POE 3.20: Haraldur's Sweep Berserker Build
There is a skill in Exile PoE Academy that I wanted to play for a very long time. It is sweep.
You may think it's not the best skill at the moment. Well, you're right. But paired with Whiteforge and Berserker, we can put out some serious DPS. I've spent roughly 50 Divine Orbs for the current state of the build, which grants about 18 million DPS. Fully buffed the build is not a full glass cannon. But be aware that you are not red class tanky as Exile as always. Below is my own build.
The build itself is not very complex and the basic idea is to use Voidforge to convert all physical damage to Elemental Damage and then scale physical and Elemental Damage as well as attack speed. You also want to scale a little bit of area of effect to make the clear speed. The only mandatory item for this build is obviously Voidforge.
I'd also consider an Abyssus Ezomyte Burgonet and the Interrogation Small Cluster Jewel as core items since they boost your damage drastically other than that you only need some Accuracy Rating on your gear. For example, on your gloves to hit the hit cap and that's it.

The next upgrade to consider would be a Warlord and Hunter Chest with additional occurs attacks have more base grid and -50 Mana costs to soccer load attacks. This will be one third of your final damage and costs around 5 Divine Orbs at current prices. If you buy the chest instead of crafting it on other rails, you mostly want Life and Resistances. You can try to get case resistance wherever you can and make sure to get high resistanse rolls because the build is a little bit scuffed on Resistances. If your budget is a bit tighter and you don't get as many Resistances on your rare gear, you can also skip the Circle of Guilt Iron Ring for now and replace it with a rare ring with a lot of Resistances. Your rare amulet is a nice source of cheap damage. When you get one with flat fizz crit and crit multi a nice quality of life feature of the build is when you get your Abyssus with an Endurance Charge on hit enchant for sweep.
You might have noticed that the build is elemental immune and the reason for this is the Stormshroud Viridian Jewel, which converts chance to avoid being shocked to apply to all Elemental Ailments. This includes freeze chill ignite shocked and also brittle sapped and scorched. I felt that the build was much more tanky after including the setup so you should also consider doing so the way you achieve 100 Elemental Immunity is by rolling your boots implicits with chance to avoid Elemental Ailments and chance to avoid being shocked and then also use an Abyssus Jewel with a chance to avoid being shocked in your belt on a side note. This setup also allows you to use Vessel of Vinktar Topaz Flask because the flask now doesn't shock you anymore.
Related: POE 3.21 Expansion Release Date Speculation, Content, Changes And More
The build also gains a lot from Luminous Vessel Large Cluster Jewels because they are notables, add a lot of damage and they grant many dual slots to build craves for Feed the Fury and Surefooted Striker, which are your best notable. So, try to get them on the side where you socket the Cluster Jewel into the tree. You could skip the Imbalanced Guard, Impossible Escape Viridian Jewel and that will also cut down the price of the build by almost 50 percent.
But you also lose quite a bit of elemental, all resistances and some damage. So, I strongly advise against it a decent Lethal Pride Jewel will add a lot of damage. You also want to wear the Forbidden Jewels, which grant right off Rune. However, this is not mandatory and if you're a budget you could also just use Regular Gems with decent mods.
Let's talk about the skills. You are able to use two 6-Links in this build: one damage setup and one Aura setup with Enlighten player damage setup. You want to use a 20 quality sweep for more AOE. And if you feel that your damage is already sufficient, you can swap Elemental Damage for pulverize for even more coverage. Your Aura setup uses a mix of offensive and defensive Aura. Try to get Divergent Arctic Armour for more fist reduction. And anomalous position helps getting your hit chance to 100 more easily because you can level it higher. But alternatively, your gloves have to have more Accuracy Rating. I'm at 33 unreserved mana and it makes a playstyle a little bit jerky. Sometimes, you also want to be using Bloodrage to generate Frenzy Charges while mapping and during Cry can go on left click.

If you are lazy like me or you can use it as another health potion on another button, now you've come to the real interesting part. The build feels great, but it really needs some time to ramp up especially on boss fights where you can't attack before the boss spawns or when you die. Then go out back in you will need a lot of time to ramp up your Rage whether it's charges and ailments, such as Scorched and Brittle. And this will result in much less damage in such scenarios if you compare a fully ramped versus starting to ramp.
You can see that the DPS number goes down from 18 million to 4 million still decent but also less than a quarter of what the build is capable of you won't really notice this in maps. But again it doesn't feel very good for bossing. I had no issues though in the Sanctum because apparently the live total is just lower than in the real end game content. The build is okay. It is not the tankiest build but leap slamming into packs kills many mobs already and stuns to survivors for a short duration giving you enough time to swipe them away. However, especially either of world tentacle mobs can be dangerous if you don't position yourself correctly. All in all, I think this was a fun project and the top end damage almost feels ridiculous but the ramp up time is a big bummer.
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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.
