What Are The 3 Best Melee Builds In POE 3.23 Affliction League?

September is here, and Path of Exile 1 ExileCon qualifiers, eagerly awaited by countless Exiles, are finally about to begin! This race is not only the only path to New Zealand ExileCon finals, but also the perfect stage to test your competitive skills.

The development team has released the complete schedule, rules, and rewards. Whether you're a player planning to compete in the qualifiers or a viewer cheering on your team in front of the livestream, this guide will help you grab all the key information.

Schedule

This PoE 1 ExileCon qualifier will consist of four separate events, scheduled for the same time slot on four consecutive Fridays.

The specific times are as follows:

• Qualifier One - September 4, 2 PM PDT
• Qualifier Two - September 11, 2 PM PDT
• Qualifier Three - September 18, 2 PM PDT
• Qualifier Four - September 25, 2 PM PDT

Please make sure to convert the time zone according to your location and log in to your game account in advance, as the event page will display the corresponding local clock based on the time zone set in your account, so that you can confirm the start time of the event.

Additionally, all participants are advised to enter PoE character selection screen and click the Join button in advance. Once in the game, your character will remain stationary until the countdown reaches zero, at which point the match officially begins.

Preparing in advance can help you avoid network congestion or operational errors closer to the start time, ensuring you don't lose at the starting line.

How to participate?

Participating in PoE 1 ExileCon qualifiers is completely free, so any player with a PoE account can join. However, there's a strict prerequisite: you must link your game account to your Twitch account and stream the entire qualifier through that linked Twitch channel.

This is to ensure that the event supervisors can view your game footage in real time, and it is also a necessary condition for everyone to be eligible to win.

Linking your account is very simple: after logging into your account on the official website, simply click the corresponding link on the account linking page.

Once you successfully join a qualifier, the system will prompt you to create a character. All players use the same fixed-seed environment, meaning the map layout and monster distribution are completely identical for everyone.

However, PoE currency and equipment drops retain their randomness; the competition is purely about route planning, skill level, and on-the-spot decision-making.

Players should note that this ExileCon qualifier is only open to PC players; console access is not yet available.

Race Rules

The goal for players in each qualifier is highly specific: to be the first to defeat Kitava, the final boss of Act 5, in Standard Solo Self-Found mode.

While this qualifier is not a Hardcore event and character death is not permanent, the development team has introduced a special penalty mechanism - after each death, your character will be forcibly locked in place, unable to move for one minute.

This one minute is enough for the leader to create a decisive gap, so survival strategy is often more important than recklessness.

After the race, the system will rank players based on their time to defeat Kitava, and only the first-place player in each qualifier will directly advance to the final.

It's important to note that if you win a qualifier, you will be disqualified from participating in subsequent qualifiers to provide more opportunities for other players.

Furthermore, all participants must abide by the game and Twitch's terms of service. Any behavior that violates the spirit of competition (such as maliciously interfering with others, exploiting bugs, etc.) may result in disqualification!

Champion Rewards

The champion of each qualifying round will receive an incredibly generous prize package, including airfare to Auckland, New Zealand, local accommodation during ExileCon weekend, an Ultra VIP ExileCon ticket, and direct entry to ExileCon Path of Exile 1 Grand Final.

In addition, the champion can choose one of four collectible Body Armor designs:

• Thunderstruck Body Armor
• Engineer's Body Armor
• Crystallized Body Armor
• Demonic Stygian Armor

If a winner cannot travel to New Zealand, their airfare, accommodation, and Grand Final spot will be awarded to the runner-up in all qualifying rounds (regardless of the number of rounds), and the winner will retain their chosen Body Armor reward.

The development team has also specifically noted that current or former employees of the company are not eligible to receive rewards to ensure fairness.

How to watch the competition?

For players who don't plan to participate or fail to qualify, the official team will stream every qualifier live on their Twitch channel. They also welcome any streamers to co-stream; you can share your race perspective on your own channel and experience the tension of Path of Exile with your fans.

Additionally, new Twitch drop rewards will be available during each stream, allowing you to not only learn from top players' strategies but also have a chance to win in-game rewards - a win-win situation.

Finally, please remember to double-check your account's linked status and ensure your streaming software and network connection are stable.

