What To Prepare Before You Dive Into Path Of Exile 2’s Extremely Difficult Endgame Content? - Tips & Strategies

Jan 17, 2025 Author: POECurrency.com

After you complete all the game content in Normal and Cruel difficulties provided to you by Path of Exile 2 Early Access, you will enter the second half of the entire game, which is the endgame content that most players are very troubled by. In this content that differs completely from the first half, you will need to learn new ways to navigate the game, judge the value of items, and learn the ability to use new functions to ensure that your exploration is in the best state.

Generally speaking, when players reach the endgame stage, they are already familiar enough with most of the mechanisms and builds in POE 2 to cope with most challenges. However, given that the difficulty here is several times that of the previous game content, you may need to learn about some of the special mechanisms and knowledge in advance according to the introduction in this guide. The tips and strategies provided here may bring you a better endgame experience.

1. Use Some Loot Filters

As you explore the endgame in POE 2 and explore Atlas of Worlds, enemies or bosses here will drop a lot of loot. At this time, you need to learn some loot to judge which loot will have a greater benefit to your build, such as POE 2 Currency, which can be used to upgrade gear, and Magic-quality Flask, which is very important in combat.

In general, it is difficult for you to see what specific effect this item will have on your build directly, so you can use some loot filters. They will highlight those valuable or useful loot in a pile of loot and hide those that are not suitable for your build or not worth picking up.

POE 2 Loot Filters

But here I need to remind you that it is best to use loot filters in some maps that use advanced Waystones, because with the help of this Waystone, the map you explore will become more difficult, but the loot provided to you will also be a lot, and even cover your entire screen without filtering.

2. Focus On Gear With Rune Sockets And High Quality

Although I just said that you don’t need to pick up all the loot, gear with rune sockets or high quality deserves your special attention. After you obtain these items and salvage them, you will obtain Armorer’s Scrap, Blacksmith’s Whetstone, and Shards, which can be used as materials for Artificer’s Orbs that can add rune sockets to any of your gear.

POE 2 Armorer’s Scrap

By the way, these crafting materials are useful in themselves and can be exchanged for some currencies you often use when making builds. For example, 2-3 Armorer’s Scrap plus 5-6 Blacksmith’s Whetstone can be exchanged at Currency Exchange for a POE 2 Exalted Orb, which can add a useful affix to the gear in your build and make it more effective.

If you follow the first tip, you can set these items with high quality or rune sockets as exceptions when using the loot filter to avoid missing these important items. Or if you don’t have much help, you can choose based on the description of the item: the little white square on the description means it has a rune socket, and then see if the item has Superior in the title. You can also see if the loot has these two important pieces of information on their description by hovering your mouse over them.

3. Use Portals Early

In the endgame in POE 2, after you activate a Waystone for a map on Atlas, six portals appear in Ziggurat Refuge, each representing an opportunity to use a Town Portal to return to Refuge during exploration. Generally, you can use this as an opportunity to refresh Flasks and Charms, clear inventory space, or readjust your build to handle more difficult map challenges.

When you die on a map, all portals are closed, and you can only use a Waystone to return to Ziggurat Refuge and try again, but only if you don’t destroy the map node. So you should use the portals as early as possible in the process of exploring the map, so that there is a low probability of running out of resources.

4. Add Some Gear With Elemental Resistances

When you are playing the previous game content, you may have always adhered to the rule of standardizing Elemental Resistances, which can help you deal with most situations. However, some maps or enemy types in the endgame will threaten you with specific and very high elemental damage, so you should try to use some gear with specific Elemental Resistances to counter them before exploring.

For example, high Fire Resistance will be suitable for areas with a lot of Fire enemies, and high Poison defense stats will be suitable for areas with a lot of Poison enemies. If you don’t need these gears in your current exploration, you can save them in your Stash, because you never know when you will encounter a map that can cause 200% specific elemental damage and a lot of elemental enemies. These gears will increase your survivability far more than those combat modifiers.

