Explosive Arrow Ignite Elementalist Can Help You Face Various Challenges In Path Of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!
Welcome to the guide on my POE 3.24 Explosive Arrow Ignite Elementalist, a build that holds a special place as my all-time favorite and a legendary one! Throughout my experience, I've played this build multiple times, achieving notable success such as farming several Divine Orbs, including three mirrors from Expeditions. Join me as we delve into the intricacies of this powerful and enduring build.
What You Can Do With This Build?
You can smoothly progress through the early maps until you're able to enhance the build to the version I've outlined here. Leveling up and increasing damage output is quite straightforward.
Moreover, the playstyle is among the safest archetypes, which makes it more accessible for casual players to enjoy the end game. The version I'm presenting here differs from others.
Hence, it's a versatile build suitable for both clearing maps and taking on bosses.
Fundamentals Of The Build
In practice, the build prioritizes the most potent ignite based on the number of arrows or fuses lodged in the target. Achieving this requires high attack speed, a moderate skill effect duration, and scaling the total number of ballistas that can be summoned.
I'll provide a comprehensive explanation of everything you need to kickstart this legendary build, eliminating the need to search elsewhere. Additionally, for the purpose of this guide, I'll demonstrate how to craft the end-game bow, quiver, and amulet tailored for this build. Even if you're not using this particular build, you can still generate significant POE Currency by crafting items for it. Given the substantial player base likely to adopt this build at the start of a league, there's ample opportunity for profit.
Vital Basic Information
It's crucial to recognize that by taking the Elemental Equilibrium keystone, which imposes a 25% exposure rather than the standard 12%, we must refrain from incorporating external modifiers to flat fire damage in our build setup. To verify this, consult the tooltip for flat damage output modifiers and assess the fire damage value from the gem, alongside any external sources of cold or lightning damage to activate this buff.
Unlike many other attack skills, this one scales primarily with gem levels. Furthermore, avoid any modifiers that enable pierce, chain, or fork effects, as the goal is for all arrows to remain lodged in the target. Failure to do so will result in a loss of damage potential from the skill gem.
Additionally, the nodes near the witch class do not provide accuracy, which is essential for maintaining consistent damage output. Aim for at least a 90% chance to hit, achievable through gloves, helmet, or rings. If necessary, utilize a precision aura in the early stages.
While maximizing attack speed is advantageous, ensure a total of 45% increased skill effect duration in your passive tree. Excessive duration may lead to delays and DPS loss, while insufficient duration will hinder the maintenance of maximum fuse stacks on the target.
These considerations are paramount when configuring this build. The combined total damage may not provide a reliable assessment and can be manipulated in various ways.
Gear
Storm Cloud and Skirmish offer the most cost-effective options for a budget setup, but I advise against using Quill Rain. Eye of Malice's increased resistance for nearby enemies only functions effectively at close range. When activated, it further reduces the target's negative resistance. Additionally, Elemental Equilibrium eliminates the need for exposure sources in your gear setup.
For defense, consider a rare helmet with life, resistances, chance to mitigate spell damage, and crafted physical damage taken as elemental damage, obtainable from Korell in the Syndicate. Cloak of Flame is another potential unique option, or you can opt for a rare chest piece with life, chance to mitigate spell damage, and physical damage taken as elemental damage, unlocked from Gravicious in the Syndicate.
When selecting Storm Stride Serpentscale Boots, prioritize modifiers such as Legacy of Fury, which may take a few days to become affordable but provides a significant damage boost. If you're triggering Elemental Equilibrium with lightning damage instead of cold, Pyre can be utilized as another substantial damage multiplier, especially for those embracing a Glass Cannon approach. Ensure you have no flat fire or cold damage if employing Pyre.
Polaric Devastation serves as a potent damage amplifier for this setup, resulting in a significant increase in total damage output, often exceeding a million. However, it's essential to note that this unique item is specifically tailored for boss encounters and may come at a high cost during the early stages of the league.
