A Detailed Guide On How To Craft The Golembrand Witch In Path Of Exile 3.23

While Path of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt league is in full swing, do you remember that POE 1 has been suspended for almost a year?

Since we still haven’t received any news of extension, and we received the trailer of POE 3.26 just a few days ago, we reasonably guess that this should mean that the original release date of June should still be on schedule.

So what does this mean for Path of Exile 1? It will release a new league for the first time in more than 10 months, which is the longest absence from a major update since the league system was first launched onslaught league in 2013.

The Reason For The Success Of POE 1

I believe many old players know that since the release of the base game, the developers have been continuously releasing updates and reliable patches for POE 1. This reliable release cycle has become the core of their marketing strategy, allowing POE 1 to succeed and attract a wider range of players over time. And this is exactly what it has achieved.

In fact, in terms of peak player count, Settlers of Kalguur league are by far the most successful POE 1 league, attracting the most concurrent players on Steam. On top of that, two weeks after launch, the player retention rate for Settlers league is even higher than that of Affliction league, which is truly an amazing achievement.

Why Did The Original Work Stop Updating For So Long?

But the problem is that the latest league is still Settlers of Kalguur, which was launched in July 2024, and it will be July 2025 in two months. Even its rival Diablo 4 has released 3 new seasons, while POE has not made any progress. Are you really willing to buy POE currency to play those outdated content?

So, what went wrong? How can a live service game that has been growing continuously, a game that has been around for more than 10 years, suddenly stop updating? This is almost unheard of.

It’s hard to believe that two years ago, we all thought that POE 2 would be the 4.0 update for POE 1, but it ended up being split into two separate projects: a new game called Path of Exile 2 and a series of separate league updates for the existing game, with their own mechanics, balance, endgame, and leagues.

Now we all know what happened between then and now. POE 2 finally released into Early Access after several delays, and the original game also had its most exciting leagues ever - Trial of the Ancestors, Affliction and Settlers of Kalguur, and of course, let’s not mention Necropolis. Then, updates to POE 1 stopped as the developers put all their resources into the sequel.

How Did The Launch Of The Sequel Affect POE 1?

While this was the first big sign of POE 2’s influence on the original, looking back, we can see that this influence had been quietly going on behind the scenes for a long time.

You see, we used to release new leagues every 3 months, then after Sentinels League, the average league cycle went from 3 months to 4 months, so the developers went from releasing 4 leagues per year to 3.

But regular league updates weren’t the only thing that POE 1 released consistently in the past, as the developers used to release a major league every year. Not only were there Conquerors of Atlas expansion and Elder Slayers in 3.9, Maven and her Boss Gauntlet in 3.13, but there were also Eaters of Worlds and Searing Exarch Pinnacle fights in 3.17.

Since POE 3.21, there hasn’t been an Atlas expansion. But since it was close to ExileCon, many people speculated that the developers would definitely keep it for that. Then 3.22 was released, and there was still no Atlas expansion.

In fact, it’s incredible to think that we’ve played nearly 10 leagues in the latest Atlas expansion. This expansion was first introduced in POE 3.17 in February 2022, which means we’ve been using this Atlas for over three years now.

I can’t really complain about this, because the current Atlas system is really great. Many recent leagues, such as Sentinels, Forbidden Sanctum, Affliction, etc., are so memorable not only because the base game itself is great, but more importantly, the core mechanics of Atlas progression are also great.

Why 3.26 Might Be The New Atlas Expansion?

That being said, I still expect and think that PoE 1’s upcoming 3.26 update may finally be Atlas expansion that has been missing for the past few years.

POE 1 Is In Desperate Need Of A Resounding Victory

There are several good reasons for this. The first is that the status quo of PoE 1 is in desperate need of change. Let’s be honest, the developers have completely ignored PoE 1 at the moment, and that’s the harsh truth. But the game that made them famous, the game that funded the development of PoE 2 with its tremendous success, and the game that is still loved by so many players today, is now forgotten. Because of this, players’ confidence in the developers, Path of Exile 1 and its future has fallen to an all-time low.

