, then everything is a disaster for you.

And if you are one of the few top-tier players, aiming to stay ahead of others will make things easier for you, as it will be difficult for others to catch up in a short time. But if you want to earn more currency, you will definitely be disappointed.

Summary

While Temple of Atziri isn't a perfect mechanism, it's almost impossible for any game to satisfy all players with a particular gameplay mechanic or change, because the needs of different groups vary greatly.

However, the tricky part is that the community as a whole is currently pessimistic about the changes to Temple of Atziri, and many players have even stated that they have already or plan to temporarily stop playing Path of Exile 2 because of this.

We speculate that this is mainly because the development team's modifications to Temple of Atziri mostly involve tweaking various values, without fundamentally optimizing the inherently flawed mechanics.

Therefore, if things continue this way, no matter how many hotfixes are released, Temple of Atziri will remain a shaky "house of cards," unable to be fundamentally improved.

Although dissatisfaction with a single league mechanic won't significantly affect Path of Exile 2, player attrition is not a good sign. Therefore, if PoE 2 wants to release its official version sooner, it's best to address the underlying shortcomings reflected in Temple of Atziri.

In any case, we always have high expectations for Path of Exile 2, a game that excels in many aspects. So we hope the developers can resolve Temple of Atziri mechanics issue as soon as possible and get the game's development back on track.

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been out for almost a month now, have you found the perfect build for you yet? If not, then this build guide might be exactly what you need.

The build we're sharing here is Mortar Cannon Warbringer. It's a top-tier and versatile one-button build that boasts massive damage output and excellent survivability. Its affordable gear and maintenance costs, along with its ease of use, make it an excellent build for league newcomers, and its powerful damage scaling capabilities will help you transition smoothly into the endgame.

Here, we'll discuss the build's mechanics, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to optimize the skill tree and gear setup to maximize Mortar Cannon Warbringer's damage potential. Let's take a look!

Ascendancy: Warbringer vs. Tactician

For this build's Ascendancy class, we chose Warbringer, but in 0.3.0, we used Tactician class.

This is because Warbringer Ascendancy in patch 0.4.0 is significantly stronger than before in both offense and defense, especially after the buffs in this league.

Now, Imploding Impacts increases all damage taken by all targets except the player, not just physical damage, when they have Fully Broken Armour effect. Since we deal both physical and elemental damage, this Ascendancy is now even more powerful because it also increases elemental damage taken by enemies. This is especially useful against powerful endgame bosses, allowing us to kill them quickly.

In contrast, Tactician focuses on defense through Pin and Deflection Rating, but it doesn't provide any damage reduction or mitigation.

On the other hand, Warbringer's Wooden Wall effect allows 20% of the damage received to be deducted from the health of the nearest totem first, and coupled with high armor, Warbringer is tankier than Tactician.

In addition, Warbringer's Answered Call allows us to summon an extra totem and grants us a skill that triggers Ancestral Spirits when we summon a totem. We can summon four different Ancestral Spirits, each providing different buffs.

Although Tactician's Cannons, Ready! sounds good, increasing totem skill speed by 30%, it's very clunky to use because totems only consume skills when firing projectiles. Since we can still use Pin, the loss from not choosing Tactician is minimal.

Therefore, overall, Warbringer Ascendancy is the best choice for this build in the 0.4.0 league.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Regarding the advantages of this build, I must say its DPS and map clearing speed are excellent. Best of all, this build is very cost-effective; so far, we've only spent 2 Divine Orbs and 340 Exalted Orbs to complete it.

Furthermore, this build offers a relatively safe playstyle. Because Ancestral Spirits you summon can help distract enemies, block attacks, and absorb some damage, you can simply hide behind them and throw grenades from a distance. In addition, there are 14,000 unbuffed armor points, as well as other forms of damage reduction and mitigation to enhance your survivability.

However, the disadvantages are also obvious. As a ranged build, we can't easily tank, meaning in boss fights, we must manually dodge high-damage attacks.

Another point to note is ground effects; because of poor visual effects, you must carefully observe and adjust your position cautiously.

There's also an off-field factor: yes, this build is quite demanding on hardware. If you have a decent computer, you might want to give it a try.

