What To Do When You Encounter Draven In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access?
The much-anticipated Path of Exile 2 Early Access features many unique gameplay features from the original, and one of the most exciting is the bosses with unique combat mechanics. For new Exiles who are new to this new game, Eternal Praetor Draven may be the first tough boss encountered in the game.
You will encounter it during Sorrow Among Stones’ quest in Act 1, and it is also required to complete the current map and unlock Lachlann of Endless Lament. New Exiles can learn from this boss the tone of the game style set by POE 2 - it requires great patience to deal with any situation that may arise in the boss’ encounter.
To prevent you from losing your confidence in exploring in this difficult first battle, this guide will introduce you to the specific attacks of Eternal Praetor Draven and what strategies you should use to deal with it. This is worth taking the time to learn, because it will be very useful for subsequent bosses with the same combat mechanism.
Pre-Battle Preparation
First, we need to understand that Draven will use Area Blocking actions in battle to prevent you from moving freely, so in terms of class selection, those that can provide ranged attacks will be higher than those that emphasize melee attacks, such as Mercenary or Sorceress.
In addition, it is also very necessary to use some POE 2 Exalted Orbs to upgrade the rarity of your weapons and armor before the battle. This will greatly improve your character’s survivability and combat ability to achieve the ending of defeating it in one go.
In-Battle Strategy
After you have built your build to be almost perfect, you can enter the arena where you and Draven fight. It is important to note that you need to interact with the last checkpoint before entering the arena, so that if you die in the battle, you will be reborn here without having to start over.
Now, let’s take a look at how Draven will attack you. In general, it mainly uses 6 attack modes, and the specific methods of each attack are as follows.
- Basic Sword Combo: The boss will use its sword to hit you 4 times in a combo.
- Necrotic Bolts: The boss will continue to swing its sword, but the swing range is very large, and it will shoot large cones of necrotic energy arrows at you.
- Double Necrotic Bolts: Same as the previous attack method, but it will shoot two waves of necrotic energy arrows at you.
- Necrotic Sword Wave: The boss will stomp on the ground before swinging the sword, which will create two necrotic energy lines, which can send out two shockwaves that can cause medium damage to you.
- Summon Minions: The boss will summon some ghostly minions around the arena, which form a hole. Once you step into it, you will be attacked by Draven’s sidekick, the Eternal Knight, with powerful attacks.
- Summon Asinia: The boss will shout out the name of this ghostly companion and Asinia will create 3-4 necrotic rune circles on the ground that will explode after a few seconds dealing moderate damage. In addition, the diameter of the last necrotic runic circle will be larger than the previous ones.
As mentioned above, the key to defeating Draven is your patience and righteous judgment. If you know where Draven is standing and what direction he is moving when he casts each move, you will find that the above attacks are very easy to dodge. If you find it difficult to complete this battle while exploring alone, you can also take advantage of the game’s new multiplayer feature, which allows your friends to team up with you and teleport into Draven’s battle, which will greatly reduce the difficulty of the battle.
For those moves that can fire arrows, the best solution is to move behind Draven when he starts or prepares to attack, or move away from him to increase the gap between each arrow. But it should be noted that this requires your build to be highly mobile, and you can achieve this effect by investing a lot of POE 2 Currency in key attributes such as movement speed.
For attacks such as Necrotic Sword Wave that damage the entire arena, the safest place you can stand is next to Draven. Since there is no specific Item in POE 2 that can help you immunize against explosion damage, your only option is to avoid or block this type of damage.
As for the spell damage caused by Summon Minions, you can completely avoid it as long as you stay away from the green ghosts around the arena. But if you are using a Class that needs to collect abilities and charge them during combat to launch powerful attacks, you can try it, but make sure you are safe.
Of all the attacks, Summon Asinia is the most troublesome for players. The necrotic runic circles created by Asinia on the ground are difficult to avoid in this chaotic battle, but as long as your character is flexible enough, you can avoid the last circle in time. But note that the role of dodging here is not very obvious, so you can give up this method.
After you learn these battle strategies, in fact, after a few failed attempts, it is easy to grasp the situation and recognize the attack patterns well enough to avoid any attack Draven throws at you.
Post-Battle Rewards
After you defeat Draven, besides the normal loot, you can also receive Draven’s Memorial Key Piece, which is one of the key fragments required in Sorrow Among Stones’ quest. Another fragment is in the hands of Draven’s wife Asinia, who can be found near another tomb on the same map.