Now the developers are bound to have a real win. If what they say is true and they really want to develop both games at the same time, now is the time to prove it. PoE 1 is now at a critical juncture, and a successful major league will go a long way to restore the excellent reputation that has been gradually eroding over the past year or so.

It’s Been A Long Time Coming

The second reason is that the best time to release an Atlas expansion was the last league, the league before that, and even the league before that, but those are all in the past, and the next best time is now.

I even think it’s very likely that the next Atlas expansion for PoE 1 has been planned for a long time, but there just weren’t enough resources to release the update in time. And before that, as the release of PoE 2 got closer, the resources were exhausted and couldn’t be put together.

But now it’s been six months since Path of Exile 2’s Early Access release. Early Access has always seemed more like a marathon than a sprint to a 1.0 release. So this will be the first time the developers really get a chance to put their focus back on the original and lay out their vision for developing both games simultaneously.

Many of us doubted they could do this, but deep down I believe they can, and POE 3.26 will be a major step towards that goal.

New Trailer Touches On The Origins Of Atlas

The third and final reason for me is that this latest POE 3.26 trailer focuses on Originator and Zana’s quest for the origins of Atlas.

There’s no way the developers didn’t expect people to immediately connect this trailer to Atlas expansion. So, let’s take a quick look at the details of this trailer.

The eye-catching text at the top of the trailer reads “I must follow it”. Now we don’t know who wrote it yet, but I think Shaper makes the most sense since we are reading his diary from long ago, but it could be the returning Zana, but the trailer itself doesn’t explicitly mention her name, it could also be an old diary written by Valdo, a new character, or even a more abstract narrative voice.

All we can guess is that in POE 3.26 we will most likely explore the birth of the atlas in the new Atlas of Worlds expansion and search for a man called The Originator.

This trailer is a trailer for this expansion for us. It is most likely related to Zana or Shaper. And I think if they are going to bring Zana back, they can’t do it in a random league.

Conclusion

I don’t know what you think of this trailer, to me it’s just made completely in the style of Atlas expansion, so they wouldn’t release this kind of a trailer at all if they didn’t have major plans. And, maybe the developers are planning to win back the trust of former fans with POE 3.26! But how exactly we don’t know yet, let’s wait and see!

In the current Path of Exile 2 Early Access, players may be most concerned about when and how to achieve the best farming efficiency in the game. The most common solution may be to increase the clearing ability of your own build when encountering a group of enemies or the damage ability when challenging the boss.

But have you ever considered increasing the items’ rarity in your build to expand your farming efficiency in the game? If you have thought about it, but have not tried the difference in effectiveness that different rarity can bring you, then this guide on the impact of 0% to 100% item rarity on drops is very much needed.

The test results provided here may give you more understanding of the greatly modified loot drop mechanism in POE 2, and some strategies for increasing the item rarity of your build may make your farming process in the game smoother. Without further ado, let’s explore together!

About This Test

Since the benefits provided by each Tower in Path of Exile 2 endgame content are relatively controllable, and applying Tablets with similar modifiers to them will make the explorable environment roughly the same, we put this test here.

For Waystones used on the map nodes, the quality and quantity of the drops are controlled at 10%-15%, and the item rarity is controlled at more than 40%. This is one of the most frequently used and most affordable Waystones in the game.

In order to simulate the real game conditions of players in regular farming, 3 Tablets were applied to each Tower. Not only that, Breach and Wraeclast Besieged Breach Precursor Tablets are also used, which can provide players with rare monsters that can be defeated and drop some unique items, so as to test the impact of rarity on some precious items.

Of course, in order to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the test, Atlas skill tree for the characters used in the two maps is the skill tree that current players use most frequently and are the most satisfied with using. Next, it’s a very long farming process.

