How To Successfully Obtain The All-Important Essence Of Water In POE 2? - By Defeating Azarian, The Forsaken Son
You will explore three acts of the popular Path of Exile 2 Early Access game, each with unfamiliar landscapes and story missions. In Act 2, you will travel to the Vastiri Desert and pursue Beast of Corruption.
In this process, you will first need to assemble Horn of Orbala, and its three parts are distributed in three different missions. The City of Seven Waters quest to find Essence of Water is arguably the most difficult of the three missions, as you will have to fight against Azarian, The Forsaken Son, who guards this essence.
Although your build is relatively mature after reaching Act 2, your combat ideas and strategies may not be enough to fight against Azarian, so this guide will give you specific instructions on how to find this boss and some countermeasures and strategies you can use against its attacks, so that you can defeat it as quickly as possible and obtain some very valuable loot.
Azarian’s Location
As mentioned earlier, Azarian, The Forsaken Son is the final boss of The City of Seven Waters quest, which will take you to Keth in Act 2. So after you pass through Keth, Lost City, and finally Buried Shrines, you will see Azarian guarding the tomb of Water Goddess.
What you need to pay attention to here is that your fight with Azarian will take place in a square arena, so you will clearly see that this arena has a border. But don’t rush into it yet. Please check if your build is strong enough at the nearest checkpoint.
Moves Of Azarian
After you prepare a strong build, you can start to step into the arena where you fight Azarian. You need to pay attention to the fact that there is a large brazier in each corner of this arena. No matter you or Azarian, as long as they hit one brazier, they will explode and spread the fire to all corners of the arena. So please put some gear with good fire resistance in your build as much as possible and spend some POE 2 Exalted Orbs to upgrade them to the highest level possible.
Also, if all four braziers are destroyed, most of the arena will be covered in fire, with the center being the safest location. Don’t rush into them, though, as Azarian will frequently move to your position and attack from the center of the arena, so keep moving to avoid taking more serious damage.
Below is every attack Azarian will use during this fight and some ways to deal with it. However, since each player’s play style is different, some strategies can be modified, but always stay safe.
Flaming Advance
First, Azarian will charge forward in a straight line while spinning his weapon in the air, dealing damage with each swing. But you’ll see that the boss has a charging phase before it attacks you, which you can use to dodge and cast some damaging skills at it from a safe distance.
Fireball Toss
At this point, you’ll see Azarian thrust his arms into the ground and throw a few cone-shaped fireballs. This attack sometimes creates a wall of fire along the path of the fireballs for a few seconds. Note that the fireballs thrown by the boss will be in the opposite direction of the direction it pulled them out of the ground, so you can easily determine the direction of the fireballs and dodge them.
Flame Shot
After casting Fireball Toss, Azarian will bring you another attack with fire damage - Flame Shot. Here, he will open his arms back and then extend them forward, shooting a cone of fire. So you can move to his sides to avoid this attack when his arms start to open.
Flame Slam
Azarian’s move is pretty predictable, as he’ll raise his arms and then slam them forward in two short cones of fire. The boss will turn slightly when he uses this attack, so dodging as soon as you see him raise his arms will probably get you hit. You should wait until the last possible moment to dodge, which is most effective.
Also Read: How To Get Astramentis Stellar Amulet In Path Of Exile 2?
Best Strategy
Azarian, The Forsaken Son, will use this set of attacks throughout the fight. The most important move to focus on here is Flame Slam, as it deals the most damage and cannot be avoided. In addition, the fire pots that are always present in the arena are also important to pay attention to. Try to avoid breaking them, otherwise your fight may become more difficult.
For the build you use, ranged builds are safer than melee, because most of the attacks cast by the boss can be broken from a long distance. However, when the fire pot explodes, the ranged build will be more affected, because this will force you to get close to the boss in the center of the arena, putting yourself at a disadvantage.
In general, the key to defeating Azarian is to learn its attacks and timing constantly, so that you can successfully obtain the last Horn of Orbala fragment and a large amount of POE 2 Currency and other loot. I wish you a better way to defeat it with the help of this guide and have a good gaming experience!