The above are the specific methods and strategies for you to defeat Draven, the first powerful boss that appears in front of players in the early access of POE 2. I hope that both old exiles who are familiar with the original and new exiles attracted by the new content can have fun in this game that has been honed for ten years and get more game fun from it!
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Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5 has been live for two weeks. Although this is merely an interim mini-league without a massive amount of new content, players have fully immersed themselves in it, discovering new gameplay mechanics and build possibilities.
Compared to the ongoing Patch 0.5.0, 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites League introduces several commendable changes to PoE 2, though there are still areas that fall short of perfection.
With the full 1.0 launch of PoE 2 approaching after 0.5.5, we are highlighting the shortcomings revealed by this patch. We hope the development team can address these issues promptly to ensure a superior experience for the final release.
Review of new gameplay in 0.5.5
Forbidden Rites League replaces the campaign's Remnants mechanic with Rituals. This allows you to encounter Exiles early on and earn extra PoE 2 currency, or valuable gear to boost your build's power, through these encounters.
While the difficulty spikes sharply as you progress, making it easy to die if your build isn't fully optimized, the mechanic offers a fresh experience and additional ways to generate rewards beyond what was available in 0.5.0.
However, once you reach the endgame, the relevance and profitability of Ritual mechanic begin to wane, eventually becoming lackluster. Unless you specifically tailor your tactics to it, the mechanic tends to fade into the background of your daily farming routine.
Another addition in Patch 0.5.5 is the optimization of Trial of Chaos. By reducing the number of gimmicky room types, more levels now focus on pure combat; simultaneously, the boss arenas have been downsized to create a tighter, more intense combat experience.
Additionally, in the new Trial of Chaos, you can earn top-tier loot by challenging Trialmaster or simply collect Soul Cores. These can be used to enhance your gear setup or sold for currency.
Issues with Atlas system
As the core of Path of Exile 2, Atlas defines the endgame experience, while its associated passive tree determines your character's ultimate potential.
Although the current Atlas system has improved compared to earlier versions, there are still design elements that hinder the overall flow of gameplay.
While acquiring passive points is faster now than before, the issue remains that you must endure a lengthy grind before you can truly begin efficient mapping.
Even if you have allocated the nodes for the main passive tree and those related to Vaal Temple, theoretically enabling you to farm the temple, you won't achieve a truly reliable farming experience without also investing in other areas and Masters of Atlas nodes.
However, doing so forces you to clear a multitude of worthless, throwaway maps just to unlock the necessary pathing nodes, significantly disrupting the momentum of executing your specific mapping strategy.
Another issue is that the feedback and rewards for defeating the boss, Arbiter of Divinity, lack clarity; this not only risks discouraging players but also confuses newcomers unfamiliar with the encounter.
The current mechanics require you to collect fragments and defeat Arbiter of Divinity a second time to fully claim the available points. Faced with such a tedious and unengaging system, you might prefer simply trading for the fragments on the exchange.
We suggest that PoE 2 development team enhance the rewards and sense of accomplishment associated with the first defeat of Arbiter of Divinity, while also allowing players to gradually unlock the remaining Atlas points through open-world gameplay or standard mapping.
Suggestions for QoL improvements
Beyond core gameplay, ensuring a strong launch for Path of Exile 2 version 1.0 requires the development team to prioritize further QoL optimizations.
First, regarding item storage, the game could adopt a feature from the original title: a dedicated mini-stash located near the map interface for storing temporarily acquired maps and currency used for rerolling map modifiers, thereby preventing them from cluttering the main inventory.
Additionally, when encountering Strongboxes or rare enemies within a map, the system should allow players to access currency directly from their main stash or provide a dedicated storage space, eliminating the need to constantly carry around a multitude of miscellaneous orbs.
Furthermore, Tablet configuration system should allow players to preset and instantly switch between different tablet combinations to adapt to varying terrain or strategies, reducing the tedium of frequent manual swapping.
Ideally, the development team should also resolve the issue where tablets remain locked in a character's inventory when switching to a different character. In fact, the most efficient solution would be to make tablets shared across all characters on the same account.
It is worth noting that in the current trading market, some unscrupulous players sell used Tablets, which have very few remaining uses, as if they were fresh, fully-charged items.
To mitigate this issue, it would be best to either prohibit the sale of used Tablets entirely or mandate the display of their remaining usage count.
Regarding game balance and mechanics, PoE 2 currently relies too heavily on Hit Damage, making it difficult for DoT and Chaos-based builds to scale effectively in the endgame.
We also recommend that Path of Exile 2 implement a death replay feature. This would allow players to review the source of fatal damage and real-time combat logs, helping them understand exactly why they died and enabling more efficient build optimization. Such a feature would also assist in identifying hidden bugs.
