Path of Exile: Adjusted the balance of rare monsters

With PoE 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas League approaching, are you ready?

As we all know, the beginning stage is always the most critical moment in the game, just like building a house, the foundation is always the most important. A good starter build will always determine whether you can have a far superior advantage when you start the league and enter the endgame earlier, which is a vast difference between having to stagnate for a while because of using an inappropriate build.

Therefore, here we have sorted out the starter builds for various different play styles to ensure that everyone can find the most suitable one for you! Whether you have already chosen your initial equipment or you like to leave it until the last minute, it is always beneficial to get more information and know which builds are more popular. Let’s get started.

1. Volcanic Fissure Of Snaking Berserker

Let’s start with a build that is likely to become mainstream in the early stages of the league, which is Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker.

While this isn’t a brand new build that just appeared in POE 3.26, it’s perfectly positioned in the meta as a strong successor to the severely nerfed Lightning Strike.

Volcanic Fissure of Snaking is a melee slam attack with great scaling and huge single target damage. When you slam the ground, you create a winding rift that deals area damage as it moves outward. Once it reaches the target location, the rift bursts, dealing damage to the target area, and the rift keeps moving towards enemies, dealing further damage.

Not only that, this build has great synergy with Warcries, and since it’s auto-cast, you don’t even need to press an extra button.

In addition, its spawning power is pretty strong thanks to Ascendancy rework and the use of Endurance Charges and other defensive layers. The explosive visual effects brought by this build will also bring you a feast for the eyes and ears!

2. Penance Brand Of Dissipation Inquisitor

Moving on to Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor, which really shocked me by surviving 3.26 patch.

Despite being one of the most powerful skills in Path Of Exile in the past, it has not been nerfed at all in the latest update because of its mechanics and scaling to billions of DPS. And now, with updates to skills like Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion, it could be even more powerful.

This build is excellent at farming content like Ultimatum and Simulacrums, and can even handle endgame bosses if you’re willing to spend some POE currency to equip it with the right unique items.

While it’s not a fast clearer, it can be very efficient when you commit to the right farming strategy. Not only does it give you the thrill of a rain of Divine Orbs dropping, but the entry cost is fairly low and more importantly it scales impressively into the late game, which is why this build has always been at the top of the popular build charts over the past year.

3. Explosive Concoction

Next up is Explosive Concoction, a pure League starter that can be used as a temporary build while you prepare for a real endgame setup.

For this build’s Ascendancy, Slayer class is the first choice for most players, but in fact, any class on the right side of the passive tree is applicable, and its flexibility determines that it can be your excellent League starter. Even if you don’t choose Ascendancy class, it can still help you get to the endgame, which is exciting!

4. Poisonous Concoction Of Bouncing Pathfinder

Then there is Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder, which is also a strong starter build.

Poisonous Concoction causes projectiles to bounce randomly in a non-linear manner, and the damage of the explosion scales according to the area of ​​effect.

Note that choosing this build as a starter does not mean you have to use it for the entire League. It is perfect for fans who are eager to build a small army of soldiers, starting with the low-cost and reliable Archer Skeletons, and transitioning to Skeletal Mage on a small budget.

If you like to summon an army to help you, then this build is definitely for you, it is arguably the best minion build for early leagues. It has always been strong, and the latest patch has given it some indirect buffs.

5. Flameblast Of Celerity Totem

Also, there is a very interesting build, Flameblast of Celerity Totem, which is probably the most buffed skill in POE 3.26 update.

It now does 660% more damage at the maximum stage, and the new gem quality increases its damage by 40%. Since you can get a gem quality of up to 104 by using Ashes of the Stars and buffing it to level 4, it means that the quality alone can cause 208% additional damage.

Therefore, the damage effect brought by this spell totem is absolutely ridiculous, you don’t even need to worry about aiming or charging, the patch gave it a better cast speed and lower mana cost.