5. Select Atlas Skills That Have Buffs To Waystone Rarity & Drop Chance

Once you enter Atlas and complete ten Tier 1 or higher Waystones in a map, an NPC named Doryani will give you a book that grants you 2 Atlas Passive Skill Points, which are only applicable to maps in Atlas.

While nodes on Atlas Skill Tree affect maps in a variety of ways, you should prioritize two points of gain, the rarity and drop rate of Waystones. The more Waystones are valuable and available, the more rewards you will get from exploring maps here. Generally, these passive skill nodes are to the right of the starting point of Atlas Skill Tree and in the lower right corner.

The above is the preparation of information you need to know before exploring the endgame of POE 2. I hope that with the help of these strategies and tips, you can explore the second half of the game more easily and smoothly, and establish your own exploration awareness and playing style in the process. I wish you a happy game!

Next: Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 Bone Cage Lich League Starter: Gear, Skill Tree & Early Patch Predictions

Previous: How Does Honor System Work In Trial Of Sekhemas In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access?

Patch 0.4.0 Bone Cage Predictions

Currently, we haven't received any definitive information regarding PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0; everything will be confirmed during the developer livestream on December 4th. However, prior to the 0.4.0 update, Bone Cage's base critical strike chance was increased to 15%, and its damage per level was also improved, so this build can still perform well even in the late game.

More importantly, Bone Cage is unlikely to be nerfed in Path of Exile 2: The Last Of The Druids update because it's a meta-gem that requires significant investment and has specific limitations, making it less prone to abuse than other skills.

Unlike regular skill gems, meta-skill gems like Bone Cage can synergize with other skill gems to trigger specific effects, making them complex and powerful tools that require significant investment to use effectively.

Nerfing Bone Cage would require balancing many other synergistic abilities, which is far more complex than simply adjusting a single gem. This means it's less likely to be nerfed in future updates. Therefore, we believe the Bone Cage Lich build will maintain its current strength in 0.4.0.

Gear

Now, let's look at the gear choices for this build.

Rattling Sceptre

Our main-hand weapon is Rattling Sceptre, a basic sceptre type in the game that grants the player the Skeletal Warrior ability. Players can obtain it by opening chests, looting from enemies and bosses, and trading with vendors.

If you have more PoE 2 currency, you can also upgrade it to a unique version, Dark Defiler Rattling Sceptre. This enhances the summon-centric build, providing mana, intelligence, and chaos damage bonuses to each active summon, and increasing mana regeneration.

However, both the basic and unique versions of Rattling Sceptre can create extremely high attack and defense stats. Combined with the ring of bone spikes summoned by Bone Cage to immobilize enemies, you can easily clear out all enemies on the screen.

Sacramental Robe

For chest armor, we chose Sacramental Robe because it increases the initial recharge rate of the energy shield by 40%-50%. This is undoubtedly a powerful choice for Bone Cage build, which relies heavily on energy shields and rapid recharge for survival in the early game. Moreover, it is suitable for multiple characters and perfectly complements the high energy shield nodes on the talent tree.

Atziri's Disdain

In PoE 2, Atziri's Disdain Unique Helmet is generally considered a powerful late-game item because of its strong survivability. It's a worthwhile option for builds that effectively utilize its unique combination of attack, defense, and utility affixes.

Atziri's Disdain converts maximum health into an additional energy shield, distributes damage between health and the energy shield to increase health regeneration, provides a significant amount of mana and item rarity, and features a unique damage penetration mechanic that players can utilize to improve survivability in the early stages of the 0.4.0 league.

Breach Ring

Due to its improved quality, the well-crafted Breach ring is almost always the best ring choice for any build, even surpassing the inherent stats of a regular ring after enhancement.

While the highest quality regular rings are expensive, crafting a powerful Breach ring may be a more convenient way to obtain top-tier rings, especially after unlocking more Breach-related nodes through Atlas passive tree.

Other Items

There are no mandatory choices for other gear, but it's recommended to focus on survivability, such as energy shields and maximizing resistances. At the same time, stacking Spirit stats to increase damage and critical strike chance, and casting speed to improve damage and gameplay experience are crucial. Furthermore, Lich's unique damage derives from Spirit attributes, making Spirit stat stacking key to this build's success.