While PoE 2 version 0.5.5 has certainly made strides in campaign innovation and core gameplay improvements, further refinements to the finer details are needed to ensure the final 1.0 release is truly polished. We sincerely hope the development team delivers an official launch in December that satisfies the player base.
Exiles, do you want to experience the thrill of commanding an army of archers and blanketing the entire screen in a rain of arrows in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5? Tactician build we are introducing here is designed exactly for that kind of spectacle.
Centered on Archon of Undead and high-frequency Command skills, Tactician can rapidly clear screens while maintaining a solid defensive position through crowd control, letting your minions handle the suppressive fire!
Core Damage Output
First, Tactician's primary damage comes from Supporting Fire and Command: Death From Above. These skills carry the Minion tag and unleash a massive volley of arrows from your army positioned in the rear.
The damage of a single arrow is already substantial, and the shotgun effect allows multiple arrows to strike the same target; this damage stacking becomes even more devastating against large-sized enemies.
Next, we incorporate Pin II support gem and Tactician's Right Where We Want Them skill. Enemies affected by Pin are immobilized, providing screen-wide crowd control while keeping foes stationary to absorb the full brunt of the arrow barrage.
This combination gives the Tactician screen-clearing and single-target damage capabilities that far exceed expectations.
Rotation Mechanics
Command: Death From Above normally has a cooldown of around 10 seconds, but Archon of Undead provides damage bonuses and accelerates Command skill cooldown recovery. This compresses the cooldown to nearly one second, while the effect lasts for approximately six seconds.
Additionally, any Command skill has a 50% chance to trigger Archon of Undead. We can exploit this by frequently using Command: Explosive Demise from Skeletal Arsonist minion (it is recommended to carry two Skeletal Arsonists to ensure uptime in case one dies unexpectedly).
While Dominion passive reduces the effectiveness of Archon buffs by 50%, it also removes the recovery period, allowing for a continuous uptime window; overall, it remains a worthwhile choice.
Meanwhile, using Command skills generates Puppet Master stacks (up to a maximum of 11). These stacks boost Tactician's skill speed, reduce the movement speed penalty associated with Command skills, and increase minion movement speed.
By frequently using Command skills in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, you can achieve an Archon of Undead uptime of nearly 95%.
Defense and Control
As previously mentioned, Tactician can pin enemies using support gems; this serves as a crucial form of crowd control for the build.
Pinned enemies are immobilized, which not only reduces the damage Tactician takes but also keeps foes within the area of effect of your arrow barrages, ensuring more consistent damage output.
Regarding basic survivability, mechanics such as armor, deflection, resistances, and the armor also applies to elemental damage stat all play a role in Path of Exile 2.
Ideally, your shield should feature Spirit of the Ox or Spirit of the Bear. Spirit of the Ox is generally the priority, as it grants immunity to slows and ailments while providing additional armor and damage reduction.
Additionally, Tactician can utilize defensive items like Romira's Requital (to transfer 10% of damage taken to minions) and Amanamu's Tithe (to gain an Abyssal Monster modifier upon a minion's death).
Minion Setup
Regarding minion selection, Skeletal Arsonist will be commanded frequently; therefore, its skill level should not be too high, or the mana cost of Command: Explosive Demise will become unmanageable.
Meanwhile, Skeletal Brute can be linked with Muster to amplify minion damage, Armour Demolisher II to accelerate Armour Break, and Lightning Attunement to add lightning damage and facilitate Shock application.
Thunderstorm allows Tactician to apply more reliable Shock effects during boss encounters in PoE 2, further stabilizing overall damage output.
Equipment Configuration
Scepter
Choose a scepter base that increases the maximum stacks of Puppet Master, boosts Spirit, and raises the level of summoning skills; mana regeneration affixes are also highly beneficial.
A Shining Scepter base provides free Purity of Fire and Purity of Lightning auras, whereas a Stoic Scepter focuses more on supplementing Energy Shield.
Gloves
Players should select armor-based gloves with high armor values; using Leather Bound Gauntlets allows your armor to simultaneously provide an equal amount of Evasion.
Body Armor
For body armor, a Death Mail or similar defensive chest piece - supplemented with movement speed and resistances - will greatly benefit Tactician.
Rings
Prioritize finding rings with Cooldown Recovery Rate and Minion Damage modifiers for Tactician; critical strike modifiers are only valuable if you choose to use Omen Scepter (introduced in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5).
Amulet
Ideally, your amulet should provide +4 to Summoning Skill Levels and resistances, and have Dominion passive allocated.
