Which Options Should You Choose For Grenade Mercenary Endgame Build In Path Of Exile 2?

Many Path of Exile players create a new character after leveling their main to max level to experience different classes and playstyles. However, leveling a new character to max level, especially from level 99 to 100, is extremely time-consuming.

According to player community feedback, leveling a new character from 99 to 100 requires approximately 320 million experience points. Using conventional methods, this might require completing over 1,000 maps to reach the maximum level.

Therefore, in Patch 3.29 Curse of the Allflame, players typically use two methods - Abyss and Breach - to quickly level up.

Abyss Method

First, I will introduce the method for quickly leveling from 99 to 100 in Path of Exile Patch 3.29 using Abyss.

Map Type

The success of Abyss strategy heavily relies on map selection. Currently, the generally accepted optimal solution in the player community is using a City Square Map.

The advantage of City Square Maps lies in their highly regular square layout, ensuring that Abyss Fissures reliably spawn along the map's four edges.

This characteristic eliminates the need for players to spend time searching for Abyss locations; simply running along a fixed route triggers all spawn points, significantly improving leveling efficiency.

Furthermore, players should select Corrupted Tier 16 Eight-Modded Maps. These maps boast extremely high pack sizes and superior affixes, both of which directly impact monster density and experience gain.

Due to the extremely fast farming pace of this strategy, it is recommended that players prepare 20 to 30 of these maps in advance and then farm them all at once.

Investing in Scarabs

To achieve rapid map clearing and leveling, players need to invest in specific Scarabs - 2 Abyss Scarabs of Multitudes and 3 Abyss Scarabs - to force and enhance Abyss mechanic:

Abyss Scarabs of Multitudes increase the number of Abyss monsters by 100%, while Abyss Scarabs increase the length of Abyss spawns, ensuring that Fissures cover all four sides of a City Square, maximizing monster spawn points.

Atlas Tree Related

In PoE Patch 3.29, adjusting Atlas Passive Tree skill points and choices is also crucial for farming experience via Abyss.

First, all Abyss-related talent points must be maxed out to ensure that monster spawn points generate the most Magic Monsters and Rare Monsters - these two types of monsters are the primary source of experience;

Second, players should prioritize Searing Exarch Altar over Eater of Worlds. The reasons are as follows:

First, monsters spawned by Searing Exarch Altar appear instantly, while monsters from Eater of Worlds spawn with a slight delay.

Second, high-density Abyss spawn points easily trigger Beyond mechanic, spawning an additional wave of demon monsters. If you encounter this, don't miss it, as it will further increase your experience gain.

Fourth, utilize Delirium mechanic. It adds extra monsters to the map, and when combined with Abyss, it will spawn a large number of monsters at once, which is the best time to farm experience.

Specific Process

Specifically, the process of farming experience through Abyss is very simple. First, the player enters the map and runs along the edge of City Square, triggering all Abyss fissures and spawn points.

Next, the player clears the monsters spawning from each spawn point along each edge until the spawn point darkens - indicating that the monsters in that area have been cleared.

It is important to note that, except for the last spawn point, players do not need to pick up any chests except for the last one during the farming process.

Because the highest-value rewards - such as Skittering Lockbox - only drop from the chest at the last mob spawn point.

According to community testing, in PoE Patch 3.29, players using this strategy gained an average of approximately 121 million experience points per hour from level 99 to 100, requiring about 76 maps in total.

Breach Method

Grinding experience through Breach was the mainstream method in PoE Patch 3.28 and earlier patches.

However, in Patch 3.29, the number of mobs in Breach was reduced, and the maximum number of Unstable Breaches that can be activated was reduced from 3 to 2. The effects of some related nodes in Atlas Passive Tree were also weakened.

These adjustments made Breach method less mainstream, but it still has its irreplaceable value:

First, a single run of a Breach map typically takes 4 to 5 minutes, allowing players to continuously gain experience within the same map without frequently entering or leaving, resulting in a more seamless experience.