Once the matches begin, your UI must be clearly visible without any obstructions, and your Twitch replays must be set to public for post-match review.

All qualifier results will be announced as soon as possible after each match. We wish every participating Exile the best of luck on the battlefield - win or lose, having the courage to challenge Kitava is admirable!

In PoE 3.29, for Strength Stacking Heavy Strike of Trarthus build to continue pushing it to the high end, a high-quality Lathi is often one of the most expensive pieces of gear. Especially when multiple Influenced Mods are involved, crafting costs and the risk of failure increase rapidly.

This method primarily utilizes Recombinator and Brinehook's Ducat to combine high-value modifiers, with a single finished piece costing approximately 150 Divine Orbs.

While the investment is significant, this phased modifier processing approach is more suitable for high-end crafting compared to relying entirely on a one-time high-risk operation.

Crafting Goal

This Lathi, with 3 prefixes and 2 suffixes, has three core prefixes to keep in mind during crafting:

• 20% more Attack Damage for socketed skills
• Level 10 Endurance Charge on Melee Stun support for socketed gems
• 1% increased Spell Damage for every 10 Strength

The suffixes should retain Attack Speed ​​provided by Essences of Zeal and +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges.

Essence Attack Speed ​​is prioritized here, mainly because its value is higher than the normal T1 Attack Speed. Once all five target modifiers are in place, use the last empty suffix, Benchcraft Strength + Intelligence, and Critical Strike Chance, and Lathi is essentially complete.

Step 1: Preparing 0P2S Suffix Base Material

In this PoE Curse of the Allflame craft, first prepare an Elder/Shaper double-influenced Lathi with an ilvl of 84+. You can prepare the double-influenced base yourself, but you can usually find Lathi with obsolete modifiers but a viable base material on the trading market; finding one on the trade market at a reasonable price is usually more convenient.

Next, repeatedly use Essences of Zeal until you simultaneously obtain Essence Attack Speed ​​and +1 Maximum Endurance Charge. If a third suffix appears try to remove it using Annul.

After confirming the two target suffixes, use Craft Suffixes Cannot Be Changed, then use 3.29 Orb of Scouring to clear the prefixes. Finally, you will obtain 0P2S Lathi needed for subsequent recombination.

Step 2: Preparing the Three Target Prefixes

This stage will consume a significant amount of time and Path of Exile Orb of Alteration.

First, prepare multiple ilvl 84+ Shaper Influenced Lathi and use Alteration Spam to roll for: Socketed Skills deal 20% more Attack Damage. It's best not to equip other Influenced Mods simultaneously, as this will result in cleaner processing later.

Next, prepare Elder Influenced Staff. Note that this requires Staff, not Warstaff. Roll for the other two target modifiers: 1% increased Spell Damage per 10 Strength and Supported by Level 10 Endurance Charge on Melee Stun.

Step 3: Craft a 2P0S Lathi

At this step, PoE currency consumption will begin to increase significantly.

A common practice is to prepare Black Mórrigan and Craicic Croaker, and use Beastcraft to add Hinekora's Lock to Lathi with 20% More Attack Damage. Simultaneously prepare donor staff withspell damage per 10 strength and Endurance Charge on Melee Stun, then use PoE Curse of the Allflame Orb of Alteration to attempt to combine the target modifiers onto Lathi.

Ideally, both Influenced Prefixes should be successfully retained, while at least one empty Prefix and one empty Suffix should remain. This allows for the later use of Craft Prefixes Cannot Be Changed, followed by Orb of Scouring to remove the suffixes and obtain the desired 2P0S Lathi.

Step 4: First Brinehook's Ducat Recombination

The core stage of PoE Curse of the Allflame Recombinator Craft truly begins. The previously prepared 2P0S Lathi and 0P2S Lathi can now be used for recombination.

First, add Brinehook's Ducat to both pieces of gear using Allflame Craft, then use Recombinator. The first recombination has approximately a 33% chance of retaining two Prefixes and approximately a 90% chance of retaining two Suffixes.

Ideally, more prefixes should be retained, but a 1P2S result is more common. This result is still valid, as the two key suffixes have been successfully retained on the target Lathi; the next step is to add more prefixes.

