How To Master The Archmage Crackling Lance Hierophant Build In Path Of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League?
With the recent changes to the Archmage mechanic in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, our Arc Lightning/Crackling Lance spell has received a significant boost in damage output. In this guide, we'll explore the potential of this Archmage Crackling Lance Hierophant build in POE 3.24's endgame scenarios, where its formidable damage numbers truly shine.
Remarkably, our standard Arc setup can deliver a staggering 100 million damage, while the specialized Crackling Lance setup, tailored for boss encounters, boasts over 220 million damage. These figures, though astounding, are entirely achievable. Even the most challenging Tier 17 map bosses are no match for this build's power. What's more, switching between setups is remarkably simple. Merely adjusting 2 gems is all that's required, with no alterations necessary to items, jewels, or the passive tree.
Ascendancy Choices
Let's start by discussing our Ascendancy choices.
As a Hierophant, we've opted for this class primarily because it offers the most effective mana support ascendancy available.
Our first priority is Arcane Blessing. This particular node enhances the effectiveness of Arcane Surge by providing a significant 20% boost to spell damage, alongside its other benefits. Additionally, it grants us a level one Arcane Surge buff whenever we land a hit. It's essential to note that the 20% spell damage boost scales with modifiers to the Arcane Surge buff effect, rendering this node exceptionally potent.
Moving on, we have Conviction of Power. This node not only increases our maximum power charges and endurance charges by one but also sets our minimum charges for both to 4. While the additional maximum power charge enables us to function as a power charge stacker, the minimum endurance charges offer a valuable defensive benefit.
Next, we acquire Divine Guidance. This particular node raises our maximum mana and ensures that 10% of all damage we sustain is deducted from our mana before affecting our life pool. When combined with The Agnostic keystone and Mind Over Matter, this setup essentially renders us invulnerable as long as we have any remaining mana. Moreover, it enables us to utilize Righteous Fire for an additional spell damage boost.
As for our final ascendancy node, we've foregone selecting any. The remaining nodes within the Hierophant ascendancy don't offer significant benefits for our build, so we've opted to acquire the minor mana node instead.
Passive Skill Tree
Now, let's examine our passive skill tree.
Our current tree retains its structure from the previous version. Our emphasis remains on enhancing mana, lightning damage, spell damage, cast speed, spell critical chance and multiplier, mana regeneration, and life.
Additionally, we incorporate 2 extensive cluster jewel configurations into our setup. These provide access to potent damage-related notable passives such as Practiced Caster, Sap Psyche, and Scintillating Idea.
Mastery Choices
Next, for Mastery choices, we have:
- Spells that gain Intensity have +1 to their maximum Intensity
- + 15% to Maximum Shock Effect
- 3% increased Damage per Power, Frenzy, or Endurance Charge we have
- + 25% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Unique Enemies
Gear Selection
Let's proceed by examining our gear selection.
First and foremost, we continue to utilize the signature wand, known as Void Battery, employing two of these wands specifically. Void Battery provides substantial benefits, including an increase to maximum power charges, global critical strike chance, cast speed, mana, and significant spell damage when powered up with charges. Widely considered the best-in-slot option, acquiring Void Battery typically requires only a few Divine Orbs, given the immense damage boost it offers to our build.
Moving on, we have the Crown of The Inward Eye, ideally with the corruption that grants an additional maximum power charge. This helm proves crucial for its overall life and mana statistics, although acquiring one with the bonus power charge corruption is highly desirable. Alternatively, if obtaining such a helm proves challenging, opting for a rare helm with the plus one power charge affix becomes a viable alternative, albeit a difficult one. Therefore, purchasing this helmet outright often remains the optimal choice.
Now, turning our attention to body armor, we employ the Cloak of Defiance. This chest piece grants us the Mind Over Matter keystone without the need to invest numerous passive points in the skill tree. While the free Mind Over Matter feature proves invaluable, we primarily utilize this item for its unique attribute: a percentage-based increase to mana regeneration, a rarity in the game and a crucial resource for our build's sustainability.