Secondly, Breach sometimes yields very rare unique gear, some of which are extremely valuable - even reaching 1,000 PoE Divine Orb. Even if you don't get a unique item, players can generally obtain a large amount of Divine Orb while leveling. This is something Abyss build cannot match.

Comparison of Two Methods

Overall, in PoE Patch 3.29, Breach method is faster and more suitable for speed-farming builds with Screen-wide Clear or Off-screening capabilities, as these builds can efficiently handle the large swarms of monsters in Breach.

However, if you want to farm some Currency while leveling and prioritize smoothness over speed, then Breach method is more suitable.

These are the two main methods for quickly leveling from 99 to 100 in Path of Exile's Patch 3.29 Curse of the Allflame.

There is no clear advantage or disadvantage between these two methods, and they are not mutually exclusive. You can switch between the two depending on your game time, mood, or financial situation to alleviate the fatigue of grinding for long periods of time.

PoE 2's crafting system is far more complex than those of similar games, so many players tend to farm some PoE 2 currency first and then trade for finished items. That is why becoming a crafter in PoE 2 can be highly profitable.

Below is a method for crafting helmets in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.0. You can craft top-tier helmets for your own character or use them to trade for currency. There are many elements of luck involved, so do not get discouraged if things do not go your way.

Why Craft Helmets?

Before you start crafting, you need to understand why helmets are worth investing significant resources into. You can think of a helmet as a second chest armour piece, making it the second most important defensive item in your equipment setup.

In addition, some of the passive and item mechanics in Patch 0.5.0 interact directly with helmets. For example, Subterfuge Mask Notable still converts Energy Shield provided by your equipped helmet into defensive benefits in 0.5.0.

It is important to note that you do not necessarily need to chase critical hit chance to craft a good helmet. Three resistances can also form an excellent combination. However, achieving this combination without using a Fracturing Orb is difficult, and players generally would not want to use a Fracturing Orb on a single-socket helmet.

In Runes of Aldur League, never corrupt your helmet. The reason is that the game contains an item called Raven-Touched Shard, which allows you to allocate a passive point to your helmet from the passive tree, similar to how you can allocate one for an amulet.

This ability is extremely powerful. Once a helmet has been corrupted, this passive allocation can no longer be performed. As a result, the value of any corrupted helmet will drop significantly.

Crafting Preparation

First, you need to prepare several high-quality bases. In PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0, Energy Shield builds remain strong, so ES-based helmets are among the best bases to use.

You can look for ES helmets such as Vermeil Circlet, Twilight Tiara, Noble Circlet, or Jade Tiara with an Item Level of 80 or higher. These are all Intelligence-based helmets and are highly sought after. The higher the Item Level, the greater your chance of rolling T1 modifiers.

You can filter the trade market for magic helmets with Energy Shield and critical hit chance. These helmets are usually worth a significant amount and can cost dozens of Divine Orbs. However, successfully hitting the desired modifiers can also provide a lot of PoE 2 currency.

White Item Bases

For common helmet bases, you can first use Transmutation Orbs to turn them into magic helmets, then use Augmentation Orbs to add a second modifier. You can then evaluate the randomly generated modifiers to determine whether the base is worth crafting further.

A helmet with two T1 modifiers is extremely valuable, especially when one of them is a critical hit chance modifier. Even if the helmet rolls a maximum life modifier, you can attempt to remove it through subsequent crafting steps.

Detailed Crafting Process

Greater Essence of Opulence

The crafting process begins by using a Greater Essence of Opulence, which grants the helmet a T1 rarity modifier.

After a successful roll, you will have three T1 modifiers, including two T1 suffixes. If you subsequently hit two more high-quality modifiers, you may want to use the valuable Ancient Rib for Desecration.

Ancient Rib

At this stage, you can add two random modifiers. If both modifiers are desirable, using an Ancient Rib can be worthwhile because the potential return justifies the investment. If the results are poor, there is no need to waste additional resources. After all, an Ancient Rib is also worth around 4.5 Divine Orbs.