Dyadian Dawn stands out as the optimal item choice for this build, being a tier 2 unique that should become readily available at an affordable price within the first few days of the league. Prioritize acquiring this item and consider obtaining the Turbulent Catalyst to further enhance its damage potential. Be cautious when incorporating multiple unique items from the suggested options, as this may lead to attribute and resistance issues. It's advisable to carefully adjust the distribution of requirements within the build, possibly utilizing rare jewels or Grand Spectrum jewels for optimization.
Ensure you have a life flask with immunity to Bleed and Corrupted Blood, as these utility flasks can be crucial for survival. While they are optional, your flask sustainability heavily relies on defeating monsters. For challenging boss encounters, consider equipping up to four life flasks to bolster survivability.
Gem Configuration
In our gem setup, we need to manually generate frenzy charges using Frenzy since Manaforged Arrows cannot be utilized in this configuration. If prioritizing defense, you may opt for Determination instead of Haste. Combining Flame Surge, Flammability with Arcanist Brand provides a significant debuffing capability, complemented by the Burning Damage Support for Flame Surge.
Securing the appropriate socket colors for a 6-link setup can be challenging. Utilizing the crafting bench to obtain three of the required colors is advisable. Alternatively, tainted Chromatic Orbs offer an easier solution but necessitate corruption of the item. If fortunate enough to acquire four red sockets, Empower surpasses Deadly Ailments in effectiveness. The absence of the old Vorici method is lamentable in this regard.
If you have yet to acquire the Polaric Devastation ring, consider using Infernal Cry linked to Call to Arms to apply the covered with ash effect. Alternatively, Steelskin linked with Automation Support serves as another viable option.
Details Of Mana
Typically, players would opt for Lifetap across all skills in this setup.
However, in my iteration, prioritizing Mana Regeneration Rate proves more beneficial as it creates additional flexibility, especially considering the scarcity of available sockets. This explains our utilization of an amulet boasting high Mana Regeneration Rate, which synergizes with the Clarity aura we've incorporated. Should you encounter early setbacks, resorting to an enduring mana flask remains a viable option.
In terms of Mana Reservation, Sovereignty and Mana Mastery suffice to maintain the auras essential to the build. Should complications arise prior to acquiring Mana Mastery, options include removing Haste temporarily or maintaining Clarity at a lower level in your aura configuration. Incorporating Precision necessitates adjusting one of the major auras accordingly.
Notes About Leveling
The Leveling section of the guide holds significant importance for all players, including veterans.
This build demonstrates a dynamic and somewhat fragile nature. Each notable and keystone selected serves a purpose and holds value. While Spiritual Command could enhance attack speed scaling, prioritizing basic necessities during league start takes precedence, hence its omission in the initial setup.
During Acts 1 to 4, the build functions as a caster setup. However, transitioning to Explosive Arrow post-Shaper of Flames acquisition entails substantial changes in the passive tree, gear, and gem configuration. Primal Bond should not be taken until after this switch, and testing the build with Explosive Arrow is crucial. If lacking accuracy in gear, employing the Precision aura is advisable, even if it means sacrificing one of the major auras.
In the early stages, Ballista Totem Support may seem underwhelming. It's recommended to level the gem from Act 1 in your off-hand. Primal Manifestation significantly boosts the effectiveness of Ballista Totems at this point. Prioritizing nodes at the top left over those towards the south is advisable. Upon obtaining Sovereignty, acquiring two major auras alongside Clarity becomes viable. Adjusting the Clarity gem's level or using an Enduring mana flask until acquiring Mana Reservation mastery may be necessary. These nodes, along with the amulet, aid in addressing attribute requirements.
Upon reaching maps, prioritize obtaining resistances along with a rare jewel to address any deficiencies. Once Elemental Equilibrium is acquired, regularly checking the tooltip for any flat fire damage from gear becomes essential.
How To Craft Endgame Gear?
There are 2 straightforward methods to craft the bow.
Firstly, using fossils—corroded, metallic, and jagged—can yield +1 and +2 prefixes, albeit at a potentially high cost, requiring an item level above 50. Alternatively, employing a Shrieking Essence of Dread, once a prefix with elemental damage with attacks and an open prefix is obtained, can be used. Subsequently, using the crafting bench to add 'cannot roll attack' modifiers, along with at least one open prefix and one open suffix, ensures the successful addition of +1 with an Exalted Orb. Clearing the suffixes with 'prefixes cannot be changed' and 'scour' follows, simplifying the crafting process of the main hand weapon.