In this case, after running 30 maps with zero item rarity, the rewards and quantities obtained were surprisingly outstanding: POE 2 Divine Orb, which is usually only available in one out of ten maps, appeared in 4 of these runs, and the number of other types of currencies was also relatively large. Even a Stellar Amulet was picked up in it.

Compared to zero item rarity, 100% item rarity provides only one more Divine Orb, but Perfect Jeweler’s Orb, which is also currently of super high value, also dropped one. For Chaos Orb and Exalted Orbs, they are both about 50% more than in the zero item rarity state.

It is worth noting that the number of Orbs of Alchemy is less than the drop rate in the map with zero item rarity, but the number of Vaal Orbs has doubled, although it is not worth much at present. Additionally, endgame-only currencies like Simulacrum Splinter and Breachstone have little impact on the drop rate of different item rarities.

So in general, if you want to farm more universal currency in it, you may need to buy POE 2 Currency and focus on upgrading the affixes in your build that affect the item rarity of the drops; but if you focus on farming the endgame-only currency to facilitate faster boss encounters, then you only need a moderate increase.

How To Increase Item Rarity?

Thanks to this test, the problem of the relationship between items rarity and the quantity and quality of dropped items that players have been troubled with has been solved. So next, here is how to maximize the rarity of items in your build in POE 2.

Among the many POE 2 currencies, the most worthwhile ones to upgrade item rarity are Orb of Transmutation and Regal Orb, both of which can directly increase the rarity of items to a higher level:

• Orb of Transmutation can turn Normal items into Magic items.
• Regal Orb can turn Magic items into Rare items and add three modifiers.

Not only that, the way to obtain these two currencies is also very simple: drop from monsters or treasure chests, obtain from specific suppliers, or disassemble gear with corresponding rarity. Therefore, this inexpensive currency is really suitable for increasing the rarity of items in your build and bringing you more rewards.

Although it is the most direct way to increase the rarity of an item by spending the specified currency, it is common to get a worse affix after upgrading because the affixes on the item may change accordingly during the upgrade process.

So if you want to spend less and want a better affix without changing the rarity of the item, you can try using Orb of Augmentation and Exalted Orb to add a modifier to some items.

• Orb of Augmentation can add up to two modifiers to Magic items.
• Exalted Orb can add up to 6 modifiers to Rare items.

It is worth noting that when you add a second modifier to a Magic item, you can only use Regal Orb to upgrade its rarity and get more modifiers first. You can then use Exalted Orb to add new modifiers to it.

The above is the specific relationship between item rarity and currency that can be dropped in the current Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt League, as well as the specific methods to increase rarity. I hope that you can understand the importance of increasing item rarity to farming currency from the test results provided to you in this guide, and be able to successfully complete the upgrade operation to obtain the best gaming experience. I wish you a happy game!

Last December, the highly anticipated Path of Exile 2 Early Access broke multiple concurrent player records upon its release. Although it experienced some setbacks in the first half of the year, the release of the major 0.2.0 patch last month and the latest Dawn of the Hunt league have revived player interest.

In this update, some adjustments have been made to all the classes currently existing in POE 2, and new Ascendancy classes have been added to several of them, so as of now there are 7 classes and 17 Ascendancy classes in the game, which will increase the possibilities for players to make the most suitable build for their own exploration.

Although the developers promise to bring more fresh game content to players in each update, players’ requirements are far less than this. Right now, there are some calls in the game community to add Paladin Ascendancy from the original game to POE 2.

Because the developers of Path of Exile 2 are working hard to listen to the opinions of the players and implement it into the game to satisfy the players, this guide will summarize the current players’ analysis of this request and speculate on the possibility of this Ascendancy appearing.

Necessity

In fact, the ultimate reason why players have requested the addition of Paladin Ascendancy to POE 2 is that Light Radius stat that currently exists in the game may perfectly synergize with the passive skills provided by this Ascendancy class to increase the damageability of the build.