Ideally, the helmet should contain a T1 resistance modifier along with another high-quality prefix. However, this part of the crafting process is entirely dependent on luck. That is why you should prepare multiple bases.

Perfect Iron Rune

Saving resources during the crafting process is crucial. To make the helmet more appealing for trade, the ideal result is a 20% increase to Armour, Evasion, or Energy Shield. For this, you need a Perfect Iron Rune.

You can either trade for one or use a Masterwork Rune. This Rune can upgrade an already socketed Rune.

If you socket an 18% regular Greater Iron Rune and then use a Masterwork Rune to upgrade it, you can reach the perfect 20% bonus. Using a Masterwork Rune for this process is more economical than directly trading for Perfect Iron Rune.

Vaal Armourer's Infuser

When using a Vaal Armourer's Infuser, the first use carries no risk, while the second use has a 5% chance to corrupt the item. The risk then increases with each subsequent use.

Players generally believe that once the quality reaches around 25%, the next use has roughly a 1-in-4 chance of causing corruption. If the helmet becomes corrupted, its value can be cut in half or even reduced further. If you are concerned about the risk, you can keep the quality around 25%.

Unwanted Modifiers

When you encounter an undesirable combination of modifiers, you have several options:

Omen of Whittling (7.4 Divine Orbs)

It can remove the lowest-level modifier, but if the undesirable modifier on your item is not the lowest-level modifier, using an Omen of Whittling is not particularly worthwhile.

The expensive and high-risk option is to try to use Whittling to remove a specific modifier. However, the rarity modifier has an extremely low Item Level, so Whittling will almost always hit it first, making the process too costly.

Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation and Essence of the Abyss

Essence of the Abyss adds a guaranteed modifier called Mark of the Abyssal Lord. Once the helmet has this modifier, the next Desecration is guaranteed to overwrite it. Although there is still a 1-in-3 chance involved, this is currently the best option.

In short, helmet crafting in Path of Exile 2 involves a tremendous amount of luck. You need to prepare enough bases to increase your chances of success while keeping the resources used on each base as low as possible. When bad luck strikes, staying calm and adjusting your strategy flexibly are also essential.

In Path of Exile 2 player community, crafting has always been one of the most controversial, yet also one of the most profound, systems. For some players, researching affixes, planning crafting routes, and ultimately crafting their ideal gear is one of the most rewarding aspects of the game.

However, other players are questioning whether PoE 2 Patch 0.5 crafting is becoming a game mechanic more suited to the wealthy. For players with ample currency, a crafting failure is usually just another cost; they can continue investing in divine, currency, and crafting materials until they achieve their desired result.

But for ordinary players with limited resources, a single failure can mean the depletion of hours or even days of accumulated resources. This is the key reason the community believes crafting offers a wealth advantage. We will analyze the problems with PoE 2 and player opinions below.

Randomness

Randomness itself is an important component of PoE economic system. Without risk, it's difficult to create high-value gear and maintain the scarcity of top-tier equipment. Mechanically, PoE 2 crafting doesn't directly increase the success rate of a single roll simply because you have more Divine or Crafting Materials.

For example, if the success rate of a craft is only 5%, trying once still yields a 5% success rate. However, if you have enough resources to try 50 times consecutively, the chance of at least one success increases significantly.

Therefore, Path of Exile 2 Currency doesn't truly offer higher luck, but more opportunities, and ample currency greatly reduces the pressure from RNG.

Market

In Path of Exile 2, players have another option: abandon high-risk crafting and directly acquire pre-crafted gear from the market. If the expected cost of crafting a piece of gear far exceeds the market price, then picking up a finished product from the market might be more reasonable.

However, this raises another controversy: as PoE 2 market can quickly provide a large quantity of excellent gear, the value of ordinary ground loot will continuously decline. Players will naturally raise their gear goals.