Furthermore, we consider Atziri's Foible amulet as another indispensable item. Given that mana serves as both an offensive and defensive resource for our build, maximizing its potential becomes imperative. Atziri's Foible significantly enhances our mana pool and regeneration rate, providing us with everything we require. It's worth noting the importance of anointing the amulet with Disciple of the Unyielding, granting a fifth permanent endurance charge and a notable 40% increased damage boost.
Moving on to our rings, acquiring 2 synthesized rings with a 6% increased spell damage per power charge implicit is imperative. Utilize Essences of Scorn on them until you secure both percentage mana regeneration and critical strike multiplier modifiers. In the event of an empty suffix, lock the suffixes and then reforge the caster mod to forcefully introduce cast speed into your suffix pool. Once done, lock the suffixes again, employ the Veiled Orb to obtain Veiled mana or life, and proceed to craft the remaining modifier yourself.
Now, concerning our gloves, we opt for Eldritch Influence gloves, prioritizing attributes such as life, mana, resistances, and any Veiled damage modifier obtainable. Alternatively, crafting the desired modifiers yourself proves a cost-effective approach to preserve your POE Currency.
However, the paramount consideration here is securing both Lightning Exposure and a chance to unnerve enemies on hit implicits. These attributes contribute significantly to damage output and can be readily incorporated using Eldritch Ichors and Embers.
Moving forward to our boots, the desired attributes include movement speed, dexterity, mana, life, and a resistance modifier. Additionally, incorporating beneficial Eldritch Implicits such as increased action speed and cooldown recovery rate, if possible, further enhances their utility.
Regarding our belt, obtaining one with the crucial increased mana recovery rate (Redeemer mod) is essential for our build's functionality. Aim for maximum roll and catalyze it up to 14%. Additionally, prioritize other desirable modifiers such as life, mana, and resistances to bolster survivability.
Gem Setup
Now, let's discuss the gems to be inserted into these items.
Beginning with our primary six-link setup, we include Arc, Archmage, Power Charge On Critical, Inspiration, Awakened Spell Echo, and Awakened Lightning Penetration. Notably, the new Archmage Support does not amplify its damage based on increased mana cost, making the inclusion of Inspiration a sensible choice. When transitioning to our high-damage Crackling Lance setup, simply substitute Arc and Awakened Lightning Penetration with Crackling Lance and Intensify Support.
Moving on to the four-link guard setup, we incorporate Arcane Cloak, level 20 Arcane Surge, Increased Duration, and Enhance. The strategic activation of Arcane Cloak allows us to maximize its benefits.
Next, we assemble a four-link configuration for falling damage support, comprising Wrath, Eternal Blessing, Righteous Fire, and Empower.
For our mobility setup, a four-link combination of Lightning Warp, Faster Casting, Less Duration, and Swift Affliction facilitates swift movement. If Lightning Warp proves unsuitable, Dash serves as a viable alternative.
Lastly, a three-link setup accommodates the remaining gems, including Conductivity, Summon Lightning Golem, and Faster Casting.
The Strategic Placement Of Jewels
Now let's delve into the topic of jewels.
For our Watcher's Eye, we continue to utilize a basic variant, offering a modest 15% Lightning Penetration while under the influence of Wrath.
Next, we possess a single Militant Faith Timeless Jewel, specifically tailored to reference High Templar Dominus. Placing this jewel strategically maximizes its impact, as it transforms nearby keystones into Inner Conviction. Inner Conviction, in turn, grants a substantial 3% increase in spell damage per power charge. Should this jewel inadvertently convert any crucial notables within its vicinity, there's no need for concern. Simply trade it for another one.
The final unique jewel featured in our build is The Adorned. This jewel amplifies the effectiveness of all socketed magic jewels by an impressive 150%, provided they are corrupted. Consequently, acquiring 4 identical magic jewels of this nature becomes necessary. Look for attributes such as increased maximum mana and a 15% boost to spell critical strike multiplier to optimize your build's performance.
In conclusion, the Archmage Crackling Lance Hierophant build offers a potent and adaptable option for Path of Exile 3.24 players seeking to dominate endgame content with unparalleled spellcasting prowess. Its remarkable damage potential, coupled with its simplicity and versatility, makes it a formidable choice for any seasoned adventurer daring to challenge the highest tiers of gameplay.
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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!