Step 5: Moving from 1P2S to 2P2S

If the first recombination resulted in 1P2S, the next step is to prepare a new 2P0S Lathi, adding as many missing prefixes as possible.

After adding Brinehook's Ducat to both sides, recombinator again. This round has approximately a 60% probability of retaining two prefixes; if the three prefixes involved in the recombination are all different, there is approximately a 10% probability of directly achieving three prefixes. Meanwhile, the two suffixes still have approximately a 90% retention rate.

The ideal intermediate result in this step is a 2P2S Lathi.

Step 6: Final Push to 3P2S

At 2P2S, only one prefix is ​​needed to complete the final product.

First, identify which target prefix is ​​missing from the current Lathi. Then, prepare a new 2P0S Lathi containing that prefix. If possible, choose another prefix that also contributes to the final combination.

Add Brinehook's Ducat to both sides and then use Recombinator. This round has approximately a 30% chance of achieving 3 prefixes and a 90% chance of retaining 2 suffixes.

If unsuccessful, continue preparing new 2P0S Lathi for recombination until you finally obtain a 3P2S Lathi.

Step 7: Benchcraft Finishing Touches

With the three target prefixes and two target suffixes in place, only Benchcraft finishing touch remains.

Leave the last suffix slot empty and craft the hybrid Strength + Intelligence and Critical Strike Chance modifier on the final empty suffix. This completes Strength Stacking Lathi build.

This crafting build consumes a significant amount of Divine Orbs, Orbs of Alteration, and other currencies, and the actual result is affected by Recombinator RNG. However, once you master 0P2S - 1P2S - 2P2S - 3P2S progression, handling similar multi-mod gear becomes much easier.

In PoE 3.29, the value of Brinehook's Ducat extends beyond this Lathi. Whether it's a Strength Stacking Wand or other projects that require retaining multiple prefixes and suffixes simultaneously, a similar approach of splitting and recombining can be applied.

Players, Luminary's potential in Path of Exile 3.29 is growing exponentially, and we can now use it to take down even Uber bosses in just two rounds. Even without Mirror-level gear, we can unleash burst damage exceeding 100 million per second in Tier 17 fortresses, while maintaining immunity and survivability.

Next, we'll break down this build centered on Facebreaker and Rallying Cry to see how Luminary maximizes damage!

Core Concept

This build operates on the synergy between Mercenary and Facebreaker.

First, when Mercenary uses Rallying Cry, it provides you with additional physical damage proportional to the base damage of its main-hand weapon.

When facing unique enemies, each enemy counts as 20 power. With Roaring Challenge, this power can be increased to 25, at which point the transferred power reaches 20% of Mercenary's weapon damage.

If your Mercenary wields an axe with high base damage, this value will easily reach over 500 points. Subsequently, your Facebreaker provides an amplification effect of 800% ~1000% increase in unarmed physical damage. Combined with Runegraft of the Bound to further enhance the glove's bonus, the total amplification factor is approximately 12 times.

Through this series of transfers and amplifications, each unarmed attack gains approximately 5000~6000 additional physical damage - equivalent to having an extra high-damage weapon. This is the fundamental reason this build can achieve such massive burst damage in PoE 3.29.

Key Equipment

Mercenary Equipment

Your Mercenary's weapon is paramount in our Facebreaker Luminary build.

You must equip your Mercenary with an axe with the highest possible base damage, as Rallying Cry bonus comes directly from this value.

Other recommended equipment for Mercenary: Kaom's Binding converts some enemy physical damage into fire damage, indirectly providing physical damage reduction; Howlcrack helmet can be used as a temporary option, but it's not recommended later - it will cause Mercenary to self-inflict death.

Later in the game, your better choice will be a rare helmet with greater Cooldown Recovery affix, combined with Timeless Jewels or passives to allow Mercenary to maintain Rallying Cry almost permanently.

Luminary Equipment

Gloves

For gloves, Facebreaker is the essential equipment for this build; without it, there's no amplification of unarmed damage.

If you have extra PoE currency resources to corrupt this glove, the ideal affixes would be to further increase unarmed damage multipliers or attack speed, or other offensive attributes.

