Enhanced Tornado Shot Changes Everything In POE 3.23! - A New Tech For Non-MF & MF Builds

Dec 26, 2023 Author: POECurrency.com

In POE 3.23 Affliction League, GGG revealed a lot of changes to skill gems, introducing the new Transfigured Gems and removing all alternative quality types.

With this new gem system, Tornado Shot received a very important buff. Even if all the helmet enchants were removed, the +1 secondary projectile that we usually got from the helmet enchant is now provided by Tornado Shot gem quality itself, making it so much cheaper to start playing Tornado Shot. You can save a lot of POE Currency for this.

Because of these changes, we can now scale the number of secondary projectiles by just investing into gem quality. Let’s find out all the possible ways to do this.

Increasing Tornado Shot Quality

The first POE Item that comes to mind is the gem Enhance Support.

You can either run level 4 Enhance, which provides 24% quality, or the very expensive level 5 Awakened Enhance with 32% quality. With these gems, we get to secondary projectile number 5.

POE 3.23 Increasing Tornado Shot Quality Example 1

Next up, we have Ashes of the Stars, which was sadly recently nerfed by removing the increased reservation efficiency of skill. However, the 30% quality of all skill gems is still extremely good for our strategy. You can get up to 6 total projectiles when using level 4 Enhance and 7 total secondary projectiles when using level 5 Awakened Enhance.

POE 3.23 Increasing Tornado Shot Quality Example 2

The next and last piece of the puzzle is an influenced rare body armor (Ghoul Wrap Coronal Leather) with the Elder prefix +1 to level of socketed support gems, which increases the level of our Awakened Enhance from 5 to 6, obtaining a total of 40% bonus to quality. This alone is already +2 secondary projectiles, which is pretty good. The +10% quality of socketed support gems is also pretty nice for damage, but not really mandatory at all.

POE 3.23 Ghoul Wrap Coronal Leather

The other important modifier on the item is the Elevated Shaper or Warlord +1 to level of socketed skill gems and, more importantly, +10% quality of socketed skill gems, which brings Tornado Shot from 20% quality to 30%. Crafting such a body armor is expensive, but pretty easy because the entire process is deterministic.

First off, you want to pick an Elder-influenced base and get the +1 to support gems along with any other influenced modifier. You can do this by Alteration spamming, Chaos spamming. But the fastest way, not necessarily the cheapest, is to reforge attack with Harvest.

The only attack modifier that you can get on an elder body armor is the influenced mod ‘attacks of extra Critical Strike Chance’, so you can deterministically obtain that each time you roll. And whenever you get the +1 to support gems in addition, you simply use your Orb of Dominance, hoping to elevate the right modifier.

In a very similar way, you must prepare a second Shaper-influenced base and reforge caster until you get the spell Critical Strike Chance and +1 to socketed skill gems. At that point, you again slam your Orb of Dominance and pray for the correct model to be picked.

After you obtain both the bases with a single Elevated influence modifier, you can use the Awakener’s Orb to merge the 2 modifiers into a single new item.

Also Read: An Ultimate Build In Path Of Exile 3.23 Affliction League - The Forbidden Rite Build

Summary Of Tech Setup

Let’s do some simple math together to see the final results and build options.

With the cheapest setup, we have 20% quality from Tornado Shot gem, 24 (+ 8)% from level 4 Enhance and the Elder-influenced +1 to support gems, and 30% quality from Ashes of the Stars for a grand total of 82% quality.

POE 3.23 Summary Of Tech Setup

Instead, with the high-budget setup, we run 20 (+10)% quality from Tornado Shot gem and the Shaper-influenced +10% to quality of skill gems. Then, we’ve got 32 (+ 8)% from level 5 Enhance and the Elder-influenced +1 to support gems, along with 30% from Ashes of the Stars.

This results in a grand total of 100% quality and 8 secondary projectiles. This can go even crazier in Standard League with a legacy helmet enchant plus 2 secondary projectiles to Tornado Shot for a total of 10 secondary projectiles. That’s really insane.