6. Lightning Arrow Deadeye

Finally, my personal favorite Lightning Arrow Deadeye build is a lot of fun, traversing the map at the speed of light, leaping over enemies and firing thousands of projectiles. Although Arrow has been nerfed in POE 3.26 and doesn’t perform well on a budget, this is also the right starter build for you if you want to have fun.

In short, no matter what your play style is, you can find the best starter build for you here. Maybe you can try something new, they may bring you unprecedented experience!

Last week, after the developers of Path of Exile held a live broadcast about 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas League, they released a full description of the entire update, and the introduction of some new and improved features made many players look forward to this new league.

However, the changes to Shaper of Winter passive skill of Elementalist, Ascendancy class that players have always loved, have caused opposition from some players who are keen to use elemental damage such as freezing and frost to complete all campaign content, because its effectiveness has been greatly weakened compared to the previous patch.

But in fact, it is not. This guide will compare the current description of Shaper of Winter in the game with its update notes, and analyze for you from multiple attributes and statistics presented to you whether this change is a sign of the developers giving up this style of play or an early attempt to find a different way.

Some Changes

This 3.26 patch notes originally released by the developers state that the changes to Shaper of Winter include increasing the maximum Cold Ailments Effect by 50%, increasing Chills inflicted by each hit, and removing the previous effect of reducing enemy movement speed by 15% - 40%.

Instead, this Notable will only cause enemies that are Chilled by you to deal 50% of your Chill Effect. For example, if you can deal 30% Chill, the damage dealt by Chilled enemies will be reduced by 15%. Not only that, these already Chilled enemies will be more vulnerable to this longer duration damage, and the damage they receive will be increased by the Chills effect.

With this change, builds with Shaper of Winter Notable activated can still rely on strong offensive gear with high POE Currency investment to have strong Chills damage even when taking any type of hit damage, which is very suitable for encounters with monsters with strong offensive capabilities or elite monsters.

However, the developers made another change to Shaper of Winter Ascendancy Passive Skill in the patch notes of June 9 update: the previous slow down debuff of up to 40% was returned to players, which means that your powerful Chills damage and action speed debuff can help you complete encounters with more flexible bosses more easily and smoothly.

Is It A Loss?

Judging from the comments in the player community and social media, the biggest complaint from players about the changes to Shaper of Winter is that the developers removed a lot of direct damage buffs that players saw and added new effects that did not directly make their builds more powerful.

Yes?

But if those players calm down and analyze rationally, they are likely to modify their negative comments. First, before determining how much actual damage you can get from the modifiers that Shaper of Winter provides to Chills. If you only have this one damage type in your build, then a 30% modifier means you can cast 30% more damage.

It has to be said that in the more than ten years of POE development, there is no optimal build that focuses on only one source of damage. So if you add gear that can cast Unnerve debuff to your build and buy POE currency to increase your spell damage by 10%, then the actual damage gain from the modifier provided by this passive skill may only be 27%.

Of course, when making a build, you must add some crowd control modifiers, such as Shock debuff that make enemies stand still and vulnerable to damage, which can generally be up to 50%. With these modifiers working together, the additional damage provided by the modifier of Chill damage buff may only be 18%-19%.

In addition to this, like chaos damage, vulnerability, and physical damage modifiers that can be added to a build will reduce Chill damage bonus that the original Shaper of Winter had, preventing it from being able to reach its maximum effect.

So it was a very correct decision for the developers to remove this passive skill effect that is not conducive to players’ exploration in the game and balance the offensive and defensive effects brought by Shaper of Winter.

No!

First of all, the up to 40% enemy speed debuff that players had before is still there, so your build defense ability has been greatly improved. And reducing the enemy’s damage ability by half will put you in an advantageous position in the battle from the beginning.

Secondly, on the offensive side, you can combine Chill effect of this passive skill with Bonechill Support, so that you have higher cold damage and can more easily deal with enemies and bosses that have no resistance to this element type.

Not only that, in POE 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas League, the developers will bring some new Uniques to players, among which Ahuana’s Bite, a Unique Quiver, makes up for Chill Effect buff removed by Shaper of Winter in the build. And most importantly, it will not stack with other elemental damage affixes.