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%.
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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!
Dear Exiles, it's been over half a month since the release of Path of Exile 3.27. Have you found your best build yet? Here, we'd like to share a very interesting new build from Keepers of the Flame League, centered around The Grey Wind, added in 3.27.
Frankly, when we first saw this unique axe, its insane damage multiplier made us feel it was definitely going to be the focus of all builds in this league.
About The Grey Wind
This axe has an affix: When attacking with this weapon, deals an additional 8%-12% of the player's maximum health as fire damage. In other words, it's essentially a life-based version of Ephemeral Edge. The affix descriptions are very similar; the former provides maximum lightning damage based on an energy shield, while this axe provides fire damage based on the player's health.
It's worth noting that the difference between The Grey Wind and Ephemeral Edge is that The Grey Wind provides fixed damage with no area of effect. That is, the damage value remains constant. However, Ephemeral Edge provides maximum lightning damage, so its scalable damage range is very large.
Considering its damage type, this axe is well-suited for Ignite build because it also has another affix: an additional 2% fire damage over time bonus for each Rage stack.
However, here we're not opting for continuous Rage stacking, but rather a hit-based totem setup.
How Does It Work?
But before we discuss the totems, let's talk about the basic principles of this Grey Wind build. There's nothing particularly new here; it mainly revolves around Rathpith Globe and Crown of Eyes. So, we get a large amount of fixed damage from Grey Wind, and then use Rathpith Globe to boost that damage, which provides a 5% spell damage bonus for every 100 points of the player's maximum health.
However, this only applies to spell damage; to convert it into attack damage, this shield is needed. This means the spell damage increase/decrease effect applies to attacks at 150%, resulting in a 7.5% attack damage bonus for every 100 health in this build.
In other words, Rathpith Globe shield provides such a high damage bonus that we essentially don't need to invest in any other damage bonuses anywhere else in the build.
Totems Regarding totem setups, since Ehemeral Edge synergizes well with totems (for example, its affix grants you Lightning Damage based on your Energy Shield still works when used with totems), it's reasonable to assume that Grey Wind will also work well with totems. Excitingly, the effect is indeed quite good.
In the previous Path of Exile league, Trickster build players preferred using totems for damage, but that was before the totem rework. Now, in patch 3.27, the only way to obtain melee totems is through Dawnstrider unique boots.
These boots provide a level 25 Earthbreaker Support effect to socketed gems. This is a support skill that converts your attack skills into a totem, which then performs a slam on your behalf.
Therefore, totems spawn here, and when nearby monsters are present, they will slam at those monsters to quickly stack damage.
Sand Stance & Blood Stance
Here, we need to focus on the changes to Perforate totem under different Stance systems.
In Sand Stance, Perforate slams like Starfish, but you can only hit once, regardless of where the monster is standing. However, when you switch to Blood Stance, the damage multiplier is reduced by 70%. Furthermore, the attack pattern completely changes after switching stances.
In Blood Stance, the attack range is much smaller, and many spikes will emerge from the ground. Their positions are not fixed, and they will fly in different directions, covering different areas. But the key to Blood Stance is that once you enter this stance, your attacks can hit the same target multiple times. So even with the reduced damage multiplier, it actually generates additional spikes to deal more damage.
In this version, we're using Perforate of Duality, meaning you gain 5 spikes in your base stance, and then an additional 10 spikes for 4 seconds after switching stances. So when we switch to Blood Stance, we have 15 spikes.
Theoretically, all 15 spikes could hit the same target, dealing massive damage, but in reality, this is unlikely unless your target is large and stationary. However, if you position yourself correctly, its damage is still significantly higher than Blood Stance.
Equipment
Next, let's quickly look at the equipment needed for The Grey Wind Totems build.
- Weapon: The Grey Wind
- Helmet: Crown of Eyes
- Chestplate: Kaom's Heart
- Shield: Rathpith Globe
- Gloves: Oblivion Grasp
- Boots: Dawnstrider
- Belt: Cataclysm Locket
- Rings: Havoc Grip & Brimstone Coil
Our gear selection criteria are simple: a thin layer of defense to protect our lives, allowing us to absorb damage before we lose health. If hit by a critical strike, we essentially need to buy time to break free of the pre-emptive state.
Ascendancy
For the Ascendancy class, we actually have many interesting options.
For example, Ascendants, because they also grant +1 totem, and you can choose other Ascendancy passives on top of that. You can also choose Juggernaut, which provides additional accuracy.
There's also Gladiator, with its high base block chance. Since our shields only provide about 50% base block chance, this is very beneficial for improving blocking ability. You don't need to invest too many resources in blocking.
Another notable feature is Hierophant, whose totem placement speed is exceptionally fast. Hierophant provides a 100% totem placement speed bonus, which, combined with the 20% from other nodes, results in a total 140% increase in totem placement speed - making it almost indispensable for totem builds.