Crafting the quiver's cost varies based on desired mods and crafting luck. For double dot multi, a fractured base cannot be used as an Influence Orb must be applied. Beginning with a Broadhead Arrow Quiver or Primal Arrow Quiver, one rolls alterations until acquiring a Tier 3 to Tier 1 dot multi with attacks, subsequently augmenting a prefix to it. Regaling to make it rare and then blocking all attack mods to achieve increased damage with bow skills follows.
For those aiming for double dot multi, applying a Hunter Influence Orb for the final suffix is necessary, although caution is advised as acquiring a mod related to poison or chaos is irreversible. In cases where tier 1 or tier 2 life is not obtained, using Orb of Annulment while having 'cannot roll attack mods' prevents the removal of the damage over time modifier. Even if chaos dot multi is obtained with a Hunter's Exalted Orb, the item can still be sold for a favorable price.
Obtaining +2 on the amulet requires considerable patience with thousands of alterations until +1 to the level of all skill gems is achieved. Alternatively, purchasing a base with this mod pre-existing is advisable, with the item level needing to be at least 76. Converting it into one prefix with +1 level of all gems alongside one suffix may necessitate Beast crafting. Bench crafting the appropriate mods, followed by using Harvest augment with removal to obtain +1 to fire skill gems, leads to achieving a total of +2. If this proves challenging, opting for an amulet with +1 and damage over time multiplier is a viable alternative.
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PoE 2 patch 0.4.0 has been out for over a month, and many players' builds are nearing their peak. While Temple is a great mechanism, relying solely on it might become tiring.
The farming method described below requires a strong enough build to complete some challenging content, but the rewards are excellent, yielding hundreds of Divine Orbs per success.
Farming Goal
Your farming goal is The Adorned Diamond, which only drops from Trialmasters. Its market value has skyrocketed in the past week. Unidentified The Adorned Diamonds initially sold for 500 Divine Orbs, but due to inflation, they can now fetch over 1000.
Even regular The Adorned Diamond is now worth about half the value of a Mirror of Kalandra. After deducting your investment in farming, a net profit of approximately 3 The Adorned Diamonds is equivalent to one Mirror of Kalandra.
The Value of The Adorned Diamond
The high demand for The Adorned Diamond is due to its recent changes. Players can now refine it to higher stats and obtain powerful affixes that interact with rare jewels through Double Corruption.
On the other hand, it's also related to inflation. Vaal Temple has become incredibly juicy thanks to multiple updates and player research.
You first need to collect Energized Crystals from the endgame map content. T15 and T16 Waystones with six affixes are the best source of these crystals. You need at least 6 Energized Crystals to enter Vaal Temple. Before entering, you can use the options on the left side of the interface to place your chosen paths or rooms.
Each time you close Temple, the system automatically removes several random rooms from the current panel. Players will use various strategies to maximize room rewards. Finally, all players need to use Juatalotli's Medallion to prevent Temple instability.
Because of this, everyone is now focused on building their own Vault Temples to achieve an infinite supply of PoE 2 currency. When players start producing currency in large quantities, it naturally leads to Divine Inflation in the late game. Inflation reduces the supply of various endgame items, pushing their value even higher amidst currency fluctuations, ultimately making The Adorned Diamond worth hundreds of Divine Orbs.
How to Prepare?
Since it takes players a very long time (approximately 100 to 200 hours) to fully build an enhanced Temple, it can be combined with other farming methods.
If you want to use this farming method, you must at least ensure that your builds can easily defeat Trialmaster. Since the biggest cost of this build is time, the faster you defeat it, the better.
As the hidden final boss in Trial of Chaos trial system, Trialmaster is not an easy opponent to challenge. First, you need to collect the following three Fate Fragments:
- Cowardly Fate
- Deadly Fate
- Victorious Fate
You need to Inscribed Ultimatum to unlock 10 waves of Trial of Chaos. Each completion will reward you with one Fate Fragment. It's worth noting that the drop rate for these three Fate Fragments is random, so completing only three Trial of Chaos sessions won't guarantee you all three. Only after collecting all three can you unlock the gate and challenge Trialmaster.