Skill Tree

In Path of Exile 2, the core gameplay of Bone Cage Lich build revolves around Bone Cage's critical strike casting mechanic. Therefore, the skill tree should focus on skills that support this mechanic, such as generating Power Charges and sufficient mana regeneration to sustain frequent spellcasting.

Additionally, in the early game, we should prioritize finding and enhancing passive skills that significantly increase Energy Shield or health to improve survivability, as the core of Lich build lies in Energy Shield.

As mentioned before, we also need to focus on mana regeneration, as this build requires the ability to continuously cast high-mana-cost spells. Therefore, having nodes that provide mana regeneration while moving is especially important, so be sure to keep moving to activate them. Simultaneously, increase casting speed, which allows you to cast spells more frequently and move more between casts, thus increasing damage and survivability.

However, be careful to avoid stacking Maximum Mana affix on equipment, as this will reduce your mana regeneration speed, especially in the early game.

Finally, after increasing critical strike chance and survivability, prioritize talent points that boost physical and spell damage. Once your critical strike chance reaches around 70%, you can shift your focus to critical strike damage.

Why Lich Ascendancy?

Ultimately, we chose Lich Ascendancy for Bone Cage build because it significantly increases damage through the chaos damage provided by Unholy Might, and maximum mana further amplifies this damage.

Furthermore, it allows for powerful skill combinations, such as Cast on Crit, quickly triggering multiple bone spikes using Bone Cage. This is often combined with Steward of Kulemak node to enhance its effect, making it highly efficient for clearing maps and killing bosses.

Lich build offers both strong damage output and good defensive capabilities, making it a flexible and efficient choice for various game content.

In short, compared to other Lich builds, Bone Cage Lich build is relatively inexpensive, making it a good choice in the early stages of a league where gear is scarce. Not to mention, this build allows you to easily switch between farming and boss-fighting setups, enabling you to quickly adapt to the new mechanics with simple settings after entering POE 2 0.4.0.

What Urgently Needs Path Of Exile 2 0.4.0 The Last Of The Druids? | Trials, Atlas, Delve & Performance Reworks

Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids has been confirmed for release on December 12th. This is a highly anticipated major update, introducing the much-anticipated Druids class, which had previously been delayed.

Judging from the trailers, this update focuses on endgame content and may adjust the season mechanics to improve the overall game experience, but specific details have not yet been released. However, before the full patch is released, we want to discuss several features and mechanics that urgently need to be added in the 0.4.0 update so far, hoping the developers will heed the long-standing demands of the players.

Trials of Ascendancy

First and foremost, we must mention Trials of Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2. Many players believe its design is poor, the penalties are too harsh, and it is inconsistent.

First, the Honor mechanic in Trial of the Sekhemas has been heavily criticized for its excessive penalties on builds that cannot avoid damage, leading to frustrating deaths for reasons unrelated to player skill. Dying in a Trial not only results in the loss of all PoE 2 currency and loot, but also forces players to restart the entire challenge from the beginning, a long-standing complaint of overly harsh punishment.

Furthermore, The Trial of Chaos introduced mechanics not found in other parts of PoE 2 in previous updates, such as Petrification Statue, movement skill lock, and weakening curses, making it a distinctly different and often unfair challenge.

More importantly, the difficulty of Trials often feels determined by random factors rather than player skill and character builds. This means that Trial mechanics can heavily favor certain character builds, such as high-evasion characters, while directly penalizing other builds, creating significant disparities in difficulty.

Therefore, many players believe these lengthy, tedious, and meaningless Trials do nothing to enhance the gameplay experience and urgently require a rework and adjustment.

Atlas System Overhaul

Furthermore, Atlas system in PoE 2 desperately needs a complete overhaul, as the current system suffers from numerous problems, including a restrictive and uninteresting Atlas tree, a lack of player autonomy, and an unsatisfactory reward system.

The limited 40 Atlas points force players to choose a single optimal path from powerful but often repetitive strategies, rendering other nodes useless and diminishing player satisfaction and freedom of choice. Players have little control over what they want to experience, often feeling trapped in repetitive mapping loops.