Additionally, if you need to address resistance issues, a Mageblood paired with Legacy of Bismuth can simultaneously solve your resistance problems while significantly boosting Tactician's movement speed and overall power.
PoE 2 currency for sale can help you quickly acquire this key gear, making Tactician build process much smoother.
Further Upgrades
Once you achieve high uptime for Archon of Undead, the movement speed, resistances, and immunities provided by the associated passives will alleviate the build's resistance requirements.
For further progression, you can focus on upgrades like a two-socket scepter and a higher Puppet Master proc rate to build a more robust defensive system for your minions.
In short, the core strategy for Tactician build in PoE 2 is to maintain stacks of Archon of Undead and Puppet Master while cycling your Command skills frequently!
As a classic melee Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2, Warbringer dominated the game early in Patch 0.5.0 with a build centered on Sadist's Mercy mace. With the launch of Patch 0.5.5, a few configuration tweaks allow this build to remain highly effective!
If you are looking to try a new melee build, or have been playing Warbringer but want to make a breakthrough in Forbidden Rites league, give this Brutus Strength-Stacking Warbringer build a try!
What are the pros of this build?
Specifically, the new PoE 2 0.5.5 Warbringer build switches to Brutus' Lead Sprinkler Morning Star mace to create a melee build based on strength-stacking.
By leveraging synergies between Warbringer passives, shield mechanics, and Turtle Charm, this build can easily stack block chance to 94% in actual combat.
This means that, aside from a few lethal Red Slams that require manual dodging, you can parry the vast majority of physical and elemental attacks from standard monsters and bosses.
Furthermore, combining this with Iron Reflexes allows you to convert all evasion rating into armor.
By supplementing Strength stats via gloves and boots, and utilizing modifiers that apply Armour to elemental damage, you can effectively mitigate elemental damage, resulting in superior survivability.
Most importantly, unlike other popular builds that require top-tier gear, the cost of acquiring and crafting the gear for this build is relatively low in terms of currency. It offers a high return on investment, making it an excellent choice when resources are scarce.
Core mechanic breakdown
To properly craft and utilize this build, it is essential to understand the specific sources of its damage and survivability.
As the absolute core of the build, Brutus' Lead Sprinkler mace not only provides a massive base health bonus but also directly converts your high Strength attribute into substantial added fire damage.
Compared to Lightning or traditional Critical Strike builds, fire damage offers multiple avenues to achieve 100% resistance penetration, reducing enemy resistances to zero or even negative values, giving it significantly higher potential value than other elemental types.
Meanwhile, Brutus Strength-Stacking Warbringer build centers on the aftershock mechanic of Earthshatter. By combining the Branching Fissure support gem with Splitting Ground passive skill, you drastically increase the number of spikes generated by a single attack.
Each subsequent Aftershock explosion not only deals massive mixed Physical and Fire damage but also reliably triggers Molten Shower skill inherent to Brutus' Lead Sprinkler, dealing widespread, multi-hit damage via a dense barrage of falling fire projectiles.
By allocating Roaring Cries passive, you can consistently generate Rage when using a Warcry, even without enemies nearby. Combining Enraged Warcry with Raging Cry allows you to consume Rage to completely bypass the inherent cooldowns of your Warcry skills.
Further incorporating Infernal Cry grants up to 57% additional Fire damage. At the maximum stack of 48 Rage, you gain an additional 48% bonus, resulting in a massive boost to your damage output.
Additional passive skills
Beyond the passives mentioned above, successfully crafting this build during Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5 requires allocating all passives that enhance shield block chance and block effectiveness.
For instance, the node that restores life upon blocking provides exceptional survivability through frequent blocks.
Meanwhile, the passive node granting 30% block chance when enemies are nearby is crucial for pushing your block chance to its absolute limit.
Regarding offensive nodes, unlocking Jack of All Trades allows you to leverage the all-attribute bonuses provided by your gear for substantial overall gains; Lay Siege capitalizes on the mechanic where every 1% of block chance grants a 1% damage boost.
More gear options
Undoubtedly, Brutus' Lead Sprinkler mace is the core of this PoE 2 build, but selecting optimal items for other slots will further enhance combat efficiency.
For instance, equipping Constructing Command Viper Cap in the helmet slot, paired with Defy support gem, allows you to bypass mana costs and cast high-level skills more smoothly.
As previously mentioned, Turtle Charm works with Ascendancy passives to provide additional block bonuses. For rings, Vendor's Gamble is recommended to benefit from high health, Spirit, and bonuses to all three elemental resistances.