Now, this Tornado Shot tech that I showed you today has some important limitations. Ashes of the Stars gets to directly compete against Crystallised Omniscience, or the Foe Collar Simplex Amulets with 20% quantity and 100% rarity.

In the same way, our rare body armor (Ghoul Wrap, Greed’s Embrace & Hyrri’s Ire) gets to compete against Grace and Brace, Hyrri’s Ire, and other unique options. So, there really should be a balance between the number of secondary projectiles you want, the magic find you care about, and the damage of your single secondary projectile.

Whatever your choice will be, never underestimate how important the number of secondary projectiles is. People used to consider Tornado Shot completely unplayable without the helmet enchant. And GGG took its time to nerf the original helmet enchant +2 secondary projectiles to be just +1, which was considered a massive nerf back in the days.

Awakened Fork Support

Before concluding this guide, I want to give you a final thought about Awakened Fork Support, with some of my own tips and tricks.

Many players do not allocate any passive skill inside the tree for fork. I think this is a mistake. I really like both Split Shot and Forking Angle. To better explain why I like Forking Angle so much, you should take into consideration some close layouts.

Let’s say you have a room, which is opened and you enter with a Tornado Shot attack. Now, you have 4 projectiles, right? 1 projectile will enter the room like this and will kill one of the monsters. At that point, the projectile will split and will hit the other 2 monsters.

But following next, what happens with the second hit of Tornado Shot is that you can kill 1 extra monster inside the room. But if there are any monsters that are more like split behind some walls, you may fail at hitting those, right?

Let’s see the same exact condition but with Forking Angle. With the first hit, you hit the monster in front of the door. Then you hit the monsters that are a bit more laterally positioned behind the walls. And then, with the following hits, you just can end up killing all of the other monsters, all of this without entering the room. Without Forking Angle, you couldn’t do this. You would have to enter the room to kill the remaining 2 monsters.

I think that for clearing, Forking Angle can be really useful when you play close layouts.

Next: Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 Defense Overhaul | The Most Popular Mechanics & Builds in Fate of the Vaal League

Previous: How About This Freezing Pulse Totem Hierophant Build In POE 3.23?

Path of Exile 2 defense mechanism overview

The game's defense system can be roughly divided into four layers: core and secondary defense layers, evasion, and recovery mechanisms. Each layer has multiple different functions that can be used in combat.

The core defense layer refers to the main attributes on the gear, which can be adjusted through the talent tree, such as armor or energy shields, which can directly block damage.

The second layer of defense indirectly transfers or reduces the damage you receive, including blocking, resistance, and more.

Avoidance mainly refers to default or temporary defensive buffs, while recovery restores health after being attacked, such as with flask or leech.

Changes in Patch 0.4.0

This patch primarily focuses on the left side of the skill tree, where the lower half emphasizes strength, while the middle and upper halves emphasize intelligence.

The left-side skill tree focuses entirely on defensive mechanics, containing numerous nodes that increase your health, armor, and block chance. It's key for melee builds that excel in high tanking or health.

The focus on these changes might be because the new Druid class is itself a defensive melee class, so most of the new passive nodes also share these characteristics.

The addition of new nodes and clusters necessitates adjustments to many existing skills. If your previous builds were based on these skills, you'll have to reset them, significantly altering the defensive styles popular during the new league.

The popularity of shield wall styles

The shield mechanic remains highly popular after Patch 0.4.0, primarily due to the surge in shield wall builds. As the most popular starting skill for Warrior class, shield usage has actually increased season by season.

This is perhaps because Patches 0.3.0 and 0.4.0 focused on hardcore single-player modes, where shield wall builds provide effective benefits, especially if you further unlock Titan as an Ascendancy class.

The popularity of Disciple of Varashta

As a newly added Sorceress Ascendancy class, Disciple of Varashta has caused quite a stir in the current league. Based on its powerful defensive capabilities, it performs exceptionally well in modes of varying difficulty.

For example, the passive skill The Fourth Teaching grants a 40% increase in shield recharge rate when your shield is below or equal to 35% of its maximum value.