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As the latest league launched alongside Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, the core mechanic of Fate of the Vaal is Temple of Atziri, reportedly inspired by Incursion league from the first game.
However, since its launch, Temple of Atziri has been plagued with issues. Initially, developers addressed player complaints about insufficient rewards, and have continued to make further optimizations intermittently.
On January 3rd, Path of Exile 2 released three Patch 0.4.0c hotfixes in less than 24 hours, all related to the temple mechanism, leading to speculation about what exactly was happening behind the scenes.
Based on this, this article will focus on Hotfix 14 (the latest at the time of writing) to analyze all the changes to Temple of Atziri and their impact.
Temple of Atziri mechanism overview
Although you should already be familiar with how to participate in this mechanism, it's still necessary to reiterate it for a better understanding of Hotfix content.
Throughout the league, you will encounter Vaal Beacons throughout the world. Defeating nearby monsters will charge the beacons. When five to six beacons are activated across multiple areas, a portal to Vaal Temple will open.
Inside the temple, you can use a console to place or upgrade up to 6 rooms on a 9x9 grid, then visit and complete them in sequence. Connecting rooms also increases the room level, thus increasing the difficulty and rewards.
Notably, Tier 3 rooms offer exclusive crafting opportunities, such as further corrupting items through Locus of Corruption, or Flesh Surgeon, which applies temporary but powerful modifiers to your character.
Patch 0.4.0c Hotfix 14 content
This Hotfix was released in the early morning of January 3rd, and its content reduces the number of unstable rooms by 30% when the temple closes, allowing the temple to stabilize at a maximum of around 60 rooms.
Theoretically, this fix allows you to build more interesting temples and provides more opportunities to kill bosses, potentially increasing your overall rewards.
Temple of Atziri is now slightly better to play, but that's about it. In fact, although Temple of Atziri was enhanced compared to its state after Hotfix 13, it is still a net nerf compared to earlier versions.
Will Hotfix 14 satisfy players?
According to the developers' intentions, you should now be able to kill the boss Architect more frequently and rebuild more effectively after defeating them. Furthermore, a shorter temple decay cycle means your survival rate during challenges will also increase.
However, due to differences in player skill and needs, the ideal outcome won't apply to everyone.
For top-tier players, especially the top 1% to 2%, who have already established sophisticated strategies, Hotfix 14 offers almost no benefit, and doesn't even compensate for the losses caused by previous fixes.
For casual players who haven't delved deep into the endgame - perhaps they've run Tier 15 maps but haven't fully mastered them - Hotfix 14 is better than all previous versions.
Furthermore, the reduced economic inflation in PoE 2 doesn't significantly affect these players, as they are not major participants in the economy. These players make up at least 90% of the player base.
The players truly negatively affected by Hotfix 14 are those who haven't reached the top tier but are striving to do so. For them, between Hotfix 12, 13, and 14, not only were their existing advantages stripped away, but they also have to continue facing inflation.
So, how you view Hotfix 14 depends on your current league progress. If you've only completed five or fewer Tier 15 maps, then Hotfix 13 & 14 are beneficial for you. If you've completed five to fifty high-level maps, then everything is a disaster for you.
And if you are one of the few top-tier players, aiming to stay ahead of others will make things easier for you, as it will be difficult for others to catch up in a short time. But if you want to earn more currency, you will definitely be disappointed.
Summary
While Temple of Atziri isn't a perfect mechanism, it's almost impossible for any game to satisfy all players with a particular gameplay mechanic or change, because the needs of different groups vary greatly.
However, the tricky part is that the community as a whole is currently pessimistic about the changes to Temple of Atziri, and many players have even stated that they have already or plan to temporarily stop playing Path of Exile 2 because of this.
We speculate that this is mainly because the development team's modifications to Temple of Atziri mostly involve tweaking various values, without fundamentally optimizing the inherently flawed mechanics.
Therefore, if things continue this way, no matter how many hotfixes are released, Temple of Atziri will remain a shaky "house of cards," unable to be fundamentally improved.