If you wish to further improve survivability while using Brutus' Lead Sprinkler, pair it with Svalinn Girded Tower Shield for exceptionally high block chance and cast speed.
If you are aiming for maximum damage output, you could opt for a damage-oriented unique shield, though this will reduce your block chance; proceed according to your build's needs and limitations.
When selecting or crafting boots, prioritize modifiers such as movement speed, Strength, base health, resistances, and armor that applies to elemental damage. For gloves, focus more on attack speed and added physical or fire damage.
Practical gameplay
Once you have assembled the basic Brutus Strength-Stacking Warbringer build in PoE 2 0.5.5 using the details above, you are ready for action, provided you execute the skills in the correct order.
Start with your primary damage skill, Earthshatter. Enhance it with Faster Attacks support gem to speed up execution, Branching Fissures to generate more spikes, and Fire Penetration to shred enemy fire resistance and maximize damage.
Simultaneously, utilize Warcry system: Infernal Cry provides extra fire damage, while Enraged Warcry / Raging Cry generates Rage based on the strength of nearby enemies or your own roar, allowing you to chain-cast Warcries by consuming that Rage.
Compared to Path of Exile 2 caster builds, where a barrage of special effects often obscures the player's view, this build features relatively clear attack trajectories, ensuring that visual effects do not excessively hide ground-based danger zones.
Furthermore, even when you are deep within a dense crowd of enemies, mechanics such as a high block rate combined with health recovery on block allow you to easily stabilize your health.
This creates a virtuous cycle where the more enemies there are, the higher your damage output, and the safer you become.
That covers everything for this build. If you're interested, why not craft it right away and use it to progress through version 0.5.5? Best of luck!
After completing the campaign of Path of Exile 2 Forbidden Rites and the subsequent Interlude, you will reach the endgame. The core of the endgame system is Atlas passive skill tree. It boosts item rarity and the number of rare monsters within maps, while also increasing Waystone drop rates - ensuring a steady supply of map resources as you progress from Tier 1 to Tier 15.
Patch 0.5.5 introduced a crucial change to Atlas progression flow. Previously, unlocking all Atlas passive points required defeating the Arbiter of Divinity five times; in Forbidden Rites, this requirement has been reduced to just two kills, significantly shortening the time needed to fully develop your Atlas setup.
Once you have completed the initial Atlas unlocks, you can shift your focus from map progression to maximizing profits much sooner. Let's look at how to efficiently plan your Atlas to boost your endgame returns.
Phase 1: Quickly Unlocking Atlas Passive Points
Starting Strategy: Don't Start at Tier 1
Upon entering the endgame, Doryani gives you a Tier 1 Waystone. However, if your build is already combat-ready, there is no need to slowly climb up from Tier 1. The game's experience penalty mechanics allow a level 64 character to kill level 71 enemies without losing out on experience gains, so you can absolutely start progressing using higher-tier Waystones right away.
Core Principle: Speed-Run Bosses, Skip Mechanics
While you are still working to unlock all your Atlas points, there is only one priority: complete maps as quickly as possible to unlock those points.
This means rushing straight to the boss upon entering a map, rather than clearing out every single monster. Also, remember not to use Tablet infusion mechanics, upgrade maps with Orbs of Alchemy or Regal Orbs, or spend time on league mechanics like Rituals or Breaches.
The reason for this is that, without the bonuses provided by Atlas passive points, the returns from these mechanics are extremely low. Take Ritual mechanic as an example: without specific Ritual passive points, the Favor you earn is insufficient to purchase rare items. You are forced to rely on Defer function - saving desired rewards for future Ritual encounters - meaning the actual return on investment is quite limited.
Second Kill of Arbiter of Divinity: Claiming All Remaining Atlas Points at Once
Another significant change in version 0.5.5 concerns the use of Origin Core.
After completing Precursor Fortress main questline, you must clear Patriarch Halls and Matriarch Halls to obtain Origin Spark and Origin Cradle, respectively. You then combine these two items to create an Origin Core and defeat Arbiter of Divinity.
There is a crucial mechanic here: defeating the boss for the first time using the quest-rewarded Origin Core does not immediately grant you all the remaining Atlas points. However, if you defeat Arbiter of Divinity a second time using a non-quest version of Origin Core, you can instantly complete the entire Precursor Fortress and claim all remaining Atlas passive points in one go.
Therefore, the primary goal of the second kill isn't simply to fight the boss again, but to secure the remaining Atlas points in a single step.