So in summary, Shaper of Winter changes are actually good news for builds that focus on cold damage, but builds with a variety of elemental damage may see some nerfs when using this passive skill, but it’s not a big deal.

Which builds are likely to be most affected by this change? Those builds with limited access to increased damage taken on the enemy are probably some of them. 

Of course, in the regular exploration process after the new Secrets of the Atlas League is released, we highly recommend heading over to the major communities and social platforms to find the build that works best for you. And here will continue to pay attention and introduce it to you. I wish you a happy game!

After the live hosted by the developers to introduce the new content contained in Path of Exile 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas, players are getting more and more excited about the arrival of this long-awaited new league, because some changes it has will greatly improve the game experience that players can get.

For example, the crafting mechanism. In all previous leagues, the crafting system can be said to be one of the most important game mechanisms in POE, because it allows all players to make a piece of gear that can be used to increase their own combat or defensive capabilities through some efforts, so as to explore more freely.

In Secrets of the Atlas, the developers have made comprehensive improvements to the crafting system, including the introduction of some new crafting mechanisms and improvements to some existing mechanisms, which will help you find Zana in Atlas more easily and complete all the campaigns in the game.

In order to let all exiles master it faster, here will be an in-depth discussion of the new crafting system in POE 3.26. However, it should be noted that since there is still some time before its official release, some properties or statistics introduced in it may change. Everything is subject to the official release.

New

In this League update, the developers have added two new crafting mechanics for players - Memory Strands and a new pinnacle crafting currency. Here are their specific effects.

Memory Strands

This new crafting mechanic is currently the highlight of PoE 3.26. You can find Memory Strands on the item description of high-tier loot picked up in Memory-influenced maps, and the value it has will affect the quality of the item after Scroll of Wisdom, up to 100.

Although the value of Memory Strands on the item is completely random, you can replace or add modifiers to it by applying POE Chaos Orb or Exalted Orb to make it more likely to generate a higher quality random affix for the item.

However, it should be noted here that Memory Strands cannot be used in other non-currency crafting methods, such as fossils or crafting benches.

Pinnacle Crafting Currency

Thanks to Zana, PoE 3.26 adds three new Pinnacle Bosses - The Incarnation of Dread, Neglect and Fear - who drop new loot with unique effects, such as Starcaller Axe, as well as some new exclusive crafting currencies:

• Orb of Remembrance: You can add random memory strands to normal items, or add memory strands to non-Memory-influenced Items.
• Orb of Unravelling: Consumes all remaining Memory Strands on an item to upgrade a random affix to a higher level.
• Orb of Intention: Adds an enchantment to Memory-influenced maps to reduce drop chances and increase the number of loot strands contained within the map.

Changes

In addition to the new crafting mechanics above, the developers have also improved existing systems in the game, such as Betrayal, Recombinator, and Syndicate crafting bench. Next, here will introduce them one by one.

Betrayal

In POE 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas, Betrayal league mechanic, which has existed for more than 10 years, has undergone a major change: Veiled modifiers that were previously unique to it will no longer be obtained through uncovering items.

Now, they have become the core of the current game. When you find some Veiled Items in a boss encounter or some endgame maps, you can right-click at any time to open Unveil screen, which greatly facilitates the player’s exploration process.

Betrayal changes bring back Veiled Chaos Orb to the game, which can allow you to reforge rare items with random modifiers and add Veiled Modifier to them.

However, in the current game content, it has been renamed Veiled Exalted Orb, and its effectiveness has changed a bit: it can remove a random modifier from an item and add a Veiled modifier to it.

Recombinator

Introduced in 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur league, Recombinator was very popular with players when it was first launched because it allowed you to combine two non-unique items with the same base into an item with a random combination of modifiers.

However, due to the randomness of the modifiers that are included in the final items, many players have received completely useless or extremely bad modifiers after handing in some items, which has caused a lot of complaints.

So in this update, the developers have added an option for players to choose their desired modifiers to make this random event a fixed event that players can create.