However, even if you defeat Trialmaster, the drop rate for The Adorned Diamond is extremely low, possibly less than 2%, sometimes appearing only once every 70 to 80 attempts. Be prepared for this.
Cost
Farming Fate shards yourself is clearly a foolish choice. By the time you've painstakingly cultivated enough shards, PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0 might already be over.
To speed up the process, you'll need to invest some Divine Orbs to trade Deadly Fate and Victorious Fate shards with other players. Approximately two Fate shards require three Divine Orbs. While directly trading all three types of Fate shards is faster, your profits will be significantly reduced. Therefore, you can choose to cultivate the last type of Fate shard yourself. Under these conditions, challenging 50 Trialmasters requires approximately 150 Divine Orbs.
Clearing a complete trial takes about 13 to 15 minutes. If you include the time needed to collect the three types of Fate materials, the total time to prepare just 50 sets of Deadly Fate and Victorious Fate shards will be as long as 21 to 24 hours. As for the last type, Cowardly Fate, you can directly loot the final Fate Material from the boss to unlock Trialmaster's gate. This will save you approximately 75 Divine Orbs for future challenges.
Other Loot And Benefits
Besides The Adorned Diamond, you'll also get a certain number of Soul Cores. Basically, each Trial of Chaos will give you one or two Normal Soul Cores and Specialized Soul Cores. Unfortunately, even with fewer players farming Trials of Chaos, the demand for them isn't high.
As for currency, Trials of Chaos isn't as generous as Vaal Temple; its drop rate is within the normal range. Trials, monsters, and bosses all have a chance to drop Divine Orbs, but they certainly won't be enough to cover your costs.
Currently, each The Adorned Diamond is worth approximately 700 to 800 Divine Orbs. If we calculate based on 50 trials per diamond, each trial could yield a profit of around 600 to 700 Divine Orbs. As for hourly profits, that depends on your farming speed.
This method relies on gambling and luck. If you're lucky, it might be even better than Temple, but if your luck is average, you'll have to endure the tedious mechanics and long farming time of Trial of Chaos.
Since the release of Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids, Shaman seems to be used more frequently among the two Ascendancy classes of the new Druid class. This is perhaps because it is easier to learn and its benefits are quickly felt.
However, this doesn't mean the other one, Oracle, is not worth experiencing. In fact, if you craft the right build, Oracle can help you build temples and earn loot faster in the optimized Fate of the Vaal mechanic.
Based on this, we will provide you with a strategy for crafting such an Oracle build. If you are interested, please read on!
Oracle introduction
Choosing this Ascendancy class will grant you the power of foresight, allowing you to gain combat advantages by predicting enemy actions and unlocking additional passive skills.
If you find the above explanation difficult to understand, the following exclusive skill effects should give you a more intuitive understanding of how to play Oracle:
- Entwined Realities: You can allocate key passive skills without connecting them to an existing passive tree.
- The Unseen Path: Unlocks additional passive nodes accessible only to Oracle players.
Oracle Build for Atziri's Temple
One of the key elements to improving room building and overall exploration efficiency within this league mechanic is minimizing your skill cooldowns. Therefore, many related builds require Temporalis Silk Robe, which provides this effect.
Fortunately, Oracle build we're introducing here provides a similar effect without this gear and can easily defeat most bosses with extremely high DPS, making it very useful for clearing maps!
Skills and gems
After unlocking Oracle as your Ascendancy class, the key is to stack your critical strike chance to over 100%, as Mana Flare triggers on critical hits, giving you an auto-explosion effect.
Another crucial point is to reduce Lightning Bolt's cooldown to below 0.2 seconds - this is a critical point; any cooldown below 0.2 seconds is considered good. Additionally, you'll need 115% to 150% cooldown reduction to increase damage.
To achieve all the above, you need to unlock Spark to trigger Lightning Mode and add Pierce to increase projectile speed, faster casting efficiency, and duration.
For Spirit skills, you need to add Trinity to boost elemental damage, especially lightning damage.
