How About The Melee Ground Slam Of Earthshaking Berserker Build In Path Of Exile 3.25?

Aug 12, 2024 Author: POECurrency.com

Hello, fellow exiles! Here, we will share Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker build in POE 3.25, which is an endgame melee slam build specifically for Marauder lovers.

It is a budget-friendly build that can be gradually scaled and upgraded as you upgrade Berserker build. However, I must remind you that while this build is suitable for new players, it is not suitable for players who like to farm Ubers. So you can decide whether you want to try this build based on your needs.

Pros And Cons

First, let’s talk about the pros and cons of this build.

For the pros, it can easily run T16 maps, clear speed is great, and has high DPS at the same time. This build is perfect for any juiced up farming strategy. Because of its excellent full-screen damage, it can even clear Breach and Legion.

In addition, its play style feels good, satisfying and addictive, and you can dodge most of the random hits in the game. And thanks to Berserker’s Ascendancy Notable, your attacks are pretty fast too.

Now let’s talk about the downsides. The biggest downside, I can say is that there isn’t a lot of damage scaling you can add to items. The only reasonable Unique item you can add to the build also has a terrible downside.

Rare items have almost the exact same generic mods like Resistances and Armor for most other builds. You also don’t get much power out of Eldritch Implicit.

While you can farm any Pinnacle Boss, the fights with Maven and Sirus are terrible because they teleport all the time. If you don’t have enough Armor and max Resistances, you’ll often find yourself dying from Self-damage and ground degens.

Build Setup

You can play this build with any non-elemental slam skill. Currently, Sunder, Ground Slam of Earthshaking, and Ice Crash have the highest DPS among the slam skills. However, Ice Crash is an elemental skill. Sunder has a huge off-screen range, and Ground Slam of Earthshaking is great for map clearing and is a tremendous hit!

Path Of Exile 3.25 Ground Slam of Earthshaking

For Warcry builds, average damage is more reliable than DPS. It’s basically a big bonk playstyle where you can only get a few Exerted Attacks in before all the massive bonus damage from Warcry runs out. Especially Intimidating Cry, which gives you double the damage! So don't scale your total attack speed above 2.5.

For weapons, a base attack speed of 1.7 is just about right to start. Flat Physical Damage is the most important part here. At levels 50 to 70, you can use an Axe with 500 Physical DPS, 80 to 95 with 700 Physical DPS is not bad, but after level 90 you should consider upgrading to an Axe with 1000+ Physical DPS. It’s definitely worth it!

Warcry Skills

A big mistake a lot of players make with this type of build is they think Warcry is worth manually casting. Manually casting Enduring Cry, Rallying Cry, and Intimidating Cry works much better. Enduring Cry doesn’t do any attacks, but Intimidating Cry basically does double the damage, however, it does much less damage than other Warcries. So you don’t need to press all those buttons to kill blue monsters.

You just need to time it well in difficult encounters like farming Essence and major boss fights. All of these Warcries are basically one-shot kills, especially against a lot of tanky monsters. So this build is basically timing your attacks while jumping and dodging stuff.

I think GGG should seriously consider rebalancing Autoexertion for the melee. At least for manual casting, you can use Urgent Orders Support with 20% quality for each Supported Warcries to make it less annoying to cast.

So why don’t we use Infernal Cry here? The major problem is Elemental Reflect, secondly it doesn’t pair well with Autoexertion, and thirdly Combustion doesn’t scale with our physical damage build. Worse still, it’s just another extra button. If you’re playing a pure physical attack build, you’d better equip Impale in your build. If you can’t invest in it, just take Impaler Keystone. It will work well during mapping.

Enduring Cry is important when you enter boss fights. While getting Warcry Mastery with at least 10 power, the increased Charge Duration Mastery will help you have consistent maximum Endurance Charges. This is a very powerful defensive buff in this league. So don’t forget about that.

Another new tech we have in POE 3.25 is autocast from Battlemage Warcry. You can link Autoexertion and Battlemage Warcry with spells like Vulnerability and easily trigger this skill when it’s triggered.

Path Of Exile 3.25 Autoexertion

Mana Leech

So how does this build sustain mana? The main answer is Mana Leech. There are many ways to get it. The easiest way is to get physical damage as mana from any rare gem.

Another key is to reduce the mana cost of skills as much as possible, especially from Passive Skill Tree. In the later stages, you need at least 1 Non-Channeling Ring, which is very important for melee skills. Once you get Autoexertion, it is crucial to invest more POE Currency in your Mana Reservation Efficiency.

Gear

Next, let’s look at the gear required for this build.

First, equip Ventor’s Gamble not only for the increased Rarity and Gold drop rate but also for the extra Mana Reservation.

Choose Null and Void Gloves just for stacking Rampage and the fun of using it when mapping. What’s more, Rallying Cry can also treat minions in Rampage as allies, giving you more damage.

You can use rare gloves with mods such as Life, Attack Speed, and Leech, as well as Implicits with buffs such as Maim and Herald of Purity. Unlike the elemental skills, we don’t have a lot of options here.

We also have Unwavering Stance in this build, mainly because if we get stunned in Warcry, it could mean there’s another chance.

Finally, Echoes of Creation gives us a massive damage bonus, but at the cost of taking heavy physical damage. That’s why we need to use Determination and Light of Meaning instead of the damage one.

Path Of Exile 3.25 Echoes of Creation

Playstyle

Finally, the playstyle of this build also takes a little time to get used to. It maps well, and you have enough damage to map even without Warcry. But in boss fights, you need to hit the target a few times first to spawn Herald of Purity Minions.