The 0.4.0 update urgently needs a major overhaul to address these issues, although some fixes were introduced in the previous 0.3.1 patch.

We hope to increase the number of choices in the Atlas tree and add more unique passive skills, making it more rewarding and strategic. The goal is to give players more control over their map experience, providing more choices rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Delve

Delve system in Path of Exile 2 also needs improvement because, compared to its counterpart in the original game, it currently lacks meaningful endgame progression and strategic decision-making. Players, aside from finding a few nodes, cannot meaningfully advance the game, making their choices seem random and meaningless.

It's worth noting that in Path of Exile 1, Delve provided a strategic element, requiring players to choose their exploration direction using limited resources. However, in Path of Exile 2, players feel this strategic depth is lacking because there's no clear distinction between spiral expansion and linear progression.

Furthermore, Delve is disconnected from the new Atlas system, which aims to link endgame mechanics to plot progression. Therefore, some players feel that Delve exploration progress is unrelated to their overall Atlas tree.

Therefore, Patch 0.4.0 needs to adjust Delve to establish a more direct connection with the Atlas system, allowing players to synchronize Delve character growth with Atlas progress.

Performance Optimization

Finally, performance optimization for Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 is urgently needed. Imagine constantly experiencing frame rate drops, stuttering, and crashes during tense moments like encountering large groups of enemies or participating in major events, severely impacting your gaming experience-wouldn't you want to smash your keyboard?

These issues directly affect the player's gaming experience, hindering quick and effective reactions in combat, which is at the heart of Path of Exile 2's action role-playing game.

Therefore, stable and smooth performance is crucial as Path of Exile 2 prepares for a major update and final release, ensuring positive feedback from players who have already encountered some issues.

While the 0.4.0 update has made significant progress, development is still ongoing. Developers need to continue working on further optimizations and bug fixes for future updates, especially for console versions that still suffer from stuttering issues.

In any case, nothing is certain until Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 is released. The above are just some adjustments we hope the developers can make to the game, which are also the necessary steps for POE 2 to extend its lifespan.

Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 Druid Reveal | Shapeshift Forms, Talismans, Data-Mined Skills & Endgame Changes

The livestream for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 will begin on December 4th, with the official release date being December 12th. This update is titled The Last of the Druids, confirming the addition of the new Druid class.

Players have been eagerly anticipating Druid class, partly because it was absent from Path of Exile 1, and partly because a Druid demo video was released back in 2023. Given the complex skill and equipment system of PoE series, integrating a completely new class into the game is challenging.

The History Of Druids

Druids originated from the proto-Celtic people, serving as religious leaders who presided over rituals and sacrifices, built natural monuments, and were symbols of wisdom. Knowledge about them primarily comes from Romans, such as the accounts of Julius Caesar.

As Christianity spread across Europe, Druidism gradually disappeared, but some of its beliefs and customs were absorbed and assimilated by Christianity.

Scholars once believed that Druids' connection to nature was fictitious, until research in the 1960s and 70s confirmed they were a real group, although they did not possess magic.

Druids first appeared in Diablo II, but they were not part of the original class roster; they were added with Lord of Destruction expansion. Although many ARPGs now feature Druids, Druids in Diablo II are considered by many to be the best in all ARPGs.

PoE 2 Druid

Druids made their debut at ExileCon in 2019, when the official trailer confirmed their inclusion in Path of Exile 2 with a running Werewolf shot. The demo was operated by game director Jonathan Rogers, with founder Chris Wilson providing commentary.

At the time, Druid's form was considered an aura, permanently maintained after transformation, only dispelled by using incompatible skills (such as archery). Only logically compatible skills could be used in different forms, such as leaping and slashing in werewolf form. However, it lacked unique skills and appeared somewhat rudimentary.

When it was showcased again in 2023, Druid's mechanics had undergone a fundamental change. It shifted from a permanent form to skill-driven shapeshifting. Using specific skills would temporarily transform Druid into the corresponding form.

