POE 3.20: This Build Tanks Everything!

Feb 23, 2023 Author: POECurrency.com

I can safely say this is the tankiest character that I ever played. The damage is amazing even in Uber boss fights.

How We Deal Damage?

First, let's talk about damage. Let's see what things I got on the damage side: our skill choice is Blade Trap.

You throw a trap and when it gets triggered, it will use your weapon and start spinning around, like cyclone. Therefore, it's important what weapon we are using. And we need to reach 100% accuracy rating and use a really cheap weapon, namely Ephemeral Edge Dusk Blade, which is a unique weapon. This weapon has a few important stat that are only exclusive to this weapon.

First and the most important part, attacks with this weapon have added Maximum Lightning Damage equal to 20% of Maximum Energy Shield, while also give us tons of Energy Shield. Therefore, we need lots of Energy Shield to benefit from this weapon. With that much Energy Shield, this weapon become over 1.5k elemental DPS weapon, which is superb for 1 Chaos Orb.

We can use 3 curse of our choice because we are using the newest unique ring, Anathema. Our curse limit is equal to our maximum power charges. Every character can have 3 charges, so we can add 3 curse to the build. It's up to you to go full offensive and use all the damage curse or use 2 damage and 1 defensive curse.

I took the defensive route because I have enough damage even with two curses. So, the offensive curses I'm using are: Elemental Weakness & Conductivity.

You can add punishment as your third curse if you want more damage. But I like to do this when I have a good balance in offense and defense.

On the defensive side, I have a tremendous surprise for you: Aspect of the Crab. This will give us Crab Barriers every half second and it will grant Physical Damage Reduction per crab stack. But when we take a hit, we will lose all the stacks. This is when we come in handy with our high evasion rating.

We are using Grace for evasion rating, so we almost can't die from the monsters' basic attacks or projectiles.
100% Spell Suppression. This is coming from the tree.
A unique boots Atziri's Step. This will give us a huge chuck of Spell Suppression and evasion.
A Watcher's Eye. While Grace affects it, you have Increased Spell Suppression. The really interesting part is our Energy Shield.

Where Is The 17k Energy Shield Is Coming From?

Let's start with the biggest source: our chest piece, Ghostwrithe.

This chest alone gives us more than 7k Energy Shield because it will convert our Maximum Life to Energy Shield. From now, we can scale our Life and Energy Shield at the same time. Therefore, I have Life and Energy Shield on every single piece of gear.

We also stacked intelligence to get more Energy Shield. I reached over 800 intelligence.

17k Energy Shield in POE 3.20

We achieve this with intelligence on every gear slot, using a very cheap solution in our belt slot: Cyclopean Coil unique belt. This has good rolls and attributes. Catalyst can give 18% increased attributes.

Another big chuck of Energy Shield is coming from our amulet Presence of Chayula. It will also convert our Maximum Life to Energy Shield. You may already notice we are reserving a little less than 50% of our life. I'm using Arctic Armour with Arrogance Support, so I can become immune to Freeze. Maybe you wonder that we have that much energy shield, but what happens when we encountering with Chaos Damage? We just die?

What We Do Against Chaos Damage?

This is when another unique item came in: Esh's Visage unique shield. Chaos Damage taken does not bypass our Energy Shield while not on low life. Therefore, I mentioned our spell that are reserving life.

In short, don't reserve more that you 50% of your life and you will be safe from the Chaos Damage.

Flask Permanent Uptime - NO Mageblood

I mentioned earlier, we have a permanent flask uptime. We achieve this with a few simple things.

Flask Permanent Uptime in POE 3.20

Maybe you wonder why I'm only using 3 flask. Because I'm using the Traitor Keystone form a Timeless Jewel. The Traitor gives 4 Flask Charges every 5 seconds for each empty Flask Slot. Alone, this is not enough to sustain our flask.

We need quality up our flasks with Hillock from the Betrayal mechanic and you need at least 26% Quality. You need him in research and he needs to be ranked 3 to get this option.

Energy Shield Regeneration

We have almost 3k Energy Shield regeneration. This is coming from our ascendancy. We get life regeneration when our trap is activated. Therefore, you see melee sometimes just throw the traps and POE Currency even there is no enemy nearby.

We convert this regeneration to Energy Shield with Zealot's Oath keystone. All life regeneration applies to energy.

Items

You should use a bunch of unique items in this build. Let's start with our weapon: Ephemeral Edge unique weapon. This weapon has a few important data that are only exclusive to this weapon.

Powerful Endgame Uniques Series in POE 3.20

First and the most important part, attacks with this weapon have added maximum lightning damage equal to 20% of maximum Energy Shield while also give us tons of energy shield.
Esh's Visage unique shield. Chaos Damage taken does not bypass our Energy Shield while not on low life. Thanks to this shield we can have only 600 life and not die in Chaos Damage.
Ghostwrithe unique body armor. This is the reason we can scale our Energy Shield from our life. Because these items are converting our maximum life to Energy Shield while also give us tons of Chaos Resistance.
Atziri's Step unique boots.This pair of boots give us spell suppression, life and a bunch of evasion rating. It's important to use this because we can't cap our spell suppression without this. Also, this pair of boots give us at least 100 plus Energy Shield because we are taking on the tree evasion and Energy Shield mastery +1 to energy shield per 8 evasion rating on boots.
Presence of Chayula unique amulet. With this, we cannot be stunned and convert our Maximum Life to Energy Shield and we are anointing arcane focus for more energy shield.
Anathema unique ring. With this ring, we can use 3 curse in the build. It also gives us intelligence and a little of Energy Shield.
Cyclopean Coil unique belt. Because we are stacking intelligence, this is a cheap option to get high intelligence. Also, it will help us get the rest attributes equipment for our gear and gems. It is worth to mention that it also increases our damage with the lowest attributes we have.