Next, you need to add Blink and Mobility skills to gain a 100% reduction in Blink cooldown and increased Blink regeneration speed. Combine this with support gems Clarity I and Rapid Casting II, and you can eventually Blink in less than 1 second.
Best gear
First, you need Headhunter Heavy Belt. If you don't have it yet, start farming it now, or get PoE 2 currency for sale and exchange for one; this will be faster.
This gear provides increases to maximum health, Strength, and Dexterity, and rewards you with an extra 20 seconds of modifier when you kill rare monsters.
Next is The Vertex Tribal Mask Helmet, which is easier to obtain and, when equipped, increases four skill levels, significantly boosting damage and critical strike chance.
For weapons, we recommend Sacred Flame Shrine Sceptre, which grants you additional Purity of Fire skill, providing a fire damage buff for you and your allies, as well as a life recovery buff for allies.
When choosing gloves, prioritize those with energy shield resistance, and boots with chaos resistance, movement speed, and increased health.
Jewels and passive tree unlocking
Some nodes in Oracle passive tree provide significant cooldown reduction increases; these should be unlocked first.
Additionally, you need to unlock the additional Multitasking node for a 12% cooldown reduction increase or a 15% increase in ability duration. To do this, you need to defeat the boss Kosis, the Revelation, to obtain Megalomaniac Diamond.
Alternatively, you can consume Exalted Orbs to craft one From Nothing Diamond, distributing passive nodes within a specific keystone radius, even if these nodes are not connected to the main tree.
This greatly increases the flexibility of build crafting and saves many passive points. You can freely invest them in other nodes according to your needs.
If possible, we recommend socketing a Time-Lost Emerald, preferably with attribute bonuses and cooldown reduction speed. Heart of the Well Diamond is also a good option, as it similarly provides cooldown reduction speed and a small damage bonus.
In short, the core of this build's reliability lies in maximizing cooldown reduction speed to keep your Lightning Bolt cooldown below 0.2 seconds, ensuring automatic casting of Lightning Bolt.
While you might find this build a bit clunky in practice, it's one of the best ways to complete temples faster without adding Temporalis Silk Robe.
Other excellent Oracle builds
Oracle build we've introduced focuses on accelerating your temple challenge progress, but in terms of overall strength and experience, there are actually many better options.
Currently, the most well-known Oracle build is probably Lunar Assault Werewolf. As a top meta Oracle build in PoE 2, it centers on high-speed melee attacks and cold damage bonuses, utilizing transformation to freeze and crush enemies.
Besides these, Cast on Critical Comet, Plant/Vine Oracle, and Mass Summoner are all good choices. They'll suit you better if you're not focused on the temple progression.
Atziri's Temple is expected to become better experienced after Patch 0.4.0d is released. If you're interested, you can use our recommended Oracle build to test if the patch's changes are effective! It'll definitely be fun!
The recent Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been undergoing constant changes, with numerous patches and hotfixes optimizing the game based on Fate of the Vaal League mechanics, aiming to improve the overall experience.
Ten days after the release of Patch 0.4.0c hotfix 14, PoE 2 announced that Patch 0.4.0d will be released this week. Based on the announced content, this patch primarily focuses on bug fixes, with some aspects worth highlighting and discussing.
Below, we will provide a preview of this patch and analyze its main features and potential impact.
Patch 0.4.0d overview
The entire patch can be broadly divided into three parts: further optimization and fixes to Fate of the Vaal League mechanics, overall modifications, and comprehensive bug fixes. Undoubtedly, the most noteworthy aspect remains the first part.
Interestingly, even before the patch has been officially released, Fracturing Orbs have already depreciated in value simply by being announced. This means you can more easily acquire them through PoE 2 Divine Orbs to stabilize your gear affixes.
This is likely due to changes in the league system, making this part of the patch analysis a key focus of our guide.
Atziri's Temple boss fight reform
Let's temporarily ignore the usual temple fixes and focus on a new respawn change: if you die while fighting the boss Architect or Atziri in Atziri's Temple, you can respawn in the new temple instance.
However, this opportunity is very limited, as almost the entire temple is destroyed during the boss fight - somewhat like how endgame maps work in the game.