If you prefer not to traverse the world map again to hunt for Origin Spark and Cradle, you can simply use PoE 2 currency to acquire a finished Origin Core. This allows you to skip the material-gathering phase, proceed directly to the second Arbiter kill, and quickly max out your remaining Atlas points.
Phase 2: Mid-Game Mapping - Expedition and Delirium
Expedition: A Reliable Source of Divine Orbs and Perfect Jeweller's Orbs
Once you have maxed out your Atlas points, your mapping strategy should shift from speed-running to maximizing profit. The first mechanic worth prioritizing is Expedition.
You can unlock Expedition content at Ruins of Kingsmarch, located in the southeast section of Atlas. Completing the associated quests grants you access to Grand Expeditions.
Grand Expeditions have a critical Tier requirement: you must use Tier 14 maps or higher to ensure Vaal Monolith rolls the maximum possible modifier values. Using maps below Tier 14 results in significantly reduced rewards from Remnants.
In Tier 15 Grand Expeditions, Remnants can drop high-value items such as Divine Orbs, Perfect Jeweller's Orbs, and Masterwork Runes. Completing Expedition storyline also unlocks specific Expedition Atlas points, further enhancing the quality of rewards from Remnants.
Delirium: 200% Delirium and Liquid Emotions Returns
Once Expedition farming is stabilized, the next mechanic worth investing in is Delirium. Starting from Hilda's Campsite, head to Withered Willow to complete the Delirium encounter chain and unlock the corresponding Atlas passive points; then, challenge Simulacrum and Raven.
Running 200% Delirium is a highly efficient mapping strategy in PoE 2 version 0.5.5. Notably, city maps allow for the placement of four Tablets - one more than standard maps - making them key to maximizing returns. A common approach is to use a Grand Mirror to trigger the Delirium fog, gradually raise Delirium level to 200% using surrounding maps, and then farm this high-intensity map repeatedly.
Key rewards include Simulacrum Splinters, complete Simulacrums, high-value currency drops from extra monsters, and Delirium-exclusive Liquid Emotions. The latter often provides a significant source of additional income.
Additionally, you can combine Delirium Tablets with Expedition mechanics to reap rewards from both systems in a single map, balancing experience gains with extra loot.
Phase 3: Unlocking and Utilizing Masters of the Atlas
The endgame of PoE 2 version 0.5.5 features three Masters of the Atlas - Hilda, Doryani, and Jado - each offering 12 passive points. These points directly influence the types of loot you receive and the map's difficulty; proper configuration determines whether you are buried in mediocre spoils or consistently acquire high-value items.
Hilda
Unlocking Hilda is the most straightforward process: she awaits you at Hilda's Campsite, southwest of Ziggurat Refuge. She will mark the location of a Great Beast for you; simply travel there and defeat it to earn Hilda's Master passive points. Her passive tree focuses on enhancing rewards from bosses and powerful enemies, making it ideal for players who rely on boss farming as their primary income source.
Doryani
To unlock Doryani, you must complete Corrupted Nexus map. Doryani focuses more on enhancing Atlas itself and map control - such as boosting Waystone modifier effects, altering map zones, and improving map progression capabilities - making it ideal for players looking to optimize mapping efficiency and command over the Atlas.
Jado
Unlocking Jado requires clearing Anomaly Maps. Jado's passive nodes primarily enhance Strongboxes, map layouts, and Anomaly Maps, with some nodes also boosting the acquisition rate of high-value items like Uniques. If your goal is farming Strongboxes, Uniques, or Anomaly content, Jado is an excellent choice.
Overall, endgame progression in PoE 2 version 0.5.5 follows a clear trajectory: the early stage centers on speed-running maps to quickly unlock Atlas points; the mid-stage shifts toward high-yield mechanics like Expedition and Delirium; and once Atlas setup is established, you configure your Masters of the Atlas passives based on your specific farming objectives.
You might be wondering: if you're on a tight budget in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5 - or even relying solely on gear picked up along the way - is there a build capable of reaching the endgame? The answer is a resounding yes: Disciple of Varashta summoning build.
You'll start as a Sorceress and officially bring the build online once you complete your first Ascendancy at level 20–21 to become a Disciple of Varashta.
It doesn't rely on expensive core items; your minions handle the vast majority of the damage output, while your character simply needs to maintain command skills and key buffs.
Core Mechanics
To summarize the core mechanics of this Disciple of Varashta Summoner: you maximize the bonuses applied to Kelari, the Tainted Sands via your minion systems, stack Muster's more damage multiplier using a variety of minion types, and rely on the permanently active Archon of Undeath buff for burst damage.