Equipment & Stats

For this build's equipment, our top choice is the unique armor: The Brass Dome, which is the source of most of our armor value. It's recommended to choose a version with higher armor value, although this may require you to invest more PoE 2 currency.

It's worth noting that the key to gaining increased armor is reducing your maximum elemental resistance. Here, we chose -1% to all Maximum Elemental Resistances to gain 721% increased Armour, which is sufficient because we can mitigate elemental damage through armor. Meanwhile, you should stack as much "Armour applying to Elemental Damage" modifier as possible on your armor pieces, helmets, and boots to help your build create a strong defensive barrier.

Additionally, with Tempered Defences node on the passive skill tree, we can easily achieve at least 100% of armor applying to elemental damage. And as mentioned before, we already have 14000 armor even without any buffs.

Therefore, it's crucial to stack as much armor value as possible on your belt and other armor pieces. It's best to choose gear with hybrid armor and evasion rating, as the key node Iron Reflexes converts all evasion rating into armor.

For weapons, Siege Crossbow is the obvious choice because it allows our Grenade skill to fire an extra projectile. It's recommended to choose a Siege Crossbow with at least 500 physical DPS and +6 to all projectile skill levels; other attributes are a bonus.

Next, you can stack flat physical damage on your gloves and jewelry. If you prefer a rare amulet, look for one that provides at least +3 to all projectile skill levels, which will give you the highest damage increase.

Gem Setup

The first support gem I use is Infernal Legion III. This support gem causes summoned minions to take 30% of their maximum life as fire damage per second and ignite nearby enemies, dealing 25% of the minion's maximum life as base fire damage.

More importantly, this gem synergizes well with Exposed Wounds node, causing all your attacks to reduce the armor of targets affected by ailments by 30%, meaning you can quickly reduce enemy armor to 0, completely breaking their defenses.

The only downside of this support gem is that Ancestral Spirits will die quickly. However, we can support them with Elemental Army to give them 30% extra elemental resistance.

Another way to prevent them from dying too quickly is to replace Infernal Legion III with Infernal Legion I. This way, the summoned minions will still burn nearby enemies, but will only deal 20% of their maximum life as fire damage per second.

For other gem setups, you can choose whatever you prefer. Here, we've chosen Cluster Grenade and Payload, which will increase our main grenade attack damage to 299-490% at gem levels 13-20, and gives a 50% chance to trigger another grenade attack.

Another reason we use so many grenades is that we've activated the passive skill - Demolitionist. This grants us 4% extra fire damage for each different grenade launched, based on the number of grenades launched in the past 8 seconds. This means that in boss fights, by continuously launching these grenades, we can easily gain 16% extra fire damage.

So if you want to add another support gem, Heft is also a good option, as it grants 30% extra maximum physical hit damage to supported skills. While not the best, it provides a decent damage boost and is affordable.

Skill Tree

Now, let's talk about the last part - the skill tree setup for Mortar Cannon Warbringer.

In the early game, when you don't have Mortar Cannon yet, it's best to only upgrade Grenade. Honestly, we tried Siege Ballista and Artillery Ballista before, but because of patch 0.4.0 changing their damage calculation, they became very weak. So, in the early stages, we only need to focus on projectile damage nodes and grenade nodes.

After that, quickly unlock the totem-related nodes to reduce the mana cost of summoning totems; and all AOE-related nodes, as AOE skills are very helpful for clearing mobs and fighting bosses. Here, we've activated Gem Enthusiast and Crystallised Immunities.

Gem Enthusiast grants you 5% maximum life, maximum mana, and movement speed bonus if you have at least 10 support gems socketed. Crystallised Immunities make you immune to one Elemental Ailment, namely Chill, Ignite, or Shock. However, you can adjust the support gems according to your current needs.

But note that this build has a relatively low intelligence stat. So, if you want to socket more blue gems to be immune to Chill effect, you need to increase intelligence on the passive tree. 

In summary, in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, Mortar Cannon Warbringer build is a popular choice due to its excellent survivability, powerful damage output, and overall ease of use. It's a powerful and versatile build, especially suitable for the life-based Warrior class, and is both strong and satisfying to play. So, give it a try!