Therefore, when this mechanism is finally implemented, it's expected that not all players will be satisfied with it, but it's necessary because it can curb the possibility of some players seeking cheating due to the inability to respawn.
In short, if you die in these boss fights again later, you should be able to start re-challenging them faster, instead of having to unlock the rooms from scratch.
This means that even if you unfortunately fail on your first attempt, you'll have an extra chance to familiarize yourself with the boss mechanics. In fact, these bosses aren't difficult to defeat; their mechanics are just rather intricate.
Holten exploit fixes
As you know, collecting Energized Crystals by defeating monsters around Vaal Beacons is a crucial part of experiencing Atziri's Temple gameplay, as only with enough crystals can the temple progress.
However, in the game prior to Patch 0.4.0d, there was an issue where Vaal Beacons frequently spawned in an easily accessible location within Holten campaign area.
This allowed players to exploit this by repeatedly resetting dungeons to farm Energized Crystals faster, causing an imbalance in the entire Atziri's Temple system and an abnormal inflation of the value of some rare currencies.
Frankly, the issue of economic inflation was repeatedly mentioned in the player community shortly after Atziri's Temple's release, but for some reason, concrete measures to improve it have only now been introduced. However, better late than never.
Atziri's Chambers fix
As the spawn location of the final boss Atziri, the connection between this chamber and other rooms was previously a mess; sometimes you simply didn't know how to place and connect rooms.
Fortunately, Patch 0.4.0d finally fixed this, allowing Atziri's Chambers to correctly connect to any adjacent room, ensuring the entire mechanism functions more clearly and consistently.
Temple QoL fix
This fix requires you to place at least one room before each run. If you already have a highly optimized temple, you might not want to place any rooms at all, and therefore might mistakenly think this is a weakening change.
However, the purpose of this measure is actually to ensure that you don't accidentally open the temple before placing rooms, and to better guide new players through their first temple.
Of course, considering the needs of different players, the game also allows you to bypass this option. If you're a PC player, hold down Ctrl key and click Run Temple button. If you're a controller player, simply select "Deny" when prompted.
More Atziri's Temple fixes
Besides the highlights above, Patch 0.4.0d focuses on optimizing Atziri's Temple mechanics and includes other details, such as clearer instructions for Atziri's Chambers and more explanations of different mechanics.
The complexity and depth of gameplay have always been major obstacles for new players joining Path of Exile series. Sometimes, new leagues and their new mechanics can even confuse longtime fans.
Therefore, this patch shows that providing clear explanations is more effective in winning over players than creating mystery and raising the barrier to entry through seemingly complex mechanics.
Fracturing Orbs fix
In the first half of this article, we mentioned the devaluation of Fracturing Orbs, primarily due to a bug fixed in Patch 0.4.0d involving Immured Fury - the endgame boss and primary source of Fracturing Orbs drops.
Theoretically, this boss shouldn't spawn in cleansed areas, but previously, clearing excessive corruption would imprint a hidden marker indicating the presence of Immured Fury in certain areas.
This meant players could more easily earn Fracturing Orbs by defeating this boss, leading to an abnormally inflated value and disrupting PoE 2 economy and trade balance.
Fortunately, Patch 0.4.0d fixed this by making Immured Fury spawn completely unpredictably, restoring the rarity of Fracturing Orbs to a more normal level through a more randomized spawn method.
The above content covers what needs to be explained in detail in Patch 0.4.0d. However, there are also some interesting changes and fixes that you can discover and experience one by one through the game after the patch is finally released. Thank you for reading.
As you know, Patch 0.4.0, while adding new classes and other content, also brought many changes to the game's inherent mechanics. Although these changes may not be drastic on their own, they still affect the overall system.
For example, in The Last of the Druids, the left side of the skill tree, focusing on melee, defense, and life/block mechanics, was adjusted, leading to changes in the popular defense configurations used by each class.
This article will introduce the entire defense system and analyze the latest popular defense mechanics and styles during Fate of the Vaal league.