First, let’s introduce Light Radius, which is a stat that determines the distance that light travels from yourself to the surrounding environment in a dark environment. This stat usually appears on the hybrid modifier on items, so you can buy POE 2 Currency to maximize its effectiveness.

Not only that, but this stat also affects your elimination range in some fog-shrouded maps, such as Viridian Wildwood map added in patch 0.2.0, where a small Light Radius will force you to leave with all the loot you have picked up.

However, this is also useful for regular maps: prominent markers, such as doors and checkpoints will now appear over longer distances on small maps. This is very useful for players who want to quickly collect certain items on the map and make this process smooth.

Although this Light Radius stat has a large role in the exploration process of POE 2, in fact, this support stat does not provide some value to the damage ability or defense ability of the build, so it is often overlooked.

However, if this support stat is combined with Paladin Ascendancy, there may be a surprise. It was introduced into the original game with Legacy of Phrecia event, but it is not a permanent available class and can only be used in the current event.

Paladin Ascendancy is described in POE 1 as an oath-bound character who receives blessings and divine power from God to help allies who complete challenges with them. So in the game, the Paladin build plays a focused support role in the team.

So when the class effectively boosts Light Radius stat and equips and casts a skill that can do AoE clearing, this stat will give you and your team a large area to explore, and a ton of small monsters to kill. All of this will give you the much-needed valuable experience points and loot.

In this case, if you place gear in your build that allows the vision gain provided by Light Radius stat to be converted into additional crit and damage buffs, then you have the ability to take on elite enemies or bosses alone, even if you are on a group expedition.

Possibility

We’ve talked so much about the benefits of combining Light Radius stat with Paladin Ascendancy, but the probability of the most important class in this combination appearing is actually not very high.

First of all, Paladin is a new Ascendancy introduced for the original Duelist class in Path of Exile Legacy of Phrecia event, so if you want it to enter the sequel, Duelist may be added first.

However, in the current POE 2, the developers cannot guarantee that all available classes will be presented during the early access period, let alone the Ascendancy classes they have.

Not only that, the developers spent the entire month of April filling in the gaps for the seemingly very good 0.2.0 patch, and had no energy and cost to think about how to add some mechanisms, classes or activities that have been well received in the original game to the sequel that is full of negative reviews.

Therefore, players’ expectations for the addition of Paladin Ascendancy and its perfect synergy with Light Radius stat may need to last for a long time. In addition, since POE 2 is still in early access, even if players experience very good content in it, there is no guarantee that it will still exist in the subsequent official version. I wish you a happy game!

Dawn of the Hunt League, which joined Path of Exile 2’s early access last month, has a lot of new game content, such as the new class Huntress, new endgame map and new gear, which provide players with more possibilities for exploration.

The most popular among players is Arctic Armour Spirit gem, because it only requires 30 Spirit to deal very heavy freezing damage to any enemy around you who is attacking you in the melee. And this damage effect can be stacked, increasing by one level per second, up to 6 levels.

This skill that can provide you with continuous buffs is very suitable for you to complete some tough challenges or boss encounters, but the premise is that you need to choose some suitable and useful combinations for it. So this guide will introduce you to the mechanics of Arctic Armour and other build options that can be paired with it, so that you can kill those groups or single targets with one blow after you have them.

How Does Arctic Armour Work?

When you have 30 Spirit, Arctic Armour will automatically work: you will summon an ice barrier that will level up over time. When the barrier reaches a certain level, the enemy’s melee attack energy will be removed by one level, and a burst of ice will be triggered, which will cause some Cold Spell damage to the enemy who attacked you.

Given this wonderful mechanism, you may be surprised to see a powerful enemy that is not resistant to cold damage being killed by a Spirit gem. But to make this series of damage work, you need some equally powerful skill gems to help you maximize your damage ability.