Syndicate Crafting Bench

In previous game content, completing the raid of Syndicate safehouses and spending POE currency awarded to you to craft high-quality gear was a favorite among players. Previously, players only received crafting materials and currency, but now, the crafting bench will also have pre-generated craftable items and other rewards.

Above are some of the new additions and production changes that the developers have brought to players with Path of Exile 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas. In fact, judging from the live and update notes held by the developers, this new league must be a carnival for new and old exiles, and everyone can feel the sincerity and repentance of the developers in it. I wish you a happy game!

In Path of Exile 3.26: Secrets Of The Atlas, the developers have launched a new Challenge League, Mercenaries of Trathus. In this league, you will encounter evil mercenaries from Trathus and have a duel of courage and faith with them. If you lose, only death awaits you, but if you win, you will be able to harvest them as powerful helpers on your exploration.

So, as your most important companions on the road, the ability of these mercenaries is related to how far you can go and whether you can survive in the mysterious Atlas of Worlds. Although these Mercenaries have exclusive skill configurations, we can still provide them with other equipment to maximize their potential.

Here, let’s talk about the unique items that are best suited for your mercenaries at different stages to help you better kill enemies and win loot! Let’s take a look!

Early Gear (High Budget)

Kingmaker

In the early stages, if you have a higher budget, Kingmaker has a significant effect that will satisfy you! This is a two-handed axe that is very popular in Animate Guardian.

It will also be very popular for mercenaries in the 3.26 league, so this weapon will be worth a lot of currency in Trade League. But if you can get one, you can get amazing bonuses from this weapon and it gives +10 Fortification to allies near you, which is especially useful.

If you haven’t played melee yet and don’t have access to Fortification, it also has 50% Critical Strike Multiplier, Culling Strike, and 30% increased Rarity of Items found, which is why this weapon is so popular.

The Dark Seer

Another high-budget option is The Dark Seer, which applies Malediction debuff to enemies. Both Blind and Malediction are useful effects for your mercenaries, reducing the damage done by the target by 10% and increasing the damage taken by 10%.

As such, you can also invest in ways to trigger Blind debuff, such as Blinding Aura prefix on Redeemer Body Armour, and this weapon also provides universal spell gem levels.

Anathema

This unique ring increases your curse limit to equal your maximum number of Power Charges.

Although the full game is still unreleased, we can see from the trailer that there are several mercenaries with curse skills, and using Anathema can increase the mercenary’s curse limit to three.

If you want, you can even go a step further and increase the maximum Power Charges scaling by investing POE Currency. However, it is incredible for a mercenary to have three curses, even if you are unlikely to increase the available skills through items.

So, if you find a mercenary who already has a good curse that fits your build, you can use Anathema to add two more curses to it.

Kaom’s Binding

This is an interesting defensive Unique Belt that allows nearby enemies to convert some of their physical damage into fire damage. This is very powerful when combined with the new Elementalists ability Shaper of Flames, which causes enemies you set ablaze to have 40% of their physical damage converted to fire damage.

Since both damage conversions are made in the enemy calculation, they stack, for a total of 65% of damage converted to fire damage, which you can mitigate with increased fire resistance.

Mutewind Pennant

For shields, Mutewind Pennant is a brilliant choice, and works extremely well with mercenaries using Warcry with buffs attached. This sets the cooldown of Warcry to 4 seconds and also provides some enhanced buffs.

Additionally, it provides additional clearing when your mercenaries are actually taunting an enemy, which is when they use Warcry, but may also be using other abilities they have at the same time. They create an explosion on death that deals chaos damage equal to 8% of their maximum life.

Dying Breath

For weapons, Dying Breath is a great all-around support option, providing a lot of curse scaling for any curses cast on nearby enemies, while also giving you a small damage bonus.

On top of that, it also provides a pleasant bonus to auras used by mercenaries, and those auras also have a larger radius of effect, so you’re less likely to be out of their range.