Then, before you hit the big bonk into Oblivion, you can use Rallying Cry and Intimidating Cry. That’s why your damage is inconsistent on the first attack. This is not a problem in mapping, because you always have minions around you. You basically need a target and some allies around you. It works better if you use Warcry near the target, because you can get a total of 25 strength.

That’s it for the complete guide to this Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker build. Trying out this top melee build will give you an exciting gaming experience! See you next time!

Next: Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0d Makes Atziri's Temple Better and Easier to Play! | League Mechanism Rework and More Changes

Previous: What Maps Are Good For Farming In Path Of Exile 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur? - Changes & Tips

Patch 0.4.0d overview

The entire patch can be broadly divided into three parts: further optimization and fixes to Fate of the Vaal League mechanics, overall modifications, and comprehensive bug fixes. Undoubtedly, the most noteworthy aspect remains the first part.

Interestingly, even before the patch has been officially released, Fracturing Orbs have already depreciated in value simply by being announced. This means you can more easily acquire them through PoE 2 Divine Orbs to stabilize your gear affixes.

This is likely due to changes in the league system, making this part of the patch analysis a key focus of our guide.

Atziri's Temple boss fight reform

Let's temporarily ignore the usual temple fixes and focus on a new respawn change: if you die while fighting the boss Architect or Atziri in Atziri's Temple, you can respawn in the new temple instance.

However, this opportunity is very limited, as almost the entire temple is destroyed during the boss fight - somewhat like how endgame maps work in the game.

Therefore, when this mechanism is finally implemented, it's expected that not all players will be satisfied with it, but it's necessary because it can curb the possibility of some players seeking cheating due to the inability to respawn.

In short, if you die in these boss fights again later, you should be able to start re-challenging them faster, instead of having to unlock the rooms from scratch.

This means that even if you unfortunately fail on your first attempt, you'll have an extra chance to familiarize yourself with the boss mechanics. In fact, these bosses aren't difficult to defeat; their mechanics are just rather intricate.

Holten exploit fixes

As you know, collecting Energized Crystals by defeating monsters around Vaal Beacons is a crucial part of experiencing Atziri's Temple gameplay, as only with enough crystals can the temple progress.

However, in the game prior to Patch 0.4.0d, there was an issue where Vaal Beacons frequently spawned in an easily accessible location within Holten campaign area.

This allowed players to exploit this by repeatedly resetting dungeons to farm Energized Crystals faster, causing an imbalance in the entire Atziri's Temple system and an abnormal inflation of the value of some rare currencies.

Frankly, the issue of economic inflation was repeatedly mentioned in the player community shortly after Atziri's Temple's release, but for some reason, concrete measures to improve it have only now been introduced. However, better late than never.

Atziri's Chambers fix

As the spawn location of the final boss Atziri, the connection between this chamber and other rooms was previously a mess; sometimes you simply didn't know how to place and connect rooms.

Fortunately, Patch 0.4.0d finally fixed this, allowing Atziri's Chambers to correctly connect to any adjacent room, ensuring the entire mechanism functions more clearly and consistently.

Temple QoL fix

This fix requires you to place at least one room before each run. If you already have a highly optimized temple, you might not want to place any rooms at all, and therefore might mistakenly think this is a weakening change.

However, the purpose of this measure is actually to ensure that you don't accidentally open the temple before placing rooms, and to better guide new players through their first temple.

Of course, considering the needs of different players, the game also allows you to bypass this option. If you're a PC player, hold down Ctrl key and click Run Temple button. If you're a controller player, simply select "Deny" when prompted.

More Atziri's Temple fixes

Besides the highlights above, Patch 0.4.0d focuses on optimizing Atziri's Temple mechanics and includes other details, such as clearer instructions for Atziri's Chambers and more explanations of different mechanics.

The complexity and depth of gameplay have always been major obstacles for new players joining Path of Exile series. Sometimes, new leagues and their new mechanics can even confuse longtime fans.

Therefore, this patch shows that providing clear explanations is more effective in winning over players than creating mystery and raising the barrier to entry through seemingly complex mechanics.

Fracturing Orbs fix

In the first half of this article, we mentioned the devaluation of Fracturing Orbs, primarily due to a bug fixed in Patch 0.4.0d involving Immured Fury - the endgame boss and primary source of Fracturing Orbs drops.

Theoretically, this boss shouldn't spawn in cleansed areas, but previously, clearing excessive corruption would imprint a hidden marker indicating the presence of Immured Fury in certain areas.

This meant players could more easily earn Fracturing Orbs by defeating this boss, leading to an abnormally inflated value and disrupting PoE 2 economy and trade balance.

Fortunately, Patch 0.4.0d fixed this by making Immured Fury spawn completely unpredictably, restoring the rarity of Fracturing Orbs to a more normal level through a more randomized spawn method.

The above content covers what needs to be explained in detail in Patch 0.4.0d. However, there are also some interesting changes and fixes that you can discover and experience one by one through the game after the patch is finally released. Thank you for reading.

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

As you know, Patch 0.4.0, while adding new classes and other content, also brought many changes to the game's inherent mechanics. Although these changes may not be drastic on their own, they still affect the overall system.

For example, in The Last of the Druids, the left side of the skill tree, focusing on melee, defense, and life/block mechanics, was adjusted, leading to changes in the popular defense configurations used by each class.

This article will introduce the entire defense system and analyze the latest popular defense mechanics and styles during Fate of the Vaal league.

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!