If a decent piece of gear can be obtained from the market at a tiny price, players may no longer be satisfied with ordinary upgrades and will begin to pursue higher tiers, better affixes, and gear closer to the top tier. Ultimately, the price of ordinary gear in PoE 2 gear market will decrease, while the cost and price of high-end crafted gear will increase, further exacerbating the wealth gap.

SSF Experience

It's important to note that Path of Exile 2 SSF players do not have a market to rely on. If a gear crafting fails, they can only gather materials again, potentially accumulating materials for weeks just to attempt a critical crafting attempt. If the attempt fails, all previously accumulated resources may be consumed, and character progression will stagnate.

Therefore, SSF players face double pressure. Of course, some players believe this is precisely the meaning of PoE 2 SSF - it's inherently a more challenging gameplay style. They don't need to worry about how many divine others have, nor do they need to change their playstyle to pursue the highest divines per hour; this is part of SSF experience.

PoE 2 is essentially a knowledge game. Truly experienced players know when to farm, which currency is valuable, which gear is worth crafting, and when to stop investing.

In this context, wealth isn't just about the amount of Divine, but a combination of time, knowledge, market information, and risk management skills. A skilled Path of Exile 2 player familiar with the economic system can achieve higher returns with less initial capital.

However, cultivating this knowledge advantage requires a significant time investment. You not only need to farm currency but also research builds, affixes, market prices, crafting routes, and profit strategies - a level of expertise difficult for average players to reach.

Player Suggestions

Path of Exile 2 community's demand isn't for all players to easily craft top-tier gear, but for the game to provide a healthier middle tier for average players. The genuine issue isn't that top 1% of players can craft the best gear, but that the remaining 99% lack a truly meaningful crafting space.

Because time and capital are limited, hitting the economic wall can prematurely halt character progression. We don't need Mirror-tier gear to complete most of PoE 2 content; most players prefer a stable and consistent progression path.

Some players have suggested adding more stable crafting options for average players without compromising the scarcity of top-tier gear. Many players have suggested adding more obvious bad luck protection. If we experience consecutive crafting failures, we could accumulate the success rate, preventing us from getting stuck in the same RNG range.

Another approach is to add more deterministic crafting methods, allowing players with limited resources to craft decent gear through relatively stable paths. Some PoE 2 players also want a feature similar to Practice Mode, allowing us to test different crafting paths.

The opposition in Path of Exile 2 community does not mean that players universally demand a reduction in all crafting costs. Many players still agree on a fundamental principle: those who invest more time and resources should rightfully receive better equipment. The real challenge lies in finding a more reasonable balance between the scarcity of top-tier gear and the progression experience for average players.

Players, many may find the current mechanics of Path of Exile 3.29 somewhat boring: without Mirage, Abyss doesn't seem to offer much benefit. However, if you've seriously explored Lacerate Bleed Gladiator in the game, you'll find that this build might reliably get you to endgame content and defeat the endgame boss, allowing you to rediscover the charm of PoE.

Weapon Crafting

For weapon crafting, we'll use Reaver Axe base and PoE 3.29 Allflame Crafting to give each Essence three roll chances.

In theory, this could significantly reduce our production costs, but in reality, we still need some luck. If we're unlucky, we might end up spending over 80 PoE Divine Orbs on Reaver Axe to finish, far exceeding our usual budget.

To craft a high-attack, high-quality Reaver Axe, players must ensure they have sufficient currency in advance and be prepared for random fluctuations.

Other Equipment

Once the weapon is in place, our Lacerate Bleed Gladiator's damage output will significantly exceed the damage cap. Therefore, for the helmet, we only need to choose a defensive type, focusing on the character's survivability.

For the remaining slots - gloves, boots, and shield - choose affixes around Spell Suppression, aiming for 100%, while also supplementing with Life and the three basic resistances.

However, our shield should ideally have additional crafting to avoid Elemental Ailments affix, preparing for building an immunity system later.

Venopuncture ring and the amulet Ashes of the Stars' quality amplification effect can synergize, jointly enhancing Lacerate of Haemorrhage's damage mechanism.