In more detail: Kelari, the Tainted Sands counts as a minion during damage calculation, meaning it benefits from both minion damage modifiers and allies in presence deal increased damage bonuses.
Muster support gem grants 7% more damage for each distinct type of minion you have; therefore, the greater the variety of minions, the higher the damage output of Kelari, the Tainted Sands.
By allocating Dominion on your amulet, you can keep Archon of Undeath buff active almost constantly, ensuring Disciple of Varashta Summoner remains powerful throughout PoE 2 combat encounters.
Gear Choices
Weapon
Weapon selection is crucial for this build. You should prioritize a Rattling Scepter that features allies in presence deal increased damage, +1 to Level of all Minion Skills, and the ability to stack Puppet Master charges.
Helmet
For the helmet, aim for high Energy Shield, resistances, and +1 to Level of all Minion Skills.
Body Armour
The goals for the body armour mirror those of the helmet: prioritize high Energy Shield and resistances, while trying to secure +1 to Level of all Minion Skills.
Focus
High Energy Shield and resistances remain the priorities for Focus. Ideally, you want a Focus with +2 to Level of all Minion Skills, though this affix is expensive, so your choice will depend on your PoE2 currency budget.
Gloves
Continuing the approach used for other armor pieces, you should look for Energy Shield and resistances on your gloves, as well as any +1 to Level of All Minion Skills modifiers you can afford in Path of Exile 2.
Boots
Use Bones of Ullr boots; the primary goal is to gain Minion Reservation Efficiency while also providing some movement speed for your Disciple of Varashta setup.
Rings
For your two ring slots, prioritize a Topaz Ring to fill in any missing resistances. For the other slot, use an Evergrasping Ring, as it carries virtually no downsides within Chaos Inoculation system we are utilizing.
Amulet
As previously mentioned, remember to allocate Dominion passive to your amulet; ideally, look for stats like +1 to Level of All Minion Skills and Spirit.
Belt
The belt isn't a critical component for this Disciple of Varashta minion build, though for specific boss encounters, you might consider using one that grants immunity to Corrupted Blood.
Skill Setup
Boss Encounters
When facing bosses, your primary damage skills will be Kelari, the Tainted Sands and Kelari's Deception. Link these with Muster, Concentrated Area, Kurgal's Leash, Hulking Minions, and Bidding III (to improve cooldown recovery).
Kurgal's Leash grants your minions Unholy Might after you use command skills, while Hulking Minions provides a more damage multiplier to your support skills.
Mapping
When clearing maps in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5, this Disciple of Varashta build can utilize Navira's Fracturing.
However, this skill only takes effect if enemies are standing on Chilled Ground. Therefore, you should pair it with Companion: Plague Harvester and its Trail of Ice skill, allowing the companion to automatically create Chilled Ground.
Minions
Regarding minions, aim to have at least one of each type active and equip Last Gasp support gem. The required skills are:
- Skeletal Warrior
- Skeletal Storm Mage
- Skeletal Brute
- Skeletal Cleric
- Skeletal Sniper
- Skeletal Arsonist
- Skeletal Frost Mage
- Skeletal Reaver
Pain Offering is reserved for boss encounters; link it with Prolonged Duration, Minion Mastery, Magnified Area II, and Danse Macabre support gems.
Passive Skill Tree
For Disciple of Varashta summoning build, players should first prioritize Energy Shield-related nodes, such as The Fourth Teaching, Energy Shield, and Sacred Rituals.
Minion damage is also a key consideration, making nodes like Spell and Minion Damage, Growing Swarm, and Restless Dead top priorities.
If you wish to boost your minions' critical strike damage, nodes such as Minion Critical Chance and Grip of Evil offer excellent bonuses in Path of Exile 2.
Additionally, you can invest points into nodes affecting a minion area of effect, Puppet Master stacks, Archon of Undeath buffs, elemental resistances, and movement speed, finally rounding out the build with Chaos Inoculation.
The overall strategy is to maintain Archon of Undeath uptime while relying on Energy Shield to anchor the build's defenses.
As your PoE 2 currency budget grows, you can further scale your Energy Shield and minion skill levels, making Disciple of Varashta summoning build feel increasingly smooth and powerful in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5!
In almost every Path of Exile 2 league, certain builds or classes rise to prominence, defining the meta-game for that period. As of Patch 0.5.5, Gemling Legionnaire has emerged as the most popular Ascendancy class.
Prior to the release of Patch 0.5.0, this Ascendancy was relatively unpopular; however, PoE 2 implemented mechanical optimizations specifically to address this, quickly making it a player favorite.