Helmet

We can use Giantslayer Helmet base with the core affix Infamous, stacking Rallying Cry's Cooldown Recovery through Tattoos on Passive Skill Tree, up to 15 stacks, granting a 15% base critical strike chance - completely freeing up critical strike chance affixes on other equipment.

Shield

Svalinn provides Luminary with high block and defense, making it highly recommended.

If the budget is limited, other better rare shields can be used; the goal is to maximize 75% attack block and 50% spell block.

Chest Armor

For the chest armor, we can choose Seven Teachings for maximum damage, or use Belly of the Beast for a balance of health.

Amulet

For Luminary, prioritize Amulets with Life, Resistance, and global critical strike damage, and strongly recommend Talisman base, which converts 100% cold and lightning damage to fire damage.

This way, you only need to maximize your fire resistance; maintaining cold and lightning resistance around 30% is sufficient for most scenarios in Path of Exile.

Rings

You can choose a Vermillion Ring as your base. One ring should have Vulnerability on Hit suffix rolled, while the other should supplement your life, resistances, and hit chance.

Boots

When choosing boots, prioritize bases with an Abyssal Socket - this socket can embed Abyss jewels, providing additional attack or defense stats, a nice bonus.

Belt

Of course, the high-end version is Mageblood, which will still be very useful in this Facebreaker Luminary set, but if PoE currency is insufficient, you can consider using Ryslatha's Coil.

Passive Skill Tree

In Passive Skill Tree build, we primarily focus on three core jewels:

• Unnatural Instinct: A jewel socket placed above Witch automatically activating surrounding unselected points.
• The Light of Meaning: Placed in the same area, it additionally boosts the stats of surrounding points.
• Might of the Meek: Placed in the center, it amplifies the effects of all the aforementioned points.

These three combined provide Facebreaker Luminary with a significant increase in physical damage and survivability. Lacking any of them will drastically reduce its damage in Path of Exile by nearly half.

Additionally, Elegant Hubris is a valuable item that can transfer notable passives. In this build, we convert it into Supreme Ostentation - removing all equipment and passives' stat requirements (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence).

This allows you to use tattoos on various points in Passive Skill Tree to stack Rallying Cry Cooldown Recovery, ensuring a smooth Rallying Cry cycle and maintaining critical strike stacks.

Furthermore, within the jewel's area of ​​effect, you can also utilize another jewel, Impossible Escape, for additional benefits.

Placing Impossible Escape near Avatar of Fire will activate two powerful notable passives within its area of ​​effect without having to spend points walking along the path.

Skill Usage

For Facebreaker Luminary, the recommended primary offensive skill is Earthshatter. This creates spikes under the enemy's feet with each attack, which can then be detonated with any Warcry, dealing secondary damage.

In PoE 3.29, when clearing maps, the spikes generated by a single Earthshatter, combined with a manually cast Warcry, can be detonated to quickly clear most monsters.

Even when facing bosses, your playstyle is relatively consistent: perform one or two Earthshatter attacks, detonate the spikes immediately after they spawn with a Warcry, and then repeat this cycle.

It's important to note that Rallying Cry buff must be maintained throughout the entire duration - with Mercenary gear and Passives, this buff's duration can be extended to over three seconds, and given its short cooldown, it's almost never interrupted in actual combat.

If you're not used to Earthshatter playstyle, you can switch to Cyclone, but you'll need to address the critical strike chance issue through other means.

A lower-spec version of this Facebreaker Luminary build can be started with around 10 to 20 Divine Orbs, requiring only a high-damage Mercenary axe and a pair of Facebreaker.

Overall, because of the relatively wide range of gear options and clear progression, Facebreaker Luminary build is worth trying out in Path of Exile 3.29.

Path of Exile 3.29 Curse of the Allflame has given Luminary Ascendancy a surprisingly strong position in the current meta, and Armor Stacker build is one of the best ways to fully utilize this characteristic.

Unlike traditional Armor Stackers that revolve around shields, Luminary Armor Stacker provides key buffs through the use of Permanent Mercenary, allowing players to stack a large amount of Armor, Energy Shield, and regeneration.

The ultimate goal is to create a build that combines extremely strong defensive capabilities with powerful dual-wielding offensive potential.