Implicit

The following is implicit you can craft with the Eldritch Currency. Spam till you get:

On your gloves - Ghoul Clutches Sorcerer Gloves (Inflict Lightning Exposure On Hit. While there is a unique enemy nearby, there's 15% Increased Trap Throwing Speed).

On your helmet - Viper Veil Hubris Circlet (Physical Damage From Hits taken as cold, but every other element is good and conductivity has Increased Curse Effect).

Worth to mention: we are using a helm Enchantment Blade Trap rotates +1 times. Also, we have an aspect of Crab Skill. On this item, you can apply this mod from Blood Altar in the Menagerie.

Flasks - Important

Flasks we are using are Sapphire, Topaz and a Ruby Flask. You need the following mod on the flasks. The order doesn’t matter.

Only one mod needs to be present on all the flasks - Increased Charge Recovery and you need the highest tier nearly 50%.

When you crafting your flask, pay attention because there is a Hibrid Mod that also charges recovery. But you will get less flask effect.

The sub mods are:

Regenerate 3% of life per second during effect. You can get this mod from the Betrayal mechanic when you are unveiling flasks.
Reduced mana cost of skill during effect. You need to have mana cost on your blade because if you have a high flask effect, it will be free and you don’t get the inspiration stacks.
Additional elemental resistance during effect. I’m using this because it was hard to get the resistance capped.
Evasion rating during effect. It is suitable if you can be resistance capped without the effect of the previous mod.

Passive Tree

I just want to highlight a few things on the passive tree that you need for the build.

We are using 8 passive cluster jewel with Smite the Weak, Advance Guard and Veteran Defender.

Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel In POE 3.20

We are using four point medium cluster jewels with Set and Forget, Guerilla Tactics, Energy From Within (This jewel will convert our life node to energy shield) unique jewel, Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel (This will give you the Traitor keystone) and a Watcher’s Eye with gain maximum mana as extra energy shield.

While affected by grace, you have increased spell suppression. If you can’t find this combination or it’s too expensive for you, you only need the suppression while affected by grace.

Also Read: Best Divine Orbs Farming Strategies In Path Of Exile 3.20

Ascendancy

We are taking Saboteur as our ascendancy.

The notables in order are:

Perfect Crime In POE 3.20

First lab: You will take Perfect Crime because our mana cost in the early stages is high. This helps sustain our mana, also it gives us extra damage.
Second lab: You will take Chain Reaction. It will increase the Blade Trap area effect, so it can hit bigger area and can overlap on bigger enemies.
Third lab: You will take Pyromaniac. This is what I really like. In this ascendancy, you will get health regeneration and you will be immune to Shock and Ignite.

When you complete your Uber lab, take born in the shadow. This is our defensive part. You will take less damage from the blinded enemies while nearby enemies are also blinded.

Also Read: Path of Exile 3.21 + 3.22 + POE 2 VS Diablo 4?

Gem And Links

Gem and Gem links are starting with our fundamental skill in our body armor Divingert Blade Trap, Awakened Elemental Focus, Inspiration, Swift Assembly, Awakaned Elemental Damage and Trap and Mine Damage Support.

When you’re doing maps, switch out the Swift Assembly Support to Cluster Traps Support in our weapon and Arrogance with Arctic Armor and Enlighten level 3.

In our gloves, we are casting Elemental Weakness, Anomalous Conductivity, and Enfeeble.
In our boots, we are casting Flame Dash, Precision and Clarity.
In our shield, we are casting Increased Duration, Bear Trap and Immortal Call.
In our helmet, we are casting Summon Skitterbots, Discipline, Grace and Enlighten level 3.

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

Previous: POE 3.20: Juggernaut Summoner With 15 Million DPS And Good Defence!

Trials of Ascendancy

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

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

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

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

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

Atlas System Overhaul

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

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

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

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

Delve

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

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

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

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

Performance Optimization

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The History Of Druids

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

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

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

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

PoE 2 Druid

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

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

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

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

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

Data Mining

New Weapon Types

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

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

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

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

Druid Forms

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

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

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

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

Patch 0.4 Predictions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death's Oath Occultist Build Overview

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

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

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

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

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

How To Craft This Build?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recommended Gear

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

Helmet - Heretic's Veil:

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

Amulet - Impresence (Chaos):

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

How To Obtain Enough Divine Orbs?

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

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

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

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

How Effective Is This Build In Combat?

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

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

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

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

Path Of Exile 3.27 Grey Wind Totem Build Guide: Best High-Damage Setup For Keepers Of The Flame 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!