Although dissatisfaction with a single league mechanic won't significantly affect Path of Exile 2, player attrition is not a good sign. Therefore, if PoE 2 wants to release its official version sooner, it's best to address the underlying shortcomings reflected in Temple of Atziri.
In any case, we always have high expectations for Path of Exile 2, a game that excels in many aspects. So we hope the developers can resolve Temple of Atziri mechanics issue as soon as possible and get the game's development back on track.
Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been out for almost a month now, have you found the perfect build for you yet? If not, then this build guide might be exactly what you need.
The build we're sharing here is Mortar Cannon Warbringer. It's a top-tier and versatile one-button build that boasts massive damage output and excellent survivability. Its affordable gear and maintenance costs, along with its ease of use, make it an excellent build for league newcomers, and its powerful damage scaling capabilities will help you transition smoothly into the endgame.
Here, we'll discuss the build's mechanics, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to optimize the skill tree and gear setup to maximize Mortar Cannon Warbringer's damage potential. Let's take a look!
Ascendancy: Warbringer vs. Tactician
For this build's Ascendancy class, we chose Warbringer, but in 0.3.0, we used Tactician class.
This is because Warbringer Ascendancy in patch 0.4.0 is significantly stronger than before in both offense and defense, especially after the buffs in this league.
Now, Imploding Impacts increases all damage taken by all targets except the player, not just physical damage, when they have Fully Broken Armour effect. Since we deal both physical and elemental damage, this Ascendancy is now even more powerful because it also increases elemental damage taken by enemies. This is especially useful against powerful endgame bosses, allowing us to kill them quickly.
In contrast, Tactician focuses on defense through Pin and Deflection Rating, but it doesn't provide any damage reduction or mitigation.
On the other hand, Warbringer's Wooden Wall effect allows 20% of the damage received to be deducted from the health of the nearest totem first, and coupled with high armor, Warbringer is tankier than Tactician.
In addition, Warbringer's Answered Call allows us to summon an extra totem and grants us a skill that triggers Ancestral Spirits when we summon a totem. We can summon four different Ancestral Spirits, each providing different buffs.
Although Tactician's Cannons, Ready! sounds good, increasing totem skill speed by 30%, it's very clunky to use because totems only consume skills when firing projectiles. Since we can still use Pin, the loss from not choosing Tactician is minimal.
Therefore, overall, Warbringer Ascendancy is the best choice for this build in the 0.4.0 league.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Regarding the advantages of this build, I must say its DPS and map clearing speed are excellent. Best of all, this build is very cost-effective; so far, we've only spent 2 Divine Orbs and 340 Exalted Orbs to complete it.
Furthermore, this build offers a relatively safe playstyle. Because Ancestral Spirits you summon can help distract enemies, block attacks, and absorb some damage, you can simply hide behind them and throw grenades from a distance. In addition, there are 14,000 unbuffed armor points, as well as other forms of damage reduction and mitigation to enhance your survivability.
However, the disadvantages are also obvious. As a ranged build, we can't easily tank, meaning in boss fights, we must manually dodge high-damage attacks.
Another point to note is ground effects; because of poor visual effects, you must carefully observe and adjust your position cautiously.
There's also an off-field factor: yes, this build is quite demanding on hardware. If you have a decent computer, you might want to give it a try.
Equipment & Stats
For this build's equipment, our top choice is the unique armor: The Brass Dome, which is the source of most of our armor value. It's recommended to choose a version with higher armor value, although this may require you to invest more PoE 2 currency.
It's worth noting that the key to gaining increased armor is reducing your maximum elemental resistance. Here, we chose -1% to all Maximum Elemental Resistances to gain 721% increased Armour, which is sufficient because we can mitigate elemental damage through armor. Meanwhile, you should stack as much "Armour applying to Elemental Damage" modifier as possible on your armor pieces, helmets, and boots to help your build create a strong defensive barrier.
Additionally, with Tempered Defences node on the passive skill tree, we can easily achieve at least 100% of armor applying to elemental damage. And as mentioned before, we already have 14000 armor even without any buffs.