Do you always feel like you don't have enough currency in Path of Exile 2? That's probably because you're wasting it. Patch 0.4.0 introduces some great farming techniques, which, combined with currency-saving tips, can help you quickly accumulate wealth.

Below are three advanced tips for the endgame. These tips can not only save you a lot of currency, but in some cases, even generate income.

Build Your Own High-Tier Maps

High-tier maps, especially Tier 16 maps, are a major source of income for players in the endgame. They are very valuable. and a finished Tier 16 map can sell for around 60 Exalted Orbs. Instead of directly seeking maps from other players on the market, a more economical and efficient approach is to build your own using your currency.

First, you need to choose a base map. It's recommended to start training with a relatively low Tier map, such as a Tier 14 or Tier 15 map.

First, use Exalted Orb directly on the map to add affixes, then use a Vaal Orb to corrupt it. Corruption has a chance to upgrade the map to Tier 16 or give it high-value affixes. and such maps can be sold on the auction house for profit.

You can also use Atlas skill tree to increase the drop rate of Waystones on the map, ensuring a supply of modification materials. Also, don't forget the classic crafting recipe: putting three maps of the same tier into Reforging Bench will create a higher-tier map. and this is also a low-cost way to obtain higher-tier maps.

By modifying maps yourself, you have a chance to gamble for high-value results to sell. Even if you don't, you've only consumed currency and obtained a usable map, which is more cost-effective than directly trading finished Waystones to other players.

Additionally, you need to ensure your build can farm maps without stress. If your character isn't strong enough and dies on Tier 16 maps, then the map is completely wasted.

Double Corruption Skill Gems

With the introduction of Temple mechanic, players now have the opportunity to double-corrupt skill gems, obtaining exceptional gems that surpass normal limits.

The normal limit for a skill gem is level 20 and 20% quality. Through corruption, it can become level 21 or 23% quality. Double Corruption, however, allows you to simultaneously reach the ultimate form of level 21 and 23 quality, resulting in a massive damage boost.

You can directly search for level 21 and 23 quality corrupted gems for your core skill on the auction house. These are usually very valuable and may require several Divine Orbs, but this is the most direct way to upgrade.

A more economical method is to attempt corruption yourself. This process involves risk, but the rewards are also very high if successful.

You will first need a level 20, 20 quality normal skill gem, as well as Perfect Fossil and Jeweller's Orb to ensure it is 5-linked. Remember not to use your equipped core skill gem. and use a spare one until you successfully acquire the skill gem you need.

Then, use a Vaal Orb for your first corruption. If you successfully upgrade the skill gem's quality to 23% or its level to 21%, you can choose not to continue corrupting and sell it directly, thus still making a profit.

If you intend to continue corrupting, you need to use Crystallized Corruption in Corruption Chamber of Temple. This operation will unpredictably alter the corrupted skill gem again. If you successfully obtain a level 21, 23% quality gem, you will make a fortune, but it may also destroy it.

Before proceeding, carefully consider its market value and calculate the consumption of acquiring a finished gem, acquiring a regular gem for self-corruption, and a semi-finished skill gem. Based on the current exchange rate between Exalted Orb and Divine Orb, choose the most cost-effective option.

Obtaining Idols through Orb of Extraction

Patch 0.4.0 introduced a new PoE 2 currency, Orb of Extraction, which can destroy items and return the socketed items within them.

Patch 0.2.0 introduced Idols, which are socketed items that can be placed into equipment. These items can be socketed into Idol Sockets to provide powerful bonuses, enhancing equipment like affixes. Some high-demand Idols might be worth hundreds of Exalted Orbs.

Orb of Extraction isn't very valuable. and it might only take a few Exalted Orbs to obtain. Destroying equipment with socketed Idols is a better option than directly trading Idols with other players.

Don't search for Idols directly. Instead, search the auction house for socketed equipment, especially equipment with socketed Idols, and search for Idols attribute you want.

You'll often find that a piece of junk equipment with socketed Idols has a total value far lower than the value of Idol itself. You can save a significant amount of money by simply trading the equipment and then using Orb of Extraction to extract Idol. You can usually obtain your desired Idols for half the consumption or even less.

These methods only help you save on currency consumption. and the fastest way to earn currency is still to farm. Remember to check their market value before using any of these methods.