Recommended Skills & Passive Skills

Since the main elemental damage of your build after owning Arctic Armour Spirit gem is cold damage, you can choose a skill gem like Cold Snap that can cast powerful damage. Then you can use it with Ice Nova, which will continuously freeze the enemy and break it smoothly.

While Frost Wall may do more damage than Ice Nova, it is not recommended for maps that require efficient farming or encounters with chief enemy flexibility because of its long cooldown.

However, if you buy POE 2 Currency to maximize the buff provided by a gear that reduces skill cooldowns in your build, it can be considered. In addition, since the defense in this build is insufficient, Convalescence, a passive skill that can help you quickly restore barrier ability, is very necessary.

In addition, Mana Remnants can make all mana-consuming skills in your build more sustainable, and Blasphemy can convert all your curse skills into vile Auras and apply them to all nearby enemies, making them more vulnerable.

Of course, a good skill gem and the effective casting of Spirit gems must be assisted by effective support gems. So here are the recommended options for you to place in the support gem slots of these gems.

• Arctic Armour: Execute/Cold Mastery/Elemental Focus/Cold Penetration
• Cast on Freeze: Cold Snap/Execute/Elemental Focus/Impetus
• Frost Wall: Magnified Effect/Concentrated Effect/Spell Cascade/Considered Casting
• Cold Snap: Considered Casting/Concentrated Effect/Cold Mastery/Cold Penetration
• Ice Nova: Arcane Surge/Arcane Tempo/Glaciation/Inspiration
• Convalescence: Clarity/Ingenuity/Persistence
• Blasphemy: Hypothermia/Magnified Effect/Clarity
• Mana Remnants: Magnetism/Dissipate

Recommended Gear

After covering the skills that pair well with Arctic Armour, it’s time to choose some wearable gear for this build. The first and most important piece of gear to mention is Trampletoe Trimmed Greaves boots, which deal 30% more Overkill damage to all enemies within 2 meters of the killed enemy and grant you a 15% movement buff.

Another must-have piece of gear is Deepest Tower Spiritbone Crown helmet, which treats all enemies around you as low health (less than 35%), even if they are full. This allows Execute just placed in the support gem slot to trigger, which deals 50% more damage to these enemies.

Other Unique Jewels that can increase the active and passive skills are also worth placing in a build focused on Arctic Armor, such as From Nothing, Prism of Belief, and Grand Spectrum Sapphire. Here are the specific effects they provide:

• From Nothing: Passive skill nodes within the specified range can be activated without unlocking the path, so you can choose the corresponding passive skill node based on the scene you are currently exploring.
• Prism of Belief: Increase the level of a specific skill in the build by 1-3 levels.
• Grand Spectrum Sapphire: After each Grand Spectrum you place, your elemental resistance will increase.

Recommended Ascendancy

Since Arctic Armour and other skill gems and gear builds need to be upgraded in a short period of time to be effective, the only Ascendancy class available in this case is Gemling Legionnaire.

In the latest patch, this powerful Ascendancy has received some changes, such as Implanted Gems Ascendancy Passive skill. Previously, it increased the level of inserted skills in the build by one, now it will add 2 levels to specific skills based on the current stats of all attributes in your build (Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence).

So when you focus on Arctic Armour, a gem based on Intelligence, this passive skill will expand this attribute stat to a specified range to maximize its effect.

In addition, Implanted Gems passive node will increase the quality of gems you have by an additional 14%, bringing them all to 34%. And each Fox Talisman you equip will gain an additional 2% quality, which will allow you to maximize the effectiveness of skills cast in combat.

Not only that, Integrated Efficiency passive skill provided by Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy will provide you with different degrees of critical hit rate, damage value, skill cooldown speed and other benefits according to the different colors of supporting gems.

The above are some of the build options that can be used effectively with Arctic Armour, a gem with great effectiveness, in the current Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt League. Hopefully, with their help, you can quickly create a powerful build that can quickly kill enemies at a distance and efficiently farm loot, and rank at the top of the league rankings. I wish you a happy game!