Therefore, it's crucial to stack as much armor value as possible on your belt and other armor pieces. It's best to choose gear with hybrid armor and evasion rating, as the key node Iron Reflexes converts all evasion rating into armor.
For weapons, Siege Crossbow is the obvious choice because it allows our Grenade skill to fire an extra projectile. It's recommended to choose a Siege Crossbow with at least 500 physical DPS and +6 to all projectile skill levels; other attributes are a bonus.
Next, you can stack flat physical damage on your gloves and jewelry. If you prefer a rare amulet, look for one that provides at least +3 to all projectile skill levels, which will give you the highest damage increase.
Gem Setup
The first support gem I use is Infernal Legion III. This support gem causes summoned minions to take 30% of their maximum life as fire damage per second and ignite nearby enemies, dealing 25% of the minion's maximum life as base fire damage.
More importantly, this gem synergizes well with Exposed Wounds node, causing all your attacks to reduce the armor of targets affected by ailments by 30%, meaning you can quickly reduce enemy armor to 0, completely breaking their defenses.
The only downside of this support gem is that Ancestral Spirits will die quickly. However, we can support them with Elemental Army to give them 30% extra elemental resistance.
Another way to prevent them from dying too quickly is to replace Infernal Legion III with Infernal Legion I. This way, the summoned minions will still burn nearby enemies, but will only deal 20% of their maximum life as fire damage per second.
For other gem setups, you can choose whatever you prefer. Here, we've chosen Cluster Grenade and Payload, which will increase our main grenade attack damage to 299-490% at gem levels 13-20, and gives a 50% chance to trigger another grenade attack.
Another reason we use so many grenades is that we've activated the passive skill - Demolitionist. This grants us 4% extra fire damage for each different grenade launched, based on the number of grenades launched in the past 8 seconds. This means that in boss fights, by continuously launching these grenades, we can easily gain 16% extra fire damage.
So if you want to add another support gem, Heft is also a good option, as it grants 30% extra maximum physical hit damage to supported skills. While not the best, it provides a decent damage boost and is affordable.
Skill Tree
Now, let's talk about the last part - the skill tree setup for Mortar Cannon Warbringer.
In the early game, when you don't have Mortar Cannon yet, it's best to only upgrade Grenade. Honestly, we tried Siege Ballista and Artillery Ballista before, but because of patch 0.4.0 changing their damage calculation, they became very weak. So, in the early stages, we only need to focus on projectile damage nodes and grenade nodes.
After that, quickly unlock the totem-related nodes to reduce the mana cost of summoning totems; and all AOE-related nodes, as AOE skills are very helpful for clearing mobs and fighting bosses. Here, we've activated Gem Enthusiast and Crystallised Immunities.
Gem Enthusiast grants you 5% maximum life, maximum mana, and movement speed bonus if you have at least 10 support gems socketed. Crystallised Immunities make you immune to one Elemental Ailment, namely Chill, Ignite, or Shock. However, you can adjust the support gems according to your current needs.
But note that this build has a relatively low intelligence stat. So, if you want to socket more blue gems to be immune to Chill effect, you need to increase intelligence on the passive tree.
In summary, in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0, Mortar Cannon Warbringer build is a popular choice due to its excellent survivability, powerful damage output, and overall ease of use. It's a powerful and versatile build, especially suitable for the life-based Warrior class, and is both strong and satisfying to play. So, give it a try!
Do you always feel like you don't have enough currency in Path of Exile 2? That's probably because you're wasting it. Patch 0.4.0 introduces some great farming techniques, which, combined with currency-saving tips, can help you quickly accumulate wealth.
Below are three advanced tips for the endgame. These tips can not only save you a lot of currency, but in some cases, even generate income.
Build Your Own High-Tier Maps
High-tier maps, especially Tier 16 maps, are a major source of income for players in the endgame. They are very valuable. and a finished Tier 16 map can sell for around 60 Exalted Orbs. Instead of directly seeking maps from other players on the market, a more economical and efficient approach is to build your own using your currency.
First, you need to choose a base map. It's recommended to start training with a relatively low Tier map, such as a Tier 14 or Tier 15 map.