Early Gear (Low Budget)

Belt Of The Deceiver

Of course, we haven’t forgotten some of you who don’t have a lot of POE Currency budgets early in the game, so let’s get back to some more affordable options.

Among them, Belt of the Deceiver is a heavy belt that reduces the extra damage you take on critical hits by 30% and increases global physical damage by 15%-25%. Especially early in the gear upgrade, it can trigger Intimidated debuff, causing nearby enemies to take increased damage from attacks.

Shaper’s Seed

Shaper’s Seed is another item that is very suitable for early gear upgrades, as you can equip it very early and provide a lot of life regeneration and mana regeneration.

The Ignomon & Eclipse Solaris

Both The Ignomon and Eclipse Solaris are great defensive gear that are great value for money, and both grant Blind Aura, so they're great for evasion-focused characters.

Dreadarc

If you’re building a fire-based build, you can use Dreadarc early on. It’s a great value weapon that you can equip on your mercenaries to easily gain Flammability while reducing enemy fire resistance.

Endgame Gear

Perquil’s Toe

Next, let’s move on to some of the more interesting mercenary gear choices for the endgame.

Perquil’s Toe is a Gold Amulet that grants a lucky damage roll to nearby allies, meaning the damage roll is rolled twice and you can choose the more favorable outcome. This works really well for Lightning Strike builds, especially since they usually have a very large damage roll range.

Beyond that, it’s also great for bleed builds using Volatility Support and Ryslatha’s Coil, and is great for strength sackers using Replica Alberon’s Warpath, as they get increased chaos damage for every 80 strength, and it rolls from 1 to 80. So luck damage is incredibly valuable for those builds as well.

Eternal Damnation

We don’t know how tanky mercenaries are going to be at this point, especially with more endgame content. So you might want to consider equipping your mercenaries with something like Eternal Damnation, especially for mercenaries that don’t have any charge-generating gear.

If you need to limit their chaos resistance with other gear, this amulet can also provide some incredible elemental damage reduction and has a similar effect.

The Untouched Soul

There’s also The Untouched Soul, which is another very interesting amulet. We don’t know what the life of a normal mercenary is at this point, will it be similar to a normal player character, or more like an Animate Guardian?

If the mercenary ends up being very fragile, The Untouched Soul is an interesting option, as this doesn’t seem to take up any of their equipment slots, meaning you can make the most of every empty slot on every piece of equipment you give them. You can use white slots to boost their elemental resistances, or red slots to boost life.

If you’re more concerned with the survivability of your mercenary, you can pair it with something like Doppelgänger to take advantage of the strong life regeneration it provides, or block shield, or even Gruthkul’s Pelt to gain life. This should greatly increase their survivability.

Xoph’s Heart

Xoph’s Heart is a talisman for fire-base builds that can trigger Covered In Ash, which causes nearby enemies to be covered in ash, slowing their movement speed and increasing the fire damage they take by 20%.

Polaric Devastation

Polaric Devastation is a ring slot option that you can place in a specific slot to get Covered In Ash for fire-base builds or Covered In Frost for cold-base builds.

But unlike Xoph’s Heart, this does require more investment and a little more focus on the specific mercenary you’re using to make sure you’re either setting fire to or freezing enemies to benefit from these debuffs. Honestly, setting fire is pretty easy to get with mercenary skills or items equipped by the mercenary, but freezing is a little more difficult.

Call Of The Void

You can also use another powerful ring on your mercenary, Call of the Void. This ring makes all of the mercenary’s damage have a frozen effect and causes enemies frozen by the mercenary to shatter upon death.

But most importantly, freezing enemies will deal half the damage and half the frozen effect. So this is a very powerful defensive choice, it will not only make enemies move slower, but also deal less damage. You can pair Winterweave with another ring slot on your mercenary so that all damage they take is frozen.

Outro

In short, there are a lot of different equipment that mercenaries can use, so you have endless possibilities in terms of weapons and equipment choices. Here, we only provide you with the most suitable items for your reference based on different stages of the game, but all of them need to be based on your game style and play style. Hope you have a nice day!