Below is a breakdown of the mechanics and detailed build strategy for this Luminary Armor Stacker build.

How it Works?

The key to understanding this Luminary Armor Stacker build lies in separating the responsibilities between the player and Mercenary. The player is primarily responsible for building the main defensive foundation, while Mercenary is mainly responsible for providing various buffs and support abilities.

The core of this configuration is Prismplate effect provided by Mercenary.

Because Prismplate allows a character's armor to participate in elemental damage reduction, granting this build a defensive layer beyond that of ordinary armor, a simple upgrade path emerges: Luminary → Permanent Mercenary → Prismplate → Massive Armor → Stronger elemental defense → Dual Wield → Higher damage.

It can also change how a character builds their defenses, allowing them to switch to dual-wielding weapons.

Secondly, Mercenary provides additional offensive and defensive support skills, including damage amplification, curses, culling strikes, and damage transfer.

Therefore, the core idea of the entire Luminary Armor Stacker in Path of Exile 3.29 is to utilize Mercenary to supplement the defense provided by the shield, and then use the freed-up weapon slots to increase damage.

Phased Build

Currently, building this Luminary Armor Stacker ranges from economical options to extremely expensive ultimate armor stacking solutions. For maximizing PoE currency efficiency, a better approach is a phased build mechanism.

1. Get Prismplate Working Reliably

Before pursuing maximum DPS for your character, prioritize ensuring Prismplate remains active.

To maintain the buff's duration, utilize cooldown recovery speed, skill effect duration, and other duration-related attribute bonuses. Your goal is to have a short enough Mercenary skill cooldown and a long enough buff duration to ensure Prismplate doesn't disappear between casts.

2. Start Stacking Armor

Once Prismplate is working reliably, focus on upgrading Armor.

Armor still helps reduce physical damage, but in this build, it also enhances the additional elemental defense provided by Prismplate. This makes every significant armor upgrade more valuable than on a normal character.

3. Solve Energy Shield Recovery

Armor reduces damage taken but doesn't restore your energy shield.

Therefore, in PoE 3.29, you should consider energy shield recovery a core part of your build, not an optional upgrade. For high-difficulty content, seek out gear with Energy Shield on Hit Watcher's Eye, paired with Instant Leech or other reliable energy regeneration methods.

Build Mercenary

As mentioned at the beginning, Mercenary builds should be considered another layer of character builds.

Besides providing Prismplates, attack buffs, and additional defensive support, Mercenary also mitigates some damage taken. Therefore, the roles of this Luminary Armor Stacker are clearly defined:

• Luminary: Armor, Energy Shield, Regeneration, Resistances, and Primary Damage;
• Mercenary: Prismplate, Attack Buffs, Additional Defensive Support;

Upgrading Mercenary is also more effective than spending a lot of Path of Exile Divine Orbs to improve overall character strength.

Gear Priorities

At the current stage of Path of Exile 3.29, players do not need perfect or mirror-tier gear to build a Luminary Armor Stacker.

• Weapons: Luminary uses two-handed weapons, ensuring their damage is sufficient for your primary offensive skills.
• Chest Armor: Prioritize high armor and energy shield, as this slot is crucial to your defensive setup.
• Helmet and Gloves: Utilize these slots to enhance armor, energy shield, resistances, attributes, and offensive affixes needed for your skill build.
• Footwear: Use March of the Legion for increased damage, or Ralakesh's Impatience for improved defense.
• Rings: Use rings to address resistances, attributes, energy shield, and resource requirements.
• Belt: Mageblood is a powerful late-game upgrade item, but not essential for early-game builds. A lower-priced belt can be used until other gear is acquired.

Passive Tree and Cluster Jewels

The priority of Passive Tree should align with the priority of your gear. Players should focus on the following:

• Armor
• Energy Shield
• Aura and reservation efficiency
• Leech
• Damage scaling
• Attributes for gear requirements

Regarding Cluster Jewels, prioritize Bloodscent (for Rage generation) and Fuel the Fight (for Mana Leech). You can also choose Storm Drinker and other life-restoring options depending on your final build.

When to Upgrade?

Upgrade your weakest link in your character's build, rather than blindly spending Path of Exile currency on expensive gear.