The Tempest Rising boots provide Lacerate Bleed Gladiator with a permanent Aggravated Bleeding, saving some Ascendancy passives that would otherwise need to be selected, freeing up more passive resources.

If your Ryslatha's Coil belt reaches the damage cap, you don't need to pursue higher roll values, which saves some PoE Divine Orbs.

Regarding potions, we can actually forgo health potions and use Sulphur Flask instead, which provides both damage bonus and 3% health regeneration per second.

Combined with Witchfire Brew, Quicksilver Flask, and Basalt Flask, Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can provide both continuous healing and physical defense in Path of Exile 3.29.

Skill Configuration

Lacerate Bleed Gladiator's main damage-dealing skill is a melee ability: Lacerate of Haemorrhage. Because Lacerate of Haemorrhage deals very high single-hit bleed damage, it is very suitable for fighting enemies with high health, giving Gladiator a foothold in endgame.

During raids, we can also use Bladestorm to create area-of-effect damage at the target's feet. This allows for additional damage when engaging powerful enemies without disrupting Lacerate of Haemorrhage casting schedules.

War Banner is suitable for use interspersed during Gladiator's burst phase, providing additional physical damage and further amplifying the burst damage within a short time.

If players use this skill combination in PoE, Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can more accurately target some high-health rare monsters.

However, if you prioritize Gladiator's map clearing speed, you can replace Bladestorm with an area-of-effect skill like Earthquake to improve the map clearing experience.

Passive Skill Tree

Passive Skill Tree is built around a Timeless Jewel, as it provides Keystone passives that prevent Lacerate Bleed Gladiator from gaining any attribute bonuses from Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, including health and melee physical damage.

In exchange, Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can ignore all equipment and skill attribute requirements.

This mechanism allows the affixes on Lacerate Bleed Gladiator gear to no longer rely excessively on nodes, enabling all nodes on Passive Skill Tree to be covered by tattoos, providing bonuses more suited to the needs of Lacerate Bleed Gladiator.

This Timeless Jewel also comes with two powerful nodes - Geofri's End and Purity Rebel - one granting 50% bleed damage and increasing bleed speed by 10%, and the other providing a chance to suppress spell damage.

If your Lacerate Bleed Gladiator can achieve full Spell Suppression through other gear or passives in PoE 3.29, you can choose two Timeless Jewels with similar nodes to further increase damage output.

Cluster Jewel

Large Cluster Jewels are crucial for Lacerate Bleed Gladiator in building a damage and elemental immunity system.

First, we need to use the passives Battle-Hardened and Master the Fundamentals - the former provides Lacerate Bleed Gladiator with a physical damage bonus and additional armor, while the latter provides physical damage and makes up for the lack of resistances.

Next, we need to obtain Bane of Legends Ascendancy passive by combining Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewelry.

This allows Lacerate Bleed Gladiator to gain 10% more damage upon killing any enemy, making the benefits of these two jewel slots particularly significant during map clearing in Path of Exile 3.29.

Small Cluster Jewels are specifically used to stack Spell Suppression, providing a 20% chance to avoid Elemental Ailments, laying the foundation for Gladiator's elemental immunity.

Elemental Immunity System

In summary, we have constructed an elemental immunity system for this Lacerate Bleed Gladiator that relies on a multi-layered stacking strategy: Small Cluster Jewel provides 20% Elemental Ailments avoidance chance, amulet anoint provides 20%, and the shield provides 25%, totaling 65%.

On top of this, if you equip Ancestral Vision Jewel - which converts 50% of Spell Suppression chance into Elemental Ailments avoidance chance - you gain another 50%.

Adding these together, your Lacerate Bleed Gladiator becomes completely immune to all Elemental Ailments, eliminating the need to separately search for immunity affixes in PoE.

No more fear of high-health monsters in Path of Exile 3.29 endgame, because this Lacerate Bleed Gladiator build can defeat them!