Furthermore, you also gain a totem duration bonus, which is extremely useful in certain situations. When placing five totems, this provides an additional 25% damage.
In short, The Grey Wind Totems build, with its incredibly high fire damage output and hit rate, is definitely the best choice for quickly clearing areas in Path of Exile 3.27. Give it a try!
Path of Exile 2 is currently in patch 0.3.0, Rise of the Abyssal League, which is now in its third month. The current league will end in a few weeks. After it ends, player characters and items will be migrated to the Standard or Hardcore early access league without any data erasure.
If PoE 2 follows a four-month release schedule, patch 0.4.0 is expected to arrive in early December. An official livestream and the exact release date for this patch will be announced soon. According to leaked information, patch 0.4.0 will include a new class.
Predicted Release Date For Patch 0.4.0
Based on the four-month release cycle of PoE 1 and the fact that Rise of the Abyssal League launched at the end of August, it is speculated that PoE 2 patch 0.4.0 will be released soon. Considering the development team’s Christmas break, they typically don’t release new patches right before the holidays, so patch 0.4.0 should arrive in the first half of December.
The next league’s launch event is usually held the week before the current league ends, and the likely date is December 6th, which also marks the one-year anniversary of PoE 2. The official release of patch 0.4 is expected around December 13th. It’s anticipated that full patch notes for 0.4.0 will be revealed in the last week of November.
Of course, the development team might also announce a delay due to unfinished content, releasing it after Christmas holidays in January 2026.
Possible New Content
ToTA Mechanics
ToTA (Trial of the Ancestors) mechanic was originally planned for patch 0.3.0 but wasn’t completed, so patch 0.4.0 is almost certain to introduce it. It will be a full gameplay mechanic, not a small seasonal feature, and may be tied to Ascendancy Class system.
Delve
Delve is one of Game Director Jonathan’s favorite mechanics. The related content was already present in the patch 0.3.0, which is Isle of Kin.
Since tablets in PoE 2 now function similarly to scarabs in PoE 1, introducing a mechanic like Delve - which consumes PoE 2 currency to enter - is a logical next step. Delve is also a nearly infinite long-term mode that can sustain player engagement, making it an ideal feature for a Christmas season release.
Breach Rework
Breach received a major rework in PoE 3.27, and the outcome was well-received. PoE 1 currently acts somewhat like a beta realm for PoE 2, so the developers may rework systems in PoE 1 to refine them before porting them into PoE 2. Therefore, Breach is very likely to receive a rework in patch 0.4.0.
New Classes
Patch 0.4.0 will likely introduce new classes, as patch 0.3.0 made very few updates to classes and ascendancies. To deliver a strong seasonal update impact during Christmas, the official team is expected to release at least one new class. While nothing is confirmed yet, several possibilities exist.
Druid
Druids were mentioned alongside Huntresses in patch 0.2.0, suggesting that development on the class may already be complete. Therefore, seeing a Druid class in patch 0.4.0 seems logical. However, Druids are inherently complex, with form-shifting mechanics that may conflict with certain design systems, so delays are possible.
Templar
If Delve is added, PoE 2 will need more tank-oriented classes capable of enduring sustained damage. Warrior and its ascendancies alone may not be enough. Therefore, introducing Templar class alongside Delve is a strong possibility.
With the introduction of new classes comes a wave of new skill gems, support gems, and possibly new weapon types.
These new skills will not be restricted to the new classes; all classes can use them, which will inevitably impact existing builds and the broader meta. Some balance changes are expected, potentially affecting overperforming builds such as Lightning Arrow Deadeye.
Predicted Content
Atlas Endgame Overhaul
Patch 0.3.0 added more unique maps, further refined Atlas Tree, and removed the requirement to use Towers, completely changing how players cultivate the map.
These changes lower the reward ceiling for top-tier players on maps, but simultaneously raise the reward floor for average players, making farming smoother for less hardcore players.
Patch 0.4.0 is likely to include a major overhaul of the endgame. Since patch 0.3.0 already adjusted towers and tablets, this may be a prelude to even larger changes.
If currency-intensive mechanics like Delve are added, the existing Atlas passive skill tree may require adjustments. Additionally, there are signs that the team favors certain PoE 1 endgame philosophies. They may keep the large otherworldly maps of PoE 2 but rework how they operate, improving tower interactivity to make gameplay more engaging and reduce the current tendency toward mindless grinding.
New Acts
If patch 0.4.0 already includes large systems like Delve and ToTA, the team may not have enough development bandwidth to finish Acts 5 and 6. These may instead be introduced next year in patch 0.5 or 0.6.
Players can remain optimistic about PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0, as Patch 0.3.0, by adjusting the pace between PoE 1 and early PoE 2 versions, has brought significant improvements in player numbers, playtime, and player satisfaction. Therefore, future updates to Path of Exile 2 will continue to move towards hyper blast fun.