In addition to demonstrating Druid's shapeshifting, elemental spells such as Lightning Storm, Volcano, and summoning wolves and tornadoes were also shown.

Druid was initially planned for release with version 0.1 of Path of Exile 2, but was delayed with patches 0.2 Dawn of the Hunt and 0.3. The delays were reportedly due to design issues and animation problems. On the other hand, Path of Exile development team has a habit of conducting large-scale redesigns in the last days.

Data Mining

New Weapon Types

With the introduction of the new Druid class, new weapon types will be added to the game. The description of Martial Weapons reveals this.

These weapons are classified as Martial Weapons in PoE: axes, bows, claws, crossbows, daggers, flails, maces, quarterstaves, spears, swords, and talismans.

Talismans mentioned in the description are based on weapons specifically designed for Druids. They are two-handed melee weapons that require both Strength and Intelligence to equip. Shapeshifting transforms Druid into a non-human form. However, you can still use the skills of all forms.

Shapeshifting will transform Druid's character into a non-human form, but unless otherwise specified, shapeshifting abilities will still function normally in the character's base form. If Druid uses an ability incompatible with their current shapeshifter, they will automatically revert to human form.

Druid Forms

Interviews with players and media have confirmed that Druid will have three core forms: Wolf, Bear, and another unannounced form, which may potentially be a bird-like form Data mining suggests this mysterious form might be Wyvern form.

Players discovered extensive metadata referencing Wyvern in the game's data files, involving animations such as running, turning, walking slowly, hitstun, and death. The data also revealed related abilities, such as Dodge Roll, Wyvern Swipe, Empowered Swipe, Wing Blast, Flame Breath, and Electric Spit.

Therefore, Druids may start with a Talisman or Voltaic Staff as their initial weapon to complement shapeshifting or lightning and fire elemental builds. Their starting skill might be Volcano or a shapeshifting skill.

Druids are expected to initially receive two Ascendancies, one focusing on shapeshifting and the other on spellcasting, covering physical, fire, lightning, and even poison builds.

Patch 0.4 Predictions

Due to the addition of new classes, the passive talent tree is expected to undergo significant changes and new content in the northwestern Strength–Intelligence section of the tree, where shapeshifting nodes should be added.

Since Patch 0.4 focuses on Druids and the Endgame, Atlas Skill Tree may see major adjustments or even a complete overhaul, with the addition of new PoE 2 currency. New endgame bosses are also likely, possibly including Uber Bosses.

The league mechanics in patch 0.4.0 are likely not entirely new, but rather an adjusted version of the existing Path of Exile 1 league mechanics. This may involve a Breach rework or delve-related content. Like Druid, Trial of the Ancestors 2.0 was delayed in patch 0.3, so it's likely to debut in patch 0.4 as the third Ascendancy.

As a completely new class for Path of Exile series, Druid is undoubtedly very appealing, and many players will likely try it out as their first class in leagues. Unfortunately, the official announcement states that no new class will appear in PoE 1, so you'll only be able to play it in PoE 2.

Path Of Exile 3.27 Death's Oath Occultist Build | Best Setup For Mapping And Farming

As the saying goes, everyone has their specialty, and this applies to Path of Exile as well: different classes specialize in different powers and weapons, and the main functions of available builds also differ.

Unlike the classes, whose basic attributes are fixed, the builds themselves, as craftable creations, are entirely up to you. Whether dealing with bosses, developing new dungeons, or farming PoE currency, each build's fate is sealed when it's crafted.

Of course, with the updates to various mechanics in 3.27 league, your strategy for crafting builds should also be adjusted. To save you time, this guide will directly introduce how to craft Death's Oath Occultist Build, suitable for farming resources.

Death's Oath Occultist Build Overview

In fact, this isn't a completely new build originating from Keepers league; it appeared in earlier leagues, but 3.27 gave it another chance to showcase its power.

As the name suggests, this build revolves around Witch Ascendancy class Occultist and the unique Astral Plate of Death's Oath.

The Occultist specializes in cold, chaos damage, and curses. And Death's Oath, when equipped, grants Death Aura effect. This effect deals continuous chaos damage to enemies within a certain range and inflicts chaos damage on yourself when you kill an enemy.