This shift resulted in Gemling Legionnaire dominating the player base even after the launch of Forbidden Rites league, creating a somewhat unbalanced meta for Patch 0.5.5.
In this article, we analyze the current state of Gemling Legionnaire, the reasons behind its rapid rise in popularity, and the changes needed to balance the meta before the official 1.0 launch.
Current state of Gemling Legionnaire
Since the launch of Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, over 30% of players have chosen to play Gemling Legionnaire, whereas the runner-up, Martial Artist, accounts for only 9% of the player base.
Meanwhile, many established or non-core Ascendancy classes, such as Invoker, Smith of Kitava, and Ritualist, have seen their play rates drop to below 1%.
This extreme disparity in usage figures isn't simply because Gemling Legionnaire is stronger than other classes; rather, it highlights deeper differences in Ascendancy design within the current version.
In other words, PoE 2 Gemling Legionnaire isn't just about high damage numbers; its mechanical design offers unprecedented fun and freedom in build crafting. By comparison, older classes that haven't received updates feel increasingly stale.
What makes Gemling Legionnaire so powerful?
The class has managed to retain a massive player base since Patch 0.5.0 release in May largely due to the development team's successful rework, specifically, the adjustments made to Advanced Thaumaturgy Notable Passive.
This passive ensures that skill gem quality provides more than just minor percentage bonuses; it now grants entirely new, additional effects.
Take Explosive Grenade skill as an example. In a standard design, increasing gem quality might only yield a slight boost to its radius or a marginal increase in damage.
However, with Advanced Thaumaturgy enhancement, gem quality translates directly into additional projectiles.
The benefits become significant once quality reaches +6. If you stack quality even higher through gear and resource investment, the projectile count explodes, resulting in final damage output that far exceeds expectations.
This fundamental shift in mechanics renders traditional grenade-focused classes, such as Witchhunter and Tactician, obsolete. While these classes have their own merits, they pale in comparison to the bonuses provided by Advanced Thaumaturgy.
Reasons for the decline of certain classic Ascendancies
Compared to the high damage output and mobility of Path of Exile 2 Gemling Legionnaire, other Ascendancies have fallen out of favor not only due to a lack of updates but also because their underlying mechanical flaws have become increasingly apparent.
Take Smith of Kitava for instance. The class's core issue lies in the lack of effective synergy and rotation between its mechanics.
For one, the mechanic involving forging weapons on an anvil is virtually never used, and the signature skill Manifest Weapon is consistently ignored. There is also a mechanic that triggers fire spells on hit, yet there are no truly effective fire spells to synergize with it.
The only viable playstyle for Smith of Kitava involves combining Whirling Assault with Detonate Dead, dealing damage based on a corpse's maximum health by detonating it.
The problem, however, is that Detonate Dead is quite weak against bosses; furthermore, if you intend to play Whirling Assault, Martial Artist is a far superior choice.
Reasons for the success of other promising classes
Although the player base for Martial Artist doesn't quite match that of Gemling Legionnaire, it still significantly outpaces other PoE 2 Ascendancies. Its success stems from its unique, driver-style mechanics.
Martial Artist's Hollow Form allows you to create powerful clones that fight alongside you; when combined with other AoE skills, this enables instant screen-clearing.
In contrast, Invoker, which shares the same base class, offers only marginal Spirit gains, elemental effects triggered by critical hits, or chilled ground created upon freezing enemies.
These incremental stat bonuses pale in comparison to the screen-clearing power offered by Hollow Form.
How should the current meta be adjusted in preparation for the 1.0 launch?
While Gemling Legionnaire is currently performing exceptionally well, its dominance in player attention could prove detrimental to the future of Path of Exile 2, particularly regarding game balance post-launch.
First and foremost, a simple, blanket nerf to Gemling Legionnaire is not the answer; instead, the developers should preserve its core identity while making reasonable numerical adjustments to the bug-tier stacking mechanics that exceed intended design parameters.
As the 1.0 launch introduces additional classes and Ascendancies, early-game options should be reworked sooner rather than later to highlight their unique characteristics and ensure they remain viable and engaging choices.
For builds centered around specific themes, the development team should implement clearer and more powerful mechanical support within the relevant Ascendancy passive trees following the 1.0 release.
In short, while Gemling Legionnaire has caused a slight imbalance in the current PoE 2 meta, it demonstrates a strong player appetite for playstyles driven by the unique mechanics of Ascendancies.
By using this insight to guide the optimization and reworking of other classes, the developers can ensure that the combat experience in Path of Exile 2 becomes both balanced and richly varied upon the game's full launch.