Early Budget

At this stage, focusing on Prismplate uptime, basic Armor, Energy Shield, and resistances is sufficient.

Mid-Game Budget

Once you've accumulated a certain budget through grinding and completing events, you can upgrade Watcher's Eye + Cluster Jewels + weapons + Mercenary equipment. These will improve your Luminary Armor Stacker's defensive rotation and damage output.

Late Game Budget

By the late game of PoE 3.29, most players have a sufficient budget. At this point, they can invest heavily in Chaos Orbs and Divine Orbs on Mageblood, high-end weapons, optimized jewels, high-grade Mercenary gear, and rare items that maximize stats.

Overall, Luminary Armor Stacker is a powerful endgame option. Its biggest advantages are extremely high durability, strong regeneration, and a very high damage ceiling.

Players should treat it as a gradual, incremental build, rather than trying to immediately replicate an expensive ultimate character. Start with a manageable budget and continuously upgrade to adapt to different difficulties in Path of Exile 3.29.

There are many ways to farm currency in Path of Exile Patch 3.29, including Atlas, Scarabs, and various Boss Rush runs. Omnitect Rush, however, receives far less attention and has a relatively low entry cost.

The gameplay is simple: get a Chronicle of Atzoatl, enter Temple of Atzoatl, follow the route, quickly reach Apex of Atzoatl, kill Vaal Omnitect, and then start the next Temple. The entire process basically doesn't require any prior Atlas Tree setup or Scarabs; the main cost is Chronicle itself.

Omnitect Rush has recently become popular mainly because of its high earnings. At maximum efficiency, the hourly rate can reach approximately 50 Divine Orbs/hour. However, this is more likely a figure achievable during peak periods; the actual earnings depend on map speed and market prices.

Why is Omnitect Rush Profitable?

Ambition is one of the main sources of income for Omnitect Rush in Curse of the Allflame, with a drop rate roughly estimated at 10%.

As long as its price remains around a few Path of Exile Divine Orbs, this drop alone is already quite substantial. If you can complete a Temple run in an average of 90 seconds, that's nearly 40 runs per hour, easily boosting your earnings.

In addition, Omnitect also drops various Vials, rare Astrolabes, and Rare Items with Incursion-modifiers.

These Rare Items are especially prone to being underestimated because the rooms present in Temple can affect which Incursion modifiers Omnitect can drop.

With a good base item or a high roll, the price per item can be significantly higher than expected.

How to Choose the Right One?

When choosing Chronicles for Omnitect Rush, saving time is the priority. First, make sure Apex of Atzoatl is already connected.

If Apex isn't connected, you'll need to find Explosive Charges and manage your route after entering a Temple. The difference might not be noticeable after one or two runs, but after farming dozens of Temples in PoE Curse of the Allflame, these extra steps will significantly slow down your progress.

When getting Chronicles, it's best to filter Area Level to 83. Incursion Rare has its own Item Level; since you're farming gear with special affixes, there's no need to lower the item level to save on map costs.

Also, it's best to exclude Throne of Atziri. Some Temple layouts force you to pass through Atziri, wasting time and causing problems for builds without Reflect Immunity.

As for Locus of Corruption and Doryani's Institute, while the rooms themselves are valuable, they usually inflate the price of Chronicles as well.

When specifically farming Omnitect Rush, there's no need to specifically target these expensive rooms. Instead, prioritize Chronicles with reasonable prices and possessing Toxic Grove, Crucible of Flame, or Apex of Ascension. As long as there's no significant price markup, these Temples are more suitable for bulk rushes.

Best Temple Rooms to Add

Toxic Grove

Toxic Groves are primarily about "Tacati's" modifiers. Valuable ones include Trigger a Socketed Spell on Wands. The price of this type of gear varies greatly on PoE market. A regular base might not be worth much, but a good base with a high roll can fetch several Divine Orbs.

You don't need to specifically enter and open chests every time you farm. As long as Toxic Grove in Patch 3.29 exists in a Temple, Omnitect has a chance to drop Rare items with Tacati Modifiers. Check it out if it's on your way, but skip it if it's too far from the main route.