In other words, the larger your energy shield hit pool, the better this talent node is, because you can maintain a considerable effective hit rate during the initial phase when the higher energy shield regeneration rate takes effect.

This talent node, combined with powerful support skills such as Nascent Hope or Convalescence, can significantly increase the natural regeneration rate of the energy shield, making its charging mechanism more reliable.

Even if you take a lot of damage and your health drops to a low level, you can still benefit from the higher regeneration rate by forcibly charging, ensuring your energy shield is fully charged again.

This Ascendancy class also has a powerful defensive skill called Sacred Rituals, which converts 60% of your current energy shield into armor, thus reducing the physical damage you take.

It's worth mentioning that both of these nodes can be combined with Chaos Inoculation to form one of the most powerful defensive configurations in PoE 2 - Chaos Inoculation is also another key defensive skill in the current league.

Despite a major balance update in patch 0.4.0, energy shields remain significantly stronger than pure health builds, and the addition of Discrete of Varashta has provided an ideal platform for the growth of these builds.

Talisman defense mechanism

This new Druid-friendly gear type cannot be used with shields, leading many Druid players to favor a hybrid health approach to defense.

The updated talent tree features a considerable number of energy shield and armor hybrid talents, so the vast majority of Druid builds focus on investing in energy shields as an extension of health.

Furthermore, many players using Talisman builds utilize the new keystone passive Lord of the Wilds, allowing them to simultaneously use a non-unique scepter and talisman to gain a pure resistance aura.

This not only alleviates gear pressure regarding resistance affixes but also allows for the use of numerous support gems without prior reservation. While this may be a bug, it has been present in the game for some time.

Self-chill and increased speed

In Patch 0.4.0, speed is also one of the most powerful defensive measures. As long as you can move, attack, or cast spells at extremely high speeds, no enemy can hit you or catch you - the best offense is also the best defense.

To achieve this, you can combine Asphyxia's Wrath Broadhead Quiver with Sierran Inheritance Marabout Garb. This quiver reduces the damage you take based on cooldowns, providing you with amazing damage reduction.

Therefore, you are not only unmatched in speed, but even if you do take damage, the damage reduction significantly reduces the actual damage dealt by enemies.

That concludes this introduction. Hopefully, this analytical guide will be helpful in your future crafting of defensive builds in PoE 2!

Path of Exile 3.28 Update Teaser Announced! But This Isn't Necessarily Good News

Path of Exile 3.27 has been running for almost two months, halfway through the League season. As usual, the official announcement for the upcoming livestream indicates that news about the next league will begin in the coming weeks, and that Path of Exile 3.28 will be released as planned in early March 2026.

While it's good that the official update is on schedule, given the large amount of content in each Path of Exile update, such a short timeframe has raised concerns among players about whether the content has been reduced.

Official Update Plan

In June 2025, Path of Exile's lead representative, Jonathan Rogers, clarified the future update plan in an interview, stating that Path of Exile 1 and 2 would both have a four-month update cycle, with the two games alternating in updates. This means that on average, players will see new content for one of the games every two months.

On January 12, 2026, the official forums announced that the Path of Exile 3.28 expansion would be released on schedule in early March, continuing the tradition of a four-month development cycle. This timeline is approximately three months after the release of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4 in December.

For developers, a fixed update schedule alleviates development pressure. Rogers has admitted that delivering content every two months is quite difficult, but a fixed-date, variable-content model is more conducive to development management.

Update Schedule

Although the official timeline seems balanced, the official update dates are not entirely fixed; they may be released at the beginning of the month or at the end. Based on the principle of alternating updates between the two games and important schedules, this cycle may harbor some risks of imbalance.

Let's look at the update timelines for the two games:

December 12, 2025: Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids released normally.
Early March 2026: PoE 3.28 released, approximately three months after PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0.
April 2026: A possible PoE 2 Patch 0.5 update is expected in about a month.

The official statement indicates they will strive to conclude early testing of PoE 2 by 2026. Therefore, they may adjust the update schedule for Path of Exile 1 to maintain a consistent update pace for PoE 2. Even if they cannot release Patch 1.0 by the end of the year, they will still release a major update to attract more players.