First, use Exalted Orb directly on the map to add affixes, then use a Vaal Orb to corrupt it. Corruption has a chance to upgrade the map to Tier 16 or give it high-value affixes. and such maps can be sold on the auction house for profit.
You can also use Atlas skill tree to increase the drop rate of Waystones on the map, ensuring a supply of modification materials. Also, don't forget the classic crafting recipe: putting three maps of the same tier into Reforging Bench will create a higher-tier map. and this is also a low-cost way to obtain higher-tier maps.
By modifying maps yourself, you have a chance to gamble for high-value results to sell. Even if you don't, you've only consumed currency and obtained a usable map, which is more cost-effective than directly trading finished Waystones to other players.
Additionally, you need to ensure your build can farm maps without stress. If your character isn't strong enough and dies on Tier 16 maps, then the map is completely wasted.
Double Corruption Skill Gems
With the introduction of Temple mechanic, players now have the opportunity to double-corrupt skill gems, obtaining exceptional gems that surpass normal limits.
The normal limit for a skill gem is level 20 and 20% quality. Through corruption, it can become level 21 or 23% quality. Double Corruption, however, allows you to simultaneously reach the ultimate form of level 21 and 23 quality, resulting in a massive damage boost.
You can directly search for level 21 and 23 quality corrupted gems for your core skill on the auction house. These are usually very valuable and may require several Divine Orbs, but this is the most direct way to upgrade.
A more economical method is to attempt corruption yourself. This process involves risk, but the rewards are also very high if successful.
You will first need a level 20, 20 quality normal skill gem, as well as Perfect Fossil and Jeweller's Orb to ensure it is 5-linked. Remember not to use your equipped core skill gem. and use a spare one until you successfully acquire the skill gem you need.
Then, use a Vaal Orb for your first corruption. If you successfully upgrade the skill gem's quality to 23% or its level to 21%, you can choose not to continue corrupting and sell it directly, thus still making a profit.
If you intend to continue corrupting, you need to use Crystallized Corruption in Corruption Chamber of Temple. This operation will unpredictably alter the corrupted skill gem again. If you successfully obtain a level 21, 23% quality gem, you will make a fortune, but it may also destroy it.
Before proceeding, carefully consider its market value and calculate the consumption of acquiring a finished gem, acquiring a regular gem for self-corruption, and a semi-finished skill gem. Based on the current exchange rate between Exalted Orb and Divine Orb, choose the most cost-effective option.
Obtaining Idols through Orb of Extraction
Patch 0.4.0 introduced a new PoE 2 currency, Orb of Extraction, which can destroy items and return the socketed items within them.
Patch 0.2.0 introduced Idols, which are socketed items that can be placed into equipment. These items can be socketed into Idol Sockets to provide powerful bonuses, enhancing equipment like affixes. Some high-demand Idols might be worth hundreds of Exalted Orbs.
Orb of Extraction isn't very valuable. and it might only take a few Exalted Orbs to obtain. Destroying equipment with socketed Idols is a better option than directly trading Idols with other players.
Don't search for Idols directly. Instead, search the auction house for socketed equipment, especially equipment with socketed Idols, and search for Idols attribute you want.
You'll often find that a piece of junk equipment with socketed Idols has a total value far lower than the value of Idol itself. You can save a significant amount of money by simply trading the equipment and then using Orb of Extraction to extract Idol. You can usually obtain your desired Idols for half the consumption or even less.
These methods only help you save on currency consumption. and the fastest way to earn currency is still to farm. Remember to check their market value before using any of these methods.
Temple mechanic in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 initially caused player dissatisfaction due to its cumbersome mechanics and low rewards. Subsequent patches improved the mechanic significantly, and some players exploited a bug to farm large amounts of currency using this mechanic, even causing inflation.
However, since Temples do not produce Omens, farming Omens remains highly valuable even in an inflationary environment. If you don't want to study the seasonal mechanics but still want to farm currency, this strategy is much simpler.
Waystones
- Minimum requirements: Six affixes, corrupted T15 Maps.
Adding affixes to maps can significantly increase rewards, but using only T15 Maps from Orb of Alchemy is far from enough; you must use at least two Exalted Orbs to add affixes.