Crucible of Flame

Crucible of Flame can also generate significant additional income, primarily because of the special incursion modifiers on Claws for Chilled, Shocked, and Burning Enemy. Even with mediocre base items, these Claws can sell for 20-40 Chaos; with better base items or higher rolls, the price will continue to rise.

Therefore, when running this farm, it's best not to hide all Incursion Rare items. Some ordinary yellow items in PoE might actually be more valuable than loose currency. If you're unsure about prices, keep good base items and high rolls, then gradually lower the price to avoid selling too low from the start.

Sanctum of Immortality and Conduit of Lightning

The former can produce Mask of the Spirit Drinker, while the latter produces Dance of the Offered. These two rooms don't offer particularly high individual returns, but if they're near the route, it's worth opening them.

How to Run Each Temple Faster?

Speed ​​is key when running Omnitect Rush. Upon entering a Temple, open Temple Map to see the connection between the entrance and Apex, then proceed along the shortest route. Deal with Toxic Grove, Crucible of Flame, or Apex of Ascension if they're conveniently located along your route; otherwise, skip them.

The biggest mistake when farming this is repeatedly taking detours to access regular rooms. Taking an extra half-minute just to make a few dozen Chaos Orbs can actually lower your hourly profit. A good layout takes less than a minute, while a less ideal one takes close to two minutes. Across 100 runs, the average was about 93 seconds per Temple.

If each Temple takes three to four minutes on average, the earnings will naturally be difficult to approach 50 PoE Divine Orbs/hour. Boss DPS, movement speed, and familiarity with Temple layouts all directly affect the final Divine Orbs per Hour.

Is Omnitect Rush Worth Farming?

If your build is fast and can kill Omnitect easily, this strategy is definitely worth trying. Its biggest advantage is its simplicity; no need to change Atlas or research Scarab combinations, you can start farming immediately after getting Chronicles. If you're tired of regular map farming, this can also offer a change of pace.

50 Divine Orbs/hour isn't a number you should expect to maintain consistently, but Omnitect Rush is still highly profitable in PoE Patch 3.29 market.

Omnitect Rush is still worth running while Chronicles stay cheap, Ambition holds its price, and Incursion Rares continue to sell. If any of those starts moving the wrong way, the profit can fall off pretty quickly.

Exiles, have you tried the most explosively profitable Rogue Exiles and Mercenaries hunting strategy in Path of Exile 3.29? We'll explain the details of this strategy from start to finish, but before you jump in, ask yourself: can your character withstand hordes of Rogue Exiles and Wild Mercenaries?

There are risks and rewards. Think it through, and let's begin the hunt!

Core Strategy

The core of our farming strategy lies in utilizing the synergy between Scarabs and Atlas Passive Tree to transform Rogue Exiles and Mercenaries into a stable source of high-value items.

Players need to add many Rogue Exiles to the map using specific Scarabs, giving them a high probability of carrying Mercenaries, then forcing all Mercenaries' equipment to become unique, while using passives to ensure that these Mercenaries drop at least two items upon death, or even all of their equipment.

Building upon this, Rogue Exiles also boast a higher PoE currency and Scarab drop rate.

Profitability

This strategy excels in the current PoE 3.29 because it not only provides stable returns but also offers surprising rewards.

Besides acquiring many Divine Orbs and special Scarabs, you have a greater chance to directly obtain top-tier unique Heavy Belts like Mageblood.

More importantly, the map will feature a large number of Infamous Mercenaries - if you primarily play as a Luminary, you can use this to specifically hunt powerful Mercenaries such as Combatant, Manyshot, or Kineticist. These top-tier Mercenaries can fetch hundreds of Divine Orbs or even Mirror-level prices on the trading market.

Map Selection

This strategy doesn't have strict requirements regarding map selection for Path of Exile, but players should prioritize terrain they can complete quickly.

Maps like Mesa and City Square, which are open and have relatively simple paths, are highly recommended.

Second, Tropical Island, Dunes, Beach, and Strand will also work.

However, Jungle Valley is not recommended because pairing it with Templar Astrolabe requires killing the boss, slowing down your farming pace.

Our core goal is speed farming, clearing each map in under two minutes as quickly as possible, so avoid situations requiring boss kills.