This raises a problem: for an early-stage game like Path of Exile 2, content consumption is faster. While version 0.4 adds the Druid class and Vaal Temple mechanics, the overall content volume still cannot compare to the mature PoE 1.

Potential Issues

Many core players worry that this cycle of one month for Path of Exile 1 and three months for Path of Exile 2 will create a double problem.

Because the mature Path of Exile 1 has more endgame content and three years of accumulated League mechanics, giving players ample choices to farm PoE currency, this is enough to support months of deep gameplay. However, players only have about a month to experience each new league before being drawn to the PoE 2 League.

Path of Exile 2 is currently still in early access. According to the game director, the originally planned six-month Early Access has been extended to approximately one year. Player concerns currently focus on whether its existing content is sufficient to support nearly three months of gameplay.

Furthermore, recent League updates have revealed a high player churn rate for PoE 2. Even with the addition of the new Druid class in patch 0.4.0, significant player attrition has occurred.

This is because the new endgame mechanic, Vaal Temple, initially didn't yield good returns. Subsequent adjustments by the developers, coupled with player discoveries of loopholes, allowed the mechanic to generate a large amount of currency. Several subsequent poor adjustments resulted in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 experiencing inflation, leading to increased unfairness in trading for ordinary players.

This is actually due to the current lack of endgame content in PoE 2, making players more likely to focus on game issues.

Possible Solutions

Faced with a potentially entrenched imbalance in the update schedule, some constructive alternatives have been discussed within the community. These proposals aim to break the potential vicious cycle and seek a more sustainable update model for both players and developers.

Perhaps a multi-stage update could replace a single full Path of Exile 2 League update. This would give the development team extra buffer time to adjust the timeline while maintaining player activity.

Another direction is to adjust the length of each update cycle. However, this would conflict with the crucial year-end revenue window, and considering that holiday season releases can generate three times the revenue of other months, this solution is less likely to be implemented.

Director Rogers stated that he will maintain communication with the community and promised to experience the game from the player's perspective and understand the reasons behind their feedback. This indicates that the official team may flexibly adjust the plan based on player acceptance of the actual update schedule.

With the release of Path of Exile 3.28 and Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0, you can observe whether this cycle will continue. If this cycle is broken, it may not be through drastic adjustments to update dates, but rather because the official team has found a way to populate Path of Exile 2 with enough new content within a three-month cycle.

How to Craft a Boss-Slaying Monk Build for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0? | DPS & Survivability Focus

Battles with bosses are a constant throughout almost every Path of Exile 2 league, including killing bosses in various acts during leveling and defeating increasingly difficult map bosses in endgame. They are both obstacles and sources of enjoyment.

Therefore, many PoE 2 builds are designed to defeat bosses in the most efficient way possible, and to achieve this, high DPS and survivability are indispensable.

Based on this, this article will introduce how to craft a Monk-based build effective against most bosses during Patch 0.4.0, and its practical performance.

This build overview

This Monk build is based on Ascendancy class Invoker, combining related skills and passives to utilize various control effects to weaken the boss, thereby achieving the effect of killing the boss at the end of the battle.

The advantage of this build lies in its simplicity - most of the time you simply need to keep casting skills and wait for enemies to be killed, and it provides excellent survivability and enemy clearing capabilities.

However, it's important to note that if you plan to use this build in every stage of the game, you'll need to adjust the build's setup based on the actual needs of the current stage, the amount of PoE 2 currency you have, and the rarity of your gear.

Leveling stage

In this stage, your goal is to level up as much as possible while utilizing the league system to earn as much currency as possible to exchange for better gear or enhance the affixes of existing gear.

If you want your Monk build to be even stronger in the endgame, you need to acquire Headhunter Heavy Belt gear as early as possible when completing various acts.

This belt increases your stun threshold by 20-30% and grants you a 20-second attribute bonus from the ability of a rare monster after you kill it. It also provides the following buffs:

+40-60 to maximum Life
+20-40 to strength
+20-40 to dexterity

Since this gear requires defeating a boss to obtain, you can choose other items as substitutes if you find it difficult, but its effect is indeed the best.