Vaal Orb is also recommended because it offers two good results: either corrupting the map to T16 while retaining all six affixes, or adding 1-2 additional affixes, resulting in up to 8 Modified Maps.
Since these maps are quite difficult, dying midway through renders the entire map useless. Therefore, it's recommended to use Regal Orb and Orb of Scouring to modify the difficulty affixes. You can filter out Waystones containing affixes that reduce maximum resistance and Penetration.
Table
Since the core of the entire farming strategy is to generate as many pits as possible on the map, it's absolutely essential to ensure your Table has Abyss affix.
Affixes like adding Abyss to the map, having a chance to add extra Abysses, and each closed pit increasing difficulty and reward are all highly desirable.
However, note that when using multiple Abyss Tablets, their inherent affix "Adds Abysses to a Map" effect does not stack. The only way to increase Abyss Pit is by including Additional Abyss chance affix, or the waystone affix "Map contains an additional Abyss guaranteed."
You don't always have to use three Abyss tablets. You can choose to enhance the map boss. Common non-Abyss affixes include "Monsters have increased Effectiveness," "Increased Rarity of Items found in your Map," or maps with Delirium affix, but using Abyss Tablets is probably the best and least expensive option.
Atlas Passive Tree
Abyss Atlas Passive Tree
Abyss Atlas Passive Tree at the bottom of the map is the node you should focus on most. You have 8 assignable nodes; it's recommended to assign them in the following order.
- Balance of Power (From Out of the Pit)
- Depths Chance
- Unholy Influence
- Depths Chance
- Sprawling Ruptured
- Depths Chance
- Depths Chance
- Stir the Swarm
From Out of the Pit option in the upper right corner of Balance of Power is mandatory. It provides a "25% increased effectiveness of Abyssal monsters," increasing item quantity and thus the chance of Omens dropping.
Stir the Swarm node provides the "nearby maps are overrun by Abyssal" modifier. Although it only has a 5% chance, it means that once this map appears, there will definitely be a lot of Abyssal pits.
General Talent Tree
The general Atlas Passive Tree doesn't have any particularly noteworthy nodes. This talent tree mainly greatly increases Tablet Effect, while selecting some Shrines nodes can reduce the challenge pressure of high-difficulty maps.
It's recommended to read the node descriptions before running your Atlas Passive Tree and leave all Swamp and Water Biomes maps for last.
You can also replace some less important nodes like "2% Quantity" or "2-3% Rarity" with Local Knowledge node. This provides a 40% increase to the base currency drop rate for Swamp and Water Biomes maps, making it a very good choice.
How to Farm Omen?
If you're only aiming for Omen of Light and Omen of Abyssal Echoes, map type doesn't matter much. If you also want to harvest Divine Orbs, Cleansed Areas biomes are the best choice.
These map provide additional monster groups that tend to drop POE 2 currency and may have the +1 to monster level affix. Combined with T16 Maps, you'll obtain a large number of high-level Valuable Bases.
How to Obtain Omens?
Omen of Light and Omen of Abyssal Echoes are high-demand consumables used in top-tier crafting, and their demand typically increases with the season.
Abyss spawns specific Abyssal Rares, which may have special affixes. You need to look for monsters with the affix "Amanamu's Void." These monsters are easily identifiable by the large black cloud that spawns beneath their feet.
As long as the monster is within its own cloud, it is immune to damage unless you are also standing in the same cloud.
You must lure the monster out of the cloud and kill it as it emerges. If you kill the monster while it is still inside the cloud, it will drop the lowest-value Omens.
Waiting for it to emerge requires patience; you may need to kite the monster for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Using a build with Freeze or other controllable abilities will be more stable.
Using a loot filter that highlights different Omens is crucial. It provides instant feedback on whether your actions were correct. If you kill a monster but no Omens are highlighted on the ground, you'll know you made a mistake.
To run this strategy, you only need to prepare Atlas Passive Tree and Tables beforehand, and then you can focus on farming monsters. This might require some investment, but overall you'll profit.