As a key element of the build, Death's Oath's advantage lies in its easy availability at the start of the season, allowing you to farm currency or XP early on through its effective health, damage reduction, and wide-area explosion.

However, as the league progresses, this build becomes less effective due to its relatively low single-target damage, requiring you to adjust your build strategy.

How To Craft This Build?

Before you can unlock Occultist class for crafting this build, we recommend using Chaosslinger build as a transition, which also focuses on chaos damage output, to complete early battles, accumulate resources, and level up.

This transitional build is centered around Spellslinger, combined with other chaos damage-dealing skills to quickly farm XP. Of course, if you have a more suitable Occultist leveling build, you can play at your own pace.

Next, use your earned currency to exchange for some basic gear, such as shields or rings that increase damage, but more importantly, obtain at least two Voidstones.

Socketing these items into Atlas of Worlds will enhance the base map's tier, up to Tier 16. This will give you a chance to obtain more and rarer loot when clearing the map later. The available Voidstone types and their corresponding enemies are:

Ceremonial Voidstone - Drops from The Maven
Decayed Voidstone - Drops from Uber Elder
Grasping Voidstone - Drops from The Eater of Worlds
Omniscient Voidstone - Drops from The Searing Exarch

Next, use these buffs to wreak havoc within your capabilities! Continue until you've earned enough Divine Orbs. Then, try to acquire Cluster jewels to expand your talent tree and activate more passive nodes.

Based on this, combined with your existing Death's Oath and Occultist, the basic build and the resources to further optimize it are complete.

Recommended Gear

When crafting this build, aside from Death's Oath as chest armor, most gear choices are not fixed. Just ensure the rarity is at least rare and meets your attribute requirements. However, for the helmet and amulet, we recommend the following:

Helmet - Heretic's Veil:

Adds +2 to the level of socketed cursed gems.
Socketed gems gain a level 22 Blasphemy bonus.
Socketed cursed gem retention efficiency increased by 30%, dodge and energy shield increased by 90-110%, and maximum energy shield value increased by 40-50.

Amulet - Impresence (Chaos):

All attributes are increased.
Damage over time increased by 30-40%.
Adds extra chaos damage.
Maximum health increased by 50-70.
Chaos resistance increased by 17-23%.

How To Obtain Enough Divine Orbs?

There are many ways to obtain this currency, but we recommend Heist and Delirium. Heist's advantage lies in its optimization in 3.27 league; rogues' skills will upgrade along with their chosen jobs, accelerating your reward farming.

Since the enemies in Heist are not dangerous, you can easily complete it even in the early stages of the season when your character's damage output is insufficient. If you want to improve efficiency, you can equip items that increase movement speed.

To maximize your Delirium currency earnings in League 3.27, you need to add Delirium orbs to the relevant maps to increase the level of Delirium enemies encountered and the final reward. Currently available orbs include:

Abyssal Delirium Orb
Armoursmith's Delirium Orb
Blacksmith's Delirium Orb
Blighted Delirium Orb
Cartographer's Delirium Orb
Diviner's Delirium Orb
Fine Delirium Orb
Foreboding Delirium Orb
Fossilised Delirium Orb
Fragmented Delirium Orb
Jeweller's Delirium Orb
Singular Delirium Orb
Skittering Delirium Orb
Thaumaturge's Delirium Orb
Timeless Delirium Orb
Whispering Delirium Orb

How Effective Is This Build In Combat?

If you're familiar with PoE player community, you'll know that Death's Oath Occultist Build is often considered a chaotic version of Righteous Fire build, which inevitably results in a very slow combat pace.

But don't worry, with the right gear selection, you can ultimately gain increased chaos damage and damage over time, and further enhance your build's defense by stacking chaos resistance.

More importantly, besides direct damage output, Occultist class allows you to curse enemies, slowing their movement speed and reducing their damage output, thus ensuring you survive longer to the end.

That concludes this introduction. Hopefully, it will help you delve deeper into 3.27 league!