Skill selection after entering endgame

To deal sufficient damage to the boss, you need not only to ensure higher DPS but also to break the enemy's armor faster - if the current boss has relevant mechanics.

Based on this, you should first unlock the lineage gem Uul-Netol's Embrac, which helps Herald of Ice become more effective, not only breaking armor but also creating explosions to deal more damage to the boss.

In the endgame phase, killing more bosses requires completing a sufficient number of maps, as you'll always encounter hordes of monsters before the boss appears. Therefore, it's recommended to unlock Whirling Assault as your primary skill.

This is because this skill allows you to accumulate energy orbs faster, and triggering Profane Ritual or Mantra of Destruction continuously builds energy orbs.

These orbs can be used more consistently after adding Flicker Strike and Falling Thunder, resulting in significant damage.

Furthermore, equip Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ash for even stronger AoE damage and faster monster clearing speed. Additionally, equipping Wind Dancer will enhance your defense and survivability.

More skill gems and their corresponding support gem options are as follows:

Whirling Assault:

Practiced Combo
Rage III
Pinpoint Critical
Magnified Area II
Oisin's Oath

Falling Thunder:

Elemental Armament II
Nova Projectiles I
Ricochet II
Pinpoint Critical
Ice Bite II

Flicker Strike:

Blindside
Concentrated Area
Close Combat II
Perpetual Charge
Hit and Run

Charged Staff:

Prolonged Duration II
Innervate
Culling Strike II
Blind II
Embitter

Mantra of Destruction:

Chaos Mastery
Prolonged Duration II
Charge Profusion II
Ailith's Chimes
Delayed Gratification

Cast on Critical:

Profane Ritual
Charge Profusion II
Overabundance I
Boundless Energy II
Energy Retention

Wind Dancer:

Magnified Area II
Close Combat II
Blind II
Maim
Elemental Focus

More gear options

Besides the recommended Headhunter Heavy Belt, other gear choices are also important. For weapons, quarterstaff remains the most suitable for Monk - Sinister Quarterstaff is the best due to its highest base critical strike chance.

Building on this, you need to stack frost damage in combat, increasing the damage output of your Herald of Ice and Armour Explosion while ensuring all melee or attack skills have critical strike chance and higher ratings.

It's worth mentioning that you can also roll affixes for your quarterstaff that convert a percentage of physical attack damage into mana, which synergizes well with Oisin's Oath support gem.

As for armor, you should focus on whether your options have energy shields or high enough evasion rating to unlock Ascendancy ability, Lead me through Grace, for more spirit.

The best other gear slot options are as follows:

Helm - Ancestral Tiara
Body - Armor Sleek Jacket
Gloves - Vaal Wraps
Boots - Quickslip Shoes
Amulet - Gold Amulet
Ring - Unset Ring
Life Flask - Ultimate Life Flask
Mana Flask - Ultimate Mana Flask

In fact, acquiring gear is only the first step. To maximize their effectiveness and make your entire Monk build more powerful, the key is to consume currency to improve their rarity and affixes.

Fortunately, while crafting this boss-focused build, you will also encounter bosses, resulting in decent currency drops and making your build crafting experience smoother over time.

If you're not focused on challenging higher difficulty maps or bosses, you can also use this recommended build to farm currency in easier maps. While it might seem a bit tedious due to damage overflow, it will help you accumulate wealth quickly!

That concludes this introduction. We hope it has been helpful in ensuring you can continue playing Monk classes during patch 0.4.0! Thank you for reading!

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 Recovery Tech Bug Fixed | Combining Other Mechanisms and Gear Makes Restoring Life Easier

Every time Path of Exile 2 releases a new patch, the lengthy and detailed patch notes can be overwhelming, so you're likely to only focus on the more appealing parts or simply search for summaries.

In fact, even if you consume time reading all the update details, you'll still discover some new changes after entering the game. Perhaps because they were difficult to categorize or added later, they weren't included in the patch notes.

This situation occurred again after the release of The Last of the Druids, specifically with a recovery tech bug fix and its chain reaction, which has a significant impact on your PoE 2 combat experience.