Scarabs Configuration

Regarding Scarabs, three are mandatory:

• Trarthan Scarab of Infamy
• Trarthan Scarab of Renown
• Trarthan Scarab of Surprising Alliances

We need to use Trarthan Scarab of Infamy to transform the main Mercenary in PoE map into an Infamous Mercenary and add two additional random Mercenaries.

Trarthan Scarab of Renown is key to our entire farming strategy - it forces all Mercenaries' gear to become unique, laying the foundation for the subsequent loot mechanics.

The third Trarthan Scarab of Surprising Alliances grants a 50% chance for all Rogue Exiles to be accompanied by a Wild Mercenary.

While these three Scarabs aren't cheap (approximately 15 to 35 Chaos Orbs each), with the help of Atlas Passive Tree and loot drops, we can essentially be self-sufficient, making this strategy entirely worthwhile.

Furthermore, if you invest two more Anarchy Scarabs, each adding five extra Rogue Exiles to the map, you can increase that by ten.

And these ten Rogue Exiles also have a 50% chance of triggering an accompanying Wild Mercenary. Combined with the two Mercenaries from Trarthan Scarab of Infamy, this brings the total to approximately seven Wild Mercenaries.

Theoretically, you could add a third Anarchy Scarab, but based on actual testing in Path of Exile 3.29, two Anarchy Scarabs are already sufficient to provide enough PoE currency.

Atlas Passive Tree Configuration

To cater to different character strengths and preferences, this Rogue Exiles and Mercenaries farming strategy offers two Atlas Passive Tree configurations.

High-Risk Configuration

The core objective of this first high-risk configuration is to maximize the drop potential of Rogue Exiles and Mercenaries.

In Mercenary-related nodes, select Contract Killers to allow your allied Mercenaries to deal double damage to both Rogue Exiles and enemy Mercenaries.

Simultaneously, you should acquire all nodes that increase the chance of "dropping all items," especially Loot and Pillage, which provides a 10% chance for Mercenaries to drop a full set of items.

Loot and Pillage node, combined with Trarthan Scarab of Renown's mechanism that converts all gear into unique items, allows you to obtain a complete set of unique gear at once triggered.

For Rogue Exiles, Ruckus node is essential, as it has a chance to generate an additional 20 Rogue Exiles. While this significantly increases the difficulty, the rewards are also dramatically increased.

Exiled Will node makes Rogue Exiles even more powerful and profitable, and is recommended in this high-risk Atlas Passive Tree configuration.

Royal Guard node ensures a chance of Rogue Exiles appearing in the map's boss room and is also worth selecting.

As for the remaining points, you can invest in nodes related to Astrolabe, such as Synthesized Stability and Speaker of the Dead, to increase the output of PoE currency, Scarabs, and Divination Cards.

Low Difficulty Configuration

The second low-difficulty configuration focuses on reducing the risk in Path of Exile, guaranteeing only a 90% Mercenaries spawn rate, and then supplementing it to 100% through two blocker nodes.

Because map affixes are few or nonexistent, we don't need to allocate points to any map affix effects. Instead, we should allocate points to Shrines-related nodes to increase movement speed and damage output, thus clearing maps quickly.

Simultaneously, we should forgo Exiled Will option from the first approach to reduce the threat posed by Rogue Exiles.

Furthermore, allocating points to Sulfite Infusion allows us to accumulate Sulfite needed for Delve while clearing PoE maps, providing a supply for later Delve gameplay.

While this approach sacrifices some Scarabs and unique drop bonuses, it still provides a stable fixed drop reward of Mercenaries and Rogue Exiles on White maps, with a very low investment required.

Gameplay Flow

Upon entering the map, our primary goal is to head straight for the boss and quickly defeat it to trigger any Rogue Exiles that may be present in the boss room.

During your clearing journey, if you find a Mercenary carrying high-value items but not worth recruiting, kill them to claim all their loot. If they have no particular value, you can capture them to temporarily become allies and help you clear the remaining enemies.

The ultimate goal is to clear as much of the map as possible, as each Rogue Exile and Mercenary within the map has its own unique loot drop opportunities.

Patience is crucial in this farming strategy; don't expect bursts of loot on every map. Good luck hunting Rogue Exiles and Mercenaries in Path of Exile 3.29, and may you reap your desired spoils!