Path of Exile 2 defense mechanism overview
The game's defense system can be roughly divided into four layers: core and secondary defense layers, evasion, and recovery mechanisms. Each layer has multiple different functions that can be used in combat.
The core defense layer refers to the main attributes on the gear, which can be adjusted through the talent tree, such as armor or energy shields, which can directly block damage.
The second layer of defense indirectly transfers or reduces the damage you receive, including blocking, resistance, and more.
Avoidance mainly refers to default or temporary defensive buffs, while recovery restores health after being attacked, such as with flask or leech.
Changes in Patch 0.4.0
This patch primarily focuses on the left side of the skill tree, where the lower half emphasizes strength, while the middle and upper halves emphasize intelligence.
The left-side skill tree focuses entirely on defensive mechanics, containing numerous nodes that increase your health, armor, and block chance. It's key for melee builds that excel in high tanking or health.
The focus on these changes might be because the new Druid class is itself a defensive melee class, so most of the new passive nodes also share these characteristics.
The addition of new nodes and clusters necessitates adjustments to many existing skills. If your previous builds were based on these skills, you'll have to reset them, significantly altering the defensive styles popular during the new league.
The popularity of shield wall styles
The shield mechanic remains highly popular after Patch 0.4.0, primarily due to the surge in shield wall builds. As the most popular starting skill for Warrior class, shield usage has actually increased season by season.
This is perhaps because Patches 0.3.0 and 0.4.0 focused on hardcore single-player modes, where shield wall builds provide effective benefits, especially if you further unlock Titan as an Ascendancy class.
The popularity of Disciple of Varashta
As a newly added Sorceress Ascendancy class, Disciple of Varashta has caused quite a stir in the current league. Based on its powerful defensive capabilities, it performs exceptionally well in modes of varying difficulty.
For example, the passive skill The Fourth Teaching grants a 40% increase in shield recharge rate when your shield is below or equal to 35% of its maximum value.
In other words, the larger your energy shield hit pool, the better this talent node is, because you can maintain a considerable effective hit rate during the initial phase when the higher energy shield regeneration rate takes effect.
This talent node, combined with powerful support skills such as Nascent Hope or Convalescence, can significantly increase the natural regeneration rate of the energy shield, making its charging mechanism more reliable.
Even if you take a lot of damage and your health drops to a low level, you can still benefit from the higher regeneration rate by forcibly charging, ensuring your energy shield is fully charged again.
This Ascendancy class also has a powerful defensive skill called Sacred Rituals, which converts 60% of your current energy shield into armor, thus reducing the physical damage you take.
It's worth mentioning that both of these nodes can be combined with Chaos Inoculation to form one of the most powerful defensive configurations in PoE 2 - Chaos Inoculation is also another key defensive skill in the current league.
Despite a major balance update in patch 0.4.0, energy shields remain significantly stronger than pure health builds, and the addition of Discrete of Varashta has provided an ideal platform for the growth of these builds.
Talisman defense mechanism
This new Druid-friendly gear type cannot be used with shields, leading many Druid players to favor a hybrid health approach to defense.
The updated talent tree features a considerable number of energy shield and armor hybrid talents, so the vast majority of Druid builds focus on investing in energy shields as an extension of health.
Furthermore, many players using Talisman builds utilize the new keystone passive Lord of the Wilds, allowing them to simultaneously use a non-unique scepter and talisman to gain a pure resistance aura.
This not only alleviates gear pressure regarding resistance affixes but also allows for the use of numerous support gems without prior reservation. While this may be a bug, it has been present in the game for some time.
Self-chill and increased speed
In Patch 0.4.0, speed is also one of the most powerful defensive measures. As long as you can move, attack, or cast spells at extremely high speeds, no enemy can hit you or catch you - the best offense is also the best defense.
To achieve this, you can combine Asphyxia's Wrath Broadhead Quiver with Sierran Inheritance Marabout Garb. This quiver reduces the damage you take based on cooldowns, providing you with amazing damage reduction.
Therefore, you are not only unmatched in speed, but even if you do take damage, the damage reduction significantly reduces the actual damage dealt by enemies.
That concludes this introduction. Hopefully, this analytical guide will be helpful in your future crafting of defensive builds in PoE 2!