Below, we will detail this change and its specific application and further implications in the game.

What is recovery tech?

In PoE 2, recovery tech primarily refers to the special effect provided by the unique item Sacrosanctum Corvus Mantle, which allows you to convert or apply your character's life regeneration to energy shield.

More specifically, when this gear is equipped, it stores life regeneration, and then applies the total life regeneration to your energy shield. Furthermore, recovery tech requires stacking passive skill tree nodes to fully function.

This significantly increases your recovery capabilities, as life regeneration nodes are easy to obtain, and you can stack them with special nodes to more efficiently maintain your energy shield, improving your defense and survivability during combat.

It's important to note that the game's existing life regeneration speed modifiers do not affect energy shield regeneration.

What was the bug with recovery tech before?

This bug was actually related to the game's block and damage mitigation mechanics. Theoretically, successfully blocking an attack in combat should completely prevent the incoming damage.

However, before the fix in patch 0.4.0, there was a bug where blocked damage was not counted towards any damage mitigation mechanics.

For example, assuming you have unlocked Made to Last passive tree node, you would also need to have a modifier that allows a portion of the blocked damage to affect yourself for the blocked damage to be counted towards damage mitigation.

After the bug fix, when you block enemy attacks using the default blocking mechanism, all blocked damage will be counted towards damage mitigation. This means that every time an attack is blocked, life recovery from other sources will increase.

Impact of the bug fix on Svalinn Crucible Tower Shield

This item is a unique shield in the game that, when equipped, grants you Raise Shield and Cast on Block skills, and increases your armor value by 150-200%, reducing damage taken when blocking attacks by 15-20% - although the block chance depends on luck.

Now that the recovery tech bug has been fixed, this gear has been enhanced, allowing for even greater damage reduction from blocked attacks. This means you have a chance to simultaneously gain lucky blocks, thus increasing your effective block chance.

On average, you will take less damage throughout the fight and can utilize the recovery tech to gain more recovery from blocked damage. You can also choose to buy PoE 2 currency to roll lucky modifiers on this gear, bringing the final effective block rate to 75%.

This is because this modifier performs two block chance checks, and if you invest more resources in the passive skill tree, you can increase the block rate even further, as there are many maximum block chance bonus nodes in the passive skill tree.

More damage reduction methods

In addition to unlocking Made to Last node, you can also obtain the ancient Soul Core Guatelitzi's Thesis, added in patch 0.4.0. If you socket this item into your chest armor, it converts 10% of physical damage to life.

When stacked with Made to Last, the final conversion rate can be increased to 15%, resulting in an amazing amount of life recovery, which can be further enhanced through corruption.

Alternatively, you can combine the recovery tech with another chest armor, Wandering Reliquary, which provides an additional 50% conversion of physical damage to life.

However, it's important to note that you usually won't have enough life to withstand fatal blows that penetrate your block, and if you use Wandering Reliquary, you cannot simultaneously use Sacrosanctum Corvus Mantle.

Therefore, the final choice of which gear to use to activate the recovery tech and stack other bonuses depends mainly on your specific situation and needs. The bug has been fixed, so you can enjoy the combat without worry.

It's worth noting that the new patch also introduced the new keystone passive mechanism, Scarred Faith. If you choose to stack energy shields, you can also benefit from this. Therefore, the fix for the recovery tech bug is likely based on the addition of this mechanism.

Although this passive prevents you from recharging or recovering energy shields, as compensation, you will convert 5% of the physical damage taken into energy shields, based on the energy value of the monster attacking you.

Therefore, you can actually combine Scarred Faith with Made to Last node and Sacrosanctum Corvus Mantle to enhance your life recovery against weaker monsters.

While the new gameplay brings excitement and more build crafting possibilities, seemingly insignificant changes like the recovery tech bug fix, which affect the overall combat experience, have a more profound significance for the stable operation of Path of Exile 2.

Although the controversy surrounding Temple of Atziri league mechanism has not yet subsided, overall, Path of Exile 2 is always committed to providing you with a better gaming experience, so let's